Language World 2016, 12th March 2016: Lost in Translation?

Language World is the annual language conference organised by ALL, the Association for Language Learning. As always this was a great opportunity to meet like-minded colleagues and the atmosphere was as supportive and friendly as ever... If you are not yet an ALL member, join now!
 

Isabelle jones-lost in translation from Isabelle Jones

Supporting EAL Learners in the MFL Classroom, Edge Hill University, Monday 21st October 2013

Today, I had a lovely morning with ITT trainees from Edge Hill University. As promised please find below a downloadable copy of the slides I used for the session as well as a copy of the reference hand out I provided. Links to additional resources can also be found at the end of the post.

2013 supporting the eal students in the mfl classroom from Isabelle Jones

Edge Hill University EAL session handout oct 2013, Isabellle Jones. from Isabelle Jones

Follow-up resources:

http://www.slideshare.net/icpj/eal-training-resources-for-mfl-teachers
http://www.slideshare.net/icpj/eal-toolkit-27418726
http://www.slideshare.net/icpj/eal-study-resource-1
http://www.slideshare.net/icpj/eal-strategies-booklet
http://www.slideshare.net/icpj/eal-teaching-strategies1

Summer Reading: Modern Languages inside the black box, Jane Jones and Dylan Wiliam

Although dating back to 2008, this little booklet published GL Assessment and widely available online, is still key reading material for anybody looking at sharpening their Assessment for Learning (AFL) practice in the modern languages classroom. Some points may have been made some time ago, but the reason why they were made may have been forgotten as specific aspects of good practice were being pushed into schools.

According to the authors, it is essential to demystify language learning by sharing learning objectives and success criteria with the learners.  The ultimate goal will then be to enable students to develop the capacity to own and monitor their own progress as independent language users. This task will need to be supported across the school through developing students’ “meta-language”   in English and possibly even in the target language.

I have always been reticent to use the target language to present grammatical points as I have always felt that it was something many of my students would consider as one hurdle too many. However, I have always supported the idea that modern languages are a very good vehicle to develop students’ literacy in English.

I do feel that once the concepts have been presented and are understood, there is no harm in referring to them in the target language especially if they are cognate in the foreign language, which is often the case for the two languages I teach-French and Spanish.

Good language teaching is underpinned by effective questioning and it is crucial to enable all students to take part in the lesson, whatever their personalities and degrees of confidence.

The “ No hands up except to ask a question” is an effective strategy to allow you to do just that although it cannot be used all the time-particularly if you want a different answer to one given by a particular student. This change can be supported by a display like a “Hands up OK/No hands up clock” 

If we find it difficult to choose students at random , we can use a range of strategies including lollipop sticks and cards-provided we put them back in straight away or students might feel they are off the hook for the rest of the lesson. For students who are stuck, phone a friend,  Ask the audience or  50/50 can help them cope with the situation better and develop their resilience.

If a student says “I don’t know”, say “OK I ll come back to you”-and make sure you do or “yes, but if you did know, what would you say?”, insisting that all students must participate. Although that strategy works for most, what we need to consider is what to do when carry on telling you that they don’t   after their second chance (and some students will!!). Write it on a post-it and put it on a “stuck board”? Give the student a chance to find out about the answer and report back to the class at the beginning of the following lesson?

The “Question basketball” technique also aims to increase students’ involvement. The teacher asks a question to a random student, then chooses another for an evaluation of the answer, then another to provide an explanation of why the answer is correct or incorrect. By bringing different students into the discussion, the teacher  will develop individual reflection and student autonomy.

Rich questions move away from students just recalling the information to reflecting on the information at different levels-this is when references to Bloom’s taxonomy can be useful. For example “Is the verb avoir regular?” is a question requiring low order thinking whereas a question like “How can you tell a verb is irregular?” involves students into higher order thinking.

Rich questioning should also aim to provide opportunities for students to link current with previous learning. Indeed, it is especially important to teach students how the vocabulary taught in one context can be used in another.

“Waiting time” is an effective strategy to encourage learners to reflect on the quality of their answers. Examples of prompts include… “What can we add to  X ‘s answer?”, “Do you agree with X’s answer”. The teacher needs to plan for increasingly more linguistically challenging questions which cannot be answered with just “reproduced” language and do involve some degree of language manipulation.

All-students response systems can help involving all students and assessing their progress in the lesson. E.g. asking if a word/ phrase is correct and asking students to respond with thumbs up or down. This can create what Dylan and Jones call a “teachable moment”, when the teacher ask a student “You thought this was correct/ incorrect-can you tell me why?”. This technique can also be used with multiple choice answers and cards, mini whiteboards or an electronic voting system.

“The only effective feedback is that which is used”. This seems to state the obvious, but we all know how difficult it is to encourage students to act upon feedback. One simple technique is to tell them that there are errors and provide them with the time in class to put them right. The errors could be classified in spelling, grammar-for verb endings-, missing words etc…

The students could also be given a piece back with some errors underlined and encouraged to classify the errors into different categories. This exercise would then feed into students setting their own targets and working with peers who have complementary difficulties.

When the teacher sets target as a way to give feedback, if the feedback is intended to improve future work, the targets may need to be more general. This feedback can also be given following the “two stars and wish” format where students or teacher give 2 positive points and a wish for improvement on the work discussed.

The formative use of summative assessment is best done in groups of four or five to produce the best collaborative response as they can.  The other groups will then have to evaluate the response following set criteria.

For self-and peer-assessment, traffic lights can be an effective way to assess role-play work provided it is preceded by sharing clear success criteria and followed by deep questioning to ensure all students know how to reach the highest achievement they can.  If not, this will only lead to lower order thinking and not change students’ learning habits.

Language World 2012: Embedding Phonics in Language Learning and Teaching, Sue Cave

The principles of Jolly phonics in can be applied in French through creating an association between sounds and images with phonics being introduced right from the first lesson.

No one usually alert language learners to the fact that letters make different sounds in different languages. Phonics makes students more independent as it allows them to try out and transfer pronunciation rules by themselves.

