Grammar from the start

Why?Develops important skills in first year of a language:Memory skillsPhonicsPronunciationAlphabetArticles

45,000 competitors in England and Wales this year

25The Spelling Bee is a very simple idea which are often the best ones in my experience. It is designed to fit easily into the Year 7 curriculum and to cause the minimum amount of work for the teachers running the project.

Basically Year 7 students are given 50 words to learn per stage. The words are chosen to fit into the topics that are generally taught in Year 7. Students must be able to translate them into the TL and spell them correctly in the TL alphabet. At the end of the stage there is a competition where each participant has 1 minute to correctly translate and spell as many words as possible.

There are 4 stages in total: stage one is the individual class competitionStage two is the whole school competitionStage three is the regional competitionStage four is the national competition

The top four students at each stage go onto the next level and are an additional 50 words at each stage. The final 50 words for the national competition are Olympic vocabulary to fit in with the 2012 Olympics in London.

Making it memorableVisualUse colour coded background to support gender acquisition when teaching and practising new nouns in any topic. AuditoryUse music and rhythm to teach and practise key structures and vocabulary

KinaestheticUse gesture (and miming) as strategies when introducing new language and later when eliciting it from students. Gestures are powerful fixing agents in memory.NB: At the point where students want to know WHY they are doing something, dont forget to tell them why you are asking them to act, gesture, sing, mouth, use colour etc..

Keep it active!VKSCollective memoryPhysical, mental, socialKey structuresVocabularyListening skillsFunRunning dictation

Empieza con unouno, dos, tres, cuatro, cincoseis, siete, ocho, nueve, diezy vamos a contar otra vezuno, dos, tres, cuatro, cincoseis, siete, ocho, nueve diezhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK3yyyQECNMSong available on YouTube 123456789101112

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PronounsVerbsVocabularyPhysical responsesTeatro fsicoWalk the talkCard sortPictogramsEmpty your head

Demonstration of these.Play music to pronouns people can do in their preferred languageConga a verb wohnen sagenVocabulary expressions of time (nunca, a veces, normalmente, a menudo, siempre) get people to come up with their own gestures.Explain physical responses (e.g. to words in a video example hare and the tortoise retention is good from stories) or text you are readingTeatro fisico 2-3 mins activity (why? Will remember doing the activity the words associated with the body shapes/movements)Walk the talk act out the thinking process i.e. sentence-formation OR tense recognition.Card sort listening activity lift correct card, sort into order of listening. Sort according to positive/negative, one person/ another person, tensesPictograms draw what you think the word sounds like (know overall theme) before knowing the meaning. Then go through and reveal the meanings students have to change their existing drawings to reflect the actual meaning. This works! Creates heightened awareness a sort of listening with intent or motivated listening that means they are alert to the word-meaning connection. The act of drawing reinforces kinaesthetically and supports the acquisition process. Try with some Swahili or Mandarin words?Empty your head post-it notes. Give 1-2 mins (with music) to write all words in TL on a given topic. Pass to partner new colour adds any to that list that they can pass it back. 1 x min to look at all the words put on back of chair. New post-it write all the words again from memory.

7

yo

tUsted

l

ella

nosotros

vosotros

ellos

Ustedes

ellas

8yonosotrostvosotrosl/ellaUdellos/ellas/Udshablar - to speak

hablohablashablahablamoshablishablansiemprenormalmentegeneralmentea vecesnuncasiemprenormalmentegeneralmentea vecesnunca10Keeping it activeReadHearSeeSee and hearSay (talk or discussion)Say and do (simulating the real event)Adaoted from Accelerated Learning Systems LtdAverage Retention Rate10%10%20%20%30%30%50%50%75%75%90%90%So we have realised that its possible to sit through any number of lessons and not take anything away. The reasons for this are obvious if we think about it. This diagram makes it really clear. The more passive we are when we encounter new information the less well we remember it afterwards. To get higher rates of remembering retaining the information we have to be more active about things.

Lets look at everyones favourite activity vocabulary learning!We all know that the most foreign language words you know in your long-term memory the easier it is to make progress and achieve higher grades. But just sitting and looking at a list of words is not an effective way to get the words to stick. What else is there?

