Language Space: Recent Episodes
Susan
USING a language is the point of Language learning. What can Language teachers do to create the space in our classrooms for students to become confident spontaneous users of Language? This honest, real and relatable content is like a chat with Susan and her fabulous guests as they keep finding great language learning and use.
If you have been wanting to listen to all the podcasts at once, without clicking each link separately, then this is for you. I often find that if I am on a long drive or something, it is easier to just turn something on and keep listening. Here is all of the podcasts from term 3 in one big file. Enjoy.
The Victorian Curriculum 2.0 for Italian, French, Japanese and Chinese is now available. This podcast is simply a familiarization about it's structure.
Collective expertise is where together people can achieve something that they would not have been able to do individually. This is a fun classroom activity which is like a language jigsaw puzzle where students need to work with each other to work out how to read and understand something that is new. It is a great way to introduce some new learning and spark curiosity.
I can statements from the Victorian Curriculum Achievement standards are one way to track student progress in Languages. When reporting it is expected that we use a five point scale. This podcast talks through a process for creating a five point scale that is relevant to what you teach and for your cohort of students.
Is a 'knowledge rich curriculum' a re-branding of rote learning, or an important focus for effective learning? The ERRR podcast has quite a few episodes focused on knowledge, and generally talks about retrieval practice quite a lot.
How might we structure the start of a lesson to activate thinking? This idea has been working really well in my lessons to get students thinking about something before I teach it. It activates curiosity and provides a structure where every student starts to generate their own curiosity. It also helps students to start to look into something that might at first seem overwhelming, to start to find bits that might make sense.
The Independence Rainbow (repeat it, memorise it, chop it, build it, scenario practice, spontaneous use) aligns strongly with the revised Blooms Taxonomy (remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate, create). As Blooms seems to be a focus for some schools, this podcasts talks through what sorts of language learning might be demonstrated for each of the Blooms verbs and a possible 'instant' rubric.
Student engagement is sometimes just a tweak of the activity. Here are a bunch of writing activities that are fun at the same time as learning. And they require little to no preparation!
Student engagement is sometimes just a tweak of the activity. Here are a bunch of speaking activities that are fun at the same time as learning. And they require little to no preparation!
The grid is simply the 3 through lines - independence, complexity, variety - set out as a grid. By recording the scores on the grid, and sharing it with students, they can see their growth, their long term goals and choose their short term goals. Being orientated in where they are in their learning, and having some agency on which direction to take next is likely to have a positive impact on student motivation and possibly behaviour.
If what we measure, is what we value, and what we value is creative spontaneous use of language, then how do we measure it? What if we track increasing independence, complexity and variety of the language used?
Writing conferences is one of the Literacy Teaching Toolkits on the DET website. This worked really well in my lessons recently, with great feedback from students. In this podcast I describe how we did it.
High Impact Teaching Strategy number 4, is 'worked examples'. We super-charged scenario practice by leveraging the collective expertise of the students. We worked as a whole-grade team to improve one of the scenario practice work samples. Then students applied these ideas to improve their own work.
Student engagement is sometimes just a tweak of the activity. Here are a bunch of reading activities that are fun at the same time as learning. And they require little to no preparation!
How do you know what your students know? What is actually retained in their memory by the end of the class? Especially what they can say rather than what they might be able to repeat or read. What about an oral exit ticket?
Do you sometimes find that students mis-pronounce words and get the intonation, emphasis and rhythm wrong? Perhaps more time saying things out loud would help. It also helps students to hear their own voice saying the words, which I think helps them feel that they own it. I do this every class.
How might we help students to see their learning growth in Languages? Another idea is to create a five point scale with an 'I can' statement taken from the Victorian Curriculum Achievement Standards. Show the students this near the beginning of the unit, and allow them to suggest where they are on the five point scale, then do it again after they have done some more learning to see how they have progressed.
How might we help students to see their learning growth in Languages? One idea is to list the words, phrases or sentences that you have been working on, and let students identify how well they know each one. Then do it again after they have done some more learning to see how they have progressed.
