Venn Diagrams and Thinking Skills

              

I've used venn diagrams with most of my classes this year. 

I find them a great way to get students thinking about how they might categorise words and phrases.

For example, with my younger students when we learn colours and adjective endings in French we use a venn diagram to separate adjectives which are masculine, feminine or both. 

When describing people and characteristics we had a positive, negative or possibly both diagram to complete. 

I have used them when teaching phonics and got the students to fill in words which contain a certain sound or sounds.

My 6th form students used them to compare and contrast characters from the Maupassant short stories they had read. 

I've even got students to make up their own categories for venn diagrams. Some of these were really good, for example one year 7 student made a "J'adore" and "Je déteste" diagram when we learned words for foods.

They require very little preparation, are very easy to make and can be done on mini-whiteboards rather than using a lot of paper.

Tech for tech's sake!

Even though I am a huge technology nerd (I even own a pocketsurfer!!) I don't believe that, as teachers, we should use technology just for the sake of using technology.

Many of my colleagues, including most of my department, have recently been given ipads.

Now despite what you may think, and despite this earlier post, I don't dislike the ipad. It is, in all honesty, an amazing gadget.

But, at the risk of sounding like a petulant 13 year old, I don't get it.

I just don't see the point.

Before you bombard me with comments, links and lists of wonderful educational apps, you might let me finish.

Having spoken to many of my colleagues who love their ipads, I have only found one department which actually uses them as teaching and learning tools.

For the others it is just a planner or a games console (which they can use to play virtua tennis via bluetooth with each other in the staffroom).

A teacher's planner costs around £6, an ipad costs around £300. If you consider school budgets and the cuts in education recently made by the authorities, these things are far too expensive to be used merely as diaries. 


I firmly, believe that if teachers are to be equipped with new technology they should be given appropriate training specifically to help improve the teaching and learning of students.

Otherwise, don't bother.

Is this too much too ask?

Probably.

image  from http://cdn.i.haymarket.net.au

Authentic links for AS German

You asked for it and here it is: Authentic links for AS German.


Television

From Schattenlichtzine: Pro und Contra Fernsehen für Kinder

From wen-waelen: Das Fernsehen sollte stärker kontrolliert werden

From MPFS: Gewalt und Fernsehen 10 Antworten

From stern.de: Macht Fernsehen dick?

From Tannheiner-Tal: Fernsehen - Segen oder Fluch?



Advertising

From Familie.de: Wie gefährlich Werbung für Kinder ist

From Carola Laun Marketing: Wie Jugendliche Werbung verstehen

From gutefrage.net: Werbung - Vorteile und Gefahren für den Konsumenten


New technology

From handywissen.at: Das Handy im Alltag

From analysismobil.com: Pro und Contra Handy in der Schule

From helpster.de: Soziale Netzwerke - pro und contra

From rp-online.de (a silly quiz) Sind Sie Handysüchtig?


Cinema

From talkteria.de: Kino oder DVD?


Fashion and image

From klamm.de: Sind Markenklamotten wichtig?

From kinder.de: Piercing und Tattoo

From lifeportal.ch: Was ist ein Emo, Punk, Gothic, Skin...?


Sport and exercise


From bkk-rhein-neckar.de: Sport ist wichtig für die Gesundheit

Lots of information about funsports and extremesports in German at funsporting.de


From jumpandrun.eu: Ist Parkour wirklich gefahrlich?

From kristins kinderkiste: Warum ist sport für Kinder wichtig?



Health and wellbeing


From krebsgesellschaft.de: Rauchen bei Kindern und Jugendlichen

From a-connect.de: Jugend und Alkohol

From geishofer.at: Jugend und Drogen

From spiegel online: Jugendliche trinken und rauchen weniger


Holidays


From Reisekomplizen: Vorteile und Nachteile von Langzeiturlaub

From Pauschalreise.de: Vorteile und Nachteile einer Pauschalreise


From bio-natur-urlaub.de: Sanfter Tourismus und Umwelt Tourismus




Family, friendships and relationships


From ehescheidung.de: Heirat oder nichteheliche Partnerschaft?

