Assessment - Put flesh on the skeleton in the corner!

Yesterday eight of the thirteen associate primary language teaching colleagues and I met for our regular twilight CPD. One of the key points was to consider how we are tackling the challenges of assessment.Hope you have  spotted also the skeleton in the corner too!!

You can find out more about how we are developing assessment and tracking tools here in these blog posts: Assessment within our network and  also how we are exploring ways to share and to gather evidence of progress and success..

The associates work in 40 schools delivering languages weekly. Their experience ranges from primary classroom and language specialist teachers to  "secondary now primary" language teachers. Their work  is shared via the VLE with the  160 schools in the network. This year the associates and I are continuing to trial assessment approaches, materials and processes. We have identified already that one size does not fit all and are looking at a variety of approaches to find "best fits" for different schools in the network . It is a broad picture but we are seeing commonalities and ways forward:

• The key focus of the assessment is to look at development of language learning skills
• We use content from within the body of the SOW to populate key skill benchmark descriptors.
• Some schools select different content but keep to the same skill descriptors.
• The assessment criteria is linked to the DFE POS learning objectives and cross referenced with the KS2 Framework objectives and the CEFR A! descriptors
• We have identified opportunities where we are pushing beyond A1 and in to the early stages of  A2 in the CEFR with the children who have been learning a language for more than the four years of KS2. 
• We have schools that are committing fully to a roll out of assessment and schools that as yet still have to engage with assessment.
• This year we are looking for ways to make the assessment procedure an integral part of the creative and rich primary language learning enviornment. We are feeding this back via the VLE to our SOW Plus and MFL Coordinator folders.

At the CPD twilight we reviewed progress so far. Here are the bullet points I noted down from the contributions to the discussion by the associates. 

Assessment update

• Some of our schools want the assessment process to start this year and dovetail as best as possible  with the school  assessment processes.
• In some schools we are assessing all children in KS2 every half term.
• This half term colleagues are looking for ways to  steer assessment toward becoming small chunks within sequences of language teaching and learning and not to be perceived as one whole lesson of assessment.
• We are becoming clearer and more confident in our understanding that although content may be specific it is the skills and the development of the skills that we are tracking
• Some schools are providing TA cover to allow for focused speaking assessment
• We are in to the second half term of this academic year and feel that it is important to keep on reminding ourselves and also encouraging class teachers and SLT that assessment in languages  must not lead the learning but must help us to consider what skills have been further strengthened and enhanced.Content is interchangeable but the skill level to meet a descriptor remains constant..
• We are looking for effective ways to track and share knowledge with class teachers, coordinators and SLT. The data spread sheet which allows SLT to see term on term progress for individual children and for year groups is effective. Some SLT are now happy to use this  as a dialogue tool with staff, governors and outside parties. There is a need to explain the assessment criteria  and how we  are measuring progress. We are identifying with SLT how and why the skill descriptors have been created (nb DFE POS, KS2 Framework, CEFR).  
• Schools are generating wonderful ways to celebrate and record success and progress n.b. “Sparkling Spanish” books in Wigan are still going strong!
• Schools are asking about and creating "Pupil Record Books" and these  are being passed up year on year.We are encouraging the children to  put in to these books a  record  which may contain writing, smiley faces and comments, post its , photos, pictures, memorabilia .We feel the need to challenge the expectation that the book should be full!
• AfL clouds for the children have been created this year and are being used  to allow the children  to record if they feel they are secure, not quite secure or masters of certain language and language learning skills.These AfL clouds are proving to be useful dialogue tools between a visiting language teacher, coordinator and class teacher and pupils. 
• In some schools we are working with sample groups of children on assessment (6 pupils per class- across the ability range).This was our original model and we have found that we have needed to adapt this for schools where they wish to assess every child's progress.This year we are understanding better that a top literacy child may not be one of the best linguists and are finding ways to identify children more accurately than last year.
• In some schools the sample group children changes term by term to build a broader picture of the class progress in language learning skills
• We are working towards the least onerous system of assessment and our Puzzle It Out sheets contain guidance for the teacher and can be used as individual activities or just templates for a teacher's own preferred activities. 
• Asking children to peer assess speaking – responding to key questions for example and enables the teacher to work with a sample control group.This is helping the teacher to spend more focused time with a group and therefore explore what they children can really say etc.
• We are finding primary ways to assess progress and we discussed for example how the new blog post on Saint Nicholas shoes,  or performances at Christmas, the Come Dine with Me sketch in Y6 (songs, conversaations, short plays), our SOW Y5 messages in a bottle and Y6 draft tweets make excellent assessment  opportunities 

As the year progresses we will be: 

• Working out ways to support other schools start to engage with assessment and make it meaningful in other individual schools.
• Associates will be able to continue  learning from each other’s successes and failures this year.We will then be able to share valuable experience at our annual conference here in Warrington on 30 June 2016.
• Plus we are beginning to consider how we can share hard and soft  data with KS3 via our five KS2- KS3 transition groups.

