Barry Comprehensive
School
Triple Literacy.
Friday, 1st July 2011
The Aims
 MFL,
Welsh and English teachers were
keen to share good practice and to then
incorporate new strategies into their
lessons (sharing SC, use of AFL, Sue
Palmer’s text types)
 We were concerned that a variety of
language terminology was being used and
we should all be using the same
terminology.
The Process: who to involve
We agreed to focus on year 7 pupils
 We felt it was important to involve teachers
from MFL, Welsh and English in order to
bridge the good practice we hoped to find
 We wanted to involve a cross-section of
staff, new and more experienced

The Process – the observation
focus:
Clear Lesson Aim/Success Criteria/ ‘Big
Picture’
 Questioning – pupils (pair work/group work)
and teachers
 Frameworks/support for pupils?
 Terminology – are pupils encouraged to use
appropriate language/terminology
 Other observations

OUTCOMES.
All teachers use the term ‘connectives’. Also
words such as conjugate, auxiliary, simile etc
 English teachers are aware of the positioning
of adjectives across the languages.
 Success criteria shared.
 The benefit of working closely with different
teachers.
 Tenses

 French,
German and Welsh teachers
translated the Sue Palmer text types.
 More group and peer assessment
taking place.
 Involvement in the school
newspaper.
Mots de liaison pour écrire une argumentation
- Un argument opposé est que … = a counter
argument is …
- Autrement…, …ou bien… = alternatively…
- Bien que …(+ subjonctif) = Although…, Though…
- Quant à = As with …
- En considérant les évènements d’un point de vue
différent… = from a different angle/perspective…
- Cependant… = However
- Au lieu de … = Instead of…
- De même… = in the same way…
- Comme… = Like …
- Néanmoins … = Nevertheless…
Questionnaire
English/ MFL/Welsh (Please circle the subject you are in)
1) Is there a clear aim for this subject? Do you know why you are learning?
YES
NO
SOMETIMES
2) Are you given enough opportunities to talk and question?
YES
NO
SOMETIMES
3) Are you given enough extra help? (Example: In your planner, on the wall, help sheets)
YES
NO
SOMETIMES
4) Are you able to use the correct terminology? E.g. Connectives
YES
NO
SOMETIMES
5) Do you know what text types are and how to use them?
YES
NO
SOMETIMES
6) What is the one thing in the lesson that you would like to change so that you can
understand things more clearly?
7) What was the part of the lesson that helped you to understand things more clearly?
8) How will what you have learnt in this lesson help you in at least one other subject?
Findings from the questionnaires:
Pupils enjoyed having support sheets and
information on walls/display.
 They like having a clear aim written up
(success criteria) and also writing their
own.
 Wanted to work with others, sharing ideas
and peer assessment – they want more of
this
 They like the ability to ask as well as
answer questions – talking was important!
 They soon picked up that MFL, Welsh and
English teachers were working together.

More long term actions:
Sue Palmer text types to be translated into
Italian.
 MFL and Welsh interested in Whiteboard
Workout, English software that would lend
itself to the teaching of language and
grammar in MFL and Welsh
 To develop Triple Literacy booklets
 To continue observing one another and to
incorporate any new strategies/techniques
into lessons.
