Skip to main content

Lolly sticks etc

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/stick-pick/id436682059?mt=8

If you are into lolly sticks for random questioning in class and own an iPhone or iPad, you might find the above app useful. In our school a few teachers have opted for lolly sticks and seem happy to use them. We have not yet done so in MFL lessons, although we have embraced the intermittent use of no hands up. If you are not familiar with lolly sticks you have a mug of them with pupils' names on and choose them at random when doing questioning.

Other approaches to random questioning include electronic name generators and allocating pupils numbers when they enter the room and calling numbers for answers.

I have to say that I am not a big fan of totally random questioning for language lessons. I understand the theory that we should have the same expectation of all students and that students need to be challenged and ready to respond at any time, but I also believe that as teachers we should be using our skill and knowledge of our students to pitch questions at an appropriate level. This is sensible differentiation. Each student can be challenged at their own level and we know all too well how great the variability is in language learning aptitude.

Furthermore, language learning is a challenging and even threatening task for some pupils and part of our job is to make students feel comfortable about the process. No hands up may add to the discomfort.

In addition, we have found that random questioning can slow down the pace of lessons.

We have therefore maintained a balance of hands up, which keeps up pace and encourages the keenest and most able, while also using no hands up at times for differentiation and to keep students on their toes.

As for other AfL fashions, well, we like mini whiteboards for all the obvious reasons, but we have, as yet, not been tempted by traffic light systems such as coloured cups, though one or two other departments at our school have.

If you have not come across the traffic light system, this is a way of knowing at any stage whether pupils are understanding the work. They have three cups (red, amber and green) and place the appropriate cup at the top of their pile depending on how well they are following. Green = understanding fully, amber = partially understanding, red = not understanding.

Other traffic light systems are available.

I reckon that if we used those coloured beakers during question-answer work we would be potentially facing a class of second rate Tommy Coopers.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What is the natural order hypothesis?

The natural order hypothesis states that all learners acquire the grammatical structures of a language in roughly the same order. This applies to both first and second language acquisition. This order is not dependent on the ease with which a particular language feature can be taught; in English, some features, such as third-person "-s" ("he runs") are easy to teach in a classroom setting, but are not typically fully acquired until the later stages of language acquisition. The hypothesis was based on morpheme studies by Heidi Dulay and Marina Burt, which found that certain morphemes were predictably learned before others during the course of second language acquisition. The hypothesis was picked up by Stephen Krashen who incorporated it in his very well known input model of second language learning. Furthermore, according to the natural order hypothesis, the order of acquisition remains the same regardless of the teacher's explicit instruction; in other words,

What is skill acquisition theory?

For this post, I am drawing on a section from the excellent book by Rod Ellis and Natsuko Shintani called Exploring Language Pedagogy through Second Language Acquisition Research (Routledge, 2014). Skill acquisition is one of several competing theories of how we learn new languages. It’s a theory based on the idea that skilled behaviour in any area can become routinised and even automatic under certain conditions through repeated pairing of stimuli and responses. When put like that, it looks a bit like the behaviourist view of stimulus-response learning which went out of fashion from the late 1950s. Skill acquisition draws on John Anderson’s ACT theory, which he called a cognitivist stimulus-response theory. ACT stands for Adaptive Control of Thought.  ACT theory distinguishes declarative knowledge (knowledge of facts and concepts, such as the fact that adjectives agree) from procedural knowledge (knowing how to do things in certain situations, such as understand and speak a language).

La retraite à 60 ans

Suite à mon post récent sur les acquis sociaux..... L'âge légal de la retraite est une chose. Je voudrais bien savoir à quel âge les gens prennent leur retraite en pratique - l'âge réel de la retraite, si vous voulez. J'ai entendu prétendre qu'il y a peu de différence à cet égard entre la France et le Royaume-Uni. Manifestation à Marseille en 2008 pour le maintien de la retraite à 60 ans © AFP/Michel Gangne Six Français sur dix sont d’accord avec le PS qui défend la retraite à 60 ans (BVA) Cécile Quéguiner Plus de la moitié des Français jugent que le gouvernement a " tort de vouloir aller vite dans la réforme " et estiment que le PS a " raison de défendre l’âge légal de départ en retraite à 60 ans ". Résultat d’un sondage BVA/Absoluce pour Les Échos et France Info , paru ce matin. Une majorité de Français (58%) estiment que la position du Parti socialiste , qui défend le maintien de l’âge légal de départ à la retraite à 60 ans,