Power of a picture!

Yesterday I met with some of the associate language teachers and tutors in Primary Languages Network. During a break ,a reluctant photo was taken of us all. The photo is however a powerful picture of the mix of qualified teachers within our Primary Languages Network. Here you can see 9 of the current 13 associate teachers,soon to be joined by 4 more colleagues for the academic year 2016-17.

My colleagues are marvellous - just like so many of you who will read this blog post too. They work in a range of schools, supporting subject coordinators, schools where other teachers are non-specialists, helping me to create materials and train teachers and on a weekly basis take simple lesson plans and make the learning exciting for the children they teach!

What strikes me when I look at this picture though is the  power and quality and range of experience the people in the photo represent. On a day to day basis you tend to forget this and as some of us have worked together for 8 or 9 years now, it is easy to forget the experience amongst us.

Every week the team works with a minimum of 6,500 children in KS2. The team works in KS1 aswell, so it is more children actually. (I found this figure quite amazing as I worked it out!). Next academic year the associate teacher team will work in 44 schools within the network. In the 2016-17 team there are 10 primary classroom teachers with a degree in languages ,7 of whom have a PGCE Primary with a languages specialism,4 secondary MFL teachers .one of whom still works Cross Phase and all four now have  language teaching experience from KS1 right through to A Level., 4 native speakers,3 primary language subject coordinators and 2 colleagues with training in EYFS. Most of my colleagues work in classrooms where the teachers are present too and the intention is to upskill the teachers as well as the children.  It makes quite a team really and everyone not only brings so much to the table but also wants to move forward and progress with their learners.I see evidence of team teaching ,of colleagues leading staff CPD and bespoke learning being created for teachers who want to make links across the curriculum.The team also already helps me to make their knowledge and experience available to all members of the network not just schools where the team works

Yesterday during our meeting we discussed Summer 2 in KS1 and KS2.Five of the colleagues shared their workshop preparation for our conference.We all looked at the 12 DfE Attainment Targets and discussed assessment tools and our proposed new tracking system.We considered how we tweak and enhance our Ready Made SoW and discussed how we can move forward with the work we do upskilling , supporting and sharing classroom quality practice with colleagues. 

Normally in blog posts I suggest ideas and give solutions or approaches to primary language teaching and learning , but today I just ask ..... so how do we harness this huge potential and take it forward to benefit so many more?

Powers of international understanding!

  

  

Do your young learners know that they are developing "super powers"- the powers of understanding in and across foreign languages?

Developing transferable language learning skills is a key part of language learning that we constantly promote.Let's share how we useinference, prior knowledge and links across languages  to understand an unfamiliar text in a familiar target language and use these skills to take the next step and transfer these "powers" to international understanding of less familiar or completely unfamiliar languages too. Let's start with using these "powers of understanding" with a text in a new but semi-familiar language.I think this could really help children and adults to see how ww can transfer from KS2 into KS3 language learning.The activities below are for UKS2 but they would be really useful in a transition project between Ks2 and KS3 or as an informal discussion and assessment activity process on entry in to Y7 in language learning- looking at how the children on entry have or are developing transferable language learning skills.  

Your chosen text needs to be current, relevant and of interest to the children .I have created two similar texts - one in French and one in Spanish (I used Wikipedia .fr and Wikipedia.es to do this). I decided that an engaing and the current focus would be facts about the Olympic Games. My texts contain important and key pieces of information about the Olympics and there is  considerable use of cognates and semi-cognates. I have laid out the text as  gapped themed sentences so that they can be annotated and symobols and notes can be added.The texts are alomost but not quite mirror images of each other.Some facts are different....all will be revealed.

Here are the texts - one in French and one in Spanish .I presented them today on one A4 piece of paper, one text after another.I put the familiar target language text first, in this instance French.

Les Jeux olympiques

 

Les Jeux olympiques sont un événement international majeur et des milliers d’athlètes participent.

 

Les Jeux olympiques se tiennent tous les quatre ans.

 

Il y a les Jeux olympiques d'été ,les Jeux olympiques d'hiver et les Jeux paralympiques.

 

Chaque nation est représentée.

 

Les trois meilleurs athlètes ou équipes de chaque compétition reçoivent respectivement une médaille d’or (1re place), d’argent (2e place) et de bronze (3e place).

 

La célébration des Jeux inclut de nombreux rituels comme le drapeau olympique et la flamme olympique

 

 

Los Juegos Olímpicos

 

Los Juegos Olímpicos son el mayor evento deportivo internacional multidisciplinario en el que participan atletas de diversas partes del mundo

 

Hay los Juegos Olímpicos de Verano y los Juegos Olímpicos de Invierno y los juegos paralímpicos

 

Hay aproximadamente 400 eventos. Los ganadores del primer, segundo y tercer lugar en cada evento reciben medallas olímpicas: oro, plata y bronce

 

Los anillos olímpicos son el principal símbolo de los Juegos Olímpicos modernos

The super power activity steps are as follows.....

