*Disclaimer* I am very grateful for the Blaine Ray workshops that I have attended and for the TPRS method in general that he adapted from TPR. I am indebted to him for helping me transform my classroom into a place where we can explore themes, topics, etc in the target language and where there is so much more laughter and genuine interest than ever before. The following are my opinions on his new teacher's guide: Look I Can Talk, which was published in 2015. And I continue to wish Blaine Ray and his company great success!
I recently bought the newest edition of the Blaine Ray Look I Can Talk book (May 2015) thinking that I could finally have something to follow and do a little bit of auto-piloting with my lesson planning instead of coming up with my own stories and/or scouring other people's books/blogs for storytelling. First semester, we got through about 4 or so of the stories in addition to other activities (PQA, TPR, etc) and reading Agentes Secretos.
This semester, I looked at the up-and-coming stories and wondered where all of the funny and interesting story-lines have gone!
I'm finding myself nostalgic for the sillier story-lines from the edition I used to use (June 2006). I guess a lot has changed in 9 years of TPRS.
I know that for some, TPRS is equated to "just telling wacky stories to students". And the discredit the method because (1) they aren't wacky or (2) the wackiness detracts from their perception of the methods professionalism and efficacy. So maybe Blaine Ray's company has decided to put out a book that is more friendly to less goofy personality types to give more seriousness to the method. And also to align with textbooks and traditionally accepted curriculum more.
But in my experiences the wacky helps things stay compelling and unpredictable. It also helps us reduce the affective filter by creating laughter in the classroom.
For example, in the 2006 edition, one of the story-lines is that a person thinks they are a gorilla and go to various doctors. Finally one gorilla expert tells them that real gorillas have "__". Then they go to another doctor who gives them "__". It was silly and lighthearted and dealt with high frequency stuff. In the embedded reading, a teacher could add more doctor/patient vocabulary as needed.
Granted, not every story has to be a side-splitting tale, because each class is different. Most of the stories in the new edition give very little to the imagination. They are just about kids wanting xboxs, videogames or iphones. Each story from what I can see so far follows the exact same formula and revolves around what technology the kids want/have, I find that materialism has tried to butt its head into my curriculum. Whatever happened to the girl who wanted white chocolate (to practice colors and food) or the boy who wanted a bed between two animals?
I am not here to tell you whether to buy it or not, as we quite possibly have different personalities and priorities in our classrooms. But I had to ask myself the following question last night as I determined what I was going to do this semester for storytelling: If I am not excited about the story lines (because they are goofy/silly/quirky), how can I possibly get my kids excited about them?
And with the new LICT, I personally am not finding myself very excited about teaching the stories.
*Edit* Yet upon more reflection, maybe those storylines from the new edition are what have helped my students to better than ever before use the first / second person forms of the verbs.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Thursday, October 30, 2014
TPRS year 5 - speed dating and Agentes Secretos
Something I was trying to do with my Spanish 1's to help them read Agentes Secretos y el mural de Picasso was an activity I got from a presentation at FLAM a few weeks ago.
The presenter mentioned "speed-dating". And instead of talking about themselves, the characters talk about the topic for 1-2 minutes and then switch. This way they can get another pass of the information from a chapter or a concept and when we change to another person, we can change the information we ask of them.
It also brings movement and interaction into the classroom, which are so necessary in a block class or for a rainy day (or chilly cloudy day in October).
I numbered my students off (1-15 twice), told them to form two lines in order. I explained they were going to talk about Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Paula, Luis, Los agentes secretos, etc and they had two minutes.
I didn't want to hear English. I only wanted to hear Spanish. Their pronunciation wasn't the most important part (gasp) because they were interacting with the text, and I think for some this made them aware of their shortcomings in pronunciation of a word so maybe they will listen more for that word later.
They were allowed to have their books as a security blanket. Some kids read the information from the chapter (but they had to find the important information about the characters or plot).
