Assessing Progress Pitstop!

The tongue twister style title of this post reflects the challenges and twists in trying to sort out  meaningful and sensible approaches to measuring progress of young language learners.Over the last few years we have been considering and developing this in our network. Today I very much feel that we have begun to get it right and we can share this with others confidently !

Hurrah! 

This is very much a pit stop post in more ways than one, as it is lunch time and I have spent the morning in a primary school near Wigan with colleagues from two partner primary schools. Later I will spend  some of the afternoon in a high school in Halton with a transition between KS2-3 group. What is important is that my primary colleagues this morning and my primary and secondary colleagues this afternoon will all be discussing and sharing what progress we can see in language learning in KS2 and  what we regard as the soft and hard data to help us measure this progress.

What was fabulous this  morning  was that as a group of teachers we made progress in how we are going to assess progress across KS2 in two specific schools this academic year in line with the tools within our network.We have created a flexible language learning machine which has a set of tools to assess progress that can be applied to a variety of contexts and content.I was delighted to find that both specialist and non-specialists teachers felt comfortable with the tools and that classroom practitioners and SLT could see how useful the tools are.  to set the scene: two of the five  in the room were specialist linguists, two had primary and secondary language teaching experience, two were subject coordinators in primary, one was a primary headteacher and all of  us were primary practitioners.

By the way, if you are a member of the network, you have access to the VLE and the  the key documents mentioned below. This blog post will appear in the VLE network blog too and will have direct links to the documents mentioned - so you can read and explore at leisure for your own school's purposes! 

Step One
We considered our  KS2 SOW long term overview, how flexible this can be and how we can adapt and add creative learning opportunities.We identified core contexts and content to ensure progression. We considered how we can realign blocks of learning to fit the two schools own creative curriculum requirements. We linked stories  that the schools enjoy already and books we recommend  linked  to units of work. We discussed the importance of developing bilingual dictionary skills across KS2.

Using our medium term planning bubbles we considered how these help inform class teachers, support discussion and could help coordinators to rearrange some LKS2 or UKS2 units. We considered how the school may like to pick up one of our VLE Cross Curricular units e.g. Cavemen and use this instead of or alongside a key block of content such as daily routine.In doing this we revisited the key elements of the teaching and learning and then began to consider how we could track progress.

Step Two
We considered how our tracking sheets allow teachers to keep a simple record of contexts, content / transactional language  covered and skill development across listening, speaking, reading and writing. We looked at how this could be kept as  record for a specific class and how this can easily be shared with coordinators or SLT and kept for record purposes to demonstrate progress. Interestingly we all agreed that this added weight to the learning and the progress made and helped to ensure that language learning was an integral part of the learning process in school.This led us to us discussing primary evidence of progress and what we consider primary appropriate evidence.

Step Three
Using  the Mapping Progress document  created last year for our Progress CPD (and that has now been annotated and tweaked for network sharing) we considered how you can align the 4 basic skills (L,S,R,W) and the DFE POS learning objectives We were able to identify the stages of development as a learner of these four skills and the DFE POS LOs through KS2 Framework Objectives.

This gives us  descriptors to define  beginner, moving on and advanced learner skills in KS2. We looked at how we could identify elements of the four skills and also the development in the 4 skills in the DFE POS LOs.We also considered how  you can link these stages to A1 and possibly A2 of the CEFR. Finally we explored how these elements can be defined for assessment of progress in primary schools and linked  to the simple user-friendly skill descriptors from the Languages Ladder.No one was fazed by this and everyone could see  the steps of progression.I loved gthe fact that  the Headteacher and SLT found this information very reassuring.

Once we had explored Step Four below the team could see how all this came together and enabled the gathering of  evidence, understanding of what is being measured and also how to go back a step if necessary and then why and how the whole reporting progress we use has been created. 

Step Four
We have six week blocks of work which constitute half termly blocks within our SOW in KS2. Each half term has Assessment Benchmarks - the most important part of the benchmark descriptor is the skill level e.g."can understand some familar spoken ......".

Our basic benchmarks define content but of course schools may want to change content to fit their own blocks of work and therefore we help schools to look at progress in language skills whilst still able to identify content covered .

I am creating this year "Puzzle It Out " sheets per half term- with four puzzle activities .Each puzzle can be done at a different time during the half term  but each puzzle focuses on one of the skills.You will shortly be able to download the word document templates of this from the VLE. 

We have created Assessment Clouds for AfL purposes with the children so they can track their own progress termly (thanks to our associate Kate for the hard work here!) 

We are using three descriptors to explain progress: "emerging, meeting and exceeding".We are certain lots of schools are using similar if not the same descriptors.So it seems sensible to use these as we think because these are in line with many schools general progress in subject areas' descriptors.

Keeping a record and being accountable!

This year we are offering a record keeping spread sheet based on emerging,meeting and exceeding the benchmark in one,two,three or all 4 skills .We have made sure it is very easy to use  and can be used for every pupil or a sample of pupils.It is downloadable and shareable amongst teachers in a school and can be kept in the school area of the VLE. The record allows HTs and SLT to monitor progress across all 4 skills and to be able to reference this progress against the Mapping Progress document if so required.

So now I am off to the Transition meeting and hope to share with the group how they too can use these tools to develop a transfer of soft and hard data to inform dialogues and  baselines etc.....A work in progress and no doubt there will be plenty more reflective pit stops on the way!

And the magic is, that as we develop as a VLE network we can share and create new ways forward to enhance what is already there! Look forward to hearing how your school uses our assessment tools and being able to write another pitstop blog post on progress! 

