Left Luggage.Props for Persona!

In my last blog post I mentioned how I have just been out to Spain.It was whilst visiting Atocha Railway station in Madrid to look at the tropical garden in the entrance area that I saw the sign "Guardarropa".And I just thought - why have I never thought about this before in language learning! In Drama I have often used props to generate persona portfolios and inevstigations!

This means that you can use this activity in lots of different contexts- starting off with myself or my family, school, holidays and linking it through to the Romans,Greeks .Macbeth wherever the creative curriculum in some schools may be taking you!

So simple

• Set up three bags of items for each sessin
• Pop into these bags "left luggage"  - any items linked to your chosen content and context.
• Now let's find  and explore the persona linked to the items! 

Lost character listening activity 
Can the children help you  to find the coorrect objects from your bag- maybe there are additional objects in the bag that aren't required?
You don't need the names for the objects or the ancient artefacts etc - just use simple descriptions, colours, size, shape and perhaps what you use the item for e.g drink/ eat/ read etc.These will lead the children to the objects.

Lost character speaking activity
Can the children in pairs find the lost character?
Can they look at the objects and from the objects create responses to peersonal information questions and answers.
Can pairs share their dialogues with a second pair and can these two pairs togerher create a persona using details from the two dialogues.
Can  one of the children take on the persona and become the person and introduce themselves to the class as the creation of the group of four and their two dialogues.
Now they need to think about actions, attitude and resences and become the person!

Lost character reading activity
Using the objects can the children identify the correct notice for a newspaper to describe their lost person?Full sentences in the third person using the verbs to be and to have and maybe trying out other regular present tense verbs too .This will depend on the level of your young learners! 

Lost character writing activity
TYes you could write missing posters ....but let's be a little bit more adventurous.Let's enter the "world of the persona" and write sentences about what they are doing today.Where are they? How are they feeling? What are they wearing? What are they doing? What are they eating and drinking?  etc etcetra

Persona Portfolios
And now we have all the evidence we need to create our own persona portfolios - maybe using software and IT ( 2simplesoftware/ Book Creator/Yakit4Kids etc) or as a pen and paper display activity case! 

Oh and do you remember the People Pillar Portrait Poems I created last academic year ....well what about creating People Pillar Portrait Poems about these found people!! ? 

Shoes filled with language and with treats!

Some of us are beginning to get organised for December and thinking of ways to link language learning,culture and celebrations.
Every year we celebrate with our young language learners- Saint Nicholas Day.
Children in Europe hope to receive a stocking or a shoe filled with treats from Saint Nicholas for their good behaviour.
Let's move this in to the world of language learning.
Let's reflect on our learning this term ands let's look at how we are developing our skills of language learning too!
(In fact this could make a great AfL tool or even a summative assessment task).
The activities below will take two lessons or the shoe can be  produced as a ten minute follow up activity at the end of a couple of lessons over the next couple of weeks and then you will need one lesson for the actual language learning activities.  

What to do?

• Take the simple shoe template. I have just pinned a template for a Saint Nicholas shoe here on my Janet's language learning pinterest board
• Give all the children  a template and ask them to create their own Saint Nicholas shoes.They can decorate the shoes with target languae items and pictures or cartoon characters,symbols and flags to represent facts andfestivals you may have already considered with them this Autumn term. that throughput the term.
• Once the shoes are ready and have the children's names written on the soles - as  a target language sentence  (maybe with more advanced learners they can tell you ore about themselves - where they live, what they like etc).
• Now you need to select the type of activity to suit the age and stage of the children.

Key Stage One 

• Practise numbers.Then give the children number cards and ask the children to help you select the correct number card and put in in their own shoes.
• Can they take the numbers out of the shoe after the activity and tell a partner the numbers.
• Can they put all the numbers back in their shoes in a pile from lowest to highest and count them in and say them as they put them in the pile.
• Ask the children to place them on a window ledge- ready to receive a treat or reward in the shoes from Saint Nicholas!