I will blog and share more after our next associate twilight in Spring 1 on this challenging area of language learning!  

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Team work! Lighting up the language classroom!

I work with a brilliant team of young and not so young but equally dynamic enthusiastic primary language associate teachers.Together we deliver languages in 40 of our 160 schools.It is the best team I have ever worked with and this last week was a week full of creativity ! The associates help me to share with our network schools on the VLE, on our Facebook page and via Twitter ways to use our simple resources and create classroom magic!  The associates also help me to see the "bigger picture" , to see  progress across a diverse range of primary schools in Warrington and surrounding North West towns! 

Last week we focused on celebrations and Bonfire Night. Our work was based on simple resources taken from our DFE POS project .The team support me with training for this project and resource creation.Last week we shared on FB,twitter and via  email our fantastical firework activities with the wider primary language teaching community .This is a set of  simple and ready to download and use resources and lesson activities.Tried and tested ideas that we enjoy using at this time of the year. 

The team work with children from Nursery to Year 6 in French and Spanish .Even in Year 6 learners can range from beginners to learners with seven years of language learning experience.Once again the team has demonstrated how through team work, building steady progress based on a simple SOW, the half termly  associate CPD and access to VLE  sharing forum  etc my colleagues are able to produce creative primary appropriate activities and outcomes with the learners across language learning skills.(I think there is need for a huge thank you to them all for their hard work,commitment and passion!)  

Here is just a small example of the range of the work produced last week and shared more widely ....performing simple colour songs about fireworks with KS1 and then creating chalk drawings to act as a reminder of the song they learnt and enjoyed.

Practising colours and revisiting spelling to light up the sky with imaginary sparklers and then create a written target language  firework rocket  display record in  best handwriting for the classroom! 

Using all four skills of listening,speaking ,reading and writing to create performances of firework poems and songs written in groups , then recorded as digital versions using 2simple software!

 Taking the opportunity to investigate the sturcture of language and focus on adjectival agreement and bilingual dictionary work to create sentences independently  as a reading and then writing activity! 

And finally writing poems in year 6 to be peer marked the following week! 

The work I have shared, lit up my week ! I think it demonstrates how in one week we can  explore a range of language learning skills listening and responding, joining in, recalling ,saying familiar  and unfamilar words accurately ,exploring and broadening vocabulary,reading and writing, to creating independently sentences that demonstrate understanding of basic grammar (nouns,verbs, adjectives) .

Team work can not be underestimated and next week at our associate teacher twilight CPD we will be able to discuss and share what we have been doing during the last half term and what we will be doing this half term .It is a learning process for us all and we all bring different skills from native speakers to ex-primary and secndary classroom practitioners (teachers and teaching assistants) to ex-secondary heads of department

The work done by the team since September has already  been shared on the VLE network blog  as a recorx for next year too.If  you aren't a member of the network VLE  you can access and look at some of the ideas here on Network News.

When is a table not a table?

At the Centro Centro Cibeles in Madrid I saw this Art installation.It made me think! When is a table not a table? It made me consider content in language learning and the teacher as facilitator.You see I think it is important that we teach some core content, our young children want to know that they can ask and answer useful questions, show how they can count or identify colours, describe people , things and places...... and then ? Well maybe we need to empower them so that they can  "fly"! As the quote in the installation says an object is not a table! I like the way this installation made me think about processes.Below I have made the stages of these processes in to boxes,all compartmentalised stages but all part of the same creative machine.

Let's take basic vocabulary and let's broaden this vocabulary ,or rather let's help our learners to understand how they can broaden their own vocabulary and create their own descriptions, comments etc.How many times did I hear my son say he would have liked languages, if he hadn't had to reply every time to questions with learnt answers.Think his least favourite was "Describe your bedroom!" and his immediate learnt response was "My curtains are blue"!

