Assessing Progress Pitstop!

The tongue twister style title of this post reflects the challenges and twists in trying to sort out  meaningful and sensible approaches to measuring progress of young language learners.Over the last few years we have been considering and developing this in our network. Today I very much feel that we have begun to get it right and we can share this with others confidently !

Hurrah! 

This is very much a pit stop post in more ways than one, as it is lunch time and I have spent the morning in a primary school near Wigan with colleagues from two partner primary schools. Later I will spend  some of the afternoon in a high school in Halton with a transition between KS2-3 group. What is important is that my primary colleagues this morning and my primary and secondary colleagues this afternoon will all be discussing and sharing what progress we can see in language learning in KS2 and  what we regard as the soft and hard data to help us measure this progress.

What was fabulous this  morning  was that as a group of teachers we made progress in how we are going to assess progress across KS2 in two specific schools this academic year in line with the tools within our network.We have created a flexible language learning machine which has a set of tools to assess progress that can be applied to a variety of contexts and content.I was delighted to find that both specialist and non-specialists teachers felt comfortable with the tools and that classroom practitioners and SLT could see how useful the tools are.  to set the scene: two of the five  in the room were specialist linguists, two had primary and secondary language teaching experience, two were subject coordinators in primary, one was a primary headteacher and all of  us were primary practitioners.

By the way, if you are a member of the network, you have access to the VLE and the  the key documents mentioned below. This blog post will appear in the VLE network blog too and will have direct links to the documents mentioned - so you can read and explore at leisure for your own school's purposes! 

Step One
We considered our  KS2 SOW long term overview, how flexible this can be and how we can adapt and add creative learning opportunities.We identified core contexts and content to ensure progression. We considered how we can realign blocks of learning to fit the two schools own creative curriculum requirements. We linked stories  that the schools enjoy already and books we recommend  linked  to units of work. We discussed the importance of developing bilingual dictionary skills across KS2.

Using our medium term planning bubbles we considered how these help inform class teachers, support discussion and could help coordinators to rearrange some LKS2 or UKS2 units. We considered how the school may like to pick up one of our VLE Cross Curricular units e.g. Cavemen and use this instead of or alongside a key block of content such as daily routine.In doing this we revisited the key elements of the teaching and learning and then began to consider how we could track progress.

Step Two
We considered how our tracking sheets allow teachers to keep a simple record of contexts, content / transactional language  covered and skill development across listening, speaking, reading and writing. We looked at how this could be kept as  record for a specific class and how this can easily be shared with coordinators or SLT and kept for record purposes to demonstrate progress. Interestingly we all agreed that this added weight to the learning and the progress made and helped to ensure that language learning was an integral part of the learning process in school.This led us to us discussing primary evidence of progress and what we consider primary appropriate evidence.

Step Three
Using  the Mapping Progress document  created last year for our Progress CPD (and that has now been annotated and tweaked for network sharing) we considered how you can align the 4 basic skills (L,S,R,W) and the DFE POS learning objectives We were able to identify the stages of development as a learner of these four skills and the DFE POS LOs through KS2 Framework Objectives.

This gives us  descriptors to define  beginner, moving on and advanced learner skills in KS2. We looked at how we could identify elements of the four skills and also the development in the 4 skills in the DFE POS LOs.We also considered how  you can link these stages to A1 and possibly A2 of the CEFR. Finally we explored how these elements can be defined for assessment of progress in primary schools and linked  to the simple user-friendly skill descriptors from the Languages Ladder.No one was fazed by this and everyone could see  the steps of progression.I loved gthe fact that  the Headteacher and SLT found this information very reassuring.

Once we had explored Step Four below the team could see how all this came together and enabled the gathering of  evidence, understanding of what is being measured and also how to go back a step if necessary and then why and how the whole reporting progress we use has been created. 

Step Four
We have six week blocks of work which constitute half termly blocks within our SOW in KS2. Each half term has Assessment Benchmarks - the most important part of the benchmark descriptor is the skill level e.g."can understand some familar spoken ......".

Our basic benchmarks define content but of course schools may want to change content to fit their own blocks of work and therefore we help schools to look at progress in language skills whilst still able to identify content covered .

