Personality swirls

What a great way to round off a year's language learning- no matter what age or stage.I love these personality swirls.Great final page in  language learning pupils' record books for the year.Very simple to create and a way of celebrating the personality and the progress in language learning.Great reference point and memory jogger for each pupil next year too!

  • Ask pupils to pin-point a central point on a blank piece of white paper or on a page in their pupil record books.
  • From the central point ask them to draw wavy lines out from this central point to the edge of the page.Six maximum sections should be created.
  •  Practise with the children phrases and statements they can now say in the target language about themselves- name, age, where they live, pets, likes, dislikes, adjectives to decribe themselves, sports, foods etcetra, etcetra.....
  • Ask the children to draw and write one of  six pieces of information about themselves in each of the individual wavy sections of their personality swirls.
  • Ask the children to complete their personality swirls with patterns, images and colours that represent pictorially the words, phrases, sentences they have written.
  • The personality swirls can be shared by the children with their next class teacher on transition day or "looked back at"  as a reference and memory prompt during next year's language learning.

Word tapestries

legacy piece.jpg

I saw this beautiful piece of childrens work on Twitter.(Thanks to Sadie K below) It has inspired me to think of a lovely way to end the school year with Year 6 and to potentially create farewell good luck cards for the Year 6 leavers. Instead of the colourful blocks you see here I suggest we create colour word blocks and build a class target language word tapestry.

All we need to do :

  • Share with the class the beautiful piece of class art work in the picture on this blog post.
  • Explain that the class are going to make their own legacy piece filled with colour and target language favourite words and phrases.
  • Brainstorm with the class some favourite words and ask for reasons - is it the sound? Is it their favourite content etc?
  • Ask the children to jot down on whiteboards words and phrases they have enjoyed learning in the target language.Encourage them to do this from m emory and then also offer them the chance to look through written work or check spelling etc in bilingual dictionaries or on word mats.
  • Ask the children to think what colours and shapes best suit the words they have jotted down.so for instance if the like the word for "the sea" in the target language ,would they write this in a wavey pattern with a blue crayon etc?
  • Now give each child a small square of paper or catrd and ask them to create their colurful word shape tapestry blick , made of the words they have jotted down on their whiteboards in the target language.
  • Collect all the completed squares in and ask for volunteers to compile a sugar paper display , glueing the squares on to the sugar paper.
  • this is the class' target language word tapestry.
  • Take a photo of the finished tapestry and use the photo to create good luck post cards- one per child with a target language best wish written on the reverse side to be given out at the leavers' assembly to each child.
  • You can show the whole word tapestry as a photo on the screen behind them as they say their farewells at the leavers' assembly too..... 

Let's harness all our skills

This is a snap shot .It's a moment in time! It has given me food for thought!

At our #PLN17 conference last week ,Dan Alliot and Joanne Hornby performed an example of  a lesson activity "Physical Puppeteers".

What's so special? Why is it a moment in time? Why has it given me food for thought?

Well it has made me reflect yet again on the question - just how can we harness the skills and knowledge of so many,gathered over a long period of time, to ensure that primary languages thrives? 

It is just a snapshot, a glimpse of bringing expertise together and making an effective and memorable learning experience.

Just what happened? Dan needed a volunteer to be the puppet for his language activity. I introduced Dan and Joanne  briefly at coffee time and ....

