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.
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My Spanish II class is currently reading Piratas del Caribe y el mapa secreto by Mira Canion. As I was absent from school on the day students were finishing up Chapter 2, I had them finish the chapter by reading along with the audio CD. After reading, I asked students to fill out a google form to gauge their comprehension, as I was not there to monitor and adjust as I normally would. I found that students did not comprehend as much as I expected they would. So, I needed a resource that would send them back to the text.
In the teacher’s guide (which I recommend buying), Mira provides a sentence sequencing activity for Chapter 2. She also recommends several ways that this activity could be used in class, but I wanted something a bit different than the options provided, as I felt many of the variations rely on a higher comprehension rate than what my students currently had. Enter the Jigsaw method. First, I photocopied the the strips in three different colors, as I knew I would have three large groups. (Luckily, I have pretty small class sizes - 14). I then divided the sentences into three sections. I gave the “pink” group the first five sentences. The “blue” group the second five, and the “yellow” group the last five. In order for this to work, the sentences must NOT be in chronological order when you copy them. I also made sure each student had their own set of five of sentences. Students then cut the sentences apart. As a group, they put the sentences in the chronological order of events in Chapter 2. Since each student had their own set of sentences, they were able to work together, but still have their own set, which is essential for the next part of the activity. Now, the jigsaw. I assigned each member of the “pink” group a number 1-5, each member of the “blue” group a number 1-5, and did the same with the “yellow” group. Students rearranged themselves into new groups, based on their assigned numbers. There were now 3 members in the “1” group - one with pink sentences, one with blue, and another with yellow. The same was true of the “2, 3, 4, 5” groups. These students now worked to combine all their events into chronological order. As they already had their own set in chronological order, combining the three groups together was not as hard as ordering all 15 sentences from the beginning. This activity got the students to go back to the text and discuss the chapter, thereby aiding in comprehension. It also has the benefit of cooperative learning and a bit of movement. After the jigsaw, all students were at 80% comprehension for the chapter, with many at 90% or above! My Spanish students are beginning to read Mira Canion’s Piratas del Caribe y el mapa secreto, and I was looking for some pre-reading activities to get started. The Teacher’s Guide has a few short, comprehensible readings about Veracruz, Henry Morgan and buccaneers, but I was looking for a way to do more than simply read the short informational articles, I wanted them to engage. Enter “What is the answer to this question…”
First, let me explain the activity. The teacher writes the “answer” to a question on the board or chart paper. Each student is given a post-it note and must write a question for the “answer.” It doesn’t matter if the question is correct or incorrect. What matters is that students are thinking about the “answer,” thereby activating their prior knowledge and preparing to read. Second, let me explain how I used this activity pre and post reading. Pre-Reading. Before reading the informational articles, I wrote three “answers” (Henry Morgan, Veracruz, bucaneros) in the center of 3 separate pieces of chart paper. I gave each student 3 yellow post-it notes, one for each “answer.” I asked them to come up with a question for each answer, writing each question on a separate post-it note. Students then placed their post-it notes on the appropriate chart paper. I read a few of the questions from the chart paper that corresponded to our first reading in order to further increase student involvement in the reading as well as set a purpose for reading, which was to determine if any of these questions were accurate. We then read one of the three articles, circling and personalizing as much as possible. Post-Reading. After reading the article, we determined the accuracy of some of the pre-reading question. Students were then each given an orange post-it note. I asked them to write another question for the answer, although this time, their question had to be one that was accurate. Students placed their orange post-it on the chart paper. We then read the new questions. This helped to verify information that students had just read and provided another opportunity to interact with the text beyond reading. We then repeated the process with the remaining two articles. Post-Reading Twist. The questions that the students wrote could be re-phrased into true/false statements for a formative review or quick reading check. Post-Reading Twist #2. Rewrite the questions to be statements, using questions/statements from all three charts/answers. Read each statement and have the students identify the correct answer. This very low prep activity turned out to be a rather entertaining way to introduce an informational text. The students came up with VERY creative pre-reading questions that really increased engagement. This activity also got them moving somewhat and helped to break up the reading process without losing engagement. 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. I love Weekend Review! I implemented it in my Spanish I classroom last year after watching Grant Boulanger do his version, and it has been an amazing add! We do Weekend Review on Monday, which is a simple PQA session about where students went and what they did over the weekend.
