I have survived Week One of Distance Learning. It has been a bit of whirlwind to be sure. I would like to share with you my plans for Distance Learning, but first, I would like to thank the LIFESAVERS. Without their generosity, I would not have been able to survive, and even thrive, during this time.
THANK YOU, CAROL GAAB & the Fluency Matters team. Your rich, meaningful content has allowed me to continue to provide input to my students in a meaningful way. THANK YOU, JIM WOOLRIDGE, aka Sr. Wooly. Your fun and engaging content will provide my students with an escape from an uncertain reality. THANK YOU, MARTINA BEX & the team at SOMOS, your plans and their online counterparts - are what I will be tapping into near the end of the year. THANK YOU, WORLD LANGUAGE BLOGGERS: Kara Jacobs, Maris Hawkins, Keith Toda, Annabelle Williamson! And so many more that I have forgotten to mention here. You have shared plans, struggles, and shining moments, which makes everything less overwhelming. We truly are all in this together. THANK YOU TO ALL EDUCATORS! You are making it work! Every! Day! As I read the list above, I am humbled to share the plans I have created for Distance Learning. However, before I get to the nuts and bolts, I want to provide some background to my situation, as we are all in unique situations. Please know that what works for me may not work in your situation, and whatever you are doing in your classroom, it is enough.
So...research has shown that language acquisition occurs with comprehensible input, right? Not output. That is where I am putting my focus during Distance Learning. Input. I am still trying to provide comprehensible, compelling input, without requiring a lot of output from the students. And most importantly, I am trying to keep it simple. For all of our sakes. Spanish I: On the days they would normally have class (A/B), students watch a video created specifically for their class and answer some comprehension questions about what they saw and heard. Students also vote for their favorite song - ¡long live Locura de Marzo! Finally, as an “exit ticket” I ask for input regarding Distance Learning, my classroom videos and I allow students to ask me any questions. All of this is done via google form. Simple for me to see student responses. Simple for students to complete. I have also taken advantage of Fluency Matters free 21 day e-course for Laritza. Students read a chapter a day (5 chapters M-F) and complete any two activities per chapter. This will take 3 weeks. Then we will do a week of post-reading activities related to the novel. Next, we will use Sr. Wooly’s beautiful plans for the song “Las Excusas.” (They are free!) I have a PRO account and have been using Wooly in my class all year, so my students are familiar with his songs and his website. Spanish II: The same as Spanish I, mostly. Students had a choice to read either Laritza or Una Heroína Improbable. The reading requirement is the same regardless. Everything else - videos, Locura de Marzo, exit tickets - are all the same. Spanish III: Throughout the school year, students had a standing assignment of completing a weekly blog using kidblog. On Monday, I would post a prompt, students wrote their post by Wed, and responded to at least two others by Friday. This has not changed. Prior to the shut down, we were about to watch Voces Inocentes as pre-reading work for Vida y Muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha. Since we could no longer view the movie, and in the interest of keeping it simple, we spent the first week doing a few pre-reading activities (here and here) about the history of El Salvador and how MS-13 was created. (Much of the work was NOT completed in the target language since I wanted the focus to be on building background knowledge in order to successfully read the novel.) Moving forward, we will read Vida y Muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha using the e-course from Fluency Matters. (On a personal note, I am so saddened that I can’t share this great story with my students in person. It is always a class favorite and there is so much depth to it. Alas, we all are making sacrifices during this time.) For all classes: In order to provide clarity for all students and parents, I created a monthly schedule and weekly schedule (posted here) which lays out when work is assigned as well as when it is due. These plans will take us through April. I do have some thoughts sketched out past that, but we are waiting to hear from our governor whether we will be back in session in the building, or continue with Distance Learning. I know what my preference is! Honestly, my main goal during this time isn’t to advance language acquisition. It is to maintain a healthy relationship with my students, as well as maintain my own sanity. Yes, I want them to acquire language, but I want them to know I care about them even more.
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Last year our district switched to a rotating day block schedule for grades 7-12. This means I went from seeing students everyday for 50 minutes to seeing students every other day for 83 minutes. Quite a change. Especially after teaching on a traditional 7 period day for over 20 years. Needless to say, last year was a challenge for me as I adjusted to the new schedule, and if I am being honest, I would have to say that I never really did adjust last year at all.
