Facing the currently unknown

Are we underselling our subject?

I do sometimes wonder. I blogged about FLAME earlier on today, and have just had my first chance in a while to flick through my Feedly feed of other blogs that I enjoy reading. As always, Alan Parkinson (@geoblogs) leaves me marvelling at some of the fantastic, thought-provoking materials being developed and made available to Geography teachers. From map-overlays to Mission Explore fun to examining Facebook check-ins, Alan has an amazing ability to bring our wider world to life, as do many Geography teachers that I've been fortunate to come into contact with over the years. How often do we do that as language teachers? Flicking through a lot of our MFL blogs, written by great teachers, it struck me how often we carry on teaching the same things which have, well, always been taught. Maybe with slight tweaks in the delivery of the content, but nevertheless the same content. Healthy living. School. Local area. You know the rest. Are we really pushing our students enough? When they get to deal with fascinating topic material, substance that really affects how our world works, is it a wonder why in many cases they don't choose languages for post-16- the time when our exam boards finally expect us to be analysing the wider world? In MFL I know teachers create fascinating lesson content at this stage- bye ek, I've said many a time before how much I imagine I'd have learned in, for example, Neil Jones' classroom- the man creates fascinating resources, such as this one. So why can't we, and publishers, and exam boards, and everyone involved, think again about WHAT we are teaching lower down the scale, not just HOW we are teaching it?

Just a thought...

The FLAME initiative

I love a good bit of CLIL. I'm not a fan of teaching about content which I don't have any interest in, which my students have no interest in and which doesn't help anybody to learn anything about the wider world beyond their own immediate vision. Over the last few years I've taght about climate zones, poverty factors and factors which influence immigration, the impact of drugs in South America and about the good work of the Shelterbox charity around the world. I find those interesting. I think they help expand perspectives far more than learning about the contents of a pencilcase. So anything that can further that is most definitely a good thing with me.

I'm late to the party in blogging about FLAME, but hopefully every little bit counts. Someone should use that line, it's a good'un.

The Association for Language Learning have developed the initiative in order to facilitate the sharing of experiences and resources from those teachers and schools around the country who have been getting their hands dirty with teaching language through the medium of other subject content. Anyway, as always I'm not the right person to explain it, but only to encourage people to find out more and to get involved! So to do so, click here and get onboard. If you've never experienced CLIL before then don't be scared, have fun- your students will love you for it!

Time to get active

As I put in my last post, I've spent a fair amount of time writing. I've been writing the 2 grammar workbooks, along with other course materials, indulging my passion for creating materials to stimulate minds!

However, now that spring is gradually arriving, so I too am beginning to feel reinvigorated. I had been worried that I was losing my passion for things- a facet of my personality that those of you who know me would appreciate is one of my driving features! But a few things have happened recently, and a few people have intervened (notably the wonderfully kind Suzi Bewell) to leave me itching to get back out more and working more with schools and more training groups again- it's time to be more active. More is the word. More campaigning for CLIL and developing opportunities for spontaneity, more boosting the case of letting our students do the work, more championing the appropriate use of creative technologies and more learning from other people. More creativity, more fun.

 So watch this space over the next few weeks, hopefully for news of a few projects I've got up my sleeve and a few training ideas I've got swishing around in my noggin. And if you fancy being active and positive too then get in touch. With all the cuts and disappearances that have taken place recently if we want something to happen we really need to do it ourselves!

Shelterbox for year 8

What do you really need to live contentedly?

What would you do after a disaster? How would you cope and how would you feel?

To be honest those were my basic premises for putting together a unit about the Chilean earthquake of 2010- a disaster that struck a beautiful part of the country that I'd visited only a few months before. I'd put together a unit on Haiti a few years ago for French so wanted to see if I could do something similar in Spanish and really challenge my year 8s to think about how fortunate they really are, even just to have a solid roof over their heads, decent food and, although they often don't accept the point, a good education provision. 

