The usual in an unusual way

This year in both my schools I have Year 3, Year 4 and Year 3/4 classes. For that reason I have had to devise a mixed age, two-year scheme of work. All three classes are working on the same curriculum (Cycle A of the scheme of work) this year. Because I have Year 4 children with one year of formal Spanish learning in the same class as Year 3 children who are beginners, I have had to seek a different context in which to introduce basic greetings, saying your name and first phonics, so that everyone can learn something new.

I chose the context of animals and the continents that they come from. This means that I can use soy instead of me llamo for saying their name (something new for the Year 4s) and then reuse soy in sentences such as Soy de Europa.

I chose the animal vocabulary and the first names so that they cover all the main phonemes/graphemes that we cover in Key Stage 2 Spanish, and also ensured that there was a good spread of names ending in -o, names ending in -a and names ending in neither for our first look at grammatical gender.

This video is designed to play at the beginning of a lesson while the children are getting ready, to introduce them to the animals and to begin to show them which continents the animals come from.

Do you adapt your scheme of work to cater for a range of student experience of language learning? Do you do the usual in an unusual way?

French and Spanish Art

It's the time of year when schools are having French days or Spanish days and need things to fill them, or when teachers want an artistic activity to fill in a spare lesson here and there.  Here are the ideas previously mentioned on this blog, that may come in handy for such an occasion:

Klee letters - combining art and writing

Vision On!  - creating art out of words

Magical Miró - ideas for exploiting the images of Joan Miró

Decorative Letters - making illuminated texts

The Shape Game - creating an image out of a shape

Imprinting Verbs - creating characters to inspire writing

Moorish Mosaics - making mosaics and exploring symmetry

Gaudí's Mosaics - making mosaic suns inspired by Gaudí

Guatemala - traditional patterns and textiles

Bend it, shape it, any way you want it - using plasticine and play doh

Food flags, informative flags - creating flags out of food, words, images...

Calligrams - converting text into images

Calligrams part 2 - creating calligrams using outlines and stencils

World Cup calligrams

Letter by Letter - make personal calligrams from your initials

Minibooks!

Mundo Primaria

While looking for something else yesterday, I found Mundo Primaria.  It's a website intended for Spanish children, but has plenty to offer us as teachers of Spanish, both in primary and secondary.

Here are my favourite pages:

• Chistes cortos para niños  At Language World, Glennis Pye recommended jokes as good short texts for translation.  This page has a slide show of 25 jokes.
  
  
• Lecturas cortas  These texts too would be good for translation, particularly the non-fiction ones.  El Sol is among the texts that would also be useful for reading in Key Stage 2.
  
• Cuentos infantiles cortos  Lots of short stories of different genres.
  
• Infografías educativas  The first ones are for English, but look further down the list and there are some good word mats for maths and the solar system.  I particularly like this food pyramid one.
  
• Ejercicios de ciencias sociales  Downloadable worksheets for social sciences.  The geography ones are to do with the map of Spain (which is what I was looking for originally!) and even if you don't use the exact resource it will give you some ideas for teaching the geography of Spain.  The Vida en sociedad and Historia worksheets are also useful for cross-curricular learning in Key Stage 2 and even Key Stage 3.
  
• Ejercicios de lengua  Worksheets that provide useful ideas for teaching grammar, especially in Key Stage 2.
  
• Números naturales hasta el millar  These maths worksheets would be useful for any student learning big numbers in Spanish.
  
• El Euro  Some useful adding-up-money sheets  (The rest of the maths sheets can be accessed from here.)

Language World 2017 #LW2017

Here are my sketchnotes from this year's Language World conference, which took place in Nottingham yesterday and the day before.

The main thing I have learned is that our new printer-scanner-copier is slightly too small to scan successfully the size of notebook that I chose to use, so apologies for the little bits of pages that are cut off or the ones that are a bit wonky.

The opening of Language World, by ALL President Anna Lise Gordon.
We spent a lot of time huddling and sharing!

Assessment without tears for KS2
Jackie Rayment and Yvonne Kennedy from the Herts for Learning team

Tuning into Translation.  Lots of good ideas from Glennis Pye.

