Teaching the Subjunctive in French and Spanish

 The first thing to bear in mind when teaching the subjunctive is not to give the impression that it is difficult. And anyway, as anyone who has watched kids at football training knows, it's the fancy stuff they want to spend time on, not the basics. So the subjunctive is not there to trip you up. It's there to make you look good. And enable you to say things you want to be able to say, as part of your repertoire for extending answers into coherent narratives.

You could teach pupils a list of expressions to memorise which take the subjunctive. I prefer to start with understanding the concept. The easiest way to do this is to look at the word "subjunctive". Pupils can immediately see that it splits into sub and junctive. And they recognise that the junctive is to do with joining or junctions. And that sub is linked to making something less important.

This makes sense as soon as they see sentences where two ideas are joined, and one of them is too SHOUTY and needs subduing.

For example:

I don't think that THE SUBJUNCTIVE IS HARD

In this sentence you can see the two clauses linked by the word "that". And the second clause is shouting very loudly exactly the opposite of what we are trying to say. As I stated at the top, we are not to go around stating that the subjunctive is hard, and the example sentence is trying to make the point that this is not what we believe. 

In English the second clause clashes horribly with the overall point of the sentence. Luckily in French and Spanish we can use the subjunctive to smooth over the joining of the 2 clauses and subdue the shouty part. Exactly as the word "subjunctive" promised us.

I don't think that the subjunctive be difficult
No creo que el subjuntivo sea difícil
Je ne crois pas que le subjonctif soit difficile

And from there, we can extrapolate to any expressions which are counterfactual, doubtful, improbable or supposition. We can give pupils a list of examples, let them see it in context, and add it to their repertoire.

Another example would be the sentence:

I am sorry that YOUR DOG'S DEAD.

Again, the second clause is insensitively shouty and drowns out the overall message. We use the subjunctive to tone down the shoutiness of the clause. And by extrapolation all value judgements and emotions, both positive and negative.

The other use of the subjunctive is again one where English phrasing can lead to bizarre unintended implications.

My parents don't want me... to be a dentist

I want you... to do well in your exams

These sentences start off in an alarming way that we can avoid by using the subjunctive.

My parents don't want that I be a dentist
Mis padres no quieren que sea dentista
Mes parents ne veulent pas que je sois dentiste

That's much better! Thank goodness for the subjunctive. And by extension, we can teach pupils to use the subjunctive for whenever you are getting someone else to do something.

I am not advocating rote learning fancy expressions to impress the examiner. We had enough of that with the old GCSE that destroyed language learning. I am teaching pupils to understand how to use the subjunctive to create meaning. And they integrate it into their repertoire of giving opinions, justifying them, and narrating events with differences of opinion, what people said, what was happening, and what happened. (Explained in detail in the video in this post.)

In particular the "my parents don't want" use is easily included in the pupils' repertoire. Maybe with topic like jobs and careers, but also in any answer about going out with friends.

Me encanta salir con mis amigos, pero mi madre no quiere que vuelva tarde, por ejemplo el fin de semana pasado fui a la casa de un amigo y...

If you want to see exactly how I talk about this with pupils, then I have this video on the subjunctive for French and Spanish. Includes free bongo solo.

Booklets at KS3

 I have been asked to write a post about using booklets rather than textbooks. I have always used booklets, and it's interesting to think about how they have evolved (and continue to evolve). This post includes a video to show what one of our typical booklets contains now.

When I was an NQT in the 1990s, we worked from booklets. These had "yellow pages" at the front which contained the vocabulary and structures reference section. At the end of the unit, pupils would keep the yellow pages in their Spanish ring-binder. The other pages were activity pages to work through. They were usually the published worksheets that accompanied the various textbooks we had. For example listening or reading activities where the pupils could answer on the sheet. This was more practical than pupils answering in their exercise books or on paper. And often the texts and exercises on the worksheets were more substantial than what appeared in the textbooks. For younger viewers, I should also explain that access to photocopiers was new and expensive, so getting things printed in bulk was a good idea. The school had actual printing machines.

As I started to take over some responsibility for Spanish at KS3, I also started to put some of my own worksheets into the booklets. These were usually scaffolding for speaking lessons, along the lines of this lesson from 2002 that was videoed for the OUP PGCSE resources. Things like Keep Talking sheets (see "Why I don't call them sentence builders"). The idea was that a lesson wasn't something that happened on paper - it was mainly about practising communicating with other people in the classroom.

