coucoucircus.org - Bienvenue This site gives you access to the theme tunes and lyrics of hundreds of French TV programmes, in particular a lot of children's cartoon series.
Flash Video Big Books This is a great site for anyone interested in using story telling as a key component of their courses. Some free stuff but the books you have to buy are pretty cheap and excellent quality. Highly recommended.
Wordle - Create word clouds This is a fantastic little site for anyone wanting to be creative with Language. It creates key word diagrams on any topic in an arty way. It is a great way to introduce a topic or allow kids to create a keyword list to help them prepare for a speaking test
I would be grateful if any colleagues from any country could send me links to any international link projects in Primary / Elementary schools that they have been involved with or know of that had a significant impact on their curriculum.
I'm looking in particular for projects where a foreign language was involved but where the outcomes had a significance across the curriculum.
Please send me a brief outline of the scope and impact of the project in the comments below together with any links to websites with information. Please also indicate what instruments (Skype, Wikis etc.) were used to run it successfully.
If it's of interest for anyone I have written a brief rationale for promoting such programmes in schools here. Click on the image to go to the document.
(Music: Artist - 'Drowning Pool" - "Let the Bodies hit the Floor")
The drama of the music attached to the video clip of fish thrashing for their lives in a shrinking pool perfectly illustrates a process that is coming to a head in school curricula.
For drying water, substitute shrinking curriculum time allocated to ever-expanding content and each traditional subject discipline, from the sciences through to the arts, tends to thrash around trying to justify why it, as opposed to all of the others, deserves its special protected room to breath in a restricted pool of time.
As a language teacher we have always had an issue with the need for curriculum space, especially in the secondary phase. As the one subject on the secondary curriculum that, prior to the primary MFL initiative, only began being taught in yr 7, we have had to build a fast-track to exam success in 5 years where other subjects had 9 or 10.
We have always argued that children need a daily dose of the language to make up for this lost time. In the schools I used to teach in, these pressures were recognised and time allocation for yr 7 was generous with even more overall time devoted to language learning accorded in yrs 8 and 9 with the introduction of a second language.
The picture is changing however. From everything I read on various MFL fora, school leaders have been re-modelling timetables in all kinds of fanciful ways that allow them more flexibility but with the effect that they can 'squeeze' subjects perceived to be of less value to their overall performance outcomes. This is a process that threatens many other subjects too.
Then we have various governments', often clumsy attempts, to intervene that throw plans further into confusion. Withdrawing MFL as a statutory GCSE subject, giving the subject more time in the primary curriculum to compensate, now possibly doing a complete about turn, suspending the Primary initiative (we simply don't know) and returning to MFL's inclusion in the Ebac at GCSE level, and you can forgive all of us for not knowing whether we are coming or going.
Wagging the dog is the exam tail, with a system currently at GCSE which sucks vast amounts of time out of actually teaching the subject in order to prepare for and manage the tests.
Add to all of this the perception of many MFL colleagues that successive governments, many school leadership teams, many parents, indeed an awful lot of children simply don't 'get' the need for studying languages, and I can understand why so many colleagues feel under immense pressure.
Out of this arises a sense that we have to unite around a common front to 'sell' the subject with one voice, to have a common understanding of why we deserve our breathing space in the pool as opposed to any other subject.
Whilst understandable, this worries me....greatly.
The fact that I can even write this blog post and that it can be seen and read by many people I will never know or meet, underlines the real context we are in.
I am a language teacher who isn't in a shrinking pool.
My pool of contacts, colleagues and collaborators expands every day.
Every day, somebody new gets to know me and the ideas and resources I have to share, even if I never realise that they do.
I am connected to colleagues from all over the world. My connections are expanding way beyond my traditional subject boundaries in a way I have never and could never have experienced before.
The pupils I teach live in wall-less classrooms that have the power to connect across the globe. Their learning isn't restricted to the hours between 9 and 4 and it doesn't all depend upon me.
So I am worried by any call that suggests a re-trenchment into traditional subject boundaries in order to preserve our status. The essence of the new connected curriculum that I believe is emerging is one based on a fundemental societal shift, that highly prizes collaboration and eschews competition.