So here is the challenge- let's use our imaginations and be creative as soon as possible in language learning!Just like the boxes in the installation we can  compartmentalise the knowledge and the strurcture with the intention of  bringing it all back together, to create wonderful items and objects and desctiptions. How?

Box One : let's gather the core language.What language do we need to describe a room for example or pets, food, clothes etc etc ?

Box Two,Three ,Four (and maybe five) : let's post the language in to nouns, adjectives and verb boxes and maybe a preposition box too.Let's identify the role of the words in the structure of a sentence.Let's post and store them in the correct boxes.Let's play with identrification of structures in sentences.

Box Six ; let's play with the language.Let's access the nouns box and access the adjectives box and play with the language and learn about how the language fits correctly together."Correctly" doesn't mean that it has to describe a normal item though- let's immediately engage our imaginatons- blue cats, miniscule tables, wobbly chairs etc etc.Let's post the phrases we conjour up - written accurately in to box  six and see if friends can read what we write.Can they draw what they see in their own mind's eye using the language we have written.Bet all the drawings for example of "a large blue table" don't all look identical!

Box Seven: let's add verbs.Maybe we have to provide the verbs already written out and its a matching activity or maybe our learners are at the stage where they can take an infinitive and manipulate it for themselves. Now we are being creative because the verb and the nouns and adjectives I use may not be in the same  order or even be the same selection as the ones you use!

Box Eight - well box eight contains the bilingual dictionaries .Now we can create our own things,objects,people etc ......... Now we can use the process of the boxes to be independent.  Now we can be imaginative ,have fun and come back and create magic with words over  and over again and we can begin to explore "When is a table not a table" and most definitely not have to stick with the phrase "My curtains are blue!"! .

Get ready for Christmas (DFE POS)

Last year we shared the resources you can access here in "Christmas and all that Jazz" with our DFE POS local network member schools.Some of the resources were also shared on line via my November and December 2014  blog posts on  Primary Language Learnng Today.You will find additional activities too here that we added as we worked our way through the  run up to Christmas. there is a common thread running through quite a few of them based upon "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".The activities range from very simple to more challenging.The activities can be used in KS1 and KS2.The intention is that these activities can help you to create a whole school focus and to encourage all teachers to join in.We have used the theme of "stars" as a springboard to create language learning activities which explores DFE POs learning ojectives and also offer opportuniities to learn and perform the song of course!

There are4 other activities too - such as the Rudolph and his nose so bright "Knock !Knock ! Who is there ?" speaking activity. the speaking and writing triaramas and  a  story power point "I love Christmas" to allow you to create story boards,written texts  and  drama and spoken performances (perhaps for a Christmas assembly  with more advanced learners .We are sharing the ideas early - so that you can spend some time deciding in which weeks and with which classes and for what purposes you may like to use the ideas and resources.We hope you enjoy them .

You can learn more about the ideas and how to use them here in this You Tube clip

To access the resources you will need to register as an online delegate for DFE Project  materials here 

To revisit the site once you have a username and password then you will click on the Online Delegate Login here.

I have demonstarted at the start of the You Tube clip how to access these pages from the home page of the website Primary Languages Network

"Going back to school"(DFE POS) and exploring reading and writing!

Let's explore reading! In a couple of weeks (19 November) Vicky Cooke  will be in Warrington sharing her wonderful ideas on ways to practise and develop reading skills in the target language.This is part of our DFE POS WTSA/JLN Language Learning for Everyone project.The CPD sessions just like the "local network meetings" in the first half term of each school term  are free and  everyone is welcome. In our "LNMs" around the North West last half term to set the scene for the Let's Read CPD with Vicky we consider ways to show, share, explore and use text creatively. The downloadable resources help broaden vocabulary, understand basic grammar and speak and write in full sentences (describing people,places and objects ) in line with the DFE POS learning objectives.They can potentially help you consider ways to develop deeper ,more cross curricular learning.School and the language around school is an area lots of us teach so we have explored this theme in a variety of ways! There are  various AfL games to revisit  basic school content,there is a  back to school in the 1950s and 1960s in France and Spain ppt and with the help of Little Red Languages we have animated "Aliens go to School" stories.These stories are accompanied  by lesson guides so that you can investigate the structure, the language and the content... before becoming creative with some of the content in the slides.This online tutorial explains this better! (The sound on the animated stories is clear when you play them for the children but in the You tube tutorial below the native speaker sound is not as clear)

To download the resources described above and those shown in the video clip simply register as an online delegate here on this DFE online training page  and you can return to these resources after registering via the online delegate button on the same page.