It's not rocket science! Implementation of primary language learning

"It's not rocket science!" This seems like such a great phrase to describe effective implementation of primary language learning in an individual school.

This afternoon I have been reviewing progress in one of our network schools during "one to one" consultancy time as part of the JLN membership entitlement.Find out more here.
Janet Lloyd Network Membership

The JLN member school subject coordinator asked me to go in and spend 2 hours reviewing what the school has achieved and where the school is going to next with language learning.

The local school has implemented effective language teaching and is now ready to take on the challenge of assessment and tracking progress.

Here are the ingredients that have been built up,over time and are helping the school to be effective in French language learning so far:

1. Networking,sharing,learning
2. SLT and governor support
3. Appointment of a subject coordinator
4. Receive training on the DFE POS and use this as sign posts to aid implementation 
5. Using subject coordinator tools to guide and inform next steps 
6. Effective language teaching and learning
7. Progression across KS2
8. Links with literacy and creativity
9. Whole school buy in
10. Subject coordinator and experienced French language teacher working together
11. Celebrating language learning with display and events
12. Keeping a record of achievements
13. Using AfL to inform next steps
14. Trialling tracking and assessment
15. Considering how to implement tracking and assessment

The school has 

• Has a comprehensive SOW in place.This school is loosely following our JLN SOW.Take a look here 

JLN SOW

• Is a member of an active and focussed network. The school belongs to our network in the North West.Take a look here  Janet Lloyd Network
• Does listen and draw upon others ideas and experiences.
• Receives virtual support , blog posts and Network News which keep this coordinator up to date. Take a look here.Network News
• The subject coordinator works alongside the PPA French teacher and also delivers his own French language lessons , helping him to keep up to speed with the progress and the challenges of implementation.
• Encourages members of staff to be aware of their own class progress in the language, using the tools and resources that accompany the subject coordinator's pack.(The school does not overburden staff)
• Is building year on year on effective and successful practise and is moving towards more adventurous ways of approaching the language , for example with our "Blogs to go" or "APPS to go" SOW overlays.
• Has built a  substantial resource bank of stories that allow for creative exploration of the SOW content. Take a look here at these two examples of support: Reading in the target language is great  New Spanish books and reasons why I selected them
• Has display created by the children in the school to promote their language learning

 Today at school during our "one to one consultancy time" (part of the membership entitlement) we considered 

• the progress and next steps of the school and the coordination of language learning using the Primary Self Audit Tools.
• identified the "establishing tracking and assessment" area as the next step area for the coordinator and the PPA teacher 
• considered how the JLN SOW tracking sheets can enable the whole school/ staff to have an awareness of content , transactional language progress and skill development.

The one to one time with the subject coordinator allowed 

• the opportunity to dig deeper and understand what progress will look like across stages of learning and how to quantify the skill development
• the opportunity to look at other network school approaches and find the best fit for this school and its current language learning foot print.
• the opportunity to decide what will be the French teacher, the subject coordinator's and the class teacher's roles in the roll out of tracking and assessment next year

You see it isn't rocket science ,it's just sensibly paced and supported primary appropriate next steps........

The Mad Hatters Tea Party! Creative "at table" conversations for UKS2

Next term we will be creating cafe culture conversations with Year 6.They have practised food,drink and key request phrases and polite at table language throughout their language learning career so far. It is all part of our SOW 

Janet Lloyd Network SOW

Summer Term for Year 6 is hectic and this is an opportunity to have a one off and creative lesson all based on the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.If you follow my blogs you will know that we have connections with Lewis Carroll here in the area and indeed in the centre of Warrington ,we have a stone sculpture of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Last term some of our Year 6 wrote some marvelous descriptive pieces based on Alice in Wonderland and linked to the  launch of the Royal Mail commemorative stamps 

Alice in Wonderland and describing people in speaking and writing

.

A Mad Hatter's Tea Party suggests crazy food and lively conversation with unusual guests!

The first thing we need is our tea pot ...because in our tea pot are all the phrases we ar going to need to create our lively conversation- 

1.Preparing the table with an "At the Table" conversation framework

Create for yourself a large card tea pot! 

In the centre of your tea pot you need to blu-tac all the phrases that the children might need to build the framework of their lively conversation.Revisit the at table phrases from Y6 Autumn 2,the polite request phrases from Y3 Summer 1 and the picnic phrases from Y3 Summer 2.   

Can the children help you to identify and organise the phrases out of a crazy tea pot and in to a sensible order for  dialogue based on sharing food?

2.Laying out the food for our Tea Party

Ask the children to now complete their own table cloths for the picnic- this is a piece of paper really but make it table cloth style and like a checked cloth....

The children need to work in pairs or fours with one table cloth.

Can the children lay out their chosen food items on their table cloths and word squares- each square a different food item word in the target language.

(The children need to revisit prior learning and brainstorm foods and drinks they have practised and used in their work during the last three years - so in our case this could be Hungry Giant's breakfast (Y3) ,Going on a Picnic (Y3),buying an ice cream (Y4,the market (Y5),the Christmas meal in Y6 ,the authentic foods from the Cafe Culture focus  in Summer term Y6 etcetra).

3.Creating our Mad Hatter's Tea Party Menu

Each guest at the table needs to invent at least three fantastical food items using the food items written as words on their table cloths: 

For example in French:

un croissant bleu

une tarte multicolore au choufleur

une grande glace rouge et piquante 

Can each guest bring their item as a word card to the table with a picture of the item and place it in top of the table cloth.

