Learner Evolution ~ Chris Harte

You can't do that in language teaching...

 My dear friend @joedale sent me a link to a TES discussion board about how to use Bloom's/Anderson's revised Taxonomy in the languages classroom. I was amazed by the negative nature of some of the responses that were posted claiming that our language learners could only ever get up to applying on the taxonomy as their language level is not good enough -rubbish say I!!!!

Anyway, I then spent a little time reflecting and wrote this post on the thread in reply...

"Hello! I think there is a little bit of confusion here about what Bloom's/Anderson's taxonomy is for. As Graham rightly points out, it is a generalised framework of higher order thinking skills. It is a way to look at the complexity of thinking a learner is using - however, it has nothing to do with linguistic outcomes and trying to artificially superimpose this taxonomy onto "what they need for GCSE French/Spanish/German etc" is wrong. This approach will lead to the disastrous situation where teachers think that learners can only function at the first three levels in a languages classroom because they do not have a sufficient level of language to write an evaluative essay on veil wearing. Put simply, we are teachers of languages but we should also be teachers of learning.  I bet that every teacher here has talked to students about the best way to learn new vocabulary; lists, mind maps, word hooks, look cover spell check etc. By talking to the students about different ways to learn a language and giving them the chance to evaluate which works best for them, we are allowing learners to use higher order thinking skills. At the end of a series of lessons about the perfect tense in French, getting students to create a flow diagram to help others to form the tense correctly is an example of synthesising/creating. Analysing is about comparing constituent parts and deconstructing ideas/language - i.e. the best form of deductive grammar learning (rather than explicit grammar teaching). Evaluation is also about hypothesising - think about pre listening exercises before you attempt a gap fill - "what kind of word might fit in this space?" "a noun because there is a la before it"... Basically I think that we need to differentiate between learning language (memorising words and structures and using them - gets us up to "applying" on the taxonomy) and learning to be a better linguist (analysing constituent parts, hypothesising, bringing together different grammatical concepts to create a piece of writing or speaking which takes us right to the top!) We are doing a huge disservice to our children if we do not get them to think in language learning (something the exam boards do not do) as we are trying to create better language learners, not better exam passers! The entire Bloom/Anderson's taxonomy is applicable to language learning and we should be explicit with the learners talking to them about the different levels of thinking they are using.

As for De Bono's hats - I have an entire Y9 scheme of learning in French based on them! We take the topic of the environment and each lesson is based around one of the hats - Lesson 1; white hat thinking - we learn to use facts and figures about the environment. Lesson 2; black hat thinking - what are the problems to do with the environment? Lesson 3; yellow hat thinking; what are the positive things you do now? Lesson 4; red hat thinking - what are your opinions and feelings about the environment? Lesson 5 green hat thinking; use the future tense to say what you are going to do to be more environmentally friendly. Assessment? A letter to the European Commission - on the writing frame we have  a different coloured hats next to each few lines to encourage the students to write a paragraph about each hat, therefore giving different points of view. So where is the blue hat? When I mark the work and give them feedback I am wearing my blue hat to suggest what else they could do to improve their work. 

We should not be shying away from things that are accepted as being effective pedagogy and ways of thinking by saying that "you can't do that in languages". We can do anything in languages because, as we all know, linguists do it best."

Any comments or thoughts would be greatly welcomed!

 

Top 100 Language Blogs 2010

This blog has been nominated in the "Language Technology" category which is lovely! Looking at the other nominees, I am in prestigous company! Anyway, if you think this blog deserves a vote you can do so by clicking on the button below! Thank you for reading!

TMNE10 - Pedagogy with a purpose

I can't believe that we have already completed our 3rd TeachmeetNE event, it seems only days ago that, inspired by Ewan McIntosh's blog and what I had read about other teachmeets, I was chatting to@DKMead and we decided we should have a crack at setting one up in Newcastle upon Tyne. Now, 3 events later, they just keep getting better and better! So what was le craic?

 A change of venue from the übercool Tyneside Cinema to the immense North of England Mining Institute with its Hogwarts like library and the incredible lecture theatre. TMNE10 promised 58 attendees which eventually (probably due more to football fixtures than political debates...) slightly dwindled to a nonetheless healthy 45. The meeting was captured on two flashmeetings, part one and the aptly named part two. The video is not great, but the audio is good and as soon as the footage which was filmed on the night is ready, it will be posted!

We were kicked off in inimitable style by the great Gwyn ap Harri (@gwynap) who gave a nano presentation with the title "How to teach". Only someone of Gwyn's genius/madness would have the audacity to give a presentation of this title but my word it did what it said on the tin! The key points?