  1. Ask the children to read the familar text (e.g the French text)- looking at each sentence and finding words they know.At the end of the sentence ask them to draw a symbol to represent the theme or message of the sentenceor sentnces (e.g. picture of lots of athletes - could be the first sentence sketch )
  2. Ask the children to compare symbols with a second child.Do they roughly agree?
  3. Now ask the children to read the second unfamilar target language text (e.g the Spanish text). Can they draw symbols for each message here too? 
  4. Can they share these symbols with a partner? Do they roughly agree?Are any  groups of sentences more challenging than others? 
  5. Ask the children to draw a line along the left hand margin to link French and spanish groups of sentences that they feel contain similar messages. 
  6. Ask the children to underline in these similar sentences in the two texts, words that could mean the same but in different languages
  7. Ask the children to share these with a partner.
  8. Can they now identify cognates or semi cognates in a French group of sentences and also in a Spanish group of sentences? What do they notice about spelling bdetween French,Spanish and also English?
  9. How do they now feel about reading unfamiloar texts in different languages? What super powers have they already got?
  10. Take the task further and perhaps ask the children to locate a verb in the first sentence in the French and Spanish texts that means to take part.Can they give you a higher order English verb for "to take part" suggested by the verb in French and Spanish (particpent/participan)
  11. Discuss with the children how the French has helped them with understanding the Spanish and perhaps also helped them to think of English words too.
  12. Ask the children to find sentences in both texts that are not in the other target language text. What do they think the key message of these sentences are? Which of their "super powers" are they now using to read these parts of the texts? 
  13. Ask the children to help you list the "international understanding powers they  now realise that possess which have helped them during these activities..
  14. Discuss with ther children how learning one new  language can be a way of opening a window on a world and being able to understand other languages too!  
  15. Celebrate this understanding with some Art work.Ask the children to take two similar sentences from the different texts and to annotate the groups of sentences with "hieroglyphic" style sketches of the key words in the text. 

Sunshine silent sparklers

sunshine-300[1].png

Well this blog post is  a simple last minute blog post for colleagues of mine who next week need to keep children calm or quiet during the KS2 and Y2 SATs week.i have just created this for one of my associates working in an open plan area.

We love sunshine sparklers as a way of air writing to practise new language and writing new or famillar words.

However this is "sunshine sparklers" with a difference.It is very easy to organise and probably a great last minute stand by for lots of times during the year .Children will be involved in reading familoar language, investigating unfamiliar language. looking up new language in bilingual dictionaries and writing words either from memory or with support.It is an activity that can be very simple for beginner learners or have added challenge for more advanced learners......

  • Ask children to draw circles on a blank piece of paper to represent the centre of their sunshines,with sufficient room around the outside to add "rays " around the outside of each sunshine
  • Give children an appropriate age and stage  language focus e.g adjectives to describe people, numbers , colours,clothes for a holiday , masculine nouns linked to food,  animals in a zoo , endangered animals, recycling verbs etc....
  • Give younger children lists to look at and with more advanced or older children set them a blank sheet challenge.Can they remember words?Can they locate new words in bilingual dictionaries? Can they look up words to ensure spelling is correct?
  • Now they need to design their sunshines.In the centre of the sunshine they should draw the item.
  • Around the outside they need to write the letters of the word as the individual rays of the sunshine.
  • How many sunshines can they fill their page with?
  • Older children can then cut these out and oprganise them according to your categorisation criteria e.g. alphabetical order, numerical order , size order ,words in vowel alphabetical order- so first vowel in word determines the aplhabetical order of the words.Why not let them create a categorisation challenge of their own for their table or partners? 
  • Younger children can cut out the sunshines as simple picture boxes and glue these  in their books to create a page full of sunshine words.

Roald Dahl Reading Mystery Tour

Over the Bank Holiday I went for a walk in one of our local parks,Tatton Park ,and loved what I found.An outside adventure based on the "Roald Dahl's Tremendous World" to celebrate 100 years since his birth in 1916 . Over the last couple of years some of my colleagues have celebrated Roald Dahl day on 13 September using ideas from a previous blog post Roald Dahl Day and describing characters.

My walk over the  Bank Holiday though was mystery tour, around a park where objects from the stories appeared...so I thought.... why not create a reading mystery tour with simple target language clues? Willy Wonka's special lift , James' giant peach, fantastic Mr Fox's  farmyard or countryside, the Twits' upside down lounge ,Miss Trunchball's office in Matilda......We can investigate adjectives, nouns and modal verbs used with infinitives after the modal verb phrase " you can ...."Here is the sequence of activities .You caa make this a reading challenge indoors with your own picture books or an outdoors challenge (see my suggestion at the end of the blog post for this).

  • Share key objects as pictures and make sure the children can associate the object with one of the stories.
  • Can the children match the objects to the titles of the stories - titles of the books in the target language ?
  • We are working with objects from a story book , so why not make a picture book with the children
  • Each object to be stuck on separate pages of the picture book with clear space below for their own target language writing.Leave a little room above the picture.
  • The children can add  above the picture the target language book title.
  • Next share a list of target language nouns that describe the objects e.g lift , peach , headteacher's office, lounge, farm yard and ask the children using bilingual dictionaries to decide which noun belongs to which picture.  they can then add the target language noun as a label below the picture.
  • Give out sentence clues that describe the objects e.g :

"It is a box and it is fast.You can travel in the sky "

It is round and inside a fruit.You can live inside it

It is upside down. You can sit on chairs and you can watch TV here. 

  • Can the children investigate the mystery sentences and link them to the correct object?
  • Now all they need to do isto  write the sentence next to the correct object in their own picture books.
  • Time to create their own sentences too - Thinking of an item or object from a Roald Dahl story ,creating the image, looking up the book title in the target language and then adding a  noun as a label and a descriptive sentence of their own.

Making the task an outdoor mystery tour:

........where the clues lead children in a specific order around a series of pictures of objects outside that they need to photograph or sketch,compile in the correct order next to the clues  and bring back to show you.

Super Victor Euros mascot and imaginary friends

Thanks to Super Victor,the Euros mascot and his official UEFA page Super Victor UEFA page , I have thought of some really simple but effective ways of revisiting personal information, add in some maths and data collection and then going on to practise verb pardigms too....

  • A name question and a class survey.

On the Super Victor page it explains that public votes selected the name for the mascot.You can find the three most popular names for the Euros mascot  public vote .Super Victor  was the winner with 48% of the public vote, Goalix got 27 % of the vote and Driblou 25%. Does the class agree with this?

Simple class survey asking two questions and giving two responses as a class walk and surevy around the room activity. Which is your favourite name and which is your least favourite name in the target language? Children can give you the number of children they interviewed and the responses they collected for each name .UKS2 can convert the responses to percentages and all the children can draw up simple bvar charts to demonstrate their results.

