As a department, we much prefer to create our own listening and reading materials for classes instead of using textbooks, unless something really fits a particular topic well or exploits a certain point. With my year 10 this week, covering what is perhaps usually a quite mundane topic, I tried to engage them with images and photographs instead and tailor my activities to suit.
Reading - We are on the GCSE context of relationships and we needed to revise family and physical description, so I wrote a short description of both of my parents and showed them photos. The pupils then had some time to read the texts from the board and try to remember as much as possible. I gave them a memory test whereby they had to tell me how much they could remember about my parents from the written descriptions. I was quite honest and matched the pictures to my description for my mixed ability class - if you were testing a high ability class this would be a good way for them to prove their reading skills! It was a really nice activity for them to practise their reading as they actually cared about the answers instead of reading from a textbook about fictitious characters and they wanted to get to know me and find out more about my family. It was a also a lovely way to build positive relationships with what has been at time a tricky group to get to know.
Speaking - We then went on to discuss what makes a good friend. After brainstorming some qualities of a good or indeed a bad friend, we did a bit of group talk about some famous people and whether they would make a good best friend. I picked people which would generate some discussion and argument for the tables - Chris Brown, Nicole Scherzinger, the Queen, Jeremy Clarkson - before summarising some key vocab that came out of our discussions as a class. It was then time to practise some listening.
Listening - I chose to use a Voki character (www.voki.com) instead of reading aloud to my class. It provides a visual animation to your voice recording, or if you don't have access to a mic on your laptop, it has a handy function where you can convert text to speech in a number of different accents. I recorded a short piece (the limit is 60s) describing my friends with a random little pink bunny rabbit character. They then had to decide which friend was which from a photo I gave them and answer some simple listening comprehension questions. Again, this was a nice way for them to find out a little bit more about me, whilst using vocabulary from the topic in a real context. I could also adapt the text to include certain structures that I wanted to exploit before setting them up with a transcript to have a go at writing their own text about their own best friends.
I have had two low ability year 8 groups this year in Spanish which has encouraged me to be a little more inventive in the support I offer these learners in order for them to reach their target grades by the end of the year. Having had high ability sets the year before, it was a question of more than just adapting my SMART board Notebook slides as it become apparent, assessment after assessment, that they weren't making the progress I had expected.
I chose to have a bit of a push on literacy skills and here are a few activities I tried out. Certainly none of these are anything new or particularly exciting, just a reminder of some tried and tested activities we may have forgotten about.
E S P A C I O S - I gave pupils a short paragraph (2 - 4 sentences max) with all the spaces removed. Armed with coloured pencils, they had a go drawing wiggly lines in where they thought the spaces should go, which was incredibly useful for the Spanish phrases they often squeeze together such as 'porque es' (because it is...) and 'me gusta' (I like). We then replicated the activity on the interactive whiteboard using the pens to come up to the board and draw on the lines in different colours. This could be an activity they do themselves on mini whiteboards with a partner.
3 COLORES - In order for pupils to concentrate a little more on the range of vocabulary they use, I gave pupils a text and this time, again with colouring pencils, they had to underline adjectives, connectives and opinions each in a different colour. We completed the activity as a class on the interactive whiteboard and spoke about why we needed to use lots of different examples and then prepared a 'Help page' in their exercise books. They divided the page in to 3 and wrote down any new adjectives / opinions / connectives they hadn't come across that they fancied using in their next piece of writing. They then had a ready prepared bank of words to save the hundreds of questions 'How do I say this in Spanish?' like we usually get come assessment time!
Competitive Writing - For this activity you need a SMART board Notebook slide ready prepared with the categories of words you want pupils to include in their writing. For example, with my year 8 it was an opportunity for them to use connectives to link sentences as well as opinions and reasons the reach their high level 3 - low level 4 targets in writing. I gave each category a points system, with some bonus points on offer for using fancier phrases such as however. I left the slide on the board with a timer and pupils had 5 minutes to write a short text using the vocabulary on the board. It was then time to get the green pens out, swap books with a partner, and award each other a points value. I offered prizes for the highest number of points but this could be incorporated into lessons later in the year by revisiting the activity within a different context and seeing if pupils can better their score. The boys in particular responded really well to the competitive element of this activity and the quality of what they produced was far superior to that if I had just asked them to write me a paragraph on a given topic.
Let me know any thoughts.
Really enjoy using music in lessons, particularly in the target language, but more often than not I enjoy it more than the pupils. I have recently discovered an artist on youtube, Kevin, Karla y la banda, who rerecord pop songs in Spanish. These are brilliant for Kagan activities - I frequently reinforce question and answers in the TL by getting pupils to prepare a response (or if they are higher ability, improvise their answers instead) and dance around the room to music. When the music stops, they must ask the person nearest to them to answer their question. I am known to shout "Now tell a fib!" to get pupils used to using more vocabulary rather than just their set response to a given question.
This is a current favourite - everyone loves a bit of Rhi-Rhi...
We Found Love - Kevin, Karla y la banda en español
Am finally getting around to starting my blog - thanks to Mr Knight.
I shall attempt to share CPD, reflect on ideas found via the twittersphere and general musings!
MFL teaching - Spanish and German, and anything Student Voice related.
