Bethlingual - Beth M's MFL blog

One of the frustrating things about starting a new spec is the lack of grade boundaries to help make a judgement about what grade students are on track to receive. Unfortunately, until there has been a cohort who take this exam and receive a grade, no one will be able to give accurate grade boundaries - we can only estimate. While the boundaries change year on year, they have remained roughly similar for the last 8 years (on the previous spec). It is of course possible for them to change further for a new specification, but this is still our best source of data to create a best estimate for the new one. I have created a spreadsheet which gives a few alternative ways of calculating a 'best estimate' grade - these are best used alongside teacher professional judgements. This may potentially include you knowing your students' target grades, or comparing with previous cohorts. It may also help you to report a more nuanced grade, which is required by my school and I'm sure m...

This blog is a continuation of My Top 10 Speaking Activities: Part 1 I wanted to share some helpful activities that I use often with my classes. The activities I've selected help students to practice and develop different sub-skills of speaking, and are listed here with an explanation and an example. 6. Quelquechose/Algo/Etwas This requires slightly more prep than the other tasks so far since you need a partner A and partner B version of the resource, but worth it since it practices the two new skills of the new GCSE – reading aloud and dictation. There are two similar texts, and students take it in turns to read it to their partner and to write what they heard in the gaps. I also like that the pair who isn’t speaking has a clear and specific role, as I think this is important for engagement in these types of tasks. Students tend to need coaching to not try to mumble or speed through it, so this is done a little later in the learning sequence (when I am happy that students can accu...

I’ve written quite a bit about how to develop our students’ speaking skills, and making sure we scaffold and challenge appropriate to their current understanding and abilities. I’ve also discussed how we can make speaking activities a classroom routine, increasing confidence and motivation by making it so students expect to have to speak, and so they are clear on what they need to do. I thought it would be helpful to write a post explaining my top 10 speaking tasks at the moment as well as how, when, and why I use them. They aren’t listed in any particular order but are roughly in order of when I might use them with my classes if I’m introducing a new topic. (Most of my example slides below come from tasks I’ve done with my lovely year 10 French group throughout last year.) So, without further ado... 1. Repeat if correct (also known as ‘beat the teacher’) This is great at the start of a topic as it’s repetition based, so ideal for drilling new vocab or a particular phoneme. KS3 classes...