So the other day (I want to say it was two weeks ago), the teacher next to me has resource lab with students that have special needs in certain areas. They're given time to work on certain classes and homework.
And as my students are telling me the password of the week, I have that teacher tell me, "One of my students wants to observe your class today." To which I responded, "Is that ok with you?" And she said it was fine. I told her that if he or she didn't cause problems, they were completely welcome.
So a student comes in, sits down and works on homework. It's one of my rowdier classes (30 or so students). They have a great energy but need a lot of redirection.
And we go through normal class. The students applaud for the things we usually do. We went over the day, date, how they were doing and we interviewed someone. We laughed, we joked, we stayed in Spanish most of the time.
After the class, I asked if the student got any of his homework done or what he thought of class.
He responded with, "That was awesome!"
I heard from the teacher next door that he just hears our class through the wall and it must sound so exciting that he just needed to experience it for himself.
Showing posts with label PQA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PQA. Show all posts
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Persona especial - happenings
I've been at the "la persona especial" activity for the last 4 weeks in my classes. I have been using it in Spanish 2 (more on that later) and Spanish 1.
I figured I would blog on it in a few days, once the weekend hits and I can reflect.
So far it's going ok. It's definitely a change of pace for me from just the Circling with Balls activity that I used to use in Spanish 1 for the first 5+ weeks to get to know the kids and teach some basic concepts.
Nevertheless, if you saw my previous entry, you probably saw the Powerpoint I adapted from Bryce's script of questions. I haven't decided to go ALL in and teach all of the questions he has been doing. I'm just baby stepping. But it has still been an interesting experiment.
It is similar to something I started last year when I used stories even from the first day (in conjunction with TPR and the Circling with Balls activity). That was thanks to 90 minute classes.
This year at my new school I am back to 50'ish minute classes and so I am sticking to one activity + warm up + quiz (and song/brain break if needed).
Back to what is similar. Last year when I used the stories first thing, I noticed the kids were exposed to the I, you, and he/she forms more than ever because I was really doing my best to interview my actors and coach them through answering questions and helping them out.
So I am now trying this out with the personal interviews. If a person doesn't know how to answer the question, I'll just ask the class if they know how that person could say "I ___". And usually at least one person knows and I have the class applaud them and praise their awesome Spanish and ask my actor (interviewee) if they want to try to answer the question again to which they pretty much always say, "yes". Then when they get it right, we applaud them too.
Anyways, so I have done pop-ups here and there and point out that the "o" on the end of the action means "I". So I also talk about myself pretty much with that form instead of the 3rd person stuff I used to do about me.
What has this done? It seems to have really helped them grasp the ending of the "o" on the end a lot better to use it with more accuracy when we are talking. Writing is another issue entirely. ;-)
Baby steps.
I'm bringing this up today because in a Spanish 1 class, I noticed the class didn't seem to want to talk and so I asked (gesturing), "¿No quieren hablar?" ("Do you all not want to talk?") and they gestured that they didn't understand so I went to write it on their butcher paper and then a student said, "Oh. So is "I want" "quiero"?"
I praised his awesome Spanish and had the class applaud him and it was just magical.
I love when their brains make those connections because they've been exposed to the rich language so much.
It reminds me of what Dr Farley who taught my methods course in college told us. He said that when we teach, we should explore the language with the students and allow them to slowly peel away the wrapping paper of the present (that is the language). If we just teach them via grammar and as if they were getting a minor in linguistics, we spoil those fun surprises for the kids to enjoy.
Today was one of those days that really rang true for me and my students!
But anyways, more on how I've been doing La persona especial later!
I figured I would blog on it in a few days, once the weekend hits and I can reflect.
So far it's going ok. It's definitely a change of pace for me from just the Circling with Balls activity that I used to use in Spanish 1 for the first 5+ weeks to get to know the kids and teach some basic concepts.
Nevertheless, if you saw my previous entry, you probably saw the Powerpoint I adapted from Bryce's script of questions. I haven't decided to go ALL in and teach all of the questions he has been doing. I'm just baby stepping. But it has still been an interesting experiment.
It is similar to something I started last year when I used stories even from the first day (in conjunction with TPR and the Circling with Balls activity). That was thanks to 90 minute classes.
This year at my new school I am back to 50'ish minute classes and so I am sticking to one activity + warm up + quiz (and song/brain break if needed).
Back to what is similar. Last year when I used the stories first thing, I noticed the kids were exposed to the I, you, and he/she forms more than ever because I was really doing my best to interview my actors and coach them through answering questions and helping them out.
So I am now trying this out with the personal interviews. If a person doesn't know how to answer the question, I'll just ask the class if they know how that person could say "I ___". And usually at least one person knows and I have the class applaud them and praise their awesome Spanish and ask my actor (interviewee) if they want to try to answer the question again to which they pretty much always say, "yes". Then when they get it right, we applaud them too.
Anyways, so I have done pop-ups here and there and point out that the "o" on the end of the action means "I". So I also talk about myself pretty much with that form instead of the 3rd person stuff I used to do about me.
What has this done? It seems to have really helped them grasp the ending of the "o" on the end a lot better to use it with more accuracy when we are talking. Writing is another issue entirely. ;-)
Baby steps.
I'm bringing this up today because in a Spanish 1 class, I noticed the class didn't seem to want to talk and so I asked (gesturing), "¿No quieren hablar?" ("Do you all not want to talk?") and they gestured that they didn't understand so I went to write it on their butcher paper and then a student said, "Oh. So is "I want" "quiero"?"
I praised his awesome Spanish and had the class applaud him and it was just magical.
I love when their brains make those connections because they've been exposed to the rich language so much.
It reminds me of what Dr Farley who taught my methods course in college told us. He said that when we teach, we should explore the language with the students and allow them to slowly peel away the wrapping paper of the present (that is the language). If we just teach them via grammar and as if they were getting a minor in linguistics, we spoil those fun surprises for the kids to enjoy.
Today was one of those days that really rang true for me and my students!
But anyways, more on how I've been doing La persona especial later!
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Trying something new - La Persona Especial
So for years I have done the following to start my year in Spanish 1.
See PQA day 1 post.
See PQA after day 1 post.
In Spanish 2 a few years back I experimented with something else that was a bit of a flop.
But many have probably heard of Bryce Hedstrom's activity called, "La Persona Especial".
I've been really interested in this activity since I first heard about it. And I got to be in a private professional development session with Bryce on the plane as luck would have it where I could pick his brain about the activity. And he inspired me.
It also didn't hurt that the amazing French Teacher: Bess Hayles was going to be using the activity in her classes this year too. So if I needed to pick someone's brain about it, I will have a great resource in my own building!
But I have to admit, I am out of my comfort zone. The idea that I thought I would try in my Spanish 1 & 2 classes is the following:
I will go over a basic set of questions about them, their name, where they are from, etc and then when I get to "what do you like to do", I will teach "likes" as well as then go into the third person form of the verb and let it segway into my previous experience with PQA. That will be the meat and potatoes of the activity, but I will also introduce new questions.
See PQA day 1 post.
See PQA after day 1 post.
In Spanish 2 a few years back I experimented with something else that was a bit of a flop.
But many have probably heard of Bryce Hedstrom's activity called, "La Persona Especial".