Of course the class could do this with their own names for the mascots and this would work really well if you thought first about the game itself and the role of the mascot etc.children could find thier new names as nouns or adjectives in bilingual dictionaries.

  • Who are you?

Just what does the  mascot  that won the UEFA public vote look like?Share Super Victor's picture and create physical sentence descriptions of the mascot

You could build a physical description with these sentences from head to toe, .Each sentence contributed is one from children in the class.

Now add a new layer with his imaginary likes and dislkes  and his qualities .It's a male mascot so agreement of adjectives will be masculine- opportunity here to look at grammar with UKS2 or Y7 pupils. . 

  • Create a girl mascot -"Super Victor(ia)" .

What does she look like- colour of hair,eyes, clothes she is wearing etc and what's her personality  like? Ask children to create their female version of the mascot and then to read out to the class their descriptions, including qualities and likes and dislikes.Remember to share wit the children the change in adjectives and their spelling to match female. 

Bring the male and female Super Victor/ia  to life with one of the wonderful APPs that animate pictures such as Chatterpix or Yakit4kids.   

  • Dribolou and Goalix

. Why not create the characters for Dribolou and Goalix too

  • Players bibs' display

Create players' bibs for Super Victor ,Dribolou ,Goalix and our female mascot Super Victoria.The bibs should be  covered with adjectives that explain the attributes of a good mascot (fair,kind, sporty,friendly etc)correctly spellt to match the male and female mascots. the children coukd create a femaile version of one of rhe oether two runner up mascots Dribolou and Goalix to .This would be really useful if you go on to try and use the Verb Warm up below.

  • Draft tweet a question

If you look on the UEFA page you will see that SuperVictor has a twitter address.We obviously can't tweet him but we can create target language questions for the mascot.

Our children love draft tweets, so ask them to think of and write out their draft tweet questions for the mascot.

Ask the class to help you select the best five questions written by members of the class and then ask the class to respond in draft writing as if they were the mascot Super Victor.Which five responses does the class think are the most interesting .Great opportunity here not just for independent writing but also to practise reading comprehension skills.

  • Verb warm up 

And now we have the characters in place to create a paradigm of the verb "to play " in the target language and to add actions to the verb so we can perform this .

Most naturally of course we will be using the verb to play "football" so our actions will be dribbling , passing , shooting, scoring , saving a goal , blowing the whistle, tackling etc.

Divide your class in to groups and make sure there are boys and girls in the group .You need to give them names - Super Victor , Dribolou,Goalix, Super Victoria plus the two female names the class have created for the other two runner up mascots (see "players bibs' display" activity).The children should give themselves a team name and start the activity with their team name! 

Can the children create and perform an action packed footballers' paradigm, of the verb to play.The children can intriduce themselves as the mascots they represent either at the start of the activity or before each part of the paradigm.

  • Challenge of the Verbs

As the Euros is a competition , why not take this verb  warm up a step further and ask one team to perform against a second time .They should stand opposite each other and pperform line by line (taking it in turns ) their verbs with actions.Call it the "Challenge of the Verbs" 

Celebrate Stories of Cervantes with Talking Tiles

On 23 April it is 400 years since the death of our greatest playwright Shakespeare and it is also 400 years since the death of Spain's greatest writer Miguel de Cervantes. Last year I visited Vallodolid in Castilla y Leon, Spain. Above is a photograph I took of the statue commemorating his life and work. Here is the link to the Museo Casa de Cervantes in Vallodolid. Across the road from the stautue in the photograph is part of the original University of Vallodolid and as we walked in to the reception area I was struck by the tiles on the walls .The tiles depicted scenes from the story of Don Quijote. The tiles and the famous Cervantes story depicted on the tiles were so evocative of Spain and Spanish culture.Take a look here.

Each tile depicts one of the adventures of the character Don Quijote - riding ,sailing,talking, falling in love,fighting with giants or windmills etc.The tiles ran around the room. (If you are a member of Primary Languages Network then there are more of these tiles and photos in the Treasure Chest area of the VLE)

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You can find clips online of the story of Don Quijote,Cervantes' most famous character plus paintings showing Don Quixote with his faithful manservant Sancha and the adventures they had together. I love the story of how Don Quijote thought he had to fight with the windmills. 

So my simple celebration sequence of activities are as follows:

  • Show the picture of the statue of Cervantes.Find a similar picture of Shakespeare and compare costumes and stance.Explain the coincidence in dates between Shakespeare,Cervantes and 23 April 1616. Explain the similarities between Cervantes and Shakespeare in the history of Spain and England's literary history 
  • Introduce the children to the character of Don Quijote and briefly explain some of the adventures of this character.You can read a quick summary of the story here (Don Quijote)
  • Play the windmill clip and ask the children just to listen and enjoy the story.Take feedback in English about the events and the characters of Don Quijote and Sancha
  • Share the picture of the tile (or tiles) with the children and explain where these can be found and what the pictures on the tiles represent.Can the children look at the tile you have shared with them and think of phrases in Spanish that the characters might be saying to each other (e.g.I love riding/Can you see the windmills? /How are you feeling?I am feeling excited etc)?
  • Ask the children to pick their favourite phrase and create a quick rough sketch of a tile of their own linked to the clip you showed them about the windmills.Ask the children to add their selected favourite phrase in a speech bubble.
  • You could ask them to add more speech bubbles and their own target language phrases and build a short dialogue.
  • Ask the class now to create a "Talking Tile".This is a carefully drawn tile , coloured in the traditional colours they have seen on the tile you have shown them - so blue, gold and white with the speech bubbles hidden under flaps of paper which blend in to the picture.
  • Alternatively these are carefully drawn tiles , coloured in the traditional colours they have seen on the tile you have shown them - so blue and white with the speech bubbles.This time however using Chatterpix or Yakit4Kids  the children can record the speech bubbles and bring the tiles to life as "talking tiles".