What percentage of your class time do your students use the language they are learning with other students? How could we increase that? This podcast expands on the practice of 'repeat after me' to include 'repeat with me' then 'say without me', as a whole group. Then followed by pair work where the students say the new words with each other. I usually find that this takes around 10 minutes and offers around 50 repetitions. Most importantly, though, it is student to student, so it removes the anxiety of one student 'answering' a question in front of the whole class.
Do your students write independently? Genuinely independently, or are they actually copying from the board, the room displays, the textbook, and/or hand outs? Are they copying from themselves as they re-write similar sentences? This podcast chats about the evolution from reading to writing.
If we teach the letter shapes in isolation, it is hard to connect all the pieces of the puzzle. But if we teach the letters that are in the words and sentences that we are saying, then they have immediate context and use. They connect to each other a lot more strongly.
Then if we also have some fun with it, the emotional engagement helps with long term memory. Here are a few simple ideas for engaging activities to teach reading and writing.
"If Henry Ford had asked the people what they want, they would have said 'faster horses'." There is an interesting dynamic between creating a new invention or idea, and the user group that it might benefit. This episode and the next look at the things that might make it hard for teachers to use scenario practice, and some possible solutions.
2024 3 To grammar or not to grammar
Following from the meaning making thoughts, this episode considers how grammar might be part of language teaching. It also launches from a quote from Henshaw, F. G., & Hawkins, M. D. (2022). Common Ground; Second Language Acquisition Theory Goes to the Classroom. Hackett Publishing.
Is a grammar formula the most effective way to learn a language?
The views in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of DOSCEL.
Scenario practice is, I believe the missing link between memorising language and being able to use it spontaneously. It is the workshopping phase of putting together a response to any potential situation. It promote the problem-solving skills needed to use a new language to communicate any meaning.
"If Henry Ford had asked the people what they want, they would have said 'faster horses'." There is an interesting dynamic between creating a new invention or idea, and the user group that it might benefit. This episode and the last one look at the things that might make it hard for teachers to use scenario practice, and some possible solutions.
Input vs output.
I have so many thoughts always circulating, so I have decided to bring back the podcast. In 10 minute blocks, the aim is for me to chat, unedited, to hopefully prompt your thinking about all things Languages. The views in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of DOSCEL.
This episode touches on TPRS (teaching proficiency through reading and story telling) and CI (comprehensible input) and mulls the question of the optimal balance between input and output in language learning.
If you want a quick introduction to TPRS, then listen to the first 3 episodes of Liam Printer's podcast The Motivated Classroom.
Meaning making.
This episode looks at communication as meaning making, and bounces ideas around a quote from a book Henshaw, F. G., & Hawkins, M. D. (2022). Common Ground; Second Language Acquisition Theory Goes to the Classroom. Hackett Publishing.
If communication is about meaning making, how might this inform teaching approaches?
A whole school approach to Language learning means that there is a commitment to use your school's Language throughout the week. The books and the activity ideas on the FCL-hub (Functional Classroom Language - hub) make this really easy. They provide the structure and the input for teachers who are not Language trained to learn some words you the USE them throughout the day.
I also seek your response about creating 15 minute lesson plans that include a book, focus language, an activity and how it relates to scaffolding spontaneous use. Is this too proscriptive or would it be really helpful? Here is an example of one to see the idea.
One way to help students be successful in Language learning is to bust it out of the Language classroom by creating a whole school approach to Languages. While that is a great idea, what might it look like in terms of achievable first steps? This podcast talks through a very simple and do-able process. I am happy to support you by chatting with your leadership and/or joining a staff meeting (online at this stage). Just send me an email. staylor@doscelcatholic.edu.au
Here are some links:
Slides with Japanese phrases that I have used at St Angela's Warragul.
Whole school approach LAUNCH slides.
