Art and language learning , my blogs so far ....

This blog post is my own mental note and list of  the Art and language learning blogs I have written so far- to help the associates, colleagues within the network and me  plan purposeful and language rich learning opportunities:

3D Art and verbs using Renoir the Boating Party - Drama and Art /spoken activities (personal information , feelings, 1st, 2nd and 3rd person singular questions and responses)
3D Art and verbs stage one
3D Art and verbs stage two
3D Art and verbs stage three

KS2 Matisse Cut Outs Art and colour - dance,drama, spoken language , reading and writing
Matisse Cut Outs

Conveying emotions through Art - using the target language
conveying emotions

Rousseau and shape jungle animal sentences for jungle display  (noun verb adjective and animal descriptions) 
shape sentence jungles

Poster Power Poems (revisiting familiar language : weather,people, reactions,emotions, activities etc) - using the visual evidence in a poster to create spoken activities and performances (based on the Tour de France but activities can be used with lots of different posters etc)
Poster power poems

Preposition Picnic: creating our own sculptures using foods and cutlery/crockery and prepositions-using all 4 skills
Preposition picnic

Sentence calligrams- creating our own suitcases of Summer clothes - full sentence descriptions of items for a class display
Sentences ,objects and calligrams

Abstract Art - how we can use art to revisit and practise basic core vocabulary- colours, numbers 
Abstract art and beginners language

3D Clay and conversations - using clay sculptures to generate dialogue and conversations
3D clay scene questions and answers

If a picture paints a 1000 words. Portraits of women's faces through the ages used to practise eye, hair colour, target language names and emotions. Linking Art , Drama , music and language learning,
If a picture paints a 1000 words  

European Day of Languages! A Grand Day Out 2014

Every year we try to think of a new theme for European Day of Languages .Last year for example we celebrated the day with kites and linked this to launching our learning aspirations for the year and we sourced a marvellous video clip of the international kite flying competition at Berck sur plage .It was an immensely creative and lively day with games, songs and making activities all based around simple language such as greetings, colours, numbers and with the older children instructional text . We translated the chorus of "let's go fly a kite into French, found a clip on the internet and one school had a grand class by class sing off in assembly! You can see examples of our kites here on Network News (just scroll down to the start and have a look at the pictures and descriptions from local schools and colleagues).You will also find lots of other wonderful ways that schools in the local area and in the network found to celebrate the day!

This year we are planning a "grand day out" .The resources are on the network website and if you are a network member then you can access them via the "grand day out" link from the home page .Look for this picture !

We are basing the activities on a day in a target language city and we have chosen  : Paris, Sevilla and Berlin. The core theme is a day out at a street festival.

Here is the itinerary of the "Grand Day Out"

Setting Off! .......Find the country on a globe

1. Search a map for the city we are going to visit
2. Find the city on Google Maps
3. Now pretend to go to our local airport 
4. Play games of "air hostess instructions " mimes,charades  and Simon Says on our imaginary flight
5. As we step off the plane , immerse ourselves in the city we are visiting and take in some of the specific target language video clip below:

With our older children with more advanced language skills ,we could set up activities based on previous blogs such as:

Eye in the sky

City running commentaries

With most of the children though we are going to go to an imaginary street festival and join in with the fun and games in the target language! 

This clip will be really useful to set the scene- for all the target language cities as it just gives the flavour of an outdoor festival with jugglers, strongmen, musicians, mime artists, puppeteers etc etc ...oh and don't forget the street snacks too! Just a brief tyaste of the clip though ....to set the scene ....

because now our children are going to become :

KS1  :puppeteers with finger puppets of clowns,strongmen and acrobats. (They will use simple greetings and personal information language in the style of these entertainers and share their creations with the class)

LKS2 will be:

 jugglers with colours and actions ( take a look at this blog to see how we can develop colour and word association mimes colour and mime associations)

strong men with numbers: how many items can one child hold and can we count up with them intil the pile topples over?

mime artists with feelings , greetings and days of the week and months of the year

food tasting , simple cafe roleplays and food street sellers (selling their gaufres, their churros and their Bretzel)

UKS2 will be:

our street musicians,learning the song I am the music man and added actions and getting to taste some food too!   

There are opportunities for photos along the way and of course we will need to write our postcards home too and then all we need to do is fly home ( with a quick game of the air hostess simon says ) and remember to put up the whole school display in the foyer or corridor where everyone can see the "Grand Day Out"!

Text tracking language learning tools

At the start of this academic year I am looking for more  transferable tools to support language learning and to build bridges between year groups and across Key Stages. 