4.Creating the table conversation

Now the guests at the table can build their conversation and select items they want to try.They must add opinions about the items they select - as if they have tasted them of course!

Sit back and watch your Mad Hatter's Tea Party performances! And maybe share them with another year group too!

Keeping a creative spoken record of progress in primary languages

It is so important to keep our tracking of progress "primary" and creative and the teachers who work with me in our network are doing just that! How are we finding ways to track our progress in the spoken language?

Last year Emilie @EWoodruffe took up my challenge to her to try out some APPS with our young learners.

With the wonderful Sylvie Bartlett Rawlings from Kent she set up a spoken class to class swap of family raps.
They used Autorap .
You can listen in here to two of her year 4 children describing the family and facial descriptions.
Emilie heard the children read out loud their written texts before they were recorded and so was able to track pronunciation and intonation etcetra. 

family rap 

She then went on to try out Yakit for Kids with her own take on a fashion show.Simple, effective and we realised that we had a way of capturing children's spoken language and use of grammar ( adjectives after nouns etc)

fashion show yakit for kids clip

fashion show yakit for kids

You can find out more  about all these ideas here in Emilie's presentation  at our JLN annual conference 2013.

Using technology to advance creative learning in our network schools 

Recently we have received from one of network school teachers - Lynsey McHugh, clips  of her children performing their creative Puppetpals dialogues based on personal information conversation.Here she can keep evidence and a track of how well the children are engaging in conversation. You can ee more of Lynsey's Puppetpals clips on our Facebook page  Janet Lloyd Network Facebook

And recently we have realised how easy it is to track progress through songs.We have run a carnival song competition which has allowed our Year 3 beginner learners the chance to show off their pronunciation and intonation.

This year.2015, we have used Yakit for Kids to record and keep evidence of use of simple sentences - noun,verb,adjectives with Year 4 designing monsters,thanks to Ana by the way!

And to once again thanks to Ana and her year 5 children we have a record of our children in 2015 ,talking about clothes they have designed - using adjectival agreement and placement  

Making progress with listening.Activities using all four skills.

This year we have been focusing on how we make progress in language learning with our children and how we can track this and record this.
Here is a simple activity which can be used with all four skills...... to see how children are progressing.
In our JLN SOW we offer teachers sound files and podcasts to support themselves with upskilling in the target language, but we find that teachers can use these too to develop their own listening activities .The podcasts are great for children moving on from word level! 
Emilie Woodruffe @EWoodruffe   amd Ana Lavado Garcia @AnaLavadoGarcia have worked alongside me to create podcasts and sound file for every half term from Year 3 to Year 6- so we have lots of listening texts to work with .These ideas are therefore replicable with other podcasts. Simple too!

Step One 
Select the podcast and text that contains the language content you have been focusing upon with the class.
I have selected podcast one from Year 3 for this example (it's all about Emilie in French or Ana in Spanish)

Give out a series of words from the podcast text you want to use- in a muddled up order.:

1. Can the children look at the words and decide what the listening text might be about?
2. Can they spot any key language they have been practising e.g,question words,months, numbers?
3. Can they put these to one side- you can now see who can identify these words individually.
4. Can they anticipate in which order they may hear the words?
5. Ask the children to listen to the text and put the words in the order from top to bottom in a vertical list as they hear them. 
6. Would they like to listen again and see if they are happy with the order they have generated ?
7. You can take photos of sample vertical lists of the children that you are following as progress pupils in the class  
8. Now can they discuss with a partner what they think the listening text is about?

Step Two

1. Can they now look at their list of words and gather facts about Emilie or Ana for example: 

Here is another opportunity to take photo samples of how the children can comprehend and link together sequences of words that belong together.

Step Three

1. Give out the words written out on a table that the children have been sorting.
2. Working in pairs can they create spoken sentences that use all of the words (Remember they have listened to a modeled text already).In this text they can create up to four or five  sentences  speaking as of they are ~Emilie in the first person singular- name/age/ birthday/ where Emilie lives/ feelings
3. Ask the children in pairs to write down their sentences .You can collect in  their work after the activities and keep samples as evidence of progress in writing from memory.
4. Ask for volunteer pairs to show and read out loud  their sentences for the class.Now you can listen for pronunciation and intonation  as they read aloud their sentences. 

Getting language learning right in school,is a delight!

I am currently undertaking a routine series of observations of the language assistants and teachers who work alongside me in our primary schools  delivering primary language learning on a weekly basis.It is such a rewarding and pleasurable opportunity to see what is really taking place in schools.

Today I was with my colleague Janet W and her Year 5  French beginners in a local St Helens' school.Two days ago I was with Ana in a Warrington school,observing Spanish .

This series of blogs is an additional support mechanism for these colleagues,as they can't be in each others classroom and as a team  we meet once per half term for a twilight CPD,So you can hopefully see that these blogs (with a cup of tea and a biscuit back at home) offer them an insight in to each others classrooms and schools. 

A little bit of background knowledge to set the scene
If you have followed my blog posts you probably already know that I work alongside a group of really committed and enthusiastic teachers and that we work very week of the school year in 37 schools to support the delivery of French ,Spanish and German. Part of my role is to guide and support the teachers and the schools as the project in their individual settings develops.

My observations below are about what I saw and experienced in a local school today and the Year 5 French lesson.The whole school ethos to language learning and the attitude and progress of the children in the class sprang pout immediately!This is our first year of working with the school. Today I felt like the "cat who got the cream" as the learning was a delight to experience !

