European Day of Languages Ideas

If you are thinking of some ideas to celebrate EDL (26 September) here are some I have come across.

Use Wallwisher to creat a message board like this one
http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/EurDayLangs

And here is a list from teachers
http://edl2009ideas.wikispaces.com/

CfE news

Newly published today Principles and Practice and updated Outcomes and Experiences Click here

French Sound System

This is the sound file to go with the handout from yesterday's session.

You can also find the text  if you go to "visit this podcast on podomatic" There's a few seconds pause before I get going!

The whole thing lasts about 9 minutes!

It was recorded some years ago with French assistant Pauline and Julien.

Pronunciation

How confident are your pupils when speaking French? There is an insight into pupils' attitudes to speaking French here along with teaching French phonics. 

Not only should teachers have an understanding of the rules but they should have some skills to pass this knowledge on to their pupils. 

The new CfE outcomes emphasise being able to explore the sounds of the language and have fun with them.

KAL

• I can make comparisons and explore connections between spelling patterns in English and the language I am learning.
  

Listening and Talking

• I have explored the patterns and sound of language through songs and rhymes and shown understanding and enjoyment by listening, joining in and responding.
  
• I have explored comparisons and connections between sound patterns in different languages through play, discussion and experimentation.
  
• I can use my knowledge about language and pronunciation to ensure that others can understand me when I read aloud or say familiar words, phrases
  

Phonics

Teach the pupils how to decode words - spend time on this

Display words, group words

Discuss how they will remember the meaning

In this session we will try out some ideas on sounds and rhymes. 

The alphabet is a way in to sounds.

The way you say the letters is the way they are pronounced (unlike the alphabet in English).

Practise spelling out words: your name and words as they are learnt

Sparklebox letter cards (scroll down to sb612) are useful for a physical activity. Give each child a letter and call out words (make sure all the letters are used or remove them first eg w k) 

Make up sentences or phrases to practise a sound eg 

a comme abricot

quatre chats 

tictac for examples

Have the letters of alphabet along the wall or floor. Have lots of mini picture cards for pupils to put on/beside the correct first letter. Sounds easy, but what about quatre, chat, un, cinq, huit, gilet! Pupils could work as teams - colloboration!

Be creative with rhymes

à Paris, à Paris sur un petit cheval gris - find more rhymes

or c'était Pâques - find more egg colours

food rhymes - make up a song 

Songs
name song: j’ai un nom on-sound (nom, prénom, menton, chanson)
6 au lit i- sound (lit, petit, dit) and ou-sound (poussez-vous)
dans la foret lointaine ou- (coucou hibou and u-sound du)
une poule sur un mur ou- (poule) and u-sound (mur, dur)
pluie et pluie et parapluie rhyme ui-sound (pluie, parapluie, nuit)

Jokes

Because French has so many homonyms there are lots of wordplay jokes and puns. 

Quelle est la différence entre un paquet de nouilles et un ver de terre? 



(between a packet of noodles and an earthworm)
Réponse : L'un a des pâtes (pattes), l'autre n'en a pas.

Tongue twisters

U and O sounds

pruneau cru, pruneau cuit, pruneau cru, pruneau cuit (raw prune, cooked prune)

listen here

OU sound

Poupou la poule rouge déboule l'escalier et échappe l'ampoule

Poupou the red hen rolls down the stairs and escapes the lightbulb

listen here

Lots more here

or challenge pupils to make up their own!

Talking

if pupils are unwilling to speak French get them to make their own puppet

value their contributions, however short

get them to record themselves

don't always correct every last detail - only today's teaching point

it is OK to make mistakes!

If you are unsure of the pronunciation of any word you can hear it said in this huge data base of French words

Talktime products from TTS

More links in my delicious

Active Learning

Definition of active learning?

Activities to suit kinaesthetic learners?

or activities to involve pupils in their learning, to develop thinking skills?

Interactive whiteboards are great for getting pupils involved but most of today's suggestions are low tech!

