Focus on Key Stage 3 Practices

1. Focus on Key Stage 3 Practices Tuesday 1st March 2005 Omagh Teachers' Centre Martine Clément Adviser for Modern languages and EAL WELB

2. Aims and Objectives • To look at strategies to • Enhance motivation • Develop pupils’ confidence and competence • To explore ways of • Developing pupils’ thinking skills • And Creativity • To start exploring the context of Curriculum Review

3. Organisation of the Day • Coffee break: 10:30 – 11:00 • Lunch : 1:00 – 2:00 • Finishing time: 3:30

4. Contents • Context in which we are currently working • Proposals for Modern Languages in the review of the Curriculum • Classroom Practices for greater pupils’ engagement • Thinking skills and formative assessment practices (questioning, modelling…) • Creativity

5. The context

6. The Context • Strengths: • Primary Language growing • European Context • Nuffield • Business Community

7. The Context • Weaknesses: • Current Programme of Study • GCSE • Lack of alternatives at KS4 • Results compared to other GCSE and A Levels • Disapplication • Pupils’ attitude

8. The Context • Opportunities: • New Programme of study • Curriculum review • KS4 development in England • ICT and C2K • Costello • European Language portfolio • Citizenship

9. The Context • Threats: • Curriculum review • KS4 options • Range of subjects at key stage 4 • Disaffection of students • Learning for life and work

10. Curriculum Review Implementation

11. Primary Languages ELB/CCEA pilots • BELB and SEELB: Early Years • NEELB: Peripatetic / class teacher • SELB: Accreditation. The European Portfolio • WELB: KS2/KS3 transition 13 primary schools 2 Post primary schools

12. Primary Language • Timescale: • 10 years away • Contents: • Skill based √ • Which language????? • Number of languages????? • Consultation with Post-primary teachers

13. The Revised Programme of Study • Has been designed in response to an evaluation of the previous one • Allows connections with other areas of study • What will we keep • What will get rid off? • What will we have to modify?

14. What we will keep • The 4 skills development • The rang of stimuli • The range of purpose • Talking about experience, feelings and opinions • Talking about where we live, the way we do things • Talking about self and others • Transfer language to other contexts • Incorporate ICT • Incorporate Numeracy

15. What we will change / increase • Awareness of language and comparing languages, develop thinking skills, break down use of language • Maintain personal contact • Unfamiliar contexts and real life situations: social issues, vocational contexts • Creative use of the language, explore use of language, make choices • Culture of TL countries and regions • Presentations

16. What we will change / increase • Asking questions • Research • Explore problems alone and in groups • Develop learning skills • Take part in self and peer assessment

17. What is absent • Most of the contexts and topics • No mention of level descriptors

18. Keeping them in at Key Stage 4 • It’s hard but it’s not challenging • It’s boring, you just learn things off • I don’t understand • It’s mechanistic, you follow the text book and there is no personal engagement • Lack of relevant context • Xenophobia • Discrepancy in GCSE results

19. Making Language Lively at KS 3

20. Making Language Lively at KS 3

21. Starter activities • They set the tone and create the 1st impression • They are meant to intrigue puzzle and amuse • Settle the pupils down • Must be quick and snappy • Something they can attempt on their own • Must have a learning point • Quick engagement • Doesn’t need to be finished

22. Modelling • Demonstrating a range of skills • Making explicit the decision making process • Coaching • Slowing down the process • Develop the confidence in the process being demonstrated • Learning become inclusive • Promotes independence • Helps picture the outcome as well as the process

23. Questioning • One of the principal tools in the formative assessment toolkit • Immediate way to assess learning • A stimulus to use language • Make them challenging • Build in waiting time • Model how to answer questions • As part of plenaries: TL vs. English

24. Thinking Skills The ability to understand or become aware of the process that took place in order for the learner to make his own a new skill, knowledge, understanding, value or attitude

25. Thinking skills: Advantages Teacher: • Identifies gap in the knowledge or the thinking process • Shifts from transmitter to facilitator Pupils: • Gain knowledge through active involvement • Intrinsic motivation • Raided self esteem and confidence • Greater independence • Greater social skills

26. Sorting Activities • Sort by shared characteristics • Pattern spotting and spotting exception • Processing, reasoning • Justifying your solution • Can be used at any stage of the lesson: starter, presentation, practice, plenary

27. Maps from Memory • Memorising: • Language learning strategies • Visual and spatial intelligence • Paying attention to details • Pupils working in groups reproducing pictures and texts from memory • Making explicit the skills used to carry out the activity

28. Reconstruction • The previous activity relies on visual ability, this one on audio skills • Reconstruct a text after having listened to it 3 times • A bit like an old fashioned dictation but • A collaborative activity • Emphasis on the process • Discuss how pupils managed to complete the task

29. Sequencing • An opportunity to talk about language • The work can be at word, sentence or text level • Pupils are given chunks of text which they have to reorganise in a meaningful and grammatically correct way • Based on existing knowledge about the language • Forces pupils to attend to details

30. Mysteries • A problem to solve or a key question to answer • Deal with ambiguity through addressing a question which has no single correct answer • Higher level skills of inferring • Weighing pro and cons and compromising • An alternative to reading comprehension questions

31. Plenaries • The debriefing at the end of an activity or at the end of a lesson • Promote reflection and metacognition • Pupils verbalise how they have approached and completed the task • Help fix the new knowledge , skill, understanding in the long term memory • Clarify what is important and what isn’t • Rectify remaining misconceptions or errors

32. Plenaries • Deepen the understanding • Help make links • Relate directly to the lesson objectives • Need to be planned and varied • Active participation of the students • TL or English?

33. Creativity Firstly the characteristics of creativity always involve thinking or behaving imaginatively. Second, overall this imaginative activity is purposeful: that is, it is directed to achieving an objective. Third, these processes must generate something original. Fourth, the outcome must be of value in relation to the objective.

34. Creativity Characteristics of a creative person: • Questions and challenges • Makes connections and sees relationships • Envisages what might be, speculates • Explores ideas, keeps options open • Reflects critically on ideas, actions and outcomes

35. Creativity: why? • Develops understanding and control of language • Develops flexibility • Encourages independent use • Encourages and relies on transfer • Pupils develop a sense of purpose • They enjoy experimenting • Language is used for a “real purpose” • Makes language memorable, interesting, enjoyable and empowering

36. Websites • www.welb-cass.org/ follow link post primary/special then Modern Languages • www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/keystage3/respub/fs_mfl_tr • www.ncaction.org.uk/creativity/whatis.htm • http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/ Hot potatoes: website for quizzes, word-searches and more • http://www.jecris.com/rigoler.html jokes in French