I work with a brilliant team of young and not so young but equally dynamic enthusiastic primary language associate teachers.Together we deliver languages in 40 of our 160 schools.It is the best team I have ever worked with and this last week was a week full of creativity ! The associates help me to share with our network schools on the VLE, on our Facebook page and via Twitter ways to use our simple resources and create classroom magic! The associates also help me to see the "bigger picture" , to see progress across a diverse range of primary schools in Warrington and surrounding North West towns!
Last week we focused on celebrations and Bonfire Night. Our work was based on simple resources taken from our DFE POS project .The team support me with training for this project and resource creation.Last week we shared on FB,twitter and via email our fantastical firework activities with the wider primary language teaching community .This is a set of simple and ready to download and use resources and lesson activities.Tried and tested ideas that we enjoy using at this time of the year.
The team work with children from Nursery to Year 6 in French and Spanish .Even in Year 6 learners can range from beginners to learners with seven years of language learning experience.Once again the team has demonstrated how through team work, building steady progress based on a simple SOW, the half termly associate CPD and access to VLE sharing forum etc my colleagues are able to produce creative primary appropriate activities and outcomes with the learners across language learning skills.(I think there is need for a huge thank you to them all for their hard work,commitment and passion!)
Here is just a small example of the range of the work produced last week and shared more widely ....performing simple colour songs about fireworks with KS1 and then creating chalk drawings to act as a reminder of the song they learnt and enjoyed.
Practising colours and revisiting spelling to light up the sky with imaginary sparklers and then create a written target language firework rocket display record in best handwriting for the classroom!
Using all four skills of listening,speaking ,reading and writing to create performances of firework poems and songs written in groups , then recorded as digital versions using 2simple software!
Taking the opportunity to investigate the sturcture of language and focus on adjectival agreement and bilingual dictionary work to create sentences independently as a reading and then writing activity!
And finally writing poems in year 6 to be peer marked the following week!
The work I have shared, lit up my week ! I think it demonstrates how in one week we can explore a range of language learning skills listening and responding, joining in, recalling ,saying familiar and unfamilar words accurately ,exploring and broadening vocabulary,reading and writing, to creating independently sentences that demonstrate understanding of basic grammar (nouns,verbs, adjectives) .
Team work can not be underestimated and next week at our associate teacher twilight CPD we will be able to discuss and share what we have been doing during the last half term and what we will be doing this half term .It is a learning process for us all and we all bring different skills from native speakers to ex-primary and secndary classroom practitioners (teachers and teaching assistants) to ex-secondary heads of department
The work done by the team since September has already been shared on the VLE network blog as a recorx for next year too.If you aren't a member of the network VLE you can access and look at some of the ideas here on Network News.
