TPL Thursdays! Language Landscape: Exploring New Pedagogical Approaches

Today it was an absolute honour to present alongside my past pupil and friend Jonny Nelson of Ballyclare High School, as part of the TPL Thursdays! Language Landscape series. Here is my presentation:

TPL Thursdays! Language Landscapes: Exploring New Pedagogical Approaches from Amanda Salt

No prep retrieval practice ideas

 In the mild chaos and serious exhaustion of hotdesking, it's been great to have a few tricks up my sleeve this year while the computer logs on or to finish the lesson. Here are three activities which my classes are loving:

• 4 Squared                                                                                                                            An oldy but goodie which I had never used before this term. Draw 4 squares on the board then ask a question. Whoever gets it right gets his/ her name on the board: once you have 4 names, the next pupil to answer correctly chooses someone to eliminate from one of the squares. I give stickers to the 4 in the box when the game ends. 
• Stand up if                                                                                                                              You say or display a phrase in MT or TL and they stand up if they think they know it. You choose one of the pupils standing and if they get it right, everyone standing up gets a point. If they get it wrong, everyone standing loses a point. I gave a sticker for reaching 4 points and a sticker for every point after that (5 stickers = a positive on lesson monitor) It works brilliantly at all levels.Yes, some might not stand up at all but they still seemed to enjoy it
• Vindictive                                                                                                                            You can do this orally or  with a mini whiteboard each. All pupils stand up to play. Call out a word, the first person to call out their name and answer immediately when called upon or to write the correct trans choses someone else to sit down. If they are sitting down, they still play and if they win the round, they stand back up & knock two others out. The winner is the “last man standing” If two pupils are left at the end but someone sitting down gets the correct answer first, they stand back up and knock the two standing out and ultimately are the champion. No prep and excellent retrieval practice as well as for learning new vocab if able to look at list as play
• The wonderful @Chapeluser shared this with me last year and which I'm going to try it out again this week

"Have you ever tried a ‘Cat’ lesson? (Actually it could be dog, elephant or anything you fancy!) It works for any age and can be mangled accordingly. Great fun, and loads of learning.

You simply ask them to divide a page into two columns, English on the left, TL on the right.

Just sit and dictate, starting with simple phrases with them writing the translation each time.

1 - The cat

2 - A cat

3 - The cats

4 - Some cats

Then move through crazy sentences, the sillier the better. For a top set GCSE you would arrive at about no 15 with, ‘If I were to tell you the truth I would say that the best thing about my cat is that he can order food in a restaurant!”

The kids love it cos it’s silly, and you can provide instant feedback after each one. Get a feel for how many have got one wrong and then you can slip in another re-worded one on the same grammar point later. Verbs, adjs, grammar structures, the lot. "

Hopefully some of these are helpful, I've found them excellent for recalling vocabulary and retrieval practice as well as engaging pupils and adapting to not being in my own classroom all the time.

“Play is the highest form of research.”~ Albert Einstein

Having tapped in to the genius idea of Jenga thanks to @elvisrunner I am now going to try out two ideas by her sister, @valleseco, both based on TV game shows.
Firstly, there is Pointless. For those who haven't seen it, the aim of the game is to score least points by providing the least common answer.  I am going to get the pupils to play in pairs with mini whiteboards. They will read the question, write their answer and then award the points according to my answers on the slide. If their answer isn't on the board, they will score the maximum 100. This isn't ideal but I can't see any other way round it.

Secondly, we are going to play Blankety Blank. In order to involve more of the class, I am going to have two teams of 3, with the others all being panelists. The pupils in the two teams will view the slide and write down their answer at the same time as the panelists. They will then score a point for each panellist who has the same answer. The winning team will go through to the Supermatch game. They will choose 3 panelists to write down the answer at the same time as them. They win if one of the panelists has the same answer as them. I will let you know how it goes.

MINI-WHITEBOARDS

Sometimes it's about the low-tech stuff as much as the whistles and bells of web 2.0 and its associated benefits. Our department are all great fans of mini-whiteboards, and use them for a variety of activities.

• Put the pupils into groups, each with a mini-whiteboard, then say a sentence in English. The first group to all write it out correctly gets the point. It will amaze you how long it takes them to all have the same thing written on their whiteboards
• Do the same activity on an individual basis - possibly better for A level pupils
• Practise verb conjugations, adjectival agreement, whatever grammar point you wish to reinforce
• For vocabulary practice, say the word in the TL and the pupils need to draw something which represents the word
• To practise numbers, call out a sum and the pupils write down the answer
• Use the mini-whiteboards in carousel activities for Hangman or Pictionary
• If you can afford it, invest in class sets of magnetic letters, and use them with magnetic mini-whiteboards - most of the games above can be played with the magnetic letters

In terms of practicalities, I would do the following:

• ensure that you have enough mini-whiteboards for at least one between two
• invest in a class set of whiteboard markers
• Get board erasers. A cheaper version is to cut up sponges or dishcloths.
• set ground rules, such as no writing messages to each other, or silly answers. Be firm the first few times, and they will soon learn that one moment's attention from the class is not worth doing exercises from a text book for the rest of the activity
• Have a box to store the boards in, and get pupils in the habit of collecting and returning them quickly and without fuss

Playing with magnetic letters, my classes and I have evolved a set of rules which work well for us:

• letters cannot be set out in alphabetical order or in groups of the same letter
• they can be set out according to colour (apparently this helps the brain?)
• First 3 individuals/groups to get the answer, win the point (points equal stars for the star chart in my classes)
• If you win one go, you sit out the next (so winners don't discourage others)

Investing in mini-whiteboards and magnetic letters was one of the best decisions I ever made, and an investment which will stand me in good stead for years to come.

GUEST LECTURER

I was invited to speak to the MFL PGCE students at Queen's yesterday on the topic of games in MFL. In a department genuinely addicted to playing games to enhance motivation and improve learning, this was a fairly easy and straightforward task for me. As I started the talk, I thought back to sitting in those same seats, and how much I have learnt and progressed since then.
The list of games we play at Grosvenor is long and varied, and I intend to upload the powerpoint to share with others, but once again, this was an enjoyable experience in my teaching career, as well as a useful self-assessment exercise.