And finally today from Woolston CP we received these "outer space" school bookmarks -created by Year 5 after reading the story, investiugating the language and focusing creatively on the slide all about the alien's choice of reading book in his  Literacy lesson! Brilliant! 

Can you read this?

This is a very interesting title! Can you read this? It's the Autumn menu  2015 of a restaurant in Salamana.

In this instance the question behind the question "Can you read this?  is actually "Do you know what you are about to eat?" I am  a  basic survival Spanish speaker and last week on a visit to Spain with teaching colleagues.I had to use all my language knowledge to access the Spanish language! It made me realise the value of the bilingual dictionary and the need to help learners no matter what their age to become comfortable with and able to access the  language in such a resource! 

You see one of our meals was very interesting indeed! "Pigs ear" for a starter and then "deer" soup to follow.Just how did we know what we were eating? Well we didn't until we looked it up ....or until one of our colleagues fluent in the language suggested possibilities.Even when you are fluent,there are times aren't there, when you look at menu and have an idea... but are not exactly sure what all of the ingredients are! 

So where am I going with this blog post? I think language learning needs to be accessible to all and the bilingual dictionary is one of the linguist's magic tricks that needs sharing from the start! It's not just a resource to look up words or to check definitions.The bilingual dictionary opens the window on the written word and once the learner has a command of the phonic rules of language, it can be a reference point too for the comprehension of spoken language.

So how would I use this menu to engage our young learners in an investigation of language using the bilingual dictionary?  Well .....

1. Let's set the scene .What time of year is it and how do we know? Can we find the proof in the dictionary?
2. Why not consider creating a menu for a different season? Can we access and say / write our other three key words for the seasons?
3. Let's investigate the menu! Can we find  language we can take and use again in a menu about  any season?
4. Let's be specific and identify the  dishes and the ingredients on the menu .Which do we think we would like to try or not like to try? Let's cross reference (in this example from Spanish to English the language) ...as some of the ingredients we may not be certain about or even imagine we can eat!
5. Let's discuss culture here too - what do we find acceptable to eat and what do others find acceptable to eat?Why is this cultural difference something to celebrate?
6. Now let's be creative.Let's consider menus with a seasonal twist! Add unusual ingredients or create a menu for characters/ animals etc associated with a specifc season....and then let's ask our co-learners "Can you read this?" 

So starting with a simple question "Can you read this?" ...we have explored: 

• reading skills
• bilingual dictionary skills
• culture and similarities and differences
• using the bilingual dictionary to be indepently creative in our speaking and writing! 

To VLE or not VLE ? That is the question!

Why choose the Primary Languages VLE network to build our school’s learning programme?

Over the last half term I have been asked this question by interested schools and colleagues.As a passionate primary and secondary language teacher I perfectly understand why there is a need to be certain about whether the VLE suits a particular school or cluster of schools.  Our transition KS2- KS3 VLEsharing clusters are working well too. Here is my response (with my teacher's hat on!)

The VLE  offers flexibility and more than a SOW. Schools can "add in "or take out" options. The VLE is updated regularly as we find more options e.g. songs or activities that colleagues use. The blogs and network news can keep you informed about how other participating schools are using the materials and planning.Schools can share ways to celebrate culture and how they have adapted resources or used ideas as a platform to develop their own unique whole school or class learning.The cross curricular units can be used as "additional" or "instead of" units.

New areas are being added regularly - watch out for the "Story Chest" section. Plus the subject coordinator tools are being updated and adapted as we find out about current effective ways schools are using these. We also are able to develop additional subject coordinator support as a positive response  to colleagues’ requirements and suggestions.

Our associate teachers in the network (working in 40 schools) keep us informed as to what is and isn't working etc and how they have adapted key activities too! I think this makes the VLE a dynamic networking tool and gives schools the SOW to start off with and follow and also to grow with .This is why I often refer to the basic SOW as a "training manual". It is comprehensive but it isn't designed to have to be followed religiously if that doesn't suit your learning environment.It can be a marker in the sand and a central focus point for all your colleagues.

