My five most viewed blog posts of 2020

This year has been a relatively quiet one for me on the blog. I devoted my time to other activities, such as making screencasts for my YouTube channel, researching and writing a book on memory (coming very soon) and, as always, producing new resources for frenchteacher. That said, I still wrote around five posts a month, instead of my usual dozen or so. Here are the five which were read the most, starting with the most viewed.

1. Using sentence builder frames for GCSE speaking and writing preparation

https://frenchteachernet.blogspot.com/2020/02/using-sentence-builder-frames-for-gcse.html

In this post I gave an example of a French sentence builder (substitution table) and explained how it could be the basis for students to revise for speaking and writing tests. The use of sentence builders has taken off in the last year or two, as the ideas of Gianfranco Conti have been spread in his professional development sessions (live and via webinar), blogs and books (with help from me). Whether you decide to go full-Conti or just use them as an additional tool, sentence builders can play a very useful role in your classroom. I have added many examples to frenchteacher.net.

2. Setting work for home study

https://frenchteachernet.blogspot.com/2020/03/setting-work-for-home-study.html

In this post I set out a range of ideas and online resources which could be used at all levels for study while confined at home. You might find it useful to look at again if we get another period of lockdown in January 2021. These links are useful for any time, though. Two major initiatives this year were Oak National Academy and the resources from Greenshaw. Although usually in the form of screencast PowerPoints and therefore limited in content and style, the Oak and Greenshaw lessons are no doubt useful for pupils, as long as they have access. Teachers have puta lot of time into them. Many schools will have designed their own remote learning platforms.

3. How can we make sentence builders more communicative?

https://frenchteachernet.blogspot.com/2019/12/how-can-we-make-sentence-builders-more.html

Back to the sentence builders theme - like “GCSE”, “sentence builders” is an example of language teacher clickbait, it seems. This post was the product of a feeling I had that one limitation of sentence builders, notwithstanding their clarity and transparency for learners, is that they neglect some aspects of communication. By this, I mean that the way they are exploited can downplay the use of questions and answers and more personal responses to topics. So in this post, I just suggested an extension to the way sentence builders are often exploited.

Let me explain further. Both sentence builders and knowledge organisers have the great advantage of making the language to be acquired or “automatised” absolutely clear-cut.  It’s like saying: “These are the target patterns which we shall recycle like mad until you can understand and use them with confidence and little effort.” This is great, but with many pupils, notably more able ones,  the process could be a bit more organic, spontaneous and less structured, allowing for freer communication at an earlier stage. From experience I know this to be the case. 

4. Home study resources on frenchteacher.net

https://frenchteachernet.blogspot.com/2020/03/home-study-resources-on-frenchteacher.html

A sign of the times, of course. Like other resource writers I put together sets of resources which could be used during lockdowns. I made booklets of resources at all levels, made up from worksheets to be found on my web site. Feedback suggests they were widely used, which I’m pleased about. Those resources remain available on the Free Samples page of frenchteacher.net

Speaking of the site, 2020 was another successful year in terms of new resources, new subscribers and returning subscribers. A site like mine gets a lot of “churn” as teachers come and go, but the number of users remains around the 1400-1500 level. My most recent feedback survey suggests most teachers download and edit the worksheets and PowerPoints, which is the intention and helps make the resources more attractive.

5. Review: The Language Gym interactive site

https://frenchteachernet.blogspot.com/2020/02/review-language-gym-interactive-site.html

I often write reviews of books and other language teacher resources. I wrote this one to inform teachers about the much revised and improved version of Gianfranco’s Language Gym site, made with help from other teachers such as Dylan Viñales and the website developers. I believe the site is doing really well, with new resources and game developments happening all the time. This development has gone hand in hand with the publication of a range of workbooks written by Gianfranco and various colleagues. These are selling like hotcakes.

So, as this rotten year draws to a close, I look forward to the next, with the prospect of more blog posts, more new frenchteacher resources, continuing CPD work and PGCE training with Buckingham Uni, a new book on memory and, I anticipate, starting to co-write another cognitive science book with Gianfranco.

My most recent book 50 Lesson Plans for French Teachers has sold well. Maybe one day I’ll do 50 More Lesson Plans. We’ll see.

I hope your work gets easier soon and I wish you the best for 2021.