However, after some reflection, as well as a lot of trial and (a lot of) error last year, I think I have hit upon a “formula” that seems to be working this school year. This is what it looks like: Spanish I: Opening song & class calendar. Each class has its own calendar, and we talk about the weather, what is going on in students' lives, etc. Tina Hargaden has an example of what this looks like in her classroom here. Write and Discuss. After discussing class calendar, we do a Write and Discuss about everything we just talked about. Sometimes students write along with me, sometimes students do a volleyball translation when the W&D is complete. Sometimes we just do a quick grammar talk about what came up in our writing. Mike Peto has blogged about the benefits of Write and Discuss here. Bell Ringer. This is a bit of a misnomer since this happens anywhere from 20-30 minutes into class, but by this point, my students need something to do other than listen to me, so I have them put pencil to paper in some way shape or form. I also need a bit of a break, and bell ringers provide a bit of down time for both students and myself. I do know that bell ringers are a bit controversial in the CI world, and I did break up with my bell ringer for a few years, but alas, on the block schedule, we need a bit of a break by this time in our class period. If you need inspiration for bell ringers, check out Cynthia Hitz’s blog post here. Review the bell ringer. Depending upon what students have done for a bell ringer, we will review it in a number of ways. For example, if the bell ringer asked students to respond to personal questions, we will have a class PQA session. If students had to match a sentence to an image, we may go over it 4 corners style, or class response. At any rate, we review the bell ringer together in some way, shape or form. CI “curriculum” I use SOMOS as the main curriculum in my classroom, but I supplement with A LOT of Sr. Wooly as well as movie talks, story listening, and cultural lessons. By this point in the class, we have about 40 minutes for whatever is on the docket with regards to “curriculum.” If the curriculum plan isn’t going to last a full 40 minutes (either by design or accident)... Option 1: Special Person interviews. These are such a great community builder for our classrooms. And they are a great way to sneak in extra vocabulary reps. (side note: I no longer target “family” or “sports” vocabulary as these come up so naturally and frequently in this process!) Bryce Hedstrom expertly explains the process here. Option 2: Dictado. If classes are getting rowdy from storyasking, homecoming, full moon...This is a nice calming activity. It settles them down, and is a great closing activity for metacognition. Option 3: Pop Up. I found this game on Anne Marie Chase's blog. She can describes it here. BTW: my students LOVE this game. Movement! And throughout, there is movement and Brain Breaks. Annabelle Allen has TONS of ideas here. Spanish II’s plan is pretty similar, with the exception that we start each day with FVR, and then roll out the same “format” as with Spanish I. This seems to be the structure that is working so far. Hopefully, with more trial than error this year. This was by far the best MCTLC I have attended! There were more breakout sessions available as a whole, and the sessions were divided into 4 different strands. Needless to say, it made choosing which sessions to attend both easier and more difficult as there were so many amazing options. Here is how I spent my time and what I took away.
The Highlight Reel or Highlight the Real with Meredith White This session was all about getting real in the classroom. Meredith shared a number of tips and strategies to streamline teacher efficiency in the classroom. My takeaway: use pre-made stamps (or stickers) to offer feedback. Meredith had a number of stamps that provide instant feedback for students. For example, one stamp had 4 proficiency levels on it. Meredith could simply stamp a student’s paper and check/circle the proficiency level they were demonstrating. Another stamp had an arrow with the commentary “my favorite part.” So simple, and still providing feedback to students. As an additional bonus, I ended up sitting next to the amazing Kara Parker of the Creative Language Class blog. #starstruck Playing to Proficiency with Brooke K Carlson This is the second time I have attended one of Brooke’s sessions, and she never disappoints. Brooke uses OWL strategies in her classroom and she shared simple ways to get learners to engage in the TL. My favorite was her use of a continuum line. Here is what she tells students - in the TL, “If you love, love, love dogs, head to the [north] side of the room. If you love, love, love cats move to the [south] side of the room. If you are okay with either, move the center. If you like dogs more than cats, but don’t love, love, love dogs, stand somewhere in between the [north] side and the center.” Students form a line and you can instantly tell how they feel about cats or dogs. From here, you can do some great PQA. However, Brooke follows this up by having students turn and talk to the person standing next to them in regards to why they are standing where they are. Using the AAPPL Test for the MN Seal of Biliteracy by Krista Picha AND Answers to Your Questions about Bilingual Seals and World Language Proficiency Certificates by Ursula Lentz These sessions were ones I was waiting for, as I am hoping to offer my students the chance to earn the Seal of Biliteracy this year. Krista’s school has implemented this for a number of years and she shared her journey. My takeaway from this session was to be sure to get students speaking the TL, as they usually have the lowest proficiency in the Interpersonal mode. Ursula works for the Minnesota Department of Education and presented so much factual information about the Seals. What really surprised me was the number of districts that are currently offerings Seals of Biliteracy. The number is lower than I expected, and while Ursula did not have the exact data in front of her, she put the number at around 30. Inspiring and Acquiring through