Christmas MFL resources

Hello, there,

I hope you are well? 

It's been a while, I know. 

I've been busy. 

MFL seems to have taken a back seat over the last couple of years as I have taken some time out of teaching and been side-tracked by my other love, writing funny stuff. You can see some of what I have been up to here and here.

Anyway, here is my most recent and up to date list of free Christmas resources you might use in your classroom over the next week or so:

Lightbulb Languages  Clare Seccombe's awesome website with Christmas resources in lots of different languages:  French, German, and Spanish. 

Samantha Broom's languagesresources.co.uk has resources in French, German and Spanish.

MFL Resources has some Christmas quizzes in French, German and Spanish here.

There are a lot of resources in different languages  from SCILT here.

TES has some nice free resources: French, German, and Spanish.

Lanternfish has some activities and song lyrics here

The ideal teacher has a list of ideas and reaources in 3 languages here

For the older pupils leaning Spanish, Wikipedia has interesting articles about the Catalan Caganer and Caga Tío

and there is a veritable cornucopia of Christmas songs and videos over on the youtube in French, German, Spanish, and Italian

and Webcertain TV has short youtube videos about how Christmas is celebrated in lots iof different countries. 

Lumni - the education platform from Europe 1

Lumni is an education platform for teachers and students from French broadcaster Europe1.

It has lots of videos and articles on subjects such as history, news and lifestyle for students of all  ages.

Here is a  screen shot of some of the titles on their homepage:

I signed up to their mailing list a while ago and this morning, I received a link to a section all about food. The videos range from why we need to eat to healthy eating to videos about individual foodstuffs  and why they are good, or bad, for us.

Most of the videos are cartoons in a similar style to those on 1jour1actu 's website and there are some which feature real people, too.

The C'est bon section contains 26 videos about different types of foods which would be ideal for teaching about healthy eating. Each clip lasts 2 minutes 30 seconds. 

Here's one about bread:

Enjoy!

Teaching from home or holding a seance?

Hello there,

How are you all today? 

Good. 

Like most teachers, I am working from home at the moment. 

To be precise from the kitchen.

It's great.

I love it...

I have never eaten so much toast, or so many biscuits and crisps, or drank quite so much tea as I have over the last 5 weeks.

I'm teaching live lessons though the medium of Microsoft TEAMS, a business communication platform that  was never intended to be used as an online classroom...

...but it's better than nothing.

This isn't a rant by the way...

There are advantages to teaching from home:

• I get an extra half an hour in bed each morning.
• I haven't ironed a shirt since mid-December.
• I'm saving a fortune on petrol (but spending considerably more money on tea, bread, biscuits and crisps...)

There are also things I miss about physically travelling into work: 

• I miss the friendly staff at the drive-thru coffee shop
• I miss my friends and colleagues (not all my colleagues, obviously)
• I miss seeing the kids, talking to them, listening to them.
• I miss the interaction and the whole experience of teaching in a classroom.

There are lots of things I can't control online which I can control in a classroom:

• Some students don't complete any work. In my classroom they (usually) have no option.

• Some students attend for the register and then disappear. Can you imagine that happening in your classroom? Five minutes in, you turn round to discover half of them have sneaked out?  I have literally taught a Year 8 lesson to no students. Not a single one turned up. 

• Some students don't know how to work the techy side of home learning. They can use tiktok, Facebook, Instagram, and Plurk but have no idea how to open an Assignment, submit an assignment, or actively engage in a lesson. None of this is their fault. their parents and teachers think kids are good with computers when in reality, they are good at doing a couple of things on computers (some of them are even legal).

• Marking work takes much longer, it is submitted in 15 different formats and once feedback has been given and returned, it is lost forever. 

• Don't even get me started on Google Translate. It's a wonder the site hasn't melted with all the use it's been getting. Students who before Christmas were working at GCSE level 3 are now submitting work which includes imperfect subjunctives and some frighteningly translated local vernacular... "J'aime me frire comme." ("I love chips me like." Seriously!)

