activities

Today I happened to log on to Twitter at around midday and came across a message from @kvnmcl:

This, along with a previous tweet from @bellale regarding the use of web 2.0 tools in the MFL classroom, has prompted me to write up a copy of an overview of the Spanish course that I will be implementing from September at school. I have had to do this for two reasons 1) we are returning to a four year Spanish course (instead of the 3 we currently have to get them to a good GCSE standard) and 2) to incorporate the new AQA GCSE specification into the department’s overview. I have also taken the opportunity to re-vamp the content of some schemes of work, and although this is just an overview of what could be incorporated it is certainly a working document, and one will evolve over time.

When I did my PGCE course we were taught to look at the end in order to know how to get there. The end ‘objective’ for this four year curriculum is to have covered all the necessary language for GCSE, plus any other relevant language such as body vocabulary and daily routine (which, bizarrely are no longer part of the AQA GCSE). And of course, I wish to teach all of this whilst building in opportunities for pupils to learn about Spanish-speaking countries and Hispanic culture whilst still leaving time for assessment and my beloved use of ICT.

With this in mind I would like to write the complete schemes of work with ideas for activities to be done at the end of a language topic, giving pupils the chance to use all the language they have learnt over the previous lessons. Ideally, I would like to CRAPPI check activities (an acronym left over from my PGCE days whereby we checked that the following criteria were met when thinking through a classroom activity). So, rather than using Web 2.0 tools for the sake of using Web 2.0 tools the activity that the pupils will undertake will Challenge them and be Relevant to them. There will be an Audience who will see the final product giving the task a sense of Purpose. It should be Personal to the students and should also involve an Incentive to engage them in the task. The activity can revolve around any skill or any combination of skills and a CRAPPI check can be done on any activity with any amount of language scaffolding, however, if it is an end activity then pupils should have minimal language support to complete the task.

The link to the Wiki is here. Please access it and contribute any ideas you have! You can discuss things in the discussion page and access any of the year groups via the links on the right hand side, or from the home page and only the Year 8 – 11 pages are changeable.