So I bought an IKEA Lustigt Spinning Wheel from Amazon. I made a PowerPoint with 24 GCSE Speaking questions. I put some stars on random questions.

Pupils spin the wheel to get a random question. If they get it right AND there is a star on it, they win a “star prize!” (something random from my drawer, such as a bent paperclip, or a homemade badge saying “Well done youuuu!” or if they are really lucky, a sweet.) Year 7 will be doing it with beginners vocab, colours and numbers etc.

 

 

Instead of setting just a list of vocab for pupils to (not…) learn as homework, we are now giving them a Wyvern Word Workout every 1-2 weeks. Pupils have to look, cover, write check, then match up words, fill gaps and finally try to write the French / German from memory. So far it’s very successful- vocab test scores are higher, retention is better and homework is evidenced for parents and those all important “book looks.” With the added bonus that you can give little Johnny who was off /lost his sheet a spare so he can fill it in while you take the register… AND you can have a bank of them at the back of the room for early finishers / GCSE vocab sessions organised by topic! Ah they make me happy! Also will try making a more advanced one where they put the key words in a sentence / paragraph / match synonyms /antonyms for the more able.

The good

A massive improvement – almost 40% increase on 9-4

23% increase on 9-5

Finally got some 9-7s !

The bad

Some Higher kids seem to have been given lower grades than expected, interestingly when you look at last year’s boundaries they would have got the grade higher for the same mark. Two of my Grade 3 Foundation would have got a 4!

The ugly

The examiner “lost” a pupils papers, so he got given a Q for French ???!!@&&??

One pupil was given “special consideration” for speaking – which I have learnt today means they didn’t have time to listen to the recording so they invented a grade! Fortunately this pupil still achieved their target and passed, but they were two UMS off the next grade – maybe if AQA had actually listened to the exam, they would have achieved it?

How were your experiences?

New display

Mrs Liddle’s MFL Blog is having a well deserved summer holiday! Bonnes vacances and I’ll back to the daily posting in September x

Write 2 lies about yourself and one truth and put it on the board when they come in.

Students have to guess which are the truth and which are lies.

Obviously this can be differentiated to suit your classes. Afterwards the pupils can make up their own 2 lies and a truth!

Here’s an example:

1) J’ai vingt-cinq ans

2) Je parle quatre langues

3) Je joue de la guitare électrique

Lower Ks3 should be able to easily adapt these sentences about themselves.

Little competition – all the names were French and the sheets all in French.

I had Year 8/9 helpers who had to speak to the Year 6 in French “Comment s’appelle le nounours?” “Il s’appelle…” “comment t’appelles-tu?” “Quel est le nom de ton école primaire?”

Il s’appelait Jérôme 🙂

What do you call this game? After seeing it doing the rounds on Secondary MFL going to give it a go – you have to put a word in each box and they take turns to put a line on each until they make a square. To claim their square they have to say the word in the target language.

I’ve just bought one of these for £5 from eBay.

This is one of the ways I plan to use it. Year 10/11 GCSE class

In small groups

1) Show a photo on the board

2) Start describing as much as you can before bomb goes off, pass to next person

3) If bomb goes off you are out.

4) All pupils have a peer assessment grid so they are learning even if they are “out.”

1) Stick this on the board

2) Ask pupils a question, if they get it right write their name in one box

3) When all four boxes are full, when answer a question they get to “kick someone off” the board

4) The last four remaining at the end get to leave first / get positive merit points / whatever works in your school.