Yesterday’s assessment day in London marked the beginning of the second phase of the Chartered Teacher programme. The final assignments for phase one of the programme had already been handed in and yesterday was an assessment day to begin phase two. We had to complete a written exam, an oral exam and an OSTE (which I see as being a role play type task). Many of us had been nervous and ensure of quite what to expect, having never done this before. I’ve not taken a written exam in 5 years or so, for many people there it had been a lot longer. It turned out we had nothing to fear, I can’t go into the details of course, but it seemed to go ok. The written exam came more naturally to me than I had expected it too, and the oral exam and OSTE weren’t as scary as I’d expected.
So far the CTeach programme is going really well and I’m feel pretty positive about how it is going. As I said in a conversation with my mentor yesterday, I feel like the programme is really making me focus on making new habits. Before, if I wanted to try something new I was pretty bad at having a go, refining it and making it stick. So far the programme has made me read more, implement ideas a bit at a time, and really try and make a go of it. It’s making me very excited for what’s to come over the final two phases, especially what I might be able to achieve with my final project. In this phase we have a video portfolio to compile. I was bothered about this before yesterday as the idea of sending a video of myself teaching to someone I barely know was daunting. During the course of the assessment day we had a workshop by the Institute for Teaching all about this assignment and they made me feel a lot better. The assignment is really structured and means the feedback should be really specific. In most cases we have been grouped with peers who are focusing on the same area of development but as MFL teachers we have been put together, apparently because of understanding target language use, which seems to make sense. I’m looking forward to being able to blog about what I’m doing over the coming weeks/months.
0 Comments
In tonight’s chat we discussed motivation in MFL including the barriers to it and what we do to raise it. There were some interesting points raised and questions asked on the topic and the following is my best attempt at summarising it all whilst only using my iPad rather than the full editor on the computer.
The main barriers to motivation in MFL that we discussed were:
When I started my current role as Second in Department, Curriculum Leader for Spanish our main concern was the lack of motivation our students had for studying languages. It was compulsory for them to take at least one language for GCSE but we had a fair few students who were disengaged and just didn’t see the benefit of learning another language. Seeing this I decided to focus on the influence of the extended curriculum on student motivation to study MFL for my MA Education dissertation, I blogged about it here. Then in April I attended some training with a couple of colleagues where a speaker talked about projects in MFL and it sparked a re-vamp of our schemes of work to see what we could do to motivate our students. The following blog is a summary of what we have done, how it’s been going and what we need to be doing differently in the future.
The first thing we did was decide which of the projects we had heard about we wanted to include in our schemes of work and for which year groups. I then planned these into the schemes of work, with the aim of the projects running alongside our normal curriculum. I will briefly explain the projects below, but I cannot take credit for any of the ideas. Eurovision (Year 7 and Year 8 Beginners) - Learn a verse or two of a song in Spanish / French, perform as a class, film and older classes vote on a winner. We chose this as a fun interdiction to the language, the way it sounds and (depending on song choice) the culture too. This one went down fairly well and was a good way for year 7 forms to get to know eachother at the start of the year. The year 8 beginners weren’t so into it and I would consider removing it for them next year. Spelling Bee - Adapted from the Routes into Languages resources we run this with year 7 and year 8 beginners. With rounds in class to find the best in the form, in the school hall to find the best in the year and then a local competition against other schools to add an extra level to it. We even integrated it with our school house system this year to try and get even more students engaged. This has been a great way of showing year 7 how important it is to learn their alphabet and vocabulary early on. For the most part I think they have enjoyed it but some responses to student surveys have shown that some felt that it put them under pressure to perform in front of their peers. Translation Bee - very similar to the above but for year 8 continuers (those who started the language in year 7). These are harder to engage than the year 7 students, but this is the first year. I hope once this is something they’re used to doing it will become part of what learning MFL is out our school. Over the last half term I have been working on improving vocabulary retention amongst my year 11 classes. I started by asking them to respond to a survey which asked them to reflect on vocabulary learning. How easy they find it, how often they do it and the types of words they were revising. I then spoke to them about interleaving, spaced practice and Ebbinghaus forgetting curve and explained how they could help themselves by changing their vocabulary learning habits. I also introduced the use of retrieval practice grids, as shown below: These grids are intended to show students the range of vocabulary they need to know from across the GCSE course and test how well they can remember them. I was hoping for two things, that testing students on such a range of vocabulary might prompt them to realise how much they needed to revise and also that the testing itself would help their learning. Student reactions to these grids have been good on the whole. The majority of students have noted that the grids are really challenging but that they were showing them what they needed to revise more. Some students have requested that we do these at the start of every lesson. I have asked students to complete the same survey again two or three weeks after the first time, and here are the main results to compare (apologies for the lack of numbers on the charts) An interesting change here in student perceptions of the difficulty of vocabulary learning. I’m not quite sure what to take from it, were they overconfident before? A positive result, many students are studying vocabulary more frequently than before, now with some students saying they even study their vocabulary everyday which is a great improvement. I’m hoping they are taking my advice and using the Quizlet app on the bus maybe. I’ve also seen quite a change in the words they are revising, with students focusing less on the words they are expecting to be tested on soon and more and more focusing on things they learned a long time ago.