Sue Cave presented the 7 steps to her approach to embedding phonics in language learning and teaching, with the first three steps focusing on Oracy and steps 4-7 focusing on Literacy development.

Steps 1 and 2: Identify and practise the individual sounds in a word (1) and practise blending the sounds to create the whole word (2).

Start with the basic sounds and get students to blend the sounds together. This is a very similar process in students’ mother tongue and in a foreign language-even if the pronunciation rules can be very different.  

Once the word is sounded and blended, students can concentrate on its meaning.

The spelling is then revealed and a correct pronunciation given with the support of sound files.

New key sounds need to be introduced every lesson and be related quite tightly to the content of the lesson.

The French version of the phonics programme focuses on colours, numbers, days of the week, months and animals and 24 sounds that do not exist in French or are spelt different in English

Children came up with pictures to illustrate them and example of sounds. Then they use cards with graphemes on one side and pictures on the other side to practise.

Student practise blending with known consonants and some students can be put in charge of specific individual words. Games to help to consolidate the knowledge of individual sounds can help like the “Throw the beanbag if you hear your sound” game.

Step 3 is to practise connecting the meaning of the word to its sounds.

Step 4 is to identify and practise the graphemes for the individual sounds.

Get children to draw the graphemes in the air as it is a way to strengthen the sound/ writing link

Phonic bingo

Splat with sounds

Blockbuster

Sing the phoneme-music helps focusing on specific sounds and slowing language down.

Step 5 is to practise reading, saying and writing the word.

Bring up the issue of silent letter and encourage the students to develop a bank of silent letters as well as a bank of sounds.

Phonic hangman with letters sounded out.

Grapheme scrabble encourages students to try to make new words.

Step 6 is to practise connecting the meaning of the word to its written form.

Step 7 is to practise putting words together to say and read a sentence.

For instance, do not teach numbers on their own.  If you count things e .g chien/ araignée, students can also find out about “liaisons”.

Busy bees can represent “z” liaisons or Light blue silent e.

As phonics comes along every time students meet new words, phonics is being taught in every lesson rather than specifically at the beginning of the year.

Doing it For Themselves: Getting Language Students to be More Independent

In last Friday’s Times Educational Supplement (TES), I discuss the importance of Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills activities to encourage language learners to think for themselves and become more independent.

Although I outline specific activities such as odd one out, using Venn’s diagrams, diamond ranking, life graph and mysteries, I still consider the teaching of PLTS to be at its most effective when it is fully integrated in everything we do.

PLTS represent an approach to learning where students are empowered by developing their own skills and independence.

The key point is that we can do this in any subject but it does need to be supported at  wholeschool level  to be meaningful. When it is, not only is the impact on students maximised, but it also encourages teachers to support each other’s work across the curriculum, working towards a seamless learning experience for students .

Language World 2011: Modern Languages-Achievement and Challenge 2007-2010 OFSTED Report

This session presented the latest evidence from OFSTED. The full report and report summary are available from here.

Inspection focus:

• Achievement
• Teaching
• Curriculum
• Leadership & Management

Special issues:

• Reading

• ICT

• Take-up at KS4

• Progress towards entitlement at KS2

Additional evidence:

FE and SFC inspections 2009-10

Survey of good practice in colleges 2008-9

Phone survey of primaries found not to teach languages in previous inspections

Core outcomes:

Primary-positive general picture

Good or Outstanding in 6 out of 10 schools visited;

High variance skills development-focus on Speaking and Listening;

Knowledge About the Language (KAL)-concept of gender and adjectival agreement put into practice with some confidence;

Intercultural Understanding (IU)-good in most schools;

Primary schools can adopt very creative approaches to develop Intercultural Understanding: they use the internet, skype, dvd and try to get the local communities involved;

A bigger picture of Intercultural Understanding is developed through trips, visits and topics;

Foreign Language Assistants, Trainees from other countries also support the development of language learning.

Out of the 235 lessons observed in primaries, 2/3 were Good or Outstanding.

Languages are reinforced through a drip-feed technique;

Subject knowledge is mostly good although there are still some issues with pronunciation and intonations.

Good support by language specialists: FLAs and other native speakers.

Assessment is satisfactory but emerging evidence show assessment as the weakest area.

Curriculum: model of external language specialist is effective when teacher stays with the language specialist during the lessons.

Schemes used tended to be commercial ones-there can be issues with planning for mixed classes or planning and adapting the commercial resources for the actual curriculum time taught.

The Leadership and Management of PMFL at Primary is usually assumed by a language co-ordinator or the Headteacher themselves.

The rationale for choosing a language is sustainability as a priority.

Transition arrangements to secondary schools are still under-developed.

There can be weaknesses in the monitoring and evaluation of provision especially when senior staff did not feel competent to judge language provision.

More trainees have some language background but Local Authorities are not providing as much support as they did in the past, with many Las not having Languages Consultants any more.

Secondary: KS3 and KS4

Overall the provision for 6 out 10 schools was deemed Good or better.

Students' progress was Good or Outstanding in over half the schools visited.

Listening was found to be impeded by a lack of target language use in class.

Writing was good but could be over-reliant on model practice.

Speaking can be a concern when there were too few opportunities to use the language routinely & spontaneously.

The explicit teaching of language learning strategies has had a positive impact.

Effective pair and group work is key to students’ skills development.

Pace and challenge are essential to keep students on track.

Activities to monitor class progress throughout the lesson are successful in re-focusing students (mini-plenaries)

Exemplification of good practice in the report

Secondary schools are trying to link with primary schools to check about content taught (not achievement levels).

Strong leadership-innovation, use of local networks, effective liaison with primaries and post 16.

There can be inconsistencies in practice, insufficient monitoring, lack of clear policies and priorities for language learning.

Variable access to CPD can be an issue in some schools.

International staff development to be extended-TIPED e.g. research immersion teaching in Canada

Post 16

Progression rate to A level is lower than in other optional subjects (uptake issues).

 

The challenges:

Primary

There is a need to develop students’ early skills in reading and writing;

Clarification of progression through KS2.