Listening

Non-verbal responses, reacting to a word or phrase with a physical action

eg for a story or a song, jump up when you hear your word or 

hands up whenever you hear a colour or 

a certain phoneme eg words with ou in song dans la forêt lointaine

more examples in French songs blog

mime items of vocab eg weather phrases

or perform a non-related action for a different colour, say 2 colours

eg jaune  levez les bras

rouge sautez trois fois

vert vous êtes fatigués, bâillez

bleu frappez des mains

bleu et jaune!

Brain gym

colour words written in wrong colour

colours

Ordering, sequencing

Each team/table has a set of letter cards (or magnetic letters or mini whiteboard)

Teacher says a word pupils must spell out words each holding a letter and stand in correct order

Can do the same for words and sentences

Or the lines of a song, or times of the day

Sparklebox letters scroll down to sb612

Matching pairs

Either face up or face down (random)

picture to word

half sentences on different coloured card (daft combinations are fun)

sound to word or picture using Talktime products from TTS catalogue

KAL knowledge about language, links L1 and L2

sorting words: by topic, vowel sounds, parts of speech (Grammar Ninja)

seeing patterns, collecting word families (eg le boulanger, la boulangère, la boulangerie or le coiffeur la coiffeuse, se coiffer)

seeing patterns

playing with rhymes - eg make up a food words song, or à Paris, à Paris sur un petit cheval gris

riddles (devinettes - there  are hundreds in French)

eg quel fleuve français n'a pas d'eau? which great French river has no water -

(you have to say it aloud)

M et Mme Versaire ont une fille. Comment s'appelle-t-elle?

answers at the bottom

Talking

Reluctant talkers can be inspired to talk if they have their own puppet. Keep their puppet in their drawer. 

Lisa Stevens talks about using puppets in this webcam video The video quality is not good but content excellent! She mentions an idea from Jo Rhys Jones of rewarding good talking in French with accessories for a sock puppet - fancy pipe cleaners for hair. Best talkers have the most hair!

Chain questions - done as a warm up. Great revision. This is where a set of questions are printed and cut out so that each pupil has an answer and the next question. Pupils have to listen carefully to work out the right order.

Pass the parcel. Sitting in groups pass round objects or flashcard pics and when the music stops have to say something appropriate to what they are holding eg j'ai un crayon; voici une pomme

Games requiring some space

Giant steps baby steps (H/O)

si vous avez une grande sœur, faites quatre petits pas

Walkie Talkie

Each pupil has a piece of paper. They have to find someone who likes cats, has an older brother. and go round asking  till they find someone

… aime les chats

… a un grand frère

Walking Dictation

is done in teams. text is on sheet a bit away from group. one at a time reads a section and runs back to dictate to the group. can  take as many visits as needed to complete.

Reading

Work in pairs (collaborative) to gather information from a text. 

You don't need to understand everything.

Skills:-
Prediction: what do you know already about the subject. need to check it is actually in the text
Identifying known words, spotting cognates. Use a highlighter to mark off known.
Working out what part of speech the unknown word is eg noun or verb

More ideas from 

Talkabout primary MFL 

Lisa Stevens' blog

Answers 

riddle la Seine (le Rhône, la Loire, La Garonne ont tous un O)

Annie Versaire

Easter

In Pinwherry Primary School,we have a French GLOW Group for P6 and P7. I have uploaded a Word Document with links and tasks for the pupils to do a Webquest on Easter.

http://www.euroclubschools.org/page36.htm

http://www.fete-enfants.com/paques-enfants/paques-enfants.htm

We'll complete the Quiz before the Easter holidays.

We'll make an Easter card and send an Easter message.We hope to sing this Easter comptine

Last year,the P6 class in Gardenrose PS learnt and illustrated an Easter rhyme "C'etait Paques".

I would be happy to send you the Powerpoint I made then.

Red nose day

I found the following idea posted on the NACELL forum. A language teacher is suggesting this lovely "comptine":  J'ai un gros nez rouge for children to sing and mime on the day; as a good "opportunity to incorporate a little language into everyday classroom routines". You can find other songs on http://ram.de.la.charabiole.free.fr/comptines/sommaire.html

you can also print an illustrated version on http://www.teteamodeler.com/vip2/nouveaux/expression/fiche195.asp.