Last week, I decided to give my Weekend Review a bit of a twist. Earlier in the day, I saw a teacher using www.mentimeter.com in her classroom. So fun! Mentimeter is a site that creates a word cloud based on student responses. All teacher does is pose a question, for example, “Where did you go last weekend?” The students log onto mentimeter.com using their 1:1 device or phone and input responses. Mentimeter then creates a word cloud in real time as students respond to the question. My students LOVED this! They had a chance to see their own responses as well as what the most popular destination was over the weekend. Because responses are posted anonymously to the word cloud, students started asking each other who went to X? Who went to Y? Talk about student engagement! Menitmeter provided an element of true curiosity and inquiry for my classroom. As such, we heard from students who don’t always contribute to Weekend Review which added a touch of diversity to the PQA session. Overall, I would say this was one of the best Weekend Review session we have ever had. After all, the brain craves novelty, as Carol Gaab says. There have been a lot of blog posts lately talking about Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) and the benefits that go along with having students read. I would like to add to the discussion and say that I have seen incredible gains in language acquisition by implementing FVR.
In particular, I have seen the benefits pay off in my Spanish IV students this year. For the past two years, these students have experienced FVR twice/week for 15 minutes. These students did not participate in FVR while they were in Spanish I or Spanish II for a number of reasons. However, for the past year and a half, these students have been purposefully dedicating time to reading in Spanish. When we began FVR (in Spanish III), many students chose novels that were written at a beginning level. Needless to say, I felt like they should be choosing more “difficult” books based on their level, but I allowed them to choose any book they wanted to read, and I kept my mouth shut about my feelings of their choices. After all, FVR is all about student choice, not teacher choice. As the year progressed, they grew a bit in their selection choices, but I was still not completely satisfied with what they were choosing. I was also getting quite a bit of push back from the students, as they did not really care to read, especially in Spanish. However, I firmly but kindly insisted that FVR was a valuable way to spend class time. It turns out, I was right. Upon returning to the classroom this year (in Spanish IV), many students chose to read novels written at an intermediate level. Some are even reading novels written for native speakers! And the best part is, they are comprehending the novels! They are talking about books they liked and offering suggestions to classmates looking for new books to read. And while all this discussion about reading is amazing, the best part is seeing the payoff in terms of their vocabulary. Their passive language is larger than I realize, as I often will stop for a quick comprehension check on a word that I have not used in class before, and the students let me know that this check is unnecessary as they have already acquired that word - from reading! Additionally, I am also hearing phrases enter their speech that I have not introduced, but are phrases that they have acquired from reading. The payoff I am seeing in terms of language acquisition is indeed very exciting, but was not instant. Acquisition has happened over time - a year and a half - and with purposeful dedication due to to a proven strategy. FVR DOES WORK, I have seen the evidence in my classroom. Adiós 2016, hola 2017. Time to start making – and keeping – New Year’s Resolutions. My district returned to school on Jan 3, just in time to have students discuss their resolutions for 2017, as well as learn a little culture along the way.
I began by teaching my students about the 12 uvas tradition on New Year's Eve. I used Martina Bex’s version, found here. This led to a discussion as to why Spaniards eat 12 grapes, as opposed to another number. We followed up with some PQA about New Year’s Resolutions. Students then created glyphs about thier New Year’s Resolutions. I recently found a post by Sol Azucar about incorporating glyphs into the classroom, and decided to have my students create their own glyphs using grapes and general New Year’s Resolutions. (A glyph is simply recording information in pictorial form. There is a very simple example here.) After students created their glyphs, they exchanged them with one another so that Student A could interpret Student B’s glyph. Then, Student A created a flipgrid video to present the data interpretation of Student B’s glyph. By creating the glyphs, students were reviewing the simple present tense via a ton of comprehensible input, and by creating the flipgrid video, they are reinforcing the difference between first and third person. Here is the link to the glyph I used for New Year’s Resolutions. Enjoy!
