Helen Myers

Half term catch-up!

2011-10-28T13:08:00.005+01:00

This has proved to be quite a busy but incredibly stimulating half term 'break'!

On Saturday and Sunday I attended the Language show in London, giving a talk on ICT on Saturday, hosting a show and tell alongside Joe Dale and ALL London committee stalwarts in the afternoon, enjoying a social with many language people in the evening 'Down the Albion' and giving a talk on Second Life on the Sunday. ALL London website has an account and pictures here, and my flickr account has downloadable pics here. I really enjoyed the talks I managed to attend and having the chance to 'catch up' with so many friends.

On Monday I was delighted to be invited to the French Institute by Dr Anne Preston and Professor Paul Seedhouse of Newcastle University to learn about the Digital French Kitchen. A bonus was to hear Graham Davies' thoughtful and succinct presentation on CALL over the past 30 years. See my account and pictures here. Main intended message: those who do not look into history are condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past. Overwhelming evidence that there was a lot of good in the past which seems to have been 'forgotten'. We need to lead a campaign to 'Bring Back Granville!'

In the afternoon I attended the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) which is convened by Baroness Jean Coussins and meets at the House of Lords every two months to discuss issues relating to languages in the UK. Ann Carlisle spoke to us about how language skills are identified, developed and put into use by the London Metropolitan Police. Language skills are clearly a real 'plus' for police when dealing with such a multicultural community. The Lords posed some good questions (e.g. are applicants required to state language skills on application forms? Is there renumeration for those with extra language skills?)and I could not help thinking of ways in which the context could be used for the mutual benefit of school learners, the community and the police ...(cluedo .. Second Life simulations ... opportunity for communities to 'teach' the police?)

On Tuesday I arranged our third 'Passegitaliano' which took place in the evening in Second Life: a lovely get together of people who want to practise their Italian skills, meet real Italians, and explore interesting places in thee magical virtual 3D world. We went to a wonderful Halloween build created by the talented Dabici of the University of Washington. Karelia Kondor has written a blog post about it here.

Sadly my colleagues who put such a great deal of time into leading an excellent Duke of Edinbugh Award Scheme at school (over half of year 10 are doing the bronze award)were away over half term and could not take up the offer of accompanying 6 of our Gold Award students to St James' Palace. I was really privileged to be asked to go in their place, and I just felt so proud of these young people who had committed their own energy and skills to completing the award. The Earl of Wessex and the DofE volunteers created a very special event for the young people, their parents and others. A bonus was to meet and hear Simon Callow who hosted our room.

In the afternoon I went over to the LanguageLab / English City offices near Chancery Lane to see how they operate. I receieved a really friendly welcome, I was videoed for the student blog, and treated to a lovely coffee and chat. Pictures here.

Thursday I up-dated the ALL London website where you can now follow links and read about the first ALL London committee meeting at Linguascope offices, the PGCE event at the Institute of London (thanks to Cat for arranging this)and my latest reference sheet about Second Life. In the evening, I attended the regular staff meeting in English City in the form of my English teacher avatar, Kara Ashland. She is /I am (!) planning to host a games show along the lines of 'Celebrity Squares' in English City in the near future.

On Friday I continued to prepare for the forthcoming ALL events in January and June. They are going to be fantastic! Saturday January 21st: Joe Dale, Greg Horton and Sara Sullivan at The French Institute ... Saturday June 16th 2012, well-known speaker and writer in the English teaching world Jeremy Harmer, alongside the ever-popular Rachel Hawkes and James Stubbs at the European Commission. We are going to be spoilt!

It's Saturday, and I look forward to a day of being sorted out by my parents before I go to Karelia's fourth birthday party in Second Life (she is sooo excited!!!! .. there is an open invitation to anyone! ...)then on Sunday I just might start practising the 'cello part for the forthcoming school production of 'The Wizard of Oz'. Hope you are impressed, Dr Taylor!

Phew. Not long to Christmas ....!

Eurocall 2010 - recovered!

2011-08-31T07:01:00.002+01:00

Sorting out my laptop's c drive, I have come across my piece on Eurocall 2010. I so enjoyed the conference, and I'm sorry I cannot be there this year. I shall 'park' my piece here and try to finish it off before next year!

Eurocall 2010

I have always wanted to attend the Eurocall conference, and this year I have! I was especially keen to go as I knew that my good neighbour in Second Life, Cyber Placebo aka Edith Piallait was going to be attending (on sabbatical from New Zealand for 6 months .. so unlikely to be here again) .. Graham Davies, who was one of the first people to introduce me to SL was giving the keynotes, and the theme of the conference matched my particular interest .. virtual worlds (and I knew that several of my SL friend would be there) .. I had befriended and met some of the key people organising the conference in SL (Ciara and Thierry) .. and, oh, nearly forgot, it was being held in one of my favourite French cities .. Bordeaux.

I was very sorry to miss the preconference where I was due to be involved in Graham and Sally’s session introducing SL and the afternoon follow up and a reception at the town hall .. but the strike and delayed flight prevented this. (Long boring story about the challenge of accessing my hotel and bed available on request!)

I thoroughly enjoyed the conference.

Here are some highlights ..

THE WELCOME and atmosphere was fantastic. .. it started with the website and various social networking (thanks especially to Lesley and Antoine) everyone was keen to talk, to share and to enthuse. I was incredibly fortunate to sit next to Inge Anna (having complimented her on her Norwegian!) who made sure that I knew the names and faces of the main organisers .. I came away with loads of names and contact details and am sure I will be keeping in contact with people.