Thanks to Twitter this morning I saw this tweet from @Primary_Ed “Ideas for students to annotate text as they read”  and it reminded me very much of primary school classroom Literacy and Maths working wall annotations and it got me thinking about how we can adapt this already familiar tool for primary languages and beyond into secondary languages……! First take a look at the picture:

For my purposes I am going to call my applications of the  idea  “Text tracking tools”

1. Modern Day Hieroglyphics

We need to remember that in the first instance we are teaching key language understanding with young primary language learners so  let’s ask the children to annotate the text with their own hieroglyphics to share the meaning of the words visually – so for example the simple text

“Ich sehe eine grüne Katze” (I see a green cat)

could have above the key language the drawings of  an eye (ich sehe) a green cat (eine grüne Katze).

Imagine how creative the children could be with a description of presents in a Christmas sack , a witch’s potion, directions to visit different places in the town ….etc, etc ?

It could very easily be a drag and drop activity on the IWB for a whole class reading activity too!

We could ask the children to add “honesty spots” ! Simple coloured spots above the drawings that denote where the children had to use a bi-lingual dictionary to ascertain meanings etc. A skill we need to encourage not deter so the “ honesty spot” needs to have a positive spin!

2. Running commentaries

With our more advanced primary language learners and certainly in Year 7 and beyond we can use and add to the annotation  “codes” in the Twitter picture at the start of the blog.

It will work in my opinion in KS2 especially with our moving on and advanced Y4,5 and 6 learners to allow them to share with us how much they can not only  decode but also comprehend and appreciate of the texts using and revisiting familiar target language themes  in different text types( stories, songs, menus, postcards, letters, poems, rhymes, instructions, posters, emails).

3. Structure running commentaries

Finally with our more advanced learners why not ask the children to annotate the text to indicate where they find an adjective, a verb , a noun, a pronoun, a definite article etc….All you and the class need are agreed symbols for each structure that they can identify . Send them on structure hunts in the texts you give them as individuals, pairs and groups. 

4.AfL opportunities

Looking at individual children’s annotated texts will also allow us as teachers to see where there are gaps in knowledge or just how much the children understand and also how they can empathise with the text and spot the funny bits (a green cat !!!) etc.

This transferable learning tool can start in Spring Year 3 and run right through a young linguists language learning career. 

For Jo, up in  Year 7, it’s will be a  familiar  learning tool for the children which she can adapt as a series of reading  games and activities and a tool which could allow her as class teacher to see what the children do understand in a target language when they arrive in school. 

How does your garden grow? Children's language learning records

Looking for a way to record language learning progress?

Well what about how does your garden grow?

(Even if you don't create these physical records with your class,I think for me it's a good image of what we hope to achieve with the children. Strong healthy language learners who have a bright,colourful, diverse and successful language learning career with us in primary school)

I know that quite a few of my colleagues like to keep a physical paper copy of the learning experience of their children in their own individual classes. I know that children too like a record of what they have learned, where they are going to do next and what success they are achieving throughout the school year. This simple graphic record will be something that the language associate assistants/teachers and myself will trial with some of our Year 3 children this coming academic year. Maybe this idea is something that you may like to use too…..?

Basically it’s a garden scene- flowers, a tree, sunshine with lots of rays and a flowerbed of weeds! Each child will have an A4 landscape piece of card, kept in their trays/ drawers etc. When they receive the card there will be a tree trunk (divided into sections), a flower stem (broad and long enough for children to write along the length of it) and an empty area on the right-hand side which is the flowerbed for our weeds.

Our flowers? 

Well every child will have a sunflower- the centre will be their faces (a drawing, cartoon or photo) and the stems will contain their own simple target language writing of a greeting and their name phrase. The petals will contain our exploration of content as we progress through the year e.g foods, days, months, numbers etc. Each petal will be added as a glued on petal as we progress and the children can add examples of the language from the specific focus in their own preferred style.

The tree..

....is where we will show the links we make .The stem will be big and strong and will be filled in over the four years we use the record. Here we will record the language structures we encounter, practise and grow more confident with e.g questions, answers nouns, adjectives, verbs: commands/present tense/near future/personal pronouns……the stems of my trees will be coloured in – colour coded and containing a title such as “nouns” to represent the different language structures we will meet. The children will add examples in written target language to remind them of what they have used, practised, mastered. The branches and twigs will be all the conversations and spoken language practise we have over the course of the four years – e.g. getting to know you talk, café talk,likes and dislikes etc, etc.

The sunshine?

This is where we will share all the wonderful opportunities we will have had to explore stories, songs, poems, games  ,drama, culture, links with schools abroad etc  and each ray will be another wonderful opportunity  that the children want to remember and record- written in English as a descriptive sentence .The middle of the  sun will be made up by a cut out circle of the globe – just reminding them how learning a language offers you so many world-wide opportunities and adventures!

Finally what about those weeds? 