Again I wanted to focus on discussion and debate in this unit as well as creativity and empathy- hence why the unit was building up to a reading image task to be shared on Voicethread - a site which I often feel is very underrated simply because it doesn't offer all the whizzbangs but which is great for sharing discussions and encouraging peer assessment.  

So here it is. Nothing special but hopefully a tad thought-provoking...

Download 2- Shelterbox

Health- getting controversial?

I hate teaching about healthy lifestyles. There, I've said it. I find it boring and too often it actually becomes mildly patronising. Yes, it's ok for me to enjoy a beer or a glass of wine (which are both bad for the health, depending on which study you read, of course) because "I'm a grown-up". Yes, even though I really don't like cucumber you should always eat things that are healthy. Yes, you should drink lots of water. We all know it. But what's worse is that our students are so blinkin bored of hearing it every year that they no longer pay any attention whatsoever.

So I wanted to do something a bit different. Because I'm stubborn like that. And because I could. And because I'm stupid and wanted to create loads of extra work for myself.

And because I wanted to actually get my students thinking. Oh, and I wanted them to learn something about the world, not just some words in a strange language. Ah, Intercultural Understanding.

Colombia. Land of drugs and violence AND THAT'S IT. Well, in the eyes of your average year 8, anyway. Having taught some absolutely lovely Colombians a few years ago I know that's most definitely not the case. It's a beautiful country that's been deeply, deeply effected by the issues connected to the drug trade that stretches well beyond just "people take drugs". In rural areas there are real issues to do with lack of infrastructure and health provision where the authorirites simply can't reach out safely. So that was my first thought. 

But then I got sidetracked. That happens quite frequently when i'm trying to devise modules.

Did you know that Uruguay, the relatively small and underappreciated nation sandwiched between the powerhouses of Argentina and Brazil, is proposing to becoming the first nation in the world to legally approve the selling of marijuana? They're convinced that current policies across South America and the world simply don't work. Beyond that they're also scared that the drug violence and culture sweeping the continent will reach them soon. 

So what do ou r students think about that idea? Let's discuss it. Yes, let's learn a wee bit about how to be healthy, but only as a springboard on to something far more meaningful. I love using Eva Lamb's idea for wordmats to allow students to have all the language they'll need at their fingertips before you start teaching, saving time on pointlessly introducing it when thanks to their phonics work they should already be able to say it!

Yes, it might be a bit strong in places- I think the Spanish government's campaign materials on the subject are superb (they're in one of the folders in the unit below) and would make great display materials supporting a strong PSME anti-drugs message. When I discussed the concept with some year 8s before writing the module they were blown away that any country would be "crazy enough" to legalise any drug. But then they really started to give me some very thought-provoking opinions- exactly what I want classes to do, just in Spanish.

So this is one that I didn't get to teach in my short time in the school, but really would love to and will do so as soon as I get the chance (if I head back into the classroom!). All feedback HUGELY appreciated. (apologies for typos + Word autocorrects by the way!)

Download 3- health

 

Unicef's School Land campaign

At the moment I'm spending a lot of time investigating ways to add extra... depth to the traditional topics. At Key Stage 4 I'm often told by learners that they feel like they're simply rehashing what they did a few years earlier- hardly what I'd call progression.  From my point of view we're not going to persuade our students that learning a language, and continuing to learn a language into post-16 and beyond, is really going to take them anywhere in life if they're constantly learning about more complex ideas in other subjects. 

So when I saw a tweet from @unicef_es just now my interest was very much piqued. They've created a Facebook app to support fundraising for a school construction project in Zambia (form more details and to access the app see here). The idea is that users can play around with the interactive school buildings and think about what they see as being important in a school. Is it the teacher's desk that's important? The training that the teacher's had? The kit in the kitchen, the sporting equipment? What is it that makes a school... a school? Users can then "donate" those items which will be put in place when the school is built for real.

I think this could be a really interesting way to get learners reflecting on items in a school, what their ideal schools would be like, comparing different items, even reflecting on what makes a good teacher. I'm hoping that Unicef will keep updating their information on the project as if they do it could be a really rich source of information for teachers. After all, when studying about school we don't just have to look at our own.

