Isabelle Jones, Head of Languages, The Radclyffe School, OldhamTwitter: @icpjones http://twitter.com/icpjones My Languages Blog http://isabellejones.blogspot.com PLTS in MFL Wiki http://pltsinmfl.wikispaces.com

Personal Learning & Thinking Skills in the Languages Classroom

• Look at strategies for embedding PLTS in your daily practice

• Audit your own practice • Consider different approaches to

promote PLTS in your classroom• Widen your repertoire of Thinking

Skills activities• Find out what ICT tools can support

the development of PLTS resources

You will...

• Not a new concept:

Personal Learning + Thinking Skills

• Independent learning skills

• Learners’ social interactions

• Making the link/ transfer knowledge

• NOT a government initiative-focus for good practice

Are PLTS here to stay?

National Strategies Online Modules

• Were at the start of the

drive to promote/ relaunch Thinking Skills.

• http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/mfl

• Click on CPD => Module11: Thinking Skills (log-in needed)

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Give opinions, assess/ criteria

Express rules, summarise, create

Identify patterns and rules

Predict, infer

Explain, describe, illustrate

Information recall: identify, list

PRICE Taxonomy

5 types of Thinking Skills:

• Information-Processing skills

• Reasoning skills

• EnquIry skills

• Creative Thinking skills

• Evaluation skills

PLTS in the Secondary National Curriculum

independent enquirer

creative thinker

reflective learner

effective participator

team worker

self manager

Embedding PLTS the BLP Way

Building Learning Power, Guy Claxton

“The 6 clusters of qualities are more than Skills that can be trained... The point is to cultivate these qualities into becoming dispositions, or habits of mind... Cultivation of the PLTS should run through the curriculum, life and ethos of the school, like lettering through a stick of rock”

Embedding PLTS the BLP Way

The 4 Rs• Resilience: absorption, managing

distractions, noticing, perseverance;• Resourcefulness: questioning, making

links, imagining, reasoning, capitalising;• Reflectiveness: planning, revising,

distilling, meta-learning;• Reciprocity: interdependance,

collaboration, empathy and listening.

Audit your own practice

• Which PLTS areas do I find are the easiest to integrate in my practice?

• Can you give examples of activities?

• Which PLTS areas do you think are

the most difficult to integrate?

• Why?

Strategies for Embedding PLTS

• Aiming to deliver a wide variety of tasks in

a varied way: impact on resource design and nature of interactions in classroom;

• Opportunities highlighted in SoWs & examples of activities shared;

• Focus on developing students’ skills and independence.

Strategies for Embedding PLTS

• Introducing Meta-language to talk about learning: mats, display

• Overlaps with AFL and SEAL• Training of support staff like FLAs• Focus on developing PLTS as a

wholeschool approach• http://isabellejones.blogspot.com/2009/10/fli

p-cramlington-model-for-developing.html

• http://isabellejones.blogspot.com/2009/10/flip-approach-for-languages-at.html

Promoting PLTS: Mats

Promoting PLTS: Using cross-curricular Thinking Skills tools

Promoting PLTS: Using cross-curricular Thinking Skills

tools

Strategies for Embedding PLTS: Overlaps

Strategies for Embedding PLTS: Overlaps

Strategies for Embedding PLTS: Lesson Objectives

• Look at the specific skills required to do well the Speaking Controlled Assessment

• Identify and use “interesting” phrases to improve the range of the language used

Objectifs:

SEAL objectives: Motivation (red)

•I monitor and evaluate my own work•I set challenges and targets for myself and celebrate when I achieve them

Strategies for Embedding PLTS: Lesson Objectives

Vers le succès (Steps to Success):•Developing strategies to start off answers in different ways •Say & understand how time phrases, connectives, comparatives, reasons & opinions can improve your linguistic range •Practise speaking ensuring you do not pronounce silent letters

Vers le progrès (Path to Progress):Be able to develop your speaking answers using a range of structures • Recognise your strengths

• Be aware of how you are doing• Learn from mistakes

Strategies for Developing PLTS through languages activities

Use mystery picturesUse links between pictures: and, but Compare pictures : use comprative, becauseSay what happened beforeSay what might happen afterRead/Listen to clues to identify one specific picture

Points forts et Points faibles

L’alcool: C’est relaxant mais c’est cher

Le jeu

Le tabac

La drogue

Plus … que (more … than)

Moins … que (less … than)

Aussi … que (as… as)

L’alcool: C’est plus relaxant que le jeu mais c’est aussi cher que le tabac

Diamond nine cards.doc

Le tabac

Le cannabis

Le travail La cocaïne

Les médicaments

Le jeu

L’ héroïne

Le shopping

L’alcool

http://classtools.net/

Pourquoi pas?

1. Parce que ça sent mauvais2. Parce que c’est dégoûtant3. Parce que ça donne le cancer4. Parce que ça cause des crises cardiaques5. Parce que c’est facile de devenir dépendant6. Parce que c’est trop cher7. Parce que c’est du gaspillage8. Parce que c’est difficile d’arrêter9. Parce que c’est illégal10.Parce que c’est dangereux11.Parce que c’est mauvais pour le foie12.Parce que ça fait grossir/ ça coupe l’appétit13.Parce ce que c’est mauvais pour la santé

L’alcool, le tabac ou les drogues?

L’alcoolLe tabac

Les drogues

Showing off your PLTS

KS3 or KS4 lesson on healthy eating

What would you do to “show off your PLTS”?

•Classroom set-up•Activities•Resources (including ICT if relevant)

How embedded are your Thinking Skills/ PLTS?