Pressure, panic, worry, fear, concern, can all be good things. Because we naturally find it easier to conceive of and settle for what we already know rather than what is new, we sometimes need these negative feelings to jolt us into action and re-think.
Out of all of this pressure, I would love to see a curriculum where many of the traditional subject boundaries disappeared. I have taught in but have never understood a system that forces a child to wear a 'languages' hat for 1 hour, take it off, forget about it for the rest of the day and wear a 'PE' hat, then a 'Science' hat etc.
Why can't we have a curriculum where connections are being made to many subjects throughout a child's day, where in PE I'm reminded of what I was taught in Science or French? Why should cross-curriculum models still be seen as the prerogative of the quirky and brave instead of the norm?
Children love these connections and teachers love to make them. If you want more curriculum time for your subject, there it is, partner up with other subjects! Don't retreat into the temptation to laud the values of your own subject in an attempt to win curriculum space at the expense of other colleagues in other disciplines. That way lies disaster, division, dislocation, lots of DIs! And it flies in the face of every other social trend that is gaining momentum.
Finally, as a linguist who believes passionately that there is an intimate and incredibly powerful link between music and language acquisition, can I start by pleading with leaders in Music Education and leaders in Language Education to talk.
Can Heads of Music in Schools begin to talk to Heads of Languages and look at joint projects and units of study? I know it happens in some places. When it does, it is truly inspirational. If we want our children to be buzzing with excitement at learning a language the surest and only way to do it is to make these connections the norm.
Let's hope that they will hasten the death of the competitive curriculum.
Update
As I have just found this, here is a link to Dr Jonathan Savage's blog writing about music and cross-curricula initiatives
Today was spent in a very sunny Walsall at an excellent event run by Musical Futures. It has been a very busy week travelling quite a bit so I very nearly didn't go but I am so glad I did.
I had never heard of Musical Futures before but after listening to an excellent and thought-provoking keynote address from its founder, David Price, was left reflecting on the way education, especially at secondary level, is constructed and how the traditional models of discrete curricular areas urgently needs to change.
(David mentioned having worked at one time with Sir Ken Robinson, the guru of the creative curriculum)
David asked a group of children to illustrate in pictures i) how they see their current experience of education ii) how they would like to experience it and they came up with this pictorial metaphor
How they see their current experience
How they would like to be taught
The pictures capture the sense that whilst in their every day lives new technology offers them ever greater freedom to make connections, build their own peer, social and learning networks, they are in a school system that still puts them into fairly tight curricular 'subject cages' to be processed and 'produce' those exam results.
It is an 'assembly-line' model of education inherited from our industrial past, where each labourer/teacher does their 'bit' with their own discrete subject expertise to get the final 'product'.
These 'subject cages' are hard, if not impossible, to break out of.
Why? WHY? WHY?
There is such a revolution going on in the way people's working lives are being shaped. The emphasis is on fluidity, ability to respond to change, being connected with others dynamically across traditional barriers of class, race, religion, nationality, time and distance in order collaborate and act. Yet we are stuck with a secondary school system to prepare children for this that is essentially still 'closed' in nature.
The traditional subject boundaries need to be challenged. As far as I can see they are there not for any rational educational reason but for 4 purely administrative conveniences
buildings that don't allow for it
timetabling conveniences
an exam system that tests in discrete subjects - that old tail-wagging-dog!
available teachers that are trained in discrete subjects thus perpetuating the structure.
If the latter is not changed, we will never free ourselves from this antequated and inappropriate curriculum model.
As I look back I wish I had been trained as a Music / Language teacher. Had the flexibility been in the system to do this, I truly believe the most productive years of my teaching career would have been infinitely more profitable for the children in my care. Because it wasn't, I and they were robbed.
I am not so naive as to think any of those four entrenched elements of our system are anything but difficult to shift but a different mindset and willingness to think differently are the first steps on that journey.
So, whilst at this event, I found myself being challenged to wonder just why there seems to be so little evidence across the UK school system of Music and Language teachers working together? All language is a composite of sound, rhythm and pitch. Music perfectly matches these and marries them to emotion, and emotion is the fundemental driver of human motivation and purpose.