Brookfield conference- creativity at KS4

On Friday I was delighted to be involved with the Brookfield language conference near Southampton. First off, a huge thanks to Sarah Thomson for a superb organisaitonal effort.

Anyway, the conference was multi-stranded but I was encharged with focusing on KS4, trying to reinvigorate those drained by controlled assessments and give new ideas to those in search of some.

Oh, and for those who were asking about the ICT conference in Southampton on 12-13th February, here are some details...

To book: click http://www.linksintolanguages.ac.uk/events/1373

Conference programme: Download ICT Links into Languages feb 2011 detailed programme  

To GCSE- and beyond? Keynote, Brookfield

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Spontaneous talk workshop, Brookfield

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Creative technologies for creative contexts

Something John Connor said to me on Monday struck a real note. As MFL teachers we don't really have any content. Yes we have language, but what to talk about? As a result we surely need to take great care when deciding upon what our content will be. What will stimulate, what will provoke thoughts, what will inspire?

On Friday I was delighted to take part in Neil Jones' Lead Practitioner Seminar up in London. Those of you who have ever listened to Neil before will understand that I was feeling more than a bit intimidated talking about using ICT to enhance creative contexts, precisely Neil's area of expertise. For those of you have never had the opportunity to attend one of his sessions, a) make sure you do and b) his main emphasis is on finding effective, culturally enriching contexts in order to truly give the language that we are trying to teach a value.

Neil was, as per always, fascinating, ranging from discussing similies to explore cultural similiarities and differences to the simple question of why we always teach pupils the phrase for hoovering (especially when dealing with hotter regions) when so few houses have carpet. Sounds silly when you write it down, but makes sense...

Anyway, compared to Neil's session of 455 slides, mine felt rather shabby, but I hope it manages to raise a few thoughts!

Creative technologies for creative contexts

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PS - the one slide I forgot to attribute was to Alex Blagona for the idea of contacting photographers through Flickr- cheers Blaggers!

Say it with feeling! – Raising attainment and cultural understanding in MFL

When I present at sessions I like to make sure that I include as many ideas from as many sources as possible. After all, although I have my ideas, there are lots of people out there with lots more (and invariably far better) ideas as well. One of the people I often end up mentioning is Neil Jones, a SSAT Lead Practitioner working in South East London. Now, to put it bluntly, Neil is an inspiration. His resources are of the highest, highest quality. His ideas are so simple yet so effective, but crucially it was Neil who really got me thinking a few years ago about the nature of the content that we teach. His work completely changed the way I think about language teaching, about the need for cognitive challenge and beyond that the need for pupils to learn more than just language. As such, it was with great delight that I agreed to present at his Lead Practitioner seminar day which will take place at Barclays Capital, Canary Wharf on Friday 3rd December. I'll be presenting on using ICT to enhance the re-envisioning of topic and theme work which is somethintg I'm really looking forward to. Anyway, if you're in London or anywhere nearby then I can guarantee you a really thought-provoking day so please, please come along!

Download SSAT Lead Practitioner event DECEMBER 2010

Spontaneity, challenge and, above all, fun

On Friday I was delighted to be involved with the training day run for Plymouth schools under the PASH banner. I hope that it was a useful day for everyone involved and that some of my comments generated the odd bit of interest and thought. The day was focused on 2 main threads- the roles of spontaneity in our teaching and also that of the actual content that we are delivering. My main goal was to encourage people to think again about why they are delivering certain topics- is it because they always have and because that's what the text book tells them to do or is it because it's the most effective way to teach certain structures, to challenge our pupils and to really make them think. After all, in what other subject can pupils leave an hour's lesson having learnt nothing about the world around them but now being the proud understander of 10 new nouns?

Anyway, a large amount of the day was based on the concept indicated by this video- fun is good!

Spontaneous talk slideshare

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Step away from the textbook

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Download Topics and approaches for reappraisal