Why was it a delight?

The actual lesson is probably a lesson you can all recognise.It was a well planned and paced lesson ,started with a new greetings song which contained lots of familar basic  language.Interestingly the children began to join in straight away and had no problem with singing and reading the words from the screen accurately.The class enjoyed practising questions and answers about themselves and this led to practising a less familiar question and answer (about age).Today the class wre introduced to the aliens- just like Ana's year 4  yesterday The Year 5  children today  are having a combination of year 3 and 4 learning to accelerate their content knowledge but keep the skills level of early learners.The introduction of the alien pictures is always great fun and there are opportunities to look for cognates and semi cognates plus grammatical links between nouns languages.The pair games to practise the new nouns and the new  question "Qui est-ce?" are  rounded off with a simple plenary to check the children have internalised key language.

So what made this lesson so "delightful" was the whole school positive attitude and focus upon learning to communicate in another language.It makes the learning of a language an integral, regular part of the children's learning and the school day.Therefore the participation and concentration and success is in my opinion very high.

Here are some of the factors I observed today that contribute to how I think the school is "getting language learning right".

• The school has a history of interest in international links,with an established and thriving link with China.As you walk through the school there is evidence in displays of links with China,children's work and information for parents.  
• SLT are committed to making language learning and communication an integral part of the school learning curriculum.They plan alongside us for progress and to make sure that it's primary language learning that suits all their learners needs.
• The children have previously learned some German and the school is committed to a quality language learning experience for all KS2 in French
• The school has set up effective liaison between the school language coordinator and the language deliverer (Janet W).
• Teachers and TAs are present and take an active part in the lesson, supporting Janet W, learning new language alongside the children and supporting children where necessary.The teacher and  TA participated in the pair work games  and sang the greetings song and prompted children to recall key responses to personal information questions and answers etc.
• The teacher and TA saw and made links between the new focus the children started today on the "family and family trees" with their Science project- (growing up).
• Janet W is an excellent deliverer of the target language and although she has only just started to work as part of our team ,she has been delivering primary languages as a teaching assistant in a local school.She has an understanding of pace,rapport with staff and children, using the primary classroom space and the understanding of working in a primary language learning context.
• There were natural pauses and opportunities for assessment for learning and a final plenary check of learning that had taken place.
• Children loved the alien family and delighted in creating "alien voices" for the characters as they learned the members of the family.One pair really enjoyed changing the game to make "Darlek voices" too.
• All the children loved the pair activities -guessing games, based on the question "Qui est- ce?" with the aliens."Ooh it's like Cluedo!" was one enthusiastic comment
• All the children participated well in the pair game and I saw the reaction from the children that you see when the children like the resource they are using, (colour laminated pictures of the aliens) holding them like precious playing cards.
• A link  was made  between local primary schools as it was explained that the grandma and grandad alien were created by Barrowhall CP Year 4 in Warrington .Now Parish CE Year 5  want to create additional family members and this got them thinking even as they walked out to the classroom.The teachers cleverly  popped it on the agenda for circle time too- so French language will be used later in the week and new words will be looked for!
• And the aliens ?Well this is the first of several appearances throughout the next couple of years of language learning. We have used these characters for several years now and they never fail to delight the children (and the teachers)! Today I saw what an engaging focus this  is for primary UKS2 children.Yes it's the family, yes we are learning words but this is la famille extra-terrestre ! Wow and just how did the children engage with the fact this was an extra terrestrial family! 

Seeing progress in action!

I want to call this blog post - "you can always learn more!"

It's a post about progress and observations in the primary classroom from a school visit yesterday.

I am certain that many  of you who read this do achieve similar success in classes across the country.I think it's so important to create a written record of your successes to help others.
Firstly the record can celebrate what is taking place. 
Secondly it's a tool by which to share practitioners and learners progress.
Thirdly it is hopefully a fair record of what school are achieving across year groups and across the school academic year in primary language learning.

A little bit of background knowledge to set the scene
If you have followed my blog posts you probably already know that I work alongside a group of really committed and enthusiastic teachers and that we work every academic week of the school year in 37 schools to support the delivery of French ,Spanish and German. Part of my role is to guide and support the teachers and the schools as the project in their individual settings develops.

Yesterday was one of those wonderful days when I went in to a school, to observe a practitioner delivering language learning and to support the school to see how best to support staff and children with their language learning.
Below is an honest account of what was observed - simple language learning content and context that became one of those rare magical moments !Less about the teacher and more about the progress of the language learners


Ana is one of our Spanish native speaker QTS practitioners. She has worked alongside me now for four years and has worked in this specific school for just over two years. Her relationship with children,staff and SLT is excellent. Ana works with a core programme of learning across KS1 and KS2 and is happy to change or adapt learning to suit school needs and special events.
The core programme is in line with the network JLN SOW ,which means staff and especially the language coordinator can access the core language,activities and  resources and develop simple assessment opportunities with Ana.Ana has provided sound files for our SOW ,which help staff to listen again to those core words and structures too. Ana shares medium term planning for all year groups from YR to Y6 with the coordinator and staff.......

............but didn't I say you can always learn more ? !

Yesterday the observations made,were about the balance of the four skills in accordance with the new DfE POS and also about what progress young learners in the school are really making.
The Head and I observed two lessons.In both lessons the class teachers and TAs are always present and encouraged to participate.The school is still working toward what this participation will eventually look like and how the school, Ana and the staff can support different groups of learners.It's a case of positive SLT supported and staff implemented "work in progress".Spanish is now becoming an integral part of the learning curriculum across KS1 and KS2.

