Embedding Thinking Skills in your MFL Lessons

Isabelle Jones, Head of Languages, The Radclyffe School,Lead Teacher Oldham SLN, North West RSA (ALL) @icjones http://twitter.com/icpjones My Languages Blog http://isabellejones.blogspot.com PLTS in MFL Wiki http://pltsinmfl.wikispaces.com

• Strategies for embedding Thinking Skills in Schemes of Work

• Ideas for developing a repertoire of Thinking Skills activities

• Ideas for using ICT to support the development of Thinking Skills

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Give opinions, assess/ criteria

Express rules, summarise, create

Identify patterns and rules

Predict, infer

Explain, describe, illustrate

Information recall: identify, list

Bloom’s Taxonomy• SYNTHESIS• Competition: Write excuses why you have not done

your homework/why you are late. • Using the tourist website for Martinique, invent your

own “advertising a holiday destination” practice task. • Brainstorm elements of a ghost story/fairy story,

research necessary language and write your own story.

• Poubelle/Basura – from a selection of evidence decide what might have happened to a missing person.

National Strategies Online Module

Pre new NC-5 types of Thinking Skills:• Information processing skills• Reasoning skills• Enquiry skills• Creative Thinking skills• Evaluation skills

PRICE

Information Processing Skills

• Locate and collect relevant information:Highlight positive adjectives, food suitable for vegetarians,Clothes you could buy as a present for your mother etc...

Sort, classify and sequence:By chronological order, gender, similar sounds, studentsclassify new phrases/ vocabulary and others to guess what the classification is.

Compare and contrast:e.g. Comparing example of verb endings/ adjectival Agreements to establish patterns.

Reasoning Skills

• Give reasons for opinions and actions• Draw inferences and make deductions• Make informed judgements and decisions Teacher’s questions must aim to give students opportunities to express reasons, deductions, judgements and decisions.

• Pourquoi c’est un passé composé?• Il est pour ou contre l’uniforme? Pourquoi? • Un livre vert, c’est bien. Comment dit-on “a green plant”?• What would you say if you had the complete opposite view?

Any more questions?

Enquiry Skills

• Ask relevant questionsStudents are shown text side-by-side with translationThey have 2 minutes to highlight what they understand And think of question about something they don’t Understand.

• Pose and define problemsShow examples of verbs following a specific rule mixedwith exceptions-where are the exceptions? Why?Canté Bailé Comí Escuché Fui Compramos

• Plan what to do and how to use a range of resourcesPlanning sheet, mindmaps

Creative Thinking Skills• Develop/ extend ideas• Write about it: newspaper article/ letter/presentation to penpal/ blog post/ short play/ poem/ story for young audience.http://mfl-storybirds.wikispaces.com/French+Storybirds • Talk about it: record an interview/ podcast (dialogue,News report, drama...) audio/ video

• Apply imaginationNightmare holiday/day, Famous for a day: who/what/why,Life Swap (dice), School of the future, My film (dice)Summer/ Winter uniform..

Creative Thinking SkillsMy Film dice game (can be done in English or TL)

A. Le role principal

1=une petite fille 2=un adolescent 3=une grand-mère4=une tortue 5=une danseuse 6=un chanteur de rock

B. L’ événement principal

1=un spectacle 2=des vacances horribles 3=un cambriolage4=un voyage 5=un concert 6=une course

B. Le lieu principal

1=l’ école 2=les Bahamas 3=un château hanté4=un bateau de croisière 5=un stade 6=un musée

Raconte le film comme si tu étais dans le role princial!

Creative Thinking Skills

• Making links: Learners are given a selection of familiarwords and asked to make a concept map by adding connecting words between the words already on the list.

• Making links to other subjects Using music, drama, ICT, history, geography, PSHE...

• AnalogiesUnderstanding what is unfamiliar comparing/contrasting it with something that is familiar

http://www.wordle.net

Analogies

• Create pairs of related words:Père etChaussures et

MèrePieds

• Make/guess the analogy:Manger + bois =Maison + douche =

TableSalle de bains

• Use unusual image/ sound associations: Students’ own Equitación (galloping sound)

Je suis (I eat sweet)Pink car (voiture is feminine)Blue car (coche is masculine)

Evaluation Skills

• Develop criteria for judging the value of what theyread, hear and do

2 stars and 1 wish Peer assessment (peer assessed by...)Wikis http://langwitch.wikispaces.com/8qF1 http://langwitch.wikispaces.com/8qF1 (dicussion tab)

