TPRS year 3 - new school next year

I found myself on the last full day of school cracking up and having a great time with my Spanish students.  The best part, I wasn't teaching.  I had a guest come and teach my classes with his version of TPRS and CI.  

My kids were able to kind of see someone else's teaching as well as show off all that they had learned this year in Spanish.

I sat in the back and cracked up.  They were clever, funny, interested.

But it was bittersweet.  These students I have invested in all year (some for two years), weren't happy with me as I told them how great the year has been and how much I have appreciated being their teacher this year.  That many times although we've been learning Spanish together, I feel like at times, it was like we were just hanging out (intentionally though while still learning).

Nevertheless, I would take my fond memories of them as I embarked on a journey with my family to a new place.  I'll be teaching in the KC area this next year and I'll be teaching in a school that is traditional in their Spanish instruction.  But the teachers have seemed open to what I do and would like to see it implemented.  I am very excited about this opportunity to possibly win over some other teachers to TPRS and CI.  

But I will greatly miss my students and the opportunity to continue investing in them and teaching them to see their growth as individuals as well as students of Spanish.

I think that's the difference in the TPRS and CI for me.

I used to teach in terms of lessons.  We would go over the lesson and then they would have practice worksheets and I would go back to my desk because my job had been done.  It was as if I created this wall of "now it's my time."

I got to know some of the students but all of the talking about THEM was usually in English on the lower levels and in Spanish 3, they still were very shy about speaking.

By the time I did TPRS and CI, I just saw this whole change in my understanding of how to teach and what it is to be a teacher.  I got to know my kids a lot better, their successes, their fears, their struggles, and most of it in Spanish.  

I would say that's why it will be even harder to leave my school.  I got to know the kids better these past two years, and their quirky personalities.  I took down my wall with TPRS.

TPRS year 3 - going back to the book!

This is my third year implementing TPRS in my classroom.  Previously I taught for about 4 years with traditional isntruction slowly moving farther and farther away from the textbook.  I find that even with teaching Spanish "traditionally", the textbook is horrible.

When I found TPRS, I had this moment of "this is it" ("This is what I have wanted to do with my students but didn't know I was allowed!").  So I tried it for two years and noticed quite a few things about my students.  To name a few, they:

1. spoke more Spanish outside of class
2. spoke more Spanish in class
3. enjoyed class (more than before)
4. could write more in Spanish
5. could create more novel (original) sentences in Spanish to express themselves

But the other day one of my Spanish one classes, the students simply weren't doing their job. Since the first week or so I've explained my expectations to them.  I borrowed them from Ben Slavic's site basically and will probably slowly hone them as time goes on.   Basically they are required to sit up straight, offer ideas in class, allow others to talk without having to raise their hands and listen to others' ideas all the while avoiding English. 

My job is to go slow, point, make gestures, use the students' ideas to make class interesting and anything else that can make what I am saying comprehensible.  

I can honestly say in one class I was doing my job.  I was going slow, pointing, even jumping up and down with a smile on my face.  The class was completely quiet.  There was no laughter, there was no one enjoying himself or herself.  They weren't making class more enjoyable.

Now you might be thinking (as my wife said to me):  Wait a minute!  You are complaining because your students were all sitting down, doing nothing to distract one another and were quiet.  That sounds like the dream class!  

If you're thinking that you're missing something vital (like my students).  They weren't engaged.  They weren't making the lesson interesting to themselves.  I (left to my own devices) will bore the class.  I need them to add things that are interesting to them.  I need them to interact with me during class so we can create something meaningful.  

I reminded them of my expectations and told them that I was very disappointed.  I need them to help me make class fun.  I do recognize retrospectively that we all have bad days, even classes.  But I wanted this class to understand how much of it was their job to make sure class was enjoyable.

The following day, I decided to have the Spanish 1 textbooks underneath every desk.  At the beginning of that class, I explained that every day with me is a new day.  If they have a bad day, I understand we all do and I can forgive them of that.  However, the previous day I was very disappointed by what happened (or didn't happen) in class and I wanted to let them know that if they didn't like how I taught, then they did have another option.  I told them to get the books from underneath their desks because we would be doing a lesson out of the book.  I then proceeded to give them a lesson about the Spanish language through the textbook  We talked about standard greetings, tú and usted with some practice pages.  I thought they might stop me but they were very well behaved during this time actually.  After about 30 minutes of lecture-style instruction, I was getting ready to give them their pages of homework practice.  As I was doing that, one student asked me if we could go back to how things were.

This prompted a discussion that the class pretty much lead about what we should do.  I explained they had both options and I would be fine with either because I used to teach via the textbook.  They unanimously chose storytelling.  They explained why they chose it with arguments like, "Class is more fun.", "We learn more in class!", "Class before was more engaging!", etc.  I explained then to them that if we were to go back to storytelling, they must remember my expectations of them.  

They listed those off for me and came to the conclusion that they would do it.  I think this was an important class period for that class because they were able to choose their learning style as a class and determine which was better for their brains and learning.

Día 58 - ESL class

So last night I started a weekly ESL (English as a Second Language) class with some Spanish speakers that I know.  I was curious how it would go since the levels all varied.  The levels varied from advanced to beginner.  I had six students and hope more come next week as well because the class is so much fun with more people and more ideas.

I tried out the Blaine Ray Materials: Look I can Talk.  It cost about $50 I think for the teacher's book and the student book.  It turns out that they structures are basically like the Spanish ones only translated.  So I could have saved 50 dollars.  But that's ok.  It's an investment in the lives of these people, many of them that have become special in my life in the last few years.

The class is once a week for two hours due to busy schedules.  In the first hour we have a one hour oral portion where we tell a story in the past tense.  Then we take a break and have a one hour reading session in the present tense.

Part 1:
Because you focus on structures in TPRS, we started with the following three structures:
  There was a boy.
  He wanted to have

  He liked and went ___.

After lots of circling and adding details, it became...

 There was a boy. The boy's name was Carlos.  Carlos wanted to have two small cats. Carlos lived in Washington. There were no small cats in Washington. Carlos went to Missouri. There were small cats and big cats in Missouri. Carlos was happy.
 
(parallel story)
Alicia was in Missouri.  Alicia wanted to have 10 expensive dresses.


Part 2:
In the second hour, we had the reading in the present tense which was very similar to the spoken story.  The students did a great job of adapting from one tense to the other.  Even the beginners were doing a pretty good job of following.  When we finished everyone seemed to be very confident that the lesson was interesting and a success.


Reflection:

• Since I teach Jr High and High School every day, the dynamic really surprised me.  The people wanted to learn English.  They realized the need and I was helping them.  Unlike my students just wanting to have fun, the adults diligently took notes on the ways I asked questions and were very attentive.  They asked lots of questions and were very engaged. 
  
• I was a little nervous because I do not have to think much about my native language but I thankfully remembered before teaching that 'Did' makes a question in the past tense.  So I wrote 'Did' on the board and explained that we use it in English to make a question.  Later I clarified that 'Does' is for the present tense to make a question
• The levels were mixed but the beginners were able to hear the language from others in the class and I made sure to go very slowly and to point.  I felt confident about my pointing and circling enough.  I might have circled too much, but some of the beginners needed that input
• I'm excited for the class to continue.  I get nervous before teaching a new lesson but they're so fun once you get started and it doesn't feel like teaching when TPRS is done right.  It just feels like you're hanging out with the group