... so a new start as our old community secondary school closed on New Year's Eve and the new CE secondary school opened. It had been a long time coming and I am really excited to be working on the Christian Distinctiveness aspect of our school and overseeing our new RE faculty. I am truly excited by the developments at the school and, by the very nature that it has taken me 2 months to be able to write anything, I think that speaks volumes. I have a new-found love of my job and my work. I am truly loving working at developing the worship programme and resources in school and helping to develop each child spiritually.
Our staff are fabulous and have really responded to everything that has been asked of them and our team is superb. People have shared ideas about what went well and how we can improve the experiences of worship time for our children. I have loved being able to talk to people about what the children would enjoy or may like to experience. It has been challenging so far, and I know it won't get easier, but I can't believe how far we have already come along our immense journey.
Today I spoke to the fabulous people at Open Doors and we talked about ways that we can encourage our students to think and to pray about the persecuted Church and to use this as a way to learn about other countries and to compare the lifestyles in different nations and within different nations - a really fabulous way to offer students the opportunity to empathise with others, to consider the sense of morality about the persecuted church, tolerance, understanding and the need for peace across the globe. Children have been, through Lent, exploring one of the world watch list countries each week - I am going to explore next year building it into our PSHE/SMSC/Citizenship 'collapsed timetable days' in order to explore much broader issues.
I'm currently looking into creating a prayer space in school - it's not easy given the cramped space that we have, but it will be 'doable' I have no doubt.
Monday, 9 March 2015
Thursday, 18 July 2013
All change in September ... reflections on a year
Wow - what a year we have had since September 2012!
This year has seen our department work so very hard to improve on last year's GCSE results. We have all subscribed to using Twitter to help us 'spot' new ieas and try them out, it has seen our children work so hard that we really could be no prouder - I really do hope that the summer brings them the results that they have worked so hard for.
Today was a sad day, as we said farewell to two beloved members of our department - one moving south to live with his fiancée and start a job ina new school; the other leaving the profession (she will definitely miss the children - true evidence of someone 'called' to the profession - evidence that teaching is vocational) to become a comedienne. My two departing colleagues have given their all to our school and have been people whom the children have admired and respected. Their fresh approach to teaching MFL often gave me food for thought and made me sit back and reflect - in fact, indirectly, I would argue that they have turned me into a more reflective clasroom practitioner. Yes, in September we will work with new staff in the department, but it will definitely not be the same.
What have I done differently this year?
What have you done today to make you feel proud? I've worked all year in a team which has worked with the best kids - that's what has made me feel proud!
This year has seen our department work so very hard to improve on last year's GCSE results. We have all subscribed to using Twitter to help us 'spot' new ieas and try them out, it has seen our children work so hard that we really could be no prouder - I really do hope that the summer brings them the results that they have worked so hard for.
Today was a sad day, as we said farewell to two beloved members of our department - one moving south to live with his fiancée and start a job ina new school; the other leaving the profession (she will definitely miss the children - true evidence of someone 'called' to the profession - evidence that teaching is vocational) to become a comedienne. My two departing colleagues have given their all to our school and have been people whom the children have admired and respected. Their fresh approach to teaching MFL often gave me food for thought and made me sit back and reflect - in fact, indirectly, I would argue that they have turned me into a more reflective clasroom practitioner. Yes, in September we will work with new staff in the department, but it will definitely not be the same.
What have I done differently this year?
