Wondering if any of you would like to add to a debate I'm having at the moment re QCA schemes for KS2. I'm trying to help someone choose the best way to present materials on a site to satisfy as many Primary MFL teachers as possible. Having drawn their attention to the KS2 Framework and the QCA units and their thematic and skills rather than topic based approach, they're now in a quandary as to how to best present things.
In your experience, do teachers tend to still take a topic based approach?
Are people using the QCA schemes?
They've just been updated - how long do you think their shelf life will be?
And, here's a tricky one! - do you think if we get a change of government that the policy and therefore Framework / SoW will get changed again?
If you were planning resources with the aim of them being used universally, would you go for topic based approach or would you choose a number of themes loosely based on the QCA schemes of work, covering a number of topics, and follow their order to get the progression through the years right.
Any insights more than welcome. You can leave comments or contact me privately if you'd rather!
I love this poster, shared with me on Twitter by @nwinton from the imaginatively named I love Typography blog in a post entitled Diacritical Challenge. The challenge is to a) name the font and b) identify the diacritical marks!
I've got to say that I couldn't name all of them but there are plenty of people having a go in the comments!!
The subtitle of the post is 'Squiggly bits' which is how many of the pupils I teach describe them. As they're unfamiliar in our language, it can take a bit of explaining but ñ isn't too hard to explain, and the accents in Spanish to show where to stress words is easily explained when I mispronounce their names by stressing the wrong bit. And ¡ and ¿ are explained by the need to know if something is a question or exclamation a the beginning of the sentence so that your intonation is correct - cue much overacting ;o)
Here comes part three of my reflections on the units I'm currently using in KS2 Spanish. If you've read the other parts on Units 5 and 11, you'll recall that I've taught the units to half of the school and am now teaching the parallel classes until the summer break. So the current groups are probably getting a better deal as I refine and adapt from the first run, but may not finish the unit in its entirety as the end of term leads to much lesson disruption!
As with Units 5 and 11, Unit 14 has an opening stimulus from which the unit stems. In this case, a song. Based on the well known children's song, I am the Music Man, Yo soy músico has proved popular with Year 5. The QCA Unit which can be downloaded from here in PDF and RTF, gives the lyrics - you just have to sing it! Helen Myers has recorded a music only version - clever lady!- which can be found here, and if you want to hear how it sounds with a class in full voice, check out the WCPS Spanish podcast in the right hand column - although I'm sure you've all subscribed to it in iTunes ;o)
At the top of the post is the Powerpoint I made to go with the song. Note that it has two parts. The first half is in the first person singular - Yo soy músico, which is the version used in the first instance when the teacher (or volunteer class member!) is the Music Man. The second part is in the first person plural - Somos músicos - as the class join in with the whole song and we all become Music Men. I used animations having listened to Nick Mair talking in Oxford about boys learning best when there is action and movement in the graphics. There is an initial disadvantage as the class comment on the guitar playing pig etc mid-song, but after the first view, this stops and it really helps memorisation.
Looking at the medium term plan above, you can see that the objectives for the first lesson are to express simple opinions about music. This proved popular as we listened to some different types of music and decided if we liked them or not. In a previous unit on free time we had learned the phrase la música pop / rock / clásica and most recalled the phrase - and the accompanying action -
la música - hands on ears like you're listening to music then ..
...pop - makes your hands pop from fists to spread fingers whilst making your eyes wide
...rock - rock from side to side
...clásica - conduct an orchestra
...heavy - mosh!! (a clear favourite I must say!)
We added jazz (jazz hands) and folclórica (play a guitar) which took some explaining as few knew what it was! Several pupils commented on the use of cognates - and when one asked what tecno music would be, another piped up that 'it'd be la música tecno, silly'
I expressed an opinion in Spanish about the music using facial expression then encouraged the class to offer their own opinion in Spanish. Again, the phrase was not unfamiliar but, for some, had to be dragged from memory banks!