I am creating this year "Puzzle It Out " sheets per half term- with four puzzle activities .Each puzzle can be done at a different time during the half term  but each puzzle focuses on one of the skills.You will shortly be able to download the word document templates of this from the VLE. 

We have created Assessment Clouds for AfL purposes with the children so they can track their own progress termly (thanks to our associate Kate for the hard work here!) 

We are using three descriptors to explain progress: "emerging, meeting and exceeding".We are certain lots of schools are using similar if not the same descriptors.So it seems sensible to use these as we think because these are in line with many schools general progress in subject areas' descriptors.

Keeping a record and being accountable!

This year we are offering a record keeping spread sheet based on emerging,meeting and exceeding the benchmark in one,two,three or all 4 skills .We have made sure it is very easy to use  and can be used for every pupil or a sample of pupils.It is downloadable and shareable amongst teachers in a school and can be kept in the school area of the VLE. The record allows HTs and SLT to monitor progress across all 4 skills and to be able to reference this progress against the Mapping Progress document if so required.

So now I am off to the Transition meeting and hope to share with the group how they too can use these tools to develop a transfer of soft and hard data to inform dialogues and  baselines etc.....A work in progress and no doubt there will be plenty more reflective pit stops on the way!

And the magic is, that as we develop as a VLE network we can share and create new ways forward to enhance what is already there! Look forward to hearing how your school uses our assessment tools and being able to write another pitstop blog post on progress! 

Striding out a sentence

With our young language learners who are now in their second year or beyond of learning a language in KS2 we will be encouraging them all to try to form sentences- both spoken and written- in the target language this year.

These will range from simple noun, verb,adjective sentences  (KS2 second year of language learning)  to sentences using adverbs and maybe prepositions or that use conjunctions to create more complex sentences (KS2 fourth year of language learning). 

Here is a game that can be repeated and it is also a way to measure progress informally- take stock at the beginning of the year and repeat later in the year and see how much improvement there is over the year.

• You need a space and a straight walk way.
• You need a picture or prompt stimulus- with a familiar context and content

When you first play the game , invite a volunteer to stride along the line and make up their own sentence to reach the picture or prompt.Each stride is a part of the sentences

e.g.- take a very simple sentence and picture : the dog is black" 

First stride : "The"

Second stride: " dog"

Third stride: "is"

Fourth stride: "black" 

Can the volunteer complete the four strides independently or does the volunteer need to ask for help?

If he/she needs help then a signpost is needed! The signpost is a second child who can show the first child the word or help the child to create the verb correctly etc, so that the first child can keep on striding to the picture or prompt.

Great opportunity here for AfL

You could ask the rest of the class ot think what thewy would say and to write this on mini whiteboards to show at the end when their classmate has completed his or her "striding sentence". 

To take this further,make it a timed challenge! 

You need a stop watch or timer.

How quickly can a child complete an accurate striding sentence

Revisiting language Observation Game - Watching, Reading, Speaking

This activity works well with a video clip linked to culture or festivals – so a party, an event , a festival, a journey through the target language country, a visit to a famous place or town in the target language country.

At the start of the year it is a great activity to use with moving on learners to revisit familiar language and take a tour around the taret language country or set the scene for the academic year's learning with a cultural focus.

So select your video clip stimulus material!

Watch the clip carefully and select the key words (nouns,adjectives, verbs will all work well here!)

It's a game that I have played lots of times with all age groups of learners.Works well with adult learmers too.

You can revisit know language, practise new language or investigate unknown language using a bilingual dictionary first ..... 

Game One

Give each child five word cards. Each word is a noun of an object, place, person or building they will see in the video.

 Ask the children to watch the video clip and pick up a specific word card and wave it when they think they have seen one of the five words they have in front of them.

Ask the children to then share their order of the written words cards with a partner, by saying them in the order they have placed them and as they observed them appear on the video clip

Game Two

Working in pairs give them all the noun cards. The object of the game is to place the nouns face down in a pile when they see that object. Each partner should be holding 9 cards or have 9 cards face upwards on the table so that they can see the words. When they see one of their objects  , they place the correct word card in a growing pile of cards.