- I've used the 'Wheel of Marginal Gains' to develop children's written work
- We've really honed our strategies when it came to preparing the speaking assessments, including much more self assessment following recorded snippets
- I've realised the potential of mini whiteboards in aiming for grammatial accuracy and drafting - the list of possibilities is endless
- I have tracked the progress of students more diligently across the whole department and have worked with the other teachers to develop methods of showing the children how we can help them to work out howw well they are doing by looking regularly at UMS points and what they mean - through this we have really improved their ability to set their own targets - they have been able to set targets with meaning and with purpose
- We've started our very own department twitter feed with two purposes (to help the children and to give them another avenue to ask questions; and to reach parents whilst we are on our trips abroad)
- We used to only use Tarsia puzzles to practise basic vocabulary - now though we see its potential and are using it for structures, to develop students' confidence with longer phrases, to work with questions and answers and to create a stockpile of information, on which there are then comprehension questions
- I have realised that the children can be inspired to learn a language, not just by discussions about future jobs etc but, more so by discussions about culture and heritage in TL countries
- In the quest to constantly 'do things better' or 'to do
- Embraced new technology - not completely and not always well! But ... we have tried so hard and we have made in roads into exploring how to use tablets the technology that exists in the children's pockets
What have you done today to make you feel proud? I've worked all year in a team which has worked with the best kids - that's what has made me feel proud!
Sunday, 30 June 2013
School trip to Paris (#paris2013)
I know many teachers who do the annual trip abroad 'because you should', but I really do absolutely love it - I think I get as much from it as the children do ... I'm not sure whether that's something great or not! I look forward to it with the children and really do enjoy everything about it!
We go somewhere different every year, because so many of the children come back again and again. This year, we took them to Paris (it was like turning the clock back 10 years - I spent my year abroad as an assistante in Créteil and worked at Disneyland Paris for the summers throughout my degree and at the weekends when I was assistante-ing). Subscription from our small school of just over 400 children has been great - we had 50 on the trip this week. It ran without a hitch and was so so very enjoyable, every step of the way.
Although I am quite annoyed with our travel company for several reasons (not least because they clearly have no concept of time etc - something which I pointed out and they disagreed with) - it was a good job that they had screwed up and forgot to book the Eiffel Tower tickets early enough, as the tower staff were on strike that day! That was so lucky - it could so easily have ruined it for the children, but they were already prepared not to go up. Likewise, don't let anyone try to convince you that Usines-Center is better than Val d'Europe!
Despite knowing Paris quite well, I decided we would do a couple of different things this time, things I had never taken the time to do myself. We
We go somewhere different every year, because so many of the children come back again and again. This year, we took them to Paris (it was like turning the clock back 10 years - I spent my year abroad as an assistante in Créteil and worked at Disneyland Paris for the summers throughout my degree and at the weekends when I was assistante-ing). Subscription from our small school of just over 400 children has been great - we had 50 on the trip this week. It ran without a hitch and was so so very enjoyable, every step of the way.
Although I am quite annoyed with our travel company for several reasons (not least because they clearly have no concept of time etc - something which I pointed out and they disagreed with) - it was a good job that they had screwed up and forgot to book the Eiffel Tower tickets early enough, as the tower staff were on strike that day! That was so lucky - it could so easily have ruined it for the children, but they were already prepared not to go up. Likewise, don't let anyone try to convince you that Usines-Center is better than Val d'Europe!
Despite knowing Paris quite well, I decided we would do a couple of different things this time, things I had never taken the time to do myself. We
- saw the flame lighting ceremony beneath the Arc de Triomphe - fantastic - not amplified quite enough, but moving nonetheless,
- climbed the steps on the inside of the Arc de Triomphe and went to the top - fab views and very different to elsewhere in the city,
- went up the Tour Montparnasse - the inside is a little disappointing, but the view from the Terasse makes up for it! Breathtaking and so easy to see all the children at the same time (unlike the Eiffel Tower),
- visited the sewers - fab visit (although as we had to translate, I was grateful that I had read the Harry Potter books in French about 10 years ago - otherwise, I'm not sure I would have had all of the necessary vocabulary!).
The children (possibly not all of the staff though) loved the day that we spent travelling by underground - it was such an experience and they behaved absolutely impeccably, following all of the rules set out to them. They made me really proud of them. Fully intending to use only the quieter stations, I was a little stumped when Barbès-Rochechouart was closed, as it took us a long way off-route, and took us to an unavoidable change at Châtelet ... eek ... fortunately all went well still.