PLTS in the New Secondary National Curriculum

independent enquirer

creative thinker

reflective learner

effective participator

team worker

self manager

Self Manager Activities• Sharing strategies to cope with the

unknown (reading/ listening): language challenge [document/ recording in a different language/ designed for natives)

E.g. L’ hôtel de ville• Prepare ICT presentation

– Presentation about self/ a chosen topic– Presentation about another culture– Grammar point

Independent Enquirer Activities

• Links with mathematics

– data handling– making predictions– presenting and interpreting data (table/ bar chart/ pie chart/ pictogram– Balance of diet– Leisure/school activities– Spending habits

Independent Enquirer Activities

• Mysteries

Problem solving activity based round a given central question that is open to more than one reasonable answer.

The information or 'clues' needed to answer the question are presented on separate slips of paper that your students will analyse, sort, sequence and link.

Independent Enquirer Activities• Mysteries ¿ Quién va a sufrir los problemas de salud y ¿ por qué?

Me llamo Bea. Tengo catorce años. Estoy estresada porque siempre estoy estudiando y nunca me relajo.

Estoy preocupada por los exámenes y no duermo bien durante la semana. Sin embargo los fines de semana duermo practicamente todo el tiempo.

Me llamo Javi y tengo quince años. Vivo en el norte de España con mi abuelo.

Me encanta hacer el ejercicio, no obstante bebo demasiado café.

Mis padres fuman y eso me preocupa mucho.

Soy muy gordo y no estoy en forma.

Mis amigos beben demasiado y toman drogas. Intentan convencerme para hacerlo.

Hace dos años mi abuela murió de un cáncer de los pulmones.

Debería hacer más ejercicio y comer menos. Hay que comer más verduras

El viernes pasado comimos en una hamburguesería.

Hacía el footing todos los días en el parque con mi primo.

Tengo que trabajar mucho ahora a causa de mis exámenes. No he estudiado bastante y tengo miedo.

Creative Thinkers Activities• Create your own sandwich, fruit drink, ice cream...• Invent mnemonics for particular vocabulary/

grammar rule • Poems: recipes, acrostics, calligrams, comparisons• Raps & rhythms• Songs: “Ne me quitte pas” Je ferai... • Rebus http://www.rebus-o-matic.com/index.php

Reflective Learners Activities• Odd one out

raison saison pantalon couleur

Gender, phonic pattern, plural, verb, agreement, alphabetical, abstract, linked...

• Fact or opinion

On mange mieux en France qu’en AngleterreDiscute + range les phrases selon leurs catégories • 2 stars and 1 wish

Direct/ Post-it notes/ wallwisher http://www.wallwisher.com

Effective Participator Activities• Teach part of the lesson: from initial

vocabulary input to re-introducing the past tense for regular –er verbs

• Get involved in outreach activities: resources for Primary (mini books, recording stories, using video-conferencing), open evening

• Organising a languages club/ café • Involvement in activities to prepare for a trip,

exchange, option evening• Displays, videos, LAFTA competition...

Team Worker Activities• Running dictation/ collective memory• Students work together to create or re-create a

text or a visual image in the form of a map, picture or diagram. Each student look at stimulus for a short period of time (e.g. 10 seconds) before returning to reproduce the original.

• Mysteries• Living graphs

• Wikis: Collaborative Writing Task: http://langwitch.wikispaces.com/l%27histoire+sans+fin

Team Worker ActivitiesLiving Graphs

Embedding PLTS the BLP Way “The 6 clusters of qualities are more thanSkills that can be trained...The point is to cultivate these qualities intobecoming dispositions, or habits of mind...Cultivation of the PLTS should run through the curriculum, life and ethos of the school,like lettering through a stick of rock”.

Embedding PLTS • Aiming to deliver a wide variety of tasks in a varied way: impact onresource design and nature of interactions in classroom • Opportunities highlighted in SoWs & examples of activities shared• Focus on developing students’ skills and independence• Introducing Meta-language to talk about learning: mats, display• Overlaps with AFL and SEAL• Training of support staff• http://isabellejones.blogspot.com/2009/10/flip-cramlington-model-for-developing.h

tml

• http://isabellejones.blogspot.com/2009/10/flip-approach-for-languages-at.html

How embedded are your Thinking Skills/ PLTS?

*Schemes of Work: mapping out of Thinking Skills lesson opportunities

sharing PLTS objectives*Evidence of:• Collaborative team work [+Seating arrangement,Display] • Students using “meta-language”• Students as Independent learners• Cross-curricular support/time dedicated to skills

building across the curriculum