Challenging the Most Able Students in MFL

1. Challenging the Most Able Students in MFL Alex Blagona 23 November 2011 blagona@gmail.com

3. Challenging the Most Able Students in MFL Higher Order Thinking Skills Creativity to challenge! Listen to the Feedback

4. What is a gifted and talented linguist?

5. How do we challenge our pupils?

6. Identifying gifted language students • perfect imitation and consistent retention and production of target language • internalised rules of pronunciation • a good memory • high curiosity • the ability and motivation to develop independent learning skills • seeing grammar as a 'tool' rather than a 'barrier' to their language learning • being a link maker • being an informed risk taker.

7. Identifying More Able pupils in MFL. • A specific aptitude for a curriculum subject or area of subject • Outstanding verbal ability • Leadership qualities • Team working abilities • Physical ability • General intellectual ability • Intellectual curiosity / initiative / originality • An ability to memorise swiftly • Quick and fluid reasoning or learning. • A creative ability • Artistic ability • Social emotional or spiritual qualities • Independent learning

8. How can I spot them? • Openly able: enjoying and excelling in all they do. • Concealed able: hiding within peer group by underachieving. • Rebellious able: disruptive, underachievers. • Creative able: those with unusual, divergent thought patterns, who may be intense, abrasive or difficult. • Talented able: Intellectually able, but with one particular talent.

9. Why I might miss the more able pupil. • an all round high achiever • only achieves in one area • low motivation • poor handwriting skills • short attention span • no social skills • unable to organise

10. What opportunities exist in your classroom for students to demonstrate their skills in these areas?

11. Higher Order Thinking Skills • (promoted by the KS3 Framework) • problem solving • open-ended tasks • extending creativity • spotting patterns and making connections • pupils teaching / interpreting / testing each other • manipulating the tenses • making pupils aware of the nuances of the language • exposing pupils to culture and encouraging analysis of national differences • exposing pupils to language in different contexts and encouraging them to use it in their own work

12. Using thinking skills in MFL lessons to provide challenge. • Advance Organisers Helps learners understand the connections between what they are learning Mind mapping?

14. Using thinking skills in MFL lessons to provide challenge. • Analogies Helps learners understand what is unfamiliar by comparing/contrasting it with something that is familiar. Making use of authentic texts?

16. Using thinking skills in MFL lessons to provide challenge. • Audience and Purpose Enabling learners to understand the match between the purpose of what is communicated and the audience for whom it is intended. Publishing resources and work online?

19. Using thinking skills in MFL lessons to provide challenge. • Collective Memory Learners working together to produce a visual image in the form of a graph, map, or diagram. order and apply information in new ways. Show Rachel’s Video

20. Using thinking skills in MFL lessons to provide challenge. • Living Graphs These relate to graphical representations of a set of variables that inter-relate through time. This strategy normally involves giving students a graph and asking them to place statements on it. • Gives the teacher the chance to present pupils with texts which go beyond the purely transactional • Gives the teacher the chance to present pupils with texts of a cross-curricular nature • Pupils use context to deduce meaning. • Encourages debate and the justification of opinions • The strategy can be used across the full range of ability

21. Using thinking skills in MFL lessons to provide challenge. • Mysteries Requiring learners to order and apply information in new ways. • Good for teaching skills of skimming and scanning • Encourages pupils to sort the relevant from the irrelevant • Encourages pupils to engage with texts and to read for detail • Invites pupils to make links between disparate pieces of language and to infer meaning • Encourages pupils to search collaboratively for evidence

22. Comment est le suspect? • Où est le suspect à 3 heures 10? • Combiende minutes est le suspect dans C3? • Quand le suspect quitte C3? • Qu’est ce quele suspect déteste? • Quiest le professeur préféré du suspect? • Pourquoiil est suspect?

23. This is what happened… • French teacher Mr Blagona was found unconscious in C3 at 4:00pm yesterday. • He had been hit on the head. • Miss Sear, Mister Wade and Miss Cleaver were all in the office and all other staff were in meetingsafter school. • Mr Blagona had a meeting with Sixth Form students to discuss their bad marks in their essays. Five students were to meet him. • Could they have planned a revenge as a group? BUT WHO HIT MR BLAGONA ON THE HEAD?