The travel company clearly has NO IDEA about how long it would take to feed 57 mouths at the Hard Rock Café - surely if there hadn't have been an earlier table, then we should have eaten elsewhere, as the meal booking was for 7pm, with the river cruise at 8.30pm - compounding the evidence that they were not wholly competent in the organisation of a trip to Paris (I am definitely using a different provider next year - I am already organising Berlin alone, but thought that perhaps it would be better to use a travel company for Normandy still). That having been said, when we got to the river cruise, we had to wait for the 9.30pm crossing (the one I had actually asked for) - it was enchanting - out in daylight/dusk; but back in the dark, so we still got to see the Eiffel Tower's little light show (reduced, I believe because of the strike). It was fantastical.
The inevitable trip to Disney was super and I was so pleased that our coach driver had agreed to allow us to leave later and stay to the end (again, something which I had asked of the travel company - but they had still insisted and 'itinerised' a 9am-7pm visit ... would have been naff! - 12pm-12am was so much better). The children loved it - and I think the Year 10/11 students enjoyed it most of all!
A truly brilliant week - we weren't even held up on the M25 on they way home!
Blogging (chtsmfl.blogspot.co.uk) and using twitter (@CHTSMFL) throughout the week has definitely cut down on the need to check on as many phone calls and has helped the children to reduce their text spending - lots better for all. The only downside was the parent who sent a text to the school phone (addressing the text directly to the child), saying that they had been looking at the blog today, but it hadn't been updated for hours ... never mind that we were busy trying to get 50 children across the city by metro and RER! The blog had over 1500 hits during our week away (some will have been looking to see if it had been updated or not, but many were finding out how things went!).
Blogging (chtsmfl.blogspot.co.uk) and using twitter (@CHTSMFL) throughout the week has definitely cut down on the need to check on as many phone calls and has helped the children to reduce their text spending - lots better for all. The only downside was the parent who sent a text to the school phone (addressing the text directly to the child), saying that they had been looking at the blog today, but it hadn't been updated for hours ... never mind that we were busy trying to get 50 children across the city by metro and RER! The blog had over 1500 hits during our week away (some will have been looking to see if it had been updated or not, but many were finding out how things went!).
New tour company providers, however ... ?
Saturday, 15 June 2013
On first reading of the proposed content and AO for MFL, I think ...
Having spent a little time this afternoon looking at the GCSE subject content and assessment objectives for MFL (the "final" version for 'consultation'), I thought I would put fingers to keyboard and type out a few of my thoughts and initial reactions.
I can't think of many language teachers who would not agree with the statement that children should develop a desire to study and communicate in the foreign language through study at GCSE level; however, I can't help but think that the content of the proposed curriculum seems not to consider that aim in the suggested information.
One of the biggest things that jumps out at me is that it is stated that the learning at GCSE should build on the knowledge and skills acquired in KS2 and KS3 (I don't believe that the current subject content states this - but I could be wrong). This is quite a big demand if there is no suggested number of contact hours per week for children in MFL - our current year 9 children have had just one hour per week all the way through KS3; as they go into KS4, there is no way that their knowledge is comparable to that of the students who moved up last year into the final stages of our school. This bit worries me for these students.
I welcome the shift from "me, me, me" to a broader set of themes, but I worry that "factual and literary texts, appropriate to this level" may not be particularly stimulating for the students themselves. The fact that literary texts can include "poems, [...], extract and excerpts from abridged and adapted essays, novels or plays from contemporary and historical sources" seems to be a huge jump in comparison to what is currently expected - is this proposed content for students of all abilities? How will all students be able to access this proposed content? I don't deny that the more able children need to be pushed and that their experiences ought to include access to target language texts from a variety of sources; however, I worry about the children in the class, whose target grades are F-D grades - these children still feel achieved if they earn an E, but I don't know how I would motivate them with this proposed content. This would take some serious reconsideration (which I know is the idea), but this is so far from what we are used to! Eeek. For me the love of French came when I first read Bridget Jones' Diary in its French translation and understood it, and when I watched a Disney film in French and could still follow the story and "get it". I did a degree without reading any literature, but I instead studied history about the nation and learned so much about the history of Germany from 1945 onwards and the importance of French musicians in the post WW1 years - thing I wouldn't have discovered through the reading of literature, but which meant that I learned an awful lot about the people and the social history of the two nations - I inspire our children regularly when I talk to them (in TL or in English) about some of the special topics I studied at university. I don't feel as though my education is worth less, just because I didn't opt to study any literature, and I don't see why this make my language any less valid.
