Hi everyone. Just posting something which I have found to be really useful. I have attended quite a few training sessions recently, all provided for free and by top class singing trainers from Sing Up. For anyone who doesn't know they have been working widely with all LEAs in Primary Ed to promote singing.
Their website has a lot of free materials at http://www.singup.org/ some of which are FL songs with full music to download, teaching tips etc. There is a lot of free info on how to lead singing, warm up exercises which are brilliant for every teacher and info on training events taking place near you. Registration is also free.I have translated some of the materials on the Sing Up site into French if you are interested in more FL content and am attaching a good warm up as a taster.
You can find the English original here to learn how it goes. I would also suggest that
you check out a lot of the songs in languages we don't teach in
schools, (Hebrew, a lot of African chants etc) as they all help to lend
weight to your argument that languages are important.
In my
area, Derbyshire there seems to be a real 'singing' thing going on at
the moment and having just given my first training session to MFL
primary teachers here in Derby I can only say that becoming confident
using songs in language teaching is a really fun way to become
comfortable yourself with teaching a language, especially for the
non-specialist. The feedback we had from that session indicated that
there was a strong desire to learn how to make this work in MFL
classrooms.
I
know from chatting to former colleagues at Secondary level too that
although everyone understands the value of using songs to re-inforce
learning, many of us lack confidence or knowledge of simple techniques
to deliver them successfully. The songs covered at the training
sessions are just as appropriate at secondary level, especially KS3.
The Sing Up site gives contact details for all the
area coordinators in the UK. They will come out and give free INSET but
their funding runs out next year in March. Get it while you can!
Feedback from non-MFL specialists and non-musicians who turned up by mistake to one recent training was that it was the most fun INSET they had ever attended!
So
if you have ever thought that you needed more singing support beyond
sticking on a bit of FL music and kind of hoping your pupils would 'get
it', book yourself some free training!
If you are in the Derby or Chesterfield areas, I'm attaching these flyers for info on free singing training coming up
Download Voicebox Cafe dates leaflet 2010
Download Singing Cafe leaflet 2010 (2)
Download Big Sing Thing Derby flyer
If anyone would like to know more about this, or work I'm doing on
a transition project for singing, MFL and drama, you can contact me at
