Stretching the students

Use of target language as much as possible from day 1 in all lessons. Students get used to the language very quickly and learn lots of verbs and phrases we use all the time in class.

Bank of phrases that you can use:

• I am going to do the register – Voy a pasar la lista. For example, by using this sentence every time you do the register students can pick up how to do a future tense in a very easy way.
• We are going to listen / to read / to write / to speak – vamos a escuchar / leer / escribir / hablar. Another example of using the future tense when you tell students what activity they are going to do next.
• You are going to work in pairs – vais a trabajar en parejas
• The yellow / red / blue book – el cuaderno amarillo / rojo / azul
• The date – la fecha
• What is the weather like? – ¿Qué tiempo hace?. The structure of the weather phrases in Spanish are very different from the English so it is a good idea to get students writing the weather under the date in their exercise books to get them using the phrases as much as possible.
• Silence – silencio
• The book on page … - el libro en la página …. Good use of numbers in every lesson.

• Encourage students from the very beginning to start their pieces of writing by writing

I am going to write / talk about … (In Spanish and French it is very easy if they already hear us say “I am going to do the register” in every lesson, in German if it is more difficult they could learn it as a set phrase to get them used to always start with that phrase). This is a very easy way of getting to use a future tense from the very beginning.

There are many ways of stretching the students from the very beginning to encourage them to produce more complex sentences and to learn to use the grammar they learn in other context. This type of activity also caters for all students in the classroom, so it is a good activity for differentiation.

Stress the importance of using connectives: because, but, although, however, because of, whenever they are doing a piece of writing and speaking.

You can do very quick starters or plenaries asking students to translate sentences starting from an easy one and making it more complex and rewarding the students who get the more complex sentences with one “good point” on the board.

ie.

• I like History (the less able students can do the simple sentences easily)
• I like History because it is fun
• I like History because it is fun but I don’t like PE
• I like History because it is fun but I don’t like PE because it is difficult

Students love the challenge sentences and it is a good way of differentiation giving all students the opportunity to see how to construct more complex sentences.

Ways of getting the different tenses.

When writing about where they live, they can learn how to say “I would like to live” as a set phrase so when they are writing about other topics they know how to say two different ways for the future: “I am going to …” and “I would like to ..”.

Towards the end of the year, some students want to know how to say some things in the past tense, ie. I used to live, I used to play or things like “when I am older, I would like to …”. Encourage those who are better at the language to start using some of these phrases. If they get used to using them early on, they will be very used to using them by Year 10 and 11 and they will be able to write more complex sentences.

• It is very important to use grammar terms like INFINITIVE in the lessons. Doing very short activities with the whole class on verbs gives the students confidence and understanding with the grammar.

Example: last year I was very conscious of the fact that I wanted the students to learn what an infinitive was and how important they are so I did many short sessions on verbs throughout the year, writing the infinitive at the top and asking the students to tell me the endings for the Present Tense.

Once students become confident with what an infinitive is, they can do sentences with “I am going to + Infinitive”, “I would like + infinitive”, “I used to + Infinitive”, “I like + Infinitive”, “I prefer + Infinitive”, etc.

• They find it quite difficult to know which ending is which (I, you, he/she, we, you pl, they) so it is a good idea to repeat it as much as possible during their first year of learning the language. We can tell them that I is the most important person because I am talking, you are next to me so it is second, he/she are further away so they are not as important as I an you, then it is we, you pl, and they. It is important to repeat this many times until they were all confident with the order.

• It is important that they get used to writing in paragraphs from the very beginning so you need to emphasise this when asking them to do a piece of writing. If they don’t do paragraphs, warn them once and if they do it again, make them rewrite the whole thing in paragraphs.

• Get them to use Negative sentences in their writing and speaking. It is very easy to say what they have / do as well as what they don’t have / don’t do using “but” to make more complex sentences. ie. I play football with my friends in the park on Saturdays but I don’t go to the cinema with my friends, I go to the cinema with my parents.

• Rewarding students from the very beginning gets them very enthusiastic about going a bit further with the language. Giving good points by putting the names of the students on the right hand side of the board (the good side) and keeping a record of them in the register and giving them a commendation once they get 10 points. It is a good way of encouraging good participation in class from all students.