Linking Languages with Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling at KS2- Julie Prince

AIM high in MFL - an insight into the AIM programme from Suzi Bewell and Lynn Cook

Progress: Moving from A to B or going round in circles?  Wise words from ALL President Anna Lise Gordon

A very interesting overview of the Teaching Schools Council Review of Languages Pedagogy from Ian Bauckham.  Lots of food for thought for all key stages.

Embedding Languages across the Primary Curriculum.  Ideas for using languages to help to teach science and healthy eating from Richard Tallaron.

Making the weather and creating the climate for success - Dr Rachel Hawkes

Improving literacy through languages... and improving languages through literacy - Nathalie Paris

I led a workshop about using Formulator Tarsia to create language puzzles.  All the info you need is here.

Building Bridges

Here is my presentation on cross-curricular learning from #ililc5.  We also had a look at an overview of the new curriculum for Year 4 and thought about opportunities for incorporating Languages into other subjects.  I have added this overview below.  It's copied and pasted from the new curriculum document, and reformatted.

Selective Overview of Year 4 Curriculum

Teaching Languages with 100 objects

This morning I had a look through the links included in the always-useful email newsletter from Global Dimension.  One of them was a link to an article about the British Museum's Teaching History in 100 Objects project.

My Year 3 daughter began Key Stage 2 in September with Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, and for that part of the new History curriculum the following objects are suggested:

Would it be possible to use a similar approach for teaching languages?  Are there 100 objects that could be used for enriching the teaching of languages in Key Stage 2?

I propose that the objects would have to have some kind of cultural significance, that they would somehow "matter" to the country or countries whose language is being taught.  And I also propose that there doesn't have to be a list of 100.  A smaller list may be just as suitable.

Since I read the article I've been inputting data and so a list of possible objects has been quietly fermenting at the back of my mind.  So far all I have come up with are objects for Spanish.  For example, clothes, such as a flamenco dress and some typical clothes from South American countries, to help with work on using and agreeing adjectives correctly.  The cultural element of national costume is also introduced, along with what people in those countries actually wear!  For sports, a Jai Alai basket could be used.

What do you think? Can you think of any objects that could be used in this way?

Including Culture in KS2 Languages

I have already written about one omission from the new Programme of Study for KS2 Languages, which is advice about the time allocation for language teaching.  Another omission is the lack of any mention of Intercultural Understanding (IU) in the subject content.

Culture is mentioned in the Purpose of Study: "Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures."  It goes on to say that " A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world", which implies that IU should be included if this is to happen.  The Purpose of Study finishes with: "Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries."  If you are going to study and work, and therefore presumably live, in another country, then an understanding and appreciation of the culture will be vital to spending a happy time there.

We all agree, I'm sure, that teaching culture alongside the language is a crucial part of the subject.  As the KS2 Framework says, "A language and its culture are inextricably linked."  For that reason, I have attempted to pull together here a list, for French and Spanish, of links and information for IU lessons, especially useful for the non-specialist or beginning teacher who may be unsure what to include.

GENERAL

The 10 minute guide to IU
Colours in cultures
Euros puzzles
Countries that use the Euro
Information about the Euro

FRENCH

General:
All about French - Pointless
Europe map puzzle - to see where the French-speaking countries fit in
Where in the world is French spoken? - podcast
All about France - podcast

Special days, events and festivals:
Saint-Valentin - minibook
Poisson d'avril (1st April)
Chandeleur, Carnaval and Mardi Gras - podcast
11 novembre - podcast
Bastille Day / 14 juillet (14th July) - podcast
Tour de France (July) - podcast
La Fête du Travail (1st May)

Easter:
minibook 1
minibook 2
Cloches volantes -French Easter bells

Christmas:
Christmas and New Year - podcast
Christmas songs

Arts and crafts:
Arbre à voeux

Play and games:
Playground games
List of playground games

School:
Website of school on French island of Réunion
Ecoles du Monde - schools around the world
List of equipment that French children have to buy for La Rentrée each September
French handwriting
La Rentrée - podcast
Playground games - podcast


SPANISH

General:
All about Spain and Spanish - Pointless
Fantastic facts about Spain
Spanish geography - data handling
Aztec maths
Calendar of Spanish fiestas
Information about Spanish customs and traditions
Map puzzles of Europe and South America
Maps of Spain
The Spanish flag
South America minibook
The origins of flamenco