I welcome a return to no longer assessing the students for their speaking exams (and still sending off their written work) - it is something which I panic over every year - I always try my best to mark them correctly and accurately, but I can't help but think that there is more parity if they are all externally assessed.
Equal weighting of the skills? I'm not sure what I think about the return to this; some of me thinks that it is a real step backwards, but other bits of me think that maybe it is sensible - I don't know that there can be a right or a wrong where this is concerned.
I welcomed the change to the questions being written in English in reading and listening exams, as I strongly believe that the children ought not to be penalised for misunderstanding a question, even when they had understood the spoken or the written text itself - seems like a big penalty to me. I'm not sure that, as a life skill goes, in making languages 'real' that it is one of the most important elements ... yes, I would expect my incredibly able top grade students to be able to do so, but I don't think that I would expect my lower ability students to be able to access the paper in the same way.
And as for the ability to translate into French from English ... I spend so much of my time telling the children NOT to write things in English and translate into French because that's not the way to do things that it makes be slightly sad! I seem to recall at uni that, 10 years ago when we had a careers talk from a translation agency, it would be unlikely for us to bee employed as native speakers of English to translate INTO French, but that we would be doing the reverse, as one is usually more competent when translating into one's native language. It goes so much against the grain - I'm a real ambassador for teaching the children grammatical concepts as foundations for being able to then build good German/French in a more natural manner.
I know how I feel about the proposed content of the curriculum; I just hope that whatever ingredients we are ultimately presented with in our 'surprise bag', à la 'Ready, Steady, Cook', I am able to cook up something inspirational to serve to our children.
I can't think of many language teachers who would not agree with the statement that children should develop a desire to study and communicate in the foreign language through study at GCSE level; however, I can't help but think that the content of the proposed curriculum seems not to consider that aim in the suggested information.
One of the biggest things that jumps out at me is that it is stated that the learning at GCSE should build on the knowledge and skills acquired in KS2 and KS3 (I don't believe that the current subject content states this - but I could be wrong). This is quite a big demand if there is no suggested number of contact hours per week for children in MFL - our current year 9 children have had just one hour per week all the way through KS3; as they go into KS4, there is no way that their knowledge is comparable to that of the students who moved up last year into the final stages of our school. This bit worries me for these students.
I welcome the shift from "me, me, me" to a broader set of themes, but I worry that "factual and literary texts, appropriate to this level" may not be particularly stimulating for the students themselves. The fact that literary texts can include "poems, [...], extract and excerpts from abridged and adapted essays, novels or plays from contemporary and historical sources" seems to be a huge jump in comparison to what is currently expected - is this proposed content for students of all abilities? How will all students be able to access this proposed content? I don't deny that the more able children need to be pushed and that their experiences ought to include access to target language texts from a variety of sources; however, I worry about the children in the class, whose target grades are F-D grades - these children still feel achieved if they earn an E, but I don't know how I would motivate them with this proposed content. This would take some serious reconsideration (which I know is the idea), but this is so far from what we are used to! Eeek. For me the love of French came when I first read Bridget Jones' Diary in its French translation and understood it, and when I watched a Disney film in French and could still follow the story and "get it". I did a degree without reading any literature, but I instead studied history about the nation and learned so much about the history of Germany from 1945 onwards and the importance of French musicians in the post WW1 years - thing I wouldn't have discovered through the reading of literature, but which meant that I learned an awful lot about the people and the social history of the two nations - I inspire our children regularly when I talk to them (in TL or in English) about some of the special topics I studied at university. I don't feel as though my education is worth less, just because I didn't opt to study any literature, and I don't see why this make my language any less valid.