Not a bad activity! I might have to bring it in every once in awhile. Definitely not bad for a 10 minute chunk in the middle of class or for another pass of the chapter in a completely different way.
For some 2:00 was an eternity. But for others, it was about right. They usually opted after the first round to do 1:30.
My mind is thinking about the other possibilities for this type of activity...
The presenter mentioned "speed-dating". And instead of talking about themselves, the characters talk about the topic for 1-2 minutes and then switch. This way they can get another pass of the information from a chapter or a concept and when we change to another person, we can change the information we ask of them.
It also brings movement and interaction into the classroom, which are so necessary in a block class or for a rainy day (or chilly cloudy day in October).
I numbered my students off (1-15 twice), told them to form two lines in order. I explained they were going to talk about Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Paula, Luis, Los agentes secretos, etc and they had two minutes.
I didn't want to hear English. I only wanted to hear Spanish. Their pronunciation wasn't the most important part (gasp) because they were interacting with the text, and I think for some this made them aware of their shortcomings in pronunciation of a word so maybe they will listen more for that word later.
They were allowed to have their books as a security blanket. Some kids read the information from the chapter (but they had to find the important information about the characters or plot).
Not a bad activity! I might have to bring it in every once in awhile. Definitely not bad for a 10 minute chunk in the middle of class or for another pass of the chapter in a completely different way.
For some 2:00 was an eternity. But for others, it was about right. They usually opted after the first round to do 1:30.
My mind is thinking about the other possibilities for this type of activity...
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, May 27, 2013
TPRS year 3 - Piratas(book) - assessment and reflection
My Spanish 1 classes and I read through Piratas del Caribe y el mapa secreto by Mira Canion this last quarter for our final book of the year.
Each week we would read a chapter (or two). As needed we would do a spoken story that might practice some of the structures that we would later find in the chapter. The driving force behind reading the books this year in class was to make sure that the students could find success. While I could have chosen books that would have been much more challenging to them, I think it was crucial to make sure that the books were mostly comprehensible by the time we read them with maybe a few words or things that weren't. I find this important because when I first started reading in Spanish, it was way too difficult in classes because my teachers had an inflated sense of "the students should know this by this point." I was one of the better students and found reading way too difficult in Spanish 4. As teachers we should be helping our kids to find success so they might find more fulfillment in the future.
In addition to pre-teaching the necessary structures and vocabulary, I also would create animated PowerPoints of certain scenes in the book while we were reading it. I also created backgrounds and we would act out the chapters a day or so after reading them. This was also to create an additional pass of the material, and to make sure students would be able to visualize some of the action in the book.
By the time we finished the book, I wanted to assess my kids. The test that Joe and I came up with was a bit of a beast. I think we jokingly referred to it as the "Kraken" at some point while writing it. When my kids took it, although they told me it was reasonable and not necessarily difficult, it was simply longer than many could do within one class.
What I liked about it was we tried to incorporate many different types of questions on the test to make sure our students understood it.
In my favorite section, I made animated slides of scenes from the book and the students had to write a sentence or more explaining the scene in Spanish. It was neat. It also helped me see deficiencies in their acquisition of certain structures.
Another section was multiple choice of the basic plot points of the book (all in Spanish). There was a section of quotes from the book from the main characters, true / false, and some short answer questions.
The neatest part about the whole test (and the previous test about the book Agentes Secretos y el mural de Picasso) was that the questions were in Spanish. My students had to understand enough Spanish to be able to perform on the test and answer the questions. Most kids did quite well! Maybe two of all of my students did very poorly (60%). There were many interruptions during this book though due to track, baseball, field trips, etc.
Reflection
The Good (went well)
Each week we would read a chapter (or two). As needed we would do a spoken story that might practice some of the structures that we would later find in the chapter. The driving force behind reading the books this year in class was to make sure that the students could find success. While I could have chosen books that would have been much more challenging to them, I think it was crucial to make sure that the books were mostly comprehensible by the time we read them with maybe a few words or things that weren't. I find this important because when I first started reading in Spanish, it was way too difficult in classes because my teachers had an inflated sense of "the students should know this by this point." I was one of the better students and found reading way too difficult in Spanish 4. As teachers we should be helping our kids to find success so they might find more fulfillment in the future.
