MFL

Adventure Rock reveals pupil archetypes

The BBC PC game Adventure Rock is aimed at 6-12 year-olds.. The BBC commissioned a study of children's behaviour in this virtual world from Professor David Gauntlett and Lizzie Jackson of the University of Westminster. Prof Gauntlett said online worlds were "very useful rehearsal spaces," where children could "try all kinds of things largely free of the consequences that would follow if they tried them in the real world."

The researchers identified 8 archetypal roles which their study group adopted during play:

1. Explorer-investigators
2. Self-stampers
3. Social climbers
4. Fighters
5. Collector consumers
6. Power users
7. Nurturers
8. Life system builders

Do teachers recognise any of these archetypes from the classroom?

1. "Miss, that man who picks you up from school, is he your boyfriend?"
2. "Sir, I just stamped on my foot!"
3. "Your boyfriend's really good-looking, Miss."
4. "Sir, he laughed at me so I stamped on his foot too."
5. "Sir, do you want to see my bottle-tops?"
6. "I'll tell everyone he's your boyfriend, Miss."
7. "He cried when I stamped on his foot, Sir, so I gave him some of my bottle-tops."
8. "Are you and your boyfriend going to have babies, Miss?"

In another report, teachers are advised against using social networking sites like Bebo and Facebook. The reason is obvious. Your pupils will ridicule you when they discover you like Shania Twain and have fewer than 700 friends.

French for everyday situations

We all know the sort of "everyday situations" that crop up in GCSE French; "A la piscine", "Au marche" (sorry, French accents seem to be unavailable,) "Dans le restaurant". A British yachtsman complained to BBC News today that his school French had left him completely unprepared for a confrontation with French fishermen blockading the port of Cherbourg. Apparently, the French fishermen threw water at him (the swine!) and taunted him (presumably in the manner of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail") whilst the local gendarmes looked on and did nothing.

I would urge the examination boards to revise their GCSE French syllabus for 2009 to allow for this new Anglo-Gallic scenario. They owe it to future yachtsmen (and -women) to do so. If I might make some role-play suggestions:

1. You are a British yachtsman trying to leave a French port.

• Je dis, vous types, est-ce que je peux partir?

2. You are a French fisherman, attempting to maintain the blockade.

• Votre mere etait un hamster, et votre pere puait les baies de sureau!

3. You are a gendarme, responding with concern to the yachtsman's pleas for assistance.

• Bof!

Oooops! - proof that GCSE's are getting easier

News just in: pupils sitting yesterday's GCSE music exam found some of the answers printed on the back of the paper.

Examination board Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR) have blamed a "printing error". This seems harsh on printers. The words "proof" and "reader" spring to mind.

OCR went on to say that "pupils will not be disadvantaged by the error". Quite the contrary, I'd have thought. Apparently, hundreds of pupils in Herefordshire and Worcestershire noticed the error. Worryingly, hundreds more did not. This actually offers examiners an easy marking solution; those who noticed, pass, those who didn't, don't.

Reassuringly, OCR are "putting procedures in place to identify the effect, if any, this had on candidates".
The "effect, if any, this had on candidates" was in fact observed during the examination, as hundreds of children spontaneously punched the air, whispering "Yesss!" and "All-riiight!"

Schools and exam boards are under great pressure to meet the government's desired year-on-year improvement in GCSE results. (For similar reasons, the London 2012 Olympic committee have decided to dispense with the winning tape and confer a gold medal on all runners who take part.) Yesterday's accidental boost to 2008's GCSE results suggests further examining options to keep the DOE happy. From 2009, ALL the answers will be printed on the back of the papers, but upside-down, like in a newspaper quiz. In 2010, your entire GCSE in each subject will be decided on one simple multiple-choice question. The question will be broadcast on TV just after 'Pets Win Prizes' and you can phone in your answer on a premium-rate number.

I'm reliably informed that the question for 2010's music GCSE will be:
Who composed 'The Rhinegold'?

1. Lindsay Wagner
2. Robert Wagner
3. Richard Wagner

(Hint: not Lindsay or Robert)

                                                                

Torture: am I being over-sensitive?

Here's an issue I (as a former local Amnesty group secretary) feel very strongly about. It will probably be of most relevance to History teachers, though I would welcome feedback from teachers of any subject. I've just written to my 8 year-old son's school about the content of a History lesson he related to me at the weekend. Please tell me - am I being over-sensitive? Here's the letter:

Dear Mr ...

I was concerned by reports from my son about the content of a recent history lesson. Apparently, during a lesson on the Gunpowder Plot, the class were asked to illustrate the torture and execution of Guy Fawkes. I am aware that 8 year-old boys are naturally fascinated by all things gruesome (I was myself) but feel strongly that this assignment was inappropriate.

Firstly, I question the educational value of the assignment, which would seem to suggest that it is the methods of Guy Fawkes' torture and execution which are historically significant. They are not. So why were they given classroom time, unless for sheer entertainment value?

Secondly, I question the appropriateness of encouraging a class of 8-9 year-olds to indulge their bloodthirsty side by ILLUSTRATING torture. Torture is not an entertaining footnote in history. It is widely practised today in China, Iran, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. If a school is going to introduce such a difficult and unpleasant topic, it should do so to an appropriate age-group and in a RESPONSIBLE way.

