Language Teacher Toolkit: Steve Smith's blog

These ideas are lifted straight from Michelle Cairns' blog called Resources for the MFL Classroom. Thanks to her. Ideas for activities before during & after to ensure active watching: Use still images to elicit ideas & try to predict story line/characters Show the first scene, what came before/will come after? Video without sound or just listen with no visual Tick boxes to check comprehension in target language while watching film Map the changes in character/mood, is there a relationship between them? Spot the function/grammar Play soundtrack & have a tick list for moods – joyeux/terrifiant/angoissant True/False activity Cut off final few frames for prediction Re-order the plot Who said what? – match the characters & the quotes Dramatize using still images as prompts – no script to encourage     spontaneous language Open dialogues – imagine the other character (eg dialogue on the telephone) or imagine what the people in the scene are thinki...

http://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/p2vjedtrbn7?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal This is interesting! Helen Myers of the ALL (Association for Language Learning) London Branch, with the help of Heike Philp and 20 or so others, all recently took part in a "webinar" using Adobe Connect. After Helen's introduction, John Connor gives a talk with powerpoint notes about using music in MFL lessons. The link above is to a recording of the event. John has all sorts of ideas about this, some well known and some I hadn't thought of at all, so language teachers should find something instructive in it. It lasts over an hour and I haven't watched it all yet, but I do recommend it. I hope I can show it to my colleagues in the department at the first opportunity. You could easily watch, take notes and put a section in the departmental handbook/scheme of work. I think this kind of meeting is a very good idea. Interesting, informative and fewer (or is it less?...

Funny, isn't it, that you never, ever see translation exercises in GCSE modern language text books. You don't see much of it in A-level books either, even though translation to and from French features in A-level examinations. Why did the exam boards and publishers abandon it? What's wrong with it? In the 1960s the grammar-translation method became discredited as the influence of behaviourism, audio-lingualism and later communicative theory, led us towards a less analytical methodology, and one based more on natural acquisition and inductive approaches to the internalisation of vocabulary and grammar rules. Whitmarsh was dead, long live target language, authenticity and communication. This was, on the whole, "a good thing". GT was for many children, no doubt, a difficult and soul-destroying way of learning a language which you would rarely get to speak. Many teachers couldn't speak French very well, but could master and transmit the rules of grammar. Child...

Some discussion in the department recently on the question of what constitutes an "outstanding" lesson - OFSTED's adjective, not mine. Funny how we take on board an imposed term and assume it makes sense. It's all part of a national drive to increas the number of really good lessons. Maybe "really good" would be a better term - firstly because, by definition, an "outstanding" lesson should be a fairly rare one (am I being pedantic there?); secondly it is actually not that easy to define what a "really good" lesson is. When we talked about this we came up with a number of features which might (I stress might ) be part of a really good lesson. Interested? Well, here they are: Enjoyment (not necessarily fun) Large amounts of target language Progress being made according to the ability of each pupil, which implies... Differentiation Participation of many A cultural element Variety of tasks Pace Challenge Pupils recognising their o...

Just completed our first viewing of Claude Berri's Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources . Looking back at these again you are struck by the beauty of the Bruno Nuytten's photography, the gorgeous settings, but above all the quality of the acting, especially the duo of Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil. The poignancy of the climax, barely hinted at in the first movie, still brings a tear to the eye. Berri's direction is subtle, never showy, never mawkish. I suppose the film is, above all, an examination of human nature in various forms: avarice, love, vengeance, ambition, self-delusion, moral confusion. The characters are intimately bound up with the land they live on, subject to the whims of nature, still wary of God. It's all down to Marcel Pagnol's vision of course. The films were rewarded in 1987 with eight Césars and, a year later, with four BAFTAs. I was interested to read: "Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources have been interpreted as part of a ...