I've been really interested in this activity since I first heard about it. And I got to be in a private professional development session with Bryce on the plane as luck would have it where I could pick his brain about the activity. And he inspired me.
It also didn't hurt that the amazing French Teacher: Bess Hayles was going to be using the activity in her classes this year too. So if I needed to pick someone's brain about it, I will have a great resource in my own building!
But I have to admit, I am out of my comfort zone. The idea that I thought I would try in my Spanish 1 & 2 classes is the following:
I will go over a basic set of questions about them, their name, where they are from, etc and then when I get to "what do you like to do", I will teach "likes" as well as then go into the third person form of the verb and let it segway into my previous experience with PQA. That will be the meat and potatoes of the activity, but I will also introduce new questions.
How to start the year with TPRS (part 2) - PQA - after day 1
Ok, so as I mentioned in this previous post, for the last 5 years, I have started with PQA on the first day. Naturally, in my 3rd school, with block scheduling I experimented with:
- PQA / TPR / PQA again
- PQA / TPR / Story
But I found that Ben Slavic's Circling with Balls activity that I touched on in the previous entry was essential in establishing:
- classroom routines
- the importance of the class
- interest in class
- excitement for the class
- basic understanding of sentence structure, question words, prepositions, 3rd person forms of verbs interesting to kids, etc
- and much more
As I talked about the first day, I would establish what I do (very slowly) and then maybe move onto another student. I would circle around the information about myself.
Here's an example:
Here's an example:
Sunday, August 21, 2016
How to start the year with TPRS (part 2) - PQA - day 1
*I meant to post this a long time ago. It is part two of this post*
So if you saw my part one post with TPR, then you should have an idea of what TPRS originally suggested teachers do to get the students familiar with action verbs and commands that could later be worked seamlessly into stories and help students to express themselves a little bit more in the storytelling phase.
Something I had the opportunity to play around with in my 8th grade exploratory classes the past two years was the idea of PQA.
PQA stands for Personalized Questions and Answers. If you get a chance, I think Ben Slavic explains this the best in his blog or in any of his books!
This is how I do it:
The first day of class, I have my students draw a picture of what they like to do and then write their name in the top corner. They can write what it is in English underneath if they think I won't know what it is.
After I get attendance figured out, I start walking around and looking around. I am developing ideas of where I can go that day in Spanish. If I have two basketball players, I could talk about them on the same day and compare and contrast them. Or I could talk about one on one day and the other on a different day to review the structures: "s/he plays" and "basketball".
Once I'm ready to start, I go over to the board and I write (Spanish in black and English in blue):
el profesor toca la guitarra.
the teacher plays the guitar.
Then I say this slowly while pointing to each word. I move my arms down from above my head to down to my sides (this is my signal for new information).
Once my students look at me like I am crazy I tell them in English:
Me: Oh, right. This is your first day. Whenever I say something like this new in Spanish, you are going to pretend like it's the most interesting thing in your whole life. To do that you'll say, "Ooooooh."
Let's try that again. El profesor toca la guitarra.
Class: OOOOOOH.
Then I keep talking about myself by circling the information until students get it easily and we can add more information. Usually at that point I start talking about another student. Maybe another student plays an instrument. Maybe they play a sport. I will write on the board what they do in black and the English translation underneath in blue/green.
Then I compare/contrast myself with someone else. The first day I stick to a lot of yes/no questions and occasionally a who/what question.
The first day or two I don't do a whole lot with multiple verb forms. As I go with the PQA, I might slowly let it trickle in that if a person wants to say "I [..]", that the action will end in an "o" instead.
It has only gotten better and sweeter each year. I have found more ways to get the kids exposed to the "you" and "i" forms. I should still try to add in the "they" forms a little when more than one does something. But it's really about the kids and not about the grammar, or else it wouldn't be successful. Sometimes though, it can be hard when the kids almost have to be trained to be interested in each other's lives.
So if you saw my part one post with TPR, then you should have an idea of what TPRS originally suggested teachers do to get the students familiar with action verbs and commands that could later be worked seamlessly into stories and help students to express themselves a little bit more in the storytelling phase.
Something I had the opportunity to play around with in my 8th grade exploratory classes the past two years was the idea of PQA.
PQA stands for Personalized Questions and Answers. If you get a chance, I think Ben Slavic explains this the best in his blog or in any of his books!
This is how I do it:
The first day of class, I have my students draw a picture of what they like to do and then write their name in the top corner. They can write what it is in English underneath if they think I won't know what it is.
After I get attendance figured out, I start walking around and looking around. I am developing ideas of where I can go that day in Spanish. If I have two basketball players, I could talk about them on the same day and compare and contrast them. Or I could talk about one on one day and the other on a different day to review the structures: "s/he plays" and "basketball".
Once I'm ready to start, I go over to the board and I write (Spanish in black and English in blue):
el profesor toca la guitarra.
the teacher plays the guitar.
Then I say this slowly while pointing to each word. I move my arms down from above my head to down to my sides (this is my signal for new information).
Once my students look at me like I am crazy I tell them in English:
Me: Oh, right. This is your first day. Whenever I say something like this new in Spanish, you are going to pretend like it's the most interesting thing in your whole life. To do that you'll say, "Ooooooh."
Let's try that again. El profesor toca la guitarra.
Class: OOOOOOH.
Then I keep talking about myself by circling the information until students get it easily and we can add more information. Usually at that point I start talking about another student. Maybe another student plays an instrument. Maybe they play a sport. I will write on the board what they do in black and the English translation underneath in blue/green.
Then I compare/contrast myself with someone else. The first day I stick to a lot of yes/no questions and occasionally a who/what question.
The first day or two I don't do a whole lot with multiple verb forms. As I go with the PQA, I might slowly let it trickle in that if a person wants to say "I [..]", that the action will end in an "o" instead.
It has only gotten better and sweeter each year. I have found more ways to get the kids exposed to the "you" and "i" forms. I should still try to add in the "they" forms a little when more than one does something. But it's really about the kids and not about the grammar, or else it wouldn't be successful. Sometimes though, it can be hard when the kids almost have to be trained to be interested in each other's lives.
NTPRS - my own private conference with Bryce Hedstrom!
So I lucked out in leaving the hotel super early that morning. Some strange antics ensued at the airport as my socially awkward self tried to get through security:
So this just happened around 5:00 this morning. pic.twitter.com/jgFsvtyldR— Señor Jordan (@senorjordan) 30 de julio de 2016
And it turned out Bryce Hedstrom and I were on the same flight!
I had missed all of his sessions unfortunately, since I was on the beginner’s track.
But I’ve been implementing some of his stuff for years and really had wanted a chance to talk to him and pick his brain. We had already met earlier in the week when we ate BBQ with Señor Wooly and Mike Coxon. And we had also corresponded via email once in awhile over the years. But while emailing back and forth can be great, I find that I also prefer face-to-face interaction and to hear something.
So here’s my conclusion about Bryce: he is an awesome listener and I can see how he is so successful in his teaching. He radiates positivity, thoughtfulness, compassion, empathy, & of course Spanish.
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Responses to Comment - Pacing and Lessons
The following is part two of a response to a comment.
