The Summer Project (#French)

In the past, my hands-down-favourite thing about teaching was being in the classroom, with the kids, bouncing off their energy and enthusiasm and teaching them French, and seeing them grow in knowledge and confidence and ability. That feeling only increased when I started at Michaela. The exceptional behaviour standards meant that we could have a real giggle, that my pupils would learn LOADS in an hour and their energy and enthusiasm would stem, in the main, from feeling clever.

But a new thing threatens to knock the act of teaching off its perch as my favourite thing about… well, teaching. And that is: resourcing.

We teach French very differently at Michaela, and in order to do that we make our own resources. Those resources are very dense – you can get loads out of a single text, or a single practice activity, and our emphasis on repetition and spaced practice means they get reused again and again. I have shared a couple of our knowledge organisers – one of those, along with other practice activities, normally lasts six weeks. We are constantly refining and developing the materials we use, but they are built on a solid foundation of the written word, lots of reading, lots of transparency and lots of beautiful language.

This Summer, from Monday 24th July to Friday 4th August, we are running a Summer Project to design and produce even more resources, with a particular emphasis on Key Stage 4. We – my colleagues and I – will be working for two weeks to design and produce the texts, activities, practice drills etc. that we will use with our pupils week in, week out, for years. I’m ridiculously excited!

Evangelical as we are about how we teach French, we want to share this experience with others, and give you the opportunity to come and work with us. We’ll be based at Michaela, and you will get an insight into the thought process behind our resources, a chance to work with Michaela staff to create them, and a chance to discuss the fun parts of pedagogy, like “what little story can we tell about the word ‘quelqu’un’ to help pupils remember it?” and “which idiom sounds more authentic here?”.

It would be ideal if you could do the full two weeks, so that you get the most out of it, but if you can’t do the whole two weeks that’s fine. Expect it to challenge everything you previously thought about language teaching! If you’re interested in taking part, drop me a quick email at jlund@mcsbrent.co.uk letting me know and I’ll be in touch!