After they have watched the whole video clip, they should compare the words in their pile with those of   another pair. They must carefully pick up the pile. Turn it face up and take it in turns to read the noun at the top of the pile. Once read they should put this word at the bottom of the pile. Do both pairs have the cards in the same order?

Report back

Can the pairs now create a tourist information report using the phrase  e.g. “ A Paris il y a + nouns” in their pile , in the order they saw the places and objects etc.

Volunteer pairs to say their “Tourist information report” to the class.

Touch Base AfL Game

Start of the new academic year and what can the children remember from last year? 

A great and easy game to play to revisit core language that you want the children to be able to use throughout this next academic year!

The game allows you the chance to do some AfL aswell.

You can observe and see if children react correctly and you can also collect in their scores and see how well each child listened and responded to key language.

You need a "buzzer" card (just a circle of coloured paper) - one between two children. Make sure that is equi-distant between the two children.

The game is simple.

You can play this with so many elements of language:

• basic language- numbers/ colours/days of the week/ months of the year 
• questions to find out about someone
• spotting verbs
• spotting adjectives
• spotting nouns

How to play Touch Base!

One child is "the player" and the other child is "the counter".

The counter must observe and count how many times the child who is the player touches the buzzer card.

Ask the player to listen to key language that you say.They are listening for specific language content (e.g. numbers or nouns or adjectives).

Say several items- the children need to touch their buzzer card when they hear key language that is within the category you have asked them to listen for.

Ask the "counters" to let you now how many times their partner touched the buzzer.All they have to do is jot the number down on a piece of paper  with the name of their partner and the buzzer game they took part in.You could just opt for a show of hands from the counters when you call out the number of times that the player might have pressed their buzzers.how many hands go up on the correct amount you are expecting?

Now ask the children to swap roles and play a new but similar the game  of "Touch Base"

With learners who are moving on or are advanced primary learners, you can make this a game where they have to identify the nouns or the adjectrives or the verbs in  spoken list.  

Revisiting numbers and physical listening and responding

Every year you think that all the children have "got" those numbers ....and then at the beginning of the year you realise that ssome of the children really haven't "got" those numbers yet!!

Here is a physical and  novel ways to revisit and practise the numbers and keep everyone engaged and interested, no matter if you are still practising one to ten or counting up in tens or even three digit numbers!

Firstly children need to be standing in a clear space- away from chairs and tables and with sufficient space inbetween each child.The hall or the playground woud be an ideal space.

Physical Warm Up with Numbers (Listening and responding activity) 

• Everyone stands up .
• Tell the class that the number they represent standing up is a specific number e.g "eleven".You decide the number and this  number can be changed as you go along.
• Ask the class to stand very still and listen...
• If they hear a number higher than "eleven" (if that's the number you have chosen as the standing up straight number) they must reach to the sky with their arms and hands.
• If they hear a number lower than "eleven" they need to touch their toes.
• Start with one number and say it slowly 
• Speed up the numbers- who can keep up?
• Say a sequence of numbers (mixture of numbers,higher and lower than eleven ) which children can deminstarte a correct pattern of movements.
• Ask for a volunteer to lead the activity.
• Play the game as "the slowest to react is out"!  

Mirror mirror on the wall......

Start of the new school year and time to revisit the personal information questions and answers from previous years of language learning.

We have put in to place lots of games and activities over the last couple of years to make the revisiting of core language a challenge, a competition, a way to reflect on what we have learnt.

Here is another way that I think we can use at the start of the year to bring back in to focus the language we learnt last year etc to describe ourselves and ask questions of others.

The idea of the mirror on the wall allows us to practise first and second person singular questions and responses!

Each child needs an oval piece of paper:

Question and Answer Mirrors

On one side of the paper ask the children to write down the key information they think they can say about themselves in the target language.So for example a beginner learner from last year should be able to say  a name phrase/ a feeling/ where he/she lives/ his or her age and something he/ she likes (animal or colour or food).This is the "answer mirror"

On the other side of the paper (remember this is a mirror on the wall) ask the children to draw some symbol prompts for the questions: for example a beginner learner's symbols could be : a name tag / a house outline/ a birthday cake with candles/ a smiley face/ a heart shape.This is the "question mirror".

