Somewhere to Share

Interpersonal Communication… The Silent Period… Presentational Mode… Affective Filter… How do we know what is right for our students? Honestly, I love reading the research but the truth is that we know what is right for OUR students by looking at OUR students.

Skits: For me, they didn’t work. I paired students up, they spoke English while they planned. They looked up a bunch of words in the dictionary. They either read in a monotone or presented with great enthusiasm… but no one understood them because they weren’t using the vocabulary we’d studied in class. So I nixed them.

Oral Presentations: For me, they didn’t work when it was one student in front of the class. It took a whole day in one section of Spanish 2 and 1.25 days in the other. It left everyone else with nothing to do while the presenter was speaking so I had to hush them all of the time. It was often like the skit in that students were presenting on a topic and had looked up words that the class did not know. So I nixed them too.

Then came the good ole’ speaking test. I gave a list of questions they might be asked and they planned how they would answer and responded to a set number of questions. Again, it took up a lot of class time leaving all but one student with nothing to do at any given time… It didn’t really show their ability because they had planned and memorized answers. It was boring. So I nixed that… Wow. I did a lot of nixing.

So what do I do then?

Gallery Style: If they are presenting a product, I have half of the class stand to present and the other half listen as “gallery patrons”. They listen to the presentation, follow up with 2 good questions and the presenter has to come up with 2 good answers on the spot. I wander around the room the whole time listening to the different presentations. In a class of 24-30 I have 12-15 rotations to be able to hear every student speak before I MUST ask them to switch places. I never need that many rotations (and if I ever felt like I didn’t hear someones presentation well, I would have everyone grab their product and record a FlipGrid presenting the work to me… then I’m able to get back to those I was not sure of).

Simple FlipGrid or LMS video: If I just want them to answer a specific question or tell what they know about a specific topic, I have them record their response on FlipGrid or through our Learning Management- EBackpack. I can then listen whenever I am ready! Whole class speaking assessed in 5-10 minutes! (Well… not graded but finished!)

Centers: If I want to have 1 on 1 time with them, I do a round of centers. While students do interpretive listening, presentational writing, and interpretive reading at the other centers, groups of 3-4 come to me and I can have a true interpersonal discussion with them about the topic. I love this best!

Story Retells: A great way to get them speaking is a 3 way story retell! I have mine start by telling the story to something with a face because we all need our warm up to be someone who isn’t judgey!

In round 2, they retell to someone sitting near them, and in round 3, when they’ve practiced and feel good about the story, they retell to me via FlipGrid! Each is on a 6 minute timer so even with the transition time, they are done in about 20-25 minutes!

Discussion Thursday: I use Discussion Thursday a LOT (and sometimes on Monday or Friday…) to get students having an interpersonal conversation about something we are reading or studying in class. By asking THEM to come up with the questions, to reply to each other, to agree and disagree, and to know when it is time to move on to the next question, I put the burden of leading the discussion on them. I am free to sit back and enjoy. I LOVE hearing them speak.

Comprehensible Input has a purpose. Of course we want to use the Target Language in class as much as we possibly can but why? So that our students become comfortable and confident using the language themselves! Plan for them to speak as a way to show off how much they’ve acquired in the class rather than as a practice to get better at something they don’t know yet! Fill them up with input and you’ll be amazed by what comes out!

This is a great question! And it is one that many people disagree over! Let’s look at some things we know from the research of Krashen and many others.

1. Poor readers have the smallest vocabularies. Giving extensive lists just puts these struggling students at a greater disadvantage.
2. Exposure to oral language promotes growth of vocabulary.
3. Repetition improves acquisition of vocabulary.

What I know from my personal experience:

1. As a student, I was given massive lists of vocabulary in both Spanish and English classes, out of context. I did well on the tests because I am a great memorizer. My friends didn’t all do well on the tests and had negative feelings about their own ability.
2. As a reader in Spanish and English, my vocabulary gets bigger and bigger all the time! My students are only 14-18, I have to be realistic even about what is a cognate for them. It took me a long time to develop the vocabulary I have.
3. I learn vocabulary I am interested in at a much higher rate than that which I am not… ex: Jim, my husband, tries telling me a computer thing and I get anxious because I don’t understand what he is saying. I respond by speaking Spanish to him so he can see how ridiculous this conversation is.  ex: I tell Jim about my nerdy science readings online and he says “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

What I see in my classroom:

1. I give a few words that everyone needs to know and then allow lots of room to add self selected vocabulary. The words they choose for themselves are the ones they use most often in conversation.
2. Even though I don’t give all the clothing (numbers, rooms of the house, etc) at one time, they acquire them all slowly through the year!
3. They acquire a TON of words through reading!
4. They actually acquire the vocabulary we use in the classroom! Those old lists I gave were deceptive. It made me FEEL like they were learning a lot more vocabulary than they were… but it was one of those cram and forget type of things for most of the kids.