If you have established or are trying to establish a Free Volunteer Reading program in your classroom, a great way to get students to read books is to increase interest in a specific book through a book chat. A book chat is when someone (usually the teacher) presents a book to the class in a compelling way to raise interest level in the book.
A book chat can take ANY form, as long as it is interesting and comprehensible to your students, therefore, you determine if a book chat will take place in the students’ native language or the target language. A book chat could also be done in a combination of both languages, if that is what you want. Again, you are the driving force behind the book chat and need to determine what is really going to draw your students interest. If you are looking for a structured way with which to present book chats, think about a book chat as having three components.
The Hook The language (native or target) that you use to present the hook can be determined by what you want to do in the classroom on that particular day. For example, a hook could be a great lead into PQA or to introduce target structures present in the book. The language you use could also be determined by how much time you want to dedicate to the book chat. The purpose of a hook is to immediately draw students’ interest to the book, by creating a text to self connection between the students and the book. Various Hooks 1. Rank Order. Ask students to rank order items that are related to the story. Option 1: Once students have items ordered, students share out their list to the whole class. Discuss the lists, comparing and contrasting students’ lists with one another. Option 2: Students share and compare their lists with a partner. Using rejoinders, students react appropriately their partner’s list. 2. Four Corners. Label 4 corners in your classroom as 1, 2, 3, 4. Project text/images of four items related to the story. Generate a list of statements or questions about the images. Students move to the corner that best answers the statement or question. From here, you can practice numbers and math, seeing how many students choose corner 1 compared to corner 2, etc. You can ask students to explain or defend their choices as a whole class share out, or pair students from different corners to talk for 30 seconds about their choice. 3. Make a prediction. Project an image (preferable one the students are unfamiliar with), quote or other interesting item related to the story. Ask students to make a prediction about what the image is, what the quote means, etc. Have students share out their answers with the class. This could also extend into a One Word Image (as created by Ben Slavic), depending upon student interest. 4. Personalized Questions and Answers (PQA). Ask students personal questions that can relate to the story. PQA can last as long as you, the teacher, would like it to. Just be sure that when you wrap up the PQA session, you take some of the students’ comments and relate them to the story. 5. Poll Everywhere*. polleverywhere.com is an online, interactive poll conducted in real time. You create a poll, and students use their devices (cell, chromebook, etc.) to respond to the poll in real time. Students can instantly see the results of the poll when projected. Ask questions that are related to the story. For example, if you are doing a book chat on Brandon Brown quiere un perro, create a multiple choice poll that contains images of various breeds of dogs and ask students to vote for their favorite. Create an open-ended poll that asks students where they hide things from their parents. Watch the results come flying in! *To use polleverywhere.com, you will need to create a free account. 6. Google Earth & Maps. Using google earth, or google maps (street view), take screenshots of the various setting in the story. Use the images to compare and contrast what they see to their town. Use the images to predict where in the world the story takes place. Use the images to discuss cultural elements present. 7. Video. Show a short video clip that relates in some way to the story. After the clip, discussion can ensue, ask students to list what they saw in the clip. Connect these items to the story. For example, when Book Chatting Bianca Nieves y los 7 Toritos, show a short clip of a bullfight (if appropriate for your setting) and discuss what students saw. 8. Would you rather. This is similar to PQA, but with a twist. Ask students what they would rather do in situations that mirror those found in the story. Depending again on how much time you would like to dedicate to a book chat, you can ask anywhere from one to several questions. Allow the discussion to ensue and connect to the story. Summary Before reading a summary, be sure to connect the hook in some way to the story. For example, if you are doing Four Corners with Berto y sus buenas ideas, it is a good idea to mention that these are all things the main character of the story enjoys as well. Share a BRIEF summary of the book with the students. The summary can be as short as a few sentences, or a paragraph or two or it can come