Kung fu punctuation

 

Last week I wrote a post about doing dictation in the primary languages classroom.  Yesterday I tried out the dictation activity that I mentioned, with my very keen Year 4 class (age 8-9) who are happy to try anything.  

I wanted them to listen and write in the opinion verbs, and then listen again and write in the correct punctuation.  The completed sheet will give them some good model sentences to use for their own extended piece of writing.  

They did well with the opinions generally.  When it got to the question form in number 3 a couple of the girls were frantically whispering to each other.  I asked if they were OK, and one said "But we don't know what Te gustan means."  I asked if it was necessary to know at this stage what it meant, or if they could write it down correctly using their well-practised phonics.  Needless to say they wrote it down correctly, and the fact that I said it with question intonation, and that we added question marks later, meant that they could work out the meaning.  It has made me reflect, though, on how I train them to do dictation, and how important it is for them to have words that the children already know.  (I should add that they had seen and heard the question form quite a few times in lessons, including in our minimal pairs listening!)

I was aware when planning the lesson that we hadn't ever worked on punctuation in Spanish before, other than practising writing upside-down punctuation at the beginning of Year 3, and my nagging them about full stops all the time!  I was also aware that we work a lot on the S and the G of SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar, for the uninitiated) but not much on the P.  Our national curriculum for primary says that we need to show how the new language is different from or similar to English, and punctuation is another way of doing this while reinforcing English.

I remembered that back in the day I had heard at a languages conference from - I think - Jo Rhys-Jones about Kung fu punctuation.  If you google it, there are lots of websites, resources and videos that will tell you more about it.  It was first devised by Ros Wilson as part of the Big Writing model for English.  Essentially, you make the shapes of the punctuation marks in a Kung fu style, while making Kung fu noises.  So primary languages 101, actions and making noise!

We used these 6 punctuation marks.  The semi-colon didn't feature in the dictation, but it made sense to learn it alongside the colon.  By the way, aren't the Spanish names for colon and semi-colon so much more sensible than English!  Here are the moves we did for each one:

Full stop: Punch out with right hand and shout Ha!

Comma:  Make a swooshy comma shape with the left hand and shout Shi!

Colon / Semi-colon:  These are a combination of the full stop and comma, so Ha shi! for the semi-colon and Ha ha! for the colon.

Question marks:  For the upside-down question mark, first a punch with the left hand for the dot (Ha!) and then for the shape of the question mark a line downwards, then another line out to the left and a last down and to the right (Shi shi shi!)  So a zig-zag question mark rather than a curved one.  The 'normal' question mark is a reversal of this with the right hand.

Exlamation marks:    For the upside-down one, punch with the left hand for the dot (Ha!) and then draw a line downwards (Shi!)  Reverse it with the right hand for the 'normal' exclamation mark.  (The teacher will have to do these backwards when facing the children!)

We learned and practised the moves, then I called out the Spanish names for the punctuation and the children had to do the right moves.  This meant that when they heard them in the dictation they knew what to write.

This would be useful also for reading aloud, where the children read the text aloud and do the Kung fu punctuation where appropriate.  They could also read out a text with no punctuation, adding the Kung fu punctuation that they think fits the sentence best.

Year 4 enjoyed this activity, probably because it was so different, and went out to break saying Ha! and Shi! to each other.  We certainly got a weird look from the caretaker when he walked past the classroom!

Southampton University Primary Languages #SUPL

Yesterday, 19th July, was the last day of the school year for many.  I spent it at Southampton University at the SUPL (Southampton University Primary Languages) conference.  SUPL is part of the RiPL Network.  I was honoured to be asked to speak about writing - you can view a copy of my presentation here.  It was great to catch up with old friends (and my sister!) and to meet new people and hear about what they have been doing in their classrooms.

Here are my sketchnotes from the day.

Engaging children with reading - Mike Dodson

Oral language development through technology and app smashing with Book Creator and Adobe Spark Video - Joe Dale

Scaffolding writing - Sarah Dugdale

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.

Language World 2015

Ever since #ililc5 I had been looking forward to Language World (#LW2015) for several reasons.  First, it was held at Newcastle University, only 8 miles from my house.  It made such a refreshing change to be able to hop on the Tyne and Wear Metro to get to a top-class conference, rather than have to make a trek of several hours.  Secondly, I was looking forward to catching up with old friends and meeting new ones.  Thirdly, it was an opportunity to find out new things and refresh my knowledge of things that maybe I had forgotten.  And finally, as you may have read here before, it was an opportunity to practise live Sketchnoting.

Here are the sketchnotes of the talks that I attended.  Those with multiple pages I have stitched together using PhotoJoiner.net.  If you go to the ALL website, you can download many of the presentations from the conference.  I gave my presentation Be a crafty Languages teacher, which you can find here.