THE Variety OF SESSIONS meant that I was fully occupied for the whole three days I was there .. I have given a quick description of each of the sessions I attended and would be happy to elaborate / give more details if asked! In particular, I am sure I will read through all the detailed ‘abstracts’ of talks I could not attend.

THE CONTENT of the sessions was different from many I usually attend. Many were reports on research ..so I learnt a great deal of research and academic vocabulary .. words like affordances .. salience ..

THE VENUE was great .. the transport system in Bordeaux is superb and the university proved to be easily accessible from any hotels .. trams and buses arrive frequently and promptly. The university itself had many rooms fairly close together, so it was easy to move from one session to the other . and people obeyed the instructions to keep to times!

GCSE and A level June 2011 statistics and initial analysis

2011-08-29T13:59:00.003+01:00

I have up-dated the severe grading information with the June 2011 data here:

http://www.all-london.org.uk/severe_grading.htm

In fact virtually all the trends are a continuation of previous trends and severe grading remains an acute issue, both at GCSE and A level (including A* at A level).

A new concern is the drop in the GCSE A* grades (both percentage and actual numbers).

This is the year of the new specifications and the changes to speaking for which there had been hopes that the grading situation would improve as candidates are better able to demonstrate what they know and can do with teacher control of what the content is and more flexibility over the exam conditions (see Dearing Review based on teacher comments and subsequent consultation).

Sadly this is not the case and there seem to be a range of concerns about the grades and skill marks. The posted information analyses overall grades because that is the only information currently available. It will be important over the coming months to do a thorough analysis of the skill marks across the country and across the boards. It is often the case that with changes to specifications etc. there are more fluctuations in the marking and it will be important to distinguish between the ‘first year randomness’ and underlying trends.

Radio5Live phone in with Tony Livesey about why languages / which languages

2011-01-29T17:27:00.006Z

Late night show with Tony Livesey Thursday 27th January 2011. Overall a positive message for learning languages I felt .. and I really look forward to Tony's show in French on 27th June 2011!

I'm parking this here temporarily for friends who asked how it went...

For the next few days, the programme is stored here:

Intro [00:48:14 ] Conversation [00:57:00]Farewell [1:06:16]

BETT 2011

2011-01-16T20:03:00.010Z

I very much enjoyed the short time I spent at BETT this year. Met up with old friends e.g.

Dan Bowen at Babcock 4S,

the team at Sanako,

Justin at Vocab Express,

Martin at TaskMagic - I keep discovering new things that software can do .. really really useful

The Fronter people (who showed us how to link content)

Steve Glover .. my original inspiration fro all things ICT!

...but also looked at some new stuff which I'll be passing on to others at school e.g.

Shakespeare in bits - looked a great way of getting into Shakespeare

Serious Games Interactive - citizenship issues coming to life

Languagelink - a way of accessing speech therapy for primary - will roll out to secondary

Some fantastic music hardware and software which allowed us to make music by breaking infrared beams with our hand (James has the card - will add link - I want one for ME!)

Xdream - the real biking simulator .. simply amazing! (loved it even though I was so soundly beaten by James!)

The highlight was Teachmeet. Well done to the organisers who engendered such a fun, comfortable atmosphere as well as ensuring an efficiently run event; congratulations to all the presenters who provided a great spread of ideas; commiserations to those who were psyched up to present but were not picked by the random fruit machine, and greetings to the many people I met and talked with around the tables and while eating pizza afterwards. A special 'Goddag' to my new Danish friends who had spent the day with me and Joe Dale at The Ashcombe School on Thursday.

The machine chose me to be the first one to do a 2-minute nano presentation. I talked about some lessons I have recently done with Year 10, when I 'mediated' their interaction with real French people in Secondlife. My talk is from 45:22 - 47:39 here (thanks to Leon Cynch for capturing this) (and grateful thanks to Johh Davitt, the camel thrower, for sparing me despite 17 second overrun ...!!) and the short slide show which should have been showing as I spoke is here (thanks to Ian for persevering with the link and getting some of the photos to show, and to Alan for telling me about Twitter fileshare in the morning). The lesson plans are here in the SLExperiments pb wiki. I regret that I did not give a public MERCI to CathyChou Bea and the wonderful people at Arcachon (including Tupper Weir .. DevLink Garside .. Eve Kazan .. Janis Allen) whose dedicated work and love for their island has made this possible.

I have uploaded pictures taken at BETT here on my flickrstream, and added them to the group here. I'd love people to add captions so that I can get to know more names!

OFSTED report / English Bac

2011-01-11T20:58:00.003Z

Sadly we have yet another OFSTED report which could be construed as criticising language teachers.

These are interesting times with much change, uncertainty and opportunities.

Tomorrow will see the publication of performance tables which will include the English Bac measure.

Undoubtedly there will be much ‘huffing and puffing’ about what this might mean.

Stepping aside from that, what is positive from the perspective of the language community is that there is now a performance measure with a high profile whereby it is to the advantage of a school to have more pupils within a cohort gaining a C grade GCSE in languages.

Although there are various aspects it does not include (Asset / NVQ / Applied or grades below a C grade etc. etc.) .. YET it does provide an incentive for schools to get more students continuing with ML.