Secondary:

Regular use of the Target Language in the classroom;

More use of authentic materials to develop language skills and motivation;

More planning need to be done to ensure smooth transition from KS2;

Increasing the uptake of languages at KS4 is still an issue in the vast majority of schools where languages are not compulsory;

Ensuring that KS4 prepares for KS5 more effectively.

Why do I Need a Teacher When I’ve got Google? By Ian Gilbert

If you need food for thoughts on what the future of Education is likely to look like, this is a book for you. It packs a wide range of issues all teachers should be considering and it certainly make me re-focus on a few things as well as wanting to find out more about others.

What follows is not a summary-as it would not do the book any justice-but a series of notes that relate to what I intend to concentrate on in the next few weeks…

One of the first things I noted was the insistence on the importance of the comma in Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills. I always had considered the Personal and Learning on one side with the Thinking Skills on the other. Really, they should be looked at as three separate strands although the 3 categories certainly overlap…

I really enjoyed the “Neuromyths debunked!” chapter. Amongst the myths were the fact that we only use ten per cent of our brain, the existence of a “critical” window of opportunity to stimulate and enrich the brain up to the age of three and the fact that we need to immerse babies and children in multisensory enriched environments to enhance their ability to learn. I was particularly relieved to find out about the latter on behalf of all the French kids whose parents think-like mine-that a little bit of boredom is good for you and an excellent preparation for “real life”.

Although I am not a scientist, I have always been fascinated by what the brain does and can do and how it links with learning. This book presented it in a very approachable way especially for non-scientists like me.

I really related to the “Don’t make ‘em mad, make ‘em think” chapter, as I see thinking as the most important job in teaching and a much more important one than just teaching subjects.

I liked the STAR strategy, an easy one to share with students to get them to consider engaging in some form of reflective/ thinking activity:

Stop

Think

Act

Reflect

STAR could be a great way to start discussing with our students what we mean by “Think”, “Act” or “Reflect” and what it means to them…

Sometimes, learning just happens if the right levels of chemicals are produced in the brain at the right time. For instance, “if dopamine has been released with glutamate, your brain will learn whatever it is paying attention to at the time”. The two “good” ways of producing the neurochemical dopamine are reward and anticipation of reward, so it might be worth having another look at how we all integrate these in our teaching…

I particularly enjoyed the chapter titled “Is yours a teaching school or a learning school?” as well as some of the opportunities re-visit the Learning How to Learn approach

According to Ian Gilbert, the attributes developed in the learning classroom experience are:

1. Choice

2. Responsibility

3. Trust

4. Practical nature of the work

5. Development of competences

6. Fun

7. Multiply-intelligent working

8. Independence

9. Team working

That certainly is a good list to re-focus yourself and colleagues as to what should be happening in your classroom… Some terms such as “fun” and “practical” may however need to be discussed to agree to a common understanding within Faculty areas, for instance.

Embedding Thinking Skills in your MFL Classes

I will be running a Free Training Event on Tuesday 9th March, 1-5pm at the Links into Languages Centre, University of Manchester (within walking distance of Picadilly Train Station). There wil also be a workshop on using the repurposed MFL Framework run by Jane Full, an AST from Cornwall.

To register for this free event please complete the registration form in the leaflet attached before 2nd March.Looking forward to seeing you there.
Links Manchester Training Event 9 March 2010

Building Learning Power In The Classroom

I started reading about Building Learning Power some time ago, but although I could see how this may be applicable in a Primary school concept, I wondered how the principles of Building Learning Power might be applied in my Language classroom. As a result, I attended a BLP course run on 26th November 2009 by Steve Watson, Deputy Headteacher at Alderbrook School and consultant for TLO.

What is BLP?
According to its official website, Building Learning Power is about:

Developing young people’s ability to become better learners
Developing their “portable” learning power –as a personal skill
Preparing young people for a lifelong learning

To reach these aims, Building Learning Power:

Provides a clearer version of the Big Picture-What does a good learner look like/do?
Is a good language learner someone with a good memory, someone who can deduct meaning and re-apply it, someone who can communicate effectively, someone who is always confident speaking, someone who can use reference documents ... ?

Builds on previous learning-to-learn ideas and takes them further
How can you use what you know to understand new things? Patterns, suffixes, prefixes etc...

Develops the appetite and ability to learn in different ways
Languages ARE real-life materials-you can learn in many different ways, using a textbook does not make it more effective for the learner.

Works at a deep level on classroom culture and schools’ climate for learning

Shifts responsibility for learning to learn from the teacher to the learner
Students will plateau quickly if they are not actively involved in their language learning. They will also have to deal with identity and emotional issues that are not linked with any other subjects. (That is why I found the mapping out of BLP/ Thinking Skills (PLTS) on Coventry Learning Gateway so relevant to what we are trying to do)

Engages teachers and students creatively as researchers in learning-teachers no longer to be seen as “the fount of all knowledge”

Effects witnessed in some BLP schools are:
raised achievement
improved behaviour
increased motivation
supple learning minds
increased enjoyment in learning
established habits of lifelong learning
enhanced
creativity

What is effective learning?
Although Reading skills appear to be better now than before, the habit of reading is not as developed as it used to be. It often also appears that students are more independent learners at KS2 than they are at KS3-KS4. The difference between good students and good learners is most obvious at KS4 and some good students appear later to be fragile learners that struggle to cope at College or University. Although the exam and assessment system is partly to blame, teachers do have a duty to develop skills like “knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do” (Piaget)

“But I can’t do it”

BLP answers to this challenge are :

· Setting the appropriate level of challenge and avoiding spoon-feeding (you can’t teach somebody how to persevere on materials that are too easy)
· Developing curiosity-get them to ask the questions
· Making links
· Collaborating: students need to be trained to work together in a collaborative rather than just cooperative way, where they need to talk to and interact with each other in order to achieve their aims.

Examples of activity to push students to the edge of their comfort zone:

Viewframe Activity:
Ask students to concentrate on the details of a picture through a small viewframe made out of card. Start from the concrete to the abstract. Show me a ladder, a bird, a tree... to Show me cold, warm, hope... The idea is that this technique helps fixate the elements of the picture and enable students to answer later much more precise questions about the picture. This task is as a high challenge/ low stress task as there is not always one definite right answer.