Well the weeds are temporary and will all be kept in a list in a flowerbed to the right of the main pictures. Children can record at the end of a language focus something that they are not sure about or want to know more about and as we resolve these problems or find out more, then they can bit by bit colour the written statement in until it becomes a colourful stripy flowerbed of resolved questions about language learning.

Power and dynamics of poetry in a target language

Last term I spent time considering ways to introduce and use poetry in language learning. It's an area that I have always enjoyed with young learners (and as an English and Drama  teacher in a former life) I am always delighted when children realise the power of poetry!

This academic year I am keen to focus on the "power of poetry " to bring words to life! Not just to look for images or to play matching and rhyming games but to engage the young learners with the power and sound scapes behind a poet's words.

Let's look for the dynamics of the poetry!
The  cadence, the pictures created by the sound- scapes ,the beat and rhythm of the syllables and the words chosen and the mysterious world that the poet has encapsulated in a confined use of language.

How do I think we can achieve this during a year of primary language learning...?

Well ...nursery rhymes and songs enable us to encourage young language learners to join in, participate, create actions, move around .... so let's look at poetry in KS2 in a similar way.

Build opportunities to explore poetry across KS2, where you engage the children with:

• listening for the beat, 
• the rhythm, 
• drawing the shape of the sounds they hear in the air or on white boards,
• creating actions that interpret the story of the poem or song,
• creating physical performances of the poems 
• taking an original text and making it up to date and modern e.g. generating a rap
• using APPS to add dynamics such as drumbeats and music to a class recording of thew spoken poem.

Let's consider what opportunities already exist in the work I know is being planned for within the network this Autumn term. 

We will be working with the children on Autumn poems in October  - based on the sounds and the smells and surprises of an Autumn walk.We will create Halloween poems and explore authentic poetry and songs about witches such as la sorciere grabouilla. Here's a You tube clip of the French song...  

In November we work on firework poems both  as reading and writing activities and we explore the shapes, sounds and colours of a firework display. In UKS2 some teachers will be generating wizard's potion poems after exploring a written simple potion to create a wizard. In December we will be getting ready for our Christmas activities and with KS2 children we might be preparing the poem and now song  le bonhomme de neige by Jacques Prévert.

Inspired ?

Well then why not get started in September with one of this back to school theme poem blog for both French and Spanish called Physical Pop Up Poems Daily Routine and Back to School,where you will find that I have suggested activities that will allow you to explore the dynamics of the poems hopefully to enable you to generate memorable learning occasions for the children and yourself!

You may also find some of my blogs on poetry from last year useful too. I have included opportunities for you children to explore the role of the poet and use limited language to great effect in creating their own poetry too! Hope the blogs,the ideas are useful and the possible transfer of activities to poetry in other languages is useful too!  

Spanish  KS1 rhyme based on the bear hunt Bear Hunt Rhyme
French, Spanish, German : The verb to have and a wizard's potion
French : simple Easter movie based on un petit lapin rhyme
All languages : Creating our own simple past tense mood swing poems
All languages : Using video clips  to generate poems Eye in the sky
 French and Spanish writing our own sandcastle poems to perform
French :using an authentic comptine to explore the skills of  listening,speaking,reading,writing , drama and phonics Dame tartine
French sept couleurs magiques
French painting a poem of a Summer's Day
French writing our own poems about the seaside based on authentic poetry
French emotions and doodle sense poems based on authentic poem mon cartable
French Drama and mystery in the cafe dejeuner du matin

The washing machine grammar device

It's almost time to go back to school - some people may already be there!
Twitter continues to throw up wonderful ideas and yesterday I found this brilliant young primary teacher's tweet,sharing his creation of a "prize box/super wish-wash miracle machine" Thanks Craig Birch for your great idea and look forward to following you on twitter  @TheMrBirch

So how do I think we can use this idea during the course of the year. 
Firstly I love it when there is a tool or device that can be used over and over again to explore a specific concept or to use a familiar tool or device to explore new ideas. Children love the familiarity too - it gives them something to hold on to!

Here is the "prize box/super wish-wash miracle machine" that Craig Birch shared......

It's a cardboard box that looks like a washing machine  and it's going to be a "super wish-wash word miracle machine" that can be used in lots of different ways to help UKS2 children  create sentences and texts in primary languages. 

It's a different device to practice age old sentence construction in a target language. The activities aren't ground breaking but the device adds a new dimension! 

Why do I want to try this? Well so often in my opinion children are fine at taking in and recalling words but when the "moving on and mixing up content elements" take place i.e.the construction of target language sentences or texts with an element of the unknown thrown in for good measure  then a lot of children (indeed adults!) panic.Perhaps that's why I like the idea of the washing machine - it's a different approach.It's entertaining and purposeful and it may perhaps help to stop some of those mental blocks..............