Special days, events and festivals:
Día del amor y la amistad (February 14th)
Día del Padre / Día de San José (March 19th)  (Father's Day)
San Fermín (7th July) and here
Celebrating birthdays
Name days / Saints' days
La Tomatina (August)
Día de Sant Jordi (April 23rd)
Día de la Hispanidad / Columbus Day (October 12th)
Pictures from Día Nacional de España 2014 (October 12th)
Carnavales (February)

Christmas:
Roscón de Reyes
Special dates at Christmas
Doce uvas
About Los Reyes Magos (the 3 kings) (January 6th)
Caganer

Easter:
Nazarenos
Easter nouns
Easter nouns (2)
Games and songs
Semana Santa en Sevilla
Semana Santa en España

Stories:
El Ratoncito Pérez - a story about the Spanish version of the tooth fairy.  Information and the story.

Arts and Crafts:
Miró
Guatemala - textiles
Guatemalan worry dolls and the instructions
Guatemala - alfombras de Semana Santa
Moorish Mosaics
The Spanish-speaking Cultures colouring book - very useful for younger learners
Decorative Tile Designs colouring books - useful when you are looking at Moorish mosaics
Aztec Codices
Gaudi's Mosaics

Poems and songs:
A selection of Spanish songs

School:
Playground games
More playground games
Instructions for some playground games
Spanish handwriting

Food:
Una tortilla española


If you have any links that you think would be useful for this list, please add them to a comment here or tweet them to me, and I will add them in.

Vision On!

Early on Friday morning I read an email from Pinterest.  I registered with Pinterest quite some time ago, but have to admit that I haven't really done anything with it. Anyway, there was an interesting link in this email.  The skeletons reminded me of the 70s children's programme Vision On, and the character that Tony Hart made by writing and mirroring the programme name.  In 1981 I was in the 4th year of middle school, and we did a piece of art work inspired by this, where we wrote our names, mirrored them, and then painted each little section in a different shade of the same colour.  I seem to remember mine was various shades of red and pink.

Then this morning my six year old downloaded yet another app for her Android tablet.  It's called Doodle Toy, and she showed me how you can make mirrored writing with it.  So, instead of doing the work which I really need to do, I have been having a play with Doodle Toy, and thinking about how it could encourage Year 3 in particular with their writing of single words, as specified in the Key Stage 2 Framework for Languages.

Using this app it's easy to create an image of, for example, an animal name, and then embellish it to make it look even more like that animal.  I have done the French animals lapin and lion.  I have also created one of my own name, about which I could write something like "Me llamo Clare.  Soy un insecto." because of the shape my name makes.  It was straightforward (after a few false starts!) to save the images to my tablet's Album for later use.

I hope it gives you some ideas for having fun with text.  I'm going to put this on my old Android tablet, which I let the children use, and see what they come up with.

Take One Picture

The school where I teach Spanish has begun work this term on the National Gallery's Take One Picture project.  The current picture is Bartolomé Bermejo's Saint Michael Triumphant over the Devil (1468).  The fact that Bermejo is a Spanish artist is great news, and means that there will be a lot of cross-curricular Spanish stuff going on this term in at least PE, literacy, history and geography.

I have started to incorporate the picture into my Spanish lessons, and it is proving considerably easier for some year groups than for others.  Year 5, for example, are currently learning how to tell the time in Spanish.  Ideas on how to get Bermejo into that are very welcome!

Here's what I've done so far.

Year 4 have been working on days, numbers to 31 and months, and putting these together to make dates in Spanish.  As the picture is of St Michael, I took the opportunity to do some intercultural dates, namely saints' days.  I made 24 different saints' days into cards and we used them for a game of Showdown.  If you haven't tried Showdown yet, I recommend that you read Helena Butterfield's blogpost about it.  It's so easy to adapt and the children find it very useful and enjoyable.  Here are the cards if you would like to have a go yourself.