I know there is some overlap between languages and music going on, though it is piecemeal and depends upon the visionary presence of a few individuals in particular schools.
I attended a wonderful event last year at the Guildford County School where the Head of Music, Caroline Gale, had organised a Eurovision singing event for all of their feeder primary schools.
The music department went to the primary schools (yr 6) to train the teachers and pupils in how to compose a song. They then created their own original songs with lyrics written in a wide variety of different languages. These were performed at the Guildford County School they were soon to be attending to an audience of parents, teachers, yr 7 - yr 9 pupils. It was a wonderfullly positive celebration of song, music, languages and pupil creativity and I'm certain that, in September, those yr 6 pupils quickly felt a very comfortable part of their new school. I think too I can guess which 2 subject departments they felt most connected to and motivated to do well in when they got there!
So my challenge to all of my MFL and Music colleagues out there is this: Why don't we start to make a difference? Why don't all of us who have a passion to see children blossom in our distinct subject areas come together and collaborate to build communities of creative celebration for languages and music?
If you are reading this and know of anyone who you think is either already doing this in primary or secondary education or would love to see it happen, could you please pass this blog post on, especially to anyone with the power or influence to bring about change.
You can contact me personally at souffler(dot)uk(at)gmail(dot)com
If colleagues in other countries reading this have experience of such collaboration they can share, please e-mail me any relevant links or an outline so that I can share it here.
I'm writing this post as a follow up to the previous post about Eric Whitacre's virtual choir. In that, I said that I have borrowed the concept behind all collective singing and am learning to apply it to language learning, that successful blending of many voices into one sound is incredibly powerful and emotionally rich.
This is my first attempt to try and explain what I mean.
First, and at the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, our voices are designed to help us 'connect'. It might be obvious but sometimes what is so obvious can be hidden from us because it is right under our noses.
If our voice is the greatest tool we have to enable us to connect with others and we as language teachers are all about helping cultural strangers connect with each other by finding a new 'voice', a new tongue / langue, then why don't we explore how the use of a 'collective' grouping of disparate voices in the classroom into one voice can empower language learning?
In the UK, the pressure to measure every child's progress against a set of markers whilst laudible in intention, has had a very negative impact on a key aspect of learning: It edifies the 'individual' at the expense of 'community'.
Fine, we all have to stand or fall eventually based on the sum of our personal efforts. But the most effective vehicle for achieving the highest degree of personal growth is to be part of a supportive community. If this wasn't true there would be absolutely no need for schools in the first place.
Learning works best in the classroom if it is a collaborative, supportive, encouraging 'group' experience. That is where powerful learning takes place. We need each other. We function best in communities. We seek them out. We thrive on recognition from others, we understand who we truly are when we understand what value we bring to those who surround us. If education is about anything, it is about helping children to understand where their true value lies in relation to the people in their world, given their unique set of skills and abilities.
Since I have begun to adopt the Call / Response singing techniques I picked up from Sing Up training I have noticed a powerful enhancement of this collaborative atmosphere in my lessons. A couple of examples of exercises I do in my first lessons with new classes might illustrate this.
My first job as language teacher is not to teach children to speak but how to listen. Without that they will never make real progress. Adusting your voice to mimic what you hear from a model is fundemental to successful language learning. Fortunately this is absolutely true of singing as well.
So whilst my first lesson involves a lot of speaking, its actual focus is on how to listen. I begin with French vowel sounds. I show children pictures of Maori warriors and the New Zealand Rugby team and find out what they know about the Haka. We tease out why they do this, and the concept of sounding powerful as one eventually emerge as they prepare for 'battle'. (By the way, if you want boys instantly on your side, try all of this!)
I show them a video clip from Youtube of the New Zealand team doing their Haka and the Tongan rugby team responding with their own chant. We look at the role of the 'captain' calling, why the team respond as one voice and why that is so powerful. What are they trying to achieve?
I then set them a challenge: during this first lesson, all they they have to prove to me that as a class they can respond as one voice and one group action to what ever I say and do as the 'captain'. Can they do this?
