Teacher Feature: Gamifying MFL Lessons

MFL stands for Modern Foreign Languages, which are languages that are spoken at the present time, such as Spanish, French or German, and studied by non-native speakers. We speak to a distinguished MFL teacher who has found Deck.Toys incredibly useful and engaging for her language classes. 

Esmeralda Salgado (@BotonesSalgado) is the Head of MFL and Digital Lead at King’s Ely, an independent school in Cambridgeshire, UK. She has used only Deck.Toys since Christmas 2020, but has found immense potential in utilizing Deck.Toys to enhance the teaching and learning experience in the MFL classroom. You can read more about Esmeralda’s experiences in her blog: MFL Craft @BotonesSalgado

Deck.Toys: Hi Esmeralda! We are so happy to have you here in our feature! Tell us more about yourself.

Esmeralda: I am the Head of MFL and Digital Lead at King’s Ely and have taught languages for 20 years from KS2 to KS5. I am passionate about the use of digital tools and collaborative projects among schools via Erasmus. I am currently teaching Spanish from Y7 to Y13. 

Deck.Toys: What are the features that you find particularly useful with Deck.Toys?

Esmeralda: I love the gamification aspect of it as a motivational factor, the fact that you can embed activities from other apps such as LearningApps or Wheel of Names, or integrate courses from Quizlet. It is an ideal tool for retrieval practice, and to revise key topics and vocabulary through listening, speaking, reading or writing. I love the fact that I can make any PowerPoint interactive and trigger written as well as oral responses from students all as part of a game. 

Deck.Toys: How have you employed Deck.Toys in your classroom?

Esmeralda: I have created fun decks like this one called “El Tiempo libre’ for Y10 students where I send them on a Treasure Hunt to find keys to unlock the hidden treasure: https://deck.toys/a/m1oOaQ3_q

My students have completed the deck individually but also in pairs, creating brilliant opportunities for collaborative learning, now, via breakout rooms. As you can make any photo, PDF or word document interactive, I have used it to practise exam skills with Y13 students extremely successfully. 

Deck.Toys: It’s great to hear that you are really seeing how powerful Deck.Toys can be used for your teaching! How about the students’ responses to the tool?

Esmeralda: My students love it! They love looking for keys and getting points. When I used it with Y13 exam-style questions, they had to finish the deck for prep, they worked on it on a Friday afternoon. I checked my dashboard at 9 pm on the same day and all of them had completed their homework! Never a pass paper had been so popular!  

Deck.Toys: Can you share any useful tips to teachers out there who are just starting to use Deck.Toys?

Esmeralda: Persevere! It takes some time to get used to the structures but it is really straightforward once you create the first deck. Use the Learning Paths and Activities Wizard to build your first deck – I would start with the Linear template. Reuse other Slide Activities and share within your department.

Deck.Toys: We’re so grateful that you could take time off your busy schedule to share your experience with all our users! 

Esmeralda: It’s my pleasure to let more users understand the potential Deck.Toys can deliver to their classrooms!

Read more about specific tips on how to make the best of Deck.Toys for your language classes! 

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