From healthindex.de: Warum heiraten?

From spiegel online: Vorteile des Single-Lebens

From fem.com: Freundschaft: Was wichtig ist

Making comics with my year 12 and Toondoo.

At my school year 12 students start their A2 French course in June.

I try to make it nice for them and so we study a nice film (this year it's "le diner de cons") and we start to look at French literature.

As we are studying Maupassant's short stories I thought it would be a nice idea to read a couple of really short stories, un duel and deux amis. These 2 stories are incredibly short and we read each of them in one lesson.

Rather than write a summary of the stories I asked them to create a Mr Men style mini-book with a nice picture and a sentence in French on each page. (Clare Seccombe is the Queen of mini-books. Read her blog.)

They actually thought I had gone mad.

Some of them are quite serious and studious (they think I'm an idiot at the best of times!) and were quite shocked that I asked them to do this.

One of them said, "This is an A level course. What is the educational value in this?"

My reply of course was, "There is educational value in everything we do. Just because something seems like fun, it doesn't mean we shouldn't be doing it."


So, off they went and created their mini-books on an expertly folded piece of A3 paper.

I then decided that it would be lots of fun to use toondoo to make comics.

By this time they had already gone, so I did it myself. Next time I'll get them to do it, too

Here is my version of Guy de Maupassant's Deux Amis.

Enjoy.

By dmcg | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

By dmcg | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Authentic links for AS French

Here is the AS version. Lots of authentic links.

Enjoy.

Television

From collectifciem.org: La télé pour les bébés: un danger pour leur santé

From nouvelles.umontreal.ca: La violence à la télé peut influer sur le comportement de l'enfant.

From ladepeche.fr: Violence et pornographie: la télé devra revoir sa copie

From e-sante.fr: Obésité, enfant et télévision: Pourquoi le télévision fait grossir ?


Advertising


Blogdefred's arguments for and against advertising

An article entitled Les jeunes et la publicité

From zakiworld.com Les avantages et les inconvénients de la publicité

An article on the advantages and disadvantages of billboard advertising


New technology

From ac-creteil.fr: advantages and disadvantages of the internet

From marocagrag.com: advantages ad disadvantages of mobile phones

From doctissimo.fr: le téléphone portable, est-il dangereux pour la santé ? (Quite old, but still relevant)

A collection of articles about mobile phones from protection-ondes.com

From rmc.fr: des élèves accros à leur téléphone portable

From journal des femmes: Protéger ses enfants des réseaux sociaux


Cinema


From utile.fr: Regarder un film au cinéma: avantages et inconvénients

http://www.cinema-francais.fr/ lots of information about all aspects of French cinema


Music


http://www.ados.fr/ the one stop French youth culture site. Music, film, cinema, TV, "celebrities"

French Radio London - a French music station based in London (I blogged about it here)


Fashion and image


Article from adoskuat.com Les jeunes et la mode

Everything you wanted to know about les piercings from teemix

From dermagazine.fr Les tatouages: Quels risques ?

From marhba.com Pourquoi suivre la mode ? Forum with opinions from real Frenchies


Sport and exercise

Pourquoi l'exercice est essentielle à la santé ? from the Canadaian government.

12 bonnes raisons de faire de l'exercice from coupdepouce.com

An article on "le zorbing"

A parkour website warning of the dangers of the sport

From e-santé: Sports extrêmes, pourquoi ?

Avantages des sports d'équipes from wellness-matters.net

From doctissimo.fr lots of links on individual sports


Health and Well-being

From doctissimo.fr lots of links on alcohol, binge drinking, eating disorders, smoking and drugs.

Le sida en France

A Swiss site all about la toxicomanie

toxicomanie.org a French site with practical advice


Holidays


Avantages des voyages organisés from coupdepouce

les vacances augmentent le réchauffement climatique article from actualites-news-environnement.com

Quiz from ados.fr: Quel genre de vacances est fait pour toi ?


Families, friends and relationships


Les avantages du mariage and Pourquoi se marier ? from canalvie.com in Canada

avantages et inconvénients du mariage from bebe-bebe.com

From radio-canada.ca Pourquoi l'union libre plutôt que le mariage ?