To demonstrate this immediately I teach them 4 praise phrases we will learn regularly to say as a group chant to anyone who does something well.
Fantastique / Super / Excellent / Génial.
I teach the first 3 to begin with explaining that they are the same as English words but pronounced differently (cognates are a great way to teach phonics btw) and their task is to copy the word and the 3 part action I do to that word BUT they have to do this is one voice. After a couple of goes very quickly they get the idea.
Usually on 'excellent' I hear someone adding the 't'. Without picking anyone out, I explain that I heard something wrong at the end of the word, we do it again and ask them to identify what the difference is between the English and French way of saying it. The point is that they have to 'hear' it as a group and are corrected as a group.
We then do the French Haka. They have to face me as their captain, half crouching, knees bent, hands on knees and looking fierce. I say the French vowel sounds in turn with a separate action for each: 'a' both hands pushed out in front, 'e' both hands pulled back into chest, 'i' both one hand moves up, the other down to define an 'i' shape, 'o' hands to the side with index finger of each hand drawing an 'o' circle in the air, 'u' the same index finger drawing a 'u' shape in the air.
You can pick out the French 'u' versus 'oo' sound at this point. One tip to teach this: get them to notice what they do with their jaw when saying the 'oo' sound (jaw drops down and forward) versus the 'u' sound (jaw is pulled back)
They then add consonants of their choosing and we re-do the Haka. I explain that there are 2 rude consonants that I hope they don't find so as not to embarrass me with predictable results and eventually 'p' and 'w' are added to the mix!
The point is that right from the word go, the children are learning this 'call-response' technique.
They are having to listen intently to copy me.
They are having to be aware of rhythm, timing and each other to speak with one voice.
They are learning that making these new sounds is comfortable as they can try them out as part of a group; this one voice that allows them the security of trying things out without making a fool of themselves. This is FUNDEMENTAL. If I have one regret in my years in secondary teaching is that I sprung far too early to requiring individuals to speak out loud on their own in front of a class. They should be able to practice everything as a group or in pairs before being required to produce on their own.
We then move onto a very simple group song on greetings which we sing unaccompanied. I use my hands to do pitch change gestures as I sing, they respond, again as one voice, and often copy my pitch gestures too.
When I ask them to tell me what some of the words mean in that song (bonjour, comment ça va etc) anyone who answers correctly selects one of the 4 praise phrases we have done. I say the phrase + 3 part action followed by the pupil's name + do a 3 part 'shimmy' to their name eg: Calvin would become
Everyone repeats the praise phrase and does the shimmy. This is a regular feature of early lessons. I vary it by eventually asking for volunteers to come to the front and lead the whole class in praising someone using a 3 part shimmy of their own invention. Often these are hilarious! Imagine what the child who leads the class feels like as they do this. Imagine what the child on the receiving end of the whole class saying well done in French feels like. This is very, very powerful and we do it in the first lesson.
Class chanting or singing to fantastic music builds a positive, supportive, collaborative community. Learn how to do it effectively and very quickly you will establish the kind of atmosphere conducive to real learning that previously it might have taken me a whole term or longer to achieve with all the attendant emotional wear and tear involved. Seriously colleagues, I believe these techniques can mean the difference between burning yourself out and being a relatively effortless but powerful teacher.
It has been the biggest accelerator to success in my own experience that I have ever encountered. What's more it is FUN! Enjoy.
(Please send a link to this article if it has helped you. If you would like me to come to your school or area in the UK to demonstrate these techniques, please leave your name, school and a contact email on this blog. It won't be published for anyone else to see as I have to allow publication of all comments.)
Here is the completed video of Eric Whitacre's virtual choir singing his composition 'Sleep'. Again I would just make the point that there is both power and beauty in people joing voices to sing as one. I teach this concept of 'one voice, many people' as a vital part of my language lessons' and it has had a big impact on what I do. I'll explain more in a further post. For now, enjoy!
Just a quick post to say how much I enjoyed being with colleagues at this event yesterday (17th March).
Here is the link to all of the resources on the Sunderland Website including my notes to accompany the session I did on using music to support language learning. To understand some of these ideas you would really need to see the slides I put up. I can't show all of them here as yet as they are subject to some copyright issues but hopefully will have everything up on my other site, www.souffler.co.uk, very soon.
