TPRS / CI and Block Scheduling

*Note: Someone recently emailed me a question about using Block Scheduling. I am no expert, but I found out how to make it work for me during the 3 years that I taught on the block. Here are some ideas that hopefully are helpful below.*

A few years ago I was forced (against my will) to teach on A/B block scheduling when I was hired at a new school. I was forced because it was a bomb dropped on me after I accepted the job (if I remember things correctly). I didn't even know to ask that question in the interview! Oops!

The way that block scheduling worked at that school was 90 minute periods, 4 a day. One day was A, then next day B. Early dismissal Wednesdays A or B alternated each week. So if there were no interruptions whatsoever, then in a two week cycle, I would see each class 5 times total. (One week Monday, Wednesday, Friday and then the next week Tuesday and Thursday).

When I first started it, I hated it. Then after I left it, I sort of missed it because I could more easily see the benefits (that I was able to get out of it). Although I still believe that every day instruction is better for acquiring language (shorter more often) than a big chunk every two days.

Reflection - Former students

So this is my third year in school (year 10 teaching) and I have definitely come a long way since I started teaching Spanish.  I used to use textbooks that were slightly older than me. Then I tried a year with a newer textbook.  Then I tried a year or two without a textbook.  Then, I found storytelling and haven't looked back!

But in my third year, I have had a lot of students now and many of them have had exposure to my teaching and another Spanish teacher as well.  I taught Spanish 1-2 the past two years and I'm only teaching Spanish 1 this year.

I know that what I do in my classes can be slightly unorthodox for other teachers, even teachers in my department. And they teach their classes differently from me (I'm not saying people have to teach like me).  But there are times I tell my wife that I feel like I am crazy.  Here's what I believe:

1. I believe that TPRS is a really awesome way to deliver instruction
2. I believe that TPRS is great for my classroom management
3. I believe that TPR is a great tool to get the kids up and moving in class
4. I believe that incorporating music whenever possible (in a comprehensible way) is huge for my students
5. I believe that talking about my students in Spanish through stories, PQA, etc sets the tone for my classes that they will be about my students
6. I believe that going slow and looking for my students' eyes to check for their understanding is crucial to their learning
7. I believe that shaking my students' hands as they walk in and saying "buenos días", "hola" or whatever else, and slowly adding more conversational vocab as they walk in establishes the tone that you're entering the Spanish zone!
8. I believe that other activities under the umbrella of Comprehensible Input (CI) are also wonderful additions to the classroom.
9. I believe that I should do my best to speak 90% of class in Spanish in a repetitive, comprehensible and interesting way to ensure my students will acquire the language 
10. I believe that explicit grammar instruction has a smaller place in my classroom than it used to so I can teach them through using the language correctly
11. I believe that what I do is making a difference in their lives

These aren't all popular opinions in a foreign language classroom.  I've been called a maverick by an administrator at one point.  I've gotten myself into trouble with my fellow department members because I strongly believe the aforementioned items are crucial to my class for students' success (regardless of level).

But I digress.  Recently, I have had a lot of former students visit me and tell me how much my class meant to them and how much they miss it.  It's meant a lot because I give so much of myself in the school year to ensure class is a positive place where we can laugh and learn in a low stress way.  And it further affirms that all of the hard work I (and the students) put into class is worthwhile.

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!

TPRS Year 4 - Hard changes

This year, I am at a new school after last year seeming like a fairly strong year for my CI teaching.  I saw a lot of growth in my friend and I collaborating (in our different schools) between creating curriculum for our Spanish 1-2 classes.

This year here are all of the new things I have had to find a way to live/work with:

1. Other teachers in my department - Good to have others to collaborate with, when you can be like-minded.  Also neat that two of the teachers in my department (out of 3) have decided to do more storytelling and Comprehensible Input after seeing gains in their Spanish 1 classes they hadn't seen before!  Yay for their success!
2. Block Scheduling - this one has been one of the hardest.  How does one go from seeing students every day (50 minutes) to seeing them every other day (90 minutes)?  It's still something I am wrapping my brain around.  Sadly, the retention doesn't seem as high.  Probably because I am not effectively teaching during the block.
3. Standards-Based-Grading - Not a bad idea.  I was probably moving towards this in my philosophy.  Still, something I have been forced to dabble with before I might have been ready.
4. New relationships - going to a new school forces you to build relationships all over again  with students, faculty, & staff. That itself makes it harder to teach and to work with others.
5. Common assessments - having others dictate what and when I assess is a big adjustment.
6. PAT - I've been trying Preferred Activity Time this year and need to tweak it next year
7. FVR - I've been letting my students read children's books at the beginning of class, also might need to tweak that next year
8. Pairs/groupwork - I have been encouraged by some to do more with pairs/group work.  I prefer input, but I must appease those above me.

And there is probably more.  But while I find things I want to do, I remind myself that next year, I can start afresh and do better.  I want to implement a more strict policy with cellphones, eye-contact, heads down, etc (a la JGr (on Ben Slavic's PLC))

Sufficed to say, I've been getting down lately.  After doing some assessments, I've been dissapointed with myself after some students' performance.  Why do I blame myself though?  Why do we as teachers take so much flak for everything?  Sometimes there are kids who refuse to be reached no matter what I do.  Why must I feel like a failure?  Can't the responsibility at some point lie somewhere else?  I can't be a scapegoat anymore...

On a positive note, here's an email I got today from a student in one of my classes:

I just wanted to thank you for all you have taught me. I feel like it is easier than i expected and that I enjoy it. I have even been starting to speak a little at home to teach my family. This has had a significant influence on me and i wanted to let you know i appreciate it. 

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.