From teemix 30 bonnes raison d'être célibataire (Funny and very tongue in cheek article)

From madmoizelle.com: Un(e) vrai(e) ami(e) c'est quoi ?

Authentic links for A2 French - updated

I teach AQA French at A level and like to use (and share) authentic materials in my teaching.

I made a list of authentic resources on my blog a few years ago and noticed recently that some of the links no longer existed.

So here is a new list:


Alternative energy


Pour et contre l'éolien

Friends of the earth's French site: Energies et nucléaires and Les éoliens...pour ou contre ?

Développement durable: L'énergie éolienne: pour ou contre ?

Pour et contre la voiture électrique from Le Figaro



Nuclear energy

Nucléaire non merci's site: La nucléaire pour ou contre ?


Doctissimo's environnement forum: Comments from the general public about everything environmental

Suite101's article on nuclear power: Aprés l'accident au Japon: pour ou contre le nucléaire en France

Greenpeace's France site: Nucléaire






Comment protéger la planète

Loads from science citoyen on greenhouse, effect, global warming and our responsabilities.

Effet de serre et Changement climatique (from the French government)

Lots of information about recycling from somergie

A video from the BBC Learning Zone about recycling in Dakar

Les arguments en faveur du recyclage et du tri from recyclage de déchets



Poverty and unemployment


From inegalites.fr http://www.inegalites.fr/spip.php?article270 an article about poverty in France

Article on homelessness in France from vedura.fr http://www.vedura.fr/social/logement/sans-domicile-fixe

An article from le monde about homeless people and mental illness

La pauvrete dans le monde an article from inegalites.fr

An article Pauvreté solutions



Genetically modified organisms

Pour et contre les OGM from espace sciences

Peser le pour et le contre des OGM from http://www.fao.org

From jeuneafrique.com: Pour ou contre les OGM ?



Crime and punishment


From le courrier, La prison: pour qui, pourquoi ?

Les alternatives à la prison from alternatives-economique.fr

La peine de mort dans le monde from peindemort.org

From les dossiers du net: Arguments pour et contre la peine de mort

Amnesty International's French website

La criminalité chez les jeunes from jeunessecs.com






Immigration and Racism


Forumfr.com: L'immigration, pour ou contre ? Thoughts of genuine French people.

From franceinter.fr: L'immigration est-elle un problème ?

An article from claudereichman.com: La France, a-t-elle encore besoin d'immigrés ?


sos-racisme has a lot of information, facts and figures

Articles about wearing the burqa from Le Monde, and Le Figaro.

News item from donnetonavis.fr: Trois femmes saoudiennes interdires d'entrées en France



Well, that should save you a few hours of planning. If you find anything you think I should add to this list please leave a comment. Thanks.

Graham Davies - an inspiration.

This afternoon I heard the sad news of the death of Graham Davies.

Although I never had the privilege of meeting Graham, we would be in touch regularly, mainly via Twitter, Facebook and the TES modern languages forum.

As well as MFL we would discuss the more important things in life: we both had a love of decent beer, most notably Hobgoblin and Old Speckled Hen, and classic cars, he owning a Mercedes and me, a Karmann Ghia.

My first contact with Graham was probably about 10 years ago when I started to use the TES MFL forum. He was always ready to offer advice and post links to articles, resources and webpages and it soon became obvious to me that he was the "go-to-guy" for a lot of things. If Graham didn't know, he always knew someone who did.

Graham, amazingly, happened to be in Berlin when the Wall came down in 1989 and he kindly sent me a link to the blog post he had written about his experiences which I shared with my A Level German students a few years ago. One of my colleagues is sharing Graham's Berlin post with the current Year 12 students this week.  

Graham's website is an Aladdin's Cave of ICT training materials for teaching MFL and contains everything you could possibly wish to know from using a word processor to creating your own website.

I'm also very grateful to Graham as I know for a fact that many of the visitors to this blog come from links posted by him.

Even though Graham was very ill, he was an amazingly positive person and I, and many others, am deeply saddened by his passing.

RIP Graham.