Play a game of spot the question and answer!

• Ask the children to have their oval shapes infront of them on the desk with the answer mirror face up. 
• Call out a question to elicit the information the children have put on their oval shapes.
• Ask the children to listen to your question and to point to the response they would give.
• Ask a child the specific question and ask them to read out their resonse.
• Ask the children to turn over their ovals and this time to listen to the question, identify the symbol they have drawn as the question prompt and whisper to a partner the question that you as the teacher have just said. 

Mirror Mirror on the Wall!

Working with a partner, ask the children to take it in turns to ask and answer the questions  on their mirror oval shapes.

One child places his /her mirror "question mirror" face up on the table or on the wall with blu-tac.

The other child must look at the question prompt symbols, point to the symbol  and ask a question.

Can the first child give the answer that he/she has written on the answer side of the mirror?

Mirrors on the Wall .

Create with the children card versions of mirrors - whichever shape the child wants to use.

Ask the children to draw a sketch of their own faces on the mirrors.They will need to use pastel colours for this

Over the top ask the children to write their favourite five questions and five answers about themselves that they can say on the targetr language.They will need to use a dark crayon or felt tip for this.

On the reverse side of the mirror ask the children to write in English two more details they would like to be able to use in their personal information questions and answers this year in the target language to describe themselves in more detail.

Hang the mirrors on the wall - as a mirror mobile!

"Stepping Stones" and a first lesson back!

Time to get back to learning and to build on prior learning and move on forwards.

Here is a simple context that can help all our learners no matter how much or how little they have already learnt in the target language.Take a look at the picture above .....

Ask the children to look at the picture and to see the stepping stones in the picture.

Should we as a class find out how securely we can stand on the first three stepping stones 

Stepping Stones.

Stepping Stone One:

Reflect on what we already know - our numbers,our colours, our greetings....

• Think of a rhyme, a song or a game we can create .use or do to allow us as a class to practise the language we already know.(Great way for a new class teacher to find out the strengths and knowledge of a class from the previous language learning)

Now we are standing securely on our first stepping stone.....

Stepping Stone Two:

Recall and remember an authentic song or rhyme that we learnt last year.

• Can we still sing it or say it? Are there actions to go with it?
• How does it feel to be able to remember the song or rhyme from last year and to still be able to join in with the rest of the class and perform it?
• Can the class teach the teacher the song or rhyme and its actions?

Now we are standing securely on our second stepping stone.......

Stepping Stone Three:

Recall and  remember the questions and ansqers we can use about ourselves and to find out about others.

• What can we say about ourselves? How can we help each other to remember the answers?
• What questions can we ask about others?How can we help each other to remember the questions? 

Now we are standing securely on our third stepping stone.......

Stepping Stone Four:

Take a look at the picture at the top of the blog post again.

Take a look at the picture with the children - the stepping stones are about to turn a corner.

Let's use the fourth stepping stone to lay down the ground rules so that we can move securely from stepping stone to stepping stone and off in to the distance!

Let's ask ourselves:

• Why was the game or the song or the rhyme enjoyable and how did this help us remember language?
• Why do we like learning authentic songs and rhymes?
• How do actions help us?
• Why do we like being able to ask and answer questions about ourselves?

Stepping Stone Five:

Now we are ready to step off and move in to unknown territory and our final stepping stone needs to be something new..... over to you and your class! 

Storing memories until next year!

We are getting toward the end of another academic year and its time to ask the children to reflect on their learning this year.

It's almost the Summer holdiays and time to go off perhaps to the beach .Beach huts are places to keep equipment safe until the next time you visit the beach .... and this made me think about asking the children to store language they have enjoyed this year safely ,until we come back off holiday.

I like the idea of beach huts ,because they are bright colourful and can act as "piggy bank visuals" to show how we need to collect,collate,categorise and  store prior learning and our new knowledge this year.Also a great opportunity for AfL for both the child and yourself!  