  • The performance was superb!
  • Dan Alliot is a national trainer and education consultant. Joanne is an oustanding primary languages practitioner.
  • 170 delegates watched this performance at our conference.
  • Amongst the audience were NQTs,HLTAs, MFL coordinators, SLT, Primary PGCE MFL trained teachers, PPA teachers, specialist and non-specialist language teachers,education consultants, former PFL local authority consultants and national experts in PFL. 
  • Dan and Joanne's example activity was based on lesson activities created by myself with a group of KS5 language students working with KS1 and KS2 language learners back in about 1997! Three of these students went on to do languages at university and atleast two of them are now teachers.One became an MFL AST.
  • Dan saw me deliver this at a national Primary Languages Show in 2002 , when I was a PL AST.  
  • Dan became part of the TDA team that organised the funding and contracts for PGCE Primary MFL ITT . (Joanne was one of these ITTs)
  • Dan visited us in Warrington in 2003 with the TDA to see how we were developing primary languages with non-specialist teachers. 
  • Joanne was a PGCE Primary MFL specialism student at Hope University in 2004/5 part of the programme funded by the TDA,where I delivered a workshop on Drama and Languages for the ITTs and shared this activity.
  • Joanne came to work as a primary school teacher in Warrington and continued her contact with primary languages and the work I was doing as the LA consultant for primary languages.
  • Since 2011 Joanne has worked with us,one day per week, as one of the 19 strong associate primary languages teacher team.  
  • Joanne is one of our team of associates who now train our Warrington TSA ITTs and delivers 1 to 1 coordinators' consultancy to network schools across the North West. 
  • In the audience were teachers who have already used these activities within their own language lessons and taken the activities and shaped them creratively to fit in with their own primary curriculum.
  • I have shared this activity with colleagues at CPD over many years , as it is a useful device to encourage us all to think of ways to explore ways to demonstrate languages as a vehicle of communication and to look at how we can deliver languages as parts of other subjects too. 
  • Within the Primary Languages Network since 2011 we have continued to develop lots of  physical language learning and explored drama and performance.These are now written in to the new Ready Made French,Spanish and German SOW.
  • Last year Dan shared the activity as an example of primary language learning at a national conference I attended with colleagues down South.
  • Two weeks ago ,Dan was my puppet, for a similar activity shared at CPD with teachers in Havering.
  • ....and then this week Dan and Joanne gave the best performance of the activity I have ever seen!
  • I know that amongst the audience there will be colleagues who will now go off and explore how they can use this with their classes for the first time. i observed colleagues sharing thier own experience of these activities with other teachers.They may not be experts in languages but they will use their knowledge and expertise of the primary learning environment to make primary language learning and exploring the world around us memorable and effective!
  • To help the schools in our network, we have used their membership funds to develop materials that mean they can have a go and try out activities for themselves.
  • Just this year we have generated C'est Emilie and Es Irene videos to help non-specialist primary school teachers to run confidently with thse ideas.Emilie has used this activity in lessons before and was the first video and helped our new colleague Irene to understand how these language instructions lead to a dramatic class physical performance back with the class teacher .Here is C'est Emilie and "les marionettes" language instructions video. It's on our open to all PLN Youtube Channel which everyone can access.

 

So yes maybe it was a small and perhaps insignificant occurence at the conference but it brought so much learning and teachers' time , expertise and schools' support together. Think about where this began, how this has developed, what skills and expertise we have hidden out there, how we can bring this together, why we need to make sure everyone is engaged be they linguists or not and how we move forward in PRIMARY language learning. 

The answer lies I think in bringing us all together again,networking ,sharing and asking the powers that be to empower us to do so.Out in the world of primary education and probably now back in secondary education are colleagues who can bring so much to the table Plus there is a whole new generation of teachers who bring fresh new approaches to this experience. Bring us altogether to create this PRIMARY effective language learning.! .

What do we need to achieve this?Time, money,collaborative work and support are required!

 

July coordinator's checklist

So we are nearly at the end of the academic year. Hopefully it has been a succesful year in language learning at your school and you are beginning to get organised for next year and the challenges ahead.

Make sure you take a look at our NEW Ready Made French and Spanish SOW on the VLE .I think it will be a much easier way to organise year by year learning.Content and lesson plans remain the same but we have now added a section where we have collated all the specific year group planning and tracking. We have added additional non-specialist language support sound files and power points , a brand new learning feature for children using podcasts to practise listening skills, native speaker clips now have transcripts and guides on ways to use the clips as language learning tools and also more creatively too. Each half term has blog posts, snapshot of lesson observations, examples of real in class work and outcomes, creative alternatives and visual display resources.There is a training video of the Ready Made webinar on the VLE plus a 2 sided paper guide to the new features.You will have received this by email too if you are a network coordinator..Both of these CPD resources are located on the right hand side of hime page of the VLE too.