Someone recently asked on a comment:
Hola Jeremy - this is really funny and I've very impressed. I teach Spanish I and I'm in awe at the complexity and level you're introducing to students. I'm really interested in knowing more about how you pace your content and your lessons (in 90 min classes and shorter periods). Just a suggestion for a future blog post. Gracias!
Part #2: " I'm really interested in knowing more about how you pace your content and your lessons"
So what I worked on doing (as you can probably see in my blog) is that I worked at Backwards planning through TPRS novels last year and the previous years to help my kids be successful. The idea was to load the kids up with Comprehensible Input (via PQA, TPRS, etc) all semester so when they got to the novels, they could read most of it with ease.Thursday, September 10, 2015
PQA, TPR and TPRS oh my!
Well, our school year started last week on Wednesday and we're currently on the day 3 rotation (due to block scheduling).
My Spanish 1 students last year felt like we didn't do enough storytelling due to PQA (Personalized Questions and Answers) with Ben Slavic's "Circling with Balls" Interview activity and then jumping almost straight into the novels.
Since storytelling is one of my favorite things, I thought that we could do the following for class this year to start off:
1. Personalized Questions & Answers (Interviews about who does what in Spanish)
2. Total Physical Response
3. Storytelling
It's a little bit intense. The idea was the get to more stories before the Agentes Novel so that it would be easier to read.
So far, it took about 8 days to get through story 1 of Blaine's revised Look I can Talk for Spanish 1.
Obviously, I would rather go too slow than too fast and the constant exposure each day of those first structures might be a way better way to go about doing this. Their retells were pretty good and their writings weren't too bad either! But I am not sure if at this rate we'll really get to more stories before starting Agentes next month.
Either way, it's nice to have 3 different activities and my students' brains seem to be able to handle that. And it helps class to go faster.
My Spanish 1 students last year felt like we didn't do enough storytelling due to PQA (Personalized Questions and Answers) with Ben Slavic's "Circling with Balls" Interview activity and then jumping almost straight into the novels.
Since storytelling is one of my favorite things, I thought that we could do the following for class this year to start off:
1. Personalized Questions & Answers (Interviews about who does what in Spanish)
2. Total Physical Response
3. Storytelling
It's a little bit intense. The idea was the get to more stories before the Agentes Novel so that it would be easier to read.
So far, it took about 8 days to get through story 1 of Blaine's revised Look I can Talk for Spanish 1.
Obviously, I would rather go too slow than too fast and the constant exposure each day of those first structures might be a way better way to go about doing this. Their retells were pretty good and their writings weren't too bad either! But I am not sure if at this rate we'll really get to more stories before starting Agentes next month.
Either way, it's nice to have 3 different activities and my students' brains seem to be able to handle that. And it helps class to go faster.
Monday, October 6, 2014
TPRS year 5 - Cultural reading - los niños no acompañados
I realize that for our students, things that are novel are more interesting. I'm also aware that one of the best experiences I had with my classes (ever) was being real with them in Spanish about a discussion where I was prepping their understanding of the words "las cosas pequeñas"(the small things) before listening to a song, "Las cosas pequeñas" by Prince Royce. (see blog entry)
While we prep our Spanish 2 students to be able to read Noches Misteriosas en Granada by the wonderfully talented Kristy Placido.
And so a friend and I had decided to create a breakdown of new vocabulary per chapter for the novels so we would know how to pace ourselves and what/when to pre-teach structures.
This has been very helpful to determine which words we could teach through different contexts.
Monday, September 22, 2014
TPRS year 5 - Mi mascota es _____.
Here's a video/song to get you to talk about your students' pets and also get a little brain-break and music all in one.
While it might seem silly, yes I would probably do this in a high school class because in my opinion, high school students are often nostalgic for those activities they used to do in classes as kids.
Step 1: PQA (Personalized Questions and Answers)
Depending on the level of class, here are some Spanish 1 questions I would consider asking to practice some basic structures... in upper levels, you could use more complicated language:
¿Quién tiene una mascota?
¿Cómo se llama?
¿Es pequeño/a, grande o mediano?
¿Es bonito/a o feo/a?
¿De qué color es?
¿Te gusta tu mascota?
(maybe target action word you could ask about: what does it eat? / why is it special? /etc)
While it might seem silly, yes I would probably do this in a high school class because in my opinion, high school students are often nostalgic for those activities they used to do in classes as kids.
Step 1: PQA (Personalized Questions and Answers)
Depending on the level of class, here are some Spanish 1 questions I would consider asking to practice some basic structures... in upper levels, you could use more complicated language:
¿Quién tiene una mascota?
¿Cómo se llama?
¿Es pequeño/a, grande o mediano?
¿Es bonito/a o feo/a?
¿De qué color es?
¿Te gusta tu mascota?
(maybe target action word you could ask about: what does it eat? / why is it special? /etc)
Monday, October 7, 2013
TPRS Year 4 - Conjugation
Something many of us TPRS / CI teachers come across is the belief that what we are doing is silly or a waste of time or simply an over-use of an effective tool.
As I have found myself teaching in a Department this year, I have seen that something that many non TPRS / CI teachers stress verb conjugation. I believe this to something that is considered "common sense foreign language teaching" based on the number of years it has been used.
Whether teaching with conjugation or not is what helps our students is irrelevant to a person that is ingrained with the notion that conjugation is of the utmost importance in class.
I believe that conjugation has its place in the learning of foreign language to possibly assist a student or fill in gaps after a student has received years of input. But at what point does a person learning their first language conjugate without error?
Conjugation for conjugation's sake didn't ever seem to do a lot to enhance my instruction. Students were always more nervous about using the correct form.
In my TPRS/CI classes, the language flows more naturally. Sometimes we talk in the past tense, or the present in year one. The important thing is students are following and they are hearing these different endings while we go slow.
Will the acquire the first person singular form of the preterit endings within year 1 or two? Probably not. Could I teach them for a test that they would later forget about? Most of them... the ones who respect me enough to learn that or the ones who think that is a valid learning approach.
Nevertheless, I will need to make sure my students have a general understanding of the different forms of the verbs in the present tense for Spanish 1. Whether I agree with this or not as to where it falls in the order of acquisition.
One way I have been working on that lately is I have sprinkled in little phrases with different endings:
After warm up: "Do you all have questions or problems?"
During initial conversation: "How are you?" (singular)
During initial conversation: "Do you have a problem with my face?"
I have also thrown some I forms and they forms in there. I have yet to throw in the 'we' form. But when I throw these in either in conversation or in the warm-up or in a reading, I point it out real quick and ask them:
Hey... so if "n" on the end means "they do something" how would I say, "they dance?"
Today, I asked a class, "Wait, how would I ask this person if they play volleyball?" Some students answered, "¿Juegas volleyball? I praised them for how amazing they were and apologized for my brain fart and reminded them it was Monday. Haha.
In a different class I took this a step further, I asked a student we were talking about, "¿Explotas o hablas?" (Do you explode or do you talk?)
The student of course picked the form: "Hablas" (you talk.)
I turned to the class and asked them... wait... what did I ask him? Let me repeat it...
(class): "Do you explode or do you talk?"
"Awesome job, guys! Now how would he answer that by saying, 'I talk'?"
A couple of students responded, "Hablo."
I praised them for being so great at Spanish and we continued.