We then sang the song which soon involved the whole class. The first couple of times, everyone sang all the instruments to learn and fix the words - and of course we did actions for those who are kinaesthetic learners (and to keep everyone awake!). Having looked at pronunciation of the words we had a quick look at accents - why do música / saxofón / batería have accents - I explained it using people's names - when we see a name in English we know (usually!) how to say it as there are stress patterns - it's AlexANder not AlEXander and accents help show us how to say words. Pupils completed a simple sheet to finish the lesson - labelling and also trying to use their LLS to work out what six instruments were in English. Some of the words were obvious and others needed a bit of thought - but a few did work out los platillos are cymbals by thinking of plates!
Next lesson began with a recap of vocabulary and game of Simóm dice. Then we sang the song, firstly using Soy músico but with each table alloted the flashcard of a musical instrument to represent. This led to hilarity as the 'piano' table worked out that they had to stand up and sit down every verse - as you can guess I chose this table carefully!! We looked at the words of the opening to the song and used Sé tocar... and then Toco ..... to say which instruments we could and couldn't play - an 'on the ball' pupil suggested 'toco regular el piano' and 'no toco la guitarra muy bien' as answers - not bad eh? It's really encouraging when pupils 'play around' with language because they're trying to express themselves more accurately. We then looked at the second half - Somos músicos, venimos de Madrid etc' and discussed how this might differ in meaning from the first half.
We went on to recap our opinions about music genres and this time tried to add some simple reasons for the opinion - because it's slow, because it's boring, because it has rhythm etc. Pupils made up sentences in groups adding all the bits from the two lessons to see how long a sentence they could make using connectives such as 'y' and 'porque'.
At the start of the next lesson we recapped our opinions and started to present them in written form on graffiti wall posters - the word 'graffiti' made eyes sparkle although it was somewhat controlled graffiti! Whilst the class worked on this, I worked in the corner with my laptop and and microphone to record members of the class expressing their opinions about music - this was the start of WCPS Spanish podcast. The look of wonder on pupils' faces when they heard their voice comin gout of my laptop and then the IWB was great - one lad, Zach, commented 'But I sound really Spanish!'. (Pictures of posters to follow!)
Next we listened to some Spanish music and Latin American music, comparing and contrasting the instruments heard. I borrowed a CD from the library that had a vast array of South American music types on it, and I took in some of my own music - Tomatito, Heroes del Silencio, Joan Manuel Serrat, Los Nikis,Gloria Estefan,Alejandro Sanz,Operación Triunfo. We listened and decided which instruments we heard, and gave opinions on the singers / groups. Then I role played buying a CD - using a ActivPrimary flipchart (in Box of Goodies as can't upload to .DocStoc). In pairs with one as customer and one as assistant, the customer had to
say they wanted to buy a CD
express their opinion about a type of music and say which type they prefer
agree to buy an item., and we recorded some examples (see podcast!)
The roles were swapped so that everyone got to play each character. We recorded some examples for the WCPS Spanish podcast as well. This time I'm going to add discussing buying an MP3 file to this bit ;o) Having looked at accents and stress patterns as well as considering types of music, looking at the rhythm, especially the rhythm of words made perfect sense and we spent a good while clapping out phrases and trying to copy rhythms in the next session. At times it was rather haphazard, freestyle clapping but there were signs of promise from some who managed to copy accurately and understood the use of dynamics to mark stress. 'Guess the phrase from the rhythm' was a popular game - it's amazing how much concentration it takes to clap a simple phrase!
The last few sessions were given over to Year 5 producing their own rap/song in Spanish. I allowed them free rein over this with the proviso that it had to be in Spanish (obvious to me but you'd be surprised!) As a whole class we discussed how the task might be tackled and we came up with a start for those who couldn't think of a way in, then it was up to the groups to do their bit! There were several things to note from these lessons for next time.
Some groups needed more support than they were given - perhaps more time working together as a whole class before setting groups off on their own.
Groupings are key, and all the 'musical' kids ended up in two groups - they would've been better perhaps split up to help those whose rhythm was a bit off!