 

 

 

Language awareness and Shakespeare

What a simple way to bring language learning and Shakespeare together next week for the 400 year celebration of his life and work! I saw this map a few weeks ago on Twitter and then more recently on this pinterest board. Take a look! All  the characters are mapped against the countries where action takes place in the plays or where the characters come from.

How do I suggest that we can use this in language learning in UKS2 and also in KS3?

  • Explore the map you can see here with the children
  • Ask the children to locate names of countries on a modern day World map in the target language and feedback the names of characters and the countries they come from
  • Ask the children to build simple personal information interviews  with characters or specific characters from plays in the target language you are studying with the chidren based upon the name and where the characters come from .Our simple games of Quiz Quiz  Swap and Quiz Quiz Trade would work well here.
  • Using a site like Omniglot explore how to greet people in the languages of the countries the children have linked to Shakespeare's characters and plays.Make a list
  • Now create your own character map with written speech bubbles with greetings in the langvuage spoken in each of the countries and greetings you have located 

 

Building block poetry

Thanks to a tweet I saw today  I found this wonderful activity that I could simply adapt to develop "building block poetry" in KS2 primary languages, in any language too!.An activity that involves reading skills, cognitive processes and creativity. It was a tweet from @cjfriess about book spine poetry- hence the picture below

Primary Languages Building Block Poetry

  • Select the theme for the class creative poetry building session.My theme is animals as I want to link this to Earth Day on 22 April 
  • Select a book spine as the title of your poem for all the class .So I have decided to use "Au carnaval des animaux" as I want the children to reflect upon looking after animals etc. I did think I could also use the book title "dix graines" and look at plants and countryside and growing fruit and vegetables.
  • Now access publishers or book sellers catalogues and select pictures and titles of books that fit with your theme. I suggest you make each book title into small cards so that the children can focus on each individual title and also so that they can physically move around the titles until they have the order of their poem that they feel is the best fit.
  •  Quite simply by accessing for example the Little Linguist Online publications catalogue I was able to very quickly find book titles that fitted my theme of animals in French.I could just as easily have found books about plants and groing things linked to Dix graines or books about colours and rainbows etc.
  • I would suggest making small printed cards of the book titles and the the front covers for the children to a sheet containing these. You coud ask children to go on,ine and access the publication and find additional book titles too.Or maybe there are books in the reading corner or books you have already looked at that would fit the theme too.
  • Book titles I found that on the Little Linguist webiste that I felt would be useful in French  are listed below:

La chenille qui fait des trous

Aaargh un souris

Aaargh une araignee

Au loup 

Bebes chouettes

La grenouille qui avait une grande bouche

L'enorme crocodile

Il fait comment le cameleon?

La petite poule rousse

  • Time to sort the titles!  First ask the children to identify the animal nouns and to check meaning in bilingual dictionaries or by prior knowledge and memory recall or identifying cognates and semi- cogantes.Maybe they already know what the book title means?
  • As a class take feedback and explore the meaning of the book title, looking at important adjectives and nouns.
  • Now allow the children thinking time.Ask them to sort and resort the book titles in to building block book spine poetry built around a common focus. So for example with this theme of animals and a celebfration of animals as the poem's title suggests the children could build poems that go from smallest to biggest animal , or animals on two legs and animals on four legs as two verses , or two verses of scary animals and non-scary animals etcetra etcetra.
  • The children can build their blocks, glue this in to their books and add pictures for each animal.
  • They could also record their poems or perform their poems for the class. 
  • And so finally I thought - could I build a physical buildoing block poem based on au carnaval des animaux.A physical poem that children cpuld touch ,feel,look inside the books and then create their own order or even add a book of their own? Here is my physical building block poem with books from my shelf ......

Snapshot of language learning eleven

As a Germanist I am truthfully very sad that only a handful of schools now teach German in KS2 .This morning I was therefore thrilled to be back in a local school were German is thriving! The school established German as their primary language  back in 2006/7 and ever since has pioneered the work in this language.Meet Barbara! I have worked with her since 2006 when she became a language assistant with Warrington LA. She later became a teaching assistant at the school and still works at the school as  both a teaching assistant and the German language teacher. Barbara works alongside the Year 6 teacher and Primary Languages Subject Coordinator.Today I was in school to discuss assessment but Barbara asked if I could observe her too.Delighted ! (Barbara helps me to support a couple of other local North West schools develop German materials.We now have a comprehensive KS2 German SoW and you will hear Barbara's voice on the teacher support sound files too!) 

It was Year 4 German with the class teacher and the teaching assistant as well as Barbara supporting the children with their language learning.Strong coordination ,clarity of vision and support from all staff really makes languages part of the whole school drive and I saw this here today.

The lesson began in German and stayed in the target language for most of the lesson .From "Hallo Kinder, heute ......."   onwards the children were comfortable with the language. They began with practise of a key question and answer ( a familiar question and answer about birthdays and months of the year). Rapid responses and good accents and pronunciation ( as Barbara said they have only heard her speaking in German) .I loved the way they said Geburtstag and perhaps spotted slight Black Forest sounds too- Barbara! comes from the area! The phonics focus here was on the "J" sound and she praised the children as they all remmebered well how to pronounce Juni ,Juli .It was as important that the children asked the question as gave answers as Barbara is building a bank of conversation questions and answers on the class German board. Later in the lesson the children referred  to this bank on the board as they devised their own roleplays.