In order to appreciate the full scale of this presentation, you can download the slides at Gwyn's google site and/or watch him back on the flashmeeting.

Gwyn was followed by Alasdair (@hairysporan)who demonstrated the ways in which Second Life was developing the education aspect with islands dedicated to lectures from universities, NASA space programme, language learning and a whole host more. It was amazing to see the amount of work that has gone into the place. Hopefully, Alasdair's prezi will be available here soon. If you feel like exploring second life, then there is a Teachmeet which is going to take place in Second Life on 7th May 2010 - for more details and to sign up, go here.

Next came Fiona (@wizenedcrone) who read us the story of Storybird - a fantastically creative tool to write stories in any language! Great for art, literacy, languages, presenting back in an interesting way - tons of potential! Fiona has collated a large number of foreign language examples and you can read her presentation here.

 In an almost David Attenborough style nature documentary looking at the hidden lives on termites, Darren (@DKMead) did a startling job of digging under the surface of student learning, looking at what really has the biggest impact on learning and how can we use that to our advantage. You can read Darren's presentation here.

I (@charte) swiftly followed Darren with some Web 4.0 technology (Microsoft Word - there are other word processing packages available (buy a Mac and get Pages...)) to demonstrate how using simple text boxes and a simple thumb up, thumb middle, thumb down technique is a rough and ready way of gauging and more importantly demonstrating progress in knowledge, skills and attributes. See the post below to download the template.

The first half was rounded off by less of a pedagogical and more of a philosophical presentation from Phil (@PhilSpoors) who, after telling us a story which many thought was going to lead to him being dragged in front of the GTC, left us with an incredibly strong message - you gotta have faith in your learners. To  read Phil's presentation, Download Here. You can also watch the crazy ninja film here: Download EPIC FINAL DONE 100%.

After more drinks and nibbles in the library, we returned to a fantastic  presentations from Steve (@stevebunce) who not only showed us a great way to use Google search story to create interesting narratives, but also enabled the whole even by his work with Vital and the sponsorship they afforded the teachmeet. Vital do a great job of bringing both formal and informal cpd opportunities together and Steve is doing great work in our region!

Next came Martin (@saidthemac) who did a fascinating presentation into how to shift the locus of control away from the teacher and place it firmly in the hands of the learners. It is definitely worth watching again on the flashmeet part two and check out Martin's blog too!

After Martin, came Dominic (@dominic_mcg) who used SMS voting to see whether the audience thought he would stick to 7 minutes. Strangely enough those of little faith in Dom were proven wrong as he was the only presenter who managed to keep in the alloted time! Dom then went on to talk about the multiple uses of mobile phone technology, from voice recording, to self organising! Lots of food for thought! You can read Dominic's presentation here.

Next up was a great 2 minuter from Scott (@scottclarknufc) on the value of home work. Why set an essay on medieval warfare when you can get students to build trebuchets and have a long distance slinging competition? Why just get students to analyse heraldry when you can get them to make their own shields which represent their families? My personal favourite were the history handbags! 

Our penultimate presentation came from Chris (@ChrisFullerisms) who asked us to take a look at the health of our professional/personal learning networks. He neatly demonstrated how, in times when we are less and less able to go out of school for professional development, we need to do it for ourselves using tools like twitter to connect with like minded teachers. Chris' presentation is available here. 

The final presentation was a working model of how web 2.0, grit and determination and inspirational leadership can keep a school community together even when the physical building has gone. Jamie (@JamiePortman) is Assistant Head at Campsmount School in Doncaster which tragically burned to the ground on December 13th 2009. I don't intend to tell you the miraculous story which got Campsmount on its feet and working again so quickly as it sounds so much better from the man himself. Check out the flashmeeting part two and watch the whole thing and you can check out Jamie's presentation here.

Another fantastic TeachmeetNE under our belts and I would just like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsors Vital (www.vital.ac.uk)for sponsoring Two Jumps Learning Educational Trust and enabling us to continue running these valuable events. keep an eye out for TMNE10 the Winter Edition and I will leave you with a quote from this event which I found incredibly inspiring;

"Practise what you preach. Strategies, initiatives, processes, meetings, improvement plans - even great presentations -don’t make things happen, YOU MAKE THINGS HAPPEN, PEOPLE MAKE THINGS HAPPEN. Only through your practice can you effect these theories. If you believe it… DO IT!" Gywn ap Harri