Coordinators' March Checklist

Here is your March Coordinators' checklist.Some of the list below is pertinent to network members but some may be of interest and of use to non-network members too.Click on the months highlighted and  can look back at our September,October,November,December and , February Coordinators' Checklists too.

Our Network News blog page on the website has a record of up to date class activities and outcomes too that you may find really useful to share with colleagues.Here is an example of work produced by network schools that we share and hope inspires you to do something similar:

Take a look here at all the ideas and work shared so far this year.

Network News

Our annual conference is on Thursday 29 June .The theme is "Progress with Primary Languages" .There will now be four key note presenters and also a  choice of  workshops led by local practitioners too.All school members for 2017-18 will receive a free delegate's place.You can now register and if you take a look here you can find out more about the conference and also book your place. Primary Languages Conference details and registration.

You have probably already seen the C'est Emilie French clips.We are making these for evey half term of the PLN Ready Made French SoW and start on the Spanish equivalents this Friday.Here is a blog post of ideas to develop the language of the clips back in the classroom learning environment. C'est Emilie

The first " Es Irene " clip is up on You Tube and for network members  all the French and Spanish clips are being put in Ready Made French and Spanish in the appropriate half term areas. Transcripts of the key language will be added shortly on the VLE .

We are also in the process of producing target language support powerpoints for all 24 half term blocks in Ready Made French  and also in Ready Made Spanish.These will hopefully add a new dimension of support for staff on top of the Keywords and Phrases sheets and sound files we already have on the VLE. Watch out for an email alert as they go up on the VLE.

Local Spring networking twilights continue in to March in Warrington,St Helens,Sefton, Knowsley ,Halton, Manchester.We are also going to trial a LNM webinar led by myself in March for those of you who can't attend a local meeting .Watch out for this email,to be sent out very soon. Registration is available on the PLN website here .Focus is on "Spring in your Step"- Jack and the Beanstalk, healthy fruit salad master chef performances ,plant pot stories etcetra.These meetings are free and open to everyone.Resources will be put on the VLE in the Network Resources area in the local network meeting file later this month.

Emilie has started her new role within our organisation as the "Associate Teacher Coordinator. She is writing snapshots of the lessons she observes and I love them ,They bring a fresh new perspective.If she visits your school to observe as associate then she would also like to meet with you as coordinator to look at how effective the associate teacher programme can be / is already in school.Take a look at the snapshots so far of lessons: starting with the snapshot of Jayne and continuing with snapshots of Kate K, Sally and Janet W. 

It's worth taking a look in the Subject Planning area of the VLE and looking  in the MFL coordinators' Toolkit as new additions include French, German and Spanish versions of the marking code sheets that Robert produced for his own use in Barrowhall .Thanks Robert .

We have also added a Governors' presentation folder with presentation and handouts should you be asked to present to either SLT or governors.We think this will be really useful .Thanks to Cathy at St Andrew's for requesting this.  

Thanks also to Tricia at Our Lady's for sharing her Pupil Voice questionnaire as we have been able to put a generic version of this up on the VLE in the MFL Coordinators' toolkit so you can also access and use this if you need to.

I have just written this blog post with reflections based on an outstanding lesson I recently observed at Evelyn Street.Really I just wanted to reflect upon why  Spansh is becoming such an effective and integral part of learning at the school.There may be a few ideas here that you will want to consider as your next steps toward building effective and sustainable language learning supported by our network service .Seriously fun learning blog post. 

And now finally ideas and resources you may wish to look at, save or share with others to celebrate special calendar events this month,Don't forget that there are many more in Seasonal Specials on the VLE and also running through the main body of the Ready Made SoW on the VLE .....

Check out our Carnival resources. We have built carnival in  to the body of the lesson plans in Ready Made French and Spanish and the German SOW .You may also like to use our additional ideas in Teaching Resources area in Seasonal Specials Spring 2 folder.

Check out our World Book Day  resources and lesson plannning - based on stories from Aliens in Underpants ,How to train your Dragon and Dennis the Menace or Elmer the Explorer to Jack and the Beanstalk and the Enormous Turnip. There are also more creative speaking and wrting activities based on types of books we like to read and class surveys.Feedback about reading triaramas used by Carmelina this week is that the children loved them!