The main focus today was describing what was wrong with them and devising roleplays to explain this. Over the last couple of  weeks the children have been practising body parts and they love the song "Heads,shoulders ,knees and toes" and  sang it faster and faster. Barbara took the nouns from the song and unoacked with the children singular and plural. they looed at Augen . Ohren,and compared Knie and Kopf to this.the children saw easily how Augen and Ohren were plural nouns. Knie stayed the same explained Barbara when we talk about one knee or more than one knee. Barbara looked first at singular ailments . The new phrases today were "tut weh" and  "tun weh" .,It was introduced so simply and I noticed that all the children accepted the change from "tut" to "tun" and coud use this accurately!

First children practised saying to Barbara with feeling that an arm or a long or tummy hurt.she let them decide what they wanted to say .She wrote clearly on the board an example "Mein Knie tut weh" putting the new verb phrase in red marker. Then once she felt the children were confident she changed to plural nouns the children knew and for one minute I thought she  was going to write this incorrectly "Mein Augen tun weh". She used the red marker pen to show how when we use "mein" to talk about two or more of something....we add a  missing "E" on "mein.." in red!

Time for a dramatic moment! A simple pair activity where the children had to act out and say with feeling where they were hurting.WhatI loved ,was to see the class teacher joining in with great enthusiasm too! It was a classroom full of gentle praise and after the activity Barbara complimented the children on the way they had use expression to say their phrases.she asked for volunteers to share what they had said and was delighted when one little girl said "Es geht mir schlecht , mein Bauch tut weh!" After the lesson we discussed when and how to add subirdinating conjunctions and decided the time would be next year ... maybe next lesson  Barbara will try asking the children to use "und" as an easy to use conjunction.     ,

Barbara now explained that the children were going to pretend to go to the doctors and tell the doctor that they were poorly .She set the scene and suggested that the children think about questions and answers they may need in this context - name, how feeling, age , and don't forget the birthday question as the doctor can check on computer files for a patient's records with birthdates etc! I liked the fact that the start of the lesson and the birthday question and the fact that Barbara is building bank of simple questions and answers was woven in to the lesson theme "devising roleplays at the doctors".Barbara suggested a less challenging scenario too - in the playground ,saying hello , asking how someone is , finding out they are hurt... As you would expect the children loved this and set about performing the roleplay too ! 

Once again Barbara,class teacher and teaching assistant supported the children.

And finally there were the performances - always supported by Barbara if necessary. 

These children are learning the skills of learning a language.They are thoroughly enjoying learning German.Some of the children already speak other languages too. As has struck me so many times in the snapshot lesson reports in my blog , the learning was appropriate for the age and stage of the children and progress was made and we are laying firm foundations upon which KS3 can build whether children stay with the same language or change languages.They  were fully engaged and understood the purpose of their learning.The learning encouraged the practise of language learning skills: memory, recall, pronunciation, accuracy ,exploration and udnerstanding of basic grammar and progress in three of the four core skills: listening ,speaking and reading.

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Snapshot of language learning ten

Meet Claire! If you follow our Facebook Page "Primary Languages Network" then you may already know Claire as she is the administrator of  the page. Claire is a primary trained PGCE French specialism associate language teacher.She was the MFL Subject Coordinator in a local school and now helps to support Primary Languages Network member schools and coordinators with 1 to 1 primary languages consultancy. Claire also coordinates the St Helens Local Network Meetings as part of our DFE KS2 MFL PoS project with WTSA. Today Claire was busy with her day job as an Associate Languages Teacher for Primary Languages Network  As part of their annual support and CPD I am carrying out a series of observations and feeding back the lessons via the blog posts to the other associates and also network member schools.Claire and the school will also receive a Feedback and Next Steps report too,

Every Tuesday Claire works in a school where the expectations of the school are that teachers and teaching assistants remain in class and work alongside her to enable effective provision for all the children.The coordinator works very closely with Claire and there is now quite a rigorous system of tracking and assessment that informs next steps and underpins the teaching and learning.Taking a look at their French books I was really pleased to see that all the children have the Puzzle It Out sheets from our PLN Assessment Tools dated,completed and stuck in. The activities are helping school to show the progress across the 4 core skills.I love the way the child here has phonetically tried to write the question he/she was able to say to their partner in nthe spoken activity! 

Staff receive support and training from Claire and Charlotte the coordinator during the year.I have been working with this school since 2008 via a language assistant programme for Warrington and have taught languages at the school myself too .What I was delighted to see today was just how much the school has grown in its understanding of effective teaching and learning of French and how embedded the learning is in whole school learning.

So what did I see today? Well we started with a song! One of my favourites "Jean petit qui danse..."!

The children knew the song and could sing the song well. Today Claire encouraged them to follow the words and practise their pronunciation and to "read aloud" and along as they sang.The children loved all the actions and were delighted when it was time to "just dance"! 

I have observed Claire quite a few times over the last 6 or 7 years .The atmosphere in Claire's classrooms are always calm and focused and the activities are well chosen and well paced.She gives the children time to think and discuss and keeps the learning inclusive. She asked the children to think about the key body parts they had sung and already knew.She asked if the children could explain to her what they knew about the French command "touchez" and what it meant.I noted down this interesting and thoughtful response from this Year 4 eight year old  child- the class have obviously been making steady and good progress in their ability to "explore patterns and sounds" in French  :  

“Well I think it means “touch” and it is spellt like our word “touch” with an “ez” on the end but you say “sh “ for the “ch” and “ay”for the “ez” and it’s what you say when you ask others to touch something!”

Claire asked the children to revisit and recall the body parts and use the command "touchez" in a simple stand up and work with a partner game.The teacher and the teaching assistant joined in too. Again what was noticeable was the calm and also the time to work through the activity that was built in to the  pace of the activity.

Claire walked around the room listening in and at the end of the activity praised the children who had made the challenge more difficult by adding the simple conjunction "et" so that they could use more than one body part,using language they already knew to do this! The children had sung the noun "le ventre" in "Jean petit qui danse" .Claire asked the children if they could match this to another noun on her flipchart "l'estomac".Now the focus turned to nouns ... as the children were about to work on their "aliens".

