Creativity using Studio 1

Year 8 have been doing some creative writing based on the last chapter of Studio 1 last half term.

First they read this poem, and watch some YouTube videos of kids acting it out and even a song version of it, which they love

Then they do the listening exercise from Studio 1 on a different version of the same poem.

Final activity is using this scaffold to write their own version

I can turn anything into a teaching moment …

So I made Forky from Toy Story 4 out of my fork from my prawn pasta salad today for my toddler.

Then I thought my kids might like to see him … so here’s a picture of Forky with the following questions

1) Qu’est ce qu’il y a sur la photo?

2) Tu as deja regardé <<Toy Story?>> C’était comment? Quel était le dernier fil’m que tu as vu?

3) Tu aimes les dessins animés? Pourquoi/ pourquoi pas?

Ode to Cryptograms

Why I love cryptograms

1) They take less than two minutes to make.

2) They can be easily differentiated – give away fewer or more letters, combine with anagrams, give different pupils different sentences

3) Most kids love them

4) much more fun as a settling activity for a noisy lower ability class than a word search.

5) You can put them into worksheets or powerpoints easily.

6) I even make them on my mobile sometimes! 2 minutes for a ten minute plus activity…

This is a cryptogram! To make one, visit Discovery Educations puzzle maker website. Type in a French phrase, choose which letters to give away and voila!

Pupils have to crack the code to unjumble to sentence.

Qu’est ce qu’on peut faire avec un GCSE en langues? The Year 9 recruitment lesson with a twist

I have put “why study languages” at the heart of the Year 9 curriculum in the spring term – all taught in French, with an emphasis on translation and creative writing.

This is the first activity, matching up the infinitives and revising the on peut structure.

Now the pupils attempt to translate this using a “translation grid” but more about that later.

Finally I used “word it out” word cloud generator to put key words to make sentences (or paragraphs) to produce creative writing on why you should study a language at GCSE.

This year we have almost four times as many studying French as last year. Hopefully this played a small role.

Before … and after! Writing around the room task with a little help from Donald Trump

So the activity goes like this – the topic is healthy lifestyles in imperfect and present tense (Year 10 mixed ability) pupils come in and they see these pictures on the board – they have a post it note and have to write sentences as if they are the people on the board – j’étais très paresseux – je ne faisais jamais de l’exercice- maintenant je suis actif etc

Part two is the teacher or a pupil spokesperson reading out the post it’s or putting them on the screen on a visualiser for much hilarity!

Part three is “Writing around the room” Basically you have four or more bullet points placed around the room either on desks or pinned or walls. They walk around each “station” adding to or correcting each other’s work in pairs.

for this topic I did …

– Ce que tu manges normalement et ton opinion

– ce que tu fais pour rester en forme

– ton opinion de fumer

– Ton mode de vie quand tu étais petit (e).

Part four – collate the writing, put it on the board discuss, group feedback

Part five – heads down, answer a 90 word question on lifestyle (20 mins timed)