Something more creative...
My Virtual Classroom
![Picture](/uploads/1/3/2/5/132520331/published/screenshot-2020-06-01-at-22-51-31.png?250)
I created my virtual classroom during lockdown to try to make students' remote learning a bit more fun and engaging. I really enjoyed finding all the images and I think the hardest decision was which rug to choose! This was created on PPT and includes hyperlinks to webpages and also other pages within the same presentation. I intend to use it for homework when we go back to school as I think having quick links to vocab lists and online dictionaries could be really useful!
Origami Dream House
![Picture](/uploads/1/3/2/5/132520331/published/traumhaus-origami-pic-copy.jpeg?250)
This activity is a nice way to give students a stimulus when writing about their dream house. There are lots of YouTube videos on how to do the origami bit. I'm not going to lie, this bit is quite painful and can take a while! But once they have their paper house, they can begin to design and label it in the TL (they come up with all sorts of weird and wacky rooms). Once they have their colourful, labelled houses, they can do a piece of writing on their dream home, either in the present tense or for a higher level of challenge, the conditional.
Time Ballet & The Tense Waltz |
![Picture](/uploads/1/3/2/5/132520331/published/screenshot-2020-06-05-at-21-41-41.png?250)
These activities are a bit on the crazy side! Some classes love them, others loathe them!
TIME BALLET: A PPT presentation runs with a time sentence in the TL (a different one per slide). Put on some ballet music and students have to create the clock hands with their arms (they can mirror the clock on the PPT). Because the PPT slides keep moving to different times, the students look like they are ballet dancing. Bizarre but a lot of fun!
TENSE WALTZ: A similar idea. Students partner up as if they are ballroom dancing (they probably want to choose their own partners for this!) The PPT displays sentences in different tenses and the students move around the room (forwards, backwards, left, right) depending on which tense they think the sentence is in. So for example: A past tense sentence, they would step backwards, a present tense sentence they may move to the side and a future tense sentence, they move forwards. For other tenses, you can be more creative and ask students to twirl etc....
TIME BALLET: A PPT presentation runs with a time sentence in the TL (a different one per slide). Put on some ballet music and students have to create the clock hands with their arms (they can mirror the clock on the PPT). Because the PPT slides keep moving to different times, the students look like they are ballet dancing. Bizarre but a lot of fun!
TENSE WALTZ: A similar idea. Students partner up as if they are ballroom dancing (they probably want to choose their own partners for this!) The PPT displays sentences in different tenses and the students move around the room (forwards, backwards, left, right) depending on which tense they think the sentence is in. So for example: A past tense sentence, they would step backwards, a present tense sentence they may move to the side and a future tense sentence, they move forwards. For other tenses, you can be more creative and ask students to twirl etc....
Language Library
![Picture](/uploads/1/3/2/5/132520331/published/img-5829.jpg?1596722715)
To keep up with some German over the summer holidays (especially given that they have missed four months of lessons this year due to lockdown), my colleagues and I decided to compile a list of reading/watching/listening for our Y12 students. However, rather than just send out a fairly uninspiring word doc, I had a go at creating an interactive language library (in the same way I made the virtual classroom with a hyperlinked PPT). I linked the images with various YouTube documentaries, PDFs of the book we are studying as well as links to other slides on the PPT to include a list of Podcasts, Netflix recommendations etc. I will let you know in September how it was received by the students.
Verb Races
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Once I have drilled regular present tense verbs with year 7 and we've chanted a rhyme a few times to practise, we have verb races. I put an infinitive verb on the board and in groups, students conjugate the verb on their whiteboard and run to me (this can be quite terrifying lol). The first group to correctly conjugate the whole verb wins the point (they are sent back if there are mistakes). Don't forget to risk assess the classroom if getting students moving around (bags under tables, nothing to trip over etc). Also try to keep students as sensible as possible and try to tell them not to run. We do 'fast walking' :)
Thinking Hats
Write a simile
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I really liked this idea from Amanda Kimberley's Linguascope webinar. 'Learning (insert language) is like....' It makes the students think and reflect on their learning and gives the teacher an insight into how they find your subject. I set this as a little extra challenge task to Y7 over lockdown and here are a few of their responses....
Being creative with Bitmoji
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Bitmoji app seems to be taking the teaching world by storm at the moment and I have definitely jumped on board the bandwagon. I actually started using bitmoji a couple of years ago once I discovered that you could change the language (in the bitmoji settings on your phone) and I made some rewards stickers for my classes. Since then I have also made some reward cards, a virtual classroom, a virtual library and a virtual tour of Germany (thanks to @ladderley96 for the original). You can also include a bitmoji picture of yourself on 'Fling the teacher' on classrooms.net. One student over lockdown messaged me to say 'Miss, I managed to fling the teacher. It was good fun!.'
Learning Languages is my Superpower
![Picture](/uploads/1/3/2/5/132520331/published/langs-my-superpower.png?250)
Rather than just getting students to discuss the importance of learning a language, why not ask them to create a 'Learning Languages is my Superpower' poster. This is a nice first lesson or homework task. They could annotate with reasons why and how languages will help them in life. I got this idea from a 'being bilingual is my superpower' sketch by @educatorBMLs shared by @mister_MFL on Instagram.
Der Konjugator (Verb conjugator)
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This idea was shared on Twitter by the lovely Jimena (ladeidiomas) and it's a really nice visual/kinaesthetic idea for teaching the present tense (or any language/tense really). It was a bit last minute so we made them with paper but I think they would work much better with card. the students make a little window with the pronouns and verb endings and then write the stem of a verb on a lolly stick. They can have a few different sticks with verb stems on.
MFL Challenges Bingo
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Budding linguists love to have a go at challenges. Here is one I have made for Christmas. They get housepoints for a line and a little MFL-related prize for a full house. Find the PDF linked below to download if you would like to use it.
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mfl_christmas_bingo.pdf | |
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