Year 3 have just started colours.  They are already familiar with them from Year 1 and Year 2, so I welcomed something different to do with them.  Bartolomé Bermejo was actually called Bartolomé de Cárdenas.  Bermejo means red, and he was always known by that name, maybe because he had red hair or a red face.  This gave me the idea to combine colours with names (more intercultural input).  The children are drawing Mr Men style characters in one colour, and then using the sheet below to find the name of the colour and a Spanish first name to go with it.  My examples on the board were Verónica Violeta and Rodrigo Rojo.



If you have any brainwaves about other ways that this picture could fit in, please let me know! The devil is going to inspire the "describe a monster" part of Y4's next topic, but apart from that.... I'd also be very interested to hear from anyone else who has been involved in this project, not necessarily for this picture.

And on an entirely unrelated matter I have also learned that you can embed documents from Box.

Magical Miró

I have a confession to make.  This isn't my idea.  Well, it started off as my idea, and had another idea added to it by a very clever student.

I always liked working with NQTs back in my secondary days, as they always brought with them lots of fresh ideas and new ways of doing things.  I'm now a language tutor on the Primary PGCE course at Manchester University, and I am learning from the students there.  My input on their first language day in September was ideas for promoting reading and writing in the languages classroom, and one of the things I showed them was how to make calligrams like these.  Their second session was language-specific, and the Spanish group talked about using the works of Joan Miró to inspire lessons.  Yesterday we went to a junior school in Stockport, where the students had the task of teaching a 30 minute language activity to a small group of Year 5 or Year 6 children.

For me, one of the students stood out from the rest.  She presented the colours in Spanish to the children and then gave them a black-and-white Miró-style picture (that she had drawn herself) which they coloured in and labelled calligram-style.

Now I don't know much about Miró, as my artistic endeavours thus far have been limited to Gaudí and mosaics.  So I did a bit of digging to see what it was all about, and have had a go at the calligramming myself.  I created my Miró-esque picture using this resource as a guide.  Then I coloured it with coloured pencils, and used coloured fineliners to write the colours in:

I'm determined now to find out more about Miró's art and to incorporate this activity into the colours section of my Key Stage 2 Spanish scheme of work.  Ya-boo-sucks to the new curriculum and its lack of desire for culture.

Here are some of the Miró links that I've found so far:
Draw like Miró, collage style
Another way of making Miró-style artwork
TES Miró resources
Rachel Hawkes's Miró resources

Of course you could use other artists for the same idea:
Arcimboldo (and perhaps write the food names in instead of the colours)
Mondrian
Kandinsky (perhaps)
Klee
Van Gogh (in simplified form)
Gaudí
Matisse (also see this blogpost)

So thank you to the very clever student for taking two ideas and making something so much better by putting them together.


UPDATE 18.11.13:

My Year 2 class have been working on 2D shapes and numbers to 15.  We have been counting shapes in pictures and writing numbers, and have also used colours to help us.   (The resources are here if you'd like to use them.)  I've used the Miró idea and a box of 2D shapes to create pictures like these:

There is a space at the bottom of the A3 sheet, under the frame, for them to complete the sentence "En mi cuadro hay ____ círculos, ____ cuadrados y ____ triángulos."  

Another great Miró link for you as well, again via the wonders of Twitter.  This is another Miró dice roll activity, but for making Miró-style people.

Decorative Letters

A couple of weeks ago I received from Europe Direct NE an email about the European Day of Languages competition that they are organising jointly with ALL(NE).  The competition is inspired by the current exhibition of the Lindisfarne Gospels in Durham, and the idea is that children select a short text in another language and present it as an illuminated text.

Now I know what an illuminated text is and what one looks like, but it isn't something I've ever taught before.  I'd really like for my KS1 children to have a go at this as well as KS2, but think that a properly illuminated text would be a little beyond the younger ones.

Then I thought of this book that I bought in the Espace Culturel at Leclerc in St Jean d'Angély last month.  I like it because it combines handwriting, drawing, vocabulary-building and knowledge of the French writing system.  It will be useful especially for KS1, for some cross-curricular literacy.

The book has one letter of the alphabet to each page.  The letter is written in the French style and then turned into a picture of something that begins with that letter.  Here are b and c, for example:

The b becomes the head of a bélier and the c is the back of a crevette.  I also like the l page where curly ls become the filaments of lightbulbs (lumières).  I'm sure children would enjoy taking a letter, writing it in their best writing and turning it into something in French/Spanish that starts with that letter, as well as writing the French/Spanish word in their best writing.  Taking it one step further, there are many French comptines that would inspire an illuminated text using this as a basis.

