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

ShelterBox Spanish Challenge 2015-16, come join the creativity!

Hola,

 

with half term approaching (wow, that's gone quickly, I hope it's been productive!) I thought I'd just write a quick post to say that the ShelterBox Spanish Challenge 2015-16 is open for entrants and it would be great to have you involved! 

https://www.smore.com/5j3b-the-shelterbox-spanish-challenge (I've embedded this below as well)

 

Some of the entries last year were fantastic and really showcased the great creativity that are students are capable of. The winner was from The Burgate School and Sixth Form in Hampshire and is well worth a watch- https://www.dropbox.com/s/wj5btmdqf68yoj0/Luke%20Woodward%208x%20Spanish%20Shelter%20Box%20Project.mov?oref=e&n=22457083

 

Looking forward to hearing from you soon!

 

The details:

 

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

Language World 2015- Doing it differently, building engagement

Language World is a real highlight of the annual calendar for me. Yes the range of sessions are always great. But more than that it's an amazing opportunity to catch up with colleagues and friends from across the country to discover their ideas and successes.

This year I was asked to present about our efforts at Route 39 Academy to develop a language provision with genuine real-world meaning and which is far more student-driven than anything I've been involved in before. I confess (and I confessed before the session) that I felt really, really nervous presenting this year as the work shown in the slides has been well and truly produced at the cost of, well, definitely sweat and at times verging on tears (mainly of exhaustion). 

The main threads really are:

- students need to be engaged by the real-world content

- students need to know how to take responsibility for their own learning and how to develop their own progress

- students need to develop their skills, both of decoding new language and then starting to piece it together in a creative, risk-taking way (it was great to hear the emphasis put on these by all of the presenters talking about the new GCSE)

We're a long, long way from where we'd like to be still (does anyone else find that no matter how many jobs you get done there are always a thousand more that you can think of which need doing!). However, we're absolutely delighted to have appointed a fantastic new teacher to join us in teaching Spanish (both in and out of the classroom) next year, Luke Webb, and can't wait to make the most of his skills and ideas!

 

Memrise- independent learning that works

I love great tools. I especially love great free tools. As for great free tools which really do the trick and support students to learn? Unsurprisingly, that's a massive tick on my list. 

I was first introduce to Memrise at #ililc4 in a really intriguing session by Dominic Traynor, who I'd gone to listen to as a result of the fact that he uses PE to teach Spanish. I wasn't expecting the main nugget that I took away to be something which would really support my students in a structured academic way.

Memrise is, in its very simplest way, a great independent learning tool to support students with practising new language. You can search for courses which have already been made (including full AS spec vocab) or you can create your own containing the precise language that you want your classes to be working on. It takes no time at all to type it in, press tab for the translation then press save. Personally this, at the moment, is the route that I'm taking as I want my students to be working on fairly precise things.

Memrise then cycles between introducing new language and testing the language that's been introduced. My students find it massively addicting- especially as they soon realise that the more they practise the more confident they feel in sessions. Even my top groups are discovering that the language I want them to be using in their Controlled Assessments is all packaged up ready to practise within their Memrise course. Feel free to have a look at http://www.memrise.com/course/401042/local-area-challenge/

One of the elements that I put a lot of emphasis on in sessions is HOW we learn new language. Not how we learn chunks of language, because that's something that we try to avoid at all costs. One of the main skills we practise is thinking of stories to associate with new words. Memrise offers this function as well- students are rewarded with points towards their learning leaderboards for creating "Memes"- ways of remembering the words whcih can then be shared with others.

It's the leaderboard function, split into week, month and all time, which really captivates many of my learners- and in particular those in the lower groups. We have monthly prizes in school for the top 3 per course, and I've been startled how, at the end of both September and October, I've been pestered on the first day of the month to print out the leaderboards which I display in my classroom.

Real positives I've discovered

• Parents are fascinated. I've even had a few sign up to their own accounts and join in, thus causing a massive sense of determination to beat their mum (on the leaderboard, not physically!). So I've started sending a bit.ly shortened web address for the courses home on newsletters.
• It's a great Flipping tool- students arrive confident with the language that we're then going to be using. Some of my older students are also going back and using the new entry course (we're stage not age), whilst some of my new students are also going away and working on some of the more advanced courses.
• I sent the link to my Principal, whose sons are in year 7. She got addicted. Which gave me massive power to force my groups to do more- because if the Principal's beating the students then surely they need to work harder!
• Some of my students have started creating their own courses and sharing the link- mainly EAL students wanting to celebrate their own language. Brilliant says I, let's celebrate them!
• Maths have started creating their own Memrise courses- a massively unexpected bonus, but the kids who are in the lowest Maths group in the school are completely hooked, leading to massive repetition of the learning and a strengthening of their understanding. Bonza, says I. Have a look- http://www.memrise.com/course/453989/times-table-legends/
• I'm aware that they're in the process of recording audio and video material to go with 1000s of Target Language words across a variety of languages- big bonus there (although there are already a mass of sound files which pop up as options when you are creating a course.

So the long and short of it is, engagement with the tool (and the app) have been fantastic (including some students, not even those who are traditionally your determined / want to do more type) are asking me to create / tweak courses to allow them to concentrate on specific elements to further their learning. Aye aye, says I. It really is well worth a try to see if it sparks in your school.