Music by Carol Gaab When is a Carol Gaab presentation ever NOT engaging? This was no exception. Carol shared numerous strategies to help students repeatedly engage with a song and its lyrics. My favorite was probably a pre-listening activity. Simply put song lyrics in a word cloud and have students make predictions as to what the song is about. Also, be sure to have them justify their predictions based on what is in the word cloud.I have heard/learned about this activity numerous times, and this year, I am vowing to actually do it in my classroom. Unwrapping Proficiency by Paul Sandrock This was a full day session on Saturday, presented by ACTFL Director of Education, Paul Sandrock. This session was amazing! Paul explained the different modes of communication and the ACTFL proficiency levels with precise clarity. My takeaway from this training was students need feedback. They need to know what their proficiency level is, and what they can do to “level up.” However, feedback does not need to be in the form of a summative assessment. It can be in the form of multiple, simple formative or even informal assessments. Thank you so much to our MCTLC Executive Board for the many hours they volunteered to offer World Language educators a fantastic conference this year! If you did not have the chance to attend, you can still get valuable snippets from the presenter resources found here. Enjoy! I have always tried to use music in the classroom, because I really want students to experience the joy that music can bring, regardless of a language barrier. However, I have never really figured out a seamless way to integrate it into the daily flow of my classes. Additionally, my students have never seemed to share my enthusiasm for music in the classroom. With all that, I decided that this was the year I was going to take the month of March and do a March Madness bracket with my classes. If you are unfamiliar with March Madness, check out the spanishplans.org website found here. During March, we listened to two song refrains each day and voted as to which was the class favorite. During this time, the students did not seem overly engaged or enthusiastic, and honestly, I was again wondering why I bothered to incorporate music as it seemed like it was a waste of time when I could be using those precious minutes in a more effective manner. This was essentially true for the entire month of March. I was introducing music and the students were (very) passively tolerating it. In the end, the students did liven up a little bit, but nothing to the level that I would consider the payoff worth the time spent doing the activity.
OK, time to assess. Was the class time I was using beneficial, or could I use the classroom to provide more comprehensible input? I really did not want to give up on music this time, and I know from experience that not everything is initially successful in the classroom. I decided to try a song of the month, similar to what Annabelle Allen does in her classroom. Kara Jacobs and others use a song of the week, but I was not ready to commit to that level of involvement. I chose to use the song, Sofía by Álvaro Soler. I knew it was a catchy tune, and as a bonus, Carrie Toth and Martina Bex had already created materials to use with the song. Bonus for me, I had no “wheel” to create. In Spanish II, we did a couple of the activities, and listened to the song. Again, with passive results from my students. I was so discouraged, I was ready to quit the whole music thing all together. Apparently, music is something others can get to be successful in their classrooms, but for me, it just didn’t seem to be working out. After two hours of brooding about my lack of success, one of my Spanish III students came into my classroom and asked what song I had played earlier in the day for my Spanish II class. Apparently one of her friends told her that she listened to the BEST SONG EVER in class today and wanted it added to their softball playlist. Wait...what? Then, another Spanish III student came into class and asked a similar question. Wait...what? Apparently my Spanish II students were creating a buzz about Sofía. Finally, results I had been hoping for - students actually enjoying music in Spanish. However, the story gets even better, remember the part about a softball playlist? Unbeknownst to me, our softball team has a playlist that they listen to as a pre-game warm up for home events. The previously mentioned Spanish II student wanted Sofía added to the playlist, however, wasn’t sure if they should add the song or not because they already had TWO Spanish-language songs on their playlist. Wait..what? Yep, already on their playlist were two songs that we had listened to during March Madness. Again, I guess all that passive listening that I saw on my end, really was much more than that. I am happy to say that the softball pre-game playlist now has THREE Spanish-language songs on it. But wait, there’s more. Since the playlist incident, I have come to learn that a number of students have songs from March Madness on their personal playlists! (YEAH!) Another student shared that he was eating in a Mexican restaurant when Esperándote (a March Madness song) came on over the speaker. He recognized the song, and started singing along! In front of everybody in the restaurant, including his mother. (YEAH!) So, lesson learned. Our students truly are icebergs. We see them in class for such a short amount of time, but beneath those glazed eyes and sluggish composure, they really are listening. More than I knew, at least. As such, music will henceforth be a staple in my classroom. After having the opportunity to observe National TOY candidate Grant Boulanger in action last year, and seeing the amazing way in which he connect with students, I wanted some to incorporate some of the things he was doing with his students into my classroom. Later in the year, I had the chance to see Grant and Bryce Hedstrom present a 3 hour workshop on Persona Especial. Perfect! I now had no excuse not to do these with my students. I began to implement the Persona Especial Interview in my classroom a short time later, with amazing results.