When I became head of department in my current school, I have to admit that bringing in booklets was in part to police what other teachers were doing. In the nicest possible way, by providing them with resources. Again, I wanted lessons to break free from the textbook, and make the steps beyond learning vocabulary, towards having a strong focus on modelling, practising and using language to communicate. I wanted to make sure that the curriculum was built around a growing core of language that pupils could use confidently and apply across topics.

Here's an example of what our booklets look like now. Click here if the embedded video doesn't load.

You can see it is still very much based on scaffolding and modelling. With some on-paper activities: coffee splat, link up maze, annotating and adapting model answers, logical/strange, verb tables, categorising, writing in different colours (which I have now seen called "rainbow writing", which I love)... And some Keep Talking activities which might only be a page in the booklet but which can take a whole series of lessons with activities like Being Ben or Speed Dating until pupils can speak fluently and become less and less dependent on the booklet.

We do also have exercise books where pupils do extended writing. They keep their exercise books from year to year, partly because much of their work is done in the booklets but also to keep the progression of their learning all in one place. They also keep their booklets in a folder so they can refer back to earlier units when they need to. They don't tend to take the booklets home anymore, as more and more homework is set online.

Rather than having differentiated versions of the booklet, we try to make sure that all activities are scaffolded, and pupils challenge themselves to reduce their dependence on scaffolding. If teachers do create a modified version of any activities, they go into a shared folder and may well end up in the booklet next year.

We do still use textbooks, and everyone in the department picks and chooses when to use the different resources. And most important of all, is that the lesson isn't something that happens on paper! Learning a language is about what happens when it is lifted off the page.

Back to School - the Immediate Implications of the Ofsted Research Review in Modern Languages.

 Time to sum up the series of posts on the Ofsted Research Review in Modern Languages and make myself a list of things for the start of a new term.

The start of Year 7 for us is always built around Phonics. But this year it won't just be for Year 7. Without chanting and choral repetition last year, the pupils going into Year 8 and Year 9 will need a top up. We shall see if they take to the keywords and hand gestures with the same enthusiasm as Year 7 usually do. A lot of my focus will be on a gentle start to the year, with staff settling back in, spending more informal time together and catching up on everyone's ideas and thoughts for the year. But phonics is the one thing that we must hit early on. We know it's vulnerable to staffing changes - because it's what we start with, sometimes new teachers aren't up to speed with how we teach it. So we need to make sure it's the one thing we're all ready to go with. And then throughout the year we can explore the NCELP resources for continuing to work on phonics, sharing what we have found and building it in to our Scheme of Work.

 Another one for the start of the year is obviously going to be Transition. Rather than a Baseline Test, we do an information gathering exercise. We have to make sure we are all genuinely interested in pupils' prior experience of languages, valuing what they have already learned at home and at school. And now is the time to renew our contacts with our feeder schools. The interruptions of the last two years mean we have to reach out and renew networks, and make them stronger than ever.

Then there will be areas to highlight with the whole department, to focus on our strengths. Our snowballing curriculum means everything we teach is joined up, and nothing is left behind. We make sure that pupils develop a core of language that new knowledge can stick to. This works for Vocabulary and for Grammar. Rather than micro-planning interleaving and returning to words from previous topics, we try to make sure that pupils' learning is always accumulating more, and the words and structures they have learned in one topic, are transferrable to future topics. To make sure this is even more explicit, we are going to make sure the computer room activities are programmed to include revisiting language from previous topics. I want to talk to the department about pooling our starter activities and using these as another opportunity to link current content to known language. And maybe branding them like maths with their "fluent in 5" silent lesson starters based on a gradated mixture of recall and problem solving questions.

We will keep our Grammar bound up with our Vocabulary teaching, building a cumulative repertoire of language that pupils can use. Pupils will meet structures and concepts over and over again, moving from lexico-grammatical chunks towards being able to manipulate and inflect the grammar for themselves. During the year we will look at the NCELP resources for ways to focus on drawing pupils' attention to grammatical forms, carefully integrating new language with existing knowledge.

The greatest strength of our curriculum is an area that Ofsted have missed, or downgraded: Communication. But actually, curating the repertoire of language pupils can use in order to express themselves, is the best regulator for all the things that Ofsted do want us to be doing. As I wrote in this post on the central flaw in the Ofsted view of language teaching:

If Ofsted want us to keep a close eye on what pupils can manage and what overwhelms them...

If Ofsted want us to think about how knowledge sticks...