And therefore I feel that we should be positive and optimistic and reflect on the great work which ML teachers have been doing at KS 4 (and KS3 to prepare for KS4) to continue to maintain an enthusiasm for languages .

We are all aware of the challenge which the new Controlled Assessment regime poses, but equally we need to recognise that this was the outcome from Lord Dearing asking teachers what they wanted and the imperative which was given to move from the 7-minute one-off oral test.

Whereas we were very aware that because of performance measures currently and previously in operation, such as CVA, studying ML at KS4 was potentially detrimental to a school’s ‘performance’ and OFSTED judgement, we are now in a situation which promotes getting a C grade per se (rather than in comparison with other subjects) .. and there is an opportunity to be grasped here.

We still need to continue to press resolution of the ‘Severe grading ‘ agenda (see here http://www.all-london.org.uk/severe_grading.htm) BUT to use a metaphor, we are now on the front foot rather than the back foot.

In conclusion, I’d like to urge a positive response so that we can be offering constructive suggestions in response to the English Bac and highlighting the successes of ML at KS4.

You and Yours: the follow up

2010-09-24T15:06:00.001+01:00

The BBC 4 Radio programme You and Yours on 31st August was about 'Why Learn Languages?' following headlines of GCSE French dropping out of the top ten subjects.

The language teacher community was alerted via various email fora (Yahoo mflresources, TES forum, Twitter), and I joined with many others, listening and 'tweeting' ongoing comments.

In response to this, Joe Dale (language advisor, very experienced in operating in online environments and well known and respected in the mfl community) offered to organise a Flashmeeting where the programme could be discussed further, and a link to this recording of was sent to the BBC.

The BBC was interested in the comments made about severe grading and asked me to appear on a follow up programme. They played excerpts from the Flashmeeting relevant to this topic (including Valerie McIntyre, John Connor and myself.)

It was really good to have the opportunity to try and explain the situation to a wider audience and I hope that something might come of this. Here is a link to the programme which is on iPlayer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tnptn/You_and_Yours_15_09_2010/
The timing is from 0658 - 1820

Here is a link to an embedded mp3 file.

ALL speak out about languages

2010-09-24T14:59:00.002+01:00

Here are my quick answers to the four questions posed by ALL in their week for 'speaking out about languages'.

Within the context of your own work and locality:

1. What is the achievement you would most like the media / public / decision-makers to know about?

STAFF COMMITMENT
Language teachers are a particularly committed set of professionals. e.g. the ALL London branch has two events a year which draw over 100 people on a Saturday morning to talk about their work; The Yahoo mflresources group has nearly 3,000 ‘connected’ members, and a large core of regular contributors. There is a committed group of MFL ‘twitterers’. I do not know of another subject community with such a strong networking presence.

EXAM CHANGE
I am delighted that reading and listening will be tested in English .. this leads to a much more natural experience in the classroom and exam room where students can be given authentic tasks and authentic sources.

2. What is your response to media statements such as “language teaching puts most people off learning a language” or “Languages considered least important subjects for children to learn at school” ?

It is important to check the validity of statements made about languages and to avoid ‘knee-jerk reactions’ to them.
Just because people do not choose to take a language does not mean that they dislike them or do not value them. There are plenty of examples where pupils enjoy languages and the teaching, but when faced with a range of options, cannot ‘fit them in’ or see that other options suit their personal goals better. There are adults who value languages who see the point, but who just don’t allocate time to learn them. There are even more constraints of time and dilemmas of choice within a secondary curriculum.
We cannot be complacent .. as with any subject , we are always looking for ways to maintain and improve our teaching methods. However, there is no evidence that there is a particular problem with T&L in languages by comparison with other subjects. (cf Geography OFSTED)
We are aware that the nature of the exam can lead to repetitive tasks.
What does put languages in a different category for most learners, is the fact that it can seem ‘hard’ - just as in maths. Maths and languages are subjects where learners are continually faced with explicit examples of things they cannot do.

3 What are the issues that worry you most?

TIME ALLOCATION
The apparent trend towards reducing time spent on ML at KS3 (presumably often dictated by a school’s desire to attain the highest scores for the purposes of the league tables .. e.g. by starting formal preparation for GCSE in Year 9, or allowing pupils to stop learning languages before the end of year 9.

SEVERE GRADING
(See appendix for reference to ALL London website which has links to relevant statistics.)
http://www.all-london.org.uk/severe_grading.htm
The false assumptions that are being made in response to a situation where numbers are continuing to fall in post 14 take-up. Too often the assumption is made that this is to do with valuing languages, or responding to the teaching and learning, whereas the most obvious reason is that severe grading makes it more difficult to attain a grade A*-C in languages. (A disincentive to all in the system: managers, teachers, pupils and parents)
The failure of DfE to respond to the QCA report which gave clear evidence of severe grading.
The slow response of OFQUAL to severe grading. An inter subject comparability seminar has been held and we await follow up.
The low percentage of A* grades awarded at A level in a subject area which clearly has a more able cohort.

