Achieving at A-Level

This academic year has seen me start teaching AS level French. This was initially a daunting prospect due to only having taught a few lessons of A-Level during my initial teaching training and having a year away from it. However, in this post I hope to outline a few things that I've put in place to help my students progress regardless of the very steep learning curve A-Level languages can throw at them.

Directing DIRT

DIRT (Dedicated Improvement and Reflection Time) has become a huge feature in my lessons over the past year. I'm sure many of you have these routines embedded into your classroom but this post aims to show just a few ways in which you can ensure that every student gets as much out of this time as possible.

Valuing Vocabulary

Vocabulary building can be one of the most arduous tasks for pupils. Pupils can feel bombarded at the start of a topic when they are learning lots of new words thick and fast. In this post, I hope to show you some ways in which you can present vocabulary in a more fun, accessible way allowing for pupils to learn independently.

Diversifying Differentiation

Languages aren't an easy subject to study and sometimes it can be difficult to make them accessible for a whole range of different learners in your class. In this post, I hope to show you how you can differentiate effectively for a range of abilities supporting those who need it while pushing those most able.

Perfect Plenaries

I won't lie, plenaries aren't my strong point. I'm frequently caught at the end of the lesson with 3 minutes until the bell with homework to dish out and a plenary still to go. However, I've picked up a few techniques for checking pupil progress quickly and effectively throughout the lesson.

Stimulating Starters

How you start your lesson can often have the biggest impact on pupils engagement and behaviour. Pupils have come from another room, another subject and another teacher. How do you welcome them into your classroom and tell them that you mean business? In this post, I hope to show you some ways in which you can engage learners from the minute they step through the door.

Dynamic Displays

Getting your own classroom and being able to decorate it was one of the things I was most excited about when I landed my job. The things you put on your walls can be motivating, inspiring or simply just eye-catching. In this post, I hope to show you how I've made the wall space in my room work for me.

WAGOLL

With Easter assessments looming, I have been providing a lot of model texts for my pupils to work with. While these act as an aspirational target for pupils, they also provide  pupils with a working text that they can adapt and use for themselves.

Perfect Props

Struggling with a lack of engagement or motivation can be one of the hardest challenges teachers face on a daily basis. In this post, I hope to show you how just a few props in your teaching toolkit can make even the most reluctant student become a motivated linguist.

Improving Writing

On my second placement one French classroom was covered in useful vocabulary. I sat there taking note of every piece of coloured paper in that room and set my mind on replicating the displays in my own classroom one day. The problem is that the room in which I'm mainly based is a room where German and Spanish are taught too. After chatting about this with a fellow NQT, she came up with a single side of paper that contained excellent language that pupils need in order to improve their writing and speaking.