I welcome a return to no longer assessing the students for their speaking exams (and still sending off their written work) - it is something which I panic over every year - I always try my best to mark them correctly and accurately, but I can't help but think that there is more parity if they are all externally assessed.
Equal weighting of the skills? I'm not sure what I think about the return to this; some of me thinks that it is a real step backwards, but other bits of me think that maybe it is sensible - I don't know that there can be a right or a wrong where this is concerned.
I welcomed the change to the questions being written in English in reading and listening exams, as I strongly believe that the children ought not to be penalised for misunderstanding a question, even when they had understood the spoken or the written text itself - seems like a big penalty to me. I'm not sure that, as a life skill goes, in making languages 'real' that it is one of the most important elements ... yes, I would expect my incredibly able top grade students to be able to do so, but I don't think that I would expect my lower ability students to be able to access the paper in the same way.
And as for the ability to translate into French from English ... I spend so much of my time telling the children NOT to write things in English and translate into French because that's not the way to do things that it makes be slightly sad! I seem to recall at uni that, 10 years ago when we had a careers talk from a translation agency, it would be unlikely for us to bee employed as native speakers of English to translate INTO French, but that we would be doing the reverse, as one is usually more competent when translating into one's native language. It goes so much against the grain - I'm a real ambassador for teaching the children grammatical concepts as foundations for being able to then build good German/French in a more natural manner.
I know how I feel about the proposed content of the curriculum; I just hope that whatever ingredients we are ultimately presented with in our 'surprise bag', à la 'Ready, Steady, Cook', I am able to cook up something inspirational to serve to our children.
New year - reflections on the past year ...moving forwards
So, it's been a while since I posted to my blog. It's been such a busy few weeks - starting the 'new academic year' and working with all of my new classes has been a great challenge and it really has been lovely meeting all of my new groups.
I have undertaken to do a few things much better this academic year:
Over the past two weeks, whilst trying to get to know my new classes (especially my GCSE groups), I have been trying lots of new ideas - I was really excited when we got approval to share the department wifi access with our students this week. I want to be able to work with the children to develop the frequency with which they access authentic material - I have been trialling this with them with tablets recently, so that we can use 1jour1actu and also a variety of apps in target language.
I have often thought that it was difficult to reflect on the previous academic year, when one starts the 'new academic year' before the publication of the GCSE results in the summer; however, this year I have found that I am able to reflect on my practice and to talk with my department about our actual teaching, without the context of the exam results - they will come in the summer. We have been able to really focus our thinking on what we can do best for the children in our care.
One of the things that really excites me about this academic year is that we have ability sets at GCSE for the first time - it is already making a difference to the students' outcomes, and we have only been going for a fortnight so far. I know that I am pitching things at the right level for the children in my new GCSE German groups, whereas for the past two years, we have been splitting into different groups within the same room for the year (a bit like at primary school) and effectively teaching three different lessons - it has been lovely this fortnight to give the children chance to all work together to pool ideas, because they all feel able to work with one another - the difference is immense.
This past year has seen us build our department blog up and develop a twitter feed for the students to access about the department. We have had over 2700 hits since January and I hope to really build on this in the coming year. We started at very humble beginnings with our twitter feed, but are slowly building up - we now have just under 50 followers, so we hope that this will continue.
On a personal note, I have learned loads this year - lots about different classroom ideas, loads about becoming more reflective in my own practice, plenty about how better to offer feedback to the children in my care, plethora of new activities and ways to explore new technologies in the classroom. Where have I learned all of this? Most of it has come from my own exploratory CPD on twitter and on the web as a whole. Openmindedness is so important in this job and I know that this past year has helped me to open my mind more and more - I hope that I continue to learn and that I will share more and more as the year goes on. Thank you to everyone who has inspired me this year - there are far too many to name (I only hope I can get to ##ililc or to #thejuneevent this coming year so that I can meet some of you in person).
Happy new year!