Year Three /beginners

(Practising pronunciation,broadening vocabulary, reading out loud, using a bilingual dictionary)

• Practise using  bilingual dictionaries with the children.think about foods and presents and colours of Christmas time. 
• As a class invedstigate the letter strings and sounds of the new words and dicuss patterns and sound links.Say the words out loud.Ask for volunteers to read aloud independently the words.
• Now give the children 10 blank pieces of card.Ask the children to spurce for themselves, write out and decorate the ten cards.then ask them to place them in alphabetical order in their shoes.
• Ask the choldren to share their shoes with a partner.Can the partner identify the item from  the picture , can they try to apply sound and letter string rules to read out loud the words in the target language.
• Ask the children to put the words back in their shoes again - in alphabetical order and then place them on a window ledge- ready to receive a treat or reward in the shoes from Saint Nicholas!  

Year 4 and Year 5 (Moving On)

(Practising pronunciation,broadening vocabulary, reading out loud, using a bilingual dictionary, exploring basic grammar, speaking and writing in full sentences)

• Practise with the children how they can express a like or a dislike and the question and answer they can give for a like or a dislike.
• Perhaps some of your older or more advanced learners (Year 5) children can express an opinion too and add an additional clause.
• Investigate as a class using bilingual dictionaries key nouns that we associate with Christmas e.g presents, food, types of food such as sprouts(!!)  , carols, Christmas tree. Christmas decorations, cards,shops , family.discuss the sound spelling links and alos the gender of the nouns and whether theses are singular or plural.
• Ask the children to use bilingual dictionaries to write in draft  four sentences about Christmas - two "love" and two "like" and maybe one "dislike"  sentences.Ask them to think carefully about how they write the nouns and the plural form if necessary of the nouns too.They can add an opinion clause too if they are able to.
• Now ask them to write these sentences out in best on strips of paper and to decorate the reverse side of the strips of paper.The children must  fold up the strips in to conertinas, each fold is after a single word and place these  in their shoes.
• Ask a partner to trake out the concertyian- read aloud the words as they unfold the concertinas and then to say the sentence a second time without reading the paper and mime the meaning of the sentence.
• Ask the children to put the folded concertina strips back in their shoes again and then place them on a window ledge- ready to receive a treat or reward in the shoes from Saint Nicholas!

Year 6 (Advanced)

(Practising pronunciation,broadening vocabulary, reading out loud, using a bilingual dictionary, exploring basic grammar, writing in full sentences, describing people,places and objects)

• Take a look at the verb "to be" in the target languge 
• Look at singular and plural nouns associated with Christmas 
• Model and disucss the use of thrid person singular "is" and third person plural "are" with singular and plural nouns.
• Play a game ,where you ask the children to decide if they should use "is" or "are" as you mime and slowly write up on the white board one of the nouns you have shared.
• Now ask the children on their tables to  brainstorm  key  Christmas nouns  in English and then look for and check spelling  of these in the target language in a bilingual dictionary. 
• Can the table now brainstorm and look up adjectives (atleast two per noun) to describe the items e.g mouldy sprouts or colourful presents etc.
• Give each child a set of five cards.On the front they need to write in the target language  a full sentence using part of the verb "to be" and the correct third person singular or plural form plus the noun  they have selected and the adjective or adjectrives they want to use to describe the item.The children must try to agree the adjective with the noun! On the reverse they need to decorate the card with the item they are describing so that it looks like the description they have chosen.You can differentiate the task by suggesting to sokme children they use the language the table already brainstormed, to others they must use this as a platform but add new adjectives and  to others they should try to create atleast two independent brand new sentences with their own sourced language from the bilingual dictionary.
• Ask the children to put the cards back in their shoes and then place them on a window ledge- ready to receive a treat or reward in the shoes from Saint Nicholas! 

 

Creating Characters and being Junior Judges on Strictly!

I love Strictly! We have used Stictly before in our network - a couple of schools created dance routines with directons, counting and commands.It worked really well.

Joanne, my associate colleague set up a Stictly Come Dancing Judges panel with numbers and personal info introductions too!

This year I am certain that children would love to become target language "Junior Judges"- just like the ones on the real programme.Watching "Strictly It Takes Two" I realised how we couod easily use this idea with children talking in the target language.