If Ofsted want us to think about how knowledge accumulates...

If Ofsted want us to keep a close eye on how knowledge can be recalled fluently...

... then the best way to monitor, regulate, cement, and ensure this, is to focus on developing pupils' repertoire for expressing themselves, communicating more and more independently and spontaneously.

Much of this communication happens in the lesson activities, but Ofsted also want us to plan for how we use the Target Language for Classroom Communication. This will be important at the start of the year as teachers introduce their routines. And we have a speaking frame to encourage pupils to use these structures for different purposes. We will bring back the laminated TL Connect 4 game to incentivise pupils to use the target language to communicate. As the year goes on, we can look at James Stubbs' blog and think about how he makes sure classroom routines develop so that classroom language continues to keep pace with the language pupils are learning in the curriculum.

We have started to make new Assessments so that we are testing what has been learned, rather than labelling the pupils with good underlying literacy as the ones who are "good at languages". We have stopped worrying about tests producing a spread of marks from "top" to "bottom" and are concentrating on how the tests show pupils that they are doing well and making progress. We will continue to use vocabulary tests in class, but more as a way of showing the importance of continual low stakes testing as part of the learning process, rather than as a way of checking up on learning at home. We will make more use of asking for direct online evidence of learning done at home.

We will continue to focus Feedback so it has most impact. Books will be marked using criteria labels prior to the final assessed piece, so that the feedback can have immediate impact. The key performance indicators for the assessed work will continue to use exemplars rather than descriptive statements. And we expect similar quality of work from all pupils, with different levels of support or independence. We will use the exemplars to give pupils a clear view of the progress they are making.

The final section of the Ofsted Review that I looked at was Leadership and Structures. Much of this is focused on the take up of languages. We will be doing a survey of Year 9 in September to start them thinking about options choices and to get an insight into their thinking right from the start. We will need to renew our creative projects and links with other subjects. And we will want to renew our links with partner schools for exchanges (real or virtual) to get pupils back into widening their horizons and friendships. 

But thinking about Leadership is where we need to split away from the Ofsted Review. Because the return to school isn't going to be determined by Ofsted. It will be about human beings. Staff and pupils. Spending time together, catching up, listening, valuing, supporting, thinking, seeing things from different perspectives, and enjoying working together.

Toblerones for Speaking

 Pupils love this Speaking practice activity, perhaps because everyone loves a toblerone, but also because it makes them feel organised, supported and in control. It is something I used to use for the calamitous Learn Fancy Answers By Rote GCSE but you may still think it is a good idea to use for pupils to rehearse answers, at GCSE or in KS3.

Figure 1

How to Make the Toblerone.

1. Write out your answer in Spanish at the top of a sheet of A4.

2. Rotate the sheet of A4 and write the English at the other end of the sheet. The Spanish now looks upside down compared to the English. See figure 1 to check you have done it correctly.

Figure 2

3. Fold the sheet of A4 into three. This is always great fun as pupils fold it in half first and then wonder what to do. Learning to fold into three  is great practice for folding tea towels or thank you letters to your aunt Iris at Christmas. See figure 2.

Figure 3

4. Form the sheet of A4 into a toblerone and secure with a paper clip. Make sure it can stand safely on its base and that the Spanish and English both now appear the correct way up on opposite sides of the toblerone. See figure 3.

How to use the toblerone.

1. Set the toblerone on the table between you and your partner so that the Spanish is facing you.

2. Look at the Spanish text facing you. Translate it into English out loud to your partner. Your partner will read the English side of the toblerone and ask you to correct any mistakes you make.

3. Keep the Spanish text facing you. You are going to read it to your partner BUT you can't look at the text and speak at the same time. So look at the text, memorise a chunk, look up and say it to your partner.

4. Turn the toblerone round so the English is facing you. Look at the English and try to say it in Spanish to your partner. They look at the Spanish version and ask you to correct any mistakes you make.

5. It is a good idea to let your partner have a go at their toblerone in between. This means you challenge yourself to keep yours in your brain for a little bit longer between activities.

6. Decide what you want to put on the 3rd side (the bottom) of the toblerone. The question in Spanish? The verb endings? Picture cues? Then practise using at the cues you have given yourself while your partner looks at the Spanish to check you are doing it correctly.

7. You may have a series of questions to practise like this. Make a toblerone for each one and practise each one with a partner. You only need ONE paper clip. Don't be greedy. Take it off the first toblerone and use it to assemble the next one.