Chloe Briand, the new MACS Language Leader, and thank you to her for sending me Dylan Vinales' summary of EPI (Extensive Processing Instruction). I noticed some very strong similarities with the Spontaneous Use Rainbow, and the types of activities that I have been using to help students move from a modelled text to spontaneous use. So if you have another look at the FCL-hub (Functional Classroom Language hub), you will see a lot more activities that show the progression through the rainbow. This is a work in progress, which I will continue to update (the numbers are currently wrong). Also updated recently, the "What Irio Wants" book in the book tab, now has 7 levels WITH ACTIVITIES at the end of each book.
During this year I aim to have these books available in Italian, French and Mandarin. (Hopefully, wish me luck). staylor@doscel.catholic.edu.au
If you are a Secondary Language teacher and text books are a big part of life, then this podcast is for you. It describes how to support students towards spontaneous use of the Language. I chose an Italian text book today, as I'm guessing you are sick of the constant Japanese examples, and to offer the perspective of a student. You will see I am very much imperfect in my Italian!! I chose a page from an Italian text book Ecco! Due student book. I also shared my thoughts about a bit of a progression from passive to active engagement with the textbook's oral practice suggestion, because spontaneous use doesn't just happen, it needs to be scaffolded and practiced.
Let me know what you are doing with oral Language practice, and what part of that progression your students are currently engaging with?
staylor@doscel.catholic.edu.au
Spontaneous use of Language in the classroom doesn't just happen. The books I have been developing are great because they model classroom use of Language. However this time, I have chosen to set my book in the Camargue wetlands in France. So this episode describes how to make the bridge for students from a modelled example that might not be a classroom context, towards Language that students could use with each other where they are, which is of course the classroom.
Next week I will explore how to create this bridge using an examples from textbooks.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
staylor@doscel.catholic.edu.au
"You shall know a word by the company it keeps" was quoted in a this term's teaching and learning network meeting by Martin Keogh. This podcast is my reflection on how Language learning helps develop problem solving, pattern identification, hypothesising and agile thinking. My thought is that experience of a different linguistic system and the un-translatables helps shift reading skills from 'barking at text' to 'comprehension'.
These podcasts are very much me thinking aloud and inviting you to do your own thinking.
I hope you will email me, or put on the Sale Language Space any thoughts you might have.
staylor@doscel.catholic.edu.au
It seems to me that 'speaking' a Language is in the moment, in a context and in a relationship. These moments can't be scripted. So to feel like you can share your thoughts in the beautiful variety of situations that life offers, you have to be able to be spontaneous in constructing that language.
But spontaneity doesn't just happen. It needs memorising time, then workshopping time, then opportunity for unscripted use.
This podcast describes the activity I ran in my class yesterday where students created their own 'crazy words'.
Let me know what you think. How do you help students develop active use?
staylor@doscel.catholic.edu.au
It's the season for assessment and reporting, which in the context of remote learning, is especially challenging. I share the CECV reporting guidelines for Languages, and how I have used "I can" statements interpreted from the Victorian Curriculum Achievement Standards as a classroom visible learning tool, a student self-assessment tool, and (combined with evidence I have collected) as a teacher-judgement that feeds directly into the report comments. This way I feel that I am more explicitly connecting the learning content with the VC, and more clearly answering the questions; Where am I? Where am I going? How am I getting there?
Please let me know how you are going about assessing and reporting this semester.
staylor@doscel.catholic.edu.au
I'm feeling optimistic and grateful in ways I hadn't considered before. As for many Language teachers, the ins and outs of lockdown has impacted our students' Language learning. There has been a 'pause' in the value and the activity around Language across the school community. Now there is a chance to find our feet again. To take a small step. And to be so happy for the privilege of bringing Language into our students' world.
Please let me know your thoughts.
staylor@doscel.catholic.edu.au
Re-thinking and reinvigorating the podcasts, my aim now is to just chat. Hopefully that makes the podcasts more relatable and easy to listen to.
My plan this term is to do one podcast each Monday morning. It won't be edited, as that saves A LOT of time, and keeps the feeling of me actually talking with you.
This one is about my thinking behind beginning to make books for Language learning.
Chatting about literacy and language connection and some of the reasons why it is so hard to actually run a Language class similar to a Literacy block.
PLEASE email me with any thoughts you have. Questions. Feedback on what you liked / didn't like? That way this can be more like a dialogue than a monologue.
