This is a video for teachers who are unfamiliar with our MFL courses
but would like to use our free support with their Key Stage
3 students during school
closures. Our courses for Key Stage 3 are Stimmt! for
German, ¡Viva! Segunda Edición for Spanish (you will also have
access to Viva 1st edition, but for the most up to date version,
use the Segunda Edición), and Studio or Dynamo for French.
Dynamo is our most recent Key Stage 3 French course, but the
Year 9 books are not yet available online, so if you need
Year 9, please use Studio.
Our Key Stage 3 courses all have 3 levels which are designed for
use in Years 7, 8 and 9, so ¡Viva! 1 for example is
designed for Year 7 Spanish and assumes no prior knowledge.
We offer two books for Year 9 (and for French for Year 8 as
well). The red version is more challenging, while the green
version is more accessible.
Our three book courses are designed so that you can
progress to GCSE from Book 2 if for example, a school is doing a
two year Key Stage 3.
The structure of all our books is quite similar. I am going to talk
you through ¡Viva! 1 Segunda Edición
as an example. All our Key Stage 3 books are split into
modules which cover a topic.
We would normally expect a school to take a half term to
complete a module, and they would probably not be able to
cover absolutely everything within it, but should prioritise
the core spreads. I'll come back to what we mean by that.
Modules start with a module opener quiz which is a fun
introduction to the topi. In Dynamo only, this is followed by
one or two Point de Départ Units which recap language that
students might know from Key Stage 2 or that they should
know from earlier in the course. This is followed by the core
units. They cover all four skills and the exercise number
icons indicate which skill is
being practised. The unit's objectives are given at the top
and usually one relates to the new vocabulary or topic, and the
second relates to the new grammar or skill being taught.
All key language, the language that we expect pupils to be
able to use by the end of the unit is given in these orange
boxes. It is introduced receptively, usually with a
listening exercise to model pronunciation, and the unit then
works through the four skills, finishing with a longer,
productive exercise. The key grammar point is given a green
box like this one and again will be practised throughout the
unit. Audio is available for all Listening
exercises. Simply click on the Blue hotspot to open
the audio player. This also contains a link to
the transcript, which opens in a PDF.
Each module has between four and six core units. These are the
units in which new vocabulary and grammar will be introduced.
The units which follow this, including the skills units, do
not introduce new language, so can be left out if time doesn't
allow. This module has a Writing skills spread in which the
exercises and skills boxes help students to develop specific
writing skills while revising the language from the module.
Following this, there is a summary page which brings
together everything a student should be able to do by the end
of the module, followed by a revision page which helps
students to check their understanding of what they have
covered. This is followed in ¡Viva! Segunda Edición by a
spread like this one called Adelante and in Dynamo, by a
spread called En Focus. They bring together the learning from
the module with a focus on developing GCSE style skills.
Then there is a grammar spread recapping and practising the key
grammar points from the module and a vocabulary page
summarising the key language learnt in the module.
Finally, some modules have a project spread at the end, again
with no new language or grammar taught, but often with a strong
cultural focus. All the courses also have a self access section
at the end, in Spanish called Te Toca a Ti. There are two
pages for each module. Page A is more accessible, Page B is
more challenging. These contain Reading and Writing
exercises only and are designed for students to work through
independently, making them particularly useful for current
circumstances. At the back of the books you'll find some
reference sections consisting of verb tables and a glossary.
Finally, I just wanted to run through the buttons at the
bottom and the functionality for students. They can annotate
their ActiveBooks like this.
Make notes like this.
Zoom in and out like this.
To navigate, open the contents list and click on the page
required or type the page number into the box and press return.