Facing the currently unknown

Unicef's School Land campaign

At the moment I'm spending a lot of time investigating ways to add extra... depth to the traditional topics. At Key Stage 4 I'm often told by learners that they feel like they're simply rehashing what they did a few years earlier- hardly what I'd call progression.  From my point of view we're not going to persuade our students that learning a language, and continuing to learn a language into post-16 and beyond, is really going to take them anywhere in life if they're constantly learning about more complex ideas in other subjects. 

So when I saw a tweet from @unicef_es just now my interest was very much piqued. They've created a Facebook app to support fundraising for a school construction project in Zambia (form more details and to access the app see here). The idea is that users can play around with the interactive school buildings and think about what they see as being important in a school. Is it the teacher's desk that's important? The training that the teacher's had? The kit in the kitchen, the sporting equipment? What is it that makes a school... a school? Users can then "donate" those items which will be put in place when the school is built for real.

I think this could be a really interesting way to get learners reflecting on items in a school, what their ideal schools would be like, comparing different items, even reflecting on what makes a good teacher. I'm hoping that Unicef will keep updating their information on the project as if they do it could be a really rich source of information for teachers. After all, when studying about school we don't just have to look at our own.

Language Learning blog awards 2011

For some unbeknown reason some crazy individual has nominated this very under-utilised blog for the lexiophiles.com "Language Learning blog" awards. All I can say to the mystery nominator is thank you very much for a most unexpected surprise. If for some crazy reason you fancied voting to support this blog then you can do so here.

However, if I were you I'd make your vote really count and vote for some of the far better blogs that have been nominated who are making a real difference to language learning in this country and beyond- for example Isabelle Jones, Sam Lunn, Joe Dale or even 2 great school MFL blogs, Chiltern Edge or Gillots MFL . In fact there are loads of great resources and ideas to be found by exploring the list- especially on 2 of my favourite sites, Zachary Jones' Zambombazo and the Spanish NewsBites site.

Anyway, huge thanks again- it's very touching!

 

Video shorts- so simple, so effective. I must use more!

Neil Jones' superb posts and resources invariably make me think and get other ideas flow through my head. His recent post about the superb 7.35 de la mañana, coupled with just having read the ever-excellent Isabelle Jones' post about using short clips got me thinking yet again about the power of interpretation. The clip below is a really, really powerful one for me, providing huge and varied opportunities for exploitation. Prediction tasks (actually, with this particular clip there are quite a few opportunities to stop the clip and do further prediction tasks as the story unfolds as it's hard to guess what twist's coming next), writing the script, stating how the person is feeling, using the perfect tense to reflect on what has or hasn't happened to lead them to these positions, using the simple future to write about what they are going to do, comparing and contrasting direct and indirect speech and even, very simply, focusing on adjectives to say how they're feeling. And all with no right and no wrong answers. Love it. All ideas as to how else to exploit it would be warmly received!

West of England conference 2011, #Bristall

Huge thanks are due to the fantastic Marie-France Perkins and the ALL team in the Bristol area for organising this year's West of England conference. Any conference that can cram in the ideas of Greg Horton, encouraging teachers to think about how students can say what they want to say and not just how they can jump through hoops, and then Chris Harte, with his calls for a simple rethink of how we view language teaching, gets a huge thumbs up from me. But mighty intimidating to be on the same bill, I'll tell you. Well worth the early start and the bleary eyes by the time I got home, though!

Anyway, although I was presenting about developing independence at post-16 level I wanted to engage delegates about why we currently leave so many of the skills that we want to develop for the AS and A2 exams for that manic year 12 period rather than addressing them from the outset of year 7. After all, our pupils want to be able to say what they think, even if we consider what they are saying to be... odd. With the wonders of Intercultural Understanding growing in departments across the country and with PLTS becoming embedded we need to find ways to facilitate debate, comment and query- in exactly the same way as we have always tried to do, and need to do, for post-16 success. So why wait?

Anyway, see what you think and I'd love your comments / suggestions!

  

West of england conference 2011 #Bristall

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Keeping the #ililc buzz going: ALL West of England conference

For those of you who braved my previous post I think it came through rather clearly how much I value the concept of mutual support for teachers. Sadly, as Joe Dale stated in his opening keynote at #ililc, the days of teachers being able to get out (reasonably) easily to training events seems to be on the way out, leaving us to find alternative ways to keep enthusing ourselves and finding the best ways to motivate our learners and ensuring their learning is of the highest possible quality. Twitter and the online communities have a role, but there's nothing like that face-to-face experience.