Finally this month, why not link your school's Easter celebrations to cultural traditions of Easter in the target language country or countries? Our Seasonal Specials Spring 2 folder has a dedicated Easter folder to help you,including an Easter egg hunt story aournd the garden in French,Spanish and German.Maybe you could use this as a stimulus for older children to create an Easter egg hunt in the target language for LKS2 around your school grounds or playground?   

Seriously, fun learning

Emilie now observes our associate teachers and I am really enjoying her "Snapshots" as blog posts on this site.They offer a fresh look "with new eyes" at what I have seen developing over 6 years in the classrooms where associate teachers work. I am still going in to schools to support and to observe often with SLT and I want to share my observation of our associate Steph Stewart in one of the primary schools.She works one morning a week as an associate Spanish teacher in Evelyn Street CP Warrington.

 

What a delight this observation was! I have highlighted in bold the core components that are making Spanish so successful with these young learners as I write this blog post.

  • Time allocation
  • Investment of money
  • Contuniuity
  • Aspiration
  • Clear,shared vision from leadership
  • Sharing good practice,
  • AfL
  • Tracking progress.

This school has invested time and money in the development of the primary language teaching and learning of Spanish actually from before 2011 and the school continues to do so. The headteacher is aspirational and  very much wants all the children in her school to have the same broad quality learning opportunities as children in other schools in more affluent areas.

Since 2011, Ana delivered Spanish in school and the children have always had excellent pronunciation due to the fact that they were taught by a native speaker.We idenitifed this as a need for all scghools whether they work with native or fluent teachers or not  so we strive on our VLE to offer all our schools access to quality language and native speaker sound files.

Since September 2016 , there has been a change of language teacher and now Steph, associate Spanish language teacher works in class supported by class TA(s) and class teachers across KS1 and KS2 . Steph is a primary class teacher .She became the associate teacher in September 2016 after moving from her previous role as  a KS2 Year 6 teacher. She is naturally exuberbant and her teaching style is  dynamic and enthusiastic. I am very fortunate to work alongside master practitioners such as Steph (often initially trained by Hope University via the PGCE Primary MFL programme).The changeover between Ana and Steph was smooth because Ana was working already with our VLE SoW and also most certainly because the school has committed to AfL and tracking progress of MFL and

  • Staff  engagement
  • Commitment by both staff and SLT
  • Part of the whole school curriculum

What was immediately noticeable, was the engagement of staff  and this was definitely not just because I was in the room.Teachers and TAs were learning alongside the children and also were able to support , guide and encourage all the chldren. The whole class (children and staff knew where they were up to in the learning. "I am learning so much about how to understand  a language" said one member of staff ,supporting a small group. "I am delighted with what the children are all achieving.We keep making links across the curriculum and it is really helping the children" said thre Y6 class teacher.  The role model of teachers learning with the children and actually sometimes being supported by the children was delightful to see.

 

  • Dynamic learning
  • Encouraging learners' independence
  • Rewarding individual's successes
  • Supporting each other.

Year 6 were "warming up" by revisiting last week's speaking focus on sports in Spanish. At the start of the lesson the class was revisiting sports and opinions from last week.Two girls,one higher and one lower ability, were debating with each other in front of the class  sport and their opinions about gymnastics.I wouldn't have known that there was any difference in ability as they were locked in a Spanish dialogue about gymnastics - using likes, dislikes, conjunctions,opinions and extended sentences to argue for and against gymnastics as a favourite sport.The Year 6 class teacher was thrilled to see how both girls participated in the simple, effective debate and challenged each other.  The class were revisiting prior learning. Steph was animated and encouraging both girls to "wobble those brains" and keep the "debate on fire". "Languages don't always need to be easy" she declared.

  • Learning from and building upon other experiences
  • Sharing across the whole network

Steph had adapted a great activity set up by Joanne Hornby at Barrowhall CP two years ago which Joanne calls cafe conversation conunmdrums.With UKS2 we love this activity as the children can feel really independent and able to express their own opinons not just the teacher's.Joanne is another of Hope's wonderful PGCE Primary MFL alumni !