Vocabulary is important! (If we don’t have words, we can never communicate.) That said, vocabulary has to be sheltered. If we throw too much out, we risk losing enrollment and feeding the mindset of  ‘I can’t learn a second language.’

Try the chuck-it bucket as a way to pare down to the basics and then add a few enrichment structures for the real superstars! If you can present small chunks of vocabulary as the “required structures” for each unit, then the pressure is off for your slower processors to acquire more than they can and the spotlight can shine on your faster processors as they pick up the extra little things you share in readings, in class discussions, and in stories/movie talks.

Have a great year sharing your passion with your students and be patient with them and with yourself. We are never going to be perfect! As a matter of fact, just today I read in Daniel Pink’s book Drive that mastery of anything is like an asymptote (google that one if you don’t remember from math class).  You get close but you never quite get there! In the end of it all, your students will really blow you away with the language they can produce after a year… and even more so the more years they come back!!

Beginning in level 1, I recycle the verb structure “ir + a + infinitive” to allow my students to acquire the three major times by the time they finish level 4. In level 1, our stories are told in the present tense and I do PQA using the present tense of all of our new structures. In the past, I would not have dreamed that I could introduce the past and future tenses along side the present tense but to my students, it is all just a “chunk”. As we retell stories and make predictions throughout level 1, I am planting seeds of the past and future. We use Ben Slavic’s idea of Circling with Balls to get to know one another and lay a foundation of our present tense verbs.

In level 2, we really dig into stories in the past tense. We still do a lot of dialogue about the story in the present tense so we don’t completely lose what we’ve acquired there… but now I present my structures in the past tense. I don’t focus on words like preterite and imperfect because, to be honest, they don’t care. I have never had them get fired up about a lesson on those grammatical structures. Instead, we set the scene for a ton of stories and learn imperfect in context. We discuss all the bumps in the road for the characters of our novels and learn the preterite in context. We have all year! I don’t need to rush. As Scott Benedict says: Teach for June! In a twist on Circling with Balls, we talk about what we did over the summer. It is a great way to get the preterite in their minds as we prepare for a year of creating a LOT of past tense stories!

In level 3, I add the future tense endings to replace our use of “ir + a + infinitive.” If they never use this again, it is ok. On the AP, the AAPPL, the STAMP, they can use either and still reach the high intermediate and advanced low scores. In level 3, we set 2-3 goals for the current school year and start our year by talking about everyone’s plans! This is such a great way to start the year! First, we build a sense of class community as we find out which goals people have in common and which are unique. Second, my students have to write on the AAPPL every year about their goals and plans!

I do have a level 3 student who is very interested in the rules so I made this poster and am going to have my husband print it on the school poster printer so she can look whenever she wants to impress me! future-poster_32078816 (1)

In level 4, I introduce some super common subjunctive structures. Please know that they have been seeing subjunctive constructions in their reading since level 1 and we continually pop up “why does this ending look different?” “Because his mom wants him to but he might not!”

I used to drill subjunctive to death. I used to go into every possible use of the subjunctive under the sun. I used to do chants to memorize subjunctive endings. I used to make them memorize the trigger words for subjunctive. I also used to have small upper level classes. I used to have students who still wrote “yo hablar” in level 4… and these were the superstars who stuck it out in spite of how hard it was!

Now we start the year making this “if…then” statement: “If I were (partner’s name), I would ___.” They just draw themselves doing the activity and I tell the stories with them. Some hits this year: If I were Savannah, I would give Steven all my money. (Steven was the partner.) If I were Sally, I would be fabulous.  If I were Alyssa, I would cheer everywhere. (even in the school bathrooms it turns out)

Now I teach the most common subjunctive constructions so they have useable chunks and I actually see them pop up in their writing! Correctly! Even in kids who may not be the superstar Spanish student.

I’m going to make them a poster too! I have a guy in Spanish 4 who also loves to know all of the whys!

I know that many believe that CI/TPRS teachers don’t teach grammar. And while it is true that we don’t drill grammar, I probably expose them to more grammar that they can use and understand than I ever did before! When I taught it from the textbook, it was just a few pages of the chapter and we would leave each grammar piece behind as we moved on to the next. Now, I carry these concepts through all levels, spiraling in new and more complex ways to say things. It feels painless because they feel what sounds right as they get to the upper level classes! It’s a hallmark of intermediate language to self-correct! If you see it, praise it. That means it is being acquired!

Don’t be afraid of the word grammar! It is part of every language. Be afraid of making grammar inaccessible to all students. Offer the chart-minded posters, quick explanations, a link to conjuguemos.com but for the others, provide the chunks they need to communicate. You’ll love the results you see if you are patient with the process!