MFL classroom tools and tricks Updated December 2014

1. MFL Widgets & Wizardry
30+ ideas for the language
classroom
http://iconscrabble.com

2. By attending the course you will:
be given information about online tools to help
language learning
be given some information about recent e-learning
developments
have a chance to share and discuss strategies for
using online tools to raise attainment in MFL
Have a break from the frenzy of school

3. Questions?
Topic area?
Quick flash?

4. Quick flash?

5. Questions?
Topic area?
Quick flash?
Don’t forget
that you can
also use
scrolling
effects to see
how much
pupils
remember

6. Tu vois……
Un vase
Ou
Deux têtes?
Le nez
La bouche
Le menton

7. Une jeune femme
ou
une vieille dame?

8. Tu vois
un lapin
ou
un canard?

9. Build your wildself
http://www.buildyourwildself.com/
Also Sonic character creator
http://devbook.com/charactercreators/sonic/

10. Mr Picassohead
• www.picassohead.com
• anime character maker
• sonic character creator
• gamepuma character creator

11. Countdown timer
www.online-stopwatch.com
A nice collection of timers.
Includes countdown bomb!
www.classtools.net
Has tunes you can use to countdown
Also : name/word randomizers, hidden image

12. www.classtools.net
Fakebook
& Fake Tweet (‘Twister’)
Great for project work – a celebrity, a town, a
character in a novel, play or film

13. Linguascope widgets
[Log in needed]
Countdown timers
Dice

14. www.barryfunenglish.com
Look under ‘tools’ for scoreboards. One of the few free
resources available on this site

15. ‘wheeldecide’
http://wheeldecide.com/
A wheel spinner which you can customize with any number of
segments and contents
You could add words, pupil’s names, topic categories
Les vacances
Ma chambre
Ma ville
Ma maison
Mon copain /ma
copine
Mes animaux
Mon film préféré
Mon école
Mes profs
Ma routine

16. Word /name/phrase picker
http://primaryschoolict.com/random-name-selector/
Google primary ict random name selector
Works best on Chrome

17. Sandfields Comp IWB resources
http://www.npted.org/schools/sandfieldsComp/games/Pages/default.aspx
• ‘Bingo in’ mad
• Click clock
• Fridge magnet
• Sketchpad for Pictionary

19. Talking points Google: ‘unusual
pictures’; check
before use!

20. Harry Styles
Russell Brand
Justin Bieber
Kate Middleton
Victoria Beckham
The victim has made no
mistakes. The killer has
made 3 grammar or
spelling mistakes.
Everyone else has made
1 or 2. Find the killer &
the victim
J’ai mangé une tartine
et j’ai bu
une tasse de café
Jennifer Lawrence
J’ai regarde la télé et
après j’avons lire
une BD d’Astérix
J’ai faire mes devoirs
et
j’ai surfé sur le web
J’ai allée au cinéma
avec mes amies
Je suis resté à la
maison
et j’ai faire la cousine
J’ai travaille dans
le magasin
de mon père

21. Pistols at Dawn
2 pupils stand back to back, hands in shape of drawn guns. T asks a
question which requires a short (1 or 2 words) answer. Pupils turn round
quickly and face each other, say the answer followed by BANG. Correct
answer + ‘Bang’ wins. You can do a class knockout if not too many.

22. akinator
http://fr.akinator.com/

24. TTS IM text translator
Text to speech- Good for pupils’
learning for speaking and writing
tests. Cluttered interface but OK
once you’re used to it. You can
slow down the speed of the
spoken text.
Paste in the following
text:
Bonjour les professeurs
indomptables.
J’espère que vous trouverez
certaines de ces idées utiles et
que cette présentation n’est pas
trop exigeante.
Rappelez que l’essentiel, c’est
l’équilibre entre la vie
professionnelle et la vie privée.
Passez des vacances
reposantes.

25. Pause n’ play videos
Favourite at the moment
German:
Edeka – supergeil
Rowan Atkinson singt das Europalied
French:
Evian roller babies
Mr Bean – Packing for Holiday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r0dr_juOiI

26. Popplet
http://popplet.com/app/index.php#/460907
Easy
diagram
creator
You can
include
youtube
videos
Babysitten
http://popplet.com/app/index.php#/1
283283

27. blockbusters
• Use http://www.teachers-direct.
co.uk/resources/quiz-busters

28. Easy prompter
http://www.easyprompter.com/
Paste text into the box and it turns into a
broadcast-style autocue
Sample Text:
So here I stand... one girl
among many. I speak – not
for myself, but for all girls
and boys. I raise up my
voice – not so that I can
shout, but so that those
without a voice can be
heard. Those who have
fought for their rights:
Their right to live in peace.
Their right to be treated
with dignity. Their right to
equality of opportunity.
Their right to be educated.

29. Zap reader
www.zapreader.com
Select ‘Reader’
Paste a bunch of text in to the box
Hit ‘zap it’
The page will display one word at a time
You can adjust the speed and the number of words
displayed at any one time (up to 5)
Good for reading practice (phonics)
Information recall
Translation / comprehension
Predict next word
Repeat/ recall last word
Sample Text:
So here I stand... one girl among
many. I speak – not for myself, but for
all girls and boys. I raise up my voice –
not so that I can shout, but so that
those without a voice can be heard.
Those who have fought for their rights:
Their right to live in peace. Their right
to be treated with dignity. Their right to
equality of opportunity. Their right to
be educated.