In my observations so far (you can take a look at snapshot of language learning 1-9 earlier in this blog) I have found it remarkable how the KS2 children are able to confidently consider,discuss and show "understanding of basic grammar" .They are able to apply this knowledge too and support each other as they do this.Today of course as we were looking at body parts we were looking at nouns in the singular and plural (definite articles/determiners). Claire asked the children what type of words had they had to remember for the pair activity and what type of words were written around the flipchart on cards. Below I have recorded the discussion that followed:

“Claire: What kind of words are they?
Child 1:Things
Claire: What do you mean by “things”
Child 1”Nouns”
Claire:”What do these nouns do?”
Child 2: “They name the body parts “
Claire:”Ok, so what can you tell me about these nouns?”
Child 3: “Well le and la is for one thing and les is for more than one thing”
Claire: That’s right there are two words for “the” in the singular,le and la, and one word for “the” in the plural ,les. Have a look! And do you know that in France children learn this by saying the le or the la before the noun when they first say them “
”

In a previous lesson the children had explored writing their own descriptions of aliens to help them work toward the skills required to meet the DfE KS2 MFL PoS AT "describe people,places,objects and actions orally and in writing" .Today Claire was going to explore with the children their developing reading skills.....Here is a piece from one of the children's books of the written work they had done. 

Claire  reminded the children about their alien descriptions and then asked them to help her create a plural noun "heads" as her alien had four heads! Once again I recorded the conversation between Claire and the children.

“So my alien had four heads .Mm heads is that singular or plural?

It’s plural

Why?

Well it is more than one head.

Okay, so how am I going to write this?

Use les and then put an “s” on the end of tête.

So it looks like this? “ têtes”
What can’t you hear when I say the word?

The s” .It has a silent “s” on the end.

Well done!When we write it we see it but when we say it we don’t hear it!
”

The class moved on to discuss adjectives  and the agreement and position of adjectives.Once again there were responses from around the classroom. Again please remember these are Year Four children ,eight year olds, and what I noticed, was the number of children with hands up that understood and wanted to share their knowledge. With our PLN SOW we have been working on nouns and adjectives for 18 months now  with Year 4 children  and it appears to be paying off" 

“So my alien had four heads “quatre têtes” and it had orange fingers ...mm how did I write that?

Les doigts oranges

What do we call the type of word “oranges”

It is an adverb - no an adjective!

That’s right an adjective and why did I write it that way?

Because adjectives go after the noun in French

Always? No , no sometimes there are adjectives that you write before the noun.

Can you remember any?

Yes, petit and grand

Well done so how would I say big orange fingers?

Les grands doigts oranges
”

So far during the lesson ,the class had joined in had sung a song , followed and read aloud the text , looked at familiar and unfamiiar nouns, shared knowledge of sound spelling links, shared and consolidated understanding of nouns in the singular and plural and the use of silent letters on plural nouns.Plus the class had revisited and c0ntinued to explore adjectives and agreement and reminded themselves of the two adjectives they already know that precede a noun in French. Claire now set up the final task - a translation task which allowed the children to practise their reading skills , look for nouns and adjectives and  read aloud the text for a purpose and with accurate pronunciation, .The children worked in pairs on the text - to find out what the alien in the description looked like and they used each others' knowledge plus display, written and picture support around the room. The TA supported several children so that they were also successful as they worked through the text. Claire and Charlotte moved around the classroom and listened to the children's discussions and supported where necessary . The children loved this activity as they really wanted to know what Claire's alien today looked like plus afterwards they were going to draw the alien! Take a look here....

At the end of the lesson,Claire took feedback .Children read aloud the text bit by bit .Their pronunciation of key letter strings  of "ieds","qua" "jau" yeux" rouge" was accurate. they described the alien to Claire and identified the tricky bits.

“Well it wasn’t deux becaiuse it was spellt des and so it is eyes

It wasn’t one eye because one eye is un oeil and the word is in the plural “yeux”

Ther alien has green hair and you have to think about it when you read it in French and turn it around to say it in English

It said “mon” and that looks like “mine” so we think it means “my”.That makes sense!”

This was a lesson that made me think!

If Year 4 can do this now - just what will we be able to achieve with this cohort of learners as they move on in to secondary school in two more years time?

  

 

   

  

 

 

  

 

Ofsted Guidance, Effective Provision with PLN Support

We welcome the release of Ofsted guidance this week about Primary Language Learning and that also secondary colleagues can demonstrate that they are “cognisant" of prior learning and progress in KS2 MFL.

We are  delighted that there have been informal reports of the inclusion of a question in the Ofsted pupil questionnaires about “enjoyment of primary language learning”.

We  help all our network schools, existing and future,to meet the requirements of the DfE KS2 MFL PoS .The subject planning, teaching resources and network community help schools to meet the requirements set out in the Ofsted guidance.

At the heart of all we are trying to achieve in primary language learning is making progress in language learning skills through the“craft of the primary classroom”.

We hope that this blog post offers network schools and prospective members clarity and helps these  schools feel secure that they can or do meet  the requirements set out in the Ofsted guidance.

Let’s take a look at this first video guidance from Ofsted (March 2016):  

The key points to consider are that Ofsted: 

  • "does not have a view on which foreign language should be taught"

We offer schools a choice of three comprehensive SoW in French,Spanish and German in line with the DfE KS2 MFL PoS Attainment Targets. There are KS1 learning packs in French and Spanish from YR to Y2. Our Treasure chest materials contain taster language activities in Italian and Mandarin Chinese

  • "does not have a view on how it should be taught"

The Network VLE offers schools a wide range of options to support delivery models.Our “effective provision” has developed over time and we are able to offer a dynamic service, able to review and adapt our materials and support to meet schools' requirements..

