Facing the currently unknown

Practical Pedagogies conference, Toulouse- Doing things differently in languages

It was an absolute honour to be invited to present at the International School in Toulouse this weekend as part of the Practical Pedagogies conference. After 3 years of hard work there are a huge number of ideas that I could have shared in terms of methods we have implemented to try to stimulate, challenge and encourage curiosity in language learning. We're a long, long way from having cracked things, but hopefully we're on the right path- it's definitely an interesting one!

With huge thanks for all of those people who came along to my session, I really enjoyed the conversations we all had. If you want to try any of these things get in touch and I'll try to help as much as I can. 

 

Doing things differently- Practical Pedagogies conference, Toulouse from Route39MFL

ALL London Webinar, Thursday 30th April- Doing things differently, building engagement with languages

Last night it was a real pleasure to present a webinar for ALL London, organised by the lovely Helen Myers. It was a nerve-racking experience, as one of the main points that I enjoy about presenting is normally the sense of interaction with the other people involved, but the feedback and responses seemed really positive, so many, many thanks to everyone who was involved. As I was presenting about our efforts down here at ROute 39, and as it's therefore incredibly personal, it was a very odd, but ultimately enjoyable experience!

Along with the presentation, which I have embedded below, please find uploaded a few documents which people requested. 

Peer-leveling example:  Download Environment assessment levels peer feedback

Tallying peer-assessment example:  Download Presentation feedback sheet points scoring

Learning Habits with Learning Objectives slide:  Download LH LO slide

 

Language World 2015- doing it differently, building engagement from Route39MFL

Uruguay legalisation- a lesson update

Sometimes you teach a lesson and it restores your... hope. It reminds you of why you love doing the job that you do.

Pleasingly, I had one of those lessons last week- the last session I taught on the Thursday- ideal timing given that I was out of school on Friday for the Newton Abbot conference. 

As such, I thought I'd share it. 

It was an updated version of a session that I love- discussing the legalisation of marijuana in Uruguay with a group of mostly year 9s. The number of misconceptions that I could challenge was fascinating (in TL), their cultural knowledge soared and they were really drawn in to the central debate- should we legalise or not, and what might the arguments be? To add to this, when students realised that the very first slide was from a real governmental campaign really left them surprised (this was a fairly low ability group) and buoyed.

The fact that after the session, as I was walking a few students up the lane to their next session, they wanted to carry on the discussion (including using elements of TL), demonstrated the success of the session. So please feel free to use the materials below, and let me know what changes you make so that I can add them myself!

Download 3- Uruguay drug legalisation C1

Download Drug opinions speaking frame

Download Uruguay highlighting deductions C1

Download Uruguay highlighting deductions diff C1

European Day of Languages iPad project- a call for hubs across England

After Language World at the weekend I've had a few enquiries for more details about the European Day of Languages project that we've run for 2 out of the last 3 years down in Exeter. This year we would love the event to run in various hubs across England, all working on the same project to add further competition and motivation to students. So here are some details...

Aim of the day: To inspire, to have fun and to show that languages DO have a genuine purpose, all whilst allowing students to be creative with language. The only request is that teachers be as hands-off as possible!

Target group: Year 9 grade C / D borderline students. We have not yet confirmed whether we will stick just to French or allow a variety of languages this year. Teams work in groups of 6. Each team has 2 iPads. In order to avoid it becoming unmanageable we restricted the number of teams to 10 in Exeter this year.

Format of the day:

9am: welcome and brief to students. Please look through the slides below to see the brief. At this point students will complete an initial attitudes Google Doc form.

1pm students present their pitch in their teams. All videos must be completed and submitted before this deadline.

After the pitches the Google Doc of attitudes is repeated.

Prizes (small) will be awarded on the day for the best pitches (a balance of effort and quality) by the teachers in the room.

The overall first prize will be awarded to the team whose video receives the most views during the course of 7 days after the event- thus ensuring that students have to return to school and their community and publicise their work, thus really building the profile of the event.

Technical requirements: 

• a venue- if possible in a local football club to emphasise the real world elements of the project.
• iPads- sufficient for 2 per team. Ideally provided by a coordinating school. We will provide all of the necessary materials through an iTunes U course (except photos of your local area which you will have to provide).