This month's checklist is as follows:

  • Make sure that school has received and processed the network invoice for next academic year as your current VLE access may be due to close down at the end of June.
  • If school works with an associate teacher then make sure the SLA has been agreed and signed and that you discuss with the associate teacher your plans for next year and focus on activities you may like to do at the start of next year to celebrate language learning or to Celebrate European Day of Languages 
  • Take a look in the MFL coordinators tools folder in Subject Plannng on the VLE and access the "Documentation for your School" website file.You may find in here materials that you wish to add to the information on the MFL curriculum on your school website and indeed in school policy files.
  • Have a look in MFL coordinators tools too, at the Governors' presentation file- just in case you need to report to governors.
  • In MFL coordinators tools you will also find a reporting to parents' file too,which may be of use right now as you write your reports.
  • If you haven't explored your Userfiles on the VLE then now may be a good time.You can create folders for year groups in to which staff can upload from their desktops or clipboard from  the VLE pictures,sound files and examples of work or materials they would like to use.
  • Check out the My Learning APP which once you download this to your tablets or phones will allow you to take pictures of successful display , activities etc and load straight up in to these secure userfiles. Feel free to email us for support if you need help to do this.
  • Take a look in Seasonal Specials Summer 2 folder at   the "End of the Year"French and Spanish video clips and activity sheets- could be a great way to put together a leavers' Y6 performance or a class assembly.
  • Share with the children ways to keep and store their language knowledge until next year.Take a look at these two blog posts: "Storing memories until next year" and "Full circle spinners".
  • Get ready for the first month back after Summer.Plan your European Day of Languages  (26 September) celebrations around the materials and resources in Seasonal Specials  Autumn 1 folder in the European Day of Languages file. Or explore a whole school celebration day by using our ideas in the "Celebrations " folder in the cross curricular area of the VLE.  
  • Take a look at the blog posts to prepare for the first week back too: "That first ever language lesson" , "First week back network coordinators' checklist" , "Staff on board in September" 
  • ....And finally have a fabulous summer holdiay, relax ,unwind and see you  back here in September!

World explorers.

Languages are a "Window on the World" just as art can be a "Window on the World" too.

At the end of the school year let's explore the language learning that has taken place with our young learners ,linking Art and language. Let's become "world explorers"

Paul Klee's art and the clip below is the perfect vehicle for us to do this and to encouaage the children to be imaginative and also practise the language learning skills of recall, memory , reading recognition .In the clip take a look and you will see monsters , people, houses, villages, towns,objects, shapes, colours, animals, nature .......... 

Ways to be "World Explorers"

Focus on language and structures that you have been practising with the children throughout the year -so for example with our Year 6 we may focus on everyday objects, house and home, sports , people, foods and nouns, adjectives and common verbs such as to be and to have.With our Year 4 we may focus on physcial descriptions, jungle animals,town and buildings  in towns etcetra,

  1. Give children a batch of cards with nouns written on them in the target languages.Nouns that identify objects in the paintings they will see in the Paul Klee clip.Play a short part of the video clip.Can the children find the noun card that matches an items they see in the paintings as the video scrolls through?
  2. Ask the children to read a series of three simple sentences- noun verb (to be or to have) and an item as a noun with an adjective. Each sentence should describe something the children will see in the video clip  in three of the paintings.Ask the children to order the sentences on their desks from top to bottom, in theorder they have seen the descriptions.Pause a short part of the clip and can the children tell you where they think they have the seen the items described in the sentences? Go back to the specifc painting and take a look.
  3. Pause the video on a brand new painting and ask the children to write a sentence - noun, adjective and verb to describe something they think they can see in a picture.Listen to some of their creative ideas.
  4. Give each child a blank piece of paper and ask them to draw a window on a imaginary world.This means in the style of Paul Klee they should draw a picture and  add an item or object in the picture for which they then add a target language sentence.