GCSE EXAMINATION FORMAT FOR SPEAKING AND WRITING
I am very disappointed that the exam boards did not allow for differentiation in the support given for speaking and writing tests and a more flexible approach to assessing speaking. The current format encourages ‘rote learning’ so that students can show what they know understand and can do in the limited ‘test window’ available (one hour for each of two writing tasks, approx 10 minutes for each of two speaking tasks, both with very limited support during the test. This can lead to very dull preparation, and a very negative test experience for the least able.
The subject specific criteria do not preclude a more helpful format. This is something that could be changed.
The qualification should be a ‘General Certificate of Secondary Education’ which should be accessible to all, and NOT a qualification only for the ‘high fliers’ and the specialists. In its current format it is not, and this has led to people quite understandably opting for other qualifications whose format is more suited to the less able (e,g, NVQ). This should not be necessary. The GCSE should be appropriate for the vast majority.

THE NEED FOR REALISTIC PROPOSALS AND A SEPARATION OF ISSUES
There are differences in opinions from within the subject community
Very often, mixed messages can be sent out by well-meaning people.
It would be helpful to articulate the separate issues objectively, without emotion (e.g. to avoid the criticism of ‘well they would say that, wouldn’t they?)
It is very difficult to influence decision makers when they can easily find contrary views and information from other language professionals.
An example: Primary languages. The success of primary languages will depend on the opportunities and constraints of the local context. Dearing and King accepted that ‘the devil is in the detail’ … it is vital to acknowledge this and avoid sweeping generalisations about what ‘should’ be happening.

STRATEGY FOR INCREASING TAKE-UP POST 14: THE ENGLISH BAC
While this strategy will probably increase numbers of able (i.e. those likely to achieve A-C) students (and there has been a great need for this strategy .. it has been especially worrying to see the drop in absolute numbers attaining A*-C .. evidence that able students are dropping languages) .. it will not make any difference to encouraging less able up-take. This is why it is not enough.

4. How can we ensure that decision makers in education value language learning?

UNDERSTAND THEIR PERSPECTIVE AND PROVIDE RELEVANT, OBJECTIVE GUIDANCE AND INFORMATION
I believe that decision makers in secondary education do value language learning and that it is unhelpful to ‘blame’ them for not promoting languages. However, decision makers at school level (curriculum managers) will not decide to promote languages if this leads to a poorer judgment of their overall performance as published in league tables and this is totally understandable.
A significant ‘negative’ will be removed by ensuring that the award system fairly rewards language learning with comparable grades e.g. at GCSE and AS/A2.
It would be helpful for the subject community to understand their predicament (and certainly not to ‘blame’ them for the problem) and to provide managers with the information needed to ‘make the case’ for change. The Headteacher union ASCL is behind the proposal for change. (2 key members of the ASCL management team are linguists .. )
It would also be helpful to challenge those who extrapolate generalisations from their own personal experience.

Getting ready for the Curriculum Review

2010-08-31T14:11:00.004+01:00

Perhaps it's a good idea to start rehearsing arguments and counter-arguments as we prepare for the curriculum review.

The experience of listening to the Radio 4 programme entitled 'Is it worth learning a language?' brought to light (for me) the problem of

(1) asking the right question [as Mike Elliot pointed out, the debate was sparked off by the falling numbers in GCSE languages .. perhaps a better title for the programme would have been 'Why are numbers falling?' .. the question tended to assume immediately that the fall was because of people questioning the validity of learning a language ..)

and

2) getting easily distracted from the key question / drawn into separate discussions

I must tidy my house and prepare lessons (!) ...but I'll use this blog again to plant an idea which might help others / might be something I can develop .. perhaps as a way of getting out of a vicious circle of debate. I prepared this list of arguments and counterarguments in the context of analysing exam results but the structure could perhaps be useful in this context as well:

Arguments and counterarguments

Key headings and arguments copied and pasted below ...

Time: It is argued that languages get less time than XXX (any of i) English, Maths / other subjects + issue of time at KS3 ii) what the QCA assumed iii)what they get in other countries)

Counter-arguments: subjects such as BS get no time at KS3; virtually all subjects get the same time at KS4, German / Spanish is more often than not a second language / starts later / gets less time and yet the gradings for those subjects are virtually identical to French. The disparity re grading goes back to before QCA / what evidence was used to match time to criteria. In other countries, time for non-English languages is often similar across the ability range to ours, and non-English teachers in other countries despair about the lack of interest in their subject.

Aptitude: It is argued that you need a particular aptitude to succeed at languages. This would make it similar to music, art and drama, but significantly, those subjects actually appear on the other side of the "difficulty" spectrum to languages. Also, studies such as CEM showed the lower correlation between subjects such as music & art and the "mainstream" (which endorses the "aptitude" argument) but MFL shows a good fit (same as History). This effectively undermines the aptitude argument as a reason for "severe grading" for MFL.

Motivation / being an "option" It is argued that if pupils are choosing a subject then they will do so because they wish to study that subject / will be better at it. This is where the situation with MFL in the last 4 years offers rich pickings for analysis, as the subject has moved from being "nearly compulsory" to "often optional". Often it is a local decision as to how optional MFL has become and the timescale involved. Appendix 1 offers a simple analysis to show that the exam boards have not acted consistently in what is a very difficult time to make judgements on standards, It is not surprising that complaints about fluctuations and inconsistencies in gradings have exploded as a result. The very fact that some exam boards are making some adjustments in some languages undermines the argument whichever way round it is being put!

Teaching and Learning (QCA example - Jim Knight's response). It is argued that the problem lies on the quality of teaching and learning in ML. Response:

There is a false logic in the QCA's position of implying that you should tackle teaching and learning INSTEAD of tackling severe grading (with its implicit assumption of criticising ML teachers relative to teachers of other subjects).The key point is that BOTH teaching and learning AND severe grading need to be tackled. ALL subjects should be focusing continuously on improving teaching and learning. Languages is uniquely disadvantaged because of severe grading at GCSE.

