By npj on July 3, 2009
I sent off my response, on behalf of my school, to the proposed new level descriptors for MFL today. The QCA is consulting for a few more weeks and I urge you to respond. The ALL London Branch have written an outline of the proposed changes. The biggest difference is the proposal to add a new area of assessment, in intercultural understanding.
My response echoed much of what has been said on forums over at TES and MFL Resources about KS3 moving out of line with the new GCSE and A-Level specifications, and concerns about pupils achieving higher levels in languages without gaining in linguistic competence.
My main concern, however, especially as I teach in a multicultural school, is the limited extent to which the Intercultural Understanding element has been developed. The grade descriptors read more like an assessment of a research project. This does not reflect the complexity of true intercultural understanding which involves, for example, empathy and an ability to cope with difference, as well as knowledge. I’m not sure it’s desirable that we assess this with a number, even if it were possible to do so. In any case, intercultural understanding is, for us, a complex issue involving the whole school – and not something which should be confined to Languages lessons.
Full response as PDF
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By npj on January 27, 2009
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day.
A colleague in the History Department turned her classroom into a museum for lunchtime – it was superb to see pupils taking responsibility for putting on the exhibition and there were plenty of people on hand to explain the exhibits.
A few pupils were surprised to see me there – “But sir, you’re a German teacher!”. A sign that an important cross-curricular link needs to be made?
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By npj on January 21, 2009
Here’s a twist on Wordle which I’m looking forward to using with Y11on Friday. I’ve edited the AQA GCSE listening transcript (from their website) to remove irrelevant material, then put it through Wordle. I plan to use it as a vocab starter – the size emphasises nicely the frequency of the words.
Here’s an example of Wordle’s output and the text file it’s generated from, so you can try it out.
It’s different every time!
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By npj on November 26, 2008
A recent article from TES raises some very interesting points about the use of technology in schools, especially when read in conjunction with the Becta guidlines on this kind of thing. The mobile phone offers lots of potential, but I’m still uneasy with the idea of letting pupils use them in the classroom.
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By npj on November 20, 2008
As part of a school training day on Behaviour for Learning, I was asked to share some of my own classroom practice in giving out credits, which form the ‘currency’ of my school’s rewards system.
Praise is about catching pupils doing the right thing but, for me, credits are recognition for pupils going beyond basic expectations.
Giving out praise in general, and credits in particular, can be really hard – especially when you’re in a bad mood. It’s usually the first thing casualty when things are going wrong, so it’s important to establish conscious strategies to give credits.
I try to make it clear why I’ve given a credit and often (but not always) I outline in advance what pupils can do to get them. I never give credits to pupils who ask for them.
Here are five strategies as a classroom teacher that I use, sometimes successfully, to give out credits:
- For getting stuff done – I set out tasks in terms of the mimimum, what to do for one credit, and what’s required for two. This works with quantity (”Do 5 questions!” – but be careful to set quality parameters) but gets really exciting if you link it to success criteria or a mark scheme. I do this for homework as well as classwork – I mark with our school’s information management system open in front of me so I can bank credits straight away.
- For putting in good effort - this is more subjective and personal to the pupil. It can be for things like homework or participation in disucssions. With lazy pupils it sometimes works when linked to targets in a quiet conversation along the lines of “you need this much to go to break, this much for one credit and this much for two”. With loud classes it’s sometimes good to take a step back from the fray for 20 seconds, watch, and acknowledge pupils who are really putting a great effort into their work.
- For test achievement and improvement – I keep a record of test scores on a spreadsheet, project it on the screen as I collect scores, and give credits for full marks but also for improved scores
- For spotting the teacher’s mistakes on the board - I set this up as a routine early in the year and it works really well with top sets. It encourages pupils to have confidence in their own understanding.
- For answering a credit question - during whole class teaching, I will designate a “credit question”- usually something which requires quite a bit of thought or relates to a key concept. After plenty of thinking time I choose several people to answer, perhaps asking pupils to comment on the previous person’s answer. Every answer gets a credit; the element of ‘peer review’ usually helps avoid silly answers.
Posted in Classroom teaching, Professional development, Whole School
By npj on November 16, 2008
I’ve been thinking about creativity in my lessons recently, and took a look at the DCSF’s National Strategy�nuggets�on this topic. There are some good ideas there, but the videos on good practice have left a sour taste.
Clip 1�features a song about classroom rules, with the teacher enthusiastically conducting at the front of the room as the pupils sing obediently along. I’ve taught lessons along similar lines (with slightly less obedient pupils) but I cringed a little as I watched this clip.�
Isn’t the teacher being more creative than the pupils?
Isn’t this just choral repetition with a different name?
Why is the teacher working harder than the pupils?
Isn’t this kind of energetic, teacher-focussed approach unsustainable from the teacher’s point of view?
Why does “good practice” in Languages teaching seem to involve teachers prancing around so much?
I’m playing devil’s advocate in some ways – it’s clear from the other clips that there’s actually some really good teaching going on, and singing is one of many effective strategies for learning vocabulary�- but it’s frustrating that official training materials demonstrate such an unimaginative approach to creative learning.
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By npj on April 11, 2008
I’ve been playing around with TiddlyWiki, an nifty bit of software which its developers describe as “a reusable non-linear personal web notebook”.
It’s essentially a single, self-contained file which performs the functions of a Wiki. However, TiddlyWiki is different because it is not based on separate, entire pages of content, but rather items of Micro Content that live together on the same page but don’t all have to be displayed at the same time.
I like it because
- it’s non-linear – the entries you create in the notebook can be opened and closed separately and don’t have to be displayed in a particular order
- it’s self-contained – so I can save it on the school’s network drive and access it from anywhere with a web connection
- it’s relatively intuitive for someone with a bit of computing know-how to use (although some of the concepts are pretty new, so there’s quite a steep learning curve!)
I think this has some good potential for improving the way I record and organise the information I keep about my classes, so I’m going to experiment with using TiddlyWiki for my day-to-day lesson planning over the next half term.
Posted in Classroom teaching, New idea
By npj on April 5, 2008
We’re introducing a Virtual Learning Environment at school and I’ve been asked to be part of the steering group which will decide how this is implemented.
We have our first meeting with the software suppliers (the school’s gone with Fronter) in 3 weeks, after the spring break.
Before we consider the impact of the VLE on teaching, here are some of the issues I want to make sure we address as we put the system in place.
- The digital divide – if the VLE forms an essential part of any learning activity, we can’t afford to leave a single child behind. We need to know the extent of the digital divide in school, and plan for it.
- Pupil training - part of me thinks that most kids will find the software pretty intuitive. We need to check that all have the skills they need, so that subject teachers can focus on delivery of their specialism. ICT-confident teachers might be able to deliver cross-curricular lessons to help with this, but I think this will be the exception rather than the rule.
- Parents - how do we involve them?
- Staff training - in my faculty, the ICT knowledge of the staff ranges from extremely confident users to people who are just about confident with the essentials of Word and Excel. Which leads to…
- Staff support, because teachers who are good at ICT can’t be expected to use their limited planning and preparation time to support colleagues.
- Authorship - who owns the copyright in the material which teachers place on the the VLE? Teachers? The school? And what is our attitude towards the use of others’ copyrighted material going to be?
Posted in VLE, Whole School