How to store the toblerones.

Figure 4

1. Unclip the last toblerone you were using.

2. Flatten them all out.

3. Use the clip to hold them together and keep them safe. See figure 4.

4. Reuse regularly in class with a partner. Take them home and do more toblerone practice. Store in a cool dry place. Do not attempt to eat them.

A Brave New World for Language Learning

By Dr Greg https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3469011

 This is Preston bus station. I knew it as a grey concrete dirty, wet, impractical, prematurely aged, sometimes smelly place that was hard to find the way into on foot. (Hint: Go through Morrisons.) But one day I decided to try the mental gymnastics of seeing it differently. A new style of architecture for a new age. Democratic, free of flounces and imperialist or classical references, public, accessible (through Morrisons) for all and for the future. And there you have it. Look at that picture. The most gorgeous building in the country, fortunately saved from destruction by a campaign that I ended up supporting. It truly delights my soul to look at even that picture, let alone the actual building. How can I have been so blind for so long?

I am going to try the same trick with the Ofsted/NCELP/new GCSE proposals. I am going to put aside all my objections and try to visualise it as a wonderful new structure full of promise, hope and ambition.

First of all, ambition. We have failed. Language teaching is failing. It is unsuccessful particularly in the early stages of Secondary School, and loses too many learners who don't grasp the basics well enough to have good foundations. And it is inequitable and un-democratic because under-privileged learners are the ones who get left behind, and we don't pay enough attention and care to the detail of building their understanding in the tiny incremental blocks they need.

Our languages curriculum suffers from vain pretentions and over-blown bombast. It expects pupils to "communicate" and "express themselves" somehow magically, when they have barely started to learn the language. These vain promises lead to a plethora of features being added that compromise the structural integrity of the edifice. They confuse and they lead nowhere. We encourage pupils to talk about themselves and their families, whether or not the language involved fits the patterns of grammar that pupils desperately need to grasp. Pupils' individual circumstances require the teaching of too great a range of low-frequency vocabulary that is inefficient and distracting. We need to stop putting the trivial and decorative (What pets do you have, what are they called?) before the structural and conceptual.

So what should we be teaching? The structural pillars of phonics, vocabulary, grammar. Not topics, not communication. Not yet. First an abstract understanding of the rules and structures of the language. Carefully managed so that one concept is introduced at a time. To build up a mental architect's plan of how the language is structured. With rules and processes to be spotted, understood and followed so that pupils can have a feeling of success when their recall is tested.

Progress can be gradual but relentless. With an understanding that connections need to be made between existing knowledge of structures and new knowledge over time. And that knowledge needs to be revisited and re-tested to stop it being forgotten.

There will be room for cultural knowledge, and this knowledge will come out of the language itself. Place names to practice pronunciation. Knowledge that there is different pronunciation in different regions. Different forms of address using different verb forms. Knowledge which engages directly with and reinforces the language structures the pupils need to learn.

Everyone will have the same knowledge, and that knowledge will be expertly selected and ordered so that it makes sense and can be learned. Pupils won't have the cognitive load of having to think about what to say or the obstacles of being put in a situation where they feel they are being asked to say things they aren't secure in, or come up with their own answers. It is only fair to ask pupils to recall and show their understanding of what they have actually been taught.

Here it is from Dr Rachel Hawkes of NCELP: We have typically taught pets, and we have decided to teach them gato, perro. But also in the same breath we have taught them pez, serpiente, ratón because thy fit within the topic area. But what they do also is compromise and hold learners back a little bit because they obscure the fundamental pattern which is if the noun ends in o it’s masculine, if it ends in a, it’s feminine. If we accept that that is problematic and we don’t wish to put hurdles in the way, well maybe pez goes, serpiente goes, ratón goes.

How am I doing? Are you loving the brutalist beauty, honesty and clarity? I tried my very best to convince myself.

Or is it starting to sound a little bit Orwellian? Are you worried that far from democratic, it sounds imposed, totalitarian and controlling? Focused on the abstract rather than reality? Is there a danger that once it is opened to the public, cracks might start to appear? For some reason I have been watching historic engineering failure videos on YouTube, and the high-handed architect who thinks they know best and continues with the project despite the increasing alarm of the construction workers never seems to end well. Preston bus station has survived and I believe it is structurally sound. But its user-experience, popularity, practicality and maintenance costs don't necessarily match up to its conceptual beauty.

If you have been traumatised or feel brainwashed by this post, please click here to read the antidote.