Urdu (QCA example) To bring in Urdu as an apparent comparator is surprising given the number of native speakers taking the exam and the minimal number of students who will have been taught Urdu from scratch in school.

You and Yours Radio 4 programme: Is it worthwhile learning another language?

2010-08-31T12:36:00.002+01:00

I've just posted this comment to the Radio 4 You and Yours programme:

One important factor is that QCA confirmed officially in Feb 2008 that half of the students gaining a grade B in maths will get a grade C in French - half of those getting a grade C in maths will get a grade D in French. All the evidence shows that it's the setting of grade boundaries in French exams which goes back 30 years that is the issue - this is an in-built negative handicap - there should be a level playing field between Modern languages and subjects such as maths, science, history and geography. I have documented this here: http://www.all-london.org.uk/severe_grading.htm

ML numbers at AL and GCSE, and “severe grading”

2010-08-30T07:48:00.004+01:00

I've prepared a summary of the latest situation regarding the numbers taking ML at A-level and GCSE (+ spreadsheet with all the numbers and graphs, updated to include June 10 results), and also regarding “severe grading”.

I’ve updated the pages on the ALL London site so that these documents can easily be downloaded. I have created 5 separate pages with up-to-date figures:

- numbers at GCSE ML over time
- numbers at AL and AS ML over time
- severe grading at GCSE
- severe grading at AL and AS
- the issue with the new A* at AL for ML

There is also a timeline relating to the last few years, with presentations, documents etc, including the presentation I gave at the Ofqual Inter-subject comparability seminar in Oct. ‘08

The issue with the new A* in A-level French (and to lesser extent in German and Spanish) is a new one, and worth pursuing vigorously before it becomes embedded. It is also one which is unlikely to have been noticed at an individual school level, and only becomes clear looking at the national statistics.

There are also links to:

BBC News article today about Ofqual’s brief to look at comparability of qualifications (but not the points equivalence).

BBC News article “GCSE results: Trends explained” - “CILT, the national centre for language learning, agreed with this [John Dunford’s] analysis, saying the trend was "less to do with student disaffection" and more to do with "performance table pressures".

“Rule of thumb”

Judging from the ML forums, the numbers and results in ML continue to be source of much anxiety and concern, incl. how they are judged. A further thought to help fair judgement would be to publicise a “rule of thumb” arising from the QCA report (Feb ’08): if all pupils took Fr (or Gn) and Maths, to get the cohort % who “should” get A*-C:

Take the Maths A*-C cohort rate e.g. 70%
take the Maths C grade percentage e.g. 30% ( and so 40% had A*-B), and halve it e.g. 15%
Add this to Maths A*-B rate e.g. 40% + 15% = 55% to get the French cohort %

Clearly if ML is optional, then this needs to be adjusted, esp as those choosing ML are likely to be better at it, but at least it is a quick “rule of thumb”

I hope the above help to give a factual basis for the situation.

ALL LONDON JANUARY EVENT - Sat 23rd January 2010

2010-01-08T17:27:00.002Z

PLEASE COME TO JOIN US AT THE ALL LONDON/LINKS JANUARY EVENT!!

It always goes really well, and we get very positive feedback .. and this is usually down to not only having really good speakers who people have asked to hear .. but also to there being such a nice crowd of positive, friendly people who get up early on a Saturday to meet with other like-minded people! It’s just really nice to meet people face-to-face. Here’s a link to the pictures from last year when, despite the snow, 80+ brave souls came along! http://www.all-london.org.uk/february_20091.htm

Below is a link to the latest invitation to the ALL London January Event which has some minor adjustments to the previous versions

… people have offered to do sessions twice so there will be more choice

.. ..I’ll do the GCSE spec ‘challenges of controlled assessment’ talk again (the one I did at CILT) at the end if anyone wants it.

… we have included an extra session for students on how to apply for your first job -

.. . we have a special reduced rate for students (£5)

Link to website: http://www.all-london.org.uk/january_10_programme.htm

Link to Facebook group (THANKS Cat for setting this up.. and those of you on Facebook, please please join .. !!): http://tinyurl.com/yhaqgaa

We still have the same great speakers ..

* Sara Sullivan who is an incredibly successful HOD in Essex and loads of practical, ‘do-able’ ideas for increasing take-up and attainment …

* Vincent Everett whom we all know well from the mflresources forum .. again, an excellent HOD brimming over with ideas (I know we benefit loads from his written input to fora, but you’ll get even more by coming along to the talk!!!) ..

* Gill Beckett will do a repeat of the excellent talk I saw her to at the CILT 14-19 conference .. a really comprehensive overview of all the accredited courses available and a chance to follow this up with her ..

* and Johann LeCalvez who is a really smiley, friendly member of the BBC web team and will give an overview of all that the BBC has to offer

There will be stands from Sanako, The Ardmore Group and CILT, and goodies and information from the London Links into Languages Team.

Finally, I have put myself down to do a repeat of the GCE controlled assessment talk in case anyone wants that … but I won’t cry if no-one does! I’ll do it after the other sessions so it is just an extra if you want to stay.