24. Elle a les cheveux courts et bruns. Elle est dans C12. Elle reste 10 minutes. Elle quitte C3 à 3 heures 20. Elle déteste le français. C’est Miss Crissell. Elle est suspecte parce qu’elle a F à son essai! Elle a les cheveux bruns et frisés. Elle est dans C3. Elle reste 5 minutes. Elle quitte C3 à 3 heures 40. Elle déteste le français. C’est Monsieur Blagona. Elle est suspecte parce qu’elle a F à son essai. Il a les cheveux bruns et courts. Il est dans C12. Il reste 20 minutes. Il quitte C3 à 3 heures 20. Il déteste la violence. C’est Miss Cleaver. Il est suspect parce qu’il est dans C3 au moment du crime. Elle a les cheveux blonds et longs. Elle est dans C12. Elle reste 5 minutes. Elle quitte C3 à 3 heures 30 . Elle déteste la critique négative. C’est Monsieur Blagona. Elle est suspecte parce qu’elle déteste la critique négative. Il a les cheveux bruns et courts. Il est dans C12. Il reste 10 minutes. Il quitte C3 à 3 heures 40. Il déteste les maths et les sciences. C’est Miss Cleaver. Il est suspect parce qu’il adore Miss Cleaver et pas Monsieur Blagona

25. Lauren BD. Suspect A Gus McG. Suspect C Adam W. Suspect B Lydia H. suspect E Catherine P. Suspect D

26. Practical suggestions for the classroom: listening • Give pupils transcripts of listening exercises – they can listen for pronunciation - they don’t have to do an exercise. The transcript could be read by the class or in pairs afterwards. • Pupils have transcripts – teacher plays small parts of the text and pupils underline which part they think is being played.

27. Practical suggestions for the classroom: listening • Pupils don’t do an exercise – they have to listen to precise details. • Pupils have no transcript – stop the recording and anticipate next part – predictions. • Use tapes to work on tone of voice and mood. • Give synonyms / antonyms and pupils pick out the correct words from the tape.

28. Practical suggestions for the classroom: listening • Focus on numbers if they appear in a transcript, even if the textbook does not require any numbers practice in the exercise. Ask pupils to note down the price / time / age etc. Or the teacher puts numbers on the board and pupils listen to see if they are right and correct those which are wrong

29. Practical suggestions for the classroom: listening • Give pupils a transcript with words/ verbs etc. tippexed out – they fill them in. • Ask the Assistant to record themselves talking about the topic being covered (or not!) - pupils have to find out what the Assistant likes / dislikes etc. – more realistic. They can pick out new / interesting / colloquial words which textbooks don’t introduce.

30. Practical suggestions for the classroom: listening • Ask English comprehension questions to establish details on the tape. Get the pupils to expand on the information they hear wherever possible.

31. Practical suggestions for the classroom: reading • Pronunciation practice - the text can be read by the class or in pairs. Competition – keep reading until they make a pronunciation mistake and pass to the next person. Who can keep going the longest? • Pupils don’t do an exercise – they have to find precise details. • Give synonyms / antonyms and pupils pick out the correct words from the text.

32. Practical suggestions for the classroom: reading • Ask English comprehension questions to establish details. Get the pupils to expand on the information they find wherever possible. • Grammar extensions – use the text to focus on a grammar point e.g. underline all plurals in one colour, identify different tenses etc.

33. Practical suggestions for the classroom: reading • Give cognates and pupils find the correct word(s) which belong to that word family. • Tippex out parts of the text e.g. past tense texts – tippex out the auxiliaries and pupils write in the correct form / present tense texts – tippex out verb endings. • Use authentic texts to encourage pupils to decode language and to use the language in different contexts.

34. Practical suggestions for the classroom: speaking • Pronunciation competition. • Word in a bag – explain it to the group. • Dice games: 1 die represents pronouns, second die represents verbs or tenses. • Pangram – pupils make a sentence in which every letter of the alphabet is used.

35. Practical suggestions for the classroom: speaking • Write an unknown word on the board – pupils ask questions to find out what it means. • In pairs – one pupil has a card with a word on (depending on the topic) – the partner has to ask questions about it to work out what it is (excluding ist das …..? c’est …..?) e.g. an item of lost property, a job, a famous person etc. • TV programme – turn off the sound and pupils provide the dialogue. • TV programme e.g. a soap – use future tense by writing what will happen next.

36. Practical suggestions for the classroom: speaking • Starter activity - put an open-ended question / a topic area / a picture on the board and give pupils a time limit to make notes or to write an answer – compare answers and use this as a short session on oral exam technique – reward for the most interesting answer.

37. Practical suggestions for the classroom: speaking • Use question / topic area / picture from above to play “Just a Minute”. • Who wants to be a Millionaire – pupils make the questions. • Allow pupils to using their imagination – e.g. design dream bubbles and talk about them, being someone else. • Throw the ball – differentiated questions and responses.