In addition to pre-teaching the necessary structures and vocabulary, I also would create animated PowerPoints of certain scenes in the book while we were reading it. I also created backgrounds and we would act out the chapters a day or so after reading them. This was also to create an additional pass of the material, and to make sure students would be able to visualize some of the action in the book.
By the time we finished the book, I wanted to assess my kids. The test that Joe and I came up with was a bit of a beast. I think we jokingly referred to it as the "Kraken" at some point while writing it. When my kids took it, although they told me it was reasonable and not necessarily difficult, it was simply longer than many could do within one class.
What I liked about it was we tried to incorporate many different types of questions on the test to make sure our students understood it.
In my favorite section, I made animated slides of scenes from the book and the students had to write a sentence or more explaining the scene in Spanish. It was neat. It also helped me see deficiencies in their acquisition of certain structures.
Another section was multiple choice of the basic plot points of the book (all in Spanish). There was a section of quotes from the book from the main characters, true / false, and some short answer questions.
The neatest part about the whole test (and the previous test about the book Agentes Secretos y el mural de Picasso) was that the questions were in Spanish. My students had to understand enough Spanish to be able to perform on the test and answer the questions. Most kids did quite well! Maybe two of all of my students did very poorly (60%). There were many interruptions during this book though due to track, baseball, field trips, etc.
Reflection
The Good (went well)
- I thought the book was a success for the first year trying it
- I was able to do things in this book that I didn't do with the first one; my students responded more favorably to this one
- I was very proud of the test
- the fact that many of my students came to class and were ok with reading once/twice a week IN SPANISH was great
- the Hollywood days were some of the kids favorite days (they told me later)
- my kids were learning Spanish this year to be successful enough to be able to read most of the book
- I felt like I was more creative with this unit than I have been in awhile in my teaching; I was able to use many of my talents to make the book/characters more accessible to my students
- I had the Native Speakers and Heritage Speakers read the chapters while the class translated. This was great since sometimes I have to ask my Native Speakers and Heritage speakers to not answer questions or count to 5 before answering in Spanish. I think it helped them feel more useful and special!
The Bad (needs improvement)
- the 10 week unit seemed a bit daunting at times. I am not sure how some TPRS teachers can squeeze in 3-4 books a year.
- some kids didn't like how long the book took as a result of the 10 week unit
- I would like to do some pirate-based stuff in addition like I saw from a FLAM presentation this last fall (examples were in German though)
- didn't create a lot of opportunities for higher thinking questions
- I do a lot of comprehension checks/questions. I don't do a lot of "what would you do"
- some kids hated the first pass (translation);
- could we break up in reading groups sometimes too
If you would like to see any of the activities I used for this unit, please let me know (jeremy(at)senorjordan.com)!
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
TPRS Year 3 - Piratas - Chapter 2
For my Spanish 1 & 2 classes this year, we're easing into the novels. I didn't even bother with novels last year as my second year after my paradigm shift from grammar to TPRS, but this year, I thought it would be worth a shot.
So we're in the second novel of the year for Spanish 1: Piratas del Caribe y el mapa secreto by Mira Canion. Next year, my Spanish 2 and Spanish 3 classes will read some other (increasingly difficult books). It's definitely exciting.
I noticed that Chapter two of Piratas was incredibly long though. It is around 900 words. Granted, some of my embedded readings this year in Spanish have gotten up to around 700 words or so (which is a lot to read in a class period!), but 900 is even more so. We read the chapter on Friday and went over what it was talking about. I showed some pictures of the map and explained the separation plan. But I didn't come away from the classes feeling like my students were able to digest the chapter very well. So today, I wanted to revisit chapter two so that we could move onto chapter three. I also wanted to try a different technique. The worst that could happen is they still wouldn't understand every little part of the chapter. The best is that they could understand the chapter better.