First, lets look at what knowing a word means. It seems simple but this is where there is often some confusion. Many of my students at the start of Y10 started in my class still thinking that if they looked at the word and it looked a bit familiar, that was knowing it. When they came to want to use the word, saying it or writing it in a piece of work or spoken answer, they couldnt. 11Laura.Xavi.Santi.Hola, me llamo Qu tal?Tengo11 aos.13 aos.12 aos.Mi cumpleaos es el18 de junio.5 de mayo.27 de abril.Soyfrancs/francesa.ingls/ inglesa.espaol/aVivo enHolandaItaliaCosta Rica

conmi familia.mis padres.mis animales.y habloitaliano y espaol.ingls y espaol.solo espaol.Annas TES resources reminded me of this one! She calls it Trapdoor and its brilliant for a) memory and b) speaking (repetition with a reason!) Its a competitive game in pairs. Each chooses and option for each sentence in their head. One starts reading out loud, trying to anticipate the others choices. Each time they make a choice, the partner either nods or shakes his/her head. If the choice is wrong, play passes to the partner who starts the same process. If it is the right choice, the student gets to continue. The aim is to get to the end first. Answers dont change, so this is also a great memory developer. 12

Self assessmentHow do I know what I know?1 I can pronounce the word 2 I know what it means3 I can spell the word4 I can use the word in a sentenceFor example:1 The word trabajo is pronounced tra ba- jo2 It means work3 It is spelt t - r a b a - j - o4 It can be used in this sentence:Tengo un trabajo a tiempo parcial.- Practise pronunciation - Learn what the word means- Practise how to spell the word- Create sentences with the wordTake your list of language and rate your knowledge of each. Then decide how you need to improve:Make a set of online flashcards & spend 20 mins using them to learn (50 pts)Work with a partner to learn the words, testing each other (50 pts)Use the Look, Cover, Say/Write, Check method(50 pts)Use your core language sheet and vocab book to create new sentences with the words(50 pts = 5 100 pts = 10)Write each word 3 times & translate once (50 pts)Use WordArtand type words out in alphabetical order(50 pts)Make own flashcards on card and use them to test yourself over and over(50 pts)Record yourself saying the words and the English meaning use this to test yourself(50 pts)Look at the following Spanish words and award them a number (1 4) according to the criteria below:1. I can pronounce this word/phrase2. I know what it means3. I can spell this word/phrase4. I can use this word/phrase in a sentence1. hoy2. tengo3. voy4. me encanta5. un gato6. no puedo7. tambin8. bien9. es10. soy11. un bolgrafo12. estoy13. cansado14. fatal15. veinte16. fenomenal14Look at the following Spanish words and award them a number (1 4) according to the criteria below:1. I can pronounce this word/phrase2. I know what it means3. I can spell this word/phrase4. I can use this word/phrase in a sentence1. hoy(today)2. tengo(I have)3. voy(I go/Im going)4. me encanta(I love)5. un gato(a cat)6. no puedo(I cant)7. tambin(too, also)8. bien(well)9. es(it is)10. soy(I am)11. un bolgrafo(a pen)12. estoy(I am)13. cansado(tired)14. fatal(terrible)15. veinte(twenty)16. fenomenal(great)15

memoria16memoria = memoryClick word to hear it pronounced.

El gran juego de la memoriaTenis 10 segundos para memorizar!17El gran juego de la memoria (The big memory game). Tenis 10 segundos para memorizar! = You all have 10 seconds to memorise! Click on text to hear instructions pronounced. The curtains open on click and then close when 10 seconds has passed. Pupils must use the time to memorize which items are on the tray and then recall them orally. Encourage them to remember whether they need to use un/una/unos/unas with each bit of vocabulary. If you ask different pupils for one item each then this will hopefully be manageable. The items are shown again on the next slide. Remember: if its too difficult/fast for pupils you can always repeat the slide.

El gran juego de la memoriaTenis 8 segundos para memorizar!19As before but pupils now only have 8 seconds to memorize to increase the challenge. (Sounds still included.)

El gran juego de la memoriaTenis 6 segundos para memorizar!21As before but pupils now only have 6 seconds to memorize. (Sounds still included.)

Comberton V.C.Una persona deletrea y los otros escriben.23Pupils may want to put themselves forward for the Spelling Bee where they have to spell words aloud within a time limit. Teacher may repeat the word only once. This should encourage the pupils to repeat the word for themselves and retain it in their heads until the spelling becomes clearer a good strategy for later listening work. The rest of the class members must write down what they think is the correct spelling and mark the speller right or wrong. There is a list of words on the next slide which you can use for this or you may wish to choose your own.The Beeby Jane Driver

A 1-minute TL spelling competition for Y7 studentsStage 1 Class Competition (50 words)Stage 2 School Competition (100 words)Stage 3 Regional Competition (150 words)Stage 4 National Competition (200 words)

National Winners

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