When recording pupils' final productions, don't put your iRiver anywhere near the drums! Sadly, a couple of good outcomes are drowned out by the percussion.
I'll upload those that will not damage eardrums to the podcast and/or Box of Goodies as soon as this post is finished ;o) There were a couple of groups that tried to sing their performances to tunes from The Sound of Music - good idea, I thought. Some stuck to opinions on music, others tried to work in vocabulary from other units such as Personal introduction vocabulary and sporting likes and dislikes.
The other Year 5 class are very different to the first group and I expect this half term to pan out differently to the previous one. I think this time we'll look at the pre-performance interview suggested in the QCA Unit and perhaps try to adapt a song rather than write rap. I'll keep you informed!
NOTE - if you'd like ideas on this Unit in french, check out Talkabout Primary MFL where Jo Rhys Jones has spookily just blogged about the same unit!
Here's the second of four posts on the Spanish QCA units I'm using with KS2 this term. The first, QCA Unit 5, Los Cuatro amigos seemed to be popular so I hope you find this one helpful too.
First thing to say is that I really enjoyed teaching this unit - and the class seemed to be equally enthused. The combination of music, literacy and Spanish proved popular, and this half term the cross curricular element is extended as habitats is a topic in Science. And I was really pleased with the outcomes of the unit.
You can download the Unit in PDF or RTF from the QCA website. Below is my medium term plans - being adapted as I go along and discover what does and doesn't work.
Unit 11 is based around and inspired by the Saint Saens piece, Le carnaval des animaux, and the opening lesson was heavily reliant on music. I borrowed the CD of The carnival of the animals from the library, but then found a great website that provided snippets for each animal theme. The site being in Spanish with short comments on the music makes it a possible resource for more experienced linguists to use in the discussion of music in Spanish rather than the English we used for ours. And it's a gift for the teacher who can point the pupils in the right direction if they're struggling.
We began by looking at the title of the Unit. I asked pupils to suggest what they might be learning in this topic, encouraging them to explain their ideas e.g. it's something about animals I think - the last word looks like animals; 'carnaval' looks like carnival etc. None of the class made the association with the piece of music as none had heard of it. Having established the title, I asked them to suggest what sorts of things they might learn - they're good at this as AfL is a focus this year at WCPS. Lots of suggestions hit the mark and others would've been good avenues for exploration given more time. Then we listened to snippets of the music, in order, and I asked for suggestions as to the animal it represented. As I've already mentioned, this was done in English and was much more successful than I had thought it might be. As my lesson allocation for the class covered their music lesson too, we were able to spend more time on Spanish by combining the two lessons. The music topic was based on rhythm and this fitted well. The pupils love contemporary music but it was good to see and hear them discussing a classical piece and passing positive comment. The suggestions of animals were sometimes accurate but some were off mark and this was probably due to not being given an idea of the animals we might be considering, so this half term when I did the same lesson with the other class, I began the same but introduced the vocabulary in Spanish prior to playing the music. This allowed more accurate identification of animals and moved us onto discussion of how the animal was represented / suggested by the music much more immediately. I introduced the animals using the PPT below, accompanied by actions e.g un león was two hands like paws ready to pounce; un gallo, one hand on top of head, one under chin with wiggling fingers like the comb and crop; un elefante with your arm as a trunk etc. Using images and actions we played Beat the teacher, ¿Dónde está ...? Simon dice, name the animal from the action and viceversa, to reinforce the vocabulary.
The second lesson began with a video of Los pollitos dicen..,I'd downloaded it from Youtube which was fortunate as Youtube is now blocked at school.
We watched a number of times and pupils began to join in with the opening lines as they wanted. Having looked at the video, I challenged the pupils once more to think about one of the objectives for the lesson. Several suggestions were made including habitat, food, mummies and babies, and, the correct answer, animal noises.
We recapped the animal vocabulary using actions, images and also rhythm. As we repeated the words, I clapped the rhythm. Pupils echoed the clap back again and we played games around the rhythm of the words. More of that later..