I’ve been collecting in scores for the grids, between the first and second grid each student went up on average by 1.5, by the third grid students scores had gone up by around 5 marks. I’m not going to claim that this could be replicated elsewhere as I’ve not done it in a hugely scientific manner, but it’s enough for me to see something positive and suggest we might be doing the right thing. I’m really pleased with what I am seeing so far, and hope to start to move this method further down the school. If I can show younger students the difference it is making for year 11 maybe that will start to convince them. I know other people out there are trying similar methods, so please let me know how you’re getting on by commenting below.
On Wednesday 7th March we discussed grammar teaching.
Interesting comments included:
Other comments noted the difficulty of implicitly teaching grammar and that they tended to teach grammar more explicitly to older students.
We also discussed what implicit and explicit grammar teaching combined might look like. I thought this was a particularly important point and maybe an idea to try:
We also discussed the importance of carefully sequencing how grammar is introduced and how some popular course books don't always do this in the best way.
One final, but important point to consider:
Next week we have a number of options. Pick your favourite and feel free to let me know your suggestions for the future.
Last night’s #MFLTwitterati chat was on listening, on which most of the participants noted they had never had any formal training.
Advice from participants included: Referring to transcripts Focus on phonics Choral reading of transcripts Scaffolded listening activities exploiting gap fills Performing transcripts as a roleplay Constant exposure to listening tracks Recycling of language Removing words from transcripts (with or without multiple choice) Using target language as much as possible from the beginning so students tune in Using YouTube and auto subtitles for sixth form (sometimes correction is needed...) Creating your own listenings and sharing RTVE VerTaal Blacking out unnecessary words on transcripts Predicting ahead of listening Looking out for distractors Using the GCSE workbooks and revision guides Tracks from old exam papers Problems included: Expensive subscription services Focus on speaking and writing from legacy specification Students not realising the importance of the skill The speed and lack of thinking time for students Students focusing too much on little things and failing to see the big picture Students too concerned with knowing every word and missing out the small part they could’ve understood which answered the question Students being able to put everything together - decoding, vocabulary knowledge, grammar, comprehension all at once Also discussed: The difference between hearing a live speaker and a recorded voice The possibility of the GCSE/A level exam eventually becoming video based to make it more natural The issue with the ‘mixing’ of skills - e.g summary question at A level - is this about listening or writing? The first #mfltwitterati chat took place on Wednesday 21st February, 8.30-9pm. The topic was vocabulary learning. The below is a summary of what was discussed: Q1) What are the main obstacles to vocabulary learning?Time! Lack of repetition. Lack of integration into daily life. Lack of basic English literacy onto which to hook L2. Students not learning until 2 minutes before test. Stuudents not recognising the importance. Students not having a good understanding of the concepts in English. So much content. Q2) What have you tried in the past that wasn’t as successful as you’d hoped?Students making their own lists and self testing in class - not getting into a routine. Single word vocab tests. Anything when not consistent. Retests. Q3) What has worked for you?Verb of the day with 3 time frames. Retrieval practice. Learning in context. Including time frames. Recycling. Testing to use the learned vocab in a sentence. Highlight 5 words in a lesson they know they’ve seen before but can’t remember. Learning genders by hanging lists in different places. Link to Gianfranco Conti blog: https://t.co/D9DXdbhRIv Q4) What do you plan to try in the future?Learning in chunks. More retrieval practice. Regular repetition across topics.. Weekly quizzes with high expectations. Make into chunks, manipulate for homework and apply in class to prove it has stuck. Build up vocab over time - start with 2 or 3 verb common words and later return to the topic to add more. Back to flash cards, look/cover/write/check, self-quizzing Q5) What topics would you like to discuss in #mfltwitterati chat in the future?Grammar teaching
Tech in MFL Teaching listening Teaching lit/film Improving reading Teaching translation Recruitment to GCSE and A Level Last time I blogged about the CTeach programme I talked about the Professional Development plan I had written and what I am planning on working on throughout the year. I am going to have my first call with my mentor tonight to talk about this plan and what I might want to change before I submit the final version. This plan isn't formally assessed in terms of what I have written and how, my mentor just has to sign off to confirm that I'm thinking of my development, it's realistic and it has a range of formal and informal development opportunities. It's up to me to keep it updated throughout the year and make sure I am making progress in the areas I have identified. I will be assessed on the reflective journal entries that I submit along the way.