So here's what I did:
1. I prepared some backgrounds on a PowerPoint (pirate ship, captain's cabin, open sea, Cuban beach, countryside, market)
2. Then I took the mp3 chapters from audio book and cut them up into more digestible chunks of text to work with.
3. I got the actors up in the front and we acted out the chunks and they would move their mouth with the mp3 of the characters saying the lines. Then we might have to do the scene over and I'd have someone jump in and say, "Toma #, ¡Acción!" ("Take __, Action!")
4. The props helped make it as well to add more to the illusion and the backgrounds
5. My actors also were willing to do all that I asked, including pretending to be in a canoe all rowing together and then getting out of the canoe at the beach.
6. during the chapter I was able to ask some comprehension level questions because there was much higher energy with the actors than other reading days
7. Some students even told me we should do other chapters like that. As long as they have action, I am ok with it.
Conclusion:
Not too bad. I think we will do it for the future chapters when necessary. It saves me the time of making animations. And this gets the kids into it more and is simply more fun.
I also think that so far for the book, this is a good start. I'll keep beefing up the unit each year though (with more activities to choose from and props to get into the story with).
So we're in the second novel of the year for Spanish 1: Piratas del Caribe y el mapa secreto by Mira Canion. Next year, my Spanish 2 and Spanish 3 classes will read some other (increasingly difficult books). It's definitely exciting.
 |
| my props for the acting today (woman's scarf, cashier apron, two pistols, cardboard pirate hats, cell-phone, "silver" and fake map.) |
I noticed that Chapter two of Piratas was incredibly long though. It is around 900 words. Granted, some of my embedded readings this year in Spanish have gotten up to around 700 words or so (which is a lot to read in a class period!), but 900 is even more so. We read the chapter on Friday and went over what it was talking about. I showed some pictures of the map and explained the separation plan. But I didn't come away from the classes feeling like my students were able to digest the chapter very well. So today, I wanted to revisit chapter two so that we could move onto chapter three. I also wanted to try a different technique. The worst that could happen is they still wouldn't understand every little part of the chapter. The best is that they could understand the chapter better.
So here's what I did:
1. I prepared some backgrounds on a PowerPoint (pirate ship, captain's cabin, open sea, Cuban beach, countryside, market)
2. Then I took the mp3 chapters from audio book and cut them up into more digestible chunks of text to work with.
3. I got the actors up in the front and we acted out the chunks and they would move their mouth with the mp3 of the characters saying the lines. Then we might have to do the scene over and I'd have someone jump in and say, "Toma #, ¡Acción!" ("Take __, Action!")
4. The props helped make it as well to add more to the illusion and the backgrounds
5. My actors also were willing to do all that I asked, including pretending to be in a canoe all rowing together and then getting out of the canoe at the beach.
6. during the chapter I was able to ask some comprehension level questions because there was much higher energy with the actors than other reading days
7. Some students even told me we should do other chapters like that. As long as they have action, I am ok with it.
Conclusion:
Not too bad. I think we will do it for the future chapters when necessary. It saves me the time of making animations. And this gets the kids into it more and is simply more fun.
I also think that so far for the book, this is a good start. I'll keep beefing up the unit each year though (with more activities to choose from and props to get into the story with).
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Día 100 - Children's books
Ever since I was first studying Spanish in college, I remember that my favorite section in Border's was the little kid's section of books because they had Spanish books for kids! It was there I bought the book: Un dinosaurio en peligro ("A dinosaur in danger") that I talked about a little bit in this entry. It's a great little book.
So I slowly started acquiring children's books in Spanish as I went throughout college and the farther I have gotten, the larger my collection has gotten. I currently have over 50 (easily) and a student gave me a small bookshelf that she didn't need anymore because I didn't have a place for my children's books!