Here are my ideas:

1. Putting  the washing in...simply going on a washing hunt,where just like you only put in the "whites" or "woollens" when washing,we only want to put in the adjectives or the nouns we can find in a text.All the children need to do is read a text,locate the key component(s) as defined by the teacher e.g verbs,write them on pieces of paper fold them up and add them to the washing.
2. Taking the washing out - well then we can take out the washing and check if any "nouns etc" got in our "verbs" wash.
3. Sorting the washing- maybe the activity is based on a basket of cards with words written on them and the children have to sort the washing . Only put nouns and adjectives in the awash or only put in verbs and personal pronouns. when the washing is complete, can the children create pairs (just like pairs of socks) but this time it will be matching adjectives to nouns or personal pronouns to parts of verbs   
4. Sentence making - ask children to find and bring to you key parts of a sentence that you have pinned or blu-tacked around the room e.g. ask the children to find for you the nouns/ the adjectives/ the verbs/ the personal pronouns.Invite children to add the individual components to the "wish wash machine" and hang up your washing line- an item most primary classrooms already possesses! Count to ten and then one by one bring out the cards and ask the children to help you to create a sentence or sentences on your washing order so that it makes sense.
5. Programme the washing machine- why not have a menu of programmes (simply written on the front of the machine)- sentences/ verbs/ imperatives/adjectives and nouns/ tenses (present, near future)? You can bring the washing machine out and add words, select the programme cycle and then challenge groups of children to take out the "washing" and put the washing together so that it matches the selected programme.  
6. Miracle theme washing powder! Craig's name for his machine has an element of surprise to it I feel and so I think we can add miracle washing powder to our wash?!Whatever we have put in the machine when we hang out the washing to dry, the miracle washing powder gives us the confidence to be able to reconstruct a dialogue with punctuation pegs or put together a poem that rhymes- just using the word cards that we put into our washing machine!

So thanks to Craig and his brilliant tweet... I now have a new approach to reinforcing grammatical points, to sentence and text construction in the target language and a simple cardboard box that has become my re-usable and fun focus device the  "super wish-wash word miracle machine"!

Primary Language Learning and practical primary pedagogy using the new POS 2014

Primary Language Learning and Strategic Focus for September 2014 and beyond.
 So this is my final blog of the Summer term and it's all about readiness and starting off on the right foot with primary languages. How can schools build successful strategic teaching and learning focuses for the individual school/ and understand and build toward successful primary language learning embraced by the whole staff within the school?

First a little context to my ramblings ..........
This academic year the JLN subject coordinators and I have spent our coordinator CPD sessions considering how we can prepare , use and move on with the new DfE POS for KS2 primary language learning.

51 colleagues(divided in to two smaller groups ranging from established, building or just starting off schools) and I have met one afternoon per term to discuss the new POS. The new DfE POS is not so "new" now as we have had sight of this for at least 12 months ,certainly 12 months in its completed state). It's the official document from which we must all work in state education and has to support beginners , moving on and established primary and KS3 language learning school programmes.

Who should teach primary languages? 

We discussed delivery and sustainability and came to the conclusion that schools find their own delivery models - in school PPA, visiting teachers, language assistants ,experienced and target language speaking HLTAs,class teachers supported by SOW and sound files etc. all of these have value and should be valued! What is key is that there must be a strategic vision in school, a long term overview, medium term planning and appropriately selected next steps are in place. why? The role of coordinator is a vital one.We felt  that there is staff buy in and a collective feeling that the school values primary language learning when it is an integral part of the whole school learning programme not seen as an "add on "! 

These are our conclusions (from coordinators ,young and old, experienced and new to the role, specialists and non-specialists) and we hope that they may be useful and support our schools and other networks and individual schools and teachers to develop or tweak sustainable and successful language learning models.In our opinion ,after reflection ,the POS may be brief (in amount of paper) but it is not a fluffy document.You need to look for the opportunities within it too! We know there will be other points to be raised and discussed etc but hopefully here are some good starting points!

A school vision 
Firstly we took a look at the "Purpose of Study".The first sentence talks about the "liberation from insularity" ! 
What a phrase. We deliberated..... and then Robert (a wonderful Spanish coordinator) declared it's the "WOW" factor! It's the moment a child speaks a word in the target language for the first time or tells his/her carer/ parent about the facts s/he has learnt in school about the country etc today. For us,it's the conversations we have with target language speakers and the adventures we can have too.We felt that from here we could all begin to tweak, maintain or build our picture of the school vision from Sept 2014 onwards. This picture inspired us!

.
We identified in the paragraph core focuses for the coordinators and core challenges that needed to be unpicked back at school to create a school vision statement:

• High quality teaching and learning 
• Culture
• Preparation for future language learning

We unpicked the phrase "new ways of thinking and great literature " and with our practical hats on decided that in exploring the culture of the target language we would need to consider why and how festivals, traditions, cultural approaches,story,poems,daily routines occur in the way they do.We felt that the phrase(no longer a learning focus of language learning)"inter-cultural understanding" would still help us to explore with the children new ways of thinking and great literature.