Cafe Conumdrum Snapshot of Learning link is here , should you like to know more. It is now a part of your Y6 Ready Made French and Spanish SOW.

  • Importance of progression
  • Building on prior knowledge and skill development
  • Age,challenge and skill appropriate activities

Today we visited  a Spanish theme park,Porta Ventura,online and set off on an exploration of language to describe funfairs,as  part of our Ready Made Spanish SOW. Steph set the scene and shared the website with the children.  Steph is following our Ready Made SOW,developed over the last 6 years and which now has progression in 4 core skills, grammar, phonics and generic language learning skills. This means children build on prior understanding and knowledge to move forward one more step at a time. Each focus is chosen to be age appropriate and to support and challenge the children's language learning skills.We identify that potentially children will learn a different language in KS3 so children are actively encouraged to explore transferable language learning skills. These are some of the core tools of the VLE and the SOW .What Steph demonstrated is how teachers can take the fundamental framework and make it pertinent to the class. 

  • Purposeful learning built upon familiar scenarios
  • Using resources in the classroom to best advantage
  • Linked with making exciting new discoveries on the way
  • Making those cultural links
  • Involving the wider community
  • Celebrating similarities and differences

I liked the way the children were asked to discuss in English funfairs and whether they had been to Alton Towers and how many times they may have been to our local Gullivers World and which were their favourite rides.

Too often, in my opinion, we make assumptions that children have already experienced certain activities or can just jump in to language learning.The fun fair website, the discusion and the engagement of class teachers,TAs chatting for a couple of minutes about this was a great way to get everyone engaged.

Too often too, we are so busy with the lesson that we don't necessarily use resources to their full advantage- for example Steph was able to involve the child who came from the Philipines with a different home language (Spanish) , to help recognise a ride that wan't even on the bilingual dictionary. You coud feel the immediate respect for this support from a classmate.

The new DfE Attainment Targets are our guide to teaching and learning.We must remember that cultural links keep it real and fascinating for learners no matter what age.To find out that rollercoasters are called "the russian mountain" in Spanish (and in French) was ojne of those facinating moments! Why? Well the rollercoaster was invented in Russia."Makes sense then!" said one of the children working with a TA. "Make sure you tell your family this intersting fact" said Steph ..and she made that link  between home ,parents, carera and the language learning in the classroom today , cultures and fascinating facts !

So in my opinion the ingredients in bold are helping this school to make effective and substantial progress as a whole school in primary language learning. I think these are goals for most schools developing primary languages. so what are the next challenges ....? 

  • Maybe for me the challenge is how do we achieve this in all our network schools?
  • How do we share this good practice more widely?
  • And for all of us engaged in language teaching - how do we as a language learning community work  with all teaching colleagues to build bridges of good practice that mean all our learners continue to progress forward into KS3 and KS4 and beyond? 

 

 

 

 

Snapshot of learning - Sally Riley

For my next observation I went to see Sally teaching Y3 at St Basil’s Catholic Primary School in Widnes.

Sally started teaching French at the school last Summer so the children are only just beginning their journey to language learning. She teaches half a day from Y3 to Y5 (30 minutes/lesson).

Sally started her lesson with a couple of songs about greetings and feelings and asking for names around the classroom – the children were clearly used to this routine and all felt confident answering ‘Ça va ?’ ‘Comment t’appelles-tu?’.

In the song the children were practicing both ‘Comment t’appelles-tu? and ‘Tu t’appelles comment?’ as you do in normal, real life, you don’t always ask questions the same way and it reminded me that it is important to be a bit more spontaneous when we are doing this kind of Q&A with classes. The added bonus here was obviously Victor the frog puppet – very appropriate with young children.

Today’s lesson was about animals, masculine/feminine and plural nouns.

Sally started by recalling the nouns introduced the previous week and she mentioned strategies like using memory hooks to remember them.

Then the class played a game of stand-up bingo where each child has a picture card and they have to listen carefully for their animal, if the teacher calls your animal, you’re out and you have to sit down! 

Before moving on to the next activity, Sally asked about the fact that some animal nouns had un, others une in front of them and checked children remembered from the previous lesson about the difference. At this stage you would only except some awareness of the concept of gender and it was evident the class had talked about it before.