• My students are not permitted to turn on their cameras so I've no idea if they are even there. I spend most of my time saying "Raise your hand if you are there...Raise your hand if you can hear me...Is there anybody there....?"

image courtesy of pixabay.com

ER verbs in 40 minutes

 A few weeks ago, I had a job interview.

I didn't get the job. 

Thanks for asking.

One of the things they asked me to do was teach a lesson to Year 7.

They asked me to teach the full paradigm of ER verbs. 

In the present tense.

In French.

In 40 minutes. 

I love a  challenge.

So this is what I did.

I put together a series of tasks which would take just a few minutes each:

This task was to gauge what the students already knew. 
(You'd be surprised how many times I've been asked to introduce something that students have done before!)

Luckily, most of them spotted that they ended in ER and one of them (a native French speaker!!) managed to tell me that they were all verbs.

This led nicely to task 2.

Most of them knew this, so it didn't take long to move to task 3.

This came with a picture of Buzz Lightyear (which I can't reproduce here for copyright reasons).

Task 4 was a translation task and a reminder of the verbs from task 1:

We also worked out that if the pronoun is "je" the verbs end in "e".

Task 5 was the good old "what do you know about your own language task".

They managed to work out that the last three were wrong and could tell me why.

(Although, for some reason the grammar checker in Office thought number 5 was correct...)

We then looked at verb endings in French and they were given Task 6, to put the correct endings on some stems.

We got the answers correct, thought of some more sentences in French and wrote a rule about conjugating ER verbs.

Task 7, was another translation task this time, English into French:

They managed to deal with this quite well, so we then had a look at the challenge task:

A lot of them spotted the extra "e" and told me it was wrong. 

I told them it wasn't wrong and asked them to explain why.

A few of them got it straight away.

That was it the full paradigm of ER verbs in French in the present tense in 40 minutes.

image from pixabay.com

MFL Christmas resources (updated for 2020)

 Hello there.

Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la laaaaa et cetera!

Here is an updated list of Christmas resources all in one place, so you don't have to search the internet.

Lightbulb Languages

This is owned and managed by Clare Seccombe. I love this site. A cornucopia of free resources for many languages from primary to secondary any time of the year. 

Here are links to LL's French,  Spanish, and German, Christmas resources.

This is probably the only place you need to go for resources but I'll give you some more, too.

TES

Despite my bugbear of TES users selling other people's stuff, there are still some ethical users producing good, free resources on the TES site (although nowhere near as many as there used to be...). 

Here are their French, Spanish, and German resources (with the free ones first).

Languagesresources.co.uk

There are some good French resources on this site run by Samantha Broom

SCILT

Scotland's National Centre for Languages has resources about Christmas in various countries here.

Lancashire Grid For Learning has some some links to Christmas resources.

Lanternfish has some French Christmas worksheets and French Christmas carol lyric sheets.

Photo of Munich from  stux7221 on pixabay.com

Halloween murder mystery

Hello there, It's been a while, I know. This is a lesson I threw together for my Year 7 classes last week. It involves thinking skills, knowing all about genders of nouns, cognates, and speaking in the target language. It's called Who Killed The Big Pumpkin and is loosely based on the game Cluedo. Or Clue if you're American. There are 4 tasks:

The students really seemed to like it. If you'd like a copy, email me. PS: I used this lesson for a recent job interview. Luckily, I didn't get the job...but that's another story...however, one pupil came to me at the end of the lesson and told me it was the best French lesson she had ever been in. The Teaching Assistant also told me that the autistic pupil she was working with had never taken part in a lesson until that lesson.

PS. I have now put this resource on the TES website. It is free and you can even pass it off as your own work if you like...

Languages are meant to be spoken – MFL verbal skills at KS3

Earlier this year I wrote an article for Teach Secondary magazine about the importance of speaking in MFL. Sadly, due to some pandemic you may have seen on the news, it hasn't yet appeared in print. The good news is that you can read it on their Teachwire website here.

Zipi y Zape y la Isla del Capitán - studying a spanish film.

At the end of each academic year, KS3 students at my school study a film.