The comprehensive KS2 SoW can act as a training manual for less experienced classroom practitioners.We now offer Ready Made French and Spanish, thematic packs of learning based on the SOW with identified DfE KS2 MFL ATs and language learning skill lesson objectives. The 19 Cross Curricular thematic folders allow teachers to select learning packs linked to the whole school curriculum and the Creative Curriculum Simple Solutions help teachers dovetail language learning with whole school teaching and learning approaches. Seasonal Specials offer language learning linked to cultural events during the school year.This wide range of choices and flexibility sits within a clear framework of progression in language learning skills.

  • does not have a view on the amount of time that's allocated to learning the foreign language

Flexibility is key in primary schools. We work with schools that plan for 30 minutes through to 60 minute lessons or 10 minutes per day or different year groups in alternate half terms  and mixed age classes.We have tried to ensure that the SoW offers this flexibility.Teachers can select key activities,use the “Follow Up” activities instead or leave  a follow up activity for the class teacher if a PPA teacher or TA delivers the language teaching.

  • “effectiveness of provision”

We offer schools guidance, consultancy and “1 to 1” teacher support to plan for long term effective primary language learning across KS2 (and in KS1 and on in to Y7 KS3).

The "School Implementation Plans" and CPD Tools offer schools  both downloadable and interactive support as school progresses through our four stages of MFL development – starting off, developing , establishing and enhancing - to achieve outstanding primary language teaching and learning

We are at the end of the email or phone to support schools with questions and next steps and can deploy an appropriately qualified and experienced colleague to school to support. We offer staff language upskilling, pedagogy CPD, subject coordinator “1 to 1” support or SLT consultancy, staff meetings, network local meetings and webinars. Take a look at our CPD Training Schedule.

  • progress in the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing

Our KS2 Primary Languages SoW ensures “progress in the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing”. Each lesson works toward  the mastery of a DfE KS2 MFL Attainment Target. The children explore regularly the phonics of the language, language learning skills and develop an understanding of basic grammar (nouns, adjectives, some common present tense verbs).

  • evidence that pupils ...are able to develop accurate pronunciation

Authentic native speaker listening materials such as song clips, story clips, podcasts, and sound files ensure that children have the opportunities to “develop accurate pronunciation”. The VLE allows teachers to access directly authentic song and, story sound files plus authentic native speaker video clips that are age and stage appropriate and of interest to the children. Below is a Year 4 child in February 2016 reading aloud her own independent writing about an outer space character and working towards being able to "describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing"

  • evidence that pupils are given increasing opportunities to develop their language skills

 “Let’s Read” KS2 activities develop and explore reading skills from sound spelling links to reading aloud and reading comprehension tasks. “Phonics Footpaths”  explore core sound spelling links and the  “Pupil Portfolio  helps teachers gather evidence to demonstrate independent work "describing people,places, things and actions orally and in writing".

  • evidence that pupils are given increasing opportunities...... (to be)..... able to develop simple sentences, moving to joining these sentences together

The core teaching and learning includes writing activities from Year 3 onwards  to explore the writing of simple target language words, phrases and sentences.

"Talk and Write” Year 3 to Year 6 creative writing packs allow teachers to help  children create imaginative written and spoken stories linked to the core SoW. 

  • encouraged to use resources to support their language learning such as dictionaries 

“Bilingual Dictionary Wizards”  offers teachers a step by step guide to the use of the dictionary in language learning.Below you can see KS2  children in Bruche CP Warrington using Spanish English bilingual dictionaries to find unusual animals for their fantastical animal writing.

 

  • "We look at the children's work,we look in books, we observe lessons, we look at the work that's displayed on the walls" 

The network VLE allows schools to upload,collate and store all their work in their own secure “User Files“. Schools load up pictures of work on mini- whiteboards, photographs of activities, display,scans of children’s creative written or Art work, sound files and videos as evidence of effective provision,progress in the four core skills and enjoyment of learning. The VLE “Network Blog” and “Network Sharing” hub allow schools to share excellent and innovative practice and outcomes.

  • “Well placed to move to further study”

Over the last four years we have been working through a variety of ways to track and assess the progress our children are making .We now have an effective system in place that tracks progress in the four core skills, phonics and grammar across KS2.

As mentioned before we have made this a flexible procedure so that teachers can adapt the assessment to suit their own school’s requirements. Some of our schools assess half termly, termly and currently only assess formatively or informally. We support schools to make the right decision for their own individual requirements and circumstance

 “Puzzle It Out” activity sheets track progress in the four core skills across KS2. The“Phonics Tracker”  and “Grammar Tracker” identify key opportunities and suggested activities to assess this progress.

Class tracking sheets give class teachers and SLT an overview of the teaching and learning taking place half term by half term.Teachers can record progress in core skills on the  our assessment spread sheets and whether pupils are emerging, meeting or exceeding our “Assessment Benchmark Descriptors”. Children can reflect on their own progress using our AfL Clouds.. 

  • “Progress over time”

This second Ofsted guidance video clip suggests that  KS3 and KS4 colleagues must demonstrate how secondary language learning builds upon KS2 language learning and the progress their pupils make over time.   

Since 2011 our work has been shared with local secondary school colleagues and this year we are working with four high schools and their local primary schools to share good practice and look for next steps and ways forward. The VLE has allowed us to set up secure shared areas for each transition group of schools. Primary and secondary colleagues have access to all the materials on the VLE and are establishing local and effective ways of sharing data and anecdotal evidence of the progress being made in KS2 language learning. KS3 and KS4 colleagues in these groups are now cognisant with the progress being made in KS2 language learning skills and planning ways to build upon the foundations laid in KS2 language learning whether or not the children change languages.

I welcome the fact that in this video KS2, 3 and 4 are all mentioned. A bridge has been identified  between key stages and I look forward to helping  current and future network ,members both primary and secondary build bridges between schools and stages that affords “ effective provision” and “progress over time”!