This to me makes sense as I continue to work out conjugation and getting my students comfortable with hearing those different forms... the most important part though is to continually expose them to those forms in the language in a comprehensible way so it becomes second nature to them.
I am not saying what I do is the correct way. It's simply something I am having to do to meld the "grammarian" department and my TPRS / CI to find a happy medium.
As I have found myself teaching in a Department this year, I have seen that something that many non TPRS / CI teachers stress verb conjugation. I believe this to something that is considered "common sense foreign language teaching" based on the number of years it has been used.
Whether teaching with conjugation or not is what helps our students is irrelevant to a person that is ingrained with the notion that conjugation is of the utmost importance in class.
I believe that conjugation has its place in the learning of foreign language to possibly assist a student or fill in gaps after a student has received years of input. But at what point does a person learning their first language conjugate without error?
Conjugation for conjugation's sake didn't ever seem to do a lot to enhance my instruction. Students were always more nervous about using the correct form.
In my TPRS/CI classes, the language flows more naturally. Sometimes we talk in the past tense, or the present in year one. The important thing is students are following and they are hearing these different endings while we go slow.
Will the acquire the first person singular form of the preterit endings within year 1 or two? Probably not. Could I teach them for a test that they would later forget about? Most of them... the ones who respect me enough to learn that or the ones who think that is a valid learning approach.
Nevertheless, I will need to make sure my students have a general understanding of the different forms of the verbs in the present tense for Spanish 1. Whether I agree with this or not as to where it falls in the order of acquisition.
One way I have been working on that lately is I have sprinkled in little phrases with different endings:
After warm up: "Do you all have questions or problems?"
During initial conversation: "How are you?" (singular)
During initial conversation: "Do you have a problem with my face?"
I have also thrown some I forms and they forms in there. I have yet to throw in the 'we' form. But when I throw these in either in conversation or in the warm-up or in a reading, I point it out real quick and ask them:
Hey... so if "n" on the end means "they do something" how would I say, "they dance?"
Today, I asked a class, "Wait, how would I ask this person if they play volleyball?" Some students answered, "¿Juegas volleyball? I praised them for how amazing they were and apologized for my brain fart and reminded them it was Monday. Haha.
In a different class I took this a step further, I asked a student we were talking about, "¿Explotas o hablas?" (Do you explode or do you talk?)
The student of course picked the form: "Hablas" (you talk.)
I turned to the class and asked them... wait... what did I ask him? Let me repeat it...
(class): "Do you explode or do you talk?"
"Awesome job, guys! Now how would he answer that by saying, 'I talk'?"
A couple of students responded, "Hablo."
I praised them for being so great at Spanish and we continued.
This to me makes sense as I continue to work out conjugation and getting my students comfortable with hearing those different forms... the most important part though is to continually expose them to those forms in the language in a comprehensible way so it becomes second nature to them.
I am not saying what I do is the correct way. It's simply something I am having to do to meld the "grammarian" department and my TPRS / CI to find a happy medium.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
TPRS year 4 - why PQA is worth it in the long run
The following is something that happened in class today, which proves why I believe so strongly in PQA as a vessel to start the year, especially with Spanish 1 students.
We have been talking about students and what they like to do. We add details that are interesting and sometimes details that the kids agree to. Sometimes they are silly while at other times they are not.
Regardless, we are in the language and we are constantly reviewing and recycling the words to talk about the kids.
The language is our limit. While we might make sure we keep the language relatively simplified with high frequency verbs and circumlocution (Ex: "under the ground" instead of "sewer"), the students are constantly working on learning the words and negotiating meaning.
There's nothing quite like it to me. A student recently compared my class to improv class. I can see it. As we are constantly improving this ongoing narrative of who we are and we continue to build it and tweak it as the year goes on, in Spanish.
Today though, I wanted to brag about my Spanish 1 students. They had been doing some standardized testing all day and probably needed a break/release.
I always try to suspend disbelief and practice saying things with them for different learning goals throughout the year. I believe that the pronunication of "black" in Spanish is very important because if they don't get it, they will say something potentially offensive.
The way I do this might not work in every class or at every school. But as we are talking in Spanish, I might remind the kids how "the teacher is black". The class of course listens, looks at the colors, and then they start arguing with me. I am working in these moments to train them to argue with me in Spanish, and to accept the unexpected in Spanish class.
They rarely agree and we cover some other colors that we will revisit all year. But I insist that I am "black" every now and then. In some classes, I start comparing my level of blackness to the "night". Or something else that is a simple enough term for the kids.
Today though, a student caught me off guard. I haven't laughed so hard all year. One my word wall, I have the phrase "ya no" for "not anymore" or "no longer". As I was talking about being "black" the student said in Spanish, "the teacher is 'no longer' black like Michael Jackson."
This was so completely unexpected that I didn't know what to do. The rest of the class as they saw me laughing also laughed and it completely brightened the classroom and the mood of the class and we established a new race... "ya no negro". So now as kids tell me, "the teacher is white" I can respond, "No. The teacher is 'no longer' black."
Just wanted to share because this was the result of a lot of language with the kids as well as their creating their own novel sentences that they can construct resulting from lots of playing around with the language.
We have been talking about students and what they like to do. We add details that are interesting and sometimes details that the kids agree to. Sometimes they are silly while at other times they are not.
Regardless, we are in the language and we are constantly reviewing and recycling the words to talk about the kids.
The language is our limit. While we might make sure we keep the language relatively simplified with high frequency verbs and circumlocution (Ex: "under the ground" instead of "sewer"), the students are constantly working on learning the words and negotiating meaning.
There's nothing quite like it to me. A student recently compared my class to improv class. I can see it. As we are constantly improving this ongoing narrative of who we are and we continue to build it and tweak it as the year goes on, in Spanish.
Today though, I wanted to brag about my Spanish 1 students. They had been doing some standardized testing all day and probably needed a break/release.
I always try to suspend disbelief and practice saying things with them for different learning goals throughout the year. I believe that the pronunication of "black" in Spanish is very important because if they don't get it, they will say something potentially offensive.
The way I do this might not work in every class or at every school. But as we are talking in Spanish, I might remind the kids how "the teacher is black". The class of course listens, looks at the colors, and then they start arguing with me. I am working in these moments to train them to argue with me in Spanish, and to accept the unexpected in Spanish class.
They rarely agree and we cover some other colors that we will revisit all year. But I insist that I am "black" every now and then. In some classes, I start comparing my level of blackness to the "night". Or something else that is a simple enough term for the kids.
Today though, a student caught me off guard. I haven't laughed so hard all year. One my word wall, I have the phrase "ya no" for "not anymore" or "no longer". As I was talking about being "black" the student said in Spanish, "the teacher is 'no longer' black like Michael Jackson."
This was so completely unexpected that I didn't know what to do. The rest of the class as they saw me laughing also laughed and it completely brightened the classroom and the mood of the class and we established a new race... "ya no negro". So now as kids tell me, "the teacher is white" I can respond, "No. The teacher is 'no longer' black."
Just wanted to share because this was the result of a lot of language with the kids as well as their creating their own novel sentences that they can construct resulting from lots of playing around with the language.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
TPRS year 4 - block schedule (revisited)
So I proposed a question, very unsure of myself before school started. I now work in a school with a foreign language department that consists of more than one person (myself).
