#nalasat

At #nalasat, an MFL Show and Tell event held in Manchester on 9th November, I shared an idea for helping improve listening skills through reading, making a link between the sound and the look of a word.

In brief, this is the idea:

• At the start of the lesson, give pupils the text you want them to listen to later on, but don’t tell them that is what is going to happen.
• Give them a few seconds to look through the text.
• Tell pupils that you are going to read the text aloud, and they should join in with you when they know what you are doing. Repeat this several times, changing the pattern each time. Suggestions are:
  • Read every other word
  • Read every third/fourth word
  • Start reading from the end of the text
  • Read the first word of each line, then the last word of each line
  • Read the first word of the text, then the last word of the text, then the second word of the text, then the penultimate word of the text etc
• You can make it as complicated or as simple as your own brain can manage!
• After a few minutes of fun, put the text away.
• Later in the lesson, conduct the listening activity, without saying that pupils have already had access to the text.

If you would like a comprehensive overview of everything that happened on the day, you could do worse than read this post by Dominic McGladdery.