Tuesday 25 April 2017

On the Preservation of the Pencil Case


It has not escaped my notice that this week is National Stationery Week.  Those who know me know that I am very interested in stationery, and, indeed, that I have a lot of stationery.  The above picture shows just one of the trays of pens, pencils, rubbers, rulers and associated bits and pieces that belong to my daughters.  So it must run in the genes!

My younger daughter recently celebrated her birthday, and during the Easter holidays we had to go to the shops in Newcastle to spend her birthday money.  She dragged me into Smiggle (surely the most heavily-perfumed, headache-inducing shop known to mankind) where she purchased a pencil case and some pens and pencils to go in it.  When I returned to school today after the holidays, the first thing a lot of my Year 4s did was to show me their new Smiggle pencil cases.

Children are very interested in pencil cases and all the many lovely things that you can put in them.  Yet "pencil case" has become a byword in Languages teaching for everything that is dull, banal, uninteresting and unmotivating.  It is spoken of disparagingly as an example of all that is perceived to be wrong with Languages lessons.

In the olden days I used to teach "pencil case" to Year 7.  Remember that page of Avantage 1, anybody?  These days I teach it to Year 3.  We do it to introduce nouns, gender, indefinite articles and dictionary skills.  The vocabulary is useful for primary children, and inherently very interesting to them.  The structures are a fundamental part of language learning in Key Stage 2, the blocks on which the next three years will be built.

The topic is less interesting, though, to secondary students. They have usually got past the stage of wanting brightly-coloured, glittery and perfumed stationery, and stick to what is more practical.  At their (slightly) more advanced years they have other interests and other priorities.

In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with teaching "Things in my pencil case", as long as it is appropriate to the likes and dislikes of the children in the classroom, and as long as the language being practised is appropriate to the linguistic level of the children in the classroom.

I will use this to shield myself from the flack that will now, undoubtedly, come my way:

Monday 24 April 2017

Making a leaflet

 

At the UKLingua conference this weekend, amongst the other goodies in my goodybags (yes, plural!) was this leaflet about Salamanca.  Now, at the moment I am teaching the unit 'Then and Now' to Year 6 Spanish for the 5th time.  We finish the unit with a piece of independent work which depicts and describes a town in the past and the same town in the present.  I haven't yet found a way that I really like of presenting this work.  So I am going to try a version of this leaflet this year and see how it turns out.

We're going to make it with one sheet on A4.  I'll probably use card as paper always gets a bit fragile with all the felt-tipping.  If you want to use A3 paper, double the initial measurement and all subsequent steps will be the same.  You will need a very long ruler though!

1.  With your A4 paper landscape, measure 8cm down from the top right corner.

2.  Draw a line with a long ruler to join your 8cm mark and the top left corner.

3.  Cut off the small triangle.
4.  Fold the paper in half along the long, bottom edge.
5.  Fold the shorter edge back in to the centre.
6.  Turn it over and fold the long edge back in to the centre.
7.  Turn it back over and you'll see your finished leaflet.

Thursday 20 April 2017

High-frequency French vocabulary for KS2


In my last post, I looked at the most commonly occurring verbs, nouns, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs in Spanish, and thought about the words on each list that we are teaching in KS2 or that we should teach in KS2.

For French, I have consulted this list of the top 100 words in French, and the webpage also includes the top 25 of various word classes.

Verbs

The first 21 of these French verbs are in the top 100 words.  I have also added on the end aimer, which is not on of the 25, but which is very frequently used in KS2 and elsewhere.  Would we also want to add penser or croire for giving opinions and jouer for talking about sports and music?




KS2
curriculum area
1.
être to be
yes
description, identification Qu'est-ce que c'est?)
2.
avoir to have
yes
age, possession, family, pets, money, physical description
3.
pouvoir can, to be able
yes
classroom instructions and language
4.
faire to do, make
yes
household chores, sports
5.
mettre to put, place


6.
dire to say


7.
devoir to have to, owe


8.
prendre to take


9.
donner to give


10.
 aller to go
yes
places in town, transports, holidays
11.
vouloir to want
yes
food, shopping, classroom equipment
12.
savoir to know


13.
falloir to take, require, need


14.
voir to see


15.
demander to ask for


16.
trouver to find


17.
rendre to render, return, yield, give up


18.
venir to come


19.
passer to pass


20.
comprendre to understand


21.
rester to stay


22.
tenir to hold


23.
porter to wear, carry
yes
clothes
24.
parler to speak
yes
countries and their languages
25.
montrer to show




aimer to like
yes
opinions



Determiners

I have added onto the end of this list the determiners to go with le, un and mon.