This year for example our assessment resources are growing as we understand more about what and how we can track and record and what schools realistically require to be able to do this. The VLE also offers schools the opportunity to upload their own materials, to supplement, enhance or work alongside the existing materials and resources and this creates for the subject coordinator a dynamic planning and sharing tool. The planning and sharing can become a four way virtual learning and sharing process between teachers, subject coordinators, network members and ourselves. Our transition clusters  are working through the effectiveness of ther VLE for local school to school contact and virtual sharing and explorong progress between KS2 and KS3.

Was I certain a VLE would make such a difference? The honest answer was I didn't know. But now I can see its power and what a vehicle it is to allow us to support all our members virtually be they long distance or local members! I am excited by the Primary Languages VLE and  its potential. 

Click here to learn more 

DFE POS and Fantastical Fireworks.

Here is our first online DFE POS teacher tutorial based on "Bonfire Night". The activities are devised to help schools explore the teaching and delivery of the objectives of listening  attentively and responding, exploring sounds and patterns of words, reading aloud, performing and understanding basic grammar. We hope that there is whole school engagement too as the activities are designed so that they can be delivered by specialist and/or non-specialist teachers.

As part of the DFE funded WTSA/PLN  Language Learning for Everyone we have been offering local North West schools the opportunity to attend twilight network meetings where we have looked at the DFE POS for KS2. In the second year of the DFE project roll out we are now sharing these resources with a wider audience via social media. 

This is the first in a series of blog posts and You Tube clips where we will share our DFE project resources, ideas and CPD with a wider audience.Watch out for our Christmas and all that Jazz, Carnival and World Book Day, Going to the Seaside and Aliens at School blog posts which will follow over the next couple of months. The packages have resources and activities that can be shared and used by all the teachers. The intention is that the activities are simple and easy to deliver and that the teachers will grow in confidence in their own ability to deliver some primary language teaching.

You can access and download the Powerpoint presentations and sound files mentioned in this You Tube click below by clicking on the link at the end of the blog post, entering your details and automatically receiving the username and password for the resources as a DFE online delegate. 

Please register as an "Online Delegate" to access these resources - click here 

To access Online Delegate Resources after you have login details - click here

Assessment within our network

More of our schools this year want to begin the process of assessing the progress of their language learners from Year 3 to Year 6 in the four skills of listening,speaking ,reading and writing.Over the last couple of years colleagues and I have tried to find a clear and easy pathway through assessment.This has taken time and there is yet more no doubt to do.However this year we are able to offer schools assessment packages for Year 3,4,5 and 6.

Here are the important facts about our assessment process

• Our assessment is skill based and populated with the content of the SOW,however.our network assessment framework is created in such a way that a teacher could populate the skill tests with their own content as long as the task meets the stage descriptor for the specific skill i.e listening,speaking,reading,writing
• We are aware that Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 could all be at "stage one" in skill development in some schools.We ask our schools to consider carefully whether their learners further up in KS2 are stage 1, 2, 3 or 4 in skill development .This means that teachers with children in Y6 could be using  for example the Year 4 stage assessment benchmarks to assess progress.
• We use the terms "emerging, meeting and exceeding" as these are being used quite widely in other subject areas to assess progress aagianst national descriptors.
• We have tried to align our core skill (listening,speaking,reading and writing) descriptors to three key learning guides - the DFE POS learning objectives for KS2, the Y3-Y6 learning objectives for the four core skills in the KS2 Framework and to loosely align these to the CEFR levels (A1 and some A2).
•  This year we are creating half term by half term  "Puzzle It Out" sheets as a guide to both teachers and children.These contain quick and manageable activities and can be an integral  part of the lesson.There is one activity per core skill and these can be used in all languages and can be kept as evidence in the children's individual record folders etc. Individual activities can be done at differnet times and in different lessons.Once again teachers can change the content in the activity as these are word documents but adhere to the task outline so as to meet the assessment benchmark core skill descriptor level.
• The assessment  timetable varies in indiividual schools.Some schools are assesssing half term by half term, some are assessing once per term.
• The assessments  are not  end of unit tests .These are skill based tests and therefore in some schools they can be spread out, so that selected assessment tests occur three times over the school year for example.
• To be secure in meeting a skill level , we would expect to see a child have recorded level of  "meeting" three times in the school year.To enable as many children as possible to achieve this some schools may need to deliver additional test opportunities if they have opted for the 3 times per year assessment
• Some schools assess all the children and others are assessing a sample. More schools are now opting for full cohort assessment beacuse our process is very manageable and will gove a clear picture of progress for all children.
• A spread sheet is provided which automatically shares a class summary and graph of progress for SLT.
• We offer our teachers within the network online ,email and face to face support to develop their assessment processes plus there are teacher tutorials on line to support members of staff within schools.