I should add that unfortunately the competition is only open to north-east schools.  And if you are in a north-east school, no nicking my idea, right?!

UPDATE 24.9.13:

The children will be embarking on their competition entries today.  Here are the two examples that I have made:

Reading in Spanish

Yesterday I wrote about the French books that I have on my shelves and which I use in the primary languages classroom.  I also have a significant pile of Spanish books, and here they are.

I use ¡Mamá! to practise animals, numbers and plurals.  It only has one word (¡Mamá!) on each page.  A little boy runs from room to room in the house looking for his mother, not noticing that in each room there are a different number of animals.

All children will be familiar with La oruga muy hambrienta, and so it's great for introducing days of the week and finding out food words in Spanish.  The "eating" pages are repetitive and so easy for children to join in with and put actions to.  There is another version called La pequeña oruga glotona.

Another Eric Carle book that I use is De la cabeza a los pies.  Year 2 and I read the English version first (From head to toe) and then the Spanish version. Plenty of actions and joining in!

El bicho de la fruta introduces fruits and parts of the body. It's ideal if you are going to be creating and describing monsters in class.

I found Los colores in Barcelona a few years ago.  It's a very simple book which introduces animals and colours.  On each page a different baby animal says what colour and animal its dad is. The language is repetitive and very accessible, and the formula can easily be adapted for independent writing.  There are five other books in the series which will be worth looking into.

Villancicos y zambomba is a series of Christmas poems and rhymes by Gloria Fuertes.

In Diez semillas, ten seeds are planted but not all of them become flowers.  This book practises the numbers 1 to 10, as well as encouraging children to think about the life cycle and parts of a plant.  I have this book to read with Year 1.

If you're looking for a way of practising colours and also incorporating PSHE, try ¡Hombre de color! An African boy points out that he has always been black, while a white person changes colour depending on the weather and their mood.  Who is really 'coloured'?

Animal noises are a great way of practising phonics, and I use Muu Bee ¡Así fue! to introduce them.  I also have the original English version (Moo Baa La La La) and we read the two side by side, comparing and contrasting the words used and the noises that the animals make.

Pinta ratones is about some little mice who dance in puddles of different coloured paint and mix new colours.  It would lend itself to actions and focussed listening, where children hold up colours as they are mentioned.

¡Fuera de aquí, horrible monstruo verde! is visually a very appealing book, as it builds up the monster's face through a series of overlaid pages.  It's a really good example of describing nouns (parts of the head) with colours, sizes and shapes.  I have this one in French as well.

Children will all be familiar with Michael Rosen's Vamos a cazar un oso, and it's fantastic for getting them out of their seat and doing lots of actions.  Unfortunately it's a hard book to get hold of in this country.  I got mine online from Spain.

I bought Diez Deditos in the USA last year, and am pleased to see that it's also available here.  It is a collection of songs and finger rhymes, ideal for the new programme of study.  I see that there is also a version available with a CD.

I've written before about the Guatemala project that I do with Year 2.  I've recently bought a couple of books that will enhance the project next time round.  Abuela's Weave is the story of Esperanza and her grandmother and the traditional weaving that they do.  There is also a teacher's guide available.

Year 2 always have a lot of questions about Guatemala, quite a few of which I can't answer.  I've bought Guatemala ABCs to help me to learn more!

¿Dónde vive Maisy? is a lift-the-flap book ideal for younger learners.  It's all about where animals live and where Maisy Mouse lives.  The language is simple and repetitive.

There are two parts to the Recopilatorio de canciones infantiles.  It's a gold mine of Spanish songs and rhymes, which are often hard to find.  Ideal for making your scheme of work new-curriculum-compatible.

It's always useful to have something up your sleeve to fill in any unexpected empty moments in the classroom.  The Spanish-speaking cultures colouring book has been a godsend, and a recent purchase, Decorative Tile Designs coloring book, is proving equally so, particularly when you're looking at Moorish Mosaics.

So that's all my Spanish books.  I'd love to hear your recommendations!