I've written about this before here (German), here (French) and here (Spanish).

This year was a little different. Due to lockdown, the situation was weird to say the least.

Usually, all of our Y8 students would study the film. This year, however, only those who have opted to continue with Spanish next year have studied the film.

The film I chose this year was the sequel to last year's film, Zipi y Zape y el club de la canica, Zipi y Zape y la Isla del Capitán.

The reasons for the choice were quite simple:

1) The film is widely available to watch on the internet, on Netflix and other streaming sites. 

2) It's quite easy to follow.

3) None of the children had seen the film.
4) It's quite good.

Normally when studying a film, we would spend two or three lessons watching and discussing the film.
This wasn't possible this time, so I made a true/false quiz which would help the students follow the plot.

This year's project was a GCSE transition project so I wanted the other activities to be similar to the type of tasks the students might encounter in their GCSE course.

I found some really good resources online:

The Discovery Film Festival (I mostly used this resource)

TES user iuliamorgan

and I included lots of activities so students could use their knowledge of describing people and personalities which they were studying just before lockdown.

The feedback from students has been very positive and they are really looking forward to studying GCSE Spanish next term.

That's not George Clooney! a game for language students.

Today I was watching Meet The Germans on dw.de.

It is a cultural programme in English presented and written by Rachel Stewart.

This is dw.de's description of the programme:

From beer to nudity and ridiculous grammar - Meet the Germans uncovers the quirks and idiosyncrasies of the German culture. Through videos with presenter Rachel Stewart and other online content we bring you insider tips and a light-hearted but informative look at life in Germany.  

While watching one of the videos on youtube today (about German TV and how a lot of it is American drivel dubbed into German) I invented a language game* to practise describing and comparing people.

* I find if I call something a game my students are much more willing to participate.

I started with this photo:

This is Martin Umbach a very well-known (in Germany) German actor.

But he is also George Clooney...

...and Russell Crowe...

...and Gabriel Byrne...

... and Geoffrey Rush...

So here's the game:

Students are given a photo of the foreign language voice actor and write/speak a description.

Er heißt Martin Umbach. Er kommt aus Deutschland. Er is vierundsechzig Jahre alt...usw.

Then let them search for who he is, or make them guess, or play a match up game with photos.

They then have to compare and contrast the English speaking star with their FLVA counterpart.

Martin ist älter als George aber sie haben graue Haare. 

This can be as detailed or as basic as you wish depending on the ability/experience of your students. 

You could even play this as a True/False guessing game with pictures of the stars, where students have to decide if their partner is telling the truth.

Have fun!

PS: Here's a list of German actors and the American actors they dub.

PPS: You could introduce some real culture and controversy here, too as many African American actors are voiced by white actors in German films and TV shows. e.g. Uwe Friedrichsen, a white German actor, was the voice of Danny Glover in many films.

Rows or Groups?

Over the past few days on Twitter there has been a lot of discussion as to whether students learn best sitting in “traditional” rows or together in groups. The UK’s current Secretary of State for Education this week said that students should “face the front and pay attention” which many have interpreted as “children must be sitting in rows”. 

Many tweeters have attached themselves firmly to one side, and like Swift’s Big-Endians and Little-Endians are refusing to listen to the arguments from any side but their own and some seem quite happy to go to war over it..... They do both agree that the “horseshoe” set up is wrong though...

Personally, as a teacher of modern languages I like my students to be sitting in groups. My current classroom, I seem to remember, would be impossible to set up in rows as it has circular tables which lend themselves well to group work. It was never intended to be a classroom but that is another story. My room doesn’t have a “front” either. There is no whiteboard but a large touch screen TV which can be wheeled around as is my wont. Sounds awful, doesn’t it? 

With my students sitting in groups they can complete speaking tasks more easily. They can work with up to five different people without leaving their seat and I can easily put groups of students with similar needs together. 

This has been ideal when teaching GCSE classes where some students have been working on Foundation tasks and others on Higher tasks in the same class. 

