Unstructured language time and pushing i + 1

While you might feel inclined to judge me for the following and think: "gasp, what a waste of time, he's such a horrible teacher!" please bear with me.

Something that I generally do after my kids learn how to talk about basic feelings and emotions through storytelling is to ask them as a class or as individuals (and to pop-up why I used "están" instead of "estás" for the group or why I used "estás" for one person, and they why I need "estoy")

At first it's really basic. The students would just say how they were doing and I might recast it for the class. If they weren't good or bad, I might ask a follow-up question or two.  If they were happy, I would ask why and I always give the options: "Por qué" (why?) or "no importa" (it doesn't matter).  It was a way for kids to talk about themselves a little bit. I rarely correct their language because communication is key.

I have noticed sometimes they help one another out (if someone says "you are" another might help and say "I am"). I don't ever squash this because I can tell it is in the spirit of kindness.

If they don't cooperate (but there is still a warmth in class), I might occasionally have someone's job be to draw names randomly with sticks (or I do it).

As the activity grows, my students might get a bonus for asking me, "What about you?" (¿y tú / usted?). Then I can throw in some i + 1.

But lately in the year, my "lesson plans" seems to get put on the back-burner as the students become more of a family. My asking them how they are doing might end there, but I don't try to let myself. If they tell me that they tired or sick, I might ask them why. Were they on their phone? Does their throat hurt? Did they not sleep enough last night? (Can we have a class competition to see who slept the least?).

I have noticed that this can take a lot longer than I ever have planned. Sometimes my kids can do this for a long time. I might have them get up and brain break, but it just feels like we're hanging out in the language.

I've noticed that the problem here is I can't model very well the form for them to use. It's all conversational. So maybe I should try to assist by asking the class more often, "They want to say ___. How can we say that?" And if the class knows, write it on the board and applaud them for their cleverness. If they don't, let them know by writing it on the board.

Regardless of how poorly I might do this activity, this is single-handedly one of the things that I think many of my former students really appreciate about my class. We find our personality as a class through the inside jokes we learn about during those informal chats. While they might never turn into stories, it's just that hanging out in the language and completely wanting to know about my kids. It's also a great way to learn about brother, sister, mother, father, grandfather, cousins in context when it matters to them.

I hear from former students (and others who have only heard from friends who had me) that one of the best parts of my class is how much I interact with the kids in the language instead of just giving them work to do.

While we might not "accomplish" as much in some of my formal lesson plans, what's really better for the kids than hanging out in the language with them and pushing their understanding by i + 1?

Next year, I am going to be at a new school and I am excited to be able to try out Bryce Hedstrom's Persona Especial activity.  I think it will help establish a similar expectation in my class that the students are most important and that we learn about each other because we matter.

TPRS year 5 - Preferred Activity Time (revised)

Last year, I dabbled in what is called PAT (Preferred Activity Time).  See previous posts about it:

1. PAT - first try
2. PAT - explanation
3. PAT - Cut Throat
4. PAT - Caramba

This year, while I found that many of my students looked forward to PAT, it wasn't quite where I wanted it yet.  After all, the purpose of PAT is classroom management and I don't know how well I really managed my classroom last year.

Here's what I started doing this year...

1. I have changed the multiplier due to bonuses that every 15 minutes in Spanish equals 1 minute of PAT (for 90 minute classes, this adds up).

2. I have really started giving out more jobs to the students in class this year:

• Scribe (with official class notebook)
• passer out of nametags / collector of nametags
• someone to yell at me when I use too much English
• people to pass out papers before quizzes
• someone to decide on options so we can move on
• official PAT watch keeper who yells something when we get to 15 minute mark and class cheers (so I can write it on the board)

These generate bonuses.  When class runs smoothly and I don't have to do a million things extra and can focus on teaching, we accomplish more and it gives students a purpose in class, which I want them to have since they are important!  

So the bonuses range from 15 seconds to 30 seconds extra for students remembering.  This definitely encourages the class because they are already seeing me praise the people for doing their jobs, but also letting them know that's helping the entire class.

I also give bonuses for when students are positive about something in class.  When I ask them to stand or sit and they are just "blah", I give them a PAT bonus for the effort.

Since today I started allowing someone else to time the Spanish spoken, I don't pause the timer when I lose eyes, but I told the class I would just mark in their PAT box on the board and each mark represents 5 seconds they lose (they never will go negative for PAT since they always have plenty of bonuses).  But the idea is to hold them accountable to their eye-contact and attention.

So far with the PAT and positive atmosphere in class (since I am trying to be really encouraging with PAT), I think my classes are really working hard and enjoying coming to Spanish!  I hope we can keep this energy and enthusiasm up!