Sally reinforced the objective of the lesson about plural – linking it to English.

Next instruction was to find your animal group, using their picture from the previous game the children had to go around the classroom whispering and doing the action for their animal, then sit around a table with their group.

On the table Sally had put envelops with singular and plural nouns inside. Children had to sort out the nouns in feminine, masculine and plurals.

The class spotted 2 nouns that didn’t follow the pattern (plural nouns have an ‘s’ at the end):  un cheval> des chevaux and un oiseau> des oiseaux’ which gave an opportunity to talk about exceptions. Sally pointed out that in the English language they were also some exceptions for example: mouse/mice. I enjoyed this activity as now the children are more likely to remember what exceptions are and that there are exceptions since they investigated them for themselves rather than being told about them by the teacher.

One thing I really enjoyed about Sally’s lesson was the prompts she used with the class, phrases such as ‘you have to remember to put a question in your voice’ (to remind children about intonation when asking a question); ask ‘experts’ on your table if you’re stuck; ‘close your eyes and listen carefully’ (to practice un/une); let’s investigate and be language detectives, etc. I also loved her sticker box!

Watching Sally you could tell that she is an experienced primary teacher and there is something about teaching languages in a ‘primary’ way which I had to learn when I first started working in primary schools having come from Secondary teaching.

Thank you Sally and Year 3 !

 

 

Snapshot of learning - Kate Kennedy

For my second observation I visited Kate Kennedy at Penketh Community Primary School in Warrington. I observed Kate teaching Spanish to a Y5 class (40 minutes). Kate has been teaching there for 2 years and teaches 1 day a week from Reception to Year 6.

The lesson objectives were to introduce fruit and vegetable vocabulary (with a cross-curricular link to the class ‘Fairy Tales’ topic as an introduction), recap sound-spelling links and practice a dialogue ‘At the market’.

As the class walked in from playtime, Kate played a song ‘la canción de las frutas’ as a hint of what the new topic was. I thought it was really effective at setting the scene for the lesson and as a result the children were settling in quickly and quietly – without Kate having to raise her voice or give any kind of settling in instructions. The tune of the song was catchy and it created a positive and fun atmosphere in the classroom.

As soon as the video was finished there was already a couple of hands up from children offering some interesting comments: “I think I heard the word for an orange, because I heard the colour ‘naranja" “ I remember manzana from Year 4 when we wear doing ice-cream flavours’.

Kate praised the children for making links to other topics and remembering vocabulary from the previous year.

To link in with the class topic of Fairy Tale, Kate showed a picture of Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage and led a pacey Q&A session on what other fruits or vegetable would make a good carriage and why/why not it would be a good alternative (using adjective of colour and size (i.e. grande/pequeno) – all in the target language supported by a powerpoint presention (reading) and actions to help understand adjectives.

Then Kate moved on to practice the new words with repetition and recall activities catering for all learning styles (auditory, visual, kinaesthetic).

After that, she introduced the written word as a way of consolidating the new vocabulary and used this opportunity to revisit what she called ‘tricksters’, sounds in Spanish words that don’t sound the same as in English (‘z’, ‘j’, etc.)  She gave the children 10 seconds in pairs to spot the tricksters (highlighted letter(s)) and practice pronouncing the word before taking feedback from volunteers.

The class then practiced writing the words from memory on laminates ‘Can you write the words on your laminate? Don’t worry about mistakes – we can rub it out and correct’. The class was reminded and encouraged to write the article (un/una) in front of the noun.

To finish, the class practiced a dialogue ‘at the market’ in pairs.

I really enjoyed watching this lesson and thought it was very cleverly put together with a lot of recalling without it being too repetitive, careful scaffolding leading the children to be able to read, understand and perform a dialogue (focussing on accurate pronunciation). I enjoyed Kate’s gentle and relaxed manners, use of target language (backed up by English) throughout. I noticed that Kate used up any opportunities for AfL through questioning and the class raised to the challenge.

After Kate’s lesson I met up with the MFL Co-ordinator and I was really impressed with the clear vision the school have for MFL and how well embedded MFL seems to be with the rest of the curriculum and the school through the award of the ‘class of the week’ in assembly, Spanish choir, Lingo club (where children can get a taste for other languages), link abroad, etc.  You could definitively feel that languages were valued.