We could see how we may want to explore the simple stories for example next year about WW1 or evacuees during WW1 and WW2 and how therefore we would need to encourage our children to empathise with circumstances and emotions that may be very unfamiliar.

We pondered long and hard over "great literature" and what that word "great " really meant. We talked a lot about all the lovely stories we have been using to colour in the learning in languages that is already taking place. 

We can not throw away our story books such as "grand monstre vert" even if it  is written by an american author nor can we not read "The Hungry Caterpillar" or "Going on a bear hunt" in the target language because they too are by non target language speakers. The children  love these stories and it's the light bulb moments when they realise you can access, buy and read these  stories in other countries and languages that is too precious! We will continue to share rhymes such as itsy bitsy spider in the various target languages with our very young learners too. we already explore authentic poetry and we  know  for example that we have already used poetry Jean de la Fontaine (le rat de ville et le rat de champs) in very much abbreviated form when for instance we have looked at my town your town and my house your house. We look forward to the challenge of simple poetry in the target language and  building on the authentic rhymes, songs and simple poetry we already use  from the target language.We want to offer the children "great " learning experiences and this will involve familiar stories and also new and exciting explorations of authentic and respected literature from the target language! We look forward to this challenge but will always try to work with texts that are learner age and stage of learning appropriate or have age and stage appropriate activities to unpack the text! During our conversations it was very clear that we are about inclusive learning and seeing all children progress in their communication skills.

Making substantial progress,using bi-lingual dictionaries are already part of the school  focus and on the agenda in lots of the schools I work with 

Substantial progress makes language learning more valuable and respected in our opinion.(We aren't just singing a song or repeating numbers 1-10 ... we are going on a learning journey,often revisiting familiar language but also trying to build upon it or use it in a new way).Schools find that long and medium term planning gives them the bigger picture and allows them the opportunities to weave new activities and resources through their language learning year, still ensuring progress in content and skills. 
It seems sensible and good practice to the teachers that they share with the children tools that make learning more accessible and this links so well with phonology and independent use of language. Indeed lots of the co-ordinators identified that some simple staff CPD input about pronunciation,intonation,rules of phonology in  the target language and then very importantly how to use and access the bi-lingual dictionary help staff buy in as well! Stumbling blocks for staff are often not knowing where to access language and sound files, uncertainty about  pronunciation or not knowing how to use a bi-lingual dictionary and as they progress not being sure about which definite article they should be using and how to find this out.Simple in- school teacher led or consultant/trainer led CPD input can allay the fear factor and then all staff can embrace to a certain level language learning!  

Grammar 
Grammar is a challenge not an obstacle for teachers.Once they see how it links to the need to structure sentences accurately to develop competent clear communication skills and they recognise that this is what they are already promoting in literacy then it becomes an exciting challenge.In fact I think it allows primary language learning to become more meaningful and powerful for lots of primary class teachers - it's not just a lot of words or a silly rhyme,but there is point and purpose and sometimes the teachers learn alongside the children and feel more and more confident in their use of language. I have spent a lot of this academic year creating resources and materials to explore grammar  and structure appropriately and creatively with young children and can get very excited about what we really can achieve with the young learners and grammar! Again there is need for staff CPD and there is need for a guiding hand and making those links between literacy and language learning and how they are all part of exploring language and communication,which helps to  remove the fear factor.  

Subject Content 
In considering the subject content,we had to consider also the Aims of the new POS. We found them pivotal to both the school vision, strategic planning and to the meat of the week on week lesson planning.They helped us to look at what we should access and use and how we should plan for teaching and learning activities.We saw opportunities for shared learning tools and resources across KS2 and also shared tools and approaches as pathways in to KS3 and beyond.Really important as we had already identified that we need to lay foundations for KS3 learning and that KS3 should pick up and develop further what primary have achieved.Shared learning tools could mean shared pathways to learning and knowledge of prior learning and how and why this has taken place.

Of course the co-ordinators are first and foremost teachers and so the subject content bullet point list was seen as integral to our subject content discussions on planning and progression.
Firstly we reminded ourselves that we must make sure now right from Year 3 September 2014 that there is appropriate balance of spoken and written language and that we practise with the children  all four skills of listening,speaking ,reading and writing. This may seem like a big change for those of us who remember the early stage focus on listening and speaking,but ask yourself how many children need to see words and physically create words and sentences before they are internalised and can be used independently? (I have poor hearing now at 51! I am not certain I have ever had wonderful hearing but I do love languages and exploring the structure of language and definitely have always needed more than just listening and speaking to access language .)We did feel though that in the early stages there is bound to be more listening and speaking and those that teach languages as KS1 want to continue and see singing , joining in and listening and speaking as integral to that KS1 language learning.We all felt that writing must once again be planned as age and stage appropriate and that we have to find creative ways to write- in the air/ as a game writing with a finger on backs,writing in sand, using IT to record writing, "painting writing" etc.We are keen to remember as we plan for writing next term that scribing with a pen or pencil is often just the final product - what is happening inside the brain is the mechanics of writing and reading and listening are integral to how this all comes together.