World Music Day 21 June triaramas

To find ways to celebrate la fete de la musique en France on 21 June I took a look at this French government website "Fete de la musique 2017" and found an article about crazy venues used by famous musicians to perform their music. I have selected 10 of the crazy venues that I think would be acceptable to share with our UKS2 children.The site can be changed to Spanish too - so you can try this activity in Spanish with children aswell.Take a look here!

 

Les Beatles sur un toit de Londres (1969) (Beatles sobre un tejado de Londres (1969))

Jean-Michel Jarre à la Tour Eiffel (1998) (Jean-Michel Jarre a la Torre Eiffel (1998))

Katie Melua à 300 mètres en dessous du niveau de la mer 2006 (Katie Melua a 300 metros debajo del nivel del mar (2006)9

Arcade Fire dans un ascenseur (2007) (Soportal Fire en un ascensor (2007))

David Guetta dans un avion (2007) (David Guetta en un avión (2007))

Andrew Bird dans une grotte (2013) (Andrew Bird en una cueva (2013))

Metallica en Antarctique (2013) (Metallica en el Océano Antárctico (2013))

Chris Hadfield dans l’espace (2013) (Chris Hadfield en el espacio (2013))

Grateful Dead dans l’ombre du Sphinx (1978) (Grateful Dead en la sombra de la Esfinge (1978))

I think that with some of our UKS2 children the music and the venues could inspire them to create their own "triaramas" of an event. What would a concert under the sea feel and look like? What would it be like to play music inside a pyramid? We have made triaramas before and here is an example of our carnival triarama: 

 

How to create the musical event triaramas?

  • Each triarama will have a pop up band or singer in the middle
  • The backdrop ( the two sides of the triarama ) will be filled by the children with colourful word art reflecting the place and type of music so word art nouns and adjectives or short descriptive sentences using the verb "to be" .
  • The language chosen by the children should share what they feel and  imagine it would be like to play in these crazy venues. Can they create the ambience and atmosphere? They will be able to use prior knowledge of core language and also need to use bilingual dictionaries to do this.

 

 

 

 

Wordkeepers

I spotted this craft activity on FB this morning. I think it could help us with our young language learners to practise they skills of listening , reading aloud, reading comprehension and practising memory/retention skills.The activity is about creating simple corner book marks that I am going to call "wordkeepers".

Take a look at the demonstration of the craft activity here. Bookmarks

This could very easily be used to create our "wordkeepers". 

  • First find your text that fits in with the current learning focus- so for us at the moment in Summer 2 it could be a picnic song , an ice cream recipe or weather report, a seaside story or poem or a leavers' assembly poem.
  • Share a selected piece of text with the children. This could be a poem , a rhyme . a  song , a short story , a cartoon , a recipe etcetra.Ask the children to listen to the text.
  • Give each child a paper copy of the text.Ask the children to listen a second time and read along silently in their heads with you.
  • Ask the children to investigate the text on their own, reading out loud "silently" in their heads. Can they spot and identify interesting words that they would like to "keep" and try to use again in their own speaking and writing.This could  be a noun search / an adjective search etcetra or just allowing children to identify all types of words they may like to use again.
  • Ask the children to glue the text into their work books or if the children don''t have books then on to firm piece of card ,which can then be stored in their locker or folders.
  • Share with the children the video clip about how to make a book mark.
  • The children are going to convert this in to their own "wordkeepers" and must think of a face or a character or an object that they will draw or make on the front of their own "wordkeepers"- this should be linked to the theme or story of the text they have investigated. So for instance the video book mark examples are silly faces, a fox's face and an ice cream to match the theme of the texts in the clip.
  • Ask the children to write out a list of their "new words" and to check the meaning if they aren't sure in a bilingual dictionary.
  • Now ask them to create their own word keepers to fit a corner of the page on to which they have glued the text.
  • On the inside back  of the word keeper ask the children to write their new words to keep them safe .They can decide if it suits their memories best to write next to the words the English meaning or to draw a prompt symbol for each target language word they are keeping.
  • You could challenge learners to use their prompts to help them recite the poem/rhyme / song or with more mature learners asking them to try to use their word keepers to retell the story in brief. 