One very interesting part of the programme is the Online Debate. I won't go into the topics here, but we had a choice of three - all of them looked really interesting. Then we have been provided with suggested readings and an expert webinar to help us form our ideas. We then have to give our response to the debate topic and reply to at least two other participants. The only thing I'm finding hard about this is that I can't get it done when I might like to as I have to rely on when the other participants respond. That's not really an issue though, unless they all do it at midnight on the last day! The next thing I need to do is start thinking about my Impact Portfolio - 1 change I have made that has had a positive impact, and one that hasn't worked out how I would've hoped. I've got some thinking to do about how to approach this one, luckily the first deadline isn't for another month. We then get to peer review someone else's submission before redrafting which is a really interesting idea. Of course, it's always a good idea to read other people's work, but to have a peer review as part of the assessment is a different approach to anything I've experienced in the past. I'm just trying to think about the changes I'm going to write about, the Impact doesn't only have to be on student progress so I'm considering changes I've made that colleagues might be able to comment on. That's tomorrow's job once I've planned my lessons for next week! I'm also pleased with how the workload has been spread out so far. The deadlines have all seemed reasonable and tasks have been broken down into chunks where necessary. As the title says - so far, so good. One very useful task we have been asked to do early on in the CTeach programme is to write a Professional Development Plan (PDP). It involves identifying the Professional Principles that we feel we need to develop, stating what our end aim is for developing this area, demonstrating how we are going to develop in that area and evaluating why we have chosen specific ways of doing this.
I have decided to share the areas I am working on in this post as I think it not only enables me to reflect further on this choice but also to help me to connect with others who may be working on these areas, or have knowledge and experience to share on them. 1) Has a critical understanding of a wide range of subject-specific pedagogical approaches, knows how to deploy these effectively, and builds this through engagement with a community of specialists. (2.1) I want to be able to justify the decisions I am making in planning and teaching and feel like I have something to really back them up. I have that for some things now, but more often than not I think I'm just teaching how I was trained to, or the way I've got used to without enough reasons behind it other than 'it seems to work ok'. 2) Has up-to-date knowledge of theories and research from the field of cognitive science and understands how these can be used to inform practice in education. (3.4) Something I've heard a lot about and I think could have a lot of benefits for language learning if used in the right way. I need to read a lot more about it and see what I can start to do based on the findings. 3) Understands how to design, implement and evaluate a range of assessment types (4). I want to have a range of assessment methods available to me and to know what to use and when. I'd like to be more consistent in my assessment methods and be able to use them for targeted intervention. This is an area that I think there is probably a lot to learn in. I am going to do these things hopefully via reading (book suggestions welcome), attending relevant events and interacting with the relevant networks online and in person. I'll test them out and hopefully survey students and ask colleagues to look at resources/observe parts of lessons to see what they think. I'll be getting started as soon as I can so any pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Today was the launch event for the Chartered Teacher programme. It was a great day, other than the rain that drenched my whilst my phone insisted I had arrived at my destination - UCL Academy was nowhere to be seen. We were greeted as we arrived by Dame Alison Peacock, a small touch, but appreciated on a miserable Saturday morning. The day started with an inspiring introduction by Dame Alison which included hearing about her personal experience and her hopes for the programme and the College more generally. Then Laura McInnerney talked about ‘How to handle the beests and the birds’, having heard Laura before I was looking forward to what she had to say. The analogy she used to describe immediate threats as wildebeests and issues on the horizon as birds made sense and got me thinking about my knowledge of education policies and trends and how I need to become more knowledgable about what is going on. After this there was a carousel of sessions. I started with Sarah Harrison talking about the CTeach and what we should expect over the coming 14 months. I was impressed at the amount of preparation and research that has clearly gone into the design of the programme and the new ideas it brings with it. She was keen to emphasise that we are the pilot cohort and are key to helping shape how the programme will work in the future. Whilst I won’t talk too much here about how we are going to be assessed I’ll give a rough idea of what I know. There are a couple of assessment days later in the year which include things like simulated tasks (think roleplay but not?) and a short written exam. There are also reflective journals, an impact portfolio and a research project. Whilst it will certainly be hard work, it does seem to have been set up to work alongside our normal teaching and to help that as opposed to adding totally unrelated work. It also seems that there is a lot of scope to fit the focus of the programme to what we individually want/need which is great.
We also had sessions by Ben Ward and Stuart Kine about what makes good professional development and how to self evaluate. These two sessions were both really interesting, gave me lots to look at and really made me think about what it is I need to work on in terms of the professional principles that guide the whole CTeach programme. Finally we got to meet our mentors and spent a good amount of time just chatting and getting to know them, discussing the day, next steps and our hopes for the programme. I’ve left feeling much more confident about what is to come and excited to really get started. I know it’s going to be tough, but I’m convinced it’ll be worth it. |