 

 

 

Learn "to like" by heart 2

My last  blog post looked at active ways to explore and practise the present tense verb conjugation of "to like" or "to love" in French (and German) .Learn to like by heart 1

Let's play card games now to learn to like by heart .....

You will need sets of playing cards.You can make your own or select and buy from here  Active Lingo in the  French or German shops .Network members can access all the resources in Seasonal Specials on the VLE in the Spring 1 folder:Valentine's Day.

start the lesson with the activities or some of the activities that are appropriate from "Learn to like by heart 1" blog post

Give out sets of cards and set the children the following tasks

Singular Plural Sort

  • Can the children sort the cards into two groups - singular and plural?

 

 Partner person cards

  • Can the children find the person partners e,g 1st person singular/plural partners or 3rd person singular person partners? 

Verb pattern galleries.

  • Ask the children to organsie the cards in to patterns for themselves
  • Ask the children to write labels that describe the grammar patterns they have created and set these lables to one side away from the patterns of cards.
  • Children should then invite other class members to come and look at the patterns and decide which label matches which pattern.
  • Can the children create their own " verb galleries" in their books, with heart patterns, key target language parts of the verb and labels to explain the grammar pattern?

Learn "to like " by heart.

  • Valentine's Day ! Let's conjugate the present tense of the verb "to like" in French.It will work with "to love" in French too and it works with"to love (lieben)"  in German!

Pass the message on

  • Take a look at the present tense conjugation of the verb as a visual disolay for the class.
  • In the style of famous cartoon film characters,as a class practise the pronunciationand the conjugation of the verb .I would use characters from Shrek that added humour e.g. associated with love - Shrek and the Princess, Donkey and the Dragon, or why not superman and Lois Lane.....
  • Now add actions which associate the meaning of the verb with the part of the present tense verb.The class are going touse their arms , hands and hearts to demonstrate the verb. Stand the class up and practise with them the following active conjugation of the verb. (In German you will need to add actions for It" and also consider "Sie" and you polite part of verb)  
  1. Place a closed fist on heart :I like
  2. Move a closed fist from the heart toward another person: you (singular) like
  3. Move a closed fist from the heart and open fist and point index finger toward a male person: he likes
  4. Move a closed fist from the heart and open fist and point index finger toward a female person : she likes .
  5. Place both closed fists on heart :we like
  6. Move both closed fists from the heart toward two other people: you (plural) like
  7. Move both closed fists from the heart and open fists and point both index fingers toward two males: they like
  8. Move both closed fists from the heart and open fists and point both index fingers toward a male and a female: they like
  9. Move both closed fists from the heart and open fists and point both index fingers toward two females: they like
  • Now add music such as "Where is the love?" and ask the class to listen to the beat.
  • Divide the class in to groups of four - two male ,two female preferably and ask the class to create a performance linking the targte language verb, the actions above and the beat and rhythm of the song to create their own" Pass the message :Where is the love?" rap

Yoga with French at Moston Lane Primary- A review from Steph

I have been very fortunate to work with the Year 5 pupils of Moston Lane Primary School for 6 sessions of Yoga with French and I have been taken aback by their eager participation and remarkable progression. Yoga is well known for its many health benefits such as increasing self-esteem, improving the digestive system and helping to regulate sleep patterns and I think that it is really important that these are introduced at a young age. Pair that with French and you have a unique learning experience that has proved to be both enjoyable and successful! I have witnessed the confidence and concentration of these pupils soar during the 6 sessions. What started off as: “I don’t know if I can do yoga or speak French”, quickly turned into: “I can do this!” and this was particularly evident during the last couple of sessions where pupils are able to recognise yoga postures and respond to French commands very easily. They were particularly pleased with their certificates for completing the sessions and I know that they take these useful skills with them into teenage life as they hopefully continue with both Yoga and learning French.  

Snapshot of learning - Jayne Dewnsip

Today for my first observation, I watched Jayne at St Wilfrid’s CE Primary School in Grappenhall and after a few months on maternity leave it felt really nice to be back in the school environment and I think I've missed being in the classroom.

