TRAINING AND MENTORING ACTIVITIES
for Primary Modern Foreign Languages
These training support materials have been produced by a PMFL network group, based at GeorgeAbbotSchool in Guildford, in collaboration with St Mary’s UniversityCollege.
Anna Lise Gordon, St Mary’s UniversityCollege
Colin Humphrey, GeorgeAbbotSchool
Caroline Mankelow, TillingbourneJuniorSchool
Thanks to the following for their contributions:
Claire Aldridge, BoxgrovePrimary School
Penny Madoc-Jones, St Mary’s UniversityCollege
Gordon Phillips, KingstonUniversity
Laurissa Reynolds, St Peter’s RC Comprehensive School
Gemma Scotting, BoxgrovePrimary School
Ludmilla Tanner, BurphamPrimary School
Lee Trenchard, WorplesdonPrimary School
Maureen Waters, WilliamCobbettPrimary School
CONTENTS
Contents page 3
Introduction for trainee teacher page 4
Introduction for mentor / subject leader page 5
Subject Knowledge Development pages 6 and 7
Focused Observation pages 8 and 9
Evaluation of a lesson pages 10 and 11
Evaluation of a series of lessons pages 12 and 13
Differentiation pages 14 and 15
Creating ICT materials pages 16 and 17
Assessment (informal) pages 18 and 19
Assessment (formal) pages 20 and 21
Transition pages 22 and 23
Learning Styles pages 24 and 25
Integrating MFL into wider curriculum pages 26 and 27
Introduction for the trainee teacher
A school placement is a vital part of your professional growth as a teacher, as you aim to develop your knowledge, skills and understanding as an all-round primary practitioner.
As a modern foreign language (MFL) specialist, you will want to be pro-active about exploring opportunities to teach your foreign language, too.
Schools offer a variety of models of MFL provision and you will need to be flexible. For example, you may be able to teach your MFL in your own class and / or in another class in the school. You may be able to teach 2 x 30 minute MFL sessions per week or perhaps MFL is more embedded in the curriculum and you’ll be teaching MFL in smaller ‘chunks’.
The purpose of this booklet is to provide some subject-specific guidance for you to use with your class-based mentor and / or the MFL subject leader in the school, so that you can gain maximum benefit from your MFL teaching opportunities. It may also be useful in your first year or two of teaching MFL in a primary school.
The training activities in the booklet can be used in any order, and more than once in some cases, so you can select an activity which best matches your current stage of development. For example, if you are embarking on your first placement, you might like to start with the activity on focused observation (pages 6 and 7), but if you are more experienced, perhaps a focus on differentiation or monitoring and assessment is more appropriate. The activities are cross-referenced with the Teachers’ Professional Standards (TPS). Activity pages have been deliberately left white, for photocopying purposes, should you wish to revisit them and / or to use them as evidence in your assessments towards Qualified Teacher Status.
You may well find that some of the activities are useful to you as an NQT or even as a more experienced teacher, too!
Useful documents / websites:
The Key Stage 2 Framework for Languages
Key Stage 2 Scheme of Work for French / Spanish / German
Introduction for the class-based mentor / MFL subject leader
Working with a trainee teacher is a complex process, as you support, guide, advise and encourage your trainee teacher to develop as a reflective and competent practitioner. It involves helping the trainee teacher to develop both generic teaching skills and confidence in teaching across a range of curriculum areas.
Most of the activities in this booklet are designed to encourage self-reflection by the trainee teacher. The activity pages (with the boxes) could form a useful basis for discussion between the mentor and the trainee. Some trainees might find it hard to set suitable targets and your expertise and experience will prove useful in this area.
Mentors will doubtless recall that teaching placements and the NQT year are hard and it is an important part of mentoring to focus on the positive aspects of a trainee’s work, maintaining a ‘can do’ approach. The amount of new learning for a trainee, together with workload and fatigue, can leave some trainees feeling that there is more to accomplish than they can manage.
Although the trainees may be PMFL specialists and enthusiastic about foreign languages, they will also be coping with a huge range of curriculum areas during their training, so the aim of this booklet is to provide some structured activities to focus on particular aspects of MFL teaching in a supportive way, with a clear path to improved performance through realistic, achievable steps. Cross-references to the TPS standards are also provided. The activity pages have deliberately been left white, for photocopying purposes, and could form useful evidence in the assessment process towards Qualified Teacher Status.
Adopting a ‘coaching’ style in discussion with your trainee will be particularly helpful. By asking questions and helping your trainee to think things through, rather than stepping in too quickly with advice or solutions, you will give trainees confidence in their ability to self-evaluate and make progress. The activities in this booklet have been written in the spirit of empowering the trainees to think for themselves and to gain increasing control over their own professional development.
