1. Developing Thinking Skills in MFL through Newspapers J P Robinson, MCIL (Monday 22 nd March 2010)

2. Reading and Thinking

3. Thinking about Reading to Challenge and Stretch all Students Reading strategies Thinking skills 1.Choice of text material 2.Question types and activities 3.Encouraging independent wider reading 4.Develop linguistic competence as well as performance (Saussure: langue / parole)

4. The Development of Thinking Skills: Bloom’s Taxonomy Comprehension Application Knowledge Analysis Synthesis Evaluation Creativity

5. The Development of Thinking Skills: Edward de Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats (1985) RED Intuition, feelings and emotions. Requires no justification. How do I feel about this right now? Reading context: Focuses on personal response to bullfighting and emotions in text, extremely for / against YELLOW Logical and positive. Looking forward to the result of a proposed action / finding value in previous action. Why will this work? What are the benefits? Reading context: Helps organise the group, helps to gather pro / con arguments, reminds group of value of task for A level oral exam BLACK Logical. Judgement and caution. Why does the suggestion not fit the facts? Reading context: Spots bias, limitation of facts, objectively looks at information gathered GREEN Creativity, alternatives, proposals, viewpoints, ideas. How can this idea be modified? How else can we achieve the same objective? Reading context: Looks around the topic, suggests further resources, segments the text WHITE Facts, figures, information needs and gaps. What information do we have? What do we need and where can we get it? Reading context: Gathers statistical information and finds extra facts, produces graphs BLUE Overview or process control. Metacognition (thinking about the question rather than the subject). Are we thinking along the right lines? What type of thinking should we do? Reading context: Makes sure approach is effective, are we missing something? Is the issue really so black and white? Goes beyond an emotional response. Thinks about presentation of findings. “Here is a difficult newspaper article about bullfighting in Spain. I want you to decide as a group how you are going to tackle the text and use it to prepare for a debate on the pros and cons of bullfighting.

6. Transition to Key Stage 3 From 2011 secondary schools in England will have to be ready for all of their Yr7 intake to have experienced MFL at primary school. Questions to think about: 1. How will we adapt our SoW to reflect students’ prior knowledge, skills and / or experience? 2. What MFL reading strategies are being taught in our primary feeder schools and how can we build on these in the secondary phase to avoid taking a step back?

7. Key Stage 3 Assuming little prior knowledge of FL1 Assess the Students’ preferred learning styles and intelligences (esp. VAK). Establish good AfL / AoL procedures with built in strategy delivery and assessment. Encourage peer learning, learning to learn, independence (e.g. use of dictionaries). Use KS3 Framework to inform SoW but not control it Decide as a team which reading strategies will best suit your students at which level. Develop thinking skills alongside strategies where appropriate. Gradually introduce newspaper elements into lessons. Don’t be afraid to use from Yr7.

8. Transition to Key Stage 4 Build on KS3 in various ways: Develop guessing strategies Develop a range of personal response strategies that enable students to express their views and opinions Develop students’ ability to recognise and work with a range of tenses and moods in unfamiliar contexts Broaden the range of authentic materials Offer sufficient challenge to boost motivation and enthuse students to take languages to KS4 and to enjoy GCSE

9. Key Stage 4 Reading should initially focus on developing the skills required of GCSE and similar courses in a covert way: add competitive elements and team building tasks that promote independence, pupil- centredness and peer learning. Gradually incorporate GCSE (or similar) style question types and passages and select questions that share the same strategic approach. Get students to identify the most appropriate strategy for success and explain why. Consider time-saving issues and build in checks to account for errors. Encourage students to begin to read for pleasure; exploit online newspapers as a source of information for research, homework, cultural discovery and reading for genuine information and interest. Get groups of students to produce a TL newspaper for distribution / sale in the school – articles, letters, opinions about school life, quizzes and word puzzles

10. Transition to Key Stage 5 Encourage independent reading. Have proper induction to library resources and appropriate study skills (e.g. use of internet / translation sites / dictionaries / encyclopaedias, etc.). Subscribe to AS level style magazines and newspapers such as Authentik. Select articles that are of a social / political or economic nature for exploitation in class. Foster an ethos that reading for pleasure in a FL is a good thing. Give your recommended reads to students and build weekly news reports into lessons. Develop a weekly portfolio culture in the 6 th form.

11. Key Stage 5 Focus more on higher order thinking questions and strategies and link reading more closely with debating and arguing (oral) Use reading as a means of exploring particular grammar features of the TL in a way that makes the students work out rules / patterns implicitly (e.g. subjunctive in German, use of impersonal verbs and reflexives in Spanish, the past historic in French) Setting reading as a homework task with a few directed questions frees up lesson time for oral debates and discussions Look at the language of political campaigns / slogans / advertising Teach skills required for specific exam boards: paraphrasing / translation / synonyms / written replies to business letters / discussing a newspaper article / report / comprehension of a social issue (e.g. education, obesity, global warming, delinquency …) Present students with graphs and charts and give directed questions that enable them to offer interpretations and justify their ideas Facilitate the students to analyse the make up of a whole newspaper / magazine