Which is why yet again I think A.L.L. stands to be a key part of the next few years for language teachers. Yes it might require commitment, but I think many people are prepared to give up a morning if it’s going to reinvigorate them and if it’s also going to make the following period actually that little bit easier. I’ve tried on a few occasions to get a network going down here in Devon, but alas poor timing and huge distances have made that difficult... so far (plans are afoot... again, but hopefully with a bit more OOMPH).

But the West Country does have one branch which is very much alive, in the form of the West of England branch. And the time approaches for their fantastic West of England Conference, which this year is to be held at Bradley Stoke Community School, just north of Bristol, on Saturday 12th March. Although I will be presenting I still think it has the potential to be a cracking morning, especially as both Greg Horton (the brains behind Group Talk, a great way to get pupils speaking for real) and Chris Harte (anyone who reads this blog will know how much he’s inspired me over the last year or so) will be stepping up to the mark. So please, please download the following form, come along and let’s keep the buzz going.

Download West of England ALL conf

My contribution to the great #ililc debate- but is there any debate?

Rather than saying my thanks at the end of this post, I think it’s fitting given that we’re in awards season to put them at the beginning. To Zena Hilton and also to Joe Dale and Jo Rhys-Jones can I please say a huge, huge thank you. Last weekend at the University of Southampton for the ICT Links into Languages conference was the best teaching event I’ve been to in many, many years. It continued the fantastic spirit of the Isle of Wight conferences in that every presentation was relevant, of the highest quality but also, and crucially for me, sparked off learning conversations. Teachers were discussing pedagogy, not just methodology- the why and not just the “how?!”. There was no separation of presenter and delegate and no whizzes and bangs for the sake of it- everything was about the learning. About the impact of the 2 days I don’t think there can possibly be any debate. I just wish I’d got the chance to listen to Isabelle Jones, to Alex Blagona or to Suzi Bewell but alas there really just wasn’t time to be inspired that many times in what felt like an incredibly short weekend. But I think Lisa Stevens sums up that element far better than I could ever express.

Another reason why I enjoyed #ililc , and to some degree the main reason why I feel like I personally benefited, was that I met knew people. I’ve commented many times before that some conferences tend to include the same faces presenting and in the audience, the same conversations take place over a cup of tea and the impact isn’t what it should be. I met some great practitioners who I felt like I knew so well from the community that is Twitter (Alex Bellars thank you for a lot of fun and interesting... exchanges), finally got to meet Sean Terry (honestly, check out his ideas and resources, well worth a few minutes of your time), met folks from the MFL Resources support network and also met many who’d never even heard of either support mechanism, people reaching out to learn. And I loved it. Looking around the room on Sunday morning as Chris Harte presented his inspirational thoughts on Languages: reboot and the SOLO Taxonomy (thanks to John Connor that section can be seen here) I saw a lot of people for whom those words were a total departure from what they’d always been told, but not from what they’d always believed. That was impact. The message had spread. And yet so many people again said to me that they’d be returning to a school on Monday morning where those messages would not be well received. They were prepared to fight, to evangelise and to convert, but could they and should they necessarily have to? So the question we need to ask again is how do we keep spreading the message of dynamic, engaging teaching and learning? And not just to those who are keen to listen right now.

At this point I feel I should step away for a moment. This is a conversation I’ve had many a time and yet I don’t feel like I’ve got any closer to the solution. On Twitter not too long ago I had an impassioned exchange of message with Bill Lord, Dughall McCormick and David Rogers about the very concept of spreading the message- in that case about cross-subject Teachmeets (if you don’t know what a Teachmeet is then don’t despair, just watch this video from BETT). It was suggested, I think by Bill, that we need to initiate a “bring a virgin to a Teachmeet” plan. Taken out of context I could see that being a problem, but the concept was very straightforward- that we need to spread the word about peer-to-peer training and support, and the best way to do this is to keep introducing “new” people into the mix. And yet nothing’s come of it, and it’s very rare that it does, because it always relies on one or two individuals to grab hold of the reins and really slog. Especially where the principle might need to include economic inducements at a time when it feels like we’re having some of the support removed- especially, and sadly, Links into Languages.  And at the end of it all there’s always the risk that we’ll end up with the same conversations when we do get people there because how do we get them involved, enthused and sharing as well? This time, however, I'm hopeful as that concept and the need to talk about how we brake down barriers is spreading. To read a far more eloquent description trust in Alex Blagona.