The bullet pointed subject content in the POS embraces listening ,speaking ,reading , writing and grammar. Colleagues such as Clare Seccombe and Rachel Hawkes have collated and drawn up really useful lists of the five key elements on their blogs.Those of us who worked with or trained people with the KS2 Framework,know that we need to break down these lists and points into stages of learning to learn how to ....listen, speak , read, write , use structure and we identify the KS2 Framework objectives as the climbing frame upon which to achieve this. Great thing with climbing frames is you can go up,down , over the top, start again from the bottom or take a rest half way up and admire the view! We are going to try to remember that language learning skills spiral up and spiral down (very much like Maths can do) and our learners need to climb at their own best speed.  

So after spending the year in CPD sessions, on email with colleagues,in meetings with local coordinators and SLT,training our local teachers and working with the associate language teachers what do I think currently about primary languages from September 2014 and the new POS? Clare Seccombe (@valleseco) asked us to describe the new POS in one word recently on Twitter and unusually for me it took me quite a while to decide upon my word but then I tweeted "opportunity".Why? We need to take this opportunity and help all the children in KS2 to become confident in their ability(at whatever level) to operate in a new target language.On Twitter recently I received this cartoon from @PatriciaDunn71

Let's try to help all our young learners to explore the skills of language learning ...  "speaking  with increasing confidence,fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say ..... and  learning how "to write at varying length ,for different purposes and audiences ". We need to combine this with the "liberation from insularity" and encourage all our children to have the confidence to develop enquiring minds that want to explore "great literature" and also understand different cultures, languages and "ways of thinking" 

Time for a holiday I think - sorry for rambling on!   

Sound Pathway Codes, a shared learning tool

Today I am working with a group of coordinators and some of their secondary colleagues at a High School in Southport.We are looking at the new DfE POS and shared learning tools and how to make progress across 7 years of language learning.

"Phonology" as it is referred to in the new DfE POS will be one of our focuses and how this fits in to a sequence of learning plays how we can build progression in to the children's developing understanding of phonics in the target language and the links between sound and spelling.

Phonics as a focus isn't  new ! Obviously!It's a feature of all KS1 teaching and learning in the main language of the schools and in communication skills and learning to read and write.It has always been a part of the primary language learning that has taken place in this country and certainly as part of the KS2  Framework skills and learning objectives.Indeed above you can see an example of a French phonics fan from TTS.

A month ago we held our conference #JLN2014 and the wonderful Julie Prince spoke about phonics and teaching /learning activities  in the target language based upon the book she wrote with Dr Lynne Erler "Sounds and Words" .

Inspired by Julie's ideas I have created the activity below called "sound pathway code" to  take these ideas just that little bit further to see how we can make progress and share learning tools that can be revisited at KS3 particularly in Y7 .

Sound Pathway Code

• Select your content 

I have selected colours,as it's part of a sequence of activities to practise the 4 skills and to create word rainbows for the classroom.

• Now create sound pathway codes . Here's are some I made earlier!Basically you need to decide how many different words you wish to use per code,divide your strip in to the same number of sections and add the key symbol to represent the word. Here it was easy because I just filled in the  boxes with the specific colour 

• Now create you sound stepping stones. 

Once again very easy .They are pieces of white card with the key sound written as a grapheme or letter string in the target language on one side of the white cards.(We are working with French target language colours here by the way!)

• As a hidden prompt add a small picture ( or in this case "dot" on the reverse of the card that represents the word the grapheme or letter string comes from).Do not tell or remind the class about this!

• Ask the class to work in groups of four and to a sound code card.Each child in the group needs a different sound code card.
• Ask the children to place their sound stepping stones on the table with the written letter string or grapheme face up.They must not turn over the cards and see the picture clues! 
• Each child must take it in turns to look at the symbol prompts on his/her sound pathway code card, locate the correct grapheme or letter string,reorganise the stepping stones in to the order they require to create a spoken pathway from one end of their sound pathway code card strip to the other. 
• They can check their sound code pathways after each child has achieved their sound code pathway by turning over the cards and seeing if they have selected the correct card for their symbols and in the correct order.For example the first sound stepping stone to match the yellow square on my sound pathway code card is ......

and when at the end of my sound code pathway I turn over the cards I can see that I selected "au" because it's in the target ;language word "jaune" and when I turn over the sound stepping stone card, I was correct as I can see a small yellow dot!