straight from the back of the book. As you share the summary, have the book in your hands so students can get a visual of what the book looks like - cover art, length, illustrations, etc. Read Aloud Find a section of the text that is both comprehensible and compelling. The section does not need to be very long, just enough to pique the interest of your students. Once you identify the section you wish to share, read it out loud to determine how long the actual reading will take. Remember, you want students to become interested in the book; keeping the reading well under three minutes is enough time to secure students’ interest, especially if you have hooked them earlier. If your read aloud is over three minutes, you certainly can “cut” parts from the reading to decrease the amount of time spent on the read aloud. In other words, you do not have to read every word from the section. Find the parts that will draw your audience to the story, and read just those parts. For example, if there are a few sentences that contain unknown structures or vocabulary, and if these sentences are not essential to the comprehension of the read aloud passage, skip them. Remember, you are trying to increase interest, not necessarily narrate the entire story. It is also important to read the section aloud ahead of time in order to practice reading. The read aloud should be fluid; it should not be choppy. This is a chance to model pronunciation and intonation in the target language, as well as demonstrate what good reading skills “look” like to your students. Furthermore, by reading aloud the section in advance, you can practice adding character voices to any dialog sections, adding dramatic pauses, choosing an inflection that will match the content, etc.to make the reading more interesting to your students. When you are set to do your read aloud to students, be sure to share with them any necessary background information that they may need to understand the passage before reading. For example, it is helpful to tell them what has happened in the story immediately prior to section you are about to read, or if there is a minor character involved that you have not yet discussed. Those are the component of a structured book chat. The link below is a google slideshow (also embedded) with examples of ready to go hooks, summaries and read alouds for the following novels:
Ready to Go! Book Chats It’s Reading not Rocket Science with GInny Hildebrant Ginny Hildebrant is the published author of three books for Spanish-language learners. In this session she shared how to incorporate the reading of a novel into the curriculum. According to GInny pre-teaching vocabulary is an essential component of student success when reading novels. This step should not be skipped as it helps to lower students’ affective filter. When the students begin to read the text, it should be easy for them. After all, if reading is painful, who wants to do it? TA: Do whatever it takes to make reading in L2 easy. Keynote Address with Dr. Bill Van Patten Dr. Bill Van Patten is the host of a Tea With BVP, a weekly, live podcast that discusses all things related to Second Language Acquisition. In his Keynote Address, BVP shared myths and facts of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). While quite a bit of research has been done on SLA, and we have learned a lot in terms of how SLA occurs, there is quite a bit that is still a mystery. For example, we do not know why people acquire language at different rates, when all factors are equal. We also do not know the role L1 plays in SLA. BVP shared a metaphor about L1 learning compared with L2 learning. Learning L1 is like walking up a flight of stairs. Not overly difficult, but to do so takes skill. Learning L2 is like walking up the same set of stairs while lugging an overstuffed suitcase. The physical act of walking hasn’t changed, but there is now something dragging you down. Researchers have yet to unpack what it is about L1 that burdens the L2 acquisition process, but they are aware that somehow the L1 gets in the way. TA: There is A LOT going on the brain during L2. 90% Target Language, 100% Effective! with Carol Gaab Carol began by sharing the meaning behind the title of her session. ACTFL suggests that the L2 classroom stays in the target language 90% of the time, but in reality 90% is a made-up number. Furthermore, staying in L2 for 90% of the time may not even be enough. Students need hours and hours and hours to acquire language. Therefore it is essential the classroom stays in the target language, which includes both the teacher and the students. However, simply remaining in the target language is not enough, the language MUST be compelling AND comprehensible. This is essential. Carol shared a number of strategies to ensure that language is both. TA: In order for students to acquire language effectively, the classroom must remain in compelling and comprehensible [target] language a minimum of 90%. Creating Culture: Speaking Before They Can with Grant Boulanger Grant is an ACTFL Teacher of the Year candidate, and with good reason! He is not only an