My next blog post will contain some of those materials.
For those of you who were there and left me your email addresses I will be sending those freebies off to you in the next few days.
Clare Seccombe gave a very clear overview in her plenary of just how far we have come in the last 8 years and just how much we have to lose unless the status of Primary languages is settled very soon. Wait until 2012 and it may well be far too late.
Now, in the vain hope that someone with the power to influence current trends in CPD in Education might be reading this, this is precisely the sort of training we should be jealously safeguarding with continued funding.
If the agenda is to move everything closer to the local area, then this could hardly have been more akin to a local event. Delivered in a local centre, run by local, very highly skilled teachers who also happen to be really good at passing on their ideas to colleagues, attended by local teachers and most importantly, current trainee teachers, this is the kind of of contact with local experts I would have given my eye-teeth as a trainee teacher 30yrs ago to have had.
It needs to be in this more informal, localised setting too. As a young teacher, big events are quite intimidating and if you are trying to build a PLN (Personal Learning Network) building it with experts on your training doorstep is a big advantage.
And yet, as the government dithers in its response as to whether to continue the process to make primary languages a statutory part of the KS2 curriculum, many excellent people involved in this are losing their jobs. We are in grave danger of losing the people and the resources that have driven this initiative forward.
I'm afraid this isn't 'bureaucracy'. It is 'frontline' staff who are going and who will no longer be able to inspire that new generation of teachers to continue their excellent work.
One final point to the decision makers. The primary MFL initiative is having a positive impact across the primary curriculum. It isn't a discrete subject. If this goes, then with it go
- the improvements in literacy - reflection on the structure of a new language, the eytmology of words, the phonic patterns in a new language compared to one's own, these all encourage children to see the how their own language works in much greater relief.
- the international dimension - schools who have enthusiastically embraced Primary MFL have moved quickly to forge international links with all the attendent benefits to heightened cultural awareness, understanding and a sense of where we 'fit' into the wider world.
- the cross-curricular intiatives for languages and PE (Take 10 French / Spanish / German), languages and History/Geography (the various CLIL initiatives, languages and music (the work I do is mainly in this area but many, many language teachers are ardent songsters)
- the chance to integrate swathes of children from other ethnic communities. One of the by-products of having a FL focus is that it gives a 'space' on the curriculum for us to recognise and value community languages. I teach in 2 schools both of which have a fair percentage of children from Eastern Europe and Asia. Of course they have to learn English but when we do give time to try and learn some of their language and customs it really empowers them and raises their self-esteem.
- the chance to raise the self-belief of less able children. I know that learning a language can be difficult. BUT, taught properly it can give a new voice and sense of self-belief to children who have found it hard to be successful in the world of targets and tests.
I have TA's working with me who comment that often it seems that children who are very shy about coming forward in other subjects begin to shine in their French lessons. Why is that? You can tell me, all I know is that it is happening.
It has something to do with the fact that they are doing a subject where they and their friends all start from zero. That coupled with the fact that what we do is FUN, very ACTIVE, involves a lot of SINGING, involves a lot of GAMES, but also satisfies their curiosity about linking to other children across the world, and you have a heady recipe for success that can spill over into how they perform in other subjects.
All of this is worth fighting for. All of it has the potential to spill over into KS3 and really raise standards. All of it however is as yet a 'fledgling enterprise.
Kill it off at this stage and we may never see any primary Head Teacher being willing to invest time and effort into introducing primary Languages again. What would be the point?
NB. Since posting this, I have been informed by those using Internet Explorer that the video doesn't display. The video format is .swf and I think it is something to do with IE security settings, not sure. If anyone can tell me how to get round this, let me know.
The only solution at the moment I can suggest is to download Firefox and use it as a back up browser. There are no problems using Firefox to view this swf file. In future I will try and avoid this conflict, sorry!
I was going to write this post about The Hat software from Harmony Hollow but have since found that downloading anything from their site has been flagged up as dangerous by my anti-virus software. Apparently it installs ad targetting code so am steering well clear of it.
