Dance Moms and GCSE French

 Instead of Tutor Time, Year 11 have been split into subject tutoring groups. So instead of my Year 11 form, for 3 days a week, I now have a twenty minute mini lesson with a small group of pupils who the data flagged up as needing a boost in GCSE French.

And it's lovely. The pupils are great and twenty minutes is my new perfect lesson length.

So what have we done, and how do Dance Moms fit in?

In the first week, we did building up an answer round the class. When they came in, they found I had written on their desk the key structures for giving opinions, justifying them, if sentences, (and but if not sentences), where we went, what we were going to do, what was said, (and the reply), what happened, and what we would have preferred to do. One structure per pupil, in that order round the class. And through the week, we picked different GCSE topics and built up an answer following the same development and using the same structures. Just by looking at where the other pupils sit in the classroom, they can recall a whole series of structures to deploy. I also read them the If you give a Mouse a Cookie story to show how once you say, I like... the whole rest of the story inevitably unfolds.

The next week, we did the conjunctions dice game. On a different topic each day. Again pupils give an answer starting with I like... and then at the end of the sentence, throw dice for and, especially if, because, so, for example, but... and carry on and on and on and on. I also ask them to use so as a trigger for the future: so at the weekend, I am going to... And use for example as a trigger for past: for example, last weekend, I was going to... (This is important because then in the speaking exam, I can just say, For example...? and know they will give me an example in the past.)

And so to Dance Moms.

Dance Moms was an American reality TV show which pupils still know from YouTube. Miss Abby hothouses the girls' (and sometimes boys') talent, and the mums fight over whose daughter is being neglected or favoured. And meanwhile each week they descend on another unsuspecting American city to enter the local dance competition, and sweep the board of trophies and medals.

How do they do this? Every week a new routine to new music. The answer to the question: "How do they have time to prepare a prize-winning dance routine every week?" turns out to be the key to the GCSE French speaking exam.

The answer is: The music is different, the routine is different. But the moves are the same. So in your French GCSE, you might get asked about School, or Work, or Holidays, or the Environment, or Free Time, or Life in France, or Living in Norfolk, or House, or Family and Relationships... So many different routines. But the moves that make up the routine? The moves are the same.

And what are the moves? Well, that was today's mini lesson. (After watching a bit of Dance Moms and seeing who could remember all their names.) You pick the moves based on what the judges want to see. So we looked at the criteria for the speaking exam. Opinions and reasons, extended speech, narration, past, present, future. That's it. That's the moves.

So tomorrow and the rest of the week, we will see how quickly we can make up new "routines" for different questions, making our life easy by recycling the moves, and knowing it's what will wow the judges. And I am absolutely sure that I won't be teaching them new moves. They know the French. What matters for the exam is being able to confidently put together a new routine for each topic or each question, made up out of your favourite moves.

And next week? Maybe the Football Game Plan metaphor just in case not everyone is a big Dance Moms fan.