30. www.wordle.net
This is a wordle (wordle.net)
how do we use it?
See also Tagxedo

34. Bart’s Chalkboard
Next time, I
must remember
to get this
right…… (x5 !)
3 things I learnt
this lesson
Here’s a question I
want to ask the
teacher/ the class
You can use Bart’s chalkboard on a worksheet or the IWB

36. Storybird & bookbox
• some lovely illustrated books in French
Spanish German
• Good for a language club

37. Who needs expensive & fiddly e-voting
systems?
Multiple choice / mini-plenary smiley kit
Download the ‘kit’ here:
http://verulamvle.typepad.com/vets/2011/11/smileys-for-mini-plenaries.
html

38. Cartoon creators
Go Animate - Make animations using a range of characters &
props. The pupils love it. Drag and drop to create scenes.
Allows text, but not speech. See examples here and here
• Toondo - cartoon strip creator- Cartoon strip creator.
Drag and drop. A good way to reinforce a topic.
http://www.toondoo.com/ Example here

39. Top 10s
http://www.aneki.com/lists.html
Go out of Powerpoint slideshow into edit mode &
move this rectangle around
Try BARB as
well for TV
ratings
Good for
comparatives
and
superlatives

40. Online voice recorders
• Audioboo
Easy Audio clip recorder- just click, record and send.
Click the icon above to hear my sample. Get pupils to
do a quick audio message and send it to your email
address (your network techies can set one up a
shadow (proxy) one for you)
• Vocaroo Easy audio recorder
There’s a more flexible one called Audiopal
Soundcloud lets you store longer bits of audio

41. Thinglink
Make an image interactive
https://www.thinglink.com/scene/4288907745
37502720

42. Fotobabble
Upload a photo and add your audio commentary
Here ’s an example (year 8 German)
Ideal for topic work at any level

43. Voki – talking avatar creator
• Click the Borat sample. Text to speech, lots of
characters, voices and languages.
Selected pupils come to the front and create a
target language Voki message to the class
Pupil A inputs a description about another pupil.
Class have to guess who it is. Winner takes over.
Selected pupils create a plenary Voki of the 5
most useful words from the lesson for the rest of
the class to guess
Teacher creates a Voki containing a starter
activity or a message which contains the lesson
objective

44. Strip bingo
Strip bingo
Give kids a strip of paper divided into 8 rows
(half of A4, vertical is OK). Teach about 20
vocab items . The pupils then choose 8 French
words and copy each one into their 8 rows,
one per row.
Teacher then reads the English from the
original list.
If pupils has the word at top or bottom of their
strip, they tear it off. Teacher keeps reading the
list, in any order. The winner is the first pupil to
‘lose’ all their words.

45. One motion drum machine
Click on the
image to see it
in action –
If you’re
feeling brave,
try the
alphabet song

46. Gap fill generator
Google: random idea + English + Gapfill generator
http://random-idea-english.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/tools-gapfill-generator.html

47. Blabberize
• http://blabberize.com/view/id/794856
Upload any image, customize the mouth, record
a message and watch the lip-sync in action.
Works best with cartoon faces but you can try
celebs too.

48. Dice
I get up
I wash
I eat
I get dressed
I brush my teeth
I go to bed
In the garden
In the kitchen
In the garage
On the balcony
In my room
In the school
With my dog
With my cat
With my horse
With my two goldfish
With my mouse
With my tortoise
For dice rollers – see
http://dice.miniwebapps.net/
Also Linguascope widgets &
IWB software e.g. Active Inspire
1
2
3
4
5
6

49. More dicey ideas
Number each pupil in your class 1-12
Go round again, so in a class of 24 you’ll have two pupils who are number 1 etc
Roll 2 die
The pupils with that number stand up and answer
Divide class into two teams - Ask a question then, if they answer correctly, roll one
dice for number of points
‘cricket’: - roll a dice, then ask a question worth that number of points. So a six
would be a really hard question, a one would be an easy one
Verb conjugation

50. quizlet
• Make you own sets of flashcards – audio
enabled !
• Ma ville: http://quizlet.com/26983558/flashcards

51. Textivate
Approx £35 a year
Copy and paste text
Choose sequencing or gap fill
Sample Text:
So here I stand... one girl among many. I speak – not for
myself, but for all girls and boys. I raise up my voice – not
so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can
be heard. Those who have fought for their rights: Their
right to live in peace. Their right to be treated with
dignity. Their right to equality of opportunity. Their right
to be educated.

52. Text mechanic + reverse text generator

53. Text Srambler
http://www.rjwoerheide.com/scrambletest.php
Google: rjwoerheide + text scrambler
• puts Use the words online different a a in
which scrambler sentence order an text of
use an online text scrambler which puts the
words of a sentence in a different order
• txet sdrawkcab ecudorp ekil sgniht rehto od
uoy stel moc.esacelggot.www
www.togglecase.com lets you do other things
like produce backwards text.

54. Lingro
• Go to Lingro
• Import a foreign language webpage address and see
what happens
• each word becomes clickable
• You can click on the word for the meaning and store it
in a word list
• It will also generate a set of flashcards of the words
clicked

55. Suggestions:
Amazon.de
Amazon.fr
TV: la grille des émissions
Cinema + Rouen+ programme
Subway Belgique
McDonalds France
Subway France
Pizzas `a emporter
Using Authentic materials
www.allocine.fr

58. imagechef fodey
Caption generators –
Photofunia does it all
photobox funny.pho.to
Also: Glass giant

59. Kahoot
Pupils use www.kahoot.it
Teacher uses getkahoot.com
https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/d57c4d55-10f7-
47a4-ad62-78fbc5a5230b

60. Keep calmomatic

61. jon.meier@verulam.herts.sch.uk