Starburst

I've had to explain to a few people recently why I haven't gone down the management route and why I never intend to.  I did do a management course once, 12 years ago, and decided there and then that it wasn't for me.  I'm far too easily distracted by new things to try, and would definitely be the creative/ideas person in a team, and not so much the person who gets things done.  

Here is my latest distraction, a Starburst book, and it's specially for @lancslassrach.

The advantage of this one is that is folds up pretty small yet has plenty of space for writing and illustrations.  Each "page" is almost A4 in size.  It can have as many or as few sections as you like.  Mine has 6.  I used coloured card as I don't have any coloured paper.  Here's how to do it:

For each section: 1.  Take a piece of A4 paper and cut a square from it by folding it as shown and cutting off the extra rectangle.

2.  Unfold your square and fold it in half from top to bottom.

3.  Fold it in half again.

4.  Open up your square again and you'll see that it has 3 different folds.

5.  Fold inwards the squares that have the diagonal folds through them....

6.  .....and this is what you will have.

7.  Make your other sections in the same way, then stick them together on the blank square sides, taking care to match up the folds and open edges.

8.  Now all the sections are stuck together.

9.  Cut 2 squares of card, 11.5cm  x 11.5 cm, for the covers, and stick them to the outsides of your starburst.  And that's it!

Each section can be opened up individually and has a large space for writing and drawing.  You could also make these using A5 paper.  They would then be mini-starbursts but would still have nearly A5-sized "pages".

These mini-books would be useful for any writing that comprises different sections or chapters.

Lift a different kind of flap

I have been working on "Then and Now" with my fourth-year-of-Spanish children.  We have got to the point where they are ready to do some writing about their village now and in the past.  We have covered all the language content, and the historical content will be down to them - they did it for their topic last term.  Then, they produced a leaflet about the village and its history, so I want to do something different in Spanish.  I turned once again to this book for inspiration.

You start off with a blank piece of paper (I think I will use A3 on the day) which you fold in half widthways twice, like a greetings card.  Then you cut flaps in the top layer, then the second layer, and, if you need more space, the third layer too.  The photo at the top shows you the "front cover", and the pictures below show you each successive flap, containing our first draft text.

Of course I am expecting the children to decorate theirs, and we will be adding to the writing.

I have prepared a template for the children, and if you would like to have a go you can download it from here.

Talking mini-books

This takes mini-books to a new level!  Using Storyfold™ Audio Paper from Mantralingua, the Minibook Creator software and the PenPal (the successor to my RecorderPen) I have made a minibook that talks:

There are several ways of using this software and hardware:

• Make a mini-book with pictures and words, and record the sound for the children to listen to.
• Make a mini-book with pictures only, record the sound for the children to listen to and see how much they can understand.
• Make a mini-book with pictures only, and the children use the PenPal to record their version of the story.
• Children draw their own pictures to illustrate the mini-book and record their own sound.
• Separate the audio paper into 8 cards and record sound to use in board games or games such as Pelmanism.
• Separate the audio paper into 8 cards and use it to make audio labels for things in the classroom

Lots of different ways of encouraging all four skills, pair work and for providing individual records of learning and progress.

Thanks as ever to Bev Evans for her brilliant images.

Disclaimer:  I am currently working as MFL editor and author for Mantralingua.

Go Latino!

A whole day all about languages, a whole day about languages descended from Latin.  This was Go Latino!, a day conference run by ALL (NE) yesterday.

I did Latin O'level back in the day, followed by A'level two years later.  Then some five years after that I needed to call on it again while researching for my M.Phil, as my poem was "borrowed" from one in Maccheronic Latin and called on many of the classical authors.  (Nearly 20 years later, it still bothers me that I never succeeded in tracking down the reference to "Venus y sus ninfas".)

In my Spanish Key Stage 2 scheme of work I have included a bit of Latin, namely in days of the week and parts of the body, inspired by the children's questions.  I'd like to weave in some more (and a bit of Arabic if possible!) and was after some information about how it is taught these days and what resources are available.

The day started with some thought-provoking words from Jim McElwee.  We considered the words of Comenius's Magna Didactica, in which he speaks about effective teaching as well as language teaching.  Some of Jim's points for your consideration:

• Do we draw attention to cognates or take them for granted?  Are they obvious to all learners?
• Do we notice things we aren't looking for?  Children often come up with things we aren't expecting, while the teacher tends to have a certain answer in mind.
• Do we teach about language or help learners to acquire the language?  For example, a young learner might be able to use a present subjunctive clause without knowing or understanding exactly how it works.

Sue Balmer spoke about the Latin teaching that she has been doing at Gosforth Academy.  She and others have found Latin to be a boy-friendly subject, due to its logical and problem-solving nature.  Sue uses the Cambridge Latin Course, which is the course that I learned from at school.  The course has been updated has new resources to go with it.  The Cambridge Latin Online Project was launched in 1999.  Another story-based course is Ecce Romani.  Both are rich in language and culture.  Sue recommends the Minimus series for primary-age learners.  Minimus is particularly apt for north-east learners as Minimus and the other characters are from Vindolanda on Hadrian's Wall, and  he is even on Twitter.

Latin has some advantages over modern languages.  

• Non-specialist teachers, and students, will not be as worried about the pronunciation.  
• Latin in Key Stage 2 would solve Transition dilemmas
• It provides enormous cultural knowledge and there are huge benefits for Literacy and other areas of the curriculum.

Some useful links:

• The document Latin for Language Learners: Opening opportunities for primary pupils promotes and justifies the teaching of Latin.
• TuTubusLatinus - a Latin-based YouTube channel
• Friends of Classics website.  Grants are available to get Latin started in your school

After finding out about using short films in the classroom (Filminute.com looks like an excellent site and I recommend Chop Chop), dabbling in some Portuguese language and culture and then a quick lunch, it was time to learn about Web 2.0 tools with Joe Dale.  There are some useful links posted on the Todaysmeet.com page for the event, which you will be able to view for the next 29 days!

Many thanks to Claire Dodds and her team for organising such a good day.

Paper chains aren't just for Christmas

I've seen a lot of paper chains in the classrooms of my schools recently.  In one school, each classroom has a paper chain made of links decorated with the children's names.  In the other, one of the Year 4 classes has made a chain out of their work about Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol.

Then today, when I should have been doing something else, I saw an interesting tweet from the TES appear in Tweetdeck and retweeted it together with a little thought about how it might work in MFL:

I had a chat about it on Twitter this afternoon with @kscapp, and after that thought I'd give it a try to see how it would work.

I tried it out with the sentences that my Year 6 Spaniards did recently, about where they go and how they get there.  The sentences have four "chunks" and so to start with I cut strips in four different colours.  Blue for time phrases, green for parts of the verb ir, orange for places in town, pink for transports.

Then I made three paper chains, using one of each colour for each chain.  You can see the results in the photo at the top of this post.

Students could work in pairs to make chains like this from a given selection of "chunks".  They could check each other's and translate them into English.  Putting the colours into the right order reinforces the word order and will increase pupil confidence when it comes to writing their own sentences later.  And of course they are an instant display.  The activity works in a similar way to using different coloured Lego blocks or multilinks, but is a bit longer-lasting.

I've had another idea for how I might plan this into a lesson:

• Give students the strips on white paper with the words in an outline font or with an outline border around them.
• Students sort the strips into the different groups or chunks (Thinking Skills classification exercise)
• Once they are happy that they have sorted the strips into the correct groups, they colour in the letters or borders of each one a different colour.
• They stick the strips together to make chains as before.