We will practise the verb "to be" and nouns.Add interesting adjectives and we could make similes too!
It's a simple but topical way of creating descriptive sentences, practising the verb to be and looking up and using nouns too and writimg,reading and saying out loud sentences in the target language!Oh and don't forget the children in the class will have to listen to each other too!

The tools we will need to be junior judges!

• We need to consider which parts of the paradigm we will need to describe pictures of dancers.  
• Firstly we need to practise the verb "to be" and selecting and placing the correct parts of the paradigm of the verb "to be" under dancers pictures "he...."/"she......"/ "they (male)......" they (female)....." and "they (male and female).......
• Secondly we need to investigate nouns we may like to use to describe dancers and the characters they are portraying.Let's collect useful nouns  from our bilingual dictionaries: ( pirate/ princess/ fairy/wizard/cyclist/penguin/bear/gentleman/ lady/ fruit seller etc).I would show the children some clips of the dancing from Strictly come Dancing or you could show picures on screen of soke of the dancers in outfits etc- Movie night or Halloween night would be two good themes.There are plenty of pictures out there on the internet too to use...... 
• Now let's play Simon says with the nouns and add actions and freeze frames

Judge the dancers!

• Why not show the children a couple of the dancers and the dances and let the children write out a descriptive sentences about the characters in the dances e.g "He is like a pirate" or "They are like monsters" etc
• Why not additionally or alternatively make it a guessing game.One person reads out the sentences he/she has written and the  rest of the class must guess who the sentences desctribes from the people in the show.

People Pillar Poems

You could always finish off the activity by creating some of my People Pillar Poems- using the characters from the dances....as both a writing and 3D display activity.Thanks to Clare Seccombe for the template!

Take a look here 

People Pillar Poems and template

Seaside Sequencing Story.Languages and Literacy

In sharing this animated sequencing story, I have to thank several people! 
Firstly Ana Lavado Garcia for her drawings and the original story power points some of us have used as part of the resources for JLN member schools.Secondly Ana and Emilie Woodruffe for their native speaker voices and time to put together authentic language in the simple story .Thirdly Little Red Languages for their work alongside WTSA/JLN to bring the "Alien family at the Seaside " story to animated life!

We love our extra terrestrial family and their adventures.
This year as part of our third local network meeting for the DFE funded WTSA/JLN language project "Language Learning for Everyone " we met the family at carnival for our "Carnival Triarama Conversations" 

Thanks to all the wonderful people above we are able to share this animated sequencing story about the seaside with you all.We hope you will enjoy exploring the story with your children in French and/or Spanish the following DFE KS2 POS learning objectives




DFE POS LOS: 

• listen attentively to spoken language
• speak in sentences,using familar vocabulary,phrases and basic language structures 
• read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
• appreciate stories ...in the language
• broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words

So here is the story - a short sentence or two per page with animations and sound files.

Take a look......

la famille extra terrestre

La familia alien va a la playa

Thanks to Little Red Languages - you can pause the script, conceal the script, replay the sound file , go forwards , go backwards and watch the characters appear on the screen!

Spot the "space " theme throughout the pictures ( starry glasses, planet ice creams ,rocket sandcastle etcetra....thanks Ana!)"

Ways I would use the story file!

(Well it links so well with story telling in Literacy to be truthful!)

• Share the front page and look for cognates in the story title.
• Brainstorm words we may already know about the seaside and might expect to find in the story.
• Categorise the words- nouns, adjectives, verbs, masculine/ feminine etcetra.
• Encourage the children to look up words they really hope are in the seaside story.

• Explore the instuctions on the second page and look up the key words forst in the bilingual dictionaries before actially clicking in the icons to see what they do and therefore understand the instructions 
• Discuss and identify which words are adjectives, nouns and parts of verbs.

• Listen to the story all the way through with the text and add actions for each page on a second hearing.