Let's add challenge

The activity above would be an activity for early learners and could also be revisited again and again later in the children's learning to reinforce sound letter links and phoneme grapheme transfer.

But now let's see if we can add challenge that encourages and offer me AfL to demonstrate progress.I played this game on Tuesday this week and it was really well received!

• Create and distribute the sound pathway codes and the sound stepping stones as above but omit two sound stepping stones per group. do not tell the children you have done this .Let them figure this out .
• In my game the players began to realise that two colours I had selected "rouge" and "blanc" didn't have a stepping stone that fitted the word! The players at first thought there was a mistake and then the penny began to drop! Each group had the same or similar problems!
• I could see who realised this immediately,who could tell me the problem  of the missing stones and who could suggest ways to resolve the problem by suggesting letter strings or graphemes for two new blank sound stepping stones so that they could complete their sound code pathway walks.   

Next step?

Well next step for me would be to ask the children to create their own sound pathway codes and sound stepping stones with a "twist" as above  for another group to use.The process of creating the game would mean that they need to :

• think about the sound and spelling of the words
• identify key letter strings or graphemes
• write the key letter strings or graphemes on the stepping stones
• play a new game with familiar language prepared by other classmates and puzzle out the challenges of the new game!   

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?

3D scene questions ,answers and clay figures

What a brilliant idea I have just come across.
Take a look below!
It's creative, imaginative and a wonderful way to bring together questions and answers to create simple exchanges of language. The site on which I found this wonderful idea is a site called "Val d'Arve news" as part of the Ecole Val D'Arve. Thank you so much! Here's the link to the Val d'arve news.

What do I like about this?

Well for a start it links art,literacy and dynamics of people's conversations and situations with target language knowledge.

It's an opportunity to practise accurate independent writing of questions and answers at whatever stage your language learners may be.

It's a great way as well to set up some real life drama snap shots too - like physical instagrams.

It's also a tool that we can use in KS2,in KS3 if we work with the Art and Drama departments and possibly to create our own "Wallace and Grommit" or "Morph" sketches using APPs and IT in KS2,3,4 and 5

How should we approach this?

• Firstly ask the children to work in pairs to generate questions and answers that demonstrate the dynamics in a relationship between for example : 

a mother and a child

two friends

a husband and wife

a teacher and a pupil

a policeman and a lost person

etcetra!

• Ask them to consider what might be the potential questions and answers between these people and and how would the people sound and what actions would they use?
• Ask the children to draw their dialogues as cartoon sketches ( sure a lot of us already do this)
• share with them some of the scenes and clay models on the Val d'Arve site. 
• Now make it 3D with clay models and sets - just like the teacher here in the Ecole Val d'arve has done!

Take a look at some of their clay models (how they convey the dynamics of the situation and the people) and scene sets (how they have cultural references in the back drop) and how they have added their speech bubble questions and answers (which add the text we need to interpret the event)!Brilliant. Thank you for the ideas Ecole Val'd'Arve!

des bonhommes en terre

Hope this inspires you too!

Emotions and "doodle senses" poems in French

I am looking for poems for Year 6 which evoke senses and emotions and encourage them to collect good memories of their time in primary school.

I found this beautiful poem by Pierre Gamarra- Mon cartable 

What a brilliant idea with Year 6 !
Simple and effective!

First there is a great game ......
A blindfold game :guessing by taste or smell or touch.

• First share with the class a tray of items of familiar target language items.
• Ask children to come to the front and label these  objects on the tray.selecting the correct noun from a variety of h target language word labels . 
• Now hold a smell,touch and sense experience guessing game,where you challenge volunteers to touch , smell and sense the items without being able to see them.
• Allow children to come to the front and put on a blindfold and guess:

1. What fruits they can smell?
2. What foods like chocolate or coffee they can smell?
3. What smells and touch sensations of classroom equipment they can guess (crayons/paints/pencils/paper/books)?

Rmember that you should use items that the children already know as target language word.Enourage the children to utter their guesses using full sentences or questions(if they are uncertain) too? 

A poetry reading 

• Share the text with the class and read the poem for the class.
• Ask them to smell and sense and imagine that they can touch the items mentioned on the poem.
• Can they tell you some facts about the poem and the smells and objects are mentioned?
• You could create a pictorial list of the items on the flip chart as the children read about the objects in the poem.
• Find out more about the poet! Can they tell you whether this is a person living in France or somewhere else in the World and how do they know this( e.g.bison/cow boys)

Creatimng "Doodle senses poems".
How are they going to do this ..?
Ask them to create a "doodle senses poem".This is a poem where the children literally doodle or scrobble on the written poem, to remove some of the text and leave a [partal text that shares the message of the poem.In this instance the children should be left with the key items and memories of the poem.

