C3B4ME

I love my new school and my new job, however something that has been slightly niggling me is how quick pupils are to ask questions, even though I'm just in the process of explaining the task, they are just not listening, just concentrating on the question they have to ask and nothing else, never mind if I've actually answered it or not, they just have to put their hand up! I joke about it with my classes and tell them that putting their hand up actually disables their listening skills! I thought, surely that just not me and after discussing it with my staff, you've guessed it, it wasn't! So...we are launching C3B4ME, I heard Chris Harte reminding me about this last year at #ililc and I know it's a great idea. After searching high and low, I have finally found a car template font and created our own car registration C3B4ME template. The idea is that pupils are becoming more independent by using 3 other sources before asking their teacher, (similar to the 4 Bs - Book, Buddy, Brain, Boss). DM me on Twitter for more details. 

Show and Tell @ Wildern – part 2

I’m on a roll ! 2 blog posts in less than a month! Let me tell you more about the Wildern Show and Tell then.

Jo Biddle reminded us about the use of Brace Maps in MFL, ideal to classify vocabulary. Brace maps are ideal for learners to understand relationships between new items of vocabulary. We worked in groups of 3 to classify food items.

I've had a go below at reproducing a brace map, you can easily see why they would work in MFL.

Following the brace map activity, Jo showed us a different way to introduce the months of the year and get pupils talking about why they like when their birthday is. 12 sentences similar to the ones below are on the board, pupils have to decide the month that is being referred to.

  

Tu aimes la date de ton anniversaire?  

Je pense que c’est le mois de…

-       -  parce qu'il fait toujours beau

-        - parce que tout le monde est en vacances

-        - parce que Noël va arriver vite

-       -  parce que tout le monde reçoit une carte ce jour-là..

-        

A bit of intelligent guessing basically.

Then came the turn of Ben SHAW, another Hampshire AST.

It was great to hear Ben praising Learning Mats. I am a big fan of Learning Maps, I use them all the time. I think that with key vocabulary they can be an excellent tool especially to prepare the dreaded CA! The #mfltwitteratti are also keen on them, just have a look at Dropbox!

Ben shared with us his target sticker which he and his team are using when marking pupil’s work. They are really easy to create, just get a sticker template in Word, then type away. I use them to remind student about the GCSE criteria for example.

Ben got us to play a great creative game about descriptions. We were given a piece of paper each. We first had to write an adjective about ourselves then we had to swap sheets, we then had to write our eye colour, swap sheets, hair / age / favourite activity….

We then had to fill-in the paragraph, using the details on our sheet: j'espère rencontrer un garcon / une fille ______ avec les yeux _______et les cheveux_____il doit avoir au moins_____ans et il doit aimer _______

Finally, Ben shared with us one of his marking criteria :

- how will you answer the question? Eg. Tu aimes Eastenders?

Level 1 oui

Level 2 c'est …

Level 3 je pense que …

Level 4 je ne sais pas mais je pense que c'est…

I really enjoyed the Show and Tell at Wildern, so much so that I have volunteered to organise one later on this year, most probably in the Summer term. So watch this space!

Hampshire Show and Tell at Wildern School 12th January 2012

Well this is it, New Year, new resolutions, (fairly) new job so I thought I would start blogging again.

This afternoon I attended the Hampshire MFL Show and Tell at Wildern School in Hedge End, Southampton. I used to organise lots of meetings like this one (though not as big!) in my previous life as an AST in Bradford so I had been looking forward to it for weeks!

The event was organised by Jo-Rhys Jones (Hampshire LEA adviser) and Greg Horton (MFL AST at Wildern). I am very lucky to have Jo Biddle working in my team at school and she was one of the AST presenting the French session I attended. Ben Shaw, another AST was sharing his knowledge too.

I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived at Wildern, but the room where we were having refreshments was packed. It was lovely to see my Twitter friend @thwartedmum and @jowinchester again and to meet @missmclachlan for the first time. I didn’t get to meet @javiera1974 but I’m sure we’ll get to meet up properly at #ililc12 on February 25th and 26th at the University of Southampton! I was really impressed by the turn-out on this cold Thursday afternoon, but I guess that an offer of free CPD delivered by ASTs is an offer that cannot be refused. Jo-Rhys Jones was keen for other schools to volunteer to organise a Show and Tell and I think I will take on the challenge, probably towards the end of the school year.

Anyway, back to this afternoon Show and Tell!

It was the first time I was seeing el Señor Horton in action and I was extremely impressed by his introduction! Greg started by telling us about one of his latest ideas, which I thought was absolutely brilliant! Strictly come dancing in French, German and Spanish…

This is a great activity to revise verbs in the past, present and future. The idea is that pupils are paired up and dancing, say a waltz. Partner 1 says a sentence, and depending whether the phrases is in the past, present or future, partner 2 moves backward, forward or steps aside if in the present

Example:

Partner 1 ‘Hier, j’ai joué au foot’ – Partner 2, steps back

Partner 1 ‘je vais aller au cinéma’ – Partner 2, steps forward

Partner 1 ‘J’aime le skate’ – Partner 2 steps sideways

We then split-up into 3 groups, French, German and Spanish. I attended the French session run by Jo Biddle from my school and Ben Shaw.

Jo got us to play a game very similar to Outburst where Partner 1 (or teacher) has 10 phrases on a card, all linked for examples 10 numbered phrases starting with j’ai mangé, 10 connectives, 10 phrases with je suis allé and Partner 2 has to guess as many phrases written on the card, as possible, in order to gain the most points. Partner 2 chooses a number between 1-10, this will give a bonus point if s/he finds the particular numbered phrase.

1 je suis allé en France

2 je suis allé à Paris

3 je suis allé au Portugal

4 je suis allé à l’étranger

5 je suis allé voir mes grands-parents

6 je suis allé chez ma tante

7 je suis allé en Ecosse

8 je suis allé en Australie

9 je suis allé en Italie

10 je suis allé aux Etats-Unis

You could have one card or a whole pack of cards for pair or trio work. Once the activity is over, Jo decided to ‘bowl us out’ and here basically we had to think of one of the phrases, we’d originally had to guess, and she would shout them out, one at a time. If you heard your chosen phrase, you had to sit down and the winner was the last person standing.

Ok, that’s it from me for now, I will carry on blogging about the Hampshire Show and Tell in the next few days… Bye for now. V.