All you need are boxes with rooves, coloured in bright primary colours.The rooves need to be detachable, so you can lift off the roof of a hut and put written cards inside.Each beach hut needs a sign "nouns" or "adjectives " or "verbs" etc. 

The DFE POS asks us to encourage children to "broaden their vocabulary" and I think it is really important that we help our young learners to understand how you store this vocabulary, ready for use another time.

So here is the idea!

• Ask each child needs a rectangular piece of card with which to create a postcard.Once finished they will post this card in one of the class beach huts.
• On one side of the card the children need to write the address. (Does the card need to be sent to the nouns or adjectives or verbs hut etc?).This means that their postcard will be stored in the correct beach hut if you have more than one category of hut.
• Instead of a stamp the children should draw their own face and add their name (this means you can see who has written the card and also hand back out next year to the correct child)
• Where you normally write a message on a postcard,the children need to write down key language they have learnt and like the look or sound of this year.They need to make sure that the words are written on the correct postcard- are the words nouns, adjective,verbs etc?
• Each postcard needs visual symbols on the other side- drawn by the children to represent the words they have selected and want to store and have written down in their message section.
•  
•  

With our Year 3 learners we have been focusing very much on nouns.... so let's have our own "noun beach huts" postcard collection.

With our Year 4 learners we have been focusing on nouns and adjectives - so let's have own beach huts postcard collections - one for nouns and one for adjectives.

With our Year 5 and 6 learners we have focused on nouns, verbs and adjectives plus we may have considered prepositions and conjunctions too.

We are going to need several beach hut postcard collections.

• Now post the cards in the correct beach huts
• Take time to bring out cards and ask the sender to try to tell the class the words they have put on their postcard and what type of words these are.
• Take time to look at the pictures too.
• Finally discuss how we use our memories to store language and challenge the children to try to remember some of their written messages on the postcards right through until the start of school in September!  
• Maybe you will be able to hand the cards back out at the start of the year and see if the children can still recognise and understand the words on their postcards

Beginning with languages blog 6

Across our network we work with schools who are all at different stages of setting up and delivering primary language learning and each year we welcome new schools who want to set off on their own individual school's language learning journey.

This year these specific 

"Beginning with languages "

 blogs will try to offer "bite size chunks" of indirect help and support to schools, who are doing exactly that .... just setting off and implementing  a language learning curriculum 

.

Take a look back at"beginning with languages" blogs 

one

 ,

two

,

three

 ,

four

 and 

five

Your checklists so far have been:

Sept - Oct ,(first half term) Checklist

• It's all about establishing a whole school support system for all your staff
• It's about small steps and simple language learning
• It's about children and staff beginning to enjoy language learning

Mid October (end of the first half term), an additional new checklist bullet point!

• So how are you all getting on? How do you know that primary languages are being implemented in all the classes and are the teachers and children having fun in their learning? 

November (moving in to the second half term of language learning),we added a couple of new challenges to your checklist!

• How successfully have you been able to build in "revisiting" opportunities to build the children and staff's confidence with the language you introduced last half term? 

• Are you introducing,revisiting and re-using familiar games with familiar and unfamiliar language for example (e.g Bingo or Splat or maybe a game of Quiz Quiz Swap?)

• Have you encouraged all staff to practise key language using sound files and songs?

• Can all staff and children practise and learn a Christmas song or carol in the target language? (In beginning with languages blog three you can find links to You ~tube clips of a Christmas song lin French, Spanish and German

December-January (moving forward) your checklist: 

• Did all your staff  try out a simple listening and speaking Christmas activity based on a Christmas  song?

• Have staff considered and been able to identify the links between activities we may use in KS1 when encouraging children to read and KS2 beginners language learning (sound-spelling links and activities)?

• Are KS2 staff building opportunities  in to activities in the New Year  to help learners to  "broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words ...."- Are staff in KS2  exploring nouns with their KS2 foreign language learners? 

February-March moving forward your checklist: 

• Try to deliver sequences of lessons based on simple content and language learning skills 

• Are your children beginning to participate on basic role play activities , asking and answering questions about themselves?