Celebrating progress

Towards ths time of the year , we will be taking stock of what we have practised with our language learners. Here are a couple of simple ways that this can be come a meaningful and attractive teaching and learning activity during the last half term of the academic year.

Storing memories and creating our own beach huts: bright colourful and can act as "piggy bank visuals" to show how we need to collect,collate,categorise and  store prior learning and our new knowledge.

How does your garden grow?  Createa physical paper copy of the learning experience of  children.A visual record of what they have learned, where they are going to do next in language learning and what success they have achieved in target language knowledge and skills  throughout the school year.

Full circle spinner game; creating a game to play alone or with a partner and to take home and play again over Summer - based on personal informatio questions and answers the children have practised and explored during the year 

Transition in a suitcase between year groups: encouraging children to take ownership of storing language, skills and good learning memories ready for next academic year.

Striding out a sentence game: encouraging learners to create their own sentences to reach a "physical goal or prize", which means the learners have to put together strands and pieces of learning to achieve success. An intrinsic sense of purpose and achievement to take on in to next year.

 

 

 

Summertime specials

Final half term of the year is just around the corner. Here are some useful "Summertime " themed blog postsI have written over the last few years which could be used by teachers across a range of target languages and looking at different aspects of language learning knowledge and skills. Our network members will be able to access our focused language learning on picnics, weather, ice creams, going to the seaside, Tour de France, class assemblies, farewell and memories. using our Ready Made SOWs on our VLE too.. I just wanted though to look back at the possible ways you can all bring "Summer" in to your language learning classrooms regardless of whether you are network members or not.

Sandcastle sentence building: constructing visual sentences with nouns, adjectives and verbs

Sandcastle building poems and group performances : practising the use of the structure "there is/are" and nouns to describe a building. Writing , remembering and performing own short poems about their imaginary sandcastles 

Seashell sounds and sand treasure hunts: simple phonics activities and memory / recall skill practise  

Daisy chain clauses and conjunctions: focus on likes/dislikes/nouns/adjectives and conjunctions

Envelope explorers of the near future: taking picture postcards and unpacking the possible simple near future (I am going to ....)sentences we can write

Sunshine sparklers : gathering "Summertime " nouns and creating word art, to practise writing and memory skills.

Seaside sequencing story - practising listening ,speaking ,reading and writing.Investigating comprehension and adaptation of language skills with animated stories about an alien family at the seaside.

Outdoor PE games in French and Spanish: with description of activity and support language chart tables in target languuages for non-specialists.

Packing our sentence and suitcase calligrans for the holidays: focus on nouns, adjectives, verbs and giving a reason for items using conjunction and clause to explain the item.

French poem painting of a Summer's day: reading , analysing a short poem and painting a picture of the actual and emotional picture we have explored.

Under the sea fish puppet triarama performances : focus on sentence structure and extending knowledge of feelings.Creating written and visual display .Addingperformance through recorded sound files.

 

June Coordinators' Checklist

So we are approaching the last half term of the academic year! It has been a busy if not frenetic year for most of you no doubt , but hopefully successful and you have made strides forward in the teaching and learning of languages in your school. Here are some important pointers for next half term. You can look back at previous coordinators' checklist blog posts too , to see just how far you have come this year. just click on the links in the May post to look back.

First of all important network news .......

  • Network members , there is now a report pack for years 3,4,5 and 6 on the VLE .You can access this via MFL coordinators' tools and the "report pack folder".This will hopefully make life easier for you especially if you have to complete the whole school's reports for all children .
  • The conference is this month .We have 130 signed up already and we hope that remaining network members sign up in good time to avoid disappointment! Link to conference registration is here. 
  • Network invoices have gone out to most schools- if you joined us up until 30 june 2017, then school will have receievd the invoice to renew membership. Please keep an eye out for this , plus SLAs for our associate teachers in their 49 schools have now also gone out to schools and should be with headteachers.Please watch out for these too. 