Compare and Contrast Activity:
How is a car like a bike?
How is a car different from a bike?

Project 0-Visible Thinking Routine (inspired from David Perkins’ work )

From a black and white picture that could be a crime scene: I see/ I think/ I wonder
What do you notice about this picture?
What would you like to ask the character in this picture?
What colours can you see? (use your imagination to visualise picture in colour)
What sounds can you hear?
Jump into the picture. How do you feel? Who do you follow? Etc...

Collaborate to agree on the answers to these questions:
*What is the crime?
*Who did it?
*When did it happen?

Think/ Pair/ Share Technique
Stand up to discuss
Sit down when the group has agreed on the answers and ready to discuss their answers with the rest of the group (roles are allocated from the start e.g. scribe/ speaker/ listener-“summariser”

Open activities to develop collaboration can also be done using videos: with no picture or no sound. An element of risk taking must be there to encourage collaboration in the disscussion.

BLP encourages split-screen teaching through introducing Learning Objectives-they must state what students are going to learn AND how they are going to learn it. However, there must be a common language to discuss learning used throughout the school. Another way is to have the following questions on the board:

1) What do you think are my intended Learning Outcomes?
2) How are you going to meet your objectives?

Framing their minds for thinking:
As hooks, questions like “What do you notice?” are useful as they keep the answers more open.
The visual equivalent would be to discuss optical illusions pictures and describing them.
Pictures in general help framing students’ minds e.g. Write a poem as if you are the painting/ a character in the painting

Poems:
Use a stanza from a Poem-What is it about?
Put the poem in the correct order (great work on phonics)

Although I was told at the end of the training that some of these techniques might not be transferable to languages, I have to disagree and I do believe that with appropriate support, it can be done. After all, languages are not just a subject, languages are a medium. It is just up to us to ensure the level of verbal challenge is appropriate...

Are You Ready for PMFL?-2009 Update

In a previous post dating back to 2007, I was looking at what schools were doing to get prepared for the 2010 deadline for teaching foreign languages at Primary. Two years later, what has changed? Although there are pockets of outstanding practice, the overall picture is still “chaotic and variable”...

By 2011, all children aged 7-11 must have the opportunity to learn a foreign language. Learning a foreign language engages children, helps them develop general oracy and literacy skills, grow in confidence as learners, as well as broaden their intercultural understanding.

Primary language teaching is inclusive and can benefit special educational needs, English as an Additional Language learners, as well as children who have newly arrived in England. Some research also supports the theory that young children have the ability to learn languages quicker. Although the validity of this theory is discussed on a regular basis, anybody who has taught languages at Primary notices that the general attitude towards language-learning feels a lot more positive.

Recent research findings show that 92% of Primary Schools are teaching languages during class time, with 69% teaching languages to all 4 years of KS2.
The most often mentioned benefits of PMFL were to develop enthusiasm, Listening and Speaking skills and understanding other cultures.

Clearly, Primary Headteachers play a vital role in establishing a clear rationale, vision and strategy for primary languages. Planning for and delivering PMFL must be seen as a step-by-step learning process for all, and collaboration between schools (both primary and secondary), local authorities and key agencies is surely the recipe for success.

Good practice also includes:

-Conduct a school languages audit;

-Contact your Local Authority advisor, although sadly there might not always be one in place;

-Appoint a subject co-ordinator for primary languages (PL);

-Make links with local secondary schools and Specialist Language Colleges;

-Visit the primary languages website to check their training videos and resources

-Explore the possibility of taking on a PGCE student with a language specialism;

-Network with other language teachers to find out about new ideas and resources.

A school language audit is a very useful way of identifying expertise and capacity within the school and also among parents, children and the wider school community. It also shows that the school values languages other than English and raises awareness of the different languages spoken in the school community. Projects like the “Language of the Month” project can be replicated and are invaluable in boosting all students’ self image as successful language learners.

The school language audit should also inform the decision of which language to teach and plan future training needs but the choice of the language will also depend on:

-Contacts with target language countries, established community links through town twinnings for instance, ease of travel;

-The languages which are taught in neighbouring primary and secondary schools;

-The availability of specialist support in Local Authorities, Specialist Language Colleges and other secondary schools;

-The writing system of a particular language;

-The expectations and ambitions of parents and pupils;

-The language policies of the Local Authority;

-The capacity to sustain and resource the teaching of a particular language across KS2.

Primary teachers are in the ideal position to embed languages into daily classroom routines and across the curriculum. Their access to children opens up all sorts of possibilities which are denied to the secondary teacher with 1-2 hours a week. Children should also use languages for real communication purposes as well as learning language incidentally through activities combined with other subjects. That is why more and more schools are considering Comenius projects or e-twinning.

Schools are also becoming more and more skilled at planning such cross-curricular modules and the new reviewed QCA schemes of work can help with this too, suggesting ideas to include music, art, PE, ICT and much more...

KS2/KS3 Transition is still a worry but more and more strategies are being shared to cope with this.

So what has changed? The feeling that PMFL may be a passing trend. It is definitely here to stay, so let’s see how we can support each other to make this a successful journey leading to more good language-learning.

From Thinking Skills to Thinking Classrooms

On my quest to find ways to further embed Thinking Skills into the practice of all the teachers in our faculty, I came across the key conclusions of the review lead by Professor Carol McGuiness from the School of Psychology at Queen’s University in Belfast.

Although the report dates back to 1999 and looks at the integration of Thinking Skills at whole school level, it is very useful to use as a rationale for action at Faculty level. Indeed, further embedding includes looking at Thinking Skills as an integrated teaching approach including creativity and collaboration rather than just a collection of discreet types of activities.