Subject Knowledge Development
When learning another language, there’s always more to learn!
As the MFL teacher, you are the ‘model’ for pupils as they learn the foreign language, so it’s clearly important to review and develop your subject knowledge on a regular basis.
STEP 1:
As part of your university-based course, you will have completed a subject knowledge audit. As you prepare to teach, by observing some of your classes, it’s a good time to review your audit and record your current strengths and areas for development (box 1 opposite).
For example:
I am confident about vocabulary of pets for next topic
I need to:
a) practise pronunciation of some pets eg. tortue, oiseau
b) learn some classroom language eg. asseyez-vous correctement
STEP 2:
Think hard about the areas for development. Note a few targets and identify what you can do to achieve them (box 2 opposite).
For example:
Improve pronunciation of pets – listen to song CD and repeat key words, practise with MFL co-ordinator
Learn classroom language – observe specialist teacher, note and learn 5 key phrases
STEP 3:
The process of reviewing progress on a regular basis is essential. After two or three weeks, record your progress (box 3 opposite).
Be proud of what you have achieved, but be ready to plan for even more subject knowledge development!
Subject Knowledge Development
STEP 1:
Strengths / Areas for developmentSTEP 2:
Target(s) / Action(s)STEP 3:
Progress I’ve made / How do I know? (evidence)Evidence for: TPS3 (Subject Knowledge) TPS8 (self-evaluation and improving own teaching).
Focused observation
The closer you look at something, the more you see!
Lots of the teaching skills are the same for MFL as for any other subject, of course!
So what’s special about MFL? Here are some questions for you to think about and discuss with your MFL teacher. Talking to an experienced teacher is one of the best ways of getting to know your subject better so that you can provide the best learning experiences for your pupils!
- Knowledge of the KS2 MFL curriculum is essential. How does a lesson relate to the Key Stage 2 Framework for Languages and Scheme of Work?
- MFL lessons have a strong emphasis on speaking and listening. What impact does this have on activities? How does it affect how the teacher manages the pupils and their learning? How might it affect the activity after the MFL lesson?
- How and when are reading and writing introduced?
- The teacher and pupils are encouraged to speak in the target language most of the time. How is this achieved?
- Learning a foreign language is an opportunity to learn about other cultures, as part of intercultural understanding. How is this planned for?
- Memorising is an important skill in learning a new language. How are pupils supported with this?
- Can you think of anything else?
ACTIVITY:
Observe a MFL lesson and use the boxes opposite to record your observations and reflections, preferably (if time allows) as preparation for a follow-up discussion with the teacher and as an aide-mémoire to support your own planning of lessons.
Focused observation
KS2 Framework / Scheme of Work links / Pupil use of target language
Resources / Cultural opportunities
What did pupils learn? How do you know? / Useful points to remember and questions to ask!
Evidence for: TPS3 (Subject Knowledge) TPS4 (Lesson planning) TPS8 (self-evaluation and improving own teaching).
Evaluation of a lesson
The more you can evaluate your own work, the quicker you will grow as a professional!At the heart of self-improvement is self-evaluation, where you look at a range of evidence:
* ‘hard’ evidence, often based on data and facts
eg. Pupils all achieved level 2 in speaking activity
* ‘soft’ evidence, subjective views based on professional judgement
eg. Feedback on lesson, your own lesson self-evaluation
It is important to use all feedback wisely to steadily refine performance in line with Teachers’ Professional Standards and curriculum expectations.
As you evaluate your own lesson and respond to any feedback given by colleagues, you should identify targets to improve for another time.
Targets should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timed
For example: To provide differentiated support materials for pupil x for the next 3 lessons.
Ofsted look for particular things when observing a MFL lesson and it’s worth remembering these:
Planning and lesson design- Learning objectives – clear? challenging enough?
- Teaching about similarities and differences between languages
- Language resources: how well do they engage pupils and promote learning?
- Pupils’ learning (e.g. increase in their knowledge, working collaboratively)
- Teacher’s own linguistic competence
- Teacher’s use of target language in lessons
- Involvement of other adults in lesson: how well do they support pupils?
- Teaching methods – do they interest and motivate pupils ? do they enable pupils to make progress and to enjoy the lesson(s) ?
- Management of pupils’ behaviour
- Monitoring and recording of progress in the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing)
- Use of this information to inform planning
- Feedback to pupils on their progress: how well does it help them to improve?
- Monitoring of the progress of specific groups / individuals
- Gathering of summative data for transfer to secondary schools
Evaluation of a lesson
Use this evaluation grid to reflect on your teaching and pupils’ learning in one lesson.