I’d arranged to see Jayne at 9.30 am with Year 4 but I was a little early and as I walked in as she was finishing the Year 3 lesson on animals.

It was a really positive start as I saw so many children joining in an activity of sorting out (cuddly toys) animals in sound baskets: ‘oi’ ‘ou’ ‘i’ ‘ch’, etc. Very effective activity with a focus on phonics and as Jayne pointed out effective for sound/writing link as she rightly said ‘now when you hear a word with the ‘ch’ sound as in cheval you’ll know how to write the sound.’

At the end of the lesson, the children were eager to show off to me (the visitor, the ‘real’ French person): “Bonjour, je m’appelle…, j’ai 7 ans, mon anniversaire est le… et je suis un garçon” – I was very impressed with the confidence and knowledge of this Year 3 boy.

I followed Jayne to her next lesson – she teaches across this 2 form entry school, 1 day a week (finishing at 2pm) so in total she teaches eight 30 minute lessons back to back (with only a break for lunch).

The lesson was about introducing parts of the face and using the new words in a sentence to describe alien’s faces (hair/eye + colour).

While she set up the lesson, the class teacher led a round of personal information Q&A which warmed up the class.

Jayne started by doing a quick recap of the previous week lesson when she introduced the Alien family topic: ‘Je suis le papa extra terrestre’ etc. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the class answered Jayne’s questions in full sentences when asked about the different members of the family. This was prompted by Jayne’s actions for each part of the sentence: Je suis / le papa extra-terrestre for example.

She explained the learning objective and linked it to the previous lesson ‘so we can then describe what the aliens look like’.

She introduced the vocabulary by pointing to and naming the different parts of the face.

Then she used one of our newest resources: ‘C’est Emilie’ video clips and it was really interesting for me to see it how the children reacted to it and interacted with Emilie, for example: answering when they hear ‘Ça va ?’, copying the actions, etc. Jayne paused the video after each activity for extra practice.

Jayne encouraged the children to make links with English for example ‘n as in nose’ and she finished with a game of ‘Repeat if it’s true’ before moving on to using the new words in a sentence: “les yeux ? C’est de quelle couleur?” Children suggested a variety of colours showing they understood her question asked in the target language.

Jayne demonstrated with different coloured eyes/hair the new structure: j’ai les yeux/cheveux + colour using the picture of the alien and changing the eyes/hair accordingly.

She paused and asked the children why they thought she was insisting on ‘les yeux bleus’ – one little boy quickly put his hand up to mentioned that it rhymed (it was not the expected answer but still showed developing listening skills…interesting!) The class picked up on the order of the words and with the help of the class teacher were keen to refer back to the correct terminology of adjectives and together with Jayne established that in French (most) adjectives go after the noun the descibe.

Finally, volunteers were asked to come to the board and make a sentence ‘J’ai les yeux bleus’ J’ai les cheveux verts’ and stick on the appropriate parts on the blank alien face. They were encouraged to go for 2 colours and a lot of the children voluntarily chose to challenge themselves.

Well done Jayne!

 

Coordinators' February Checklist

Here is your February Coordinators' checklist.Some of the list below is pertinent to network members but some may be of interest and use to non-network members too.You can look back at our September,October,November,December and January Coordinators' Checklists too

Our Network News blog page on the website has a record of up to date in class activities and outcomes too that you may find really useful to share with colleagues.Take a look here

Network News

Our annual conference is on Thursday 29 June .The theme is "Progress with Primary Languages" .There will be three key note presenters and a choice of  workshops led by local practitioners too.All school members for 2017-18 will receive a free delegate's place.You will be able to register from mid- February so watch your emails!