You can find out more here.

Gathering evidence

This year more than ever colleagues are asking me when I am out and about in school about ways to gather and keep evidence of the work children are doing in primary language learning.Here are a couple of ways that I know are really being used and are working! Tried and tested over several years within our network.Thanks to those who have inspired the ideas!

The target language country school postbox idea was a solution of mine that  I came up with almost two years ago to help a school starting off with French.The teachers are non-specialists and the challenge was three-fold at the time - how to encourage colleagues to participate in the teaching and learning of languages, how to celebrate success and how to help teachers when they were stuck!  The post box was placed outside the classroom door of the designated subject coordinator (who had some language knowledge) and over the course of the year the children posted activities they enjoyed, messages from their class teacher about the progress they were making as language learning class and questions they as a class needed answering about challenges in parts of language that they had met in the lesson.It still works and is an integral part of the language learning process in school.Last Thursday another colleague who had heard about the idea Told me how she had implemented a similar system in her school and how valuable it was as the subject coordinator as a collection postbox that the could empty from time to time and collect and collate informal evidence of the children's learning and the school developing as a language learning envrionment.sSo that's the first suggestion of a way to gather evidence.I really like the idea aswell that the postbox is a target language country postbox too!

Our second idea that schools we have  shared with our network and quite a few schools have now begun to make their own is a simple "sparkling" record of what takes space in the classroom.A young NQT in one of our schools wanted to keep a record of what one of our associate teacher's was delivering with her pupls in the classroom because she wasn't always in class at the time.It kepy her informed ,reinofrced with the children that hse thought the learning was important and meant that she was able to discuss progress with the children.She created a "Sparkling Spanish Book" .It is an idea adopted across the whole of KS2 in the school now.Two children are the book monitors for half a term and their responsibility is to take a photo of something interesting when it  happens.They stick it in the sparkolng record book.They must also write several interesting and informative sentences in english at the end of the lesson in the book - so that the class teacher can follow this up via discussion later in the week.Now we have "Fantastic French" books too.Just keep them hung up in the classroom and take them down and take a look through with your class .Some teachers are using them as memory joggers - to prompt children to remember and use prior learning etc later in the term or year.They can get handed on from year to year too!

Emilie loves her virtual suitcases that we started about three years ago .Other colleagues have followed suit .This is an end of year activity.Pack your virtual suitcase with a favourite class song file , a favourite game and instructions how to play this , a favourite story file and perhaps some photos.Our VLE will be a great way to do this from this year onwards as each class can have its own folder in your own shared area.At the start of the next year - the suitcase can be unpacked and shared and discussed with the new class teacher.As a subject coordinator you will have an very useful record of evidence too to share with visitors and SLT!

We have devised different ways to collect spoken and written evidence - all part of the SOW

Here is one example just right for Autumn  which colleagues used to great effect - Writing and reviewing progress with Autumn leaves

You may also like to take a look at this idea .Creating "superheroes of our young language learners and explaining that they are developing special comminication powers.Collect and collate  their developing own AfL superhero messages to inform your next steps. Here is the original blogpost.This is a new idea this year - so let's see how it turns out!

Superhero AfL messages

Grammar and success in primary languages

So do you see the rabbit or the duck? Do you see grammar in primary language learning as the elephant in the room? Are some of your staff concerned about how they can teach grammar in primary languages with limited language knowledge themselves? Well we have seen in our network that there can be a positive shift in perspective, and one of the ways we have been helped colleagues and schools to achieve this over the last coupleof years is to take the fear out of the very word "grammar" and generate learning opportunties with  "grammar" as a creative primary learning exploratory experience.

