Give pupils a dictionary and a piece of A4 paper. Tell them they are going on holiday and need to pack 10 items. Let them look up the words and write them down in the TL only. They then swap papers with a partner who has to look the words up and possibly draw them. Obviously this would work with many different topics and could be done sensibly or it could be a silly list. A variation could be that the partner has to copy the words under the column heading of sensible or silly. This activity can also work if you need time to do one to one assessment with pupils whilst the class get on with something without continually asking for help.

Have you been introducing new vocabulary recently using powerpoint? Well remember to make use of the slide sorter view. Make sure that your slides have no titles on them (save a copy without) and click the slide sorter icon. In this view you can easily do the following consolidation activities. A) Play Beat the Teacher True / False repetition. Point to pictures very quickly and class repeat the word after you if what you say is correct for the picture you are pointing to. If it is false they keep quiet. If anyone tries to repeat then the teacher wins the point. If no one repeats the class get the point. B) Play mind reading. Number the slides if the ordinary slide numbers are too small. Select a slide and write the number down, perhaps on a mini whiteboard. Pretend to think of the phrase and see if pupils can guess the slide you have chosen. C) Use the slides for a mini listening activity to check comprehension. You say the phrase and they write down the slide number. Three simple activities for no extra work and all good consolidation activities. 

A colleague gave me a great tip today for encouraging lower ability groups with vocabulary learning homework. Rather than give them a list of words to learn, test them and have them back the following day as they haven't done it or can't do it, give them the words in a blank grid and get them to simply copy the words out five or six times each as neatly as they can and hand in the sheet for marking. Clearly by doing this some learning will have taken place. What a great idea!

The suggestion this week for a fun and easy vocabulary game is Tear Off Bingo. This is a game for any age or ability. Give each pupils a strip of A4 paper (length ways - like a shopping list). Get them to fold it in half to to bottom 3 times. This then gives them 8 boxes to tear off. Pupils write a different item of vocabulary into each box (so 8 words). You can either get them to write the words in English and you call out the words in the target language thus testing aural comprehension or vice versa thus testing reading skills. I usually play the first method. If the pupils have a word that you call out on their list they may tear it off BUT only if it is at the top or bottom of their list. Obviously you will need to call the words out more than once or there may never be a winner. The winner is the pupil who tears off all their words. When they get down to the last word they have to hold up the slip of paper so that you and the class can see the end is close. Give it a go but have a bin to hand!

Hi Folks,

Thought I'd better start this old blogging lark again and I wasn't sure what to blog about but I've been having so many requests for ideas for games that I thought I should start to write them down and where better to start than my blog.

So here is my first suggestion and perhaps my greatest ever invention for the MFL classroom - Silent Bingo!

Yes, a silent language activity that is actually fun too. It was created through shear desperation of teaching a low ability Y9 class Friday last lesson and it worked really well. So how does it work? What resources do you need?

Resources:- Works with flashcards, OHP or powerpoint. Pupils need paper and a pen or pencil.

Lets assume you have just taught some new vocabulary e.g sports or hobbies and you have drilled them in several ways, written a vocab list etc. etc and you need a nice quiet game / plenary activity.

Pupils choose 5 or 6 vocab items and write them in a list in the language on the paper. They are not allowed to speak or clap (unless with thumb nails) or cheer, but they can, in slow motion pretend to cheer (must be slow and silent) if they get a correct answer. Very ceremoniously you show them one of the pictures. If they have the word for that picture written down they may cross it off their list. You continue to carefully show them the pictures until someone has crossed them all off. They are the winner. If possible they mime the answers back to you and you show them the picture you think they are miming. The game takes about 10 minutes and usually works really well, especially if you get the winner to stand up and do a short celebratory dance (silent and in slow motion). This is usually really funny.

Give it a try. It saved my sanity on several occasions.

 

When you have filtered out the rubbish, Youtube has lots of great video clips for MFL. You can either download them or put links to them on a website. I tend to do both depending on the nature of the clip.

To download them simply copy the URL link into the site youtubexcom. Then right click on "download" and save the file with a suitable name.flv. You can then convert the files using flv converter software which can be downloaded. Simply google flv converter to find one. I personally use "Moyea" which cost a few dollars but is worth it as it is so easy to use and has proved reliable. You then have your clips to play in Windows Media player.

To put links to the clips on your website just copy the web link from youtube into the html on your webpage and link as normal. Here are the links to a few videos on my own site linked to youtube http://www.yjc.org.uk/video.htm

Enjoy!

As I am new to this blogging lark, I decided I needed a friend so I clicked on the picture of a former colleague and fellow AST Cyril. As I clicked on the add him as a friend I got the response "are you sure you want to add this person to your list of friends?" (or words to that effect). Well after brief consideration - yes, Cyril , I do!

I was getting rather fed up with the fact that my Y10 & Y11 classes didn't seem to be learning enough. I tried all my usual tricks of reinforcing vocabulary through games and flashy powerpoint activities and ok, it was fun but.... So somewhat depressed and worn out after hours inventing new games and worksheets i returned to the traditional "talk and chalk" method of teaching grammar including words like "nominative and accusative case" and subject, verb, direct object. At the end of the lesson I asked for feedback on the method and how much they felt they had learnt. 96% of students said they prefered the approach and felt they understood more. Of course only time will tell, but one thing i did notice was that an intelligent but extremely lazy boy, who never usually puts pen to paper, wrote everything down and actually did more than anyone else! So my conclusion... Don't forget the old ways. Use both approaches. We assume powerpoint and games appeal to the boys - well they do - but they also like the good old stand and at the front and shout at them approach.