I have undertaken to do a few things much better this academic year:
- to encourage much more target language use in GCSE lessons as well as in KS3 classes
- to really push the Year 9 children to make progress, despite them having only one lesson per week
- to ensure that I build more time in for the children to respond to marking and feedback
- to constantly apply more and more of the ideas I pick up from reading other people's blogs and tweets - there are so many great ideas out there!
Over the past two weeks, whilst trying to get to know my new classes (especially my GCSE groups), I have been trying lots of new ideas - I was really excited when we got approval to share the department wifi access with our students this week. I want to be able to work with the children to develop the frequency with which they access authentic material - I have been trialling this with them with tablets recently, so that we can use 1jour1actu and also a variety of apps in target language.
I have often thought that it was difficult to reflect on the previous academic year, when one starts the 'new academic year' before the publication of the GCSE results in the summer; however, this year I have found that I am able to reflect on my practice and to talk with my department about our actual teaching, without the context of the exam results - they will come in the summer. We have been able to really focus our thinking on what we can do best for the children in our care.
One of the things that really excites me about this academic year is that we have ability sets at GCSE for the first time - it is already making a difference to the students' outcomes, and we have only been going for a fortnight so far. I know that I am pitching things at the right level for the children in my new GCSE German groups, whereas for the past two years, we have been splitting into different groups within the same room for the year (a bit like at primary school) and effectively teaching three different lessons - it has been lovely this fortnight to give the children chance to all work together to pool ideas, because they all feel able to work with one another - the difference is immense.
This past year has seen us build our department blog up and develop a twitter feed for the students to access about the department. We have had over 2700 hits since January and I hope to really build on this in the coming year. We started at very humble beginnings with our twitter feed, but are slowly building up - we now have just under 50 followers, so we hope that this will continue.
On a personal note, I have learned loads this year - lots about different classroom ideas, loads about becoming more reflective in my own practice, plenty about how better to offer feedback to the children in my care, plethora of new activities and ways to explore new technologies in the classroom. Where have I learned all of this? Most of it has come from my own exploratory CPD on twitter and on the web as a whole. Openmindedness is so important in this job and I know that this past year has helped me to open my mind more and more - I hope that I continue to learn and that I will share more and more as the year goes on. Thank you to everyone who has inspired me this year - there are far too many to name (I only hope I can get to ##ililc or to #thejuneevent this coming year so that I can meet some of you in person).
Happy new year!
Sunday, 19 May 2013
AfL in MFL - our "masterclass" one Wednesday morning
Last week, I lead one of our 'Wednesday morning masterclass' sessions - briefing sessions to staff on key areas highlighted as school priorities. They are 10 minute sessions which take place at 8.20am and range from really interactive sessions to 'talk sessions'.
We were asked to present on AfL strategies used in MFL and Music lessons. We set about hunting out ideas (and then it transpired that my colleague would not be in to help me out and I panicked as I was all alone!).
I have "pdf-ed" the presentation below and included everything except the photo of our children in Year 7 on the opening slide.
One of the things I was at pains to point out, was that a great many of our ideas have come from things we have learned from other tweachers. One of our current favourites is the Wheel of Marginal gains (thanks to @huntingenglish), which we have used to help students in the medium control phase of their written CA work.
I shared our department's changed approaches to marking, largely thanks to the posts from @headguruteacher and included some photos of our students' work. The children have responded really positively to our changed focus - less of us writing lengthy bits of feedback (which were often unread, and certainly not always as 'helpful' as we had thought), and more of them working out what went well and why we've suggested that certain things need tweaking.
I can't remember who first introduced me to padlet (or wallwisher as it was then), but staff seemed genuinely surprised about it - such a fab resource and can be used for a real variety of reasons.
We have created our own differentiated work cards for GCSE German (and French) - the German ones can be downloaded here - students start by working with the cards that they think are most appropriate (blue - easiest / green - average / red - hardest) and then, by assessing their own ability, they either choose to try the comparable challenge at an easier or harder level wherever appropriate. The children have enjoyed working with these cards, as they are 'trusted' to work at the level most appropriate for them - I think trust is mega important when it comes to AfL - we need to trust that the children can assess and judge their progress well.