In addition, our classes are not 50 minutes like in my previous schools. They are 90 minutes and meet every other day (alternating). So I have 3 classes (& 1 prep) every day. I'm not complaining about the 1.5 hour prep everyday! But I have 3 classes every day for 90 minutes. Since there are other teachers in the department, I am a Spanish 1 & 2 teacher.
So I am back to report that I have been doing the following for class, which I'll do for the next few weeks.
5 minutes - warm up on board reviewing previously discussed words, sentences, etc
5-10 minutes - basic conversational skills with kids
25 minutes - TPR (Total Physical Response)
5 minutes- TPR closed-eye quiz
20 minutes - PQA (getting to know you activity in Spanish)
2 minutes - brain break (in English is fine)
20-23 minutes - PQA (getting to know you activity)
5 minutes - PQA Yes/No quiz
0-3 minutes - extra time to pass out papers, chat with students in Spanish/English. Down time for them before next class
And it has been working pretty well. I didn't do the brain break for the students for the first two or so days and I have found that it really did help their concentration after the 20 minute point. I must remember it's 90% Spanish and even if they understood Spanish, they would need a brain break after 20 minutes.
My students are retaining the body part words + actions from TPR as the closed-eye quizzes would suggest.
And they are ok to change gears in the PQA conversational section where we talk about the other students. The best part is being able to incorporate words from TPR into the PQA to enrich it and get more passes of the structures in a new context.
But I'm sure they won't want to TPR for the rest of the year for 25-30 minutes each day. It does wear you out after awhile.
In addition, our classes are not 50 minutes like in my previous schools. They are 90 minutes and meet every other day (alternating). So I have 3 classes (& 1 prep) every day. I'm not complaining about the 1.5 hour prep everyday! But I have 3 classes every day for 90 minutes. Since there are other teachers in the department, I am a Spanish 1 & 2 teacher.
So I am back to report that I have been doing the following for class, which I'll do for the next few weeks.
5 minutes - warm up on board reviewing previously discussed words, sentences, etc
5-10 minutes - basic conversational skills with kids
25 minutes - TPR (Total Physical Response)
5 minutes- TPR closed-eye quiz
20 minutes - PQA (getting to know you activity in Spanish)
2 minutes - brain break (in English is fine)
20-23 minutes - PQA (getting to know you activity)
5 minutes - PQA Yes/No quiz
0-3 minutes - extra time to pass out papers, chat with students in Spanish/English. Down time for them before next class
And it has been working pretty well. I didn't do the brain break for the students for the first two or so days and I have found that it really did help their concentration after the 20 minute point. I must remember it's 90% Spanish and even if they understood Spanish, they would need a brain break after 20 minutes.
My students are retaining the body part words + actions from TPR as the closed-eye quizzes would suggest.
And they are ok to change gears in the PQA conversational section where we talk about the other students. The best part is being able to incorporate words from TPR into the PQA to enrich it and get more passes of the structures in a new context.
But I'm sure they won't want to TPR for the rest of the year for 25-30 minutes each day. It does wear you out after awhile.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
TPRS Year 4 - Block Scheduling...?
So I am going to be teaching at a school this year where they use block scheduling. It alternates each day to the other set of classes. So there are 4 classes (90 minutes) one day and the other set of 4 classes (90 minutes) the next.
I have only ever taught in my 7 years of teaching with 45-50 minute periods and I have (as you might imagine) gotten quite used to it.
What concerns me is that I will see my kids every other day and we might just have way too much time.
I'm sure there are TPRS & CI teachers out there who do this and find that 90 minutes isn't enough for them. But I would like to propose the question of those who do have this situation, what do you do for the first weeks?
I am thinking of the following in the 90 minutes for Spanish 1, with a slightly modified version for Spanish 2 (since we would have to review present tense anyway with them and the quality of input could be slightly higher based on their learning last year).
5 minutes - warm up
45-50 minutes: PQA (get to know you activity, 1-2 students per day) + short quiz over what we talked about
20-25 minutes: TPR (learning body parts; some commands; at most, 9 new words a day)
15-20 minutes: kindergarten reading / description of picture / extended PQA / basic movie-talk / kid's song
In the last section, I wasn't as sure since that's still a pretty good chunk of time. I like the idea of more time for PQA but their attention might wane. And TPR will get them moving for a little bit.
I would say for the first 1-2 weeks, I planned on having some basic books that I read over and over to them and told them how to play the game. I have carpet so they could feasibly gather around me.
Of course, they might not be as comfortable with me yet to do that.
I would appreciate any thoughts or feedback as this whole block scheduling might push back our reading first semester if I can't find a way to effectively use the time for acquisition.
Does my "spanish boot camp" seem like too much?
I have only ever taught in my 7 years of teaching with 45-50 minute periods and I have (as you might imagine) gotten quite used to it.
What concerns me is that I will see my kids every other day and we might just have way too much time.
I'm sure there are TPRS & CI teachers out there who do this and find that 90 minutes isn't enough for them. But I would like to propose the question of those who do have this situation, what do you do for the first weeks?
I am thinking of the following in the 90 minutes for Spanish 1, with a slightly modified version for Spanish 2 (since we would have to review present tense anyway with them and the quality of input could be slightly higher based on their learning last year).
5 minutes - warm up
45-50 minutes: PQA (get to know you activity, 1-2 students per day) + short quiz over what we talked about
20-25 minutes: TPR (learning body parts; some commands; at most, 9 new words a day)
15-20 minutes: kindergarten reading / description of picture / extended PQA / basic movie-talk / kid's song
In the last section, I wasn't as sure since that's still a pretty good chunk of time. I like the idea of more time for PQA but their attention might wane. And TPR will get them moving for a little bit.
I would say for the first 1-2 weeks, I planned on having some basic books that I read over and over to them and told them how to play the game. I have carpet so they could feasibly gather around me.
Of course, they might not be as comfortable with me yet to do that.
I would appreciate any thoughts or feedback as this whole block scheduling might push back our reading first semester if I can't find a way to effectively use the time for acquisition.
Does my "spanish boot camp" seem like too much?
Friday, November 9, 2012
TPRS Year 3 - Planning backwards from novels
I think I mentioned in a previous post that I was going to be trying out teaching this year by planning out the year with first choosing the novels I want my kids to read, and then backwards plan what structures I need to teach them.
There's a very talented teacher that I have the privilege of working with on this project, Josef Sallen. He's in his second year as a teacher and we are both the foreign language departments at our small schools.
We decided to choose some different novels for our two levels of Spanish classes. I opted to not read the Blaine Ray stories. Nothing against Blaine Ray. He obviously has been amazing in creating a method of teaching that I (and my students) have fallen in love with. But they tend to be somewhat repetitive in plot.
So Josef Sallen and I picked some novels and looked at the structures in the novels. Then we decided how our year would look (more or less) with the different novels in the different levels. Obviously the novels are written for students (taught with TPRS). But it would be nice to work the kids up to some actual novels by Spanish 3 or 4. For now though, it's nice to have something to work towards. We did the first 4-5 weeks of the semester with PQA (getting to know you activiity). Then we did TPR of some of the structures from the book. Then we did a few weeks of TPRS with spoken stories in the past and embedded readings in the present. The idea was to get them ready to be able to read most of the first book before we even read it. So for both classes we chose, Agentes Secretos by Mira Canion.
