Wallwisher - exam practice and motivation together

Yesterday, I posted on twitter and on Facebook asking if anyone who spoke French could add to the 'wallwisher' that I was creating for our Year 10 GCSE French (ab initio, and full course in a year) about school rules. 

When I introduced it this afternoon, with a GCSE-style set of questions (à la lots of little texts with a lot of 'who thinks ...' questions, just like they get in the foundation and higher papers), I explained that I had posted to twitter and to Facebook.  They were really interesting to watch when they heard about the origins of the reading material - I was a bit taken aback.  They came and sat on the floor all around the whiteboard (big downside to the activity was the font size etc, but they coped) and got straight on, telling me how this activity was 'très intelligent' because they were practising doing questions like those that they meet in the exam, but that it was 'chouette' because it was written by real people and not just by me!  I couldn't believe how much 'cooler' it was to read things that were put together like this.  Some people emailed or messaged me with comments because they couldn't work out how to add to the canvas.

If I can suss out how to make the text larger and more 'whole class friendly', then I'll definitely be using it again - was a great way to broaden vocabulary as well, as I was not in control of the language which they were accessing.  As it stands, I need to work on that, otherwise the value will be lost because the students won't be able to 'see' the texts that are posted - it was fortunate that I had a small group of 10 today, as there was no crush at the whiteboard.

iDoceo ...

I've never been a great user of my planner ... ask anyone who has worked with me.  I always kept the things I felt that I needed to - key groups data, half-termly grades, weekly vocab tests - none of it in a planner.  Invariably, I used a mixture of department spreadsheets and personal ones.  I have always known that my markbook was atrocious, but have always felt that I know the children that I teach.  I don't teach many classe, and there aren't huge numbers in my groups, but I do know that isn't good enough - we need evidence.  I think my problem has always been that I mark some things at school, some things in the car whilst waiting for things to finish, some things at the start of a rehearsal while waiting to start, some things at home ... all in lots of places, and somehow I never had the same thing with me or nearby in order to record things accurately.  I do, however, almost always have my iPad.  I set about looking for something to use.  Last year I tried a couple of things, but in October, I stumbled across iDoceo - it was introduced to me by a trainee in our department - she is always looking for things that will be appealing to kids or to kids.  I put it off for a while, but figured that I hadn't liked any of the free things or the 69p ones, so maybe it would be worth trying something that was £2.99.

Since then, I've been getting to grips with it and slowly building up to using it.  This term, I am "using it to its full".  It has a diary bit for planning / recording - bog standard data input basis, but all can be exported, per class to create a pdf (viewable in iBooks etc) to see a complete record of lessons ... all at the touch of the screen.  In each 'diary entry', you can add photos of students' work, or of 'action shots', you can also add audio files (currently no videos, but apparently they're working on that) - this is one of the real 'plusses' for me - whether it's music or language lessons, photo evidence is great (it's also a good memory jogger about what I've done!).

However, let's face it, the most important thing for me was the fact that I needed something simple, yet als useful, designed to carry marks (and ideally "do stuff" with those marks etc).  Well, this is good - import your basic bits and bobs from a spreadsheet (as a .csv file) so you don't have to type it all in.  You can input formulae, it will add little icons to prompt memory, you can highlight etc.  Really simple to do - even for me!  You can even create a pdf file for each student with all (or any you wish) of you marks and data etc.   The whole lot can be exported and opened in Excel (for cleverer maths, or for emailing to others if needed).

I am a convert.  I still know the children in all my classes, and really pride myself on this; however, I now know that I can always prove things in one easy touch, without having to get lots of different spreadsheets etc.  I have often 'resolved' to get better at recording marks, but have finally actually done so for the longest period ever!  I like iDoceo - and I'm sure it has other features, yet to be spotted.  I've already kept my resolution for 4 months - that in itself says it's quite good(!).

Looking closely

Looking closely today at the outcomes of today's mock exams has really made me think. Our kids can write and they can speak - we do give them the tools to build structures and write as freely as titles allow. Our focus on pronunciation has been great and they certainly 'don't mind' putting in the effort.

However, with our curriculum model, I have clearly been doing them a disservice by trying to inject some passion for the country and for the language itself because on four hours a week for a year (from scratch!) I need clearly not to be using inspirational sources for our listening, but I am going to have to go 'back to the book' a little more regularly (don't think I could do it all the time!) for listening-based resources, because while some can get full marks on the reading and writing, and almost full marks on the speaking elements, some of them are not even grading in the listening exam. I am going to have to rethink the strategy here. I've just always strived for motivation over 'exam, exam, exam' - I think in this instance maybe that isn't working :(

Next stop then ... How to turn exam questions and text book listening activities into inspirational and engaging activities ...

New Year's resolution ...

Well ... this is something that I have wanted to do for a little while now and have finally plucked up the courage to do.  I resolved to think and reflect more about the learning that actually takes place in the classroom and what works / doesn't work with our children. So, 2013 is here and today is the first day of the 'year', so here goes ...

I love Mondays, I get to work with my fab top set Year 8 French class - they're wicked fun and most of them have a real thirst for learning.  They're also the only KS3 language class that I teach, so I see it as my 'guilty pleasure' as well in the week.  The hardest thing in our school is that we only work with Year 7 and Year 8 children for one hour a week. 

Today we were looking a jobs as our theme, but we are thinking about using the conditional and the constant quest to think about how words are pronounced.  I was amazed by how much this group have retained - they had been doing a project with a non-French speaker leading them, working to create videos in French to promote the English education system and our school, so I was wondering how much they may have forgotten since some 'real French input' in the month of December, but impressively they were fab.  I gave them loads of vocab and just asked them to work together to rank the jobs in order firstly by number of syllables, and then, within the syllable groupings into alphabetical order - it was amazing - their tenacity and focus working together was brilliant.  In all honesty, nobody could suggest that I asked them to do anything 'inspirtional' but all of them were on task, all engaged and, I would even hasten to suggest that they were all working together to improve each other's work and that they were discussing language for the duration.  I get a real buzz when they are so on board and involved - it was lovely. 

The rest of the lesson was pretty bog-standard really - bit of listening, a few games, sentence extensions, races for masculine/feminine endings etc, but the best bit from today was definitely my starter, getting them to work with new vocabulary and to do something completely unexpected with it.

My other resolution this year is to embed the role of 'archivist' (recording and reporting about progress and learning using BookCreator and iDoceo on the iPad) into every lesson ... so far, I've taught one lesson ... and failed.  Oh well, tomorrow is another day ...