Cheers
Susan
staylor@doscel.catholic.edu.au
What does the VCAA (Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority) reporting guidelines say? And how can that help us to provide parents and carers with reports that really communicate their child's Language skills? In this podcast I step through the musts, the myths and the even better ifs, as well as sharing my experience with progression points. I wonder what your experience might have been like?
Susan is learning Mandarin! The idea is to feel what it is like to be a learner. How do the tools, like speak up, language mats and spaced repetition feel like as a learner? I also noticed another technique that I use, silent alone practice. I thought I’d call it ‘silo’ practice. Thinking about what I could say using Mandarin 10 or more times in a day. It’s just a choice to make that what I think about while I am doing something else. I might look like I’m digging in the garden, but actually I’m counting in Mandarin, or commenting on the pretty flower in Mandarin.
What happens when Susan becomes a learner??? I talk about my first experiences learning Mandarin. Why is it that it is NOT feeling difficult? Is it because I am going at my own pace? Is it the frequency - every day several times a day? Is it building my own sentences from the beginning? Or choosing vocab related to what interests me? Is it that I am ok with not understanding everything? Or I have learnt to be flexible in my thinking? Or that I am good at seeking out patterns, forming hypotheses and being ready for them to be wrong too?
PLEASE let me know your thoughts. How can we leverage this experience to better Language learning for our students? Post on Sale Language Space or email me staylor@doscel.catholic.edu.au
How does SpeakUp, gestures, picture prompts, Victorian Curriculum, ican statements, student to student use while doing activities, spontaneous use, reports, etc ACTUALLY connect with each other? So I made a flow chart on a miro board, and set of slides. This is my thinking behind it all.
In part 2 there is great detail about the types of phrases teachers have been using, accountability and motivation. Again, huge thanks to Trish Mulqueen and Taryn Maxwell-Garratt for staying back late (for the quiet) and sharing their experiences.
Always listening to your feedback, I have had requests for an ep on teachers as co-learners. (In all honesty, I would have done one soon anyway haha.) I am super proud of how St Joseph Traf has put in place structures and support to develop the whole school to be habitual Japanese users. We are not saying at all that this is the pinnacle, just that we've done well so far and are continuing to plan for our next steps. Huge thanks to Trish Mulqueen and Taryn Maxwell-Garratt for staying back late (for the quiet) and sharing their experiences.
How does SpeakUp, gestures, picture prompts, Victorian Curriculum, ican statements, student to student use while doing activities, spontaneous use, reports, etc ACTUALLY connect with each other? So I made a flow chart on a miro board, and set of slides. This is my thinking behind it all.
Is this helpful?
How might you use them?
What are your thoughts on grammar being taught AFTER students try making sentences for themselves?
Always listening to your feedback, I have had requests for an ep on teachers as co-learners. (In all honesty, I would have done one soon anyway haha.) I am super proud of how St Joseph Traf has put in place structures and support to develop the whole school to be habitual Japanese users. We are not saying at all that this is the pinnacle, just that we've done well so far and are continuing to plan for our next steps. Huge thanks to Trish Mulqueen and Taryn Maxwell-Garratt for staying back late (for the quiet) and sharing their experiences.
In part 2 there is great detail about the types of phrases teachers have been using, accountability and motivation. Again, huge thanks to Trish Mulqueen and Taryn Maxwell-Garratt for staying back late (for the quiet) and sharing their experiences.
Is the point of education to develop agile thinkers with the capacity to meet unknown future global challenges? If so, then Language learning perhaps should be the centre of 'essential', above the 3 Rs, and not an add on. This article by David Marsh et al, "The Bilingual Advantage: The Impact of Language Learning on Mind and Brain" (2020), shows that its in Language learning that our brains get turbo charged (my way of saying it) - in 6 ways - the flexible mind, the problem solving mind, the metacognitive mind, the learning mind, the interpersonal mind and the ageing mind. In two parts I reflect on some of the points.