A lesson of two halves with Year 4!

Now here is an interesting thing! 
With Y4/5 mixed age class Ana was looking at the family and creating descriptions using familiar language of a new family- our alien family. She was concentrating also on our New Year's resolution to encourage children to apply rules of pronunciation to new language, applying knowledge of prior learning and to look for those semi- cognates and cognates.You may have read the blog post Look! Think! Read The children are in their second year of language learning and it was in the second half of the lesson,after we asked Ana to deliver everything in the target language- instructions , questions to the children and the speaking card game  to "describe people" (a DfE learning objective!) that the lesson came to life! 
Why? Well the children, it seemed to us, became really keen to engage with the learning through Spanish.It was great to see them all sat on the edge of their seats, listening for clues in the language Ana was using,with Ana carefully selecting the key language she used and actions to support what the children had to do e.g "Para" ,"Movea".......With not a word of English spoken the class wanted more!! 
What is important to remember here is that the children work every week with Ana, know her well and are used to her speaking Spanish with her - and she knows what they know too! 

It was this second half of the lesson that was most remarkable as every child was engaged ,some supported by teacher and TA  but all the children were trying to understand what Ana was saying....and the teachers were too!

The Head and I wanted to take this further so ....



A Year 3 lesson to remember!
The Head and I followed Ana to her next class and asked her this time to speak only Spanish from the beginning to the end of the lesson.These were Y3 children who have two years language learning with Ana, behind them. 
Ana wanted to teach the class how to read and write names of animals, some familiar spoken language and some unfamiliar language in preparation for the work on animals they see and find around them.
She asked the children to  put on their Spanish brains and to travel with her in their heads to Spain.From this moment on she explained everything in Spanish.They were Spanish children in a Spanish classroom with a Spanish teacher for the duration of the lesson.

We observed normal routine warm up language- questions and answers  about the date, month, what day was it yesterday or would it be tomorrow,personal information, favourite months, days , weather on the day , etc etc! 
When she asked the children where they lived,she reminded them that they now lived in Spain( all explained in the target language) and my favourite response had to be "Vivo en Real Madrid" !! 
Although most of the children wanted to live in Malaga, Barcelona or Sevilla- all places that Ana will have talked with them about when for example she talks about her home city Sevilla , or Gaudi and colours and Barcelona and Malaga because we have link schools in the city! 

Then  something magical happened..... one of those "goose pimples" teaching and learning moments which you want to keep forever !

Ana asked the children about their favourite animals and The children were able to tell Ana about the sea creatures they liked -pulpo, tiberon etcetra, without prompting ,from their Y2 language learning focus and recalled  farm animals from their Old Macdonald work in Y1 !! 
All the children were busy thinking about what they could say and remember....




From this point onwards we observed the clearly identifiable progress these young learners are making in language learning.
Ana asked children to come to the front and share how they thought these favourite animal words were written .Hands up all around the classroom! "Casi" said Ana as children added too many consonants or forgot that a "h" sound could be a"j" in Spanish! They weren't put off - the whole class wanted to help sort out the spelling! "Pez" was interesting and the child writing self corrected himself .It's not "th" it's "z" he said "because it's like diez"! Definitely a WOW moment!

Ana introduced new animal pictures and asked the children if they already knew the word for the animal and was it un or una....? Could they write the word if they already knew it? And the new animal words - well could they listen, repeat and then decide from prior learning of numbers , colours, etc how to spell for example "caballo" ( amarillo link) , conejo, pajaro (rojo/ jueves link) etcetra.

The children were applying prior learning to new language and making sound -spelling links and confidently coming to the front to volunteer the written word.Meantime the class teacher and TA were observing and  identifying the confidence of hesitant writers, happy to share their clear and exact writing in a different language and the way that the more able learners were being stretched by challenge of the target language.

These young language learners are inquisitive,keen to learn the language and confident that they can succeed.The thoughtful class practise of the pronunciation of "v" for "vaca" ,the additional information offered about the animals e.g.the impromptu spoken language from some of the children with the colour of the animals in the pictures and trying to describe this in a sentence and the links the children could make with their own experiences e.g raton- oh that's like "ratoncito Perez" said one pupil.(Her Spanish friend told her about this story, she added).

   
And Ana - well Ana was thriving on the engagement of the children and as an experienced primary classroom teacher and practitioner, using only target language, was being guided by the children and drawing the children further in to their application of language learning skills.

This was a lesson not to forget and needed to be recorded.
Progress of 7 year olds with some prior learning in Spanish across listening ,speaking , reading ,writing, culture and grammar.
Thank you so much Ana for a remarkable snapshot! 

What have we learned? 
Well  there is always room for improvement - perhaps more talking partner opportunities  and use of mini whiteboards ...... but truthfully it was the impact of the learning through the target language and the way the children naturally made those sound -spelling links, recalled language with ease and began to want to engage in sentence level activities outside the learning context that have caused Ana,the Head and I to stop and think!



Next steps?

• To allow staff time to shadow Ana and see this progress in different year groups and the links the children can make between prior learning and new learning.
• To begin to plan for Spanish learning which can support teachers and TAs with their own everyday learning skills observations of children
• To plan for as much use of the target language as is sensible and supportive for the young  learners
• To plan for staff CPD time to discuss what they have observed and what they think are the next achievable steps! 