Sufficed to say I get pretty excited about them. I actually modeled an activity with my classes one day because I really want to have a great time with them in Spanish, but I would like to help build their enjoyment of reading in Spanish through children's books for now and slowly we can move into chapter books.
One day last semester (before I was going to be absent), I had the kids pick out a book from the many that I had from a series. On amazon.com I found a series of books that I really like and they're somewhat cheap and they have differing levels from Lightning Readers. Some of the ones I really like are Manchita la vaquita torpe, La tortuga tonta, and El planeta de dinosaurios. But there are so many.
So I took all the different levels of those Lightning Readers that I had (20 or so) and I put them on a desk and had directions on the transparency for the students to get a book and on a piece of paper:
1) write their name
2) write the title of the book
3) write a short (2-3+ sentence) summary of the book
4) write down 5 words they recognized with the meaning and 5 new words they had to look up with the meaning.
The books range in level of difficulty. But I just thought it would be neat for them and the pictures would help them figure out the meaning as well. So that day we read a book and I gave them 20 minutes to complete the activity and then we did something else.
Then on sub days, I have this assigned to them and they have to complete 2 books and turn their paper in before they leave. It has worked well for the high school students. It's also good because they know what to expect and they have something they can accomplish without me in class.
Some teachers have them perform previous TPRS stories for the sub. I like this idea but haven't tried it yet. For now, I am ok with the readings since I have smaller class sizes and my students (although more comfortable than any years before) aren't as comfortable yet with the language.
If you are a foreign language teacher and have the resources, I recommend trying to buy even 1-2 children's books a month to slowly up your arsenal. They can be a great activity by themselves. Sometimes if not a lot of kids show up or my plan has flopped, I'll read them one of my favorite children's books from my collection and they gather in a circle and we can talk about the pictures and different things. We might shift the conversation onto the students and talk about them. But it's a lesson plan by itself.
So I slowly started acquiring children's books in Spanish as I went throughout college and the farther I have gotten, the larger my collection has gotten. I currently have over 50 (easily) and a student gave me a small bookshelf that she didn't need anymore because I didn't have a place for my children's books!
Sufficed to say I get pretty excited about them. I actually modeled an activity with my classes one day because I really want to have a great time with them in Spanish, but I would like to help build their enjoyment of reading in Spanish through children's books for now and slowly we can move into chapter books.
One day last semester (before I was going to be absent), I had the kids pick out a book from the many that I had from a series. On amazon.com I found a series of books that I really like and they're somewhat cheap and they have differing levels from Lightning Readers. Some of the ones I really like are Manchita la vaquita torpe, La tortuga tonta, and El planeta de dinosaurios. But there are so many.
So I took all the different levels of those Lightning Readers that I had (20 or so) and I put them on a desk and had directions on the transparency for the students to get a book and on a piece of paper:
1) write their name
2) write the title of the book
3) write a short (2-3+ sentence) summary of the book
4) write down 5 words they recognized with the meaning and 5 new words they had to look up with the meaning.
The books range in level of difficulty. But I just thought it would be neat for them and the pictures would help them figure out the meaning as well. So that day we read a book and I gave them 20 minutes to complete the activity and then we did something else.
Then on sub days, I have this assigned to them and they have to complete 2 books and turn their paper in before they leave. It has worked well for the high school students. It's also good because they know what to expect and they have something they can accomplish without me in class.
Some teachers have them perform previous TPRS stories for the sub. I like this idea but haven't tried it yet. For now, I am ok with the readings since I have smaller class sizes and my students (although more comfortable than any years before) aren't as comfortable yet with the language.
If you are a foreign language teacher and have the resources, I recommend trying to buy even 1-2 children's books a month to slowly up your arsenal. They can be a great activity by themselves. Sometimes if not a lot of kids show up or my plan has flopped, I'll read them one of my favorite children's books from my collection and they gather in a circle and we can talk about the pictures and different things. We might shift the conversation onto the students and talk about them. But it's a lesson plan by itself.
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