We give our GCSE students a '50 word challenge' as they start a unit - the clue is in its title - there are 50 words, and they are a challenge. The idea is to find out the meaning of all 50 as quickly as possible. They record their times as well. We then work through the unit and, as the unit progresses, each week 20 words are prescribed for a test. We regularly then revisit a blank copy of the 50 word challenge (initially in the same order, later in the unit becoming mixed up as well), with the challenge of completing the challenge in a shorter time frame than last time. I was so relieved when I read this article which approves of lots of testing - we always knew it was true - how else does learning become embedded.
We know we could have talked about loads more ideas, but it was so difficult to decide which to include in the session - maybe we will be allowed to do another one day and share yet more ideas. Thanks to all who have helped us to discover new ideas over the past twelve months while we started out on twitter, getting to grips with sharing ideas across the nation and the globe.
We were asked to present on AfL strategies used in MFL and Music lessons. We set about hunting out ideas (and then it transpired that my colleague would not be in to help me out and I panicked as I was all alone!).
I have "pdf-ed" the presentation below and included everything except the photo of our children in Year 7 on the opening slide.
One of the things I was at pains to point out, was that a great many of our ideas have come from things we have learned from other tweachers. One of our current favourites is the Wheel of Marginal gains (thanks to @huntingenglish), which we have used to help students in the medium control phase of their written CA work.
I shared our department's changed approaches to marking, largely thanks to the posts from @headguruteacher and included some photos of our students' work. The children have responded really positively to our changed focus - less of us writing lengthy bits of feedback (which were often unread, and certainly not always as 'helpful' as we had thought), and more of them working out what went well and why we've suggested that certain things need tweaking.
I can't remember who first introduced me to padlet (or wallwisher as it was then), but staff seemed genuinely surprised about it - such a fab resource and can be used for a real variety of reasons.
We have created our own differentiated work cards for GCSE German (and French) - the German ones can be downloaded here - students start by working with the cards that they think are most appropriate (blue - easiest / green - average / red - hardest) and then, by assessing their own ability, they either choose to try the comparable challenge at an easier or harder level wherever appropriate. The children have enjoyed working with these cards, as they are 'trusted' to work at the level most appropriate for them - I think trust is mega important when it comes to AfL - we need to trust that the children can assess and judge their progress well.
We give our GCSE students a '50 word challenge' as they start a unit - the clue is in its title - there are 50 words, and they are a challenge. The idea is to find out the meaning of all 50 as quickly as possible. They record their times as well. We then work through the unit and, as the unit progresses, each week 20 words are prescribed for a test. We regularly then revisit a blank copy of the 50 word challenge (initially in the same order, later in the unit becoming mixed up as well), with the challenge of completing the challenge in a shorter time frame than last time. I was so relieved when I read this article which approves of lots of testing - we always knew it was true - how else does learning become embedded.
We know we could have talked about loads more ideas, but it was so difficult to decide which to include in the session - maybe we will be allowed to do another one day and share yet more ideas. Thanks to all who have helped us to discover new ideas over the past twelve months while we started out on twitter, getting to grips with sharing ideas across the nation and the globe.
Sunday, 28 April 2013
Encouraging students to revise?!
Students at my school need an awful lot of chivvying along to revise - they will come into school on a Saturday morning for revision sessions, but getting them to revise in their own time and on their own is really very hard. This is why this year we have decided to try and reach them on their own terms - we have relaunched our department blog (previously only used to send information about our blog from France to the students' parents at home) and fill it with - hopefully helpful - bits of advice for the students. So far, we've tried sharing a walk-through of the writing CA mark scheme, suggesting apps for their phones and other gadgets; we've just started a hints and tips feature which we intend to run every other day for the next three weeks as the exams get closer. On our twitter feed (@CHTSMFL), we are trying to offer hints and tips regularly for how to approach certain bits of the exams, and some revision ideas for the students. I just want to encourage the children to revise for their exams - those with really supportive parents who understand the importance of the exams will revise, and a few of their friends will as well, but I really want to start to tap into the others ...
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