Article Details

Article Details

Professional learning in West Lothian: Raising the profile of 1+2

Author: Kate Findlater, West Lothian

Recently, Maria McKinley delivered a workshop about Camembear, a progressive resource which uses a bear character as a ‘hook’ to appeal to young learners.

There are currently two Camembear resources. The first is suitable for nursery and P1 learners, and Camembear 2 takes learners through to first level. The resource has been designed to cover key topics and basic grammar terms in an interactive way. The teachers’ file is easily accessible and easy to follow for non-specialist language teachers. If purchased, the resource includes a puppet, flashcards, books, DVD and suggested activities.

Maria introduced the content of the resource and shared the book and DVD with us so that people could get a feel for it all. She received positive feedback and teachers went away feeling more confident about teaching French in a primary context.

High five!

Mark Pentleton, an ex-secondary languages teacher and entrepreneur, came to talk to our teachers about High Five.

RadioLingua, Mark’s company, has developed a whole range of language resources, but High Five has been designed for primary children. The premise is very simple – a native teaches an English-speaking child their language. The key language is taught through an online video clip, some of which explores the culture of the country. It follows a simple formula where five key pieces of vocabulary are introduced and there is follow-up content via audio files, worksheets and challenges.

The resource has been purchased by West Lothian and is available for all teachers to explore and use. Those present liked how user-friendly it is and how it makes language teaching for non-specialists much more straightforward, giving teachers the confidence to learn alongside the children.

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