What went well in the lesson? What is your evidence for making this judgement?e.g. Pupils worked well on task – little need for sanctions;many volunteered answers
What went less well than you expected? What is your evidence for making this judgement? e.g. Pace – not all planned activities completed
What proportion of pupils achieved the planned objectives? How do you know?
e.g. traffic light (R.A.G.) plenary assessment(TPS2)
How did you ensure that ALL pupils were catered for? e.g. extension question in role play for more able pupils(TPS5)
What other skills did the pupils develop during the lesson? e.g. memorising new words
Based on your evaluation, identify one or two SMART targets to work on.
Evidence for: TPS1,2,3,4,5,6. + TPS8 (self-evaluation and improving own teaching).
EVALUATION OF A SERIES OF LESSONS
At the heart of improving performance and mentoring is evaluation and wise use of feedback to steadily refine performance. This will include evaluation of individual lessons, but also monitoring progress over time.
Discussions with experienced colleagues should help trainee teachers to assess where they are now, to understand where they are trying to get to and to identify manageable steps towards achieving their targets.
It is essential that as much ownership of this process is left with the trainee teacher as possible. The mentor’s role will be to ask questions which prompt thinking, evaluation and action planning by the trainee teacher.
For example:
Tell me your reasons for doing the song before the speaking activity?
Can you think of any other games that would have helped the children to practise the new vocabulary even more?
There are many possible sources of help if you are stuck in your own thinking, and, over time, you may need to refer to many of them!For example:
- MFL subject leader
- experienced class teacher(s)
- university tutor
- NACELL website
- CILT Primary Pathfinder books
- other trainee teachers
When you first start teaching, the focus is inevitably on planning, teaching and evaluating single lessons, but it is important to try and see the bigger picture as soon as possible. Collaboration and focused discussion with colleagues will help you to achieve this, together with consideration of the key questions opposite.
EVALUATION OF A SERIES OF LESSONS
Having taught a series of MFL lessons, what do you think are the features of a successful MFL lesson? e.g. Children co-operate well in paired speaking activities (TPS1,4)Evaluate a series of MFL lessons you have been teaching. Which key features of successful lessons have you delivered effectively? What is your evidence for making this judgement? In what aspect / area do you feel more confident now? (TPS2,4,6)
What impact has your experience of teaching MFL had on your teaching in general?
What are the areas you wish to develop in your MFL teaching?
Choose no more than two aspects of your teaching performance where you feel improvement is needed.
What are the SMART targets you need to set to bring about the improvements you have identified?
Spend a few weeks working on your targets and evaluate how well you have done. What went well? It would be even better if …?
Evidence for: TPS1,2,3,4,5,6. + TPS8 (self-evaluation and improving own teaching).
DIFFERENTIATION
How are you going to organise your MFL teaching so that less able pupils feel a sense of success and don’t get left behind, as well as ensuring that more able pupils don’t get bored and under-achieve? (TPS5)
Reflect on how you do this already e.g. literacy lessonsAt times, differentiation by outcome will be appropriate. For example, if you are teaching year 6 pupils, their ability to write short paragraphs or speak for longer can be a good way of ensuring differentiation.
To encourage all pupils, it is better to differentiate by task. It will be helpful to plan your lessons on the basis of what all pupils must achieve, most pupils should achieve and some pupils could achieve.
For example, in oral work, you could adapt the following descriptions:
Activity / All pupils must / Most pupils should / Some pupils couldRecalling vocabulary / Say 6 new words from the lesson, particularly cognates / Say 6 new words from the lesson, using visuals / gestures as a prompt / Say 10 new words from the lesson, without needing any prompts
Dialogues / Be able to ask / answer 2 questions, with support on the board / Be able to ask / answer 2 questions, with only picture cues or no prompts / Be able to ask / answer 3 questions or more, from memory without prompts
Monologues / Be able to talk about themselves in 4 sentences, putting their own words into a model provided / Be able to talk about themselves in 4 sentences, with a gapped model or visual cues on board / Be able to talk about themselves in 4 sentences, entirely from memory
In reading, easier tasks will be to match words and pictures, to understand single items of vocabulary and to read shorter, simpler texts. More challenging tasks will include selecting answers from a longer text and having to understand more than one word to get the answer. Can you think of other ways?
DIFFERENTIATION
What is the main learning objective of your lesson?e.g. to engage in a short conversation in a café
Identify the ‘must / should / could’ level of objectives for your pupils.
e.g. all must be able to ask for a drink and price, with support / most should be able to ask for a drink, food and price, with support / some could be able to ask for drink, food and price, without support
Are appropriate differentiated materials available to support the teaching and learning? If not, how will you adapt the materials for your pupils?
How can you present tasks so that pupils feel secure in their learning?
e.g. organise pupils in ability groups with LSA support, support cards on tables
Evidence for: TPS5 (adapt teaching to the strengths & needs of all pupils); TPS8 (self-evaluation and improving own teaching).