Is the point of education to develop agile thinkers with the capacity to meet unknown future global challenges? If so, then Language learning perhaps should be the centre of 'essential', above the 3 Rs, and not an add on. This article by David Marsh et al, "The Bilingual Advantage: The Impact of Language Learning on Mind and Brain" (2020), shows that its in Language learning that our brains get turbo charged (my way of saying it) - in 6 ways - the flexible mind, the problem solving mind, the metacognitive mind, the learning mind, the interpersonal mind and the ageing mind. In two parts I reflect on some of the points.
How do we support students towards spontaneous unscripted Language use? I’ve been exploring in my teaching how to allow students time to workshop as well as use Japanese. In particular to ‘chop it’ and ‘build it’, allowing students control over constructing their own meanings, even if those sentences are not yet completely correct. So I thought of the rainbow image. Here is a link to my “spontaneous use rainbow” on a miro board. Zoom in and out as you explore it.
I've always known that the 3 literacy curricula - Language, English and EAL are talking about the same skills, but with the different formats, the clunky wordiness of them all, it hasn't been until now that I have sat down to make the connections. In particular I look at the sound-shape connection - phonics, and the meaning making or comprehension. Not surprisingly, they are the topics of my first two podcasts in the reading series.
Here are my notes - the written version of what I talk about. And the link the Department of Education and Training website with comprehension strategies like the Building Reading document on the MACS Languages website.
The magic of reading really is more than just what is on the page. It is so much about how we interact with the text. What strategies might your students use to read? This is my thoughts about how I might use the Reading Toolbox of strategies that has been developed by the MACS Languages Team.
The book referred to in this podcast is "Ushiro ni iru no dare" うしろ に いるの だれ and is read by Redcatreading.com.
The MACS Reading Toolbox with the reading strategies link.
The MACS BUILD reference for teachers link.
Thank you to Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools for creating this and allowing me to talk about it.
Language IS Literacy. In part 1 I talk about reading as the intersection of sound shape and meaning, then explain how I structure reading activities in my Language classroom. I describe some fun, easy and super effective activities too, In part 2 I talk about the MACS building blocks for reading. In part 3 I talk about the links in the Victorian Curriculum between Language EAL and English
In this episode I talk about Dr Kathryn McFarlane 's summary of her PhD findings titled
"Autonomous Language Learners Approach: Developing Oral Language Skills for Spoken Interaction in the Classroom". I think about what the 8 Key strategies mean to me and my students.
I have a new idea for students using Japanese with each other everyday, some honesty about how I might be sabotaging students' creativity by delivering them full sentences and what I changed about my use of gesture. I hope that my thinking out loud helps trigger some creative thinking that suits you in your context.
You can find Kathryn's work on the CEM Languages website. https://languages.cecv.catholic.edu.au/professional-reading/the-all-approach-research-2020
You are welcome to email me, staylor@ceosale.catholic.edu.au
Language mats have been developed by the MACS (Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools) Languages team, with webinars about how to use them. In this podcast I talk with Margaret Gatehouse who teaches French at St Lawrence O Tool in Leongatha, about how she has used the Language mats in her class. I also describe my experience of them, and I hope you will share your ideas and experiences too.
Here is a link to the Language Mats. https://sites.google.com/cecv.catholic.edu.au/languages/teacher-resources/language-mats?authuser=0
Please feel free to email me with any thoughts.
staylor@ceosale.catholic.edu.au
This is the first (gasp) episode on my brainwave to make a podcast about Real Language Classrooms. I talk about the Speakup app by MACS (Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools), and the themes that came through when some teachers in CEOSale reflected on trying it for the first time.
How did you find this? Did I keep it real? Did it help to have an audio rather than something you have to watch, so it didn't add to the time demands of your day? Did it feel like a friendly conversation? Would you listen again if I did more about other things related to Language learning?
If you would like to investigate Speakup, have a look at the MACS Languages website: https://sites.google.com/cecv.catholic.edu.au/languages/teacher-resources/speakup?authuser=0
The next MACS webinar on Speakup is early 2021. You can register via OPL.
Please feel free to email me any thoughts.
staylor@ceosale.catholic.edu.au