Teach meet in Taunton

Here are my notes from the teach meet last week at Bishop Fox's school in Taunton. What a lovely evening - especially the food made by the Year 11 catering team. There were ideas for all subjects. 

Search for soul pancake on YouTube.

Table Safari - places information or texts on tables for students to move around and collect information.

Extended writing - keep asking why for students to extend their answers and give reasons in their writing.

Use haiku deck as an alternative to PowerPoint.

Give students hexagons for them to put keywords from the lesson. Ask them to make links between hexagons. Can they join theirs up with their partners?

The scary scale 0-10 - learning check on MWB.

Flipped learning - homework is to find out about and then use next lesson to complete a task.

Look for stanchester school's lesson planning app and question generator app using Bloom's.

Pointless gameshow - items you would find in a pencil case. Students to come up with as many answers in 100 seconds as possible. The most obscure the better. If other teams have your answer you get a point. Team with the least points wins. 

bit.ly/tmtaunton for tutor time activities

Add apps to your wish list in App Store and it will notify you when it's free.

¡looɔ sı uʍop ǝpısdn ƃuıʇıɹʍ

I discovered a website that flips your text upside down - fliptext.net. It also allows you to write in other languages. 

 ˙puıs ƃıʇsnl ǝıs lıǝʍ 'ǝɯlıɟ ǝqǝıl ɥɔı

sɯlıɟ sǝl ɹǝpɹɐƃǝɹ ǝɹopɐ,ɾ

You type the text you want flipped in and then copy and paste it into a document, text, tweet. Very cool! 

There is also an app that I've downloaded!

Teachmeet - Exeter Oct 2013

There were some lovely ideas at the teachmeet last Thursday. Here are just a few:
1. Active phonics - chant phonics to a tune with different parts of the class chanting different ones.
2. Cross-curricular project with drama based on the play, the pearl necklace. Played cluedo as part of the preparation (je pense que c'est...)
3. Tarsia - google and choose hermitech labs, formulator tarsia. Can also produce follow me cards.
4. Creative talk - what's in the news in France/Germany? Look at government websites.
Dual language texts add cultural context - find the French or translate sentences.
Design own shelter box and justify.
Students produce their own vocab lists with at least 5 verbs, 3 adjectives etc. I have 9 words if you can match 5 or more of mine = reward (2 stamps). Next, use vocab to form sentences. Use sentences to have a debate (opinions), be in role, record on voice thread.
5. Differentiated mind mapping, triangle progress for unit - colour in when done.

1,2,3 Reading challenge

Students read a text aloud in pairs or small groups. They choose to read either one, two or three words. The student who reads out the final word loses. They could also lose if they read out the last word on each line or their partner gets a point. The student with the most points wins. 

Guess the room!

Record some sounds to play to the class. Soundhound would be good for this or there are some sounds on YouTube. Students have to decide which room there are from. Here are some suggestions:

• running a tap
• flushing the toilet
• brushing your teeth
• turning the shower on
• boiling a kettle
• opening a bottle of fizzy drink
• running the washing machine
• opening the fridge door
• using the microwave
• dropping ice into a glass
• laying the table
• scraping a chair across the floor
• switching the radio on or off
• turning on the TV
• typing on the PC
• opening a packet
• cutting with scissors
• using a hair dryer 
• brushing your hair
• climbing stairs

Wordle

I really like wordle for displaying text. Here are 10 examples of how I've used it in the past. 

1. View for 30 secs - how many words can you remember? 

2. How many adjectives can you spot? 

3. Introduce new vocabulary. Find the 10 items of food etc. 

4. Speaking task where your partner ticks off words as you use them. How many can you use in 1 minute? Same for writing. How many can you include? 

5. I say the English and students shout out the colour of the French, German word.  

6. Introduce the vocab test words. Students could guess the words they need to learn for homework as a plenary.

7. Copy an article from a newspaper/ song lyrics and see the most common words used.

8. Give students a wordle in black and white and ask them to colour all nouns one colour, past verbs another etc.

9. Displays or labels

10. I can't remember who but someone on twitter kindly produced the wordle attached to this post which contains all the words from the GCSE listening papers. Students highlight the ones they know and learn the ones they don't. 

Getting students talking!

I've recently been trying out some activities in my lessons that I'd forgotten about and haven't used for a while to try and get my students speaking. Here are two that worked well. 