Ideally we need to try to keep costs at an absolute minimum- this is not run for profit but because it works. Unfortunately funds are needed (invariably) for venues and prizes, unless appropriate organisations come forward who are keen to sponsor! 

If you are interested in getting involved please contact me on [email protected] or @chrisfullerisms or my co-organiser Kelda Richards on @elkel99

 

Rock paper scissors evolution

A few people have asked me about the game Rock, Paper, Scissors, Evolution game that I've played at events recently, so I thought I'd type it up and share the slide that I use. It's a fantastic game to get students speaking over and over, all while having a giggle- far more so than a traditional, structured speed dating style task.

Steps

1) You greet each other (in TL, obviously)

2) You discuss whatever point you are learning about. For example, my year 7s on Thursday will describe their personalities, asking each other the relevant questions each time.

3) After their conversation you count (in TL) "one, two, three" then each person produces their rock / paper / scissors as per the traditional game.

THis is now where the Evolution kicks in...

Everyone starts as

an egg. Everyone needs to make an egg by holding their hands above their head. If you win, you become...

a chicken. Cue chicken arms. If you lose you become an egg again, if you win you become...

a bird. So flap those arms. Lose and become a bird again, win and become...

an elephant. Show that there trunk! Lose and become a bird again, win and become...

a superhero. The ultimate. I normally end the game when I have 3 people waving their arms in front of their head like a superhero.

Now, of course there's no evolutionary intermingling. An egg can only play against an egg, a bird against a bird etc.

Download Roca papel tijeras

 

Wespeke- dating software to match language learners

I've been contacted by a company in the USA who are looking to expand into the UK, and would love your feedback on it, pretty, pretty please!

Wespeke is a very, very clever site which uses software traditionally associated with dating sites to match registered language students. It looks at their interests in order to generate topics that the students will actually want to learn about- we all know how difficult it can be to talk to people we don't know and who, invariably, we have nothing in common with. Traditional communication exchanges, usually done via letters, invariably fell down because the students didn't necessarily share enough common ground to genuinely want to interact. Wespeke seeks to overcome that- and I really like it, not least because it also provides a social media experience allowing language learners to find people from all over the globe to match with! Plus, it's designed with language learners and language teachers very much in mind, providing 2 levels of membership according to your role.

At the moment I know that Wespeke is brimming with users in North America and has really started to pick up users across South America, Spain and now bit by bit in France. As my invitations screen below shows I've already been contacted by people in both Spain and Mexico- intercultural opportunities abound!

But they've only just started to turn to our delightful shores. So whilst I've been talking to the team over in Pittsburgh I've also had a few messages from one of their team who's based in Madrid asking if any schools over here are looking to pair with any Spanish schools- anyone interested? As I said earlier, I'd love to hear your feedback both so I can pass it over to the team in the States but also to be able to better support the schools that I already work directly with. 

 

ALL Devon- Rapid-fire CPD in Plymouth: Do more!

39 language teachers all together, buzzing, sharing ideas and reinvigorating each other. On a wet, dark Thursday evening. Absolutely blinking amazing. Sorry, I should say 38 language teachers and a senior manager coming to see what all the noise he'd been hearing was actually about!

We'd decided upon 4 topics for 30 minutes of discussion as a result of the suggestions given by teachers attending previous events. And so it was that engaging boys, effective ideas for Controlled Assessments, using technology effectively and differentiation were decided upon. Not the easiest things to discuss as all of them are at the very core of what language teachers are constantly trying to develop. 

I have to say that I found writing a presentation on engaging boys and trying to encourage spontaneity both incredibly frustrating and incredibly thought-provoking in equal measures- especially as I was desperately trying to fight off generalisations and presumptions even whilst talking about generalised issues. I think I failed on that one, but hey ho. I also fear that a large number of the slides deal with very basic ideas which we all do automatically- sorry for teaching great teachers to suck eggs, it was most definitely not my intention. I'd love your additional thoughts on engaging boys, please please get in touch.

Before you even think about looking through the presentation below, please read the fantastic blog post on the subject by Jo Quatsch- a lovely person and a great teacher.