According to the report, a framework for developing thinking skills should include:

• The need to make thinking skills explicit in Schemes of Work
• Teaching thinking through student coaching
• Collaborative and ICT-based learning
• Creating “dispositions and habits of good thinking”
• Reinforcement throughout the school to move from thinking curricula to thinking classrooms and thinking schools

It was also interesting to read that ICT provides a “tool for enhancing children’s understanding and powers of reasoning through exploratory environments” like multimedia ones. Local and wide-area networked communication was also highlighted as providing “special opportunities for collaborative learning”

However, for ICT to support the develpment of Thinking Skills, there is a need to move away from the traditional ICT-based activities of drilling and practising skills such as grammar, spelling and out-of-context vocabulary recall.

• Interactive exploratory environments where students can direct their own learning through guided discovery processes are more likely to develop Thinking Skills. They encourage risk-taking and “enable pupils to hypothesise and experiment with immediate feedback”. When a competitive element is introduced, this also facilitates "discussion and reflection with peers”. Video and multi-media technology can also be used to create such environments.

• “Local and networked communication provide unique opportunities to use the language for real communication purposes as well as give a real audience and aim for a whole host of activities including surveys, presentations and other exchanges of information.

The challenge?
“Classroom which are characterised by talk and discussion and by questions and questioning need to be managed and orchestrated yet remain clearly focused on learning objectives.”

In order to get “teacher buy-in”, the benefits of developing Thinking Skills approaches will need to be clearly defined and agreed as a set of common goals such as developing collaboration or independent learning skills. The goals will also need to be carefully monitored and extra support provided if needed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/foundphotoslj/466713856/

Summer Reading: Guy Claxton-What’s The Point of School?

Guy Claxton is an Honorary Visiting Fellow at Bristol in the Graduate School of Education and the Institute of Advanced Studies. I first found out about his work nearly 2 years ago and I have found it a source of inspiration ever since. Although "What's the Point of School? looks at the UK Educational system, there are many universal themes including how a heavy testing regime can stifle creativity and be detrimental to “real” learning. There are so many thought-provoking points in his book that I will only focus on those that are meaningful to me now. This is definitely a book to pick up every so often to find inspiration on how to deal with new issues...

Guy Claxton’s Building Learning Power programme is defined by a series of small achievable steps building towards deeper change in learning habits. It is not the main theme of the book but it is mentioned as an example of how to encourage the development of “real” learning in school, in opposition to just ensuring students are ready for exams.

BLP has four aims:
· To raise standards of achievement
· To increase levels of student engagement
· To make teaching more satisfying
· To prepare young people to deal with out-of-school challenges by expanding their capacity and appetite for real-life learning.

As students are being coached in how to be usefully reflective about their own learning journeys, they are also developing collaboration skills and developing a richer meta-language in which to talk, not just about the content of their learning, but bout its process as well.

“What’s the point of school” does consider what learning in schools should look like in the 21st century but its focus is more on the faults of our UK educational system as it stands and how a shift of priorities is needed to improve the current system.

So, what is a confident learner according to Guy Claxton?

· A curious individual-up for new challenges and ready to investigate them;
· Somebody who is resilient;
· Somebody who can balance imagination and logic in order to think “with a mix of creativity and clarity”;
· Somebody who is confident enough to ask for help when needed and receive feedback without getting upset;
· Somebody who can slow down to think things through.

This vision of a confident learner shows how important it is to manage emotions in order to teach effectively. The argument throughout the book is that all children are naturally curious and eager to find out about completely new things. Although I would not dispute the fact all children were born that way, I am not convinced that this appetite is still fully intact by the time our students reach us as teenagers-a time in their lives when their emotions are even more problematic to manage not just for the adults around them but for the teenagers themselves.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the more untouched the area of learning, the more enthusiasm for learning it is likely to generate-hence the need for world languages to introduce content in a wide variety of ways and find compelling contexts to do so and avoid the deja vu feeling of replicating activities done in the mother tongue . An element of choice also gives students the feeling that they are more in control of their learning. However, for languages this choice will have to be more limited at the beginning of the language-learning process as learners are more dependent on resources like dictionaries (or teacher!).

From a “Confident” Learner, Guy Claxton moves on to a “Powerful Learner”.
Curiosity, the confidence to say “I don’t know”, investigation skills, imagination are still there, but other attributes are also mentioned like:
· “The ability to think carefully, rigorously and methodically”
· Sociability, being “ good at sharing ideas, suggestions and resources”
· The ability to “step back and take stock of progress”
· Self-awareness

I was really interested by the list of “subjects” suggested by teachers to be part of an ideal curriculum aiming to prepare young people for the complexities and uncertainties of their future:
· Human rights
· Statistics and probabilities
· Empathy
· Risk-management
· Negotiation/ Mediation
· Ecology
· How to think
· Epistemology
· Collaboration
· Literacy
· Global awareness
· Ethics
· Healthy scepticism
· Body awareness
· Neuroscience
· Resilience
· Creativity
· Will power
· Giving and taking feedback
· Relaxation

My first reaction was-how useful, but how do you teach this? My second reaction, however, was to see how easily they could all be taught through my subject, languages. For instance...
Human rights? teach them about schools and corporal punishment or differences in school rules between countries
Statistics and probabilities? Do/study surveys on favourite leisure pursuits or holiday destinations
Empathy? How can you tell this person is happy, worried, tired etc.. by listening to their voice or watching a short video clip
Risk-management? Create safe environment for students to practise the language, reward those who are willing to model good language for others.

Although no direct reference was made to the specific situation of languages in the UK, Guy Claxton did mention languages when pointing out to how unreliable published school performance data can be. “If young people are encouraged into easier subjects-by letting them drop say, Physics or French-results can look better”, with the added opinion that “The more important you make the achievement of measurable targets, the more people will find a way of massaging the figures”. Nothing new there...

I would agree that there is far too much emphasis on measurable targets, but what’s the point of a target you can’t measure? I can see that a lot of targets should rely far more on qualitative data rather than raw exam results but it seems to me that as the whole system is caught up in a data tangle, individual schools cannot take it upon them to disentangle themselves on their own. The system must include safeguards for underachievement, but apart from that, why is laissez-faire only ever good enough just for the economy? Challenging thought, I know...

I also loved the words from Joseph Payne, dating back to 1856, against continual testing and likening it to “continually pulling up the plants to see the conditions of the roots, the consequence of which was that all good natural growth was stopped”. I suppose it is a bit like constantly opening the oven door when a cake is baking: what looked at first quite promising could end up completely deflated and ruined.

