Transcript WHY DO WE TEACH WRITING IN THE MFL?

Gina Ottaway – SLE Westdene TSA
Writing gives learners the opportunity to find
ways of expressing their ideas in a foreign
language.
 Writing gives learners the opportunity to try out
the language with plenty of thinking time.
 A learner’s writing gives the teacher a good
opportunity to diagnose grammar and vocabulary
problems and to identify progress.
 Writing allows learners to practice new
structures in an extended context.
 Writing can provide more variety in classwork

Mark Hancock and Annie McDonald
• Reading and writing are supported by, and
reinforce, the development of oracy.
• In KS1 or lower KS2 – children begin to
understand the letters and phonics of the
MFL – this is later applied in their reading
and spelling.
• Introducing reading and writing skills
from the start is essential.
• By upper Key Stage 2, children are able to
read and produce longer and more
complex structures. Children will begin to
access texts independently for their own
enjoyment.
PROGRESSION IN WRITING SKILLS
• Copy words – making labels
• Gap-fill letters into words – eg completing learnt phrases,
puzzles, wordsearch
• Copy short phrases – eg short dialogues, Christmas cards
• Gap fill words into short phrases – eg songs with Cloze
procedure
• Copy sentences – eg from board
• Gap-fill short phrases into sentences – eg daily routine,
ordering food, talking about a hobby
• Produce words – using glossary/dictionary – labelling.
Writing topics lists in games
• Produce short phrases – answering questions in a listening
acitivity, describing pictures, gap-fill phrases in Dialogue
• Produce sentences – eg answering questions, writing a
description
• (Jane Jones and Simon Coffey – MFL 5 – 11)
Phoneme – grapheme correspondence
 “We believe it is important to introduce the
written word to children early on in their
language learning. The important thing is to
make the sound-spelling links explicit,
systematic and as complete as possible.”
Julie Prince “Sounds and Words”
Eg Phoneme Boxes – Decode words - eg dictionary
work. Draw boxes around each letter/letter string
which corresponds with a phoneme. S-a-p-in or la-p-in
Team games – phonemes on table – teacher reads
out a word and children race against each other to
form the word.
 Stories:
Ours brun, Ours brun
L’agneau qui ne veut
pas être un mouton
LES VÊTEMENTS –
1: Use interactive white board
games/flashcard games to develop
vocabulary
2: Teach Je porte/Tu porte/Il porte/Elle
porte – conjugation of verbs
3: Develop scripts using “Comic Strip”
programme in ICT suite
4: Children learn scripts and have a fashion
show – show in Assembly
http://www.schoolsworld.tv/node/3107
Poetry – beach poem
1: Choose your poem
2: Build up knowledge of language and
key words with flashcards and actions
3: Sentence building in groups with cut
up phrases
4: Class poem
5: Create individual poems – make a
class book/display
6: Paintings/illustrations to go with
them.
http://www.literacyshed.com/the-maiawalczak-shed.html
Ideas to exploit the text
 Secure understanding in French with
flashcards
 Dictionary lesson –
 Brainstorm in pairs ideas for their own story
 Use scaffolded text to support children to
create their own stories