Institution: All Saints Specialist Language College, York

Context
All Saints is a successful and popular school where students enjoy learning in an atmosphere of mutual respect and encouragement. It strives to be a community where are all challenged to achieve their full potential, staff and students alike. All Saints is a Specialist Language college, where all students learn a foreign language to GCSE and some learn as many as three. The school offers French, German, Spanish and Italian and run before and after school lessons as well as many taster sessions, including in Chinese and in British Sign Language.

Description of project
The All Saints Languages Blog was developed to encourage different groups of learners became more engaged with language learning. In particular at Key Stage 4, some of the most able learners are in need of constant challenge to keep their attention and pace. Many were not at all motivated by traditional text book teaching. Thus, the schemes of work were enhanced by introducing Web 2.0 technologies. Learners now engage with language through blogging, (see the twitter page for French Tweeters). YouTube and other video-related language websites are used for the latest listening materials. And the school also uses e-books, grammar via meditation (using the Verbcast website) and pupil produced podcasts (hosted on the blog) to name a few.

Principles of teaching
The project is based around outcome based planning; learners access and engage with authentic materials for the explicit purpose of producing their own. Using modern, creative and active teaching and learning methods for a new generation of technically minded pupils is crucial. Using ICT and web based materials allows the teacher to take the role of facilitator on many occasions as the pupils adopt a more independent approach to learning. They can access the materials themselves and engage with them in ways that are more natural, being much more techno-savvy than some of their teachers! Releasing more able learners to make progress at their own speed produces some excellent results, as sometimes too much teacher presentation and/or intervention can cause their progress to be slowed.

Issues and handy hints
Setting up a blog takes time and energy in the early stages but is a great way of creating a community within your teaching group and allows for independent, out of school learning to take place at the pupils’ own pace and according to individual needs, strengths and weaknesses. Pupils are used to communicating online and being part of e-communities and this is something that teachers can build upon.

Basing learning on ICT can take teachers out of their comfort zone. Be brave and bold and encourage your pupils to do the same! However, we know that all too often in Modern Languages it is the teachers who are working harder than the learners. Using ICT and web-based materials independently puts the responsibility for learning firmly in the hands of the pupils rather than the teacher.

Simply using ICT based tools changes the perception of the pupils. For example, pupils of all ages and abilities love the idea of podcasting. This is basically an MP3 voice recording by another name. When you talk about creating a radio station and podcasts, it sounds far more appealing than a listening comprehension and a role play, and uses concepts that pupils are used to using and hearing all the time!

Impact on learners and teachers
The impact on the groups involved there is a palpable sense of increased motivation and participation on the part of the learners. Through the blog, teachers receive regular feedback via the blog comment facility. There is an increased sense of community within the teaching groups and an increased willingness to engage in language learning from home and for personal reasons. There seems to be a greater desire to make progress in language learning; GCSE results for this group have yet to be published.

In as far as teachers are concerned, not all staff at All Saints are au fait with Web 2.0 technology or feel confident with the idea of blogging or podcasting. However, following a short whole school Inset session, they now have some experience of how a blog can be used and a few departments have approached me recently to ask for support in using some of the techniques mentioned above. Other subjects within the languages department are trialling and developing their own German and Spanish blogs.

Teachers and pupils from All Saints and across the country are accessing the blog, and the impact of this is high ; there are on average 111 hits per day on the blog.

Future developments
Since these techniques are having such an impact on motivation for our more able learners at 14-19, the intention is to continue developing these to use at KS3 and even in primary. It is also planned to use the blog as a platform for phonics so that pupils have the opportunity to access listening materials as part of their homework. The ability to hear and respond to pupil voice at regular intervals to assess what works and make any changes is an important facet of this work. Key to success however, is the willingness on the part of colleagues to refocus their planning and delivery style, and ongoing training is available for staff of all subejct areas – and what’s more, this can often be done via the blog!

Supportive quotes

Comments from learners:

“The blog is great because no other teachers do anything like it” (Hopefully this will change!)

“I love the blog because it’s work but it’s more fun”

“It's really good to watch myself on the internet! Such fun, this website is great!”

Comments from teachers:

I am a French teacher and I love your blog! It is a great source of inspiration for my class blog, that I've just started last week … I have added a new post about le festival d'Angouleme with a slideshow I made about French cartoons. Please do use it!

Contact
Suzi Bewell at All Saints Specialist Language College, York or via her blog: http://www.allsaintslanguagesblog.typepad.co.uk/