As far as the power of ICT to "save" Education is concerned, I agree with Guy Claxton that the focus should be on “helping them to develop the kind of reflective awareness that builds discernment and transfer” rather than “doing ... tedious busywork”. This is where networking is so useful: You never know what technology can do for you until you start experimenting with it. The more experimentation, the more idea on how to creatively use ICT to encourage "real" learning...

Renewed KS3 Framework for Languages-RSA Meeting, ALL, London, 14th July 2009

This was my first meeting as a Regional Secondary Adviser for ALL (Association for Language Learning) and it proved a very useful information-packed first contact.
The second session was lead by Alison Edwards, Programme Lead for MFL for The National Strategies.

The renewed Secondary Framework for modern foreign languages (MFL) is being updated to help maintain engagement and motivation at Ks3 and to encourage students to carry on with languages at key stage 4. It will be officially launched in September 2009.

The official aims also include the following:

• Improving Learning and Teaching
• Supporting the implementation of the new Programmes of study (PoS)
• Raising standards and closing attainment gaps
• Planning for progression
• Increasing flexibility for personalised learning

A number of schools have trialled a draft version of the renewed Framework and the feedback has been positive. Teachers welcome the fact that it is skills-based, learner-focused, and appropriate to support them with the typical Y7 class who has had a variety of linguistic experiences in Primary School.

The renewed Framework is based on the new programme of study for MFL, which also promotes the development of “Intercultural Understanding”. It also aims to help teachers planning for new learning contexts that give students opportunities to explore aspects of the target language country’s life and culture.

It has five strands of progression that aim to mirror the KS2 Framework:
1. Listening and Speaking
2. Reading and Writing
3. Intercultural Understanding (IU)
4. Knowledge about Language (KaL)
5. Language Learning Strategies (LLS)

Some of the features mentioned were:

*The emphasis is now more on the learning objectives for students rather than on a particular type of task.

*Increased emphasis on key concepts and processes.

*Electronic format that follows the format of the core secondary Framework and has direct links to the new Programmes of Study (PoS). You need to register on the website to get some of the information but the MFL link takes you to both the Framework site and the 16 online modules specific to MFL teaching as well as the Exemplification, objectives and guidance sub-sections.

The 16 online modules provide a range of training opportunities for teachers and cover 4 main areas:
*Generic pedagogy issues
*Modern Language-specific pedagogy
*Planning the use of The Framework
*Whole-school issues

Two modules, “Using the Framework” and “Planning” are being revised in the light of the renewed Framework and will be re-launched in September 2009, when the web-based Framework and the exemplification and supporting materials should also all be available.

QCA Languages Update-RSA meeting, ALL, London 14th July

This was my first meeting as a Regional Secondary Adviser for ALL (Association for Language Learning) and it proved a very useful information-packed first contact.

The first session was lead by Chris Maynard, curriculum adviser for QCA (now QCDA). Chris presented the latest news regarding the recent development in languages and although a lot of the information was quite similar to the recent update by the Languages Company I attended in Manchester last month, I made note of the following points:

· New website to be set up about the changes in the Primary Curriculum for this Autumn-although the changes will not have to be implemented before 2011.
· The consultation about the proposed changes for the MFL Attainment Targets in secondary will finish on 24th July.

It is interesting to note that although Listening and Speaking are one Attainment Target in English, writing is assessed separately-whereas the suggested change for writing in MFL is to merge it with Reading.
The current proposal is that there is no weighting between Attainment Targets, which means that the new Intercultural Understanding Attainment Target would count for 1/3 of the overall level. The difficulty to assess Intercultural Understanding has been acknowledged as well as the fact that it may put the use of the target language at risk in some classrooms. However, its link with the KS2 framework makes it a logical suggestion.

Research findings at KS2 and KS3 show that:
· 92% of Primary Schools are teaching languages during class time.
· 69% of primary schools are teaching languages to all 4 years of KS2.
· 3 out of 4 schools feel ready for the 2011 deadline (that’s interesting, considering it is not everybody’s opinion)
· The aims most often mentioned for languages at Primary School are: to develop enthusiasm, Listening and Speaking skills and understanding other cultures.
· The typical discreet provision was a 40 minutes' weekly lesson.
· Transition to KS3 and progression within Ks3 remains a cause for concern.

An interesting way to facilitate this was mentioned by a RSA who has set up a cross-phase MFL co-ordinator meeting for his Local Authority. I thought this is a very interesting idea in many respects although the practicalities might be more difficult for larger LAs. This would also be more effective if it was supported by an online group like a NING to encourage linking outside of the scheduled meetings.

I greatly enjoyed the thought-provoking discussion around Assessment and how formal it really needs to be for it to be considered reliable. “Are languages teachers too fussy?” “What other kind of evidence is acceptable apart from pen to paper activities and one-to-one interviews?” I liked the fact that we were encouraged to trust our professional judgement and support it with a wide range of evidence, rather than using summative assessment as the only way to form an opinion about a student’s performance. I may seem obvious, but as our accountability grows, there is also a growing suspicion towards anything that is not at least partly assessed externally. Maybe it is time to have more confidence in our own judgements...

APP (Assessing Pupil’s Progress) is soon to be extended to foundation subjects-including MFL. APP is not statutory. It is not only relying on final pieces of work but also includes looking a progress and feedback as part of the assessment process.

A new distinction was also made between day-to-day, periodic and transitional assessment: The day-to-day provides immediate feedback on what to do next, the periodic gives a broader view across a full range of skills once a term or twice a year and informs medium to long-term planning and the transitional provides official recognition of a certain level of skills.

· The KS3 exemplification website is to be updated in the near future to show examples of key concepts and processes from the revised Programme of Studies as well as National Standards expected for each Attainment Target.

