This is a summary of some of the workshops I attended:
Workshop 1
Collaboration is key – Aoife Galletely, Regional Trainer, Primary Languages, Derbyshire LA and Belper School
http://intranet.belperschool.co.uk/moodle/course/view.php?id=289
Changes have been made to the MFL curriculum at Belper School as a result of the effect of the new KS3 curriculum which is the next step on from the KS2 Framework. They decided to focus on skills instead of content. As a result of this they abandoned their Métro course book and adopted Studio. “Turnip Studies” was introduced and used in a two day Yr 6 induction day. Teachers worked on phonics in the context of the story. Pupils gained an excitement about a language they would study in Y7 as well as a sense of achievement. In y7 Turnip was revisited and pupils were introduced to gender, dictionary skills, adjectives and word order. They also performed to an audience. Every pupil rewrote the story changing adjectives, verbs and parts of the story. Teachers were inspired by the Buckinghamshire and Harwich School’s CILT projects. The Coconut Story was an adaptation made by the German teacher to concentrate on verbs. The Powerpoint of this story is available on their website. You can also find many French sound files, including rhymes and stories on the Sunderland website.
http://www.sunderlandschools.org/mfl-sunderland/resources-sound-files.htm#rs
They prepared 6 lessons on the The 3 Little Pigs – see Northumberland Grid for Learning Resources.
http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/languages/3pigs/default.htm
See also many other stories in 4 languages:
http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/languages/default.htm
They revisited the theme of the The 3 Little Pigsin Yr 7 using The True story of the 3 Little Pigs – La Verité sur l’affaire des trois petits cochons – La Verdadera Historia de Los Tres Cerditos The German assistant translated it into German. The story was used as an introduction to tenses, to develop reading skills, as a potential for drama and as a creative writing exercise where the pupils were asked to rewrite the story from another point of view. The feedback from the pupils was extremely positive “awesome” and pupils said it helped with their pronunciation and confidence.
For further help and info contact Aoife: [email protected]
Workshop 2
What’s new on the Primary Languages Website?
www.primarylanguages.org.uk
Click on what’s new ?– Language Upskilling – there will eventually be a link to French Phonology which will be an excellent support for Primary Teachers who lack confidence when it comes to French pronunciation. There are video clips of 2 Fr speakers pronouncing the all the French phonemes based on Units 1-3 of the QCA scheme of work. It will also be possible for teachers to record their efforts and listen to their recordings.
We also watched a clip from the Training Zone where primary pupils were practising asking questions playing Rock, paper, scissors (rocher, feuille, ciseaux)
Workshop 3
Danser dans les Nuages avec Phillipe Petit
Some teachers from the NE have developed a pack/DVD of work based on the life of Phillipe Petit who was a famous French tightrope walker. This is an excellent non-fiction resource and could also be used in KS3. See photocopied notes and see video clip Man on Wire Animation set to the Phillipe Petit song:
http://www.animationforeducation.co.uk/blog/blog2/blog2.php
An excellent resource which we bought for the Heath Centre MFL Resource bank.
Workshop 4
Storymaking in French for KS1 and KS2 – Josephine Cole
When storytelling we encourage:
Imitation
Innovation – making simple changes to story
Invention – creating their own
Jo based her workshop on the first of her 5 stories called “Jacques le Gourmand”. This involved whole class retelling, group retelling and paired retelling. This approach to teaching KS2 Fr helps improve pronunciation and intonation, boost confidence and motivation in language learning. Her approach is as follows:
Teacher narrates (using actions) and pupils listen
Teacher prompts and pupils try to tell the story
Teacher listens and pupils narrate
She draws a story map as she retells the story. Pupils need to see story map at each telling and do actions. Split class into 2 parts – they face each other, one group tells story with actions to other group. Other group make positive comments – 2 stars and a wish. Groups get smaller – then pairs. They retell story as if looking in a mirror or A starts then B carries on – this is very difficult. In pairs A could start by saying the first sentence and when they stop B continues with the next etc. The hardest activity is when A starts and B doesn’t know when B finishes. Children can also make up human sentences.
