CHRISTMAS

Some differences between Christmas in France and here.
Laure talked about St Nicolas day on 5/6th December.
Cards are sent in the month of January for new year. Christmas cards are less common.
Robins aren't thought to be Christmassy and they don't have crackers.
Crib scenes (la crèche) are popular decorations.

We learnt 24 Christmas words(Appleworks file called Xmas bingo) in groups using sets of miniflashcards. I didn't go over the words first but let you work out the pronunciation. Each group had 8 words each and then we passed them on. (I had planned for 4 groups with 6 words) Of course Laure and I were on hand for reference. What did you think of this as an approach? I was also thinking of a way learners could select the Christmas words they wanted to know first. After finishing the learning we played bingo by giving out the individual cards 3 per person. After the first person gets 3 cards cards could be swapped.

le 27 novembre - presque Noël!

On a corrigé les devoirs et a utilisé un dictionnaire web. wordreference.com

On a écouté de Henri Dès. On peut l'acheter chez i tunes store pour .79p
Les paroles sont dans mes dossiers dans ke dossier

On a appris beaucoup de vocabulaire à propos de Noël. Voir le dossier

Et on a découvert le site canadien fantastique CSDRAVEURS pour le karaoké de Noël. Nous recommandons no 12 du calendrier de l'avent.

La semaine prochaine apportez une activitée manuelle de Noël.

Synergy resources to buy

Finally got round to finding the source for the dice I bought at SLF: SYNERGY
The small foam dice where you can insert your own faces is £2.75 for 2, larger one £2.75 each.
The no noise dice (red and blue foam) come with dots or figures £3.75 for 2.
The catalogue has lots of other goodies like multi sided dice, number fans, spinners, and sets of white boards A5 £9.95 for 10 incl pens or £12.95 for A4 size
tel 01243 779967 sales@synergy-group.co.uk

La sainte Catherine

Aujourd'hui, Dimanche 25 Novembre, c'est en France la sainte Catherine.
C'est un jour bien spécifique pour toutes les femmes qui ont 25 ans et qui ne sont pas mariées! Elles doivent d'ailleurs être très contente que ce soit un Dimanche... Je vous explique pourquoi.
Normalement pour les femmes qui ont 25 ans et qui ne sont pas mariées on leur fait un petit chapeau representant leur metier (si elles sont comptables elles peuvent donc avoir une calculatrice des stylos,...). Elles doivent ,dans la tradition, porter ce chapeau toute la journée!
Comme cette fête tombe cette année un Dimanche, les célibataires de 25 ans doivent être très très heureuses!

Homework Dictionary Exercise

Try your dictionary skills
Look up the trees below.
List your answers with gender, cross referencing (by lookoong up your answer in the French side) if necessary .
ash, beech, lime, chestnut, plane, elder

Bring a dictionary with you on Tuesday if you can!

Don't read the comments until you have done the exercise!

20 November

I enjoyed the presentations on clothes very much. Looking forward to the others next week.

Some reading

Came across these passages written by some real French teenagers.
Introduction : Salut ! Je m’appelle Eléonore et j’ai 13 ans (bientôt 14 au mois d’août). J’ai une double nationalité, française et suisse. J’habite à Nanterre à 10 minutes de mon collège, dans un appartement. Je suis fille unique. L’année prochaine je passe en 3eme européenne, c’est une classe dans laquelle on fait des heures d’anglais supplémentaires et où l’on travaille plus vite et mieux. J’aime lire des mangas et des romans, dessiner, écouter de la musique, faire de l’ordinateur, sortir au cinéma avec des amies, ou visiter des musés avec mes parents.

Introduction 2 : Coucou ! Nous c’est Chloé et Sarah : 14 ans et ... 14ans !
Chloé : Mes deux parents sont portugais, j’habite à Nanterre avec mon père, ma mère, ma grande sœur, et mon gros chat qui s’appelle Tidou. J’habite à 15 minutes du collège dans un appartement aussi, mais je suis toujours en retard le matin parce que je vais chercher une autre amie qui a souvent du mal à se réveiller. J’aime bien aller au cinéma, regarder la télévision en faisant mes devoirs, dessiner des mangas et en lire...
Sarah : J’ai une grande famille avec plusieurs origines diverses : Mon père est irakien, ma mère est marocaine... J’habite également à Nanterre près de chez Eléonore dans un appartement. J’ai un petit frère (13ans) et une soeurette (8ans), je suis donc l’aîné. L’année prochaine je passe aussi en 3ème européenne. J’aime beaucoup dessiner (d’ailleurs je fais des collections de modèles prêt-à-porter de toutes les saisons) et j’adore voyager. J’ai déjà visité l’Allemagne, le Maroc, la Jordanie, la Belgique, l’Espagne et l’Autriche.

HOMEWORK

Module 2 are preparing to present clothes vocabulary using FC methodology.
Module 1 are writing a few sentences about themselves. You can post your writing on the blog by clicking on comments. Use the Simpsons exercise for ideas and I will post mine here too. Keep it simple. Use what you know!

