Focus on Boys - strategies to increase motivation and attainment

1. Focus on Boys - strategies to increase motivation and attainment Wendy Adeniji MFL Consultant

2. The New Secondary Curriculum • Effective from September 2008, this gives teachers for the first time in many years to experiment with: • Creativity • Engagement • Independence • All of these aspects will serve boys well

3. Sound recording for Peer and Self-Assessment Recording voices using sound recording software such as Audacity, to listen back, edit and save as .mp3 files to put onto mp3 players or burn onto CDs http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ This is effective from Y7 up to Y11, and can be used to record songs and raps written by pupils, and to help perfect practise for speaking tests.

4. Digital Video – ready-made clips Use of sites such as Youtube (and there TL equivalent e.g. www.wideos.fr in French) to show DV clips Recommended site to show clips to encourage motivation: www.youtube.com/routesintolanguages Fun clips in German from Verstehen sie Spass series Wasserbett www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtFMylC41VU Also a favourite German children’s TV series: die wilden Kerle www.youtube.com/watch?v=a64GU82K-d0 Clips from French pop videos, with lesson ideas for teaching French as a foreign language www.tv5.org/TV5Site/enseigner-apprendre-francais/paroles-clip.php?id=4

5. Creativity with Drama and Video Boys love acting and drama, the sillier the better (and usually something that involves someone been gruesomely killed). They can script, act out and film simple scenes, such as in a restaurant or an interview. Examples from Heathfield School, Sandwell, West Midlands This was reported in the QCA 2006 document “Good Practice in using ICT in MFL”

6. Creativity Create a talking character and record it speaking in the TL using the free site www.voki.com Create a Powerpoint presentation e.g. based on the Wrld Cup in Germany (Groups called teams, with captains and players with different roles)

7. Challenge Boys respond well to challenges Give them a webquest, which uses a Target Language site and asks them to find information from it, at a level which is achievable.

8. Using songs with an emphasis on phonic sounds to develop speaking skills • Play songs not just to learn them, but to listen out for specific sounds • Empower pupils to read - decoding, independence • Sound-spelling links, phonics • Improved confidence in pronunciation, reading, listening (deciphering what they hear) and improved writing from awareness of phoneme-grapheme relationship • Focus on commonly mispronounced words eg. cognates

9. Using songs with an emphasis on phonic sounds to develop speaking skills Using authentic resources for motivation e.g. Pigloo Gap-fill Text sequencing Grouping words by sound: ‘ai’ , ‘oi’, ‘in’ and ‘I’ “Moi, j’aime skier” from www.kewego.com/video/iLyROoaftrf-.html Find words from www.paroles-musique.com or www.paroles.net

10. Keeping them going until the end of 9: new forms of accreditation Asset Languages, which can be linked to other vocational units, be ‘half’ a GCSE or just accredit certain skills. For example, this is has been used effectively to link to a Horsemanship course at The Grove Language College, Market Drayton (Shropshire); instead of learning parts of the body, parts of the horse are learnt www.assetlanguages.org.uk

11. Keeping them going until the end of 9: new forms of accreditation NVQ Language Units from OCR The assessment is flexible, when the teacher feels pupils are ready This has been used effectively with Y9 pupils at Yewlands School, Sheffield, who have then gone on to opt to continue to study a language in KS4 Pupils who do drop the language at the end of Y9 have something to show for 3 years of study Because of the business-oriented approach, boys in particular feel that the subject is useful to them.

12. New Curriculum: interdisciplinary links • Links with literacy for example traditional tales – yes, boys in Y7 respond really well to these. • Suggested activities for Chaperon Rouge (Rotkäppchen or Caperucita Roja): • Read the class the story and ask them to guess which it is • Show them the Powerpoint version of the story and ask them to look out for e.g. question words, particular verbs • Find out some facts about Charles Perrault, the author for homework

13. New Curriculum: interdisciplinary links • Look at the Tex Avery version of the story in French • www.dailymotion.com/video/x95ap_tex-avery-le-petit-chaperon-rouge • Discuss how the tales started off as being moral tales and other possible endings • Pupils write a new ending • Pupils could also script and in groups create a digital audio version of the story, possibly for publication as a podcast • Teaching Grammar through context The Three Little Pigs: reinforcing du, de la and des and imperatives

14. A departmental action plan • Establish the scale of the problem: compare boys’ and girls’ attainment at the end of KS3 • ‘Market research’ in school. Identify boys’ and girls’ dislikes and learning styles • Teach in small steps; give pupils regular experience of success • In marking give constructive feedback on how to improve • Extend the use of rewards/ commendations to acknowledge boys’ contributions • Use assessment criteria which recognise boys’ contributions – is equal value attached to speaking/ listening as reading/ writing? • Review profile and image of languages in school. Does the subject have a feminine image?

15. A departmental action plan • Think about how IT can be used in a meaningful way with all year groups and classes • Demonstrate practical value of language learning by inviting male linguists from business/ industry in (your local Chamber of Commerce should be able help) • Organise trips to the workplace to show languages at work • Look at criteria for setting • Consider single sex setting in the early stages