We want our young learners over four years in KS2 to feel confident in the use of target language nouns (for example for both teachers and children the words "*masculine/feminine/neuter/indefinite/definite/singular/plural2 can strike fear!). We want our young learners to recognise and be able to use adjectives and to try to accurately and more often than not successfully place them  next to a noun in a phrase or a sentence. We want our young learners to build up a bank of questions and answers using verbs and to be able to access verbs as infinitives and try to accurately use the correct part of the verb with the personal pronoun  from a presnet tnese paradigm of the verb in the sentences they want to say and write. The statements above in this paragraph can cause  constrenation, fear or if we shift perspective a great creative problem solving learning opportunity!

Here are some of the ways we have recently created to help teachers and children enjoy exploring nouns, verbs and adjectives and limiting fear and maximising success and creativity!

Putting the learning of grammar in to a familiar game or context. Here is our game to practise how to use familoar nouns and to find and use new nouns I Spy Nouns

Putting physicality in to the learning  of language ,to aid memory and to practise for instance paradigms of common useful verbs. Here is our Rugby Haka

Putting creativity in to the practise of the use of structures in sentences,r4eady to use in a communicative and performance based series of activities. Teabags full of adjectives and flavour is an activity that allows your children to practise the routine of applying adjectival agreements and to be creative too with grammar! This all leads very nicely to a "Madhatters Tea Party" and the use of grammar to build a conversation and a written menu too!

Put the learning in to the context of the primary school calendar.Here we are building descriptive sentences using Autumn leaves .to remind us of the structures we need to put in to our sentences.

Hopefully by considering grammar as the creative primary centred scaffold on which to build the language and communication activities we are helping schools and children to see how and why to develop their basic understanding of grammar. 

Giving content a purpose

On Thursday last week I was training subject coordinators.Several of the coordinators were new to the role and  a conversation  sprang up between some of them based upon an informal comment:"So what language do you teach?".This wasn't a discussion about which target language to teach rather about the substance and content the school teaches. The picture at the top of the blog post is full of colour and wonderful spices and ingredients, schools want to offer this colour and variety in their teaching.They need a recipe that works to start them off and then to develop their own variations and approaches that work.

My recipe includes language learning skills linked to the DFE POS Learning Objectives, phonics and exploring patterns of letters and sounds,exploring and  learning how to build sentences and a growing knowledge of structure and components of a simple sentence, use of  bilingual dictionaries and sound files to help independence. Teachers and children also need content upon which to hang their learning hats!   

We were looking at the DFE POS.It would have been easy to say "Well  follow the DFE POS and the learning objectives" but would that have been fair? Well , the objectives address  the skills we are developing.These skills should help our young learners can move more easily from one foreign language to another in ther future education, careers and lives. so yes it is important that we follow the learning objectives.In doing so we need to unpack the stages the learner must go through to become competent and to achieve success in each of the learning objectives. In the group were teachers, whose schools are developing a creative curriculum. So where does a history focus or  an Art focus fit in with language learning? Well we have seen in our own network how linking language learning to a cross curricular focus sparks children and teachers' enthusiasm and interest and gives the language learning vibrant purpose. Both the DFE POS learning objectives and linking language learning across the curriculum or building this in to part of the whole school learning approach offers purpose and creates a place for language learning in the primary curriculum.What we mustn't forget is that teachers and children need to start somewhere and they  need purposeful content to make their learning grow.Hence the picture of planting seeds below.

Over the last 20 years or so I have been engaged in primary language teaching.I was a secondary teacher at the start and found myself falling in to the trap of bringing the secindary curriculum down to primary.Soon found this wasn't necessarily appropriate.However some fo the basic language has remained - core language we call it- numbers, colours, days of the week, months, gteetings, farewells, polite requests, likes , dislikes, personal information. Its relevance remains of course!.This core content gives teachers with limited language knowledge a starting point,We go on to teach key focuses  and as an experienced primary teacher I know that we can diversify and lock in to another area of the curriculum or focus on  a language learning skill etcetra.What I also know is that by keeping core content, teachers with limited language knowledge feel the teaching and learning is accessible .In turn their children feel they are progressing in communicating  about every day matters (but in another language!).From the core content and simple focuses more exciting and cross curricular learning oppprtunities can grow.Maybe the focus has been on simple weather phrases but next the children and teacher can explore extreme weather conditions.Maybe the children and teachers are focusing on colours and but later in the year can revisit colours and explore a famous painting.Running throughout  are the development of learning skills and the  development  of language learning skills. In my opinion it is about nurturing this successful progression and offering guidance and support.  

Here is a look at how we do this with our VLE !

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