· QCA has developed a DVD to support MFL teachers with the controlled assessment of Speaking at GCSE. The DVD includes 14 examples of speaking activities with commentaries from examiners but does not provide detailed guidance on marking as this is provided by the different examination boards. The DVD can be ordered free of charge from http://www.orderline.qca.org.uk/ (order reference QCA/09/4138)

· During the Autumn QCA will be working with a small group of school on GCSE speaking activities involving interactions between students. Examples will be published with commentaries in March 2010.

As a result of the questions following the session, I made a note of three interesting suggestions:
· We need to build KS3 into KS4-to ensure a continuity of approaches between the key stages. Conversely, we must also build KS4 into KS3 to ensure that key skills are embedded.
· Looking at Primary MFL resources created with a typically primary approach and check how they can be adapted to Year 7 to ease transition issues (secondary awareness of primary methodology is key)
· Teaching the Y6 KS2 framework for the first half term of Y7.

Skype Interview : Social Bookmarking

Michèle Drechsler is an “inspector of the Education Nationale” in France. She manages a district of 260 teachers. She is responsible for the mission “environment numerical of work” for the departement of Moselle. She undertook university research on the topic: What are the changes caused by the new technologies for the professional training against the KM (Knowledge Management) and Cops (community of practices) paradigm? She currently prepares a doctorate thesis: Teaching resources on line and Web2.0.Indexing, bookmarking and folksonomy

Not only was it an honour to answer Michèle’s questions over Skype, but it really made me reflect on my social bookmarking practices.

Does socialbookmarking help you in your daily practice ?
It provides ideas for my classes, resources to create my own materials and it is now for me an essential tool to share good practice with other teachers.

How long have you been using social bookmarking ? How did you find out about Diigo ? What were the most important reasons for you to join Diigo?
I found out about Diigo via Twitter. I was already using del.icio.us but I sensed that Diigo had much more potential to share bookmarks with like-minded people. My first aim was to meet other linguists and languages teachers to exchange bookmarks for ideas and resources, hence the creation of my "Resources for Languages" Diigo group. I then found out that Diigo was a very effective way to keep up to date with cutting edge practice integrating new technologies in general and their application to language learning and teaching in particular.I have been using Diigo for a bit less than two years.

What are the most important advantages of Diigo according to you ? Visualisation ? Groups ?
Some of my contacts moved on to Diigo and decided to try it too. As I knew that I could transfer my del.icio.us links to Diigo , there was not a lot of risk involved…
I like the fact that on Diigo the bookmarks are linked to a person and a profile. It is therefore easier to identify people who have common interests with you and maximise the exchanges.
I also love the groups and the fact that their activity is easily trackable by rss and (immediate or weekly) emails.

What is the contribution of digital resources in your practice? What is a digital resource for you ? What is a good resource?
For me, a digital resource is anything that can be kept on or accessed through my computer: sound files,photos, images, documents (especially powerpoint, word and excel ), notebook files for my IWB, bookmarks to online resources...
A good resource is a resource that is adaptable to my students’ needs and a resource that is going to grab their attention-at least for a while- and engage them . For learning languages, I would say that a combination of audio files and high quality visuals is the most effective.

How do you keep abreast of new developments ?
I create powerpoint presentations for each lesson I teach and I use them to include a wide range of resources, from “low tech” (cards and worksheet) to “high tech” (notebook documents for the IWB including photos/ videos and sound)

Where do you find your new Diigo bookmarks ? Do you tag your findings as you go along as do you have any tricks to find the resources again ?
I am a member of Twitter and of a great number of other social networks like yahoo groups and Ning networks. I use Plurk, del.icio.us et Diigo. I also use rss to read a great number of blogs.

Do you do searches by key words ? Do you search for specific individuals that you « follow »?
The trick is to find people that have the same areas of interest as you and to follow them on twitter and via other social networks they might be part of. I use tweetdeck and I have a permanent search column for "languages".

How much time do spend searching for new materials? On average, per week?
I would say at least one hour per day but more at the weekend-especially in the evening. I try not to spend too much time on one occasion but to look for things when I have only a very limited amount of time available several times in the day.

How much time do you spend on the various groups you are a member of ? How do you manage your subscriptions?
I usually start going through my Diigo emails as I have joined quite a few Diigo groups but I also check my emails from the mfl resources yahoo list as it is such a fantastic source of information and resources for UK MFL teachers. I manage the information according to the time available to me: quick check, save on Diigo or if it something that takes more time to read, I send a shortcut to my computer desktop as a reminder to read the article or the report later…

In your opinion, does Social Bookmarking improve research ? What are its limits?
Of course it does ! The limit is sometimes the validity of the research, like anything else on the internet… It can be harder to find out whether it is completely reliable.

Does Social Bookmarking enable you to carry out out more relevant searches than with Google?
Yes because contacts can vouch for the validity or usefulness of specific resources whereas Google just gives an idea of the web presence of its author-and a greater web presence does not necessarily equate with greater the reliability/ validity.

Do you trust other users, is that right?
Yes, particularly if the resource has been widely used by the majority of my contacts. It gives you more confidence as it is not just a number of anonymous people.-You have some genuine common interests with your contacts.

How do you view the simultaneous presence of amateurs and experts discussing common topics ?
On the net, anybody can present themselves as an expert. I prefer to think that we are all amateurs because we never cease to learn and that our ability to be critical of everything we come across is the most important thing.

Is tagging a cognitive activity ? Does tagging force you to reflect on categories to find the correct key word?
Yes, but I feel that it remains quite personal too. Lately, I attended an Elluminate session on tagging for Flickr. We were asked to tag a picture and we then compared all the different words and categories suggested-fascinating... For photos the choice of categories is maybe wider but I believe that we also get the categories to fit our needs. The question is always: if I want to find this again to do… what key word do I need?

Key words need to be standardized. Is a protocol necessary at some stage to determine a common vocabulary or is self-regulation best?
This is a very interesting point. I have always allowed self-regulation as I feel that it may be too restricting to regulate for a whole group,-especially if the members speak different languages. Provided the bookmark is accessible via a great selection of key words, I do not think it makes any difference…

Has using digital resources changed your professional practice? Does socialbookmarking enable you to be innovative?
It means that I can store all my resources in one place-my computer, I can share resources more easily with my colleagues as well as edit them to improve them… Using digital resources also enable me to include sound and pictures and to create resources that are more engaging for my students. Using social bookmarking, I can also be sure that my knowledge of how new technologies are applied in my area of work is also up-to-date. Social Bookmarking made me discover new tools such as Wordle or Voki….