You may be interested to look at the "Associate Language Teachers blog post "snapshots of their lessons" and how we are working toward mastery of the DfE KS2 MFL PoS ATs.

Membership of Primary Languages Network is available to all schools, please view our online flyer for further information and membership options.

 

 

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Associate Language Teaching and Effective Progress (DfE KS2 MFL PoS ATs)

The Primary Languages Network Associate Teacher/Assistant Programme currently supports 47 schools.The service aims "to develop primary language learning which embraces the craft of the primary classroom and that addresses the DfE KS2 MFL Pos Attainment Targets". The DfE Attainment Targets require all KS2 pupils in schools to work toward being able to :

§ listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding
§ explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words
§ engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help*
§ speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures
§ develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases*
§ present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences*
§ read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
§ appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language
§ broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary
§ write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly
§ describe people, places, things and actions orally* and in writing 
§ understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.

The Primary Language Network Associate Teachers deliver French or Spanish but can also offer German and Russian in the primary classroom .The associates work from the PLN SoW long term planning and schools have access to this plus the medium term plans and lesson plans for each lesson taught in both KS1 and KS2. Class "Tracking Sheets" are available to establish dialogue and information sharing between associates, SLT  and class teachers.Children are provided with AfL Clouds so they can share their own assessment of progress. All the  resources are available to schools on the network VLE from story power points to class trackers and AfL clouds .

  • An example of the outer space family story(which was read and annotated with a Year 4 French class on nouns and body parts, during an associate observation).
  • An example of the Year 5 AfL Clouds for Spring (,which had been used to inform the associate teacher's next steps in the planning and preparation of learning objectives in the lesson observed).

The Associate Teachers now offer schools the additional service of assessment across the 4 core skills listening,speaking,reading and writing and also the tracking of progress in phonics and understanding basic grammar. All these tools are available to both schools and the associates via our  PLN VLE "Subject Planning Area" and can be shared in the "School User File" secure area of the PLN VLE. Learning can be adapted and bespoke cross curricular units created to dovetail with whole school curriculum and events. 

Progress in line with the DfE PoS Attainment Targets and the performance of the Associate Teachers is supported by regular CPD and planning meetings and webinars.Observations, feedback and support for each Associate Teacher is taking place this term.Outcomes are shared with both associates and the schools. 9 of the 14 associates have been observed so far. Snapshots of the lessons offer the associates informal CPD .Observations so far demonstrate how effective the programme has become in supporting children in schools to progress effectively in their language learning.Lessons observed include: 

  • links with culture and current celebrations and events in target language countries (for example, carnival)
  • authentic songs and games to encourage learners to appreciate authentic stories and songs
  • progression in asking and answering questions in the target language
  • active learning involving drama and dialogues to help children devise roleplays
  • explore and practising language learning skills of  memory and recall
  • encouraging our learners to becaome confident young speakers of the language , able to add opinions and make their case or contradict arguments in a simple way.

All associate teachers focus upon accurate pronunciation and intonation .The activities and strategies practised are appropriate for the age and stage of the  learners from sound spelling links in Year 3 beginners' learning to reading aloud confidently sentences in Year 4  to exploring unfamiliar language and looking for familiar sounds as the children progress. In all lessons observed the associate teachers explorered or reinforced target language learning stage appropriate phonics activities and strategies.Below are some examples evidenced:

Evidence of Year 4 reading aloud in French own creatiev sentence writing.

Spanish Year 6 challenge activity discussing and exploring unfamiliar adjectives amd applying  their bank of pronunciation and comprehension strategies to do this, to prepare spoken language to be able to create opinons about sport with interesting adjectives

Speaking and writing in full sentences was evidenced in all four year groups.There was evidence of progression in the development of the language learning skills to achieve this from: 

  • supported activities with sound spelling links and hesitant writers in beginners' Spanish Year 3 
  • to confident  access and use of bilingual dictionaries with Year 3 learners who have prior language learning in KS1.......

......and who can now produced imaginative target language writing ,using nouns and adjectives accurately and to work toward describing people,places and actions orally and in writing

  • practising writing sequences of simple sentences: noun, verb, adjective in Year 4,which the children were then goint to self check and correct if necessary.
  • independent writing  in Year 5 to describe people ,places and actions orally and in writing
Y5 message in a bottle .JPG

 

  • and practising writing from memory in Year 5
  • accurate writing in a range of sentences ,using verbs accurately to describe daily routine and actions

The development of reading skills from beginners to stage four learners in Year 6 was an integral part of the language learning evidenced. This ranged from questions and answers on carnival masks and envelope guessing games to domino en chaine and card sorts or dialogue building.

Understanding basic grammar was evidenced across Year 3 to Year 6 .It was age and stage appropriate and all the children in the classes were engaged in the explorations and the activities.The children demonstrated a clear understanding of the aspects of structure they were exploring. 

From exploring nouns to name animals with Year 3 beginners

 

  • to exploring masculine,feminine,singular and plural nouns with stage 2 learners 

 

  • to playing a dice game to create accurate simple sentences with adjectives agreeing with the noun
  • to exploration of extended sentences with conjunctions 
  • and practising the verb "avoir" in French to create a "wizard's spell".

The intention of the Associate Language Teacher/Assistant Programme is to provide a reliable, regular effective teaching and learning service.Depending upon the service the school requires it is sometimes not only for the children but also to upskill class teachers and teaching assistants. I have been delighted to see class teachers joining in and feeling confident in their own ability to learn a new language and to support children with their learning. So I will finish with snapshots of some wonderful non- specialists learning and working alongside some of our  associate teachers!

Learning and joining in (identifying masculine and feminine nouns,plural or singular)

Targeting support (during whole class French verb explorations) 

Teaching confidently the strategies to access language (explaining how to use the bilingual dictionary) !