• Can the children ask a question  politely and give an appropriate response?

• Can you see evidence of signage and display created by the children in the target language?

• Has school celebrated a festival or whole school event (Carnival/World Book Day) and added a target language learning or cultural element?

And now we are at the end of the Spring term?

As a coordinator or the teacher in charge of developing primary language learning in school you need to reflect on what you have achieved,no matter how small the steps are.

• School has completed two terms of language learning.What does the overall coverage picture look like now in KS2?
• What successful  activities have been shared with you by other members of staff?
• Has school has begun to develop a formalised pattern of language learning.What are your next steps to build capacity and sustainabilty? For example do you need some language upskilling, pedagogy CPD input or to buy resources to support staff?
• The children have enjoyed a celebration or event where some target language and target language country culture has been explored. Can you now plan for an end of year celebration whole school focus and celebration in languages?
• Teachers have introduced the children to simple language learning based mainly so far on listening,speaking and some very basic reading and possibly writing.Can you now begin to introduce an element of story? Try using familiar stories to aid comprehension in a new target language and add an element of creative writing - a mini book, a poster, display of word art or caligrams? Here is one example that might genrate ideas of your own !Caligrams and holiday suitcases

So your next steps as you return after Easter could be ....

• Organise and lead a staff meeting/part of a staff meeting in the Summer term,where all staff  can  share,try out and discuss some simple games and activities that colleagues have all tried and enjoyed with their own class. 
• Ask colleagues to take a learning walk around school during one staff meeting to look at target language class display and signage.Can they think of ways that they can develop new signage with the children or produce a display created by the children in the target language?
• Introduce staff to clips online of famous stories read in the target language.Discuss how they could use these in their classrooms to explore a story book.For example here are three French,German and Spanish clips of the "Hungry Caterpillar".Discuss possible spoken and written activities that the teachers could try linked directly to the video clips e,g a diary of food eaten, a card concertina model of the hungry caterpillar and alternative fruits he could eat etcetra.
• This blog post may help you as coordinator to begin to forward plan for future effective  story reading in  target language learning classes (in line with the DFE POS Learning Objectives). Reading in the target language is great!

In German this clip is accompanied by music 

In French the children retell the story below 

In Spanish the clip is quite quick  so the music helps to tell the story too

Beginning with languages blog 5

Across our network we work with schools who are all at different stages of setting up and delivering primary language learning and each year we welcome new schools who want to set off on their own individual school's language learning journey.

This year these specific 

"Beginning with languages "

 blogs will try to offer "bite size chunks" of indirect help and support to schools, who are doing exactly that .... just setting off and implementing  a language learning curriculum 

.

Take a look back at"beginning with languages" blogs 

one

,

two

 ,

three

 and 

four

 .

Your checklists so far have been:

Sept - Oct ,(first half term) Checklist

• It's all about establishing a whole school support system for all your staff
• It's about small steps and simple language learning
• It's about children and staff beginning to enjoy language learning

Mid October (end of the first half term), an additional new checklist bullet point!

• So how are you all getting on? How do you know that primary languages are being implemented in all the classes and are the teachers and children having fun in their learning? 

November (moving in to the second half term of language learning),we added a couple of new challenges to your checklist!

• How successfully have you been able to build in "revisiting" opportunities to build the children and staff's confidence with the language you introduced last half term? 
• Are you introducing,revisiting and re-using familiar games with familiar and unfamiliar language for example (e.g Bingo or Splat or maybe a game of Quiz Quiz Swap?)
• Have you encouraged all staff to practise key language using sound files and songs?
• Can all staff and children practise and learn a Christmas song or carol in the target language? (In beginning with languages blog three you can find links to You ~tube clips of a Christmas song lin French, Spanish and German

December-January (moving forward) your checklist was to: 

• Did all your staff  try out a simple listening and speaking Christmas activity based on a Christmas  song?
• Have staff considered and been able to identify the links between activities we may use in KS1 when encouraging children to read and KS2 beginners language learning (sound-spelling links and activities)?
• Are KS2 staff building opportunities  in to activities in the New Year  to help learners to  "broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words ...."- Are staff in KS2  exploring nouns with their KS2 foreign language learners? 