I'll let you know how it goes.
There's a very talented teacher that I have the privilege of working with on this project, Josef Sallen. He's in his second year as a teacher and we are both the foreign language departments at our small schools.
We decided to choose some different novels for our two levels of Spanish classes. I opted to not read the Blaine Ray stories. Nothing against Blaine Ray. He obviously has been amazing in creating a method of teaching that I (and my students) have fallen in love with. But they tend to be somewhat repetitive in plot.
So Josef Sallen and I picked some novels and looked at the structures in the novels. Then we decided how our year would look (more or less) with the different novels in the different levels. Obviously the novels are written for students (taught with TPRS). But it would be nice to work the kids up to some actual novels by Spanish 3 or 4. For now though, it's nice to have something to work towards. We did the first 4-5 weeks of the semester with PQA (getting to know you activiity). Then we did TPR of some of the structures from the book. Then we did a few weeks of TPRS with spoken stories in the past and embedded readings in the present. The idea was to get them ready to be able to read most of the first book before we even read it. So for both classes we chose, Agentes Secretos by Mira Canion.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
TPRS year 3 - yay for Friday and positive comments
My first week on Friday, I was quite sad (see previous post) because of some negative comments about my class.
I appreciate the kind comments from my readers on the previous post! I didn't mean to simply post that without something positive as well. But I think it's important to give a glimpse of the good and the bad that we teachers go through.
A week ago onThursday (after about 2 weeks of learning about the students and constantly talking in the language), I had some students who had already finished the first activity (getting to know you through PQA) since there are only three of them in the class. So we continued discussing things that were interesting to them. It's so funny how the narrative in their class continued to grow and grow. We discovered that one of the students stole boy's hearts and broke them. And she also collected hearts. One day she wanted to collect the heart of my class piñata, Pepé. So I slowly through asking questions created the scenario where she enters the class with two swords (one in her hand and the other in her mouth) and she slowly walks towards Pepe. While she is halfway there, my Speedracer cardboard cut-out (one of her ex-boyfriends), yells at Pepé, who is sleeping, "PEPE! NO! K WANTS YOUR HEART! I DON'T LIKE HER!" And K throws a sword at Speedracer and spits out the other sword at Pepé. It was amazing. The kids were engaged and laughing (as one would hope).
We didn't get to finish the amazing story because of those darn bells. So the following day, Friday, I decided we should finish their story about K collecting hearts and stealing Pepé's. Unbeknownst to me, my new Superintendent comes in before class and asks if she can watch the class. While she is sitting in the back, one of my students (unscripted) says as he comes in, "Man. I can't wait to finish what we were doing yesterday! That was an interesting story!"
They did the warm up, we got started and I reviewed the previous information, while adding some new words. Then we continued and finished the story before class ended. We took our student generated quiz, had five minutes to spare and one of the students wanted to listen to one of the songs we listened to last year (because he likes the drum set in the video). The song incidentally had the word "corazón" (heart) repeated over and over again, having to do with that days' lesson.
When class was over, the Superintendent had a big smile on her face and told me, "That was so neat!" And she shook my hand a few times and left. Later on, my principal told me that she was really excited about how I teach and had nothing but good things to say.
That same day last week (Friday), he told me before class that it was really cool to see how much Spanish the kids in my class were learning and how quickly they could learn it in my class.
This year, in Spanish two, last Friday (the same day as everything else in this post), she told me after class that she really saw how much Spanish she knew and she really liked how I taught. She noticed that she could answer all the questions that I made in class and she felt much more confident in the language.
I appreciate the kind comments from my readers on the previous post! I didn't mean to simply post that without something positive as well. But I think it's important to give a glimpse of the good and the bad that we teachers go through.
Superintendent's visit:
A week ago onThursday (after about 2 weeks of learning about the students and constantly talking in the language), I had some students who had already finished the first activity (getting to know you through PQA) since there are only three of them in the class. So we continued discussing things that were interesting to them. It's so funny how the narrative in their class continued to grow and grow. We discovered that one of the students stole boy's hearts and broke them. And she also collected hearts. One day she wanted to collect the heart of my class piñata, Pepé. So I slowly through asking questions created the scenario where she enters the class with two swords (one in her hand and the other in her mouth) and she slowly walks towards Pepe. While she is halfway there, my Speedracer cardboard cut-out (one of her ex-boyfriends), yells at Pepé, who is sleeping, "PEPE! NO! K WANTS YOUR HEART! I DON'T LIKE HER!" And K throws a sword at Speedracer and spits out the other sword at Pepé. It was amazing. The kids were engaged and laughing (as one would hope).
We didn't get to finish the amazing story because of those darn bells. So the following day, Friday, I decided we should finish their story about K collecting hearts and stealing Pepé's. Unbeknownst to me, my new Superintendent comes in before class and asks if she can watch the class. While she is sitting in the back, one of my students (unscripted) says as he comes in, "Man. I can't wait to finish what we were doing yesterday! That was an interesting story!"
They did the warm up, we got started and I reviewed the previous information, while adding some new words. Then we continued and finished the story before class ended. We took our student generated quiz, had five minutes to spare and one of the students wanted to listen to one of the songs we listened to last year (because he likes the drum set in the video). The song incidentally had the word "corazón" (heart) repeated over and over again, having to do with that days' lesson.
When class was over, the Superintendent had a big smile on her face and told me, "That was so neat!" And she shook my hand a few times and left. Later on, my principal told me that she was really excited about how I teach and had nothing but good things to say.
Native / Heritage Speaker:
One of my students who is the only Spanish-speaker in his class, had been a little bit skeptical of what I've been doing in my class. He's nice enough about it and has been offering to help out as well... this is neat because he isn't the most excitable student. But in my class, he has offered to help. So I need to think of some ways to encourage him in that.That same day last week (Friday), he told me before class that it was really cool to see how much Spanish the kids in my class were learning and how quickly they could learn it in my class.
Textbook student:
Last year, a student told me at the beginning of the year that she couldn't really learn very well in my class and she had been talking to her mom, who told her that SHE had learned from a textbook back when she was in high school. I told her I had some textbooks that were just collecting dust and she could have one during the year to go through while her classmate went through something else. In the first/last ten minutes of class, I could go over something with her and then she could practice with the textbook while I worked with the class. She told me that she didn't want to do that and she would rather the whole class do the same thing (probably meaning working on the textbook with her). She only mentioned it that once and during last year, she did great and was enthusiastic in class.This year, in Spanish two, last Friday (the same day as everything else in this post), she told me after class that she really saw how much Spanish she knew and she really liked how I taught. She noticed that she could answer all the questions that I made in class and she felt much more confident in the language.
In short:
Last Friday was a good day in light of my previous Friday. :-)Monday, August 27, 2012
TPRS Year 3 - Days 1 and 2
Well, school just got back into full swing as we returned to having students on Tuesday. My goals this year are to worry less about the actual storytelling (because it seems to be coming more and more naturally) and to instead worry about my students. Last year I noticed I did better at monitoring students' lack of understanding. That seems to be more heightened this year.