engaging speaker, but also a highly engaging teacher. Grant shared that he does NOT expect his Level 1 students to produce any language until they are comfortable. He has NO forced output AT ALL. However, he still gives students an interpersonal grade. How? Because communicating with the teacher is also considered interpersonal communication. When Grant questions his students, and they respond in a manner in which they are comfortable (verbal or non-verbal), and in which shows they comprehend the message, this counts as interpersonal communication. This was a huge A-HA moment for me. But if the students are producing language (AKA forced output), how can they be assessed? Grant had an answer for that also. He expects students to be attentive listeners, ask for clarification of meaning and respond to questions at a level where they are comfortable. He has students self assess these qualities using a rubric. These scores make up the majority of his gradebook. TA: Interpersonal communication does not need to be verbal, not does it need to be student to student communication. A Thanksgiving TPRS Story with Jim Tripp Jim Tripp is a classroom educator currently working in Iowa. He has been using TPRS methodology for years and has published a collection of Matava-style stories that he has written. In this session, he chose to use the audience as classroom learners and run through the storyasking process using one of his stories. I personally loved this session. I had not yet neither seen nor experienced a storyasking session in person, and Jim was amazing to see in action. During the session he introduced target phrases, established meaning of those phrases, asked the story and sprinkled in a lot of PQA (Personalized Question and Answer) along the way. One element that Jim includes is something called “personal public dictation.” Essentially, he calls a student to the board (personal) and dictates a sentence, which the student then transcribes (public). TA: Storyasking is a fun, interactive method for both the teacher and students! I have been teaching for nearly 20 years, but have only been using TPRS/CI methods exclusively for a little over a year. As a recent convert to this method of teaching, which involves very little formal grammar instruction, I still find myself wanting to drill my students with subject pronouns, verb tenses, and adjective agreement. (Sorry direct and indirect pronouns, I never enjoyed teaching you.) I know in my heart and my head that this does not aid in acquisition whatsoever, but old habits can be hard to break.
However, a couple of “light bulbs” have gone off recently that are solidifying my beliefs to never go back to grammar drills as instructional methodology. In order to teach grammar, especially at the novice level, I have been using pop up grammar with quick, simple explanations (in English), and it is working. My first year students can already recognize the difference among conjugated verb forms and they can consistently identify the subject based on the verb form. A couple of high flyers can already produce speech that is grammatically accurate with regards to singular first and third person verb forms. And we have not spent one minute on formal instruction of verb conjugation. Without formal grammar instruction, I have also noticed that my second year students are more willing to spontaneously share comments than previous students. My current students understand that I will not correct their “incorrect” speech, and that I do not place a lot of value on using grammatical accuracy in speech, especially at the novice level. As such, they are more willing to experiment with the language than students I have had in the past. I have also found that while filled with grammatical inaccuracies, their classmates are able to understand one another easier than in previous years. This further cements the idea that I am following a better path. Even though I am seeing positive results in the classroom without formal grammar instruction, I still often feel like I have a devil on my shoulder telling to “Just do it. Give the students a grammar worksheet. You know they need it.” I recently found a suitable reply to that devil that made complete and total sense to me. As I was reading the Green Bible, I stumbled upon the following. "But there is probably nothing we can do to make students be passionate about language accuracy. When I was in high school, I wasn’t passionate about music. I was a sports person. As a senior, I took a semester of choir. I don’t think there is anything that teacher could have done that would have made me want to sing in an opera." (Ray & Seely 231) That clearly reminds me of where my teenage students are at when they enroll in my course. They are in my classroom for a number of reasons, none of which is to complete worksheets on grammatical concepts. With the results I have seen by doing pop up grammar, in addition to the words above, the light bulb is now burning brightly, and I am never going back to sustained formal grammar instruction again. |
Jessie Oelke
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