So as both Rachel, in her really quite moving keynote, and Chris said, language teaching in this country is far from dead, in fact to a certain degree it’s in reasonably good health because of the grass roots... activism of many high-quality professionals. Professionals from across the country who were prepared to give up their free time and come to the south coast to learn and to engage in at times heated (but always open and constructive) debate. I was asked the question a couple of times whether this happens in other subjects, and my answer was that I genuinely didn’t think so (except to a certain degree in Geography!).  Great active-research and experimentation  are taking place in the world of MFL- not just amongst those who were present over the weekend but across the country, including many great teachers who have no desire whatsoever to become "connected", all overcoming some of the many barriers that have been put in our place over the years, and continue to be today. But what I passionately believe we need to do is ensure that this verve and passion can reach the places it needs to more- and that’s where the debate really is and needs to be. I guess I'm just greedy- #ililc was superb... I just want more, especially in the long term.

Moblogging from #ililc

Here we go, folks, my humble contribution to this weekend's festivities at University of Southampton. I'll endeavour to slidecast the presentation when I get hold of the audio, although I'm afraid I doubt that will be until next week now.

And so the point of my presentation really was to encourage people not to just assume that because we might be out on a trip, immersed in the target language culture and language, that we are maximising learning opportunities- for those on the trip or those back in the classroom. But see what you think and I'd love your opinions- and suggestions!

Moblogging - ILILC 2011

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Brookfield conference- creativity at KS4

On Friday I was delighted to be involved with the Brookfield language conference near Southampton. First off, a huge thanks to Sarah Thomson for a superb organisaitonal effort.

Anyway, the conference was multi-stranded but I was encharged with focusing on KS4, trying to reinvigorate those drained by controlled assessments and give new ideas to those in search of some.

Oh, and for those who were asking about the ICT conference in Southampton on 12-13th February, here are some details...

To book: click http://www.linksintolanguages.ac.uk/events/1373

Conference programme: Download ICT Links into Languages feb 2011 detailed programme  

To GCSE- and beyond? Keynote, Brookfield

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Spontaneous talk workshop, Brookfield

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I need to think a bit more

I also need to think how to get pupils to think more. This year has been a real eye opener for me with regards to PLTS, incorporating thinking and reflection at the heart of everything that I build in a classroom. I’ve always enjoyed using mysteries, but I never really approached the integration of constructing and defending an argument with any concerted effort. I just love the concept of not having a right or wrong answer that things like mysteries, living graphs and odd one out exercises offer, with any answer being valid as long as you can justify it. As most people who know me would agree I enjoy a good debate (sometimes accompanied by a pint to aid things along!). But how often do we facilitate debate in our MFL classrooms until pupils reach post-16 level? It so often seems to me that the goals of generating spontaneity and creative use of language at KS3 are the same ones as we have at KS5, so why not see if we can engender a similar approach, encouraging the development of opinion and justification. Just such a shame that the whole KS4 / GCSE issue gets in the way of maintaining the momentum that so many schools are now building up in years 7, 8 and 9. Anyway, I digress. My trip at the start of the year up to Cramlington Learning Village really woke me up as to the potential for integrating thought (and sound pedagogy!) across the curriculum. So thanks to Isabelle Jones, Chris Harte, Clare Seccombe, Darren Mead and Alex Blagona for showing me just how much I have to learn!

3- The integration of technology

The title of this post is very deliberately not just “ICT”. ICT by itself, for itself is pointless to me, yet so often I get asked about what I can teach people to add “bangs and flashes” into their lessons. I just really hope that in the near future we can start to use tools with a more long term perspective, from the blogs to provide a platform for the world, with the classroom becoming a transparent space for anyone who wants to look in to a certain extent, to my beloved podcasts, but also to using tools such as Voicethread to help develop purpose for speaking and writing, especially when harnessed using a creative context. But thanks to the inspirations provided by Steve Bunce and Suzi Bewell I really want to investigate the potential of storytelling more, something I used to have great fun with in a unit where I got my year 10s to write a Christmas fairytale to perform for a primary. Again, the concept of writing and creating for a purpose with an element of the performance, all of which I see as being crucial to developing engagement levels. Although Xtranormal has introduced a charging scale, it still remains an excellent free tool even with just the basics available. The other thing that I really want to learn more about this year is Edmodo, the concept of reaching out beyond school walls using tools which are familiar to our pupils, exactly the kind of concept I’ve been presenting about for the last 4 or so years and building on my interest in using mobiles for that same reason- if that’s how they want to communicate, let’s enable them to do so.