Moving on, we listened to a number of animal noises and asked the pupils to make educated guesses on the animal that made each noise, commenting on similarities and differences. We made a great cacophony of animal noises, akin to an unruly zoo as we practiced Spanish animal noises - the class were very amused that Spanish animals spoke another language too! With the noises came additional animals, extending beyond the initial stimulus. Below is a consolidation worksheet that we used to round off the section of the lesson as well as the PPT I used.
After the lunch break, we decided to make an animal symphony using percussion and voice! This met the objectives of the music unit as well as suggested activities in the QCA guidelines for the Spanish unit. Pairs of pupils were given an animal picture and a percussion instrument to create firstly a sound effect for their animal, and then used it to beat the rhythm of the word in Spanish. we took this further by individually presenting our pieces and then joining them together with teacher in the role of conductor bringing in and cueing out animals. The resulting 'symphony' was very interesting and you can listen to it here on our podcast WCPS Spanish (sounded better live, I must add!) A very enjoyable activity and an excellent for trying to maintain a steady rhythm and stay in time with others!
The next lesson was based around time and concluded with a class full of hot sweaty children and two children in first aid! Having recapped numbers 1-12 using a soft ball and various games - always a winner when I start chucking things around the room as I am hopeless at hand-eye coordination - I used an ELC clock to model the time for one and two o'clock before several bright sparks took over for three o'clock, half the class for four o'clock and 28/30 by five o'clock. We played time bingo and completed some questions from the IWB (sadly can't save those in Doc.Stoc so will have to put them in My Box of Goodies) With o'clock times stuck in our heads and consolidated with a written exercise, I ventured to suggest we could go out onto the playground and play a game. This was a popular idea - although not so popular when the class discovered that there were three other classes outside and they weren't working, just running around. However, to their credit, they mostly concentrated and several children from other classes came to see what we were doing! We played ¿Qué hora es, Señor Elefante? , a variant on What's the time Mr Wolf in which the animal changes each time, and the players have to move like the animal named e.g like an elephant for Sr. Elefante, like a swan for Sra. Cisne etc for the number of steps that corresponds to the time. More practice needed on the movement - never seen a tortoise run, nor a fish! However, lots of volunteers to be 'on'. We also played El Carnaval de los animales, very like fruit salad but with animals instead of fruit. Having given each child the name of one of six animals in Spanish, I called an animal and all those with that name had to move around the outside of the circle back to their space in the manner of their animal. If I called El Carnaval de los Animales, everyone had to move around the circle like their animal. This was the cause of the scrapped knees in first aid I'm afraid :o( but the injured parties weren't too sad so it was OK (phew!)
Next we looked at adjectives. Pupils had already commented on the colours of the nouns on their wordlist (see initial PPT) and had met colours in a previous unit. Some recalled the need for agreement and noted why there were two versions of most adjectives. I used Querido Zoo (Dear Zoo) as the stimulus for the lesson - a familiar story to many and again introducing another couple of animals for those who had already grasped the others as well as great for introducing adjectives describing animals, and the word for 'too' - demasiado. Having read the book on PPT, pupils made their own conclusions in groups about the meaning of the adjectives before we discussed (and corrected!) ideas together. Having introduced a few more ideas including rápido / lento, fuerte/débil etc, pupils made up some sentences using es and no es to describe animals. This turned into a guessing game with definitions being offered and others trying to guess the animal, and there was also a pleasing clamour to find out more adjectives using a dictionary - cue impromptu lesson in bilingual dictionary skills!
Habitats came into play next - using the suggested habitats from the QCA unit in a IWB flipchart (again, will have to put it into My Goodie Box!) we looked at pictures and guessed the theme of the lesson before placing animal cards into the appropriate habitat, making statements about where the animals lived. We used the first person, pretending that we were the animal preparing for the written part of the lesson when pupils took the role of an animal to be interviewed. We reviewed personal identification questions and modelled a couple of examples on the IWB before pupils went away to produce their own introductions.