• Listen to the story to explore the text on each page- show the text on each page, pause on key words, hide the text , practise as a class re-telling the story orally trying to be as exact and true to pronunciation as possible.
• Explore replacement words and phrases- can we change the weather for example or describe dad's sunglasses or baby's enormous ice cream in more detail?

• Spot the sequencing words.
• Discuss the role of the sequencing words in the text.
• Give out strips of card with the sentences written on the cards
• Can the children in pairs put the story back together in order.
• Listen to the text but this time conceal the words- can the pairs wave the correct sentence strip to match the sentence they hear?
• Ask the children to rewrite the text in the order they want it to happen - moving the sequencing words around and therefore changing the order.

Of course as you may know I love drama - so.....

• Let's learn the text and let's act it out 
• Let's change the text and tell the story as a performance
• Let's draw our own story and add our own sentences and sound files! 

We really hope you enjoy using this story and are able to join us next term if you are in the North West for one of our Local Network Meetings.

More details here

Language Learning for Everyone LNMs DFE/WTSA/JLN

Going back, to get to the future!

Strange title I know - "going back,to get to the future" but this is a possible learning opportunity with Year 6 during this final Summer half term !

I am very excited about the work some of my colleagues will be undertaking this half term with their Year 6 language learners! 

Some of my local colleagues have decided this half term to work with their Year 6 classes to explore other target languages - 

• to excite and enthuse  Year 6 learners with a new language 
• to see how language learning skills  are transferable and can help access a new language
• to help our young language learners realise that they are now ready for secondary school and KS3 language learning and maybe a new language challenge!
• to encourage our young learners as they leave primary to see that they are at the start of a very exciting language learning journey not necessarily stuck in one foreign language!

Take a look at this message from our Janet Lloyd Network Facebook page from @Deprezprez on 31 May this year !

Looking forward to starting to teach Spanish to my Year 6s at Burtonwood CP and Locking Stumps CP this half-term after many years learning French!! Will be a great challenge for them and interest after the SATs come down!

In my opinion learning a language involves risk taking and involves the transfer of both prior learning and skills.

We all need to be able to make mistakes and feel that we can try again and certainly be able to overcome the feeling that if it's not perfect use of language then there is no communication! 

Primary language learners need to be able to take risks, make mistakes,have another go and try to improve!

The experiment is a sort of "blast from the past" for myself really!
In  1995 I began working as a primary languages teacher with Year 6 children in a local primary school.The children were in a feeder school to a language college where half the children would learn French and half the children would learn German in KS3 Y7. I decided to teach half a term of French followed by half a term of German througout the school academic year.The same content and activities were used in both  half terms but in alternate languages.So many of the children thought German was more fun and that it was easier and at first as a Germanist I was very excited about this .I had obviously created lots of "German" language  enthusiasts...then I realised what was actually happening.The young language learners were relaxed during the second half term as we re-applied skills and participated in  very similar activities from the first half term.  In my opinion they were relaxed and learned effectively because they had already practised the language learning skills in French!

Let's go back to when I started teaching in 1985... maybe a similar thing was happening there too? 
Our "top sets" learned a second foreign language and were called the "accelerated language learning group" because they started their second foreign language in their third year at high school.
"Mmm?"I ask myself as I look back , maybe other children could have achieved this too? Should we have identified more clearly the skills that we were practising with all our language learners? Just a thought!

And if we go right back in to my past..... why am I a Germanist? Well,I learned French as my first foreign language alongside Latin and then two years later- German. I thought I was better at German- but was I? 
Maybe I  applied skills effectively that I had already practised in French and this helped me to access German more quickly (memory,recall, listening,speaking, reading aloud confidently,using a bilingual dctionary etc)?  This was probably on reflection proven at University ,but I didn't realise this at the time.It was expected that we studied Dutch or Swedish for two years whilst studying German and within those two years we  reached A Level standard in the language. I love drama and reading texts such as  Miss Julie by Strindberg in Swedish was a delight and that has always stayed with me! Did I realise at the time that I was using transferable skills?

It seems to me that skills help make you more confident to try to communicate in another language.In the last couple of years I have had to begin to understand and communicate at a limited level in Spanish and I find my understanding of the transferable language learning skills so useful and so powerful! 