It also is ideal with mixed ability KS3 groups where I can spend time helping smaller groups on a specific question rather than explaining the same thing fifteen times to students seated in different seats all around the room. I move the groups around too. I noticed in my year 7 class that the table in the far left hand corner from the door was not achieving as well as they should be and wondered if it was because they were difficult to get to. I solved this by rotating the groups around the tables. It worked. 

The reason many teachers have expressed their love of rows is to manage student behaviour better. This might be true in many cases, but believe me, if a student has a mind to misbehave in your lesson it doesn’t matter where they are sitting. They are going to do it anyway. 

Many classrooms I have taught in over the years have not really been comfortably big enough for groups and I have managed quite well with rows but my preference is for groups simply so that students can speak and listen to each other and to different people. In rows you can only talk to the person next to you or in front or behind you. Groups adds another couple of people at least to work with.

I’m not sure there is any reliable research on the rows versus groups debate; would you need to test the same students in two different room setups in the same subject over a period of time? I don’t know.

I think it comes down to preference, situation, furniture, comfort and probably, a few dozen other things.

It’s your classroom, do what you think is best. 

 

Battleships! From beginner to A Level.

Hi there, it's been a while.

I've been busy with a lot of other projects recently so I apologise for the lack of posts over the last 8 months or so.

Anyway, here's the post...

One of my favourite speaking tasks ever is Battleships.

It gets the students involved (particularly the boys) and also has a nice competitive element to it.

It works best with beginners but can be differentiated up to A level and getting students to create their own is even better.

There's a powerpoint template on TES from agcb256 here.

I always make a powerpoint version to play as a group before letting the students loose on the task, as some of my students may have never played this before.

Usually, it will be "Où est X?" with a few hidden photos of me or Lindsay Lohan.

The students are then given a slip of paper with a grid on it, like this:


They then add crosses, faces, etc...

and with their partner they then try to guess where the battleships have been hidden by reading out sentences: e.g. "J'adore les maths" is a hit and "J'adore l'anglais" is a miss.
For those of you thinking it's far too simple, you can differentiate it for more able/experienced students.

Here's a version for A level students. In this version, based on Maupassant's Boule de Suif, students have to either come up with a relevant quote from the story or explain the link between the character and the theme.

You could even make a GCSE version to practise possible speaking exam questions, although personally, I prefer the cootie catcher, snapdragon, fortune tellers to do this.

Enjoy.

7 Quick MFL Ideas to Boost Secondary Students’ Word Power

This is an article I wrote for Teach Secondary magazine:

7 Quick MFL Ideas to Boost Secondary Students’ Word Power

Enjoy. 

Zipi 7 Zape y el club de la canica - teaching a Spanish film

I'm not a Spanish specialist but, due to me obviously upsetting someone in a previous life and being cursed for all eternity, I currently teach it to KS3 (11-13 year old) students.

At the end of each year, after all the assessments, for a few weeks we study a film.

When I say study I really mean it.

This year we are studying "Zipi y Zape y el club de la canica" in Spanish and Le Petit Nicolas in French.
I got the Zipi y Zape  DVD from ebay.

This is the first time I've taught a Spanish film but I've done lots of French films with students in the past.


Zipi y Zape are twins, famous for appearing in a Spanish comic strip, and in cartoons, and the live action film (I refuse to use the word "movie") didn't disappoint.

Most of my students loved it. "You forget it's in Spanish" was one comment I heard from a student.

They've seen the film and now are working through activities based on the film but which also use skills they will need to be successful in KS4.

I used (and adapted) resources from here:

Into Film https://www.intofilm.org/resources/1368 (you need to sign up for this free resource)

Discovery Film Festival https://ifi.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Zip__Zap_Resource_Pack-2.pdf

TES (user myrtille) https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/zipi-y-zape-photo-cards-11931220

TES (user jrcrawleynz) https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/zipe-y-zape-y-el-club-de-la-canica-exercises-to-accompany-dvd-11175691 (These involve using the preterite)

I also used vocabulary for describing a photo which we use for GCSE.
TES (user C-Marie) https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/describing-a-photo-photocard-help-mat-for-new-gcse-spanish-11389517

It's a good opportunity for revising/learning physical descriptions and personality, using adjective agreement, tenses, opinions, and improving speaking skills.