Acquisition is the order of the day in my classroom, and the amount of vocabulary students acquire through these interviews is incredible. Through Persona Especial interviews, the acquisition is absolutely painless. In fact, I had one student comment recently that she likes learning about everybody in the class, but doesn’t feel like she learns a lot of Spanish during the Persona Especial Interviews. I countered by asking her how to say various words in Spanish (brother, she drives, she plays, she lives, city, country, etc.). She was able to tell me all of these words instantly in Spanish. I reminded her that she “learned” all of these while listening to her classmates during their Persona Especial interviews. She left the conversation impressed that she had learned something, and without even trying! That is one HUGE benefit right there. Another benefit is the classroom culture and environment the Persona Especial interview creates. Through these interviews, I am getting 10-20 minutes plus of one on one time with a student. This truly creates something magical between that student and myself. It also creates a wonderful repoirte in the classroom, as all the students know that they will also get this individualized attention. The interviews build trust between myself and the students, as well as within the classroom. The students are learning about one another and creating a community by doing so. I work in a small, rural district, and the majority of my students have been together since kindergarten. As such, many feel like they know “everything about everyone.” However, the Persona Especial interviews are destroying that stereotype. Yes, they may know how many brothers, sisters, etc are in one’s family, but how does Tom feel about driving? What does Ashley like to eat for breakfast? What hidden talents does Michael have? It is these kinds of questions that are at the heart of the interviews, and ones that truly engage the students listening to the interviews. A final benefit is the atmosphere the interviews create. I am not talking about community building, which I already mentioned, but about the atmosphere. Days that are set aside for Persona Especial interviews are some of the most laid-back, stress-free days that I have ever experienced as a teacher. I can enter my classroom without an “agenda” and simply enjoy conversing with my students. The students are only tasked with listening - actively - during the interviews so they feel as though they are getting a pass on doing any work. Little do they know that this is exactly what I want them to do, listen to comprehensible, compelling input that drives their acquisition forward. Overall, the Persona Especial interviews are a FANTASTIC addition to my classroom. Thank you, Bryce and Grant for introducing them to me. If you are interested in learning more about or trying Persona Especial interviews, Bryce Hedstrom has a TON of resources and information about Persona Especial interviews on his website including how to get started and steps of the process. Recently, I was having a discussion with a couple of students, and we were talking about how many teachers in our district are REALLY smart. Of course, the students felt our math and science teachers were quite intelligent, but when I (sarcastically) suggested that I am quite smart as well, they simply smiled at me and said, “Mrs. Oelke, you’re really more of a people person.” Wow. Out of the mouths of babes.
Needless to say, that conversation got me to thinking. As a teacher, which is more important? IQ, which is a measurement of intelligence, or EI, which is emotional intelligence. In other words, should we, as teachers, focus more on being “smart” or connecting with students. I vote for the latter. While I feel like I am well versed in my content area, I also feel that my classes would not run as efficiently as they do without the EI or “people person” component. After all, I could be the smartest person on Earth, but still not be able to convey any of that knowledge to students if I am not able to manage my own emotions as well as those of others. And in a classroom of hormonal teens, that is no easy task. After all, each student enters our classrooms each day in a different emotional state. It is my job to deduce what state that is for each, gauge the class as whole, and move forward with instruction. If I was not able to be emotionally aware of my students, I may not notice that Alyssa seems out of sorts today, and maybe shouldn’t be pushed to respond to random questioning, or that Sebastian seems to have a lot of energy and would do well to be the focus of attention at some point during the class period. I need to be aware of the mood swings in my students so that I can give them what they need when they walk through my door. For all, that is a safe place, for some it is learning by taking center stage, while for others it is learning through simple observation of others. Only through Emotional Intelligence can I come to know how to meet these needs of my students. I feel grateful for the relationships that I build with students during my brief time with them. I enjoy getting to know them, and connecting with them emotionally (if not intellectually) because I am a “people person” and proud to be so. |
Jessie Oelke
#deptofone providing compelling and comprehensible input Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
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