And now we are in February ......

• Reflection time for yourself as coordinator .Half way through the academic year reflection time for yourself as coordinator is needed: By now the school should be delivering some sequences of lessons and supporting each other to do so .This blog report Getting learning right  (from the start) may help you as the subject coordinator to consider and identify next steps in building a language learning environment that is supportive across the whole of KS2

• Ask your teachers to think of ways they can develop lessons that encourage children to explore simple "role play " in their lessons.This blog post may help you to forward plan Exploring role play  and see how we move from "asking and answering questions" to "engaging in conversations" and how this development takes time. These role play ideas will support staff to find simple ways to plan for role play activities with their classes:

Paper puppets with a purpose - asking and answering simple questions

Changing faces and Pop Art - UKS2 creative approach to basic personal information questions and answers

Totem Pole prompt sticks to help children stage their conversation building

3D Art and practising personal information spoken sentences

Who lives here? Pictures as prompts to create simple imaginative dialogues language

• Continue to plan foreign language learning as an integral part of the school calendar.Coming up this month and at the start of March are Carnival and World Book day

• Plan for a whole school celebration on World Book Day of simple language the children have learnt( greetings , personal information questions and answers, colours, learning a song in a foreign language, listening and responding ) and add a touch of writing and recording this simple language by making mini books. In this blog post there are ideas based around "Elmer the Elephant ", one of the selected books for World Book Day in 2015.Elmer explorers -listening ,speaking and writing

• Encourage staff to celebrate the culture of the target language country.Carnival is one of the best ways to engage the whole school and to introduce some language and culture in KS1 too.Look at these simple ways that you can link foreign language learning to other areas of the curriculum and continue to explore the Learning Objectives in the DfE KS2 PoS during carnival celebrations

Carnival:

Exploring the music of Saint Saens and the carnival of animals

Here is the opportunity to teach a sequence of lessons based on the

nouns

for animals and link language learning to Art/DT/Music/ICT and Drama

Stretchy sound and letter balloons

Here is an opportunity to continue to explore

sound- spelling links

and create your own strechy colourful carnival balloons too

Read carefully and understand words,phrases and simple sentences based on fancy dress

Here is an opportunity to begin to introduce the skill of reading and explore the DfE KS2 POS objective of "reading carefully and understanding words".If you are attending our local network meetings then you can access all the resources you need to deliver this activity in French and Spanish here 

Training Resources

Beginning with languages blog 4

Across our network we work with schools who are all at different stages of setting up and delivering primary language learning and each year we welcome new schools who want to set off on their own individual school's language learning journey.

This year these specific 

"Beginning with languages "

 blogs will try to offer "bite size chunks" of indirect help and support to schools, who are doing exactly that .... just setting off and implementing  a language learning curriculum 

.

Take a look back at"beginning with languages" blogs 

one

,

two

 and 

three

Your checklists so far have been:

Sept - Oct ,(first half term) Checklist

• It's all about establishing a whole school support system for all your staff
• It's about small steps and simple language learning
• It's about children and staff beginning to enjoy language learning

Mid October (end of the first half term), an additional new checklist bullet point!

• So how are you all getting on? How do you know that primary languages are being implemented in all the classes and are the teachers and children having fun in their learning? 

November (moving in to the second half term of language learning),we added a couple of new challenges to your checklist!

• How successfully have you been able to build in "revisiting" opportunities to build the children and staff's confidence with the language you introduced last half term? 
• Are you introducing,revisiting and re-using familiar games with familiar and unfamiliar language for example (e.g Bingo or Splat or maybe a game of Quiz Quiz Swap?)
• Have you encouraged all staff to practise key language using sound files and songs?
• Can all staff and children practise and learn a Christmas song or carol in the target language? (In beginning with languages blog three you can find links to You ~tube clips of a Christmas songl in French, Spanish and German

And now your December checklist bullet points(to review a term's progress and prepare for next term) are:

• Encourage all your staff to try out a simple listening and speaking Christmas activity based on a Christmas wishes song 

Ring out those bells tonight

 (learning a simple Christmas wishes song and listening for key phrases to a familiar refrain of London's Burning)

Extend this activity to a listening,speaking,reading and phonics activity with your more confident staff!Follow the suggested activities in 

Ding Dong Bell Phonics

 using the same Christmas wishes song as in the activity above,but breaking down the words in to sound s and their letter combinations

Using the Christmas wishes in these songs ,you have the basis for simple Christmas cards from the children to friends and family .Now the children are listening,speaking,reading and writing familiar language!

