So this next year, another teacher and I decided that we should really work a lot more with the readings in teaching through TPRS since increasing the students' literacy is what will really help them acquire the language much better than anything else.
There are all sorts of TPRS novels that use 200 or so high frequency words or less.
We decided to choose a few novels for each level and then teach backwards and determine the structures in each novel that we should then teach to the students so by the time we read the novels, the students will feel more like it's easy to read. I think this will also help me not feel like I am just taking random structures and teaching them just because. It will help me have more of a sense of purpose to my teaching with TPRS.
The first two years I worked with TPRS, I really was working more on the form such as: circling, PQA, going slow, teaching to the eyes, and other things mentioned in TPRS workshops as well as Ben Slavic's books.
But this last year I really felt as though I hadn't done an adequate enough job of getting my students about to read a novel. So this year we'll work harder on getting to that goal.
This also coincides nicely with something my school wanted to encourage with the Native / Heritage Spanish speakers. There are some who know Spanish and had to learn English after immigrating to the US that never were able to learn how to understand what they read in grade school. By the time they get to high school, this skill has become more and more necessary in classes. So if I can help the Native / Heritage speakers to read in Spanish and work on things like talking about the main character and plot points, etc, then this will also help them in their English (Literature) classes as well as other classes where synthesizing information that has been read is an integral part of the class.
I'll be slowly charting out my plan(s) for the year as I figure them out. I recently ordered about $90 worth of TPRS novels from tprspublishing... hopefully I can find some to plan with.
Showing posts with label literacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label literacy. Show all posts
Thursday, July 12, 2012
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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