Here is the link to a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YLr43CLKWc

A little late for this year but well worth saving!

blogging

What is a blog? (this is a blog!)

• blog is short for a web log or diary consisting of posts
  
• it is linear - the most recent post is at the top of the page
  
• older posts are archived usually monthly and are easily accessed
  
• the posts can have tags or labels for easy searching
  
• it is interactive - readers can comment on the posts
  
• it is easy to create from customisable templates - no knowledge of HTML needed
  

Features of blogs in general

• easy to use, attractive, colourful
  
• immediate update
  
• enable communication across the world
  
• private or public
  
• can upload other files eg photos, audio
  
• can embed widgets and other tools like voki
  
• can have links to other sites
  
• tags for easy searching
  
• record of all previous posts in archive
  
• can be translated into other languages
  
• readers can subscribe to the blog
  
• readers can access at any time - could be homework

Some reasons for using a blog in education
A blog can be :

• a diary of a school trip
  
• a showcase of pupils' work
  
• a reflective blog for teachers (see the blog roll in the side panel)
  
• a learning log
  
• for an audience of pupils, other classes, parents
  
• peer assessment: 2 star and a wish in comments
  
• a record of work, useful for absentees
  

A blog can have one or many contributors

• all pupils in a class
  
• several teachers
  
• another school
  

Comments can be moderated ie you can read and decide whether or not to approve - good if pupils are commenting

examples of some school blogs
East Lothian blog
Woodhill primary's passeportsanté
Yester primary and Finland

There are many blog creation sites: including

• blogger.com free and easy
  
• edublogs.org free, for education, more features, more complex
  
• typepad.com monthly charge
  

This blog has been created in blogger.com which is simple and straightforward to use 

The principle is the same for all blogs - some have more features.

See the post creating your own blog in blogger for how to do it!

creating your own blog in blogger

Go to www.blogger.com

Create a google account -

User name will be your email adress. 

Be sure to note your log in and password!!

Blogger blogs have a URL that starts http://        .blogspot.com

eg this one is htttp://mlpscpd.blogspot.com and readers access it that way. 

When you want to add a post you need to log in via blogger.com and click on Dashboard

Choose a URL for your blog. This can't be changed afterwards so think carefully.

You can change everything else so don't worry too much about other decisions.

You can write a bit about yourself in Profile

(Dashboard> Edit Profile)

You need to choose a Template - you can change it later.

Go to Settings > Format to set the Time Zone to GMT otherwise it will look like you are posting at 3am!

To make your first post go to Posting > Create

Give your post a title eg Welcome

Type your post. You can use the buttons to change font, size, make bold

Add a picture or a hyperlink. You probably dont need to change font colours etc as they are part of your template.

You can Preview your post at any time. when finished you have 2 choices: Save - will keep it as a draft or Publish which will make it visible. You can always go back and edit it afterwards. Publish again to save the changes. 

A word about saving as a draft. When you come to publish it it will publish with the date stamp of the draft which may be some weeks ago. Click on Post Options to change the date stamp.

Blogger has lots of online help including videos

or click on help 

One feature blogger does not have (at the moment, anyway) is the ability to embed a sound file. If you think you will want to upload sound files you would be better with edublogs.org eg

this German blog 

Otherwise you can put a link to a sound file, if you have somewhere to upload it to.

Or there is a work-around described in this blogpost

ICT for Modern Languages

In this session we will be looking at how ICT can be wonderful for

• supporting your own learning
  
• supporting your teaching
  
• finding tools and resources
• being creative

The examples are for French but most ideas are transferable to German, Spanish.

Supporting your own learning - referencing is easy

online dictionaries such as
http://www.wordreference.com// scroll down for examples of use, discussions

http://ultralingua.com/onlinedictionary/ has grammar and conjugation of verbs as well

and a brilliant number to word tool eg type in 1789 and find out how to say/write it

number conversion

for help reading foreign webpages use lingro.com

be very suspicious of babelfish for translation, ok for French - English

Keep au fait with news stories

written news reports for children journal des enfants

short video news clips for children mon jt quotidien

watch French TV eg Paris TV

BBC clips for language and culture

For pronunciation what better than to hear a native speaker saying it. All of these next sites have audio files

French about is a huge site with all sorts of useful stuff eg

http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-audiodico.htmaudio dictionary

http://www.howtopronouncefrench.com/vowel sounds, tongue twisters, animal sounds - very useful

http://swac-collections.org/?lang=frais a comprehensive list of words, but no meanings.