KS2?
1.
le the
yes
2.
de some, any
yes
3.
un a, an, one
yes
4.
ce this, that

5.
tout all, very

6.
son his, her, its
yes
7.
autre other

8.
leur them, their, theirs

9.
deux two
yes
10.
premier first
yes
11.
mon my
yes
12.
aucun none, either, neither, not any

13.
quelque some

14.
notre our

15.
certain certain

16.
trois three
yes
17.
tel such

18.
quel which, what
yes
19.
chaque each

20.
plusieurs several

21.
votre your

22.
quatre four
yes
23.
cinq five
yes
24.
ton your
yes
25.
dix ten
yes


la the
 yes

les the
  yes

une a, one
 yes

des some
 yes

ma my
 yes

mes my
 yes


Conjunctions

There are only 23 conjunctions in the top 5000 French words.  Again I have added to the list some which are used commonly in the classroom, not only in KS2.



KS2?
1.
et and
yes
2.
que that, which, who, whom

3.
mais but
yes
4.
comme like, as

5.
ou or
yes
6.
si if, whether

7.
aussi too, also, as
yes
8.
quand when
yes
9.
donc so, then, therefore, thus

10.
soit either ... or

11.
car because
yes
12.
pourquoi why

13.
ni nor

14.
comment how

15.
lorsque when

16.
or now

17.
cependant however
yes
18.
puisque since

19.
toutefois however

20.
combien how much, how many
yes
21.
sinon otherwise, or else

22.
néanmoins nevertheless

23.
quoique although, though



qui who, which
yes

parce que because
yes


Prepositions



KS2?
1.
de of, from, some, any
yes
2.
à to, at, in
yes
3.
en in, by
yes
4.
pour for, in order to

5.
dans in, into, from
yes
6.
sur on, upon

7.
par by

8.
avec with
yes
9.
avant before

10.
entre between

11.
moins less

12.
sans without

13.
après after

14.
pendant during

15.
depuis since, for

16.
contre against

17.
sous under

18.
jusque to, up to, until

19.
vers toward

20.
dès from, as soon

21.
devant in front, ahead

22.
chez at, with
yes
23.
près near, nearby, close by

24.
selon according to

25.
parmi among



Adverbs

(Although I take issue with the description of some of these words as adverbs.)



KS2?
1.
ne not
yes
2.
pas not
yes
3.
plus then

4.
tout there

5.
mais still, yet
yes
6.
comme so, therefore

7.
si only

8.
y here, there

9.
avant more

10.
même same, even, self

11.
aussi too, also, as
yes
12.
bien well
yes
13.
 where

14.
encore again, yet

15.
déjà already

16.
grand great, big, tall
yes
17.
moins less
yes
18.
très very
yes
19.
quelque some

20.
non no, not
yes
21.
alors then, so

22.
après after

23.
peu little

24.
bon good
yes
25.
depuis since, for



Pronouns

I am surprised that je is only in at no.9.



KS2?
1.
le him, her, it, them

2.
un a, an, one
yes
3.
en in, by
yes
4.
que that, which, who, whom

5.
ce this, that

6.
il he, it
yes
7.
qui who, whom
yes
8.
se oneself, himself, herself, itself, themselves

9.
je I
yes
10.
tout all

11.
autre other

12.
on one, we
yes
13.
nous we, us
yes
14.
leur them, their, theirs

15.
there

16.
elle she, her
yes
17.
même same, even, self

18.
celui that, the one, he, him

19.
 where
yes
20.
vous you
yes
21.
cela that, it

22.
me me, to me, myself
yes
23.
aucun none, either, neither, not any

24.
lui him, her

25.
dont whose, of which


Again, all thoughts welcome via the comments.