The Shape Game

I needed a one-off lesson today as I had two halves of classes put together, each of whom were doing different things.  Recently I purchased Anthony Browne's The Shape Game as I thought that it would make for a good lesson idea.  I have used Anthony Browne books before - Silly Billy and Bear's Magic Pencil.  I quite often use a book in English to put some language work in context, to set the scene.

The Shape Game tells the story of Browne's visit as a child to a gallery where he discovered the world of art, and after which his mother introduced him to the Shape Game.  The idea of the Shape Game is that you draw a random shape on a piece of paper, and then give it to a friend who turns that shape into something recognisable.

The Children's Laureate website has some super resources to go with the Shape Game.  I started off by showing the children the gallery of creations using Anthony Browne's first shape - I love Quentin Blake's.  Then I gave them the first shape on this resource and they set about turning it into something recognisable.  The rabbit at the top is what I did with it!

Here are some of the things that the children created:

Creating the pictures is fun enough, but take a look at the suggestions for what you can do with them afterwards.  Browne suggests giving the character a name, adding a speech bubble and something the character would say, or describing the character and any special qualities that it has.  What would happen if two of the characters met?  There are lots of possibilities for language work.  I also like the creative activities suggested for the different key stages (EYFS/KS1, KS2, KS3 and above), particularly the Drawing to Music in the KS2 activities.

Language Show Live 2012: Multi-lingual awareness for Primary Schools

Multi-lingual awareness for Primary Schools was a seminar given on Sunday morning by Peter Downes and Joan Dickie.  It was described in the programme as "From popular English stories in a foreign language and interactive video phone conversations to fun ways of investigating languages - top tips to make your pupils love languages!"  

Now I've made it no secret over the past few years that I am uncomfortable with children in Key Stage 2 learning lots of different languages.  In my opinion they will end up knowing little about anything.  I would rather they spent the time on one language and made real, tangible progress.  Obviously this creates significant difficulties for many schools when Year 6 children transfer to Year 7, in particular the huge range of provision in different feeder primary schools.  So it was with interest that I settled down to hear about "Discovering Language - the alternative approach to 'one language for all' at KS2".

The 'Discovering Language' project, funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and administered by the ASCL, promotes language awareness from Year 3 to Year 6.  It puts spoken and written language into the wider context of communication, and explains the wide range of world languages, how they have developed and why they change.  By listening to 5 or 6 different languages, children develop their listening skills and are encouraged to make careful observations.  Their interest is stimulated and they begin to see the connections between languages.

This approach has a number of advantages:

• It is more approachable for non-specialist teachers who are over-challenged by having to do one language for four years.
• Small children have a huge capacity for learning lots of different languages and for comparing them with each other and in turn comparing them with English.
• This method is not so much teaching as allowing children to make discoveries.
• A good background for new Year 7 students regardless of the language they end up doing.
• A sound foundation for all learners that really helps with their literacy.
• Helps to overcome the problem of mixed-age classes.
• Overcomes transition problems.

The one disadvantage, for me, is that it is intended to be taught by class teachers and not visiting specialists, which means that I would be out of a job.  Again.

Children look at verbal and non-verbal communication, such as sign language, signals and signs.  The BSL 4 Kids website is a good source of information and resources about British Sign Language.  They also examine the historical roots of English, coming from events such as the Norman Conquest.  If teachers of Literacy want to improve children's vocabulary, they can look at the dual Anglo-Saxon/French vocabulary that exists in English, such as Greetings versus Salutations and room versus chamber.  This also explains why in English we have pig/pork, sheep/mutton and cow/beef among others.

Resources:
The Language Investigator from Coventry LA
Early Start - resources are available in French, Spanish and German, and have been commissioned in Russian.


I have to admit that having attended this seminar I have been slightly swayed in my opinion.  I don't want to teach KS2 children lots of bits of language, but would be interested in this kind of comparative etymology and linguistics.  It's something that I do mention a lot in passing to explain to children why, for example, cognates exist between French and English, or why a lot of Spanish has Arabic roots.

Mr Gove has made it clear that KS2 children should learn one language from Year 3 to Year 6, and also that he is not going to make available any additional funding to facilitate training and resourcing.

I would be interested to hear others' views on this subject.  One language at KS2 or Language Awareness?