Word processing

Using Microsoft Office Word for typing French

Word will autocorrect words, often without you noticing it

eg trois comes out as trios and cathédrale will come out cathedral

Either turn off autocorrect (tools menu)

or better still turn this to your advantage by changing the language for he document in Tools Menu>Language to French. Then, with (autocorrect on or by spellchecking) it will put on accents for you and correct your spelling!

Typing accents

on a mac it's easy. The option key is now called alt. The trick is to lift off after typing alt e; then type e again for é

on a PC use ASCII codes or in Word use Symbols

or if online use typeit to copy and paste

Supporting your teaching

Network with other practitioners across the globe and find out what they are doing in languages teaching with Web 2.0 social networking tools eg blogs, twitter.com, delicious.com. This is all about sharing!

See my favourite blogs in the Blog List at the side

I "follow" and "talk" to teachers elsewhere in the UK and in Australia and the US and share ideas.

watch video clips of teachers in action from http://www.teachers.tv/

and http://primarylanguages.org.uk/

teachertube video on using puppets

Join a Glow group!

Finding tools and resources

delicious is a site where you can bookmark and tag useful sites. you can access them from any computer. You can see other people's links (your network) and save them too.

my delicious links look at the tags. click or type them in the box. eg French, primary, whiteboard

flashcards and instant games

mes-english.com is a site for teaching English as a foreign language but the flashcards without words are very useful. you can use them to make bingo cards in the related site, tools for educators

youtube videos

great for all sorts especially songs, karaoke versions, see the actions

pronunciation

culture

Being creative

Here are some ideas to motivate your pupils to write. Their work can be published and viewed by classmates, parents, the world. What better reason to make a good job?

cartoons - there are various sites and pieces of software to create a colourful cartoon

I like http://www.toondoo.com/ You need to create an account but it is free.

Here are some examples

by UWSclass

by UWSclass Create your own Cartoon at www.toondoo.com

Wordle

www.wordle.net is a visual tool to display text, or highlight frequency of words in a text. No account is needed but you need to remember what you called it to find it again.

(You need the Java plug-in installed in your browser)

another way to say "good"

to illustrate "ch" sound

to illustrate colours

words of song

Voki

www.voki.com lets you create a talking character. It uses text-to-speech or you can record your own voice. You need to create a free account first.

There are lots of sites where you can create your own quizzes and games with exactly the vocab or info you want for your class

Explore here

examples

Millionaire - my dictionary skills game

Blockbusters - numbers

Dustbin sorting game- my game on nasal vowels

Quizlet - flashcard practice French nationalities

Mystudiyo multiple choice 7 questions on Paris

Other devices

Apart from computers and internet other devices to use:
mobile phones – have cameras, video and audio recording and Bluetooth to send files to your computer
digital cameras
USB sticks
mp3 players have inbuilt microphones, cost from £10
ipods play audio and video (need extra microphone to record)
dv cameras eg Flip video from £77 - £130 pocket sized, batteries, USB connection
low tech – Talk Time products with recording modules from TTS catalogue

MARDI-GRAS

Aujourd'hui, c'est mardi 24 février 2009, c'est MARDI-GRAS.
En France comme dans beaucoup d'autres pays, c'est le "CARNAVAL".

See links for information, activities and pictures....
in English in Wikipedia and in French in Wikipedia

momes.net

carnaval in Nice

carnaval in Menton

activities in teteamodeler and more in fete-enfants

Welcome

Welcome to South Ayrshire MLPS CPD blog and thank you to Kay for setting it up!
Kay has been a Support Officer for Modern Languages in East Ayrshire and is now delivering MLPS Modules 1 and 2 at the University of the West of Scotland.Teachers have been so enthused that I asked Kay to do 4 MLPS CPD sessions. Kay will be posting her notes on this blog.