Now an update on the VLE:

We are very busy putting the finishing touches to the revamped Ready Made French and Spanish and German will be underway in a week or two too ,to put this in a similar format.

We have listened to your suggestions and watched how the VLE and the materials are being used by you all. I can now honestly say that I love what we are creating.Here is the draft scaffold for Year 3 stage 1 French.

 Peter and Will have created a very simple and easy template for each year, half term and theme within a half term .Colleagues feel with whom we have shared the draft versions feel that they can see how easy it is to access, manage, clipboard, plan and also have ownership so that they can create learning appropriate to the school. Here is a draft "focus planning page"

Everything you need is on the page - as a medium term planning tool:  lesson plans with direct links to resources,folders for listening and responding podcasts for class activities and/or teacher upskilling,phonics and sound spelling activities,reading and writing sheets and activities, listening and responding puzzle it outs with assessment benchmark sheet and listening sound files and reading texts,non-specialist sound files and powerpoint key words with sounds, native speaker video clips,examples of school work (shared photos of real work done linked to the focus), blog posts that suggest "creative alternatives" , cross curricular and optional lessons,resources and activities .... plus downloadable and printable display cards,photos and posters.(The photo at the top of the page is from the examples of school work that we share).We will launch the final version at the conference and do hope that you will like it too!  

Here is your checklist/help list for the Summer term. 

  • Our Summer 2 writing sheets are now on the VLE  in French,Spanish and German for y3,4,5 and 6. The focus is upon - picnic (Year 3), ice creams(Year 4), beach poster (Year 5) and a newspaper style writing sheet (Year 6).Below is a black and white example:   
  • Take a look at our "Year 6 after SATs"blog post to suggest some one off lessons with Year 6 as the timetable gets more and more complicated in the run up to Summer 
  • Try out our "Colour sketches" activities with Year 3 or Year 4.Can be used in all languages, but in French there is also a short video.I have actually added this to the Year 3 summer 2 Ready Made French this week by the way.
  • Explore the City Photo Booths blog post which may help you think of a ways to explore trhe country and the festivals in cities etcetra and make a Summertime display for school.
  • Maybe during the last half term of Summer ,you will be able to encourage other members of staff to have a go at some simple activities.Some of the ideas here may help."Simply does it."
  • Take a look at the Seasonal Specials Summer 2 folder where you can find ideas and activities to explore special days in the run up to Summer.
  • It's Father's Day mid June and as our Mother's Day videos and poems were such a success, we have created an Es Irene and a C'est Emilie target language recipe poems - how to make a great dad, uncle, friend, brother etc.On the VLE in Seasonal Specials Summer 2 you will also find a Father's Day activity guide and a writing framework to create your own "Father's Day" recipe story strips.  Here is an example of one of the videos on our Youtube channel , that everyone can access.
  • Take a look at the Tour de France facts video, created by Michelle H (alias Betsy Belle) and shared with us on the VLE.Great for Y6 Summer 2 and a one off lesson at the start of July or as part of the sequence of lessons in Ready Made French Y6 summer 2 on the Tour de France. Will link well across all languages , especially as this year the Tour de France starts in Germany! 
  • Finally watch out for our End of year video clips and creative sheets.These will be put in Seasonal Specials Summer 2 in the next couple of weeks and an alert will be put on FB, Twitter and in the July Coordinators Checklist. 

Year 6 after SATs.....

The whirlwind of preparation for SATs has passed and there are about eight or nine teaching weeks with Year 6.Here are some of the blog posts and lessons that i have shared over the last couple of years that you may find useful with Year 6 as you manage language learning in the last half term or so with the classes. 

Simply does it!

Over the last couple of years I have written blogposts on lots of different ways to explore, develop and build progression in primary language learning.I realise that for some teachers and schools it is still very much about building upon simple and accessible good classrooom activities.This made me look at my blog posts and pick out a few of those simple and easy activities that most teachers can deliver effectively. Hopefully these will be helpful to teachers working out just where to start and to keep the learning "primary" and achievable