The first day went very well. I think I got the idea from Ben Slavic to teach the first day while slowly teaching the classroom expectations during the first week or two. Most kids aren't going to listen anyway if you just give them a list of rules the first day. I wouldn't listen if someone did that to me. So the idea is to show that everyday we will be learning Spanish (even on the first day). This helps me set the tone for the year. It also is very common that teachers might think of the first day where they don't have to teach very much and they can use it as a sort of day off. I would rather be teaching though than babysitting. If I am babysitting the kids, there are always more personality conflicts and kids not doing what they should be doing. I think the best way to have a "day off" (of classroom management problems) is to teach. When kids are engaged, they cause fewer problems.
For Spanish 1 and 8th grade, they drew a picture of something that they like to do and we started talking about me and how "The teacher plays guitar" (in Spanish). Then we circled that information a little bit. Afterwards, I moved on to a student or two and compared and contrasted their activities to mine. This is another idea I have gotten (and used before) from Ben Slavic. The more I do it, the better I get at throwing out more language to the students in a comprehensible way and also doing more short grammar explanations.
For Spanish 2, I had them draw two pictures about what they did over the summer. The idea was to review stuff from last year while throwing in some new information and getting to re-familiarize myself with them. I did notice that I would throw in some structures from last year and check for comprehension and most of my students from last year would remember those structures. The only difficulty is that I have students who had the previous Spanish teacher (the year before I came) and they have no clue what we're talking about. They did grammar-based homework out of the textbook all year. Guess how great that was for their acquisition of the language! Yep. Not so great. So they are keeping me mindful of making sure I do go slow and point and review even more so the structures from last year.
All in all, they were both good days. On day 2, we continued the activities and they'll probably take me a few weeks to finish. If I finish early in a class with getting to know everyone, hopefully we'll have plenty of fodder from different things we talked about to create short narratives or I can do some one-word images. I already notice myself going off on tangents and asking about the names of the chicken they play soccer with or anything else that might be relevant to make it interesting.
The first day went very well. I think I got the idea from Ben Slavic to teach the first day while slowly teaching the classroom expectations during the first week or two. Most kids aren't going to listen anyway if you just give them a list of rules the first day. I wouldn't listen if someone did that to me. So the idea is to show that everyday we will be learning Spanish (even on the first day). This helps me set the tone for the year. It also is very common that teachers might think of the first day where they don't have to teach very much and they can use it as a sort of day off. I would rather be teaching though than babysitting. If I am babysitting the kids, there are always more personality conflicts and kids not doing what they should be doing. I think the best way to have a "day off" (of classroom management problems) is to teach. When kids are engaged, they cause fewer problems.
For Spanish 1 and 8th grade, they drew a picture of something that they like to do and we started talking about me and how "The teacher plays guitar" (in Spanish). Then we circled that information a little bit. Afterwards, I moved on to a student or two and compared and contrasted their activities to mine. This is another idea I have gotten (and used before) from Ben Slavic. The more I do it, the better I get at throwing out more language to the students in a comprehensible way and also doing more short grammar explanations.
For Spanish 2, I had them draw two pictures about what they did over the summer. The idea was to review stuff from last year while throwing in some new information and getting to re-familiarize myself with them. I did notice that I would throw in some structures from last year and check for comprehension and most of my students from last year would remember those structures. The only difficulty is that I have students who had the previous Spanish teacher (the year before I came) and they have no clue what we're talking about. They did grammar-based homework out of the textbook all year. Guess how great that was for their acquisition of the language! Yep. Not so great. So they are keeping me mindful of making sure I do go slow and point and review even more so the structures from last year.
All in all, they were both good days. On day 2, we continued the activities and they'll probably take me a few weeks to finish. If I finish early in a class with getting to know everyone, hopefully we'll have plenty of fodder from different things we talked about to create short narratives or I can do some one-word images. I already notice myself going off on tangents and asking about the names of the chicken they play soccer with or anything else that might be relevant to make it interesting.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Día 96 - music day
So you've probably figured out by now due to my numerous entries on music that my students have been enjoying it this year. Part of it might be that it's a different activity from the norm and we aren't telling stories but I still require them to do something with the language and then we treat it as a reading a little bit when possible.
And yesterday was supposed to be Music Day (Thursday), but I had a student from Truman State University come in to practice TPRS. I had to explain to my students that we would shift music day to Friday and I almost had a mutiny. Another teacher told me today that yesterday she saw on students' facebook status' that they were excited for what song Señor Jordan had picked out for music day. So I guess it's been a little successful?
Something that I've noticed though is that I don't usually do much to introduce the song. We go into it, then maybe after the first time or second time I tell them where the artist is from so they don't think they're from Mexico (for speaking Spanish). But I don't do much with the song ahead of time.
So today I decided that the song would be Celos by Fanny Lú and I wanted to practice the idea of 'tiene celos' (He/she has jealousy ("is jealous"). I thought it would be a good way to prep the song and if we had extra time after the song we could continue a storyline or talk about the video and the story that we can infer from it. So I wrote that one the board and asked "¿Quién tiene celos?" (Who has jealousy?). I was met with confusion because I had promised a song and they knew THIS wasn't a song... oops. I told them "un momento" and continued. We got to develop little silly stories and associations so by that time I got to passing out the song, they understood as soon as they saw the title. I think this enriched the song more than before because now they had a context for the phrase and they also had personalized it into their class so we could talk about the crazy jealous woman and also talk about people in the class.
I think future implementation of this kind of TPRS introduction to a song will only further reinforce music day to make it better.
And yesterday was supposed to be Music Day (Thursday), but I had a student from Truman State University come in to practice TPRS. I had to explain to my students that we would shift music day to Friday and I almost had a mutiny. Another teacher told me today that yesterday she saw on students' facebook status' that they were excited for what song Señor Jordan had picked out for music day. So I guess it's been a little successful?
Something that I've noticed though is that I don't usually do much to introduce the song. We go into it, then maybe after the first time or second time I tell them where the artist is from so they don't think they're from Mexico (for speaking Spanish). But I don't do much with the song ahead of time.
So today I decided that the song would be Celos by Fanny Lú and I wanted to practice the idea of 'tiene celos' (He/she has jealousy ("is jealous"). I thought it would be a good way to prep the song and if we had extra time after the song we could continue a storyline or talk about the video and the story that we can infer from it. So I wrote that one the board and asked "¿Quién tiene celos?" (Who has jealousy?). I was met with confusion because I had promised a song and they knew THIS wasn't a song... oops. I told them "un momento" and continued. We got to develop little silly stories and associations so by that time I got to passing out the song, they understood as soon as they saw the title. I think this enriched the song more than before because now they had a context for the phrase and they also had personalized it into their class so we could talk about the crazy jealous woman and also talk about people in the class.
I think future implementation of this kind of TPRS introduction to a song will only further reinforce music day to make it better.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Día 37 - Take that, band trip!
So I teach in this miniscule school. Perhaps we could call it a minischool. Sure, I'm a language nerd. That's probably why I like teaching a language.
Often times in my minischool, there are trips that students take like the band will go somewhere. If it is a day like today, the students miss half or the whole day and I am left with less the half of my class. I used to think, ok, we'll do a game to review the information. I mean, why not? It would be great. One problem is that there are sometimes days when I have no idea that students will even be gone. So as a result, I am left coming up with a game at the last minute and we've wasted another day for nothing! The kids in the class could have learned something new that we could later throw into a story that would just give them a slight advantage over the other students.