Je m’appelle Kay McMeekin. J’ai cinquante-sept ans et je suis mariée avec David depuis 21 ans. Nous avons deux enfants - une fille qui s’appelle Laura et qui a 20 ans et un fils David qui a 18 ans. Mon mari est à la retraite mais il était, comme moi, prof de langues. Nos enfants sont tous les deux à la fac à Glasgow. Laura étudie l’archéologie et David étudie le génie civil. J’habite à Darvel qui se trouve à 35 km de Glasgow. Je vis avec mon mari et notre chien qui s’appelle Holly. Nos enfants vivent à Glasgow dans des appartements loués. Ils nous rendent visite de temps en temps. C’est tout pour le moment!

If you have trouble doing accents, copy and paste these!
é è ê à

Tuesday 4 December

Can we reinstate this day (instead of Thursday 6 December) as the inservice I was going to has been cancelled?

HMIE on MLPS

I heard Anne McGachey speak on her evaluation of MLPS at the recent SALT conference. Here is a transcript of my notes. Not many surprises!

She investigated learning and teaching in the MLPS programme.

She was looking
at the quality of learning and teaching
meeting differing learning needs
proficiency in the 4 skills by p7.
evidence of knowledge of the culture of the countries where the language is spoken.
positive attitudes to language learning

key areas:
curricular provision
inclusion – meeting learning needs
cluster partnerships
staff development
leadership

After 8 years of language learning pupils should be hitting level D+
what are they getting out of it?

500 hours entitlement – 45 minutes a week is nopt enough

FLA input is good but best when working as team teacher with class teacher

Features of good practice as regards attainment
positive learning environment – a sense of enjoyment
varied approaches to learning and teaching
good levels of confidence and fluency
effective use of ICT
developing understanding of another culture
rigorous self and peer evaluation by pupils and teachers
very effective proactive work by managers
points arising from above:
positive learning environment - displays, physical activity, humour
culture is more than berets, onions and wine
eg art, history
pedagogy: dialogue, feedback – do they know where they are
appropriate differentiation – shared assessment criteria – it helps if they are displayed so they can be referred to
open questions – ask 5 questions in a row

ongoing feedback – lesson review (not often done)
eg what do you know now that you didn’t before
variety: content activity homework – differentiate the homework
she questions the use of colouring and wordsearches

giving homework gives the subject credibility

a 1 hour lesson should have half hour homework, perhaps in shorter bits

challenge: they can do more than they are being asked to
they know outcomes, can they do it themselves?
Inclusion – liaise with Learning support dept

Disaffected children doing access 3 in second language

“ very good” has a sense of enjoyment, excitement, pupils able to discuss their learning - most liked working in pairs
Pupil choice of topic vocabulary learning approaches - variety breadth brisk pace

Choice – say to pupils you need to know x by end of the month, how do you want ot learn it.

“excellent”
pupils regularly speak the language and interact with each other in the language eg in paired work
work collaboratively in projects
experience a variety of activities, some involving movement
have very good opportunities to use ICT actively
make choices
can extend the language they use following hteir interst
had challenging and interesting homework eg teach your brother/budgie
had ready access to support eg dictionaries
pace

Teachers
effective teachers:

infant teachers are good at phonics
look and say]
all change after 10 minutes
ensured pupils spoke taught all 4 skills
use English to keep pace up
used TL
taught grammar systematically
use ICT
enabled pupils to learn a country (?)
conveyed enjoyment of language learning demand high standards of all pupils
involved pupils inn discussions about their learning
used formative and summative assessment to inform next steps
used resources flexibly to suit evolving needs
set regular HW
liaised with LS
Meeting pupils needs
appropriate leaning for each pupil – differentiation
differing levels of challenge
variety of homework – don’t always pair good pupils with poor ones

3 big messages
pace of learning –start right away, use timers, review at end
teaching - challenge
meeting needs - differentiation

Leadership
time and cover management, strategic plan
local partnership
international partnerships
CPD

La toussaint

The 1st of November in France is called "la toussaint" (litterally "all saints"). It is a special day of the year because according to tradition, we should celebrate the memory of our dead relatives.
Usually old people go and put flowers on the graves of their relatives. Those flowers are Chrysanthemum, so when comes the time of "la Toussaint" you got the flower shops full of chrysanthemum.

For the young people "la Toussaint" doesn't really mean anything but a day off (unless you are born in a christian and religious family)! Still I can remember that as a child I was going with my grand parents to put flowers on the grave of my great grand mother on the 1st of November.

The Simpsons

Here's a wee exercise on the Simpsons. You can use it as a model to wite about your own family.

Tuesday 13th November

I will post notes on days of the week, months, saying the date in my teaching files. Try and look over these, beforehand if you can.

We will start on clothes as well.

The international masterclass was an eye-opener. Read all about it in the newsletter blog