Seeking sound patterns in French and exploring a poem about days of the week and colours.

The teachers that Emilie and I will be working with tomorrow are teachers who have basic skills in language learning and are looking to enhance their own knowledge of the language and ways to enhance the learning of the children.The activities below are about ...... and  the blog post is intended as notes to the teachers:  

• sound patterns
• looking for matching sound patterns
• encoding text
• reconstructing text
• reading aloud a text

I love this simple days of the week and colours poem that I found on pinterest

Step One 
What is the poem about?
Show the children this blanked out version of the poem:

By concealing any other language can the children identify that the poem is about days and colours? 
What colour do they think that Sunday must be? Take suggestions and reasons why.

Step Two  
Give out to pairs the cut up poem as below:

Can the  children reconstruct the poem in the correct order of the days of the week .Can they decide whether the line........ :

"C'est la joie des enfants" 

goes at the beginning or the end of the poem? 

(Suggest that the poem rhymes so that this will help the children to decide where the line should go).

Which children guessed the correct colour for Sunday?

Step Three

Ask the children to look for sound patterns in the poem:

Send them on an "I" sound hunt and find the words where the words where the identical letter and sound or a matching sound to the "i" sound can be found

Send them on a similar hunt for "ou" and for "an"

Step Four

Ask the children to help you to understand the meaning of the poem and appoint class members as the class dictionary detectives. Give lout five dictionaries to five class detectives and make this a speed game to locate key words and fond the meaning:

My key words in the poem would be : 

tout/clair/se reposer/ vient(venir)/tour/ suit (suivre )/ toujours/ la joie /enfants

Step Five 

Can the class help you to read the poem out building to a happy crescendo on a Sunday because this is "la joie des enfants!"

Associate CPD review and ready for Christmas! For Jo,Jose and Emilie !

We are all working so hard to make primary languages successful.This strikes me every time I look at Twitter and Facebook!

My favourite CPD every half term is when my wonderful colleagues and I get together to consider ways forward over the next 6 weeks with the schools where they teach once a week to support the schools with their development of language learning.

Yesterday evening we met ....and here is a resume of some of the meeting especially for Emilie,Jose and Jo G who weren't able to attend.

We have an organised long term and medium term plan that takes us from Nursery (in some instances) right up to Year 6 and we have built in flexibility for schools and classes that are beginners in Y6 or are moving on not yet advanced learners etc in Y6.Our CPD this year has very much become additional and extra and how to enhance what we do and keep in line with the new DfE POS.

Jo G, Jose and Emilie take a look here for ideas to use during the run up to Christmas please- plus note the possible learning objective link too (from DfE POS).Different activities are suitable for different ages/ stages and classes,so take your pick and link this in to the work we are already doing. 

Christmas greetings song as bell ringers

DfE POS : listen attentively/join in/respond/ speak in sentences

Ding dong bell

- exploring the sound patterns of the greetings song above and some simple writing activities to make Christmas decorations/ play a game

DfE POS:explore the patterns and sounds /speak sentences/read carefully / write from memory

(this is not normal pen and paper writing though!)

Christmassy conversations with puppets beginners/moving on/advanced

DfE POS: speaking sentences, engaging in conversations,describe people and places

Open and reveal four corners Christmas present style

DfE POS: Ask and answer questions

3D Art with a Christmas meal twist

DfE POS : speak in sentences , write from memory (we thought last night that the children could then try to write down the performance they have seen as text)

We looked at this picture for the Christmas 3D Art by the way !

Triaramas with speaking and writing attitude

We linked this to out Y6 normal Christmas lessons on festive meal sketch and looked at how ee can develop listening,speaking,reading ,writing here

DfE POS : read carefully and show understanding/write from memory/ develop accurate intonation and pronunciation when reading aloud

Twinkle Twinkle Little star with a grammar twist

Well first of all as you can imagine listening to Joanne sing was a pleasure and then we had a go at changing the first line in French with new nouns, verbs and adjectives that precede a noun.Half the fun again was listening to Joanne sing the new lines and fit them to the rhythm!

DfE POS : understand basic grammar

And  finally some of us felt that we could really enjoy and extend our Y6 learners with the ideas in

the magic of Christmas

Assesment update :

Steph Pierre shared with us the assessment she has been carrying out in one of her schools.Steph is an ex HOD and native French speaker and has a very clear way of recording and processing the progression in skills  linked to our in house model .We will be sharing this in local CPD next year too with Steph and other associates in the team sharing their  hands on real work.Note to Emilie and Jo G - email Steph and ask for a copy!

Inspectoon report 

Joanne, Janet W and Andrea have all been seen recently by inspectors and have had very good feedback and a special well done to Andrea! Andrea has joined us to cover Catherine whilst on maternity break! Congratulations Catherine! Andrea was inspected in her second week at the school where she covers Catherine.What a success .Well done Andrea!

What is so wonderful about my colleagues is how hard they work and it did make me smile that Andrea went home to make paper puppets based on my

paper puppets

to use with KS1 today in Spanish whilst they practise their song el granja de mi tio!

 At about 9,30 last night i was sent this picture from Andrea............

Hope the children and Andrea enjoy this today!

DfE project update:teacher led CPD 

This year our associates are working hard with me on our 

DfE project

 with WSTA.We had news to catch up on based on their work in the local networks and how they are beginning to move from teachers to trainers for teacher led CPD. Jayne,Claire and Emilie are already up and running as network leaders and Ana and Emilie are busy training teachers in French and Spanish. Steph has written some of our resources in French and Spanish to share with BC FLAs at meetings etc .Barbara is putting sound files in to German,Joanne is singing and performing for us so that we have creative materials to share and Jo G and I are meeting this morning to review progress in KS3 plus to finalise Joe Dale on Monday! 