This makes more sense to me. In previous years if half of the class showed up, I might not really do much of anything with the students because my lessons were prepared in such a way as to not do the same thing twice. It was my flaw in thinking and possibly apathy at the lack of desire on the students' part to learn from their attitudes on the days when half of the class is gone. But that's high school students.
They've obviously learned this from someone to come into my room when 2+ people are absent and tell me "We need a free day because we're missing a bunch of people." Well guess what? If I give them a free day, they don't know what to do with their time and they want to cause trouble. No no no. The best classroom management tool even when half the class is there is to continue teaching.
I think it also sets a dangerous precedent to the class when not everyone shows up and I don't continue teaching. It gives them the message that they are only important enough to teach when the whole class is there. I want them to learn every single day. With TPRS I am flexible enough to even come up with a story or do PQA (Personalized Questions and Answers).
But I want to give the message to my students that every day we can continue learning Spanish.
So today I did a Toma 2 (Take 2!) of my Dinosaur story from Friday. I had smaller class sizes and we had gotten about halfway through the short book. So I was able to circle while telling the story. But this time I had the students form a circle. It was more effective. Some students resisted a little but we were able to have comprehensible input and finish the story today. I have decided each day to try and focus on positive things about each student when possible and to let them know. Hopefully I can encourage them to do well from the positivity and it can spread throughout the whole school!
Often times in my minischool, there are trips that students take like the band will go somewhere. If it is a day like today, the students miss half or the whole day and I am left with less the half of my class. I used to think, ok, we'll do a game to review the information. I mean, why not? It would be great. One problem is that there are sometimes days when I have no idea that students will even be gone. So as a result, I am left coming up with a game at the last minute and we've wasted another day for nothing! The kids in the class could have learned something new that we could later throw into a story that would just give them a slight advantage over the other students.
This makes more sense to me. In previous years if half of the class showed up, I might not really do much of anything with the students because my lessons were prepared in such a way as to not do the same thing twice. It was my flaw in thinking and possibly apathy at the lack of desire on the students' part to learn from their attitudes on the days when half of the class is gone. But that's high school students.
They've obviously learned this from someone to come into my room when 2+ people are absent and tell me "We need a free day because we're missing a bunch of people." Well guess what? If I give them a free day, they don't know what to do with their time and they want to cause trouble. No no no. The best classroom management tool even when half the class is there is to continue teaching.
I think it also sets a dangerous precedent to the class when not everyone shows up and I don't continue teaching. It gives them the message that they are only important enough to teach when the whole class is there. I want them to learn every single day. With TPRS I am flexible enough to even come up with a story or do PQA (Personalized Questions and Answers).
But I want to give the message to my students that every day we can continue learning Spanish.
So today I did a Toma 2 (Take 2!) of my Dinosaur story from Friday. I had smaller class sizes and we had gotten about halfway through the short book. So I was able to circle while telling the story. But this time I had the students form a circle. It was more effective. Some students resisted a little but we were able to have comprehensible input and finish the story today. I have decided each day to try and focus on positive things about each student when possible and to let them know. Hopefully I can encourage them to do well from the positivity and it can spread throughout the whole school!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Día 23 - PQA
If I haven't explained PQA in depth very well, it's because I am not very good at this thing called TPRS quite yet. If I were to have been a pro already, I would have certainly mentioned PQA.
PQA stands for Personalized Questions and Answers.
I actually bought a book by Ben Slavic called PQA in a Wink. Since I was taking graduate classes all summer, I wasn't able to get into the reading and preparation for teaching TPRS until during the actual school year. So I am learning while doing.
But I digress. If you're curious about PQA and TPRS in general, you might read Ben Slavic's explanation in his blog on the Three Steps of TPRS.
At the beginning of class, when you want to teach a new story, you have your three structures that you want to use and you can use one of them in the present tense.
So today, I had the three structures from Blaine's story:
quería comer - he/she wanted to eat
sabía - he/she knew
le dijo - he/she told him/her
I started off with class asking in the present tense (because those phrases are in the past), "¿Quién quiere comer?" (Who wants to eat?)
Well if you've taught high school before, you should know that high school students are always hungry. So I had some students suggest some things. We talked about how they wanted to eat steak, salad, and then I asked who wanted to eat 'chocolate'. I wanted to kind of follow Blaine's story since this is my first year. In the story a girl wants to eat chocolate from a place but there is none.
And after the 5-10 minutes of PQA, we were able to start the story and I went into the past tense. I could easily start off the story as in previous stories but now add the new phrase in the past tense. It was seamless. Students could go from the present to the past tense in their heads without any problem.
For whatever reason, I have not done this. Instead, I usually ask for a volunteer and then start creating a story instead of seeing who will play along with me beforehand and that's how they can get into the story. This makes more sense and you get to practice the present and the past tense of a structure during class. Not to mention that in the rest of the story, you can refer to the other things that the other students said to compare and contrast with your main character.
It's great for establishing potential parallel story lines before you're even storytelling.
Now this is one of the ways to do PQA in class. As Ben Slavic says in his blog entry, some teachers would rather just use PQA during the entire class because you're just talking with your students and practicing the language.
A positive for PQA is that it can help you warm up a little as a class without jumping into asking the whole class for details too soon.
PQA stands for Personalized Questions and Answers.
I actually bought a book by Ben Slavic called PQA in a Wink. Since I was taking graduate classes all summer, I wasn't able to get into the reading and preparation for teaching TPRS until during the actual school year. So I am learning while doing.
But I digress. If you're curious about PQA and TPRS in general, you might read Ben Slavic's explanation in his blog on the Three Steps of TPRS.
At the beginning of class, when you want to teach a new story, you have your three structures that you want to use and you can use one of them in the present tense.
So today, I had the three structures from Blaine's story:
quería comer - he/she wanted to eat
sabía - he/she knew
le dijo - he/she told him/her
I started off with class asking in the present tense (because those phrases are in the past), "¿Quién quiere comer?" (Who wants to eat?)
Well if you've taught high school before, you should know that high school students are always hungry. So I had some students suggest some things. We talked about how they wanted to eat steak, salad, and then I asked who wanted to eat 'chocolate'. I wanted to kind of follow Blaine's story since this is my first year. In the story a girl wants to eat chocolate from a place but there is none.
And after the 5-10 minutes of PQA, we were able to start the story and I went into the past tense. I could easily start off the story as in previous stories but now add the new phrase in the past tense. It was seamless. Students could go from the present to the past tense in their heads without any problem.
For whatever reason, I have not done this. Instead, I usually ask for a volunteer and then start creating a story instead of seeing who will play along with me beforehand and that's how they can get into the story. This makes more sense and you get to practice the present and the past tense of a structure during class. Not to mention that in the rest of the story, you can refer to the other things that the other students said to compare and contrast with your main character.
It's great for establishing potential parallel story lines before you're even storytelling.
Now this is one of the ways to do PQA in class. As Ben Slavic says in his blog entry, some teachers would rather just use PQA during the entire class because you're just talking with your students and practicing the language.
A positive for PQA is that it can help you warm up a little as a class without jumping into asking the whole class for details too soon.
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