And why do I believe that this is for more then just the "linguistically" able?Well the truth is that I am a "trained" not "true" linguist!
Yes I love languages and exploring languages and helping others to do the same! 
My first love is being able to communicate and be creative with language and text! 
On reflection I have become very adept at transfering skills and analysing language and looking for grammatical and structural patterns.

So this half term is maybe less of a great experiment and more of a great celebration! 

The Year 6 learners are about to start the next stage in their great  language learning adventure. We hope our activities this half term will help our young learners see the links between languages and how the mystery of language learning, isn't really an unsolvable mystery and that language learning skills and tools are transferable life long powerful assets!

The experiment does demand that the children trust us,are confident and excited about exploring a new language/culture and  want to see how the practise of language learning skills during their primary career can be used to access language a new language.

Skills? Well ....here are a few for starters!

• listening and responding in a new language
• looking and listening for similarities between languages to aid comprehension, 
• knowing how to listen to and practise the sounds of the new language
• accessing bilingual dictionaries to find the words to aid comprehesnion and comminication
• trying to accurately copy the sound and the spelling of new language

It also demands that the teacher is confident enough in some cases to say "I am the facilitator" not the expert- let's explore this new language together.Let's consider the skills and tools we have been developing and let's step out in to a new language and see if we can communicate at a simple level in this language". Life skills I think that could be invaluable to all concerned! 

Who knows what language someone may need to understand or speak during the course of their own lifetimes!

Six Characters in Search of an Author

At University I was a member of Theatre Group and one of my most memorable productions was Six Characters in Search of an author by Pirandello.
(Six characters arrive at a theatre - each in turn melodramatic but with a story to tell , which in turn is part of a whole story......It is theatre within theatre. They are looking for a producer to tell their story.)

In its simplest from this can allow us to explore all 4 skills of language learning, to encourage accurate use of grammar and punctuation and to develop pronunciation, intonation and emotion in spoken language.

The activities below can be used with UKS2,KS3, KS4 and KS5 language learners.the task set by the teacher can challenge the language learners at the level they can operate in the target language.

(You will need an equal number of groups - so that one group can swap work with a second group and then the two groups can come back together and share their work with each other)

1. Share the idea of mystery characters with the class. Explain how these mystery characters want to tell their story and need a producer to help them put together their story.Can the class help you to write and perform the introductory utterances for the characters? 
2. Share with the class a picture stimulus. This could be with a mystery picture as above or allow the class to think of characters for themselves.With younger learners maybe we could look at characters we have been  exploring in story ,history etc (pirates.Romans, Kings and Queens, a family from a different time period etc).with older learners maybe we want to link the characters to our investigations of characters we meet in target language poetry and literature. 
3. Working in groups of six , ask each member of the group to focus on one particular character and to imagine how they might think, look and act (brave, bold, timid, angry, happy, young , old, role in the group).
4. Depending on the language level and skills of your pupils decide what types of sentences you want the pupils to create as utterances spoken by the characters - so for example with UKS2 and Y7 learners we would want them to write spoken utterances based on : name, age,preferences and personality.With more advanced learners you may want opinions and  personal past history or future hopes.
5. The pupils must write out their spoken utterances on a strip of paper or card. Each card from the group is gathered together and passed over to a second group.These two groups are now partner groups for the rest of the activities.
6. The second group of six children must now read the utterances as a team and decide which character might say the utterances. 
7. Now this second team must create a spoken dramatic performance as an introduction to the characters as if they were on set and speaking with the producer.They have to bring the utterances they have read to life.
8. The second group should then act out their introduction performances and vice versa. What do the original authors of the characters' utterances think about the characters as they have been brought to life by the second group? 
9. Finally can the original group that wrote the utterances , take back the characters and create a story board about each of the characters reflecting how the personality was brought to life by the second group? 

Active conjunctions

Thanks to Vicky Bruff on Facebook for sharing with us this picture of an activity from Teaching Ideas
It is a very simple and effective way of explaining visually the use of link words in sentences.