Huge thanks to them all! Here's to next term!

A triarama with speaking and writing attitude!

Tomorrow I will be working with teachers on linking drama and language learning and I will be considering the new DfE POS learning objectives for KS2 and also how we can lay the foundations in our learning for KS3 languages.
We will look at all sorts of activities from beginners to advanced KS2 language learning.The following activities are targeted at learners who are either moving on or are advanced learners.
My activities hopefully will allow teachers to offer children opportunities to progress and work with the following objectives from the new DfE POS:

• speak in sentences using familiar vocabulary
• broaden their vocabulary
• read carefully and show understanding of words,phrases and simple writing
• write phrases from memory

I was introduced to Triaramas by Clare Seccombe here  and have decided that triaramas are a way to  link all four skill (L.S.R.W) and drama! 

• First you need to create a sketch for the children. (We will base ours on Christmas and family- maybe presents or a meal).There needs to be a dramatic or funny ending to the sketch.Use familiar language with some new language that they will need to understand and offer the children tools such as bilingual dictionaries to find meanings etc
• Then you need to write out the sketch without stage directions for the class.
• Give each child a script and organise the class into differentiated ability groups with the right number of children in the group for the roles in the sketch. 
• Can the children read the sketch out in the target language around the table?
• Can the children tell each other what has happened in the sketch? Have they understood the ending of the sketch?
• Ask the children to read the sketch a second time and allocate roles and decide upon actions and voices of the characters
• What props will they need?
• Now can the children decide what the stage directions should be?

It's time to be a set designer and sketch director!

Each child must decide which moment in the sketch they want to depict in a snap shot set.

It's blank set time.

Give each child a piece of paper and ask them to create a triarama following instructions.

This is there opportunity to create the set for the sketch and to record how they perceive the sketch that their group has been working on.

Now they need to add information to their triarama so that they create a dynamic record of the reading of the sketch.Each character in the foreground needs their name/role  and an adjective that help other people understand what the character is like e.g.  tired /excited/ friendly/ angry /surprised/ confused etc .First the children need to make cut outs and write in the target language on them - the role/ the adjective:

The children can now place the characters as they want them on set?

....And the children can add key phrases from the sketch and additional objects and other characters.Can they write the phrases from memory.

Do they want to add any other characters too? What are these characters saying or thinking at that exact moment?

I have blu-tacked my characters to the set so that they can be moved and have blu-tacked their phrases too to the characters so the dialogue can be changed.

Now it's time to share their set with the sets of the other children - firstly in their group and then in the class.
Have they chosen the same moment in the sketch?
How do they imagine their characters sound when they speak.Can they bring their snap- shot set to life?

Setting out our language learning stall for 2014 2015

Today the associate language teachers and assistants met for our CPD Day.Part of our discussions where based upon how we are going to set up effective environments for primary language learning this academic year.

Here are some of the tools,approaches and resources we will begin to implement or use across all year groups in KS2 in the next couple of weeks.

The rights of the language learner
You can access the PDF from Bsmall publishing here.

The rights of the language learner

The poster reminds children about respecting others, taking risks and having a go and allows us to think of some of our own important learning strategies for the year! Brilliant to have in the classroom and to refer to when children are struggling or not sure how to approach a challenge or just as a prompt when required. We are sure that the children will want to add strategies and pictures of their own.

Creating a whole school supportive language learning environment 

We identified the need to support the whole school staff to feel a part of the language learning taking place in school and loved the idea of the " target language postbox"

great to post and share successful activities, questions or requests around language learning.Maybe this blog will help.....

Ready steady go!

Welcome back! 

We identified how important it is to welcome children back or for the first time into our language learning classes and how we can link this to the idea that all children are going back to school right now across the target language countries. We want to share with the children greetings in the target language pertinent to "returning to school" on the IWB or as individual cards just like these in French:

A memorable learning journey 

If we use individual cards (welcome back) then these can be stuck in to our learning journals. This year we will have learning journals that are personal to the children created along the lines of the one described in the blog below:

A journey worth taking

We want the children to keep a growing record of the experiences, sights,sounds,smells and creative activities along their language learning journey and individual or class learning journals just like these seem a good way to create a  memorable journey!

Unpacking our suitcases from last academic year 

With some of our children we will be unpacking their virtual language learning suitcases from last academic year to remember and to revisit some of their favourite activities and stories . Take a look at emilie's blog and see the suitcases she packed with her classes...

Our suitcases of learning

A child's record of how much they grow in language learning and knowledge across the academic year.

How does your garden grow?

We discussed the elements we see the children developing across a year of language learning (language content , structure ,all 4 skills, links between language and other subjects, cultural knowledge etc). I suggested the " how does your garden grow record" for Year 3 and Year 4 but colleagues felt that this was still a valid and age appropriate activity for UKS2 too! This will be kept in the children's journals or learning logs (see above) and we intend to start these pictures in October.

Exploring culture and celebrating languages through creative and imaginative work.

We discussed  ways this year we will use Art,literature,poetry ,song, music, Drama to explore  both language skills and the culture of the target language country.We are setting off on a " a grand day out"  in the week of the European Day of Languages ( 26 September) with this in mind!