I have visited the venue .. it’s really good .. (photos on the website) … we can fit loads of people in to the big talks, and having repeats available for 2 of the talks should make it possible for you to go to the ones you want to go to.

I know a lot of people tend to leave it to the last minute to book (I’m one of them!) .. but it would be really really helpful to have an idea of numbers as soon as possible as we have to book the catering.

Hope to see people soon. Of-course we’ll post stuff up on the website later.

Please put Saturday 19th June in your diary for the next one .. to be held at the French Institute.

Best wishes

Helen

Helen Myers
ALL London Chair

Vetting and barring review - response to fora comments.

2009-12-14T20:36:00.001Z

http://publications.everychildmatters.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-01122-2009.pdf

Could I strongly recommend people read ‘recommendation 7; host families’ page 17 onwards para 46 – 54.

Unfortunately the wording of the recommendation and its punctuation are ambiguous. In the recommendation itself there is a comma after days and family which could be interpreted as giving a different nuance to para 54. However if you read the totality of the paragraphs 46-54, it is clear that Sir Roger is recommending that exchanges of fewer than 28 day should be regarded as ‘private arrangements where overseas parents accept the responsibility for the selection of the host family’ and therefore would not require registration.

In view of the ambiguity of the phrasing and punctuation, it may be wise for schools to ask overseas families to sign a form confirming that they accept the responsibility. Do note also that para 54 says that his recommendation would not prevent an individual school from asking host parents to register if it wished to offer that additional measure of protection, but it would not be a statutory requirement.

In view of the carefully phrased caveat,it would probably be wise for schools to consult with governors and perhaps the wider community so that if something were to go wrong, and the schools had not undertaken such a check, then they would not be found guilty in ‘trial by the media’. There are clearly many nuances to this issue and it would be wise to reflect carefully and await further developments before rushing into action.

Hope this helps.

(I realise there are loads of 'it would be wise' phrases .. hopefully this covers me!)

Speaking tests - response to TES forum

2009-04-22T14:24:00.003+01:00

My response to the TES thread on Speaking tests... hopefully better formatted than on the board!

Warning – this is long – have been off the forum for a while and have only just caught up and cannot resist joining in, so skip this if you want!!! Also, lost the first version when I clicked the wrong button.

Just taking a break from the stress of 'the last lesson before the oral' with my Year 11s .. this is a very interesting thread with lots of subthreads and although I haven’t anything really to add to my earlier post about the issues - , I find it reassuring to see that there are so many of us who agree from across the spectrum .. whether teaching male / female / able / not so able.

[ALL] Aligru …I’m not sure whether I’ve missed some reference here, but ALL is consulted on initiatives, and the nature of the GCSE is one of the most recent. As an ALL member you would probably know about his through ALLnet or the publications which are sent.

[Content] Re: what is taught, and its link with future study, I am with asisehace on this. The aims of the General Certificate for Secondary Education do include preparation for further study and working life, but they also include enjoyment and being prepared for things which a 16 year old might expect to need to do. If we were to provide a curriculum for all which was targeted for those who are going to be specialists at university, there is a risk that the majority would be left out, numbers would drop, courses would not run and the supply to university would be drastically reduced. I find it helpful through ALL/ISMLA contacts to be able to talk with people from other sectors so that we can all understand each others’ perspectives. In particular, I was interested by a talk from GCHQ at the ISMLA conference. I had the impression that they did not expect the schools and universities to be providing the ‘finished product’ and that they provided intensive courses to bring people up to the level needed for some jobs, in particular with respect to lesser taught languages. It was also encouraging to learn that they really valued the generic skills of linguists, and found them highly employable across the service.

[Validity and reliability] I think the point asisehace makes is right. Pupils and parents will expect the teacher to prepare the candidates as well as they can for the given test so that they can show their ‘true ability’. I don’t think that the current test fairly allows people to show their ability - the range of speaking skills they have. It will be interesting to see whether the new régime will be better (I have yet to view the DVD which I have received).

[Analogies] There have been some excellent analogies drawn e.g. El Hombre’s music/ drama .. and I love the samenerve analogy with driving – great! I’m tempted to suggest another … I notice that many politicians (not sure whether this includes Nick Gibb) prepare and read aloud what they say in the house. I suspect that sometimes their researchers / assistants help them to write the scripts. I’m sure their researchers prepare them pretty thoroughly for what might come up, and an even better technique is perhaps to learn a formula for avoiding the question and saying what you have prepared anyway. And that’s just in English. [actually – just re-read El Hombre’s post – so my analogy isn’t original – but I’ll leave it anyway!!](I realise the analogy breaks down a bit, but analogies often do, and I couldn’t resist this one!)

[Solutions?]. Not sure what the solutions are, as we can see from this thread alone, let alone all the other threads about the changes to GCSE that there is no single view from the teachers. Certainly I think it is helpful to keep channels between govt/DCSF/ofqual/qca/exam boards / professional body of teachers/media open as much as possible and be really clear about what the role is of these bodies and honest about what we can realistically expect. I have to say that I was pretty impressed by Isabel Nisbett’s (ofqual acting i/c) openness about the complexity of putting together valid and reliable exams which meet the expectations of the users .. and I agree with her. A big problem for all of these bodies is dealing with what the public expects of exams, and in her speech to a Westminster forum I attended she gave a good overview of what she felt was reasonable / not reasonable to expect. (At least I think it was Isabel .. could have been Prof Timms .. will check and report back!) But the professional body which has the most direct impact of unrealistic expectations of what results can tell you is the teaching profession … our own and our schools’ reputations are publicly affected by the results, and the results are issued by the government and the media without all the theoretical ‘caveats’ which are discussed at a political forum.