I'm really disappointed as I appreciated the fact that I could use it offline.
You have to be online to use this. The video below explains how to use the software and an idea on how you can exploit it to play a game for teams in class to practise any language on any topic. I'm using it at a fairly simple level to get pupils to read, repeat and practise simple phrases. I'm sure there are ideas of how to use it that require deeper thinking skills. Leave comments and links if you know of any.
First, write out your list of words, phrases in a simple text editor such as notepad. I wouldn't use Word or Pages as you need to have the list of vocab open in a seperate window as you play the game online and it is easier to resize a window in notepad.
Second, copy/paste this list into the Classtools site
Third, click on "save as webpage@ to any folder on your laptop/pc
Fourth, divide your class into teams. Before clicking on the web page you saved to start the game, have the notepad file open that you originally created the list in and ask pupils from one team to predict which vocab item will be selected.
Fifth, click on the webpage to open the classtools page with your text in the slot machine. It will automatically spin and select one item. If that is the same as the team's prediction, they get a point. Remove this item both from the classtools slot machine and from the notepad list. Go to the next team, and so on.
The pupils love seeing how lucky they can be. Obviously the chances of guessing correctly are very low to begin with but get higher as more items are removed.
A variation would be not to delete items from the notepad file. Pupils have to remember which vocab items have already been chosen
It was really good to meet so many new colleagues up in Oldham on Friday. I hope that you learnt something that will encourage you to integrate music and rhythm into your all your lessons but especially your language lessons.
I have included all the main weblinks that I think could be useful for you. Much of the music is copyright so I can only point you to where you can download the material from.
Some of the material I have composed myself is on offer for free on this website. Other material is due to be launched on the www.souffler.co.uk website soon. If you sign up there I will notify you when that site is up and running. This will include material such as the phonic songs I demonstrated.
Here are links to some of the resources to download direct from here
I love Apple Macs and I love using Garageband but as so many of the programs I use in schools are Windows based and having installed a Windows partition on my Macbook, I needed a Windows Equivalent for Garageband. I have been using this Mixcraft software and so far am very impressed.
First, it is very good value for money at around £48. It has a very wide range of features, enough to produce professional recordings, and comes with a huge bank of free loops and backing beats that you are entitled to keep even if you decide not to purchase the product. You can check out all of the features here on their site. Go to the Products Page on the Mixcraft Site to check out all of the features. I will try and do a few posts to show how I think it might be useful for language teachers wanting to integrate more music into their lessons.
For the moment, here is a sample of a reggae backing track that it took me about 20 minutes to create from the free loops supplied with the package.
When I was doing my PGCE training many moons ago, my tutor used to salivate over the concept of team teaching. We were taken to a demonstration lesson in a local school and I have to say I was impressed.
Since that time I have never been in a school where this was practised. However, it has always remained an idea that has stuck with me.
I have never felt that teachers are naturally programmed to work alone. Indeed the classroom isolation necessitated by what I see as an artificial construct of separate subject disciplines is one of the key factors that lead to teacher depression, burnout and disaffection. I wonder how many good colleagues have been lost to the profession because of this. In my own journey, I think it was a major factor in my decision to quit secondary teaching.
How can it be right that most of my generation of teachers have spent the majority of their classroom lives in splendid isolation whilst encouraging the pupils we teach to work in pairs, groups, conduct peer assessment and aspire to assimilate all the attributes of good team players?
Fortunately, the internet has facilitated an explosion in the sharing of ideas amongst peoples sharing a common interest, teachers especially. No-one need now feel isolated and opportunities are growing to attend online 'meetings', Teachmeets and the like, where we can connect to amazing colleagues across the curriculum with inspirational ideas. I wonder how long it will be before this new hub of inter-disciplinary connections begins to filter much more strongly back into the organisational structures of our schools?
As I work in primary schools now where a cross curricular approach is the norm, and as I explore the obvious links language learning has with other subject areas at KS3 such as music and drama, I was wondering whether there are schools out there who are actively pursuing the concept of team teaching across different subjects. If there are, please contact me to let me know.
I might even be tempted to return to the secondary sector ... now there is a scary thought to be resisted!
Recent Comments