Transition in a suitcase

And at the end of the year we hope to be able to pack those virtual suitcases again with memories , games, creative outcomes ,songs, stories and poems that we want to share at the start of the next new academic year of learning!

Transition in a suitcase between year groups

Evidence of progress in primary language learning .

Yesterday whilst  training teachers in Manchester I was able to share some of our network’s evidence that progress over four year primary language learning is being made and that on a regular basis we see this progress.

In Speaking children are progressing from simple utterances to dialogues to simple conversations

In Writing children are progressing from writing single familiar words to writing sentences (noun verb adjective and to writing a range of sentences and short texts with accurate basic grammar using nouns, adjectives and verbs.

How?

Well the primary teachers are planning for progress.The progress has been developing over a period of years.This is not a quick fix!  The network has developed in to it's own support structure where teachers support teachers and resources /ways of approaching language teaching and learning are shared either through myself or through informal links and sub- groups )e.g Emilie's upskilling group). It has taken time.

To make good and substantial progress as would therefore be expected they are working from long term overviews that develop considers ways to introduce, revisit ,re-use in new contexts and build upon language learning. The network and the support helps of course! Here's the link to the page on the JLN website where you can see the colour coded long term overview which many of the network schools use or refer to help their initial planning.Last month I blogged  about what the associate language teachers who work in 32 schools as visiting teachers or language assistants are identifying as progress across KS1 and KS2 

Yesterday I required concrete tangible examples that classroom teachers an achieve and that have been generated by real children in real learning circumstances. Here are the everyday language examples I selected to share with  the teachers in Manchester to show how progress is being made.

The examples are as follows:

Listening and Responding to single words and phrases and saying short utterances

Firstly I shared children listening  ,responding and joining in with a playground PE activity using numbers and colours.(Listening and responding at stage one of learning).These examples come from a Year 2 class at Christ Church CE and you can see examples of their spoken work on their school website Christ Church CE

Moving from questions and answers in a spoken dialogue to building a simple conversation

Then I was able to show how children after 18 months of formal KS2 French learning at Christ Church CE are demonstrating different stages and skills in speaking within the class itself .I have these lovely clips from the school coordinator which show children participating in speaking conversations  as groups of four children .To achieve this ,the Year 4 children ( March of the academic year) 

• recalled, revisited and gathered familiar questions and answers together in spoken and then written form 
• written their own simple scripts drawing upon content from the some of the language they have practised across the 18 months (personal information ,feelings, family and illnesses are included in this sketch)
• practised and remembered their conversations
• worked in differentiated skill level groups of four to support each other.

For myself the fascinating thing is to see the spread of language skills after 18 months – two children are speaking short phrases and two children are performing a strong question and answer dialogue and one of these two children is pushing the boundaries with asides and reactions that is moving toward holding a conversation. Neither of these two clips is flamboyant but show the product of a sequence of lessons and the skills the children are developing at this stage on their learning.

Independent speaking and writing: short accurate texts 

For us all yesterday it was probably the evidence you can hear in the clip below and the evidence you can see in the short written document below that made us sit up and think! 

You see I have known for a quite a while  that many of the schools  in the network are moving on.I am grateful for the fact that the language learning in local schools did not stop when languages in primary schools were doubtful.This means that in many of our schools we have been able to build upon prior learning consistently, draw upon local good practice and examples and therefore make effective progress and support other schools to aspire/ achieve the same. What I hadn't realised was how this would have an impact on other teachers from different areas where they are just starting off.It didn't frighten them it gave them goals and ways forward.

A short accurate written text

The written script is just one example from a local primary school (St Philips) where the teacher in January this year did some work around likes and dislikes and fruits and vegetables. She brought me several examples of the written work in best handwriting as it was ready for display in the classroom and here is a remarkable example to our subject coordinators CPD afternoon. Some of the children had written longer sentences using correct language in simple sentences but this example stood out because this child had thought carefully and worked upon accuracy in adjectival agreement and position and had used the class bilingual dictionaries to find words to describe the fruit that s/he really wanted to say.The example below is something that most children can achieve and that's why we decided to share this with colleagues .It has to be achievable.

Speaking independently :accurate descriptive text 

Finally there was a clip from my wonderful colleague Emilie @ EWoodruffe at our conference and which she shared as part of her presentation on the use of technology #JLN2014 .

We have known for a while that children in network schools are  producing accurate imaginative and independent descriptive spoken and written short texts .We know that one of the times we see this is in their third year of learning a language when the children work on a context based on fashion shows through the ages. 

This year Emilie captured this brilliantly for us all to share at the conference with the Yakit for children APP. The final creative products by the children are after several weeks of work  on clothes and descriptions and in February Year 5 ,so two and a half years after they have started learning a language. The example I selected yesterday was just a random selection from these recordings but it made light bulbs go on around the room! The recording is a culmination of listening, speaking , reading , writing , remembering and working on grammar with adjectives. Take a listen!

St Elphins CE fashion show yakit example

So at the end of a good year within the network and with many more examples of progress and teachers planning for progress ,my questions for myself and colleagues must be – what next? 

This is progress that we are now seeing at different stages across approximately 90 schools- some schools are being supported by other schools in the network but on a weekly basis such evidence of progress at different stages of language learning is shared with me.Exciting and challenging questions which I hope to begin to address with my colleagues next year .... 

• Where will language learning progress to next year in the network? 
• What  can we begin to achieve as these children some of them now at the end  of Year 5 leave primary next year and enter Year 7 and secondary language learning? 
• How will we build on this platform for learning?