Not bad for something the students think is end of term fun.

MFL on a need to know basis...

It's the holidays and my brain has gone into overdrive...

I'm just thinking aloud....

(Is thinking allowed?)

Last week, I taught my one of my year 8 French classes the imperfect tense.

But I didn't really. I never mentioned the imperfect tense once.

I thought I was doing OK.

The broad objective of the lesson was to say what you did and didn't used to like at school.

A little "grammar note", some examples (je, tu, il, elle, and on) and some scaffolded exercises comparing then and now:

J'aimais le français, mais maintenant c'est barbant.

Then, a speaking activitity.

Job done.

Or so I thought...

One student raised a hand:

"This is wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"There's more to it. You've missed loads out. Look."

I was handed a tatty "grammar booklet" from this student's last school, which contained pretty much all the grammar needed for a grade 9 at GCSE.

The student was correct. I had, indeed, missed out loads.

On purpose.

Does this group (none of whom has chosen to study languages next year!) really need the stress of learning the full paradigm of regular imperfect tense verbs just because?

What would they do with it?

Isn't it better to teach them how to communicate a little in French rather than hammer them with grammar that most French people don't need to know?

Am I doing them a disservice?

I don't think so....

...but I've been wrong before...

Updating resources and keeping it relevant.

One of the reasons I've never been a fan of MFL text books is that they date so quickly.

Even the most recent text books we have in school have almost ancient photos of sports stars, actors, and singers, and don't even get me started on the technology and cultural references...

This was made clear to me this week when a Year 7 student (12 years old) asked what an "internet café" was. There was one on a map of a town they had to describe in Spanish.

Remember, these students don't remember a time without smart phones, let alone the internet...and also have no idea who Thierry Henry is...or Robbie Williams (so it's not all bad!).

I update my resources regularly, but I'm now a very old man and I'm a little out of touch with what goes on in the real world...

The people who make text books and the exam boards, too, are also so out of touch...

...nobody watches TV any more, so asking students "What's your favourite TV programme?" is a redundant task you could have got 2 lessons out of three years ago.

"What's your favourite youtube channel?" would probably be a better task.

Mine is "Don't Trust the Rabbit" by the way...
It's the best place on the web to learn about German culture and language, but not always suitable for school use....


Young people these days don't have favourite singers or bands, either. They listen to play lists and don't even know the names of most of the artists filling their airbuds.

Why would they? They only listen to the first 12 seconds of a song before touching a virtual button and getting their next fix...

So the old "keeping it relevant" line is more important now than ever before.

How do we do this?

Speak to the students.

Find out what they like.

Who are the "celebrities" they admire?
Even if you're in your 20s, you won't know any of them!
And you'll hate them all!

What types of music are they listening to?
It's probably K-pop and you have no idea what that is!

My advice to you?

Keep it relevant.

Keep it real...

...and remember that google is your friend, youtube is your enemy's enemy and wikipedia might just save your life.

Good luck!

How to Introduce Gendered Nouns in KS3 French

As well as teaching, and cobbling together this nonsense, I often do other things.

One thing I do is write funny things for satirical websites and occasionally the radio.

Another thing I do, once every Preston Guild, is write articles about teaching languages.

Here is my latest offering on Teachwire, the snappily named: How to Introduce Gendered Nouns in KS3 French.

Enjoy.

Learning and retaining vocabulary...

My Year 7 students have just had exams.

The majority have done well and their hard work has paid off.

They scored fewer marks in their writing papers, though.

Their spelling really let them down

So, this is my plan to improve spelling and vocabulary retention:

When setting vocabulary learning homework make them write it out a number of times and then hand in proof that they have done it. 

I've just started to do this so there's no proof it has improved their work yet. 

Watch this space though, I'm sure that their test results and retention are going to get better...

Curiosity...

Proverbialists and fans of mid-80s pop music would have you believe that Curiosity Killed The Cat. 