Did Social Bookmarking enable you to be more innovative in the classroom ?
Yes, by using relevant You tube videos, by using audacity to do some recordings for my students, by using voki, wordle, by using live web pages to illustrate a point, teach vocabulary or a grammar item-for example, showing an interactive weather map in Spanish while teaching phrases to discuss the weather.

Is there a difference between what the tool is designed for and what you use it for in practice?
Yes because we need to tailor any resources we use to the need of our students, given a defined time allocation and technical situation-blocked sites, access to computer rooms… For instance, avatars can be used to encourage students to write descriptions in another language. That was not why they were created but the use we make of the tools available also depends on our creativity in the classroom…

What are the most important lessons you have learnt through using social bookmarking?
You get more out of social bookmarking if you use it actively. Keeping your good bookmarks to yourself does not make you grow as a professional or as an individual. “Sharing is receiving”. This is probably the most difficult message to spread. The time issue often comes up when I talk about actively using social bookmarking. It does not take any more time than deleting unwanted emails and it is so much more productive…

The National Languages Strategy Update, Manchester 8th June 2009-Secondary

The situation of the language offer in Secondary schools was discussed from different perspectives:

How do students learn?
=>rich input of language
=>interaction through and with languages
=>motivation to learn, use “meanings that matter”

How do teachers develop?
=>support and partnership
=>innovation and evaluation
=>network and discussion
=>development and dissemination
Developing reflective practitioners is key.

A New Secondary Experience should include the following:
*take account of transition and what has been done at Primary
*recognition of achievement (e.g. through Asset Languages)
*variation/ personalization of the new curriculum
*engaging curricular content, use “Meanings that matter”
*opportunities for teachers to reflect and develop (CPD)

From Compulsion to Expectation
In January 2006 Jacqui Smith, then Minister for Schools and 14-19 learners, wrote a letter to schools advocating a target 50-90% uptake for languages at KS4.
Although the A*-C target is not limited to GCSE, there is still limited incentive for non-Language Colleges to extend the language offer through alternative qualifications at KS4.

A More Engaging Curriculum

*The New Secondary Curriculum
*Revised KS3 Framework linked to KS2
*New approaches, CLIL (using languages to access real content)
*New languages: intensive course in Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic, Russian …

*Open School For Languages to be launched next autumn.

The new approaches must be rooted in the situation of individual schools.

The renewed KS3 Framework will be re-launched at the end of June 2009.

5 strands:
*Listening and Speaking
*Reading and Writing
*Intercultural Understanding
*Knowledge About Language (KAL)
*Language learning strategies

Revised Assessment Framework
Reforming GCSE: controlled assessment in speaking test (revised speaking test)
Promoting alternative qualifications to GCSE. The Openqual site is useful for this.
Asset languages/Asset for the world of work (French and Spanish) can be alternatives to consider in a more flexible vocational context.

The Diploma: Languages and International Communication

Principal Learning: How languages work
Identity and internationalism
Languages in context
Professional communication
Languages in the work place
Becoming an autonomous learner

Using languages for:
*investigation, gathering information , doing research
*exchanging ideas, networking, interacting, discussing
*accessing imaginative work

Support for teachers
Networks: SLNs, Secondary Curriculum,

Focus on regional support: Links into Languages to replace Comenius Centres.
Linked-up (National Teacher Research Scholarship for Languages): funds available to work on specific projects e.g. CLIL, KS2/ KS3 transition (more information to be found on the website as scheme starts in September)
TDA initiatives: upskilling secondary teachers who want to go and teach in primary schools

Are we ready for Edu-Wikinomics?

As I am trying to promote and develop our new local Languages Ning, I am starting to feel the extent to which a lot of educators are NOT prepared for what I call “edu-wikinomics”.

Edu.. what?
I was very inspired by the book, Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything, which depicts an optimist picture of collaboration in the business world. In fact, I felt it was more than optimist. It presents collaboration as the only way to survive in an increasingly competitive global markets, where well-kept trade secrets and the power of highly trained and experienced executives can be threatened by the masses getting together to improve on products and ideas.

My first reaction was that if the profit-making sector could see collaboration as a priority, why was not education following suit… What are the barriers?

• Isolation: some people still see teaching as an individual activity on which team work does not impact directly. “In the end, it is still me with 30 children”

• Lack of trust: suspicion that the outcome will not be as good as if it had been produced by one person only. “What will be given to me will not be as good as what I have contributed”

• Fear that good materials or ideas are going to be “stolen” for someone else to reap the rewards.

• Time: the misconstrued idea that collaboration involved endless meetings and is time-consuming when the aim is really to make everybody gain time.

• Lack of control: As teaching is not a collaborative activity per se, collaboration can sometimes feel like a dangerous loss of control over the planning and preparation process, with still the same exposure to the consequences in front of the class. “It was not really my planning-that’s why it did not work for my class”.

• Accountability: Accountability for results is individual and it often clashes with the need to collaborate.

However...
• Isolation is dangerous, Education is a collective responsibility including colleagues, parents and society in general.

• If the criteria for the outcome to be produced are shared and come from the group, it is easier to challenge and control the quality of that outcome. The positive pressure on the members of the group should also ensure that no individuals want to let the group down.

• Original ideas and materials should be referred to clearly, so that the group can see the extent of each member’s contribution.

• Time should be gained by collaborating, if not in the short term, at least in the long term. If it is not the case, then the individual project is not viable in its original form.

• Learning to let go is not easy and it really is a continuum. Teachers need to identify what they are ready to do NOW to let go and how they are going to go about developing their students independent learning skills. It is a leap of faith.

• Accountability for results is ultimately personal, but let’s work on it as a team. We can all be accountable for our own results but we can also all benefit from the sum of our experiences…

Any more ideas and arguments to foster more collaboration amongst our working teams???