ALL London branch |
Last update: 19/01/2014 | Click here to see invitation to this event as published ALL London January Event 2014 Report
What a lovely morning we had on Saturday 18th January 2014! Teachers came from far and wide to enjoy listening to superb speakers, Rachel Hawkes and John Connor as well as to enjoy each other's company as they browsed through exhibitor stands over coffee. Many thanks to Renata Albuquerque and the staff at SOAS for making us feel so welcome and for inviting us back for the June Event when we will be in the building opposite - the Brunei suite. We are sorry that a few people could not make it because of transport difficulties (power lines down and floods!)... but here are some links to give everyone a flavour of the morning. Stéphane Derône coordinated the interesting exhibition, and thanks to sponsorship from our exhibitors (Oxford University Press, Maison Claire Fontaine, the Goethe Institute, Vocab Express and others who sent us leaflets) and our generous speakers who only receive a token payment, we can keep the costs to a minimum. Thanks also to Linguascope for providing us all with a lovely calendar! Helen Myers introduced the committee, generally enthused about being a member of ALL, encouraged people to become members and to go to the annual conference, and outlined future events which include a workshop day at The Ashcombe School where she works, a Webinar with Joe Dale on using iPADs in the classroom and the next June event to be held again at SOAS with great speakers including Colin Cristie, Tom Crapper and René Koglbauer. Nick Mair invited people to the ISMLA annual conference which is always well attended, with very useful sessions. He later led a very useful session for students on how to prepare for interviews. Joe Dale invited people to sign up for the annual ICT Languages and Technology Conference at Southampton University 'Putting the pedagogy into the technology' .. a must for anyone even vaguely interested in how to use ICT! Renata Albuquerque told us about the wonderful opportunities available at SOAS and we are really excited about the prospect of sending pupils to SOAS for free courses to learn languages, and about the fact that plans are being made to provide a similar experience to teachers.
SUMMARY Rachel Hawkes talked about alternative approaches to teaching key language at KS3/KS4. She argued persuasively that such an approach was vital for classes which increasingly have mixed prior experience and therefore will be de-motivated by 'more of the same'. Her talk was simply packed with fantastic practical ideas which were grouped into six areas as follows:
John Connor's talk complemented Rachel's talk perfectly. After an excellent summary of the current languages landscape (KS2, No NC levels, EBacc, OFSTED) and a masterful trashing of 'levels' (Albert Camus level 4, Year 9 pupil Level 6), he involved us in trying out a variety of activities which undoubtedly 'engage' people through use of authentic materials and interesting tasks. These included guessing the age of celebrities, having the language to participate in debate ('The Toolkit') matching current news headlines with pictures from the popular press, and matching film synopses with titles... an excellent idea in anticipation of the forthcoming Oscars! He then went on to give a wealth of ideas for giving pupils a sense of 'audience and purpose' for their work. These include blogging, wikispaces and podcasting, and finally he gave links to some excellent 'authentic' sites for presenting and practising language and thereby 'keeping it real'. Prim Herridge introduced and thanked both speakers in her inimitable style, but echoing what we all felt .. excellent speakers who were nevertheless ''down to earth' and 'normal' (!) ... providing ideas which any of us could imitate and put into practice on Monday. The delegates were fantastic .. everyone friendly, positive, enthusiastic .. they make it all worthwhile! And here are some of the comments written on the feedback forms: (Admittedly Helen advises them to be positive!!!!) 'Great, thanks! | Great speakers today, thank you | Great talks | Brilliant today! Exactly the boost I needed! Thank You! |Yet another excellent day - always made very welcome and worth the trip from 'up north'. Thanks to East Coast sake train only cost £10 return from York. Brilliant to visit SOAS and see what they have to offer | Fabulous speakers - thank you very much | Found it very inspiring | lots of excellent practical tips | Excellent, interesting ideas | What a lovely morning! | Thank you so much - a truly inspirational and useful morning. So many easy and great ideas which are really helping engage students | All excellent, top marks! And this is what people would like for future sessions More of the same please! | Ideas of real information and how it can be used | 'closing the gap boys/girls | Pupil Premium'| 'How to differentiate in MFL'| 'CLIL/Flame ... strategies and models which work'| 'K2/3 transition ideas'| Group talk in primary | More for primary | Build in a small section of time for structured networking - groups / game / ice-breaker for new attendees | AS and AL teaching teaching cultural topics/literature' |iPAD when only the teacher has one! |New curriculum linking primary and secondary Those of us who were still loitering at the end decided to go to a nearby cafe for a snack where we embarrassed the Italian staff by forcing Italian language on them ...! What a rowdy bunch!! The end of a lovely morning. Ciao a tutti!
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