• Ask staff to see the links between activities we may use in KS1 when encouraging children to read and KS2 beginners language learning.

And forward planning.....

Next term as a school you need to plan to celebrate the cultural events in the target language country .Start with your first week back and Epiphany. 

Provide staff with the facts about Epiphany and the celebrations that will take place in early January  across Europe and particularly in France and Spain. Epiphany.

Let your children be Kings for the day!

The link here on the 

mama lisa blog

 will provide your staff with the French facts and information and a song to sing with their classes in the week of Epiphany 

The link here on the 

mama lisa blog

 will provide your staff with the Spanish facts and information and a song to sing with their classes in the week of Epiphany

Continuing to make progress

• In Spring  first half term consolidate prior learning and build upon knowledge.Share the activities below with staff and ask them to select and use the activities to revisit prior learning: 

Listening sticks

 (numbers and colours)

Open and reveal for corners

 ( days/months/colours and numbers)

Sunflower song and maths

 (numbers)

Totem pole prompt sticks

 (personal information questions)

• Now you can build in a new language content focus linked to a DfE POS learning objective "broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words ...." . Let's begin to look at nouns! 

1. Select your content focus (for example animals I like and don't like) and create simple opportunities for children to explore nouns. 
2. Ask the children to become language detectives and to become noun collectors.
3. Encourage each member of staff to think of creative ways to collect nouns with the children and to begin to explore the ways that nouns can have different sounds and written words to represent the word "the" or "a" in the target language.
4. Some of the idea here will help school to do this :noun collectors nets and treasure boxes

5. To support staff to understand more about nouns in a target language and the use of "the"  and "a" , share this blog post with them and put aside some time in a staff or key stage meeting to discuss what they have read and understood.

Starting to understand nouns

Ring out those bells tonight! Christmas greetings

Getting ready for CPD and thinking of ways to practise simple language with beginner target language learners and with a Christmas focus and also to encourage the development of listening, speaking and reading skills I have put together these two simple ideas.

The first ideas was based upon 

counting stars and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

The  idea below is based on Christmas bells and singing a simple song based on Christmas greetings.This will work in all languages .

The example below is in Spanish .We sing this style of Christmas greetings song in French and German too and it's to a very familiar refrain "London's Burning".It's all about getting the children familiar with how to say "Happy Christmas" to family and friends.Here are the Spanish words,you just need to put them together and into an order that suits the refrain!

We will be using this  as a possible song to sing with the younger children at Christmas etc.add actions and sing in the round- but it will make a great listening and responding activity too with KS2.

• Show the children the three main phrases from the song .I have added a bell symbol to represent the bell - but they would be really great if they were printed out on hand size bell shapes ......

• Ask the children to practise each phrase with you as if they were bell ringers- it would be great to have some bells and chimes for this activity too.Each syllable to the tune of the refrain is a bell ring or chime- so each syllable must be a movement as if ringing bells.
• Now invite three children to the front to be the bell ringers.Give each child one of the key phrases and ask them to listen out for their key phrase as you sing the song as a class and they must ring their bell throughout the whole time their phrase is being sung.
• Now give out bell cards to all the class and ask the class to listen out for their phrases and to ring their bells when they hear their phrase.
• Ask the children to walk around their room with their key phrase card,saying their phrase from the song that is written on the card and find other children who are saying the same phrase.Can the children gather together and make a group with the same phrase.Now we have carol singers and bell ringers! Simply sing the song and ask the children in each group to wave their cards as if they were bells as their phrase is sung in the song.Sing the song several times.
• Time to add some percussion too now I think ......