Taboo - this works well in pairs or as a whole class. Display a word or picture that a student has to guess with 3 or 4 words that the class are not allowed to use when describing it. For example on the topic of jobs, the word could be chef de cuisine. Words they were not allowed to say were cuisine, restaurant or nourriture. Students could use words or phrases to describe the job - il travaille avec les serveurs. Il prépare les repas. For an extra challenge give them a time limit. 

Just a minute - students talk for a minute on a chosen topic. Partners could have key words they tick off when they hear them. Instead of using a timer, their partner colours in a shape and they have to keep talking until it's completely shaded. 

Lingo Bingo

Thanks to @langwitch for the idea! Students fold a piece of paper in half and cut into two. Draw a grid or fold both bits so you have a grid of 6 or 8 squares depending on how big you want it on both pieces of paper. Number each box 1-6 or 1-8 on both and put one of the grids to one side. On one grid write phrases practising vocabulary or a grammar point. Cut the grid into 6 or 8 little squares.

Now students work in pairs where one partner will say a number and the other asks 'Comment dit-on... en anglais?' If they get it right they can place the card onto the corresponding number on their grid. The aim is to get a row or a full house. They can then swap or move around the classroom playing other grids.

Generation Game

When I was training, we were given the idea of doing the generation game in PowerPoint with images to revise vocabulary. Pictures would scroll across the screen slowly and then students had to write down as many as they could remember after seeing all the images. 

I've recently discovered an App called iBanner HD where you can set words scrolling across the screen so I thought it could be used to introduce new vocabulary or for students to write down as many as they can remember after all have scrolled by. 

Human dominoes

Each student has an English phrase and a French phrase. They have to listen to the student reading their French phrase and stand up if they have the corresponding English phrase. They then read out their French phrase for another student to match. It is like a relay.

To add a bit of variation to it, students could be timed, repeat the activity but swap phrases, make a large circle around the classroom.

Next time I think I will get students to write their own phrases with the English translation on a separate piece of paper. I could then ask them to do a quiz, quiz, trade activity where they just use the French phrase. This will get them swapping papers. They walk around the room, quiz another student on their sentence. If they get it right, they swap sentences.

The Betting Game

The betting game was something I heard about ages ago by Wendy Ward and just recently remembered it. It requires minimal planning and engages all students across all ability levels. I love using MWBs in lessons and it's great for adding a bit of competition.

I ask students a question and I give them a minute to write their answer. When the time is up I say ‘Who’s in?’ Students put their hand up if they know the answer but if they do not know then they are allowed to ‘bluff’ and also put their hand up.

If the student that I select knows the answer then everybody with their hand up (even those bluffing) win a point. If, however, the person selected was bluffing and doesn’t know then everybody with their hand up loses a point – even if they knew it!

Tellagami

Below is a link to a video that I made in an app called tellagami. I can create a character (I chose mine to look like me!) and then record my voice to make them talk. The video can then be saved in photos and used elsewhere.

http://youtu.be/00PCvIFYSM0

Visual poet

I made this using an app called visual poet. I was inspired by Edith Piaf as I was listening to some of her songs on soundcloud. It takes me back to being in France. I just love it!

WordFoto

Just discovered this app called WordFoto which adds words to your pictures. A great way of introducing new vocabulary!

Animoto.com

Here is a video I created on animoto using some photos. It's so quick and easy to do and you can choose the music too! A great way for students to present something. It's free for 30 second videos.

 

Posted with Blogsy

PicLits.com

A great website for adding words to pictures. Here is my attempt:


See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

YouTube

I've been using YouTube for years and even had an account but it's only recently that I discovered I don't need to search for videos that I use regularly in my lessons. At school I never bothered to log in as I thought it was just quicker to search for the video I wanted each time. However if you only use each video maybe once or twice a year, it would be a good idea to save the video to your favourites. I now have a list of videos to show my students and it means I don't have to remember them all!
I also like to make clips for starters in my lessons and have always just saved them on my computer. It's a bit of a pain getting them on the school computer but I can upload them to YouTube. I can choose whether I make them public or keep them private.

My T&L Blog

I've decided to start a blog to put all my ideas and those of others in one place. My main source of CPD is twitter where I'm a member of the #mfltwitterati. They inspire me with their new ideas to try new things and to keep my lessons interesting for my students.