One thing I’m sure about though is that a radio programme is not the best way to discuss and resolve issues in the first instance. I haven’t heard the programme, but if we feel Nick Gibb is ill-informed, we can easily contact him and give him the information.

2009-03-28T11:34:00.004Z

Some interesting links from Twitter this morning which follow on well from a discussion going on at the moment over on mflresources forum about deep learning /length of lessons / assessment. Am currently listening to video referenced by Terry Freedman: Lord David Puttnam of Queensgate - his keynote speech at a conference on using games for education. I'm pleased that he acknowledges that teachers are hampered by the 'mendacious press' - he says: (0833 - 0901)
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In many senses, we the active influencers of change are underachieving as a result of (stifling?) our creativity, our ambition, our imagination for what the future of learning might come to look like. And in this sense, I must stress (and I hope this has come up in the last couple of days) we are desperately hampered by the scare stories in the Daily Mail and elsewhere. Never ever underestimate the degree to which educational progress in this country has been hampered an in some cases badly distorted by a mendacious media. I have no idea why they do it, I have no idea what their agenda is but I certainly do think it's been remarkably destructive.
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It was in the question / answer time that I feel a key issue was partly explored: the critical role of government / DCSF / QCA in allowing teachers to follow 'good practice' (.. it tends to grate when you hear people saying 'the education world ought to .... ' 'teachers should ...' etc etc. Teachers and their managers are seriously constrained by the assessment system and above all by league tables.

Thanks so much to Lilian Soon (??) (3135) who explained the dilemma of awarding bodies / DCSF / Government passing the buck ... and asked David 'what can the politicians do about this?' .. she said that everyone is able to take forward the ideas of the conference BUT .. we can't get past that ... the problem is assessing the curriculum ..

David's said it was not a question of 'throwing away the curriculum' .. he likened the curriculum to a spine .. the body does not get very far without it .. instead he focussed on assessment:
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The problem is not throwing away the curriculum, it's assessing the curriculum. (.referred to the earlier criticism of the role of the press .....) the other issue that bedevils education is that we are trying to evolve a 21st century education system but we're still stuck with what looks horribly like a nineteenth century assessment process - we've absolutely failed to develop assessment processes which can take advantage of what you can do - the things you can to - and translate them into something which parents at home can understand so how do we explain to parents that actually the work that your so or daughter has been doing on his or her Blackberry is translated into something that they tangibly see as points or certificates or something that they can go out into the outside world and boast about .... the emotional leap has befuddled us .. [ we need to ]make absolutely sure that as we do it the assessment processes for that curriculum remain contiguous with the development of the curriculum - if we don't do that we will always have a drag anchor wherever we are going - so I would say on balance that there is more work to be done on assessment than there is to be done on curriculum at present.
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He does acknowledge that there are well-meaning people at QCA who want to address this.

So what is the answer? What is the purpose of assessment? Is there a middle way between the extremes of education being for a state purpose / allowing the teacher free rein? How can we veer assessment so that we strike some sort of balance? I don't know ....

But perhaps it would help to make more explicit the connection between the two 'thorns' David identifies of (1) the nature of assessment and (2) the press:.............. the league tables. [he may have mentioned this earlier .. this is a quick reaction to a first hearing ....]. Perhaps if we could abolish league tables our hands would be less 'tied'. But is there any chance of that happening? Which political party would be brave enough to put this in a manifesto and have a chance of being elected?

(And 'PS' .. I admit to having been rather overwhelmed by a visit to the House of Lords this week when Lord Puttnam passed right in fron tof me and I squealed.. a bit ..hope he didn't notice!! .. will blog about the visit later!)

2009-03-07T21:11:00.004Z

I'll plant this post here before I get around to adding info to websites ...

Even though I could only make it to half of today's ALL West of EnglandConference, I came away with loads of ideas and loads of inspiration thanks to the superb organisation by ALL members and the quality of the speakers.

Rachel Hawkes is just so incredibly talented in absolutely all aspects of leading and managing languages ... but somehow manages to put her ideas across in a way which makes mere mortals feel 'actually, we could perhaps do that' .. (though she wisely suggests that we should not try to do it all at once!). She suggested that we pick one of the ideas to concentrate on .. and I think the one I'll start on is the idea of creating 'character cards' (e.g. tu es bavarde / tu es timide at the most basic .. coudl build up to more ...) and dish them out to accompany the role plays you ask them to do (where, as Rachel observes, pupils are rarely in 'role' nor engaged in a particualrly 'playfu;' activity!!!!!) Perhaps this is something we coudl build up within mflresources ... a big bank of 'character cards' ... The link with her name take syou to her blog which contains all the presentations she gives .. this is a real plus I feel .. so often, resources are the key to actually following up what you learn at an event like this.

I was very impressed with Steve Mulgrew' s ideas and quality presentation and shall probably be buying all of the 7 ICT 'gadgets' he showed us: Echobot, Talking Tins, Talking Postcards, metal detector, easi-speak an dBee-bot all from the TTS group, + Talking photo album from Talking Products, and I shall tell them who directed me to their site .. the man deserves commission I feel!!!! I hope he'll be able to come along to do a session for ALL London some time.