*Schemes of Work:

mapping out of Thinking Skills lesson opportunities sharing PLTS objectives

*Evidence of:• Collaborative team work [+Seating

arrangement, Display] • Students using “meta-language”• Students as Independent learners• Cross-curricular support/time dedicated to

skills building across the curriculum

Independent Enquirer Activities

¿ Quién va a sufrir los problemas de salud y ¿ por qué?

Me llamo Bea. Tengo catorce años. Estoy estresada porque siempre estoy estudiando y nunca me relajo.

Estoy preocupada por los exámenes y no duermo bien durante la semana. Sin embargo los fines de semana duermo practicamente todo el tiempo.

Me llamo Javi y tengo quince años. Vivo en el norte de España con mi abuelo.

Me encanta hacer el ejercicio, no obstante bebo demasiado café.

Mis padres fuman y eso me preocupa mucho.

Soy muy gordo y no estoy en forma.

Mis amigos beben demasiado y toman drogas. Intentan convencerme para hacerlo.

Hace dos años mi abuela murió de un cáncer de los pulmones.

Debería hacer más ejercicio y comer menos. Hay que comer más verduras

El viernes pasado comimos en una hamburguesería.

Hacía el footing todos los días en el parque con mi primo.

Tengo que trabajar mucho ahora a causa de mis exámenes. No he estudiado bastante y tengo miedo.

Mysteries: IWB, audio recording

Independent Enquirer Activities

• Intercultural understanding-identify features• Flickr http://www.flickr.com • taggalaaxy http://taggalaxy.de/ • French Google http://www.google.fr • Spanish Google http://www.google.es

Independent Enquirer Activities

Intercultural understanding-reflecting on identity and finding out about France

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LXaSFgVxGs

Find songs with repetitive structuresAnd get students to also be moreCreative with the language...

Je viens de là où...

Creative Thinkers Activities

• Poems: recipes, acrostics, calligrams, comparisons

• Song-Stromae “Alors on danse” [Lyrics world app]

• Transfer structure: Stromae_on_danse : Qui dit...

• Rebus http://www.rebus-o-matic.com/index.php

• Rebus Malin iphone

Creative Thinkers Activities

Stromae-Alors on danse...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pKrVB5f2W0

Structure suggested for students’ own poem/ song (complete)

examples of student’s responsesQui dit amour dit … haine/ familleQui dit parents dit… bagarres/problèmesQui dit enfants dit … futur/larmesQui dit vacances dit … rire/ désastreQui dit études dit … travail/ennuiOui dit travail dit … argent/ennuiQui dit copains dit ... amusement/bavarder

Creative Thinkers Activities

Poems: calligrams (word mosaic)

Image Chef: http://www.imagechef.com

How would you use these symbols? What other symbols might you find useful?

Tagsxedo (creative word clouds) http://www.tagxedo.com/

Creative Thinkers Activities

Rebus-o-matic : http://www.rebus-o-matic.com/

Je m’appelle Isabelle

C’est lundi

J’aime les chats blancs

Creative Thinkers Activities

Making links: Learners are given a selection of familiar words and asked to make a concept map by adding connecting words between the words already on the list.

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1751079/Me_gusta

desayunar comer merendar cenamos descansar

leche pan zumo té café

queso jamón mermelada fruta golosinas

despierta desayuna energía come cena

agua tostadas cereales queso uvas

frutas verduras hortalizas cereales dulces

¡Pilla al intruso!

Rachel Hawkes

Reflective Learners Activities

Fact or opinion

“On mange mieux en France qu’en Angleterre”

Discute et range les phrases selon leurs catégories

2 stars and 1 wish

Direct

Post-it notes

Wallwisher http://www.wallwisher.com

Reflective Learners Activities

2 stars and a wish (direct/ post-it notes/ wallwisher) http://www.wallwisher.com

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/wjn8yXcz14

Effective Participator Activities

• Get involved in outreach activities: resources for Primary (mini books, recording stories, using video-conferencing), open evening

• Organising a languages club/ café • Involvement in activities to prepare for

a trip, exchange, option evening• Displays, videos, LAFTA competition...

Team Worker Activities

• Running dictation/ collective memory

• Students work together to create or re-create a text or a visual image in the form of a map, picture or diagram. Each student look at stimulus for a short period of time (e.g. 10 seconds) before returning to reproduce the original

• Wikis: Collaborative Writing Task: http://langwitch.wikispaces.com/l%27histoire+sans+fin

Team Worker Activities

•Collaborative Writing Task: Wikis http://langwitch.wikispaces.com/l%27histoire+sans+fin

SOLO TaxonomyStands for Structures of Observed Learning Outcomes

Developed by Biggs and Collis in 1982

Describes levels of increasing complexity in a student’s understanding of a subject

With the highest level being the extended abstract level, when students can make connections not only within the given area but also beyond it.

Students will also be able to generalise and transfer the principles and ideas to another area.

Are we allowing our students to make these connections?

• More ideas for strategies to embed PLTS in your daily practice

• Reflected on your own practice • Considered different approaches to

promote PLTS in your classroom• A wider repertoire of Thinking Skills

activities• Found out what ICT tools can support

the development of PLTS resources

You should have ...

Isabelle Jones, Head of Languages, The Radclyffe School, OldhamTwitter: @icpjones http://twitter.com/icpjones My Languages Blog http://isabellejones.blogspot.com PLTS in MFL Wiki http://pltsinmfl.wikispaces.com

Personal Learning & Thinking Skills in the Languages Classroom