la Saint Valentin

poème d'amour

Le quatorze février, c est la Saint Valentin, la fête des amoureux. Pour fêter ce jour on va composer des poèmes d'amour selon cette rubrique -

Sans toi, je suis un jardin sans fleurs

Sans toi, je suis un lac sans eau

sans = without and it can be followed by a noun with no article eg sans fleurs

you could put comme = like after je suis but I think it sounds better without!

A vous maintenant - postez vos vers en cliquant sur Comments

plus d'infos sur cette fête ici

Joyeuse Saint Valentin!  - happy Valentine's day

je t'aime! - I love you!

lundi deux février

C'est déjà le mois de février et aujour'dhui il y a de la neige!

Today Diane took the register. Lynne could you do it next week?

We then discussed history of MLPS prompted by a ppt which I will shortly upload to My teaching files. You will also find articles in a folder called "papers"

I prepared a handout on activities for MLPS and we worked our way through that. This is a work in prgress and you can add to the lists roughly divided into Listening and Talking, Reading and Writing. In practice most cativities cover at least 2 of the skills.

We spent some time on Reading and Reading skills looking at these sites
www.africanimo.com and tried the activities suggested by Lynne Horn on her blog We may revisit this.
I also suggested the site journal des enfants and looked at the article on the Obama children
Here is their article on the recent plane crash into the Hudson river
All of these web pages are real, interesting, relevant and not contrived or condescending. They are of course challenging and pupils are not expected to understand everything but gain satisfaction from what thy can decipher. I think of it as a puzzle and like detective work.
A site to help you read foreign language pages is lingro. First you copy the url of the web page and then launch lingro, paste it in and select French- English.Click on any word you don't know and a dictionary pops up with suggestions. Brilliant! Here is what the lion page looks like in lingro

Another site I like but we couldn't get into yesterday is mon jt quotidien meaning my daily newsreel (jt- journal télévisé). This is a bit like newsround with several short video clips changed every weekday. This is a listening only exercise so is harder - good for you though! There are often quirky stories under the tab insolite
Here are a couple of interesting ones
the parrot
the car that crashed into a church roof

Homework
Prepare to teach the class 4 words of your choice using some of activities in flashcard presentation and today's handout. This is by way of preparation for the micro teaching.

Bonne semaine!

vokis

Get a Voki now!

lundi 26 janvier

We went over the writing homework. It was of a high standard.

One grammar point that arose was how to express you have been doing something for a spell of time. English would be something like …

I've been married for 10 years

I've lived in Ayr since 1982

I've been teaching for 5 years

If in English it is "have been …  or have done … for a length of time or since with a date" then the construction in French is the Present tense of the verb not past tense as in English and preposition depuis

je suis marié(e) depuis dix ans

j'habite à Ayr depuis 1982

j'enseigne depuis 5 ans

Anyone else who wants their writing corrected please email or post in comments

We spoke about the problems of how to get pupils to write and what we should expect of them. We looked at the 5-14 guidelines and the new outcomes both of which are fairly vague. Writing is of course the end of a long process of the teaching via listening, talking and reading. We talked about support with word banks and had some suggestions for types of activities and context.

Finally and still to do with writing we went to www.voki.com to create a French speaking character. This involves typing French,  listening to the computer voice read it and eventually recording your own voice so writing, listening and talking!

Homework: to create a voki  that looks like you  with some of your personal information

Create an account (free)

You need an active email to confirm account. 

Create and email me your voki. 

Beware of typing names - the French voice simulator will have trouble eg to get it to read Kay I typed quai. Probably best to avoid names. Also it will only accept about 3-4 sentences. 

If you know how to record your voice on to the computer you could try that. It will let you record longer maybe 60 seconds.

You should also see if it is going to work in school websense etc.

We also had a look at www.toondoo.com

This allows you to create a 2 or 3 pane cartoon with speech bubbles. No sound but it is very colourful and motivating for writing!

Again you need to create an account (free) 

If this appeals to you, have a go!

Here are some examples created by B Eds displayed on a wiki

Amusez-vous bien!

Beauvais 14 March

I have just booked my place to Paris-Beauvais. At least 6 of Module 2 are keen. Feel free to book up as well.
It cost £29.50 The handling charge which was £10 on Saturday is now £9.50. The vagaries of Ryanair booking are a mystery!

le 19 janvier

Heureusement que le technicien informatique a réussi à réparer mon portable! Quel soulagement!

We started with the games made up by you. Well done for a nice variety of activities! Please email me kay.mcmeekin@uws.ac.uk any docs so that we can share them.
To create games easily this is the site I was trying to find yesterday http://toolsforeducators.com/
I've made bingo and dominoes using it! You need to print at the time or save as a pdf which you can't go back and edit.

Personal writing homework. Try and base your writing on what you know or have seen.
If you have trouble doing accents, copy and paste these!
é è ê à If you an email me your text before Monday I'll have them marked or if you are brave paste it in comments!

The Simpsons write about themselves here. Use these as an example! Think we may have done them before.

Here is a bit about me
Je m’appelle Kay McMeekin. J’ai cinquante-huit ans et je suis mariée avec David depuis 22 ans. Nous avons deux enfants - une fille qui s’appelle Laura et qui a 21 ans et un fils David qui a 20 ans. Mon mari est prof de langues à la retraite. Nos enfants sont tous les deux à la fac à Glasgow. Laura étudie l’archéologie et David étudie le génie civil. J’habite à Darvel qui se trouve à 35 km de Glasgow. Je vis avec mon mari et notre chien qui s’appelle Holly. Nos enfants vivent à Glasgow dans des appartements loués. Ils nous rendent visite de temps en temps. C’est tout pour le moment!


Listen to Laure! We'll have a go at making a voki next week!

Online Documents

Documents, reports etc Download the pdf, if available. Don't print - they are long!
CFE MODERN LANGUAGES OUTCOMES 2007
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/curriculumforexcellence/outcomes/languages/modernforeignlanguages/index.asp

Citzens of a Multilingual World (aka the Mulgrew) Report 2000
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/education/rati-00.asp rationale
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/education/cmwr-00.asp recommendations
2005 progress report: http://www.hmie.gov.uk/documents/publication/hmiecoaml.html

5-14 Guidelines 2000
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/5to14/guidelines/modernlanguages/index.asp

HMIE
http://www.hmie.gov.uk/Publications.aspx

• Developing the four capacities through modern languages: focusing on successful learners in primary schools. 22/8/2008 .pdf
• Modern Languages - A portrait of current practice in Scottish schools 06/02/2007 .pdf

Standards and Quality: Primary and Secondary Schools 1994-1998: in Modern Languages 01/01/2002