Tomorrow I'll put together a draft plan for the nesxt ALL London event - June 13th - French Institute confirmed! ... following a stimulating ALL London committee meeting ..

Satellite TV tips

2009-03-01T11:56:00.004Z

Just planting this post here before I transfer it to mflresources... a contribution to a TES thread on how to access satellite channels ..

Done some more finding out to be a bit more accurate.
For those interested in following up how to receive FTA (free to air) channels
1) Which channels are on which satellites? See sites below:
http://www.lyngsat.com/ +
http://en.kingofsat.net/
2) What equipment needed / how much? See magazine:
http://www.wotsat.com/
Suggest you buy one copy which you can order through the website - well worth it to get adverts for installers (£3.99 - Feb edition )
3) Summary for ML teachers
Lots of options but essentially you need a dish which is about £70, a bit of electronics on the dish called an LNB, cabling, a satellite receiver + fitting (magazine has adverts for companies who can organise all this for you)
The dish needs to be pointing at the correct satellite which for French is Atlantic Bird 3 at 5 degrees west (this picks up France 2,3,4 & Arte etc -see page 67 of Feb issue of What Satellite magazine)
Other languages and channels and langaugse are available on other satellites e.g. Hotbird, Astra 1 and Astra 2
4) BTW
Can I draw your attention to Freesat which is the delivery of Freeview by satellite - Astra 2 set at 28 degrees east .. this includes BBC HD. It is wonderful!
Helen

2009-02-09T17:32:00.003Z

Listened to a very interesting conversation between eyebeams (Leon Cych) (Learn4Life) and Peter Twining about the Schome Park Project. Wrote this response: (recorded here in case it doesn't work!)

Many thanks for this... seems like it has the potential for a safe experience of 'Lord of the Flies'! (sure that's not an original comment!)
I am interested in what this world has to offer for 'a problem which technology allows you to address' .. i.e. English speakers getting to know and feeling as if they have 'met' non-English speakers. Distance, timetable, cost constraints,legal requirements .. quite apart from not necessarily having a common purpose ... can make this difficult and you have helpfully picked out many elements which could help to address these e.g.
- use of avatars (overcomes the fear of approaching / talking?),
- collaboration on a project (goes beyond the first initial enquiries for info on personal life)
- independence from the teacher

However, I feel there would have to be a teacher imposed 'structure' initially to ensure maximum incluson and minimum drop-out .. not sure you'd approve of this!!! And there would have to be some guidance on content to ensure that learners had the minimum langauge needed to collaborate on whatever project was done. (No such thing as content-free language learning - we need to understand and use words! Process skills often depend on language skills. (Discuss!!))
I'd be interested in pursuing this with you - will visit site again!
Helen
aka Karelia Kondor in Second Life!

ALL London February Event

2009-02-07T21:52:00.004Z

Loads and loads of ideas from three superb speakers at today's ALL London February Event: Rachel Hawkes, Wendy Adeniji and Juliet Park. I have already downloaded all of Rachel's Powerpoints from the day, and I look forward to exploring further. Also wish I had had longer to explore the Graduate Centre more ... a fascinating building designed by Daniel Libeskind.
http://www.all-london.org.uk/february_2009.htm

I have further experimented in Second Life and produced a poster (with lots of help from Carol!) about the event which is now displayed at the entrance to our 'patch'. To find out more, follow this link:
http://www.mflresources.org.uk/second_life.htm

Steve Smith has joined the bloggers and has posted a very classy looking page here: http://frenchteachernet.blogspot.com/ This man is clearly an A* student ....

2008-12-20T08:04:00.004Z

Inspired by reading Nik Peachey's 'Top Ten Tools', I made my way to http://www.blogger.com/ and decided to take the plunge!

I intend to use this blog for professional purposes. It gives me a space where I can record a chronological list of things I do and information / links when I'm 'on the move'!

Wherever possible, I use websites and wikis to collect and store info in a permanent and accessible way (so my idea is that anything referenced on this blog will find its way eventually to a website ...), and I use the existing large language communities for exchanging ideas and resources. I use the secure environment of the school's VLE and website to communicate with my school colleagues and pupils and I use Outlook to manage personal communication.

If you're interested in following any of the ideas I have, I recommend you join the communities to which I belong rather than subscribing to this feed. (Though I've left that as an option in case anyone has a particular reasons for not joining!) . That way you will benefit from the ideas of the hundreds of excellent contributors.

WEBSITES to which I publish:
http://www.ashcombe.surry.sch.uk/ (resources we use at school)
http://www.all-london.org.uk/ (mainly policy stuff)
http://www.mflresources.org.uk/ (teaching resources offered freely by loads of teachers!)

WIKIS to which I publish:
http://mflresources.pbwiki.com/ (a place wjhere teachers can share lists)
http://clil4teachers.pbwiki.com/ (great resources for interesting content for lessons)

GROUPS to which I belong:

Yahoo mflresources: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mflresources/ (private, mainly resources)
Linguanet forum:http://www.linguanet.org.uk/ (run by CILT - mainly policy discussion)
Yahoo primary mfl:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/primarymflresources (private, resources)
TES forum: http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/28.aspx
LCNet: http://www.cilt.org.uk/languagecolleges/lcnet_forum.htm (for language colleges)

Probably enough websites, wikis and groups for someone who should be doing other things as well as language teaching!!!