NASA would prefer you to believe that Curiosity is currently exploring the Gale Crater on the planet Mars. 


Or is it? 

Yes, it is. 

Look:


Curiosity is also the title of a programme at my school in which students are given the opportunity to work with teachers and guests to find out more about the subjects they study and how they can be linked to real life. 

Curious students tend to do better than their less curious classmates. 

A few weeks ago I planned and delivered a Curiosity session (based on an article I wrote for Teach Secondary about gender and adjectives in French).

My session started with me asking the students a question: 

Why is a French pencil case feminine and a Spanish pencil case masculine? 

The inevitable answer came: 

          You told us they were. 




The truth is that students, generally speaking, just accept everything their teachers tell them as Gospel and rarely question anything. 

To my mind, Curiosity sessions are the ideal place to question anything and everything. 

In a controlled environment, obviously. 

I'm not a hippy!

So, I set the young explorers away on a (laptop) mission to discover why some words are masculine and feminine and even neuter! 

The important things they discovered were:

• Most Latin-based languages have different genders of nouns and some others but not all.

• "gender" has nothing to do with sex and is closely linked to the word "genre"

• physical characteristics often dictate the gender of a noun

• Abstract nouns tend to be feminine in many languages (they tested it on wordreference.com) 

• Sometimes the same word can have 2 different genders depending on its meaning.

• Nobody really knows why.  

• and my favourite, it is important to ask questions and research answers even though there is not always a clear answer.

They really enjoyed themselves and I'd love to do it again. 

Silent corridors

Silent Corridors, no, not the 1974 Italian horror film or the late '80s Manchester Indie band of the same name*, but the latest great/terrible idea from Senior Leaders (Twitter almost exploded because of this) to keep students calm during the change-over time between classes.

The school in question (and it isn't the only one with this policy) has been described in the British media as "concentration camp-like" and "a North Korean gulag" a full week before the policy will even be introduced.

Some schools have been doing it for years and their students accept it.

And are all amazingly well behaved!

Mostly.

I imagine.

I'm not a fan of silent corridors but I can understanding the reasoning behind them.

I get that in schools where there are discipline issues, they might be a good idea.

During exam season, they can be a huge help to students, particularly when lesson change-overs and break times might not follow public exam timetables.

If a school has problems with behaviour between lessons, might I suggest that a greater SLT presence would be a better policy?

My problem with silent corridors is that it stops children discussing their learning. I am convinced that a lot of learning and a lot of explaining goes on in corridors on the way to lessons.

I've seen it going on and it would be a terrible shame to lose it...


*I made both of these up

PS: Since I wrote this blog, there has been even more speculation on social media.
I spotted this on Twitter:

I'm not sure how the 10% raise in achievement happened but as soon as I find out and read the data, I'll add it.

I need the toilet!

 Here's a fact for you:

Children, like adults, sometimes need to go to the toilet.

Unlike teachers, who can avoid using the toilet for days at a time, normal people sometimes get caught short.

How can you tell if someone genuinely does need the toilet? 

Simple answer: you can't. 

Rather like burnt toast, the smell only permeates the room after the fact. 

There are lots of reasons why they might need to go, too!

Here is a list of things teachers have said to students who have asked to avail themselves of the facilities during class:

• No.

• You should have gone at break-time/lunchtime. 

• I'm not surprised; you've just drunk a litre of water/Red Bull/Irn Bru/coffee/Smoothie/etc, etc...

• Can't you wait?

• Not again. 

...and I've even heard colleagues humiliate students about their toilet habits... 

This is my solution. I've been doing this for a year or so, now.

At my school, students are only allowed out of lessons if they are in possession of the teacher's "yellow card". Any child wandering the corridors not carrying the card will be stopped and challenged.

My yellow card is stuck on the wall near the door.

If a child needs the toilet, they don't need to ask. They get up, take the card, go to the toilet, come back, put the card back on the wall, and return to their seat.

Occasionally, a child will take advantage of the system.

If I suspect this I put a note in their book with the time they left and then I'll write the time they came back.

It's all about trust. 

So far, so good.