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!