I am currently working with the wonderful Julie Prince on ways to make grammar in primary foreign languages "active and kinaesthetic" plus how we can link the activities to learning objectives from the DFE KS2 POS. 

The picture inspired a really simple "active grammar" learning idea that could be so effective!

In this activity I am concentrating on conjunctions (connectives ) to link two sentences together to  make a more complex primary foreign language sentence.

In doing this we could explore with the children one or more of the following DFE POS KS2 learning objectives:

• speak in sentences,using familiar vocabulary,phrases and basic language structures
• read carefully and show understanding of words,phrases and simple writing 
• broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words
• understand basic grammar .....how to build sentences

What's the idea?

Well just as you probably already do,ask the children to draft write simple sentences on mini white boards that are linked to the content you are currently covering .Effective contexts for this activity may be: the market, describing a monster, clothes, the weather ........

e.g. here are some fruit examples.....

les pommes sont rouges

les bananes sont grandes et jaunes

moi j'adore les raisins

moi j'aime les oranges

First activity

1. Ask the children to write a simple sentence using language content you have been practising with them.
2. Ask the children to share their sentence with a partner and take turns to proof read each of the sentences.
3. Ask the children to write the sentence on to a strip of paper or card- large enough for other people to be able to read from a distance.
4. Stand the children in a circle with the sentences on card facing in to the circle.
5. Take it in turns for each child to read out their sentence still holding the card facing toward the other children in the circle.
6. Share with the children your conjunction cards.You can decide which are appropriate conjunctions for this activity- but I suggest that you have at least 5 options.
7. Place the conjunction cards in the middle of the circle .
8. Check with the children that they are confident about the meaning of the conjunctions and how to pronounce the words.I would play a "sounds like game" here.Can they make the word sound like the job the conjunction does in the sentence e.g contradicts/ joins together/offers another option etc....
9. Invite a child to read out his/her sentence and to select a conjunction ,pick it up from the floor and walk over to  a second child and ask him/her to read out his/her  sentence.Now ask the two children to stand in the middle of the circle and say the whole new complex sentence together. 
10. Repeat the activity with two more children and a new selected conjunction.
11. How many sentences can the children write independently when they return to their tables that include a conjunction to connect two sentences together?  

Second Activity

1. Blu-tac the conjunctions to the whiteboard or flip chart so they are visible to all the children .
2. Play the "Sounds like" game" from above.This time though ask the class to say for you a conjunction that "contradicts" or "joins together" etc- do they all select the same conjunction?
3. Divide the children in to groups of four.
4. Can they connect each of their sentences to the other sentences using some of the conjunctions they can see on the board? They can not use the same conjunction twice in a row.
5. Ask the children to write their "long" sentence containing conjunctions out on a mini whiteboard.
6. Ask the children to practise speaking their sentence together.Can they remember how to say their complex sentence without looking at the written word?Ask them to add actions to help them with this.
7. They must create a spoken performance of the class to include actions and a connecting movement  and "sounds like" performance of the conjunctions between clauses so that each of the original sentences flows via a conjunction on to the next sentence.
8. Ask each group to perform their complex sentence for the class

Reading and Writing in the Primary Foreign Language

Yesterday I delivered an afternoon of CPD based around reading and writing in primary foreign languages.
The CPD was based around DfE KS2 POS Learning Objectives:

First of all we explored how all four skills (listening,speaking,reading and writing) are interconnected and support the development of each of the other skills.
This was a light bulb moment for some of the delegates and led to group discussion about how much,when,what to introduce in different skill areas.

During the CPD we considered  these objectives from the KS2 POS specifically:

• Explore the patterns and sounds of the language and show understanding by joining in and responding.
• Read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing.
• Appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language.
• Broaden their vocabulary and develop the ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written materials, including using a dictionary
• Describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing
• Understand basic grammar……….how to apply these, for instance  to build sentences.

The highlighted key words and phrases helped us to discuss and explore the links across skills (so for example "show understanding of words"  can be explored,practised and  demonstrated across all four skills). 