1.  Bertram Richter - Planning for progress at Key Stage 2

2.  Vicky Cooke - Teaching reading in Key Stage 2: leading learners towards independence

3.  Bernadette Holmes - Interculturalism and the power of three

4. Louise Courtney - Primary to Secondary Transition in French: Insights from research

5.  Rachel Hawkes - ALL Connect

6.  Wendy Adeniji - How can your teaching be consistently good or outstanding?

7.  Nadine Chadier - It's all about the code

8.  Carol Hughes - 25 ideas for creativity from Language World

9.  Rachel Hawkes - Memory and Thought: why we can't have one without the other

10.  Steven Fawkes - Now we are 25

See you in Rugby next year!

The Diorama

This is one I found online and pinned on my mini-book Pinterest board.  Mini-books with a 3D effect always go down well with the children, particularly the Triaramas.  This is a variation on that theme, and is easy to display on the wall.

I have created my own template which gives the maximum space for drawing and writing.  Please feel free to download it.



All you need to do is to print it out and draw and write on it what you want.  You'll see that I have some space left over as I ran out of things to write!  There really is a lot of space.

Then cut along the solid lines and fold along the dotted lines:

Then just stick the side triangles together to complete the diorama.  I've paper-clipped mine so that I can store it flat in my folder-of-many-mini-books.

 

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.

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!

Reading in French

The new Programme of Study for KS2 Languages requires children to "appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language".  I'm always on the lookout for books in French and Spanish that will enrich the children's learning experience and that will introduce language points and inspire some independent writing.  Plus I am what you might call a book addict.

There are lots of things you can do with stories and books. Here are some of the French books that I have.

La chenille qui fait des trous

The old favourite Hungry Caterpillar is ideal for introducing days of the week and food.  The "eating" pages contain repetitive language that's easy for children to join in with.

In Je m'habille et je te croque a wolf puts on his clothes before coming to eat you.  Children would be able to create their own version with perhaps a different animal and different clothes. 

Maman! by Mario Ramos only has one word (Maman) on each page.  A little boy runs from room to room in the house looking for his maman, not noticing that in each room there are a different number of animals.  This book is great for numbers, animals and plural forms.

The rabbit in Bon appétit! Monsieur Lapin decides that he doesn't like carrots anymore, and goes to ask some other animals what they eat.  The language is nice and repetitive, and introduces you to things like "Pouah!" and "Beurk!"  A good example of how direct speech works in French, and introduces some new food words, which children will be able to work out using their general knowledge.

The parents of the little crocodile in Je mangerais bien un enfant try to tempt him with bananas, sausages and chocolate cake, but all he wants to eat is a child.  The language is more complex than in the previous titles, but it could be simplified.

Toutes les couleurs introduces colours as a little white rabbit gets stained with different colours while playing outside, before being bathed in blue water by his mother.

The little dinosaur in Pop mange de toutes les couleurs takes on the colours of everything he eats until he is a rainbow dinosaur.  The language is a little more complex than in the previous title, but it also introduces similes and colloquialisms.

Petit poisson blanc is looking for his mother and comes across lots of other sea creatures who are different colours in the process.  Children could create their own version of this story, using different animals and a different main character.

The La petite boule blanche series shows how pictures can be built up using a series of shapes, and each of the books has a different language focus.  My favourite is La petite boule blanche au pays des contes, which focuses on nasal sounds.

Mots rimés pour lire sans trébucher has a series of poems and rhymes which focus on specific phonemes.  Excellent for phonics.

And finally for intercultural understanding there is the La Terre vue d'Alban series, produced by the team that brought us Earth from the Air.  Comment vivent les enfants dans le monde? has photos of children in the places where they live, with information about each one and a commentary by Alban the fish.

So these are the French books that I have.  I'd love to hear about yours!

Starburst

I've had to explain to a few people recently why I haven't gone down the management route and why I never intend to.  I did do a management course once, 12 years ago, and decided there and then that it wasn't for me.  I'm far too easily distracted by new things to try, and would definitely be the creative/ideas person in a team, and not so much the person who gets things done.  

Here is my latest distraction, a Starburst book, and it's specially for @lancslassrach.

The advantage of this one is that is folds up pretty small yet has plenty of space for writing and illustrations.  Each "page" is almost A4 in size.  It can have as many or as few sections as you like.  Mine has 6.  I used coloured card as I don't have any coloured paper.  Here's how to do it:

For each section: 1.  Take a piece of A4 paper and cut a square from it by folding it as shown and cutting off the extra rectangle.

2.  Unfold your square and fold it in half from top to bottom.

3.  Fold it in half again.

4.  Open up your square again and you'll see that it has 3 different folds.

5.  Fold inwards the squares that have the diagonal folds through them....

6.  .....and this is what you will have.

7.  Make your other sections in the same way, then stick them together on the blank square sides, taking care to match up the folds and open edges.

8.  Now all the sections are stuck together.

9.  Cut 2 squares of card, 11.5cm  x 11.5 cm, for the covers, and stick them to the outsides of your starburst.  And that's it!

Each section can be opened up individually and has a large space for writing and drawing.  You could also make these using A5 paper.  They would then be mini-starbursts but would still have nearly A5-sized "pages".

These mini-books would be useful for any writing that comprises different sections or chapters.