 

  • You have probably already seen the C'est Emilie French clips.We are making these for evey half term of the PLN Ready Made French SoW and start on the Spanish equivalents this Friday.Here is a blog post of ideas to develop the language of the clips back in the classroom learning environment. C'est Emilie
  • Have you attended a local network meeting?This brief information video clip gives you a flavour of what to expect

 

  • The local Spring networking twilights start on 8 February in West Cheshire and 9 February in Leigh followed by Warrington,St Helens,Sefton, Knowsley ,Halton, Cheshire South and East,Manchester ... Registration is available on the PLN website here .Focus is on "Spring in your Step"- Jack and the Beanstalk, healthy fruit salad master chef performances ,plant pot stories etcetra.These meetings are free and open to everyone.Resources will be put on the VLE in the Network Resources area in the local network meeting file later this month 

 

  • Have you seen the creative writing sheets which are linked to the half term focus of the PLN SoW? You can access these directly from Ready Made French and Spanish and they have been created in German too. 

 

  • Have you booked your free VLE support phone call and/or webinar with Will, oiur Network Support Coordinator? The phone call can take place at a time that suits you and focus on an aspect of the VLE that you want to explore or require support with.Contact him on william@primarylanguagesnetwork.co.uk .
  • Why not consider booking a free 20 to 30 minute input at a staff meeting with Will,as an introduction for all staff to the VLE and its tools? Contact him on william@primarylanguagesnetwork.co.uk.
  • Have you booked your free 1 2 1 consultancy yet with one of our associate teacher consultancy team? This meeting can take place in school or by phone and is a really valuable opportunity for you to discuss current school primary language teaching and learning and to set yourself achievable next steps and goals for primary languages in school. Just contact us via the website contact page to organise this. Take a look at this short information video clip too and find out why the 1 2 1 is so valuable.

As members of Primary Languages Network schools receive a 1 to 1 meeting with one of our Primary Languages Mentors For further details about joining Primary Languages Network please click the link below https://www.primarylanguages.net/membership

  • We are now offering "Yoga with French" and this may be something that school would like to book in as a summer festival day session or a treat after SATS.Read more about this here Yoga with French termly summary.
  • As we announced last month,Emilie Woodroffe has a new role within our organisation as the "Associate Teacher Coordinator. She will be visiting the associate schools both to observe the teaching and learning and to meet with the school MFL coordinators to discuss how we can enhance the associate teaching programme we provide in 49 of our network schools.Watch out for her "Snapshots" of lessons in the PLN Blog, starting on 1 February.
  • We are delighted to say that the first schools are now achieving the network Primary Languages Development Award.If school is interested then please get in contact with us. More details are here too. .Well done too Bruche CP and thanks for all your hard work toward this -Bethany Glynn!
  • Our Spring term Coordinators CPD was well attended .We offered this as both an afternoon and a twilight session and the focus was upon "Reading,Writing and Evidencing Progress". All network members can access all the materials, resources, a video training clip too in the Network Resources area of the VLE.Select the MFL coordinators CPD folder and then select the Spring 2017 file. We have sent out an email to inform all coordinators of this too. 
  • You can read more about ideas to develop reading and writing skills in these two blog posts 

Writing Down Progress

Reading Detectives' Ideas

And now finally ideas and resources you may wish to look at, save or share with others to celebrate special calendar events this month,Don't forget that there are many more in Seasonal Specials on the VLE and also running through the main body of the Ready Made SoW on the VLE .....

To celebrate la chandeleur on 2 February or Pancake Day,Valentine's Day and also to start planning for carniavl.Activities can be used  in all languages

Pancake Pile Challenge

Flavour Pancake Flipping

Dingbat pancakes

Radiant Hearts Sentences

Paul Klee Masks

Paul Klee Masks

Build faces filled with emotions using the layered picture of a face here in the Senecio painting by Paul Klee and create masks to celebrate carnival.

"I am .....First person singular masks

  • Practise emotions,feelings and characteristics with the children
  • Add actions to express the emotions.
  • Share the picture of Senecio with the class.
  • Ask the children to volunteer "spoken" phrases and words to express feelings , emotions and characteristics that they feel best match the different coloured patches on the face in the painting.
  • Give each child a circular piece of card large enough to cover their faces-  a paper plate would work well too. Ask the children to cut  two eyes  and draw a mouth and nose.
  • Ask the children to write out emotions, feelings and characteristics to describe themselves on strips of paper. 
  • Ask the children to add these written word strips to their card board face and glue them where they feel they best fit e.g. some emotions are expressed by the eyes (e.g sad/happy/tired/excited) or some adjectives may be best placed by a mouth beacuse they are about how talkative someone is ,other descriptive words may be feelings inside oneself so fit  in the brain so glued  to the forehead.
  • Ask the children to colour in their faces with colours that match/represent the messages on the individual written strips - so the children may select ...red for angry or active  adjectives , green for calm adjectives, yellow for happy adjectives etcetra. 