Consideration One 
 We considered how the four skills can be interlinked right from an early start using some of the activities here in this blog post Stretchy sound and letter balloon .All linked to this learning objective

• Explore the patterns and sounds of the language and show understanding by joining in and responding.

And we discussed how the development of this skill is always important to the linguist no matter what level of language they may be able to operate with.We looked at how the types of activities here could be adapted for different stages of learning and new content/contexts.

Consideration Two
Our next consideration was the use of bilingual dictionaries and the teachers discussed ways they might introduce dictionaries for the first time to young learners and the suitability of certain types of dictionaries and pictionaries for different children.

• Take some time to look at alphabetical order and play some alphabet sorting games
• Pop a variety of dictionaries from different languages in a basket in the reading area perhaps including home languages of children in the class or school 
• Let the children explore the"mystery" book on their tables with no information or clues.What do they think it is? How does it seem to be organised etc?

We discussed how bilingual dictionaries can play such a key role in  language learning across all types of activities and how children need to see the resource as a valuable language learning tool which they will use and refer to often .

This led to discussion of the use of simple pictionaries with younger children, the use of junior dictionaries with KS2 children and the introduction of more detailed dictionaries with Year 6 UKS2. 

I was really impressed by the way the teachers wanted to explore how the language was presented in the junior dictionaries, the colour -coding and the way that examples supported or could potentially  confuse the young learners.
We decided that 15 bilingual dictionaries could be sufficient for a class activity (pairs for example) and that schools could have a signing in and out process on the staff room so that the dictionaries could be booked in and out. Most of the teachers felt 30 copies would suffice across KS2 (Y3/4 and Y5/6 split).

We considered  the activities here in this blog post as introductory activities or 10 minute revisit activities to familiarise the children with how to use a bilingual dictionary.

Bilingual Dictionary Wizards

And the teachers tried out the sequence of activities that they could take back in to school and link using a bilingual dictionary to the exploration of nouns

I spy nouns

Really importantly we identified that bilingual dictionaries are not just to 

• "broaden ... vocabulary and develop the ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written materials, including using a dictionary".

Bilingual dictionaries could become an integral available resource whatever the language learning taking place and we considered how we may use the dictionaries in any of the objectives being considered in the CPD session.

Consideration Three
Our next step was to explore this learning objective:

• Read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing

and to do this we looked at how the learning objective can be a driver for a series of activities that are very "primary" and "age appropriate" linking language learning across the curriculum.

We explored: the activities in this blog post .What is important to understand is that the activities are not just linked to the context and content described in the blog post but that the type of activities and stages of learning can be lifted and used in other contexts and with other content.We were able to identify the progression and deeper learning that potentially is taking place and how all four skills are interlinked and support development in of the other skills.

Consideration Four

We looked  at the learning objective below from the immediately obvious viewpoint of authentic books, rhymes and songs for young children and how they bring " authenticity and colour" in to the language learning classroom.

Appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language.

I shared a range of materials that could be used as a  resource to listen to or read for pleasure, maybe because the resource links to the content being practised or also because it allows the teacher  to explore and reinforce another curriculum focus but in a foreign language. We thought about how we could create our own mini versions of books and create written sentences about characters and link our reading in a foreign language to World Book Day for example. Here are three examples we discussed: 

Elmer explorers

Dennis the Menace

World Book Day Long Live Books

We also looked at how poetry could be a resource to support literacy and creating written images ,an example of this is here in the blog post on a French authentic poem which allows us to engage with French poem painting of a Summer's Day.
Familiar nursery rhymes can be used as a listening and reading resource to link all four skills together.Here in this blog post Dame Tartine we are able to link phonics,listening,joining in,speaking,singing, reading writing, APPs and DT!  I felt that this was really important to consider this as some colleagues were uncertain as to how in short limited language learning time all skills and progression could be catered for .Here  in Dame Tartine is just one example of how this can be planned and catered for over a series of lessons and week.

Consideration Five
And finally we were able to bring all our considerations together and look at how if we focus on developing progression in the other four considerations we can work toward Year 6 learners in their fourth formal year of learning becoming competent writers in the target language, who are able to .....

• Describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing
• Understand basic grammar……….how to apply these, for instance  to build sentences.

Perhaps by looking for real writing opportunities that link across the curriculum then the writing has a dynamic purpose ?

Here is one recent topical example that some of my colleagues are working on: 

Alice in Wonderland

Beginning with languages blog 4

Across our network we work with schools who are all at different stages of setting up and delivering primary language learning and each year we welcome new schools who want to set off on their own individual school's language learning journey.

This year these specific "Beginning with languages " blogs will try to offer "bite size chunks" of indirect help and support to schools, who are doing exactly that .... just setting off and implementing  a language learning curriculum .

Take a look back at"beginning with languages" blogs one,two and three 

Your checklists so far have been:

Sept - Oct ,(first half term) Checklist

• It's all about establishing a whole school support system for all your staff
• It's about small steps and simple language learning
• It's about children and staff beginning to enjoy language learning

Mid October (end of the first half term), an additional new checklist bullet point!

• So how are you all getting on? How do you know that primary languages are being implemented in all the classes and are the teachers and children having fun in their learning? 

November (moving in to the second half term of language learning),we added a couple of new challenges to your checklist!

• How successfully have you been able to build in "revisiting" opportunities to build the children and staff's confidence with the language you introduced last half term? 
• Are you introducing,revisiting and re-using familiar games with familiar and unfamiliar language for example (e.g Bingo or Splat or maybe a game of Quiz Quiz Swap?)
• Have you encouraged all staff to practise key language using sound files and songs?
• Can all staff and children practise and learn a Christmas song or carol in the target language? (In beginning with languages blog three you can find links to You ~tube clips of a Christmas songl in French, Spanish and German

And now your December checklist bullet points(to review a term's progress and prepare for next term) are:

• Encourage all your staff to try out a simple listening and speaking Christmas activity based on a Christmas wishes song 

Ring out those bells tonight (learning a simple Christmas wishes song and listening for key phrases to a familiar refrain of London's Burning)

Extend this activity to a listening,speaking,reading and phonics activity with your more confident staff!Follow the suggested activities in Ding Dong Bell Phonics using the same Christmas wishes song as in the activity above,but breaking down the words in to sound s and their letter combinations

Using the Christmas wishes in these songs ,you have the basis for simple Christmas cards from the children to friends and family .Now the children are listening,speaking,reading and writing familiar language!

• Ask staff to see the links between activities we may use in KS1 when encouraging children to read and KS2 beginners language learning.

And forward planning.....

Next term as a school you need to plan to celebrate the cultural events in the target language country .Start with your first week back and Epiphany. 

Provide staff with the facts about Epiphany and the celebrations that will take place in early January  across Europe and particularly in France and Spain. Epiphany.

Let your children be Kings for the day!

The link here on the mama lisa blog will provide your staff with the French facts and information and a song to sing with their classes in the week of Epiphany 

The link here on the mama lisa blog will provide your staff with the Spanish facts and information and a song to sing with their classes in the week of Epiphany

Continuing to make progress

• In Spring  first half term consolidate prior learning and build upon knowledge.Share the activities below with staff and ask them to select and use the activities to revisit prior learning: 

Listening sticks (numbers and colours)

Open and reveal for corners ( days/months/colours and numbers)

Sunflower song and maths (numbers)

Totem pole prompt sticks (personal information questions)

• Now you can build in a new language content focus linked to a DfE POS learning objective "broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words ...." . Let's begin to look at nouns! 

1. Select your content focus (for example animals I like and don't like) and create simple opportunities for children to explore nouns. 
2. Ask the children to become language detectives and to become noun collectors.
3. Encourage each member of staff to think of creative ways to collect nouns with the children and to begin to explore the ways that nouns can have different sounds and written words to represent the word "the" or "a" in the target language.
4. Some of the idea here will help school to do this :noun collectors nets and treasure boxes

5. To support staff to understand more about nouns in a target language and the use of "the"  and "a" , share this blog post with them and put aside some time in a staff or key stage meeting to discuss what they have read and understood.Starting to understand nouns