4AT had heard that 5MW had been recording and they wanted in on the act. So we set up our recording studio in a corner and several pupils came to record their work for WCPS Spanish, our podcast. It was great to see all abilities represented in the volunteers, including all SEN pupils, and there were some who were reluctant to go to lunch as they hadn't had a chance to record. In fact, we even moved the studio to the library during their library session to allow more participation. Great to see them so motivated.
I actually had an extra lesson with the class and decided to continue on the animal theme! We looked at the Build my WildSelf site and discussed the different animals and body parts included (this recapped vocabulary learned in year 3) Having designed their own Wild Self (a very amusing task attacked with great gusto), pupils designed their own hybrid animals on paper and wrote simple sentences about them such as; Tiene la cabeza de un elefante. Tiene el cuerpo de un pez. Tiene la cola de un lagarto. Tiene las piernas de una jirafa.
I made a display as part of the Unit too, well received by all of KS2 including the staff who liked its vibrant images and interactive quality - all the stuff to make it below! Just laminate! You can see more of the display here .
My BBC Online daily e-mail informed me this morning that, according to a British Council survey, 'UK children aged 11 to 16 have the lowest international awareness among their age group in 10 countries'. The article reported that 4,170 children with Internet access were asked about language learning and international affairs and the results were scored on an index from 7 to 0 -
Nigeria 5.15
India 4.86
Brazil 4.53
Saudi Arabia 3.74
Spain 3.29
Germany 3.24
China 2.97
Czech Republic 2.51
USA 2.22
UK 2.19
When questioned, children in the UK were least likely to want to try and understand world affairs, and saw themselves as citizens of their country rather than the world. Young people in Brazil were among the most likely to agree with the statement "it is a good idea for schools in my country to have links or partnerships with schools in other countries" but the least likely to be in schools that had such links.
The article finishes with the comments of Martin Davidson, British Council chief executive "Our school children cannot afford to fall behind the rest of the world. For the UK to compete in a global economy, it is vital that we encourage our young people to have an interest in and engagement with the world around them."
Intercultural Understanding is a key strand of the KS2 Framework for MFL (although we're supposed to use PLL (Primary Language Learning) to get away from the negative connotations that 'foreign' can have) As far as I'm concerned, opening the 'window on the world' is a vital part of learning languages. At Whitehouse Common, we're taking this seriously and I've written raising international awareness and understanding into the SIP for PLL as a specific target.
Last year we made a start on this with an eTwinning project called Somos lo que Celebramos. Working with Colegio Público César Hurtado Delicado in Valverde de Leganés, near Badajoz in Spain, we compared and contrasted festivals and celebrations in the two countries. The project not only broadened the pupils' knowledge of Spanish festivals and culture but also made them look at their own celebrations through new eyes. We won a Runners-up Prize in the National eTwinning Awards for the project too - I was very pleased - my head wanted to know why we hadn't won! (If you want to find out more about this, have a look at the presentation I prepared for The Isle of Wight Conference where I spoke about the project, and eTwinning in general - you'll find it in my Box of Goodies. )
This year we're on a roll and are pushing the boat out into deep waters! We achieved the Intermediate International Schools Award for last year's efforts and this year, we're hoping to achieve the Full Award (fingers crossed!)
We're taking part in the Voices of the World project , have two Ted-E-Bears in North America and are about to become involved in a new Teddy based project with Silvia Tolisano. Our eTwinning project for this year is called Somos lo que comemos and hopefully will involve five countries comparing and contrasting food and healthy lifestyles in our countries (details being finalised at the mo!). Then there's Hands around the World - 480 handprints to parcel up (and cut out!!) to be sent around the world to other classes as we compare 'Holidays around the world' and, later on in the year, a postcard exchange. I'm working on email links with South America and, following on from the success of this year's European Day of Languages, I'll be starting planning for next year after Easter!
I'll tell you more about these projects over the next few weeks but just wanted to respond to the article with some examples of how we might address this - hopefully in a few years' time, children in the UK will be more globally aware and see themselves as 'global citizens', as they are encouraged to reflect on their own experiences as they appreciate those of others.
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