There is much talk today of young children being de-sensitised to violence by films and video games. In this climate, my son's assignment strikes me as irresponsible.

If you feel I am being over-sensitive on this issue, I would urge you to visit Amnesty's recent torture reports .
Would you think it appropriate to explain some of these current methods of torture to a class of 8-9 year-olds and then ask them to illustrate them?

I look forward to hearing your reactions.

Humour in the language classroom - 2

...or any classroom, for that matter! Why do we like humour, how does it work, and how might it be employed to make school lessons more effective (as well as more enjoyable?) (Or are lessons more effective BECAUSE they're more enjoyable?)

One of the best explanations I've heard for humour was by doctor, comedian and now president of the Rationalist Society, Jonathan Miller:

“One of the things which has always struck me about humour is that we are ready to pay a great deal for it: comedians often become very wealthy as a result. That must mean that it gives us a great deal of pleasure. But why is there such an extraordinary pleasure attached to this peculiar convulsive respiratory activity? I believe that one of the reasons we seek it is because it mobilises cognitive versatility. And the evolutionary advantage of cognitive versatility is self-evident: the smarter you are about categories, the smarter you are about similarities, about dissimilarities, about differences and resemblances, the smarter you are in dealing with life’s cognitive challenges.”

Miller continues with a computing analogy:
“We have not enough room on our personal neurological desktop for everything we know. There is not enough room in consciousness. So we store it on an internal hard disk. It is this stored enabling unconscious which allows us to speak English fluently without having to constantly refer to a dictionary."
Do read the rest of the article.

The computing analogy is attractive. To take it further, the uninspiring lesson might be one in which the students use only their ROM (read-only-memory,) and the inspiring lesson, one in which they can access their RAM (random-access memory.) Humour could be the key to your students' RAM.

Here, with no educational ambitions whatsoever, is another of my French regional guides. Maybe you'll remember some of the trivial facts, just because they were funny? Do let me know!

Aquitaine is the bit in the bottom left-hand corner of France. 30,000 years ago, it was inhabited by Neanderthal Man, who was notoriously messy and never tidied his cave. Only recently, another untidy Neanderthal cave was discovered near Bourg-sur-Gironde, and archaeologists are still busy picking up stone axes, half-eaten boxes of Narwhal nuggets and unwashed underpants. Neanderthal Man's descendants can still be seen in Bordeaux today, usually when Girondins de Bordeaux are playing at home.
Bordeaux was sacked in 276 by Vandals. They came back in 409 and sacked it again, this time properly. It was then sacked in 414 by Visigoths and finally in 498 by the Franks. These were dark days for Bordeaux, but a great time to be a barbarian. After 498 there was nothing left to sack and the barbarians turned their attention elsewhere.
Read the rest here

Humour in the language classroom

Salut! New poster here. As a language teacher, I thoroughly endorse David's recent posts about using music, and would like to suggest a further resource - humour.

One of the most memorable lessons I ever had at school was when my excellent German teacher explained the difference between 'wenn' and 'als' as translations for the English 'when'. 'Wenn' means 'whenever' and 'als' means 'on the occasion when', but rather than simply state this and move on, he walked out of the classroom and demonstrated. Shouting from the corridor "When ('als') I came into the room, I tripped over the dog." He strode in and tripped over an imaginary dog. Much laughter. He went out again. "Whenever ('wenn') I came into the room I tripped over the dog." He then walked into the classroom for or five times, each time tripping unwittingly on an imaginary dog. The point stuck, and none of us ever got 'wenn' and 'als' wrong again.

In the hope that it will inspire some of you with the mnemonic possibilities of humour, here's the start of a very silly French regional guide I've written.

ALSACE

Alsace is France's smallest region and you'll find it in the top right-hand corner. It's sandwiched between the Vosges mountains to the West and the Black Forest mountains across the Rhine in Germany. It's a classic example of "horst and graben" geology from the Oligocene era (about 30 million BC.) Think of a Black Forest Gateau that's been heavily leant on. The good news is this makes Alsace one of France's driest regions, because er, the rain only rains on the hills and er, sorry Sir, can you explain that bit again?

The half-timbered houses of Alsace are one of the region's most striking features. For most of its history, much of Alsace was flooded on a yearly basis. (But I thought you said it was one of the driest regions in France? Oh, ok it doesn't rain much but the Rhine floods.) In the days before flood damage insurance, the Alsatians (the people, not the dogs) decided that the best solution to this predictable inundation was to build wooden kit-homes, which could be dismantled, moved somewhere drier and reassembled in a day. Having found somewhere dry, you'd think they'd just leave it there, wouldn't you?

The Oaths of Strasbourg have nothing to do with the sort of language you hear today in Strasbourg's rush-hour. They were pledges of allegiance sworn in 842 by royal brothers Louis the German and Charles the Bald. Charles the Bald was, of course, succeeded by Charles the Fat and Louis the Stammerer. That must have kept the tabloids busy.

You can read the rest here