• They will need copies of the text and a black pen or a pencil.
• With a black pen or pencil they need to colour out words they don't know and then see what doodle smells and senses they are left with. 
• Some children may want to work in pairs and you may decide to ask a TA to work with a small group of children to guide them through the text.

I feel that our children should after four years of language learning have most of these words in brackets "undoodled"because they are familiar to them.
(mon cartable/odeurs/la pomme/le livre/la gomme/ les crayons de couleurs/l'orange/le bison/le nougat/la mandarine/le papier (d'argent ou d'or)/les bateaux/ le port/les cow-boys/ les noisettes/le caramel/les confettis de la fête/les longs cheveux/ ma mère/ mon papa/la rose /le chocolat)

• Ask the children to read their comppleted doodled poems to each other.This will be essentially the list of language they have left.

Mon cartable: a place to keep their own happy memory sensations of primary school. 

• Now ask the children to fold a piece of A4 paper or card in half and create their own cartable.
• Inside they need to write  the phrase

Mon cartable a cinq odeurs.....

• Can the children then add five objects,five colours and  five smells or tastes of school that they know they won't forget and that will be good memories when they think of school in years to come? 

Colours make memories through poetry

It's almost the end of the term.I wanted to find a poem in French that linked Year 5  UKS2 prior learning and knowledge of colours and nouns (since Y3 ) and the use of a bi-lingual dictionary to create memories of the school year and their French language learning.
I didn't need too look far -did I?
Here is the poem by Chantal Couliou :

Crayons de couleur

Le vert pour les pommes et les prairies

Le jaune pour le soleil et les canaris

Le rouge pour les fraises et le feu

Le noir pour la nuit et les corbeaux

Le gris pour les ânes et les nuages

Le blue pour la mer et le ciel

Et toutes les couleurs pour colorier 

Le monde

So how can this be used? Well each line is about a colour and objects associated with the colour. It would lead on very well from an early blog post of mine about word association and colours which the children always enjoy - even if they have played the games and created word association symbols before .Colour mimes and word association

Let's unpack the meaning of the poem 

Read the poem for the children.

• Ask them to listen for the colours.
• You could ask them to order coloured cards from top to bottom in a row as they hear them mentioned or place counters on the table in the order or pop dots of crayon colour on a strip of paper in the order they hear the colours.

Let's investigate the nouns and find their meanings 
Now let's ask the children to see what links they can see between nouns. 
The poem is being used to unpack language learning memories so these activities are based on reactivating memory - of words/ links/ ways to investigate meaning...

• On tables of four give the children the nouns from the poem- which do they immediately recognise (probably les pommes/ les fraises/la mer/le soleil ) as we will have practised these before e.g. when learning fruits or when practising greetings and farewells (bonne nuit) or weather (il fait du soleil). 
• Which are cognates or which are semi cognates (e.g les prairies, les canaris)?
• Which might they need to look up in bi-lingual dictionaries ? However before they do explain that the nouns are linked as pairs of nouns by colours.
• Can they identify colours that they would associate with any of the nouns they can recognise (e.g noir- la nuit/ rouge - les fraises/ bleu- la mer/ jaune - le soleil)?
• So does this help them now to take an informed guess at the nouns they may still not know - if nouns make pairs linked by colour? 
• Only now let them check their informed guesses in bi-lingual dictionaries.

Create a calm performance with full concentration

You will need small picture cards that represent each colour and each noun- enough so that each member of the class has a card.

• Take feedback from the children on what they think their pictures represent in the target language from the nouns they have investigated or the colours they know.
• Ask the class to listen to the poem again very carefully.
• Can the class lift their cards as they hear the word represented by the picture?
• Swap cards are repeat the activity again
• Now invite a child holding one of each the cards to the front- stand them in random order.
• Can the class recall and reorder the cards in the order they have heard them spoken in the poem?
• Ask the class to listen one more time and check their cards are in the correct order. Are there any cards that they want to reorder?
• Can the class say the whole poem up to the last line with you using the cards as prompts?

Et toutes les couleurs pour colorier le monde ....

Give out paper and ask the children to create a pictorial depiction of the poem they have heard, investigated and spoken in all the colours and using all the items that the poet has referred to in the text.

They must draw the world and add their own pictures in correct colours within the shape of the world.

Reading opportunities  

You may be inspired to offer the children when they have finished their pictorial depictions some independent reading of poems written by young pupils based on the poem above.

I found some lovely examples on this school site here:ecole elementaire examples  

Finish with a song 

We always love this particular song about colours so maybe this is one you could either play whilst the children create their own pictures or at the end of the lesson - just to listen for pleasure or whilst they tidy away..