He is .../she is ..... 3rd person singular masks

  • Complete the same activities as above but this time either divide the face mask in to a male and a female half of a face or make one side of the mask male and the other side female.
  • Focus on accurate use of agreement when using "he is...2 and "she is ..." in the target language. 
  • You could use characters from a famous fairy tale or story for this. 

C'est Emilie!

Recently we have been busy adding to our large collection of VLE resources to support our network member schools as they develop primary language learning in their schools.

We have also shared some of these clips on You Tube .You will shortly be able to access very similar clips in Spanish with "Hola Irene" - in the pipeline right now.

We hope that you will enjoy the clips.We have kept the clips short, clear and as dynamic as possible so they can be used as a platform or stepping stone to "in class" learning following on from watching the clip.Below i will explore some ideas to help with this too. 

You can use the clips with the children and also you may like to consider ways of using the clips in community learning, language days and transition work or staff CPD.

Take a look below at "C'est Emilie" clips via You Tube  which we have made available to everyone. 

Feedback tells us the children love the clips....

Both specialist and non-specialist teachers are finding the clips really useful and a refreshing way to practise simple core language:

 

How can you use these clips in class?

  • Let the clip do the teaching. Watch and observe as your children engage with Emilie in French or Irene in Spanish.Take a moment to carry out some AfL and observe what the children understand and how they listen and respond. What will be the next steps for the class? 
  • Ask the children to create their own "photo booth" style "C'est Emilie " clips to perform for other children.Ask them to imagine that they are "Emilie, the French speaker and performer",and  based upon what they have seen ,heard and practised, create their own performances.This could be a pair, table or volunteers to the whole class activity.
  • If you have access to a green screen then use the clip as a spring board to the children's own imaginative and creative explorations of the same/ similar language content. Ask the children to observe the clip and make notes of key language that they may want to use in their own green screen performance and add as written text to their clips.    
  • Ask the children to extend the quiz or challenge sections of the clips and make their own class quiz challenge in the same style and with the same instructions that they have heard or practised during the "C'est Emilie "clip.
  • Revisist the clip .Hide the picture from the screen and just play and listen and see how the children can join in with the instructions and the activities without the visual support.

The clips contains limited language, because we see the clips as a tool to use in the effective primary language classroom.a support for teachers who feel less confident in the language and a spring board for all teachers to further creative and dynamic learning of the language.The clips are part of a wider range of language used within the PLN SOW and therefore colleagues within the network can access a wider range of language too. There will ultimately be a clip per half term per year from Y3 to Y6. Spring 1 and 2 now exist for Y3,4,5 and 6.Summer 1 and 2 will be created next half term.  

Radiant heart sentences

  • Create a class display of radiant heart table top decrorations  and at the same time practise the construction of simple , extended and sentences made up statements and opinions.... .
  • Share the picture above with the class.Discuss with the class how this has been constructed.
  • Children will need a sequence of different size hearts, preferably in different coloured card and card to cut into strips plus glue and scissors..
  • Each size of heart represents a different part of a sentence e.g. personal pronoun, verb, noun, conjunction, opinion  phrase etcetra.
  • As class teacher you can decide how many hearts and how many different parts of a sentence you want the children to write.(This means that you can differentiate the activity table by table too in your class).
  • What type of sentences can our children construct? Well right from Y3 Spring term our children are beginning to practise expressing likes and dislikes in simple sentence ( e.g. verb phrase: "I like" plus nouns, such as animals).In Year6 children are practising in Spring 1 opinions about sports and reasons why they have such opinions of sports.  

 

  • Model sentences for the children.
  • Make one child construction leader on each table.It will be his/her responsibility to oversee the construction of the table "radiant heart" table top decoration 
  • Ask each child to construct his/her own radiant heart sentence.
  • Ask the table to then create the radiant heart with the sentence from each child on the table radiating out from the centre of the table top decoration.