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.  :-)

Día 47 - Bad mood

Do you ever wake up and just know it's going to be a long day?  Well yesterday I didn't feel well and thought to myself that if I went to school, it would be one of those days.  So I stayed home and rested and tried to do things that would re-focus my attitude to one that is more positive.

For whatever reason, I just find myself dreading teaching these days.  The storytelling is so neat and yet it terrifies me because I worry that the stories will flop and I won't know what to do.

Some people say that the worst TPRS is still better than the average classroom.  But sometimes it is so painfully quiet when I ask for responses from the students and even when some respond, no one reacts to the responses.

Today, the first three classes did not pump me up.  I was not in the best mood to begin with.  And for whatever reason, I just completely sucked up the story this morning with them.  Some students didn't get the storyline as well as I thought they would.  I must not have been circling enough.  So what I need to practice doing is to get out the circling sheet from the workshop and look over it again to remember how to circle and tell the stories better.

I also must not focus on the negative behaviors.  My students might not be paying attention.  But in How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie talks about how everyone has the desire to be praised.  If we can praise people, we can create the atmosphere needed in the classroom where students will want to receive the praise and be reminded that they are great.  Of course, it must come off as genuine.  I can see it though when I mention that someone is 'muy inteligente' when they give an idea.  You can see them smirk.  Even the students who might be considered "troubled" or "bad behaviors" smile when they are recognized as being smart!  And this only further reinforces their wanting to answer questions in class.

I was reading on moretprs.net today in my free hour and Susan Gross (who I have not had the pleasure of meeting), a TPRS forerunner tells this to a fellow teacher:

Sometimes the kids are picking up something from you. Try very hard to go into the class with strong positive vibes. My guess is that they sense you are disappointed in some way. It is very insidious, this teacher attitude thing. Do some mind-cleansing breaths and then LOOK FOR things to praise. Look for the kid who is paying attention and praise him. Have him translate something that you KNOW he will get right and then tell the kid that he is watching you so carefully that he must be getting everything. Thank him for his attention.

Today that first part was me.  When the kids walked into the room, they must have seen my lack of 100% and that didn't help the class to go any better.  I didn't praise students but instead probably got more upset (without saying anything).  When I start class frustrated, everything goes downhill fast.  But if I can simply praise the students, it will refocus the entire class as well as myself to pay attention to the good behaviors in class and remind us what I would like out of the class.

Día 36 - Positivity and appreciation

As I continue to read the book How to Win Friends and Influence People, I am dumbfounded by how practical the things that Dale Carnegie talks about in his book.  It's also pretty cool that I can read it on the Kindle program on my Ipod touch.  Can I just say that ipod touches are an amazingly useful tool!

The chapter I just read talks about showing people that you appreciate them.  In the previous chapter he talks about criticism and how Abraham Lincoln did not criticize people anymore after a certain point in his life and by the time he died people thought very well of him.  I guess I wonder about criticism.  As a child people would tell us that they were giving us "constructive criticism."  Is there such a thing?  Does criticism really build us up whatsoever?

Either way, criticism as far as I can tell has not been a very effective method as a teacher.  We're so often getting bogged down in the negativity and do not address the positivity.  We fail to acknowledge students for accomplishing what we expect them to do.  I think of the police.  They don't pull me over and give me a sticker when I am not speeding.  They only pull me over when I do speed.  Nevertheless, as a teacher, our constant reliance on only giving attention to those who do not do what we want are giving them negative attention.  For the students who want attention (either negative or positive), they can still feed off of us.

In the book, Carnegie mentions that everyone has a desire to be important.  As I was thinking about Ben Slavic's writing about ways to invent new identities for students in his classroom, this was a wonderful application of the concept.  If we can give students an identity in our classroom that they will want to step into in which they are the best at something in Spanish, French or whatever language and we constantly can use that in class, they will want to be in our class.

I've been trying to think of ways to encourage my students more.  Especially for those who are already doing exactly what  I expect of them.  I must be careful to distinguish between flattering and honest appreciation.  Flattery is false and people can usually see right through it.  But if I can offer encouraging words to someone for doing something well (no matter how small it is), I can offer more positiveness to this negative world, one comment at a time.

There was a quote that he has near the end of the chapter that I have written on my wall in my classroom to remind me each day to change my old negative ways:

I shall pass this way but once, any good therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now.  Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again

Día 32 - Criticism

In his book Fluency Through TPR Storytelling, Blaine Ray recommends reading How to Win Friends and Influence People.

In the first chapter, the author talked a lot about criticism.  Whether it be obvious or not, most people don't really like criticism.  As a result, we tend to just tear down the walls of a relationship for nothing.  I was thinking about this the other day in my interactions with my wife.  I found that there were times when I would word something and would be quick to point something out that didn't really need to be said.  It came off as criticism and she didn't respond well to it.  I noticed she drew away fro me as the day progressed.

This helped me to further see the validity in what the author was writing about.  My wife is not a child by any means.  Nevertheless, my criticizing her is something that causes a tension in our relationship.  Her response is to withdraw emotionally and physically.  She walks away and ignores me.

As a teacher, so many people are quick to criticize one another.  I have found on my YouTube videos that people filter themselves much less and are so quick to point out mistakes and less quick to point out positive statements.  That's human nature though.  We know what standard things should measure up to in our minds.  Then we try to impose that set of rules on someone else based on our observations and contextualized understanding of the way the world works.

Nevertheless, what is the point in criticism?  It seems to me that more than anything else, it is to humiliate a person and build the ego of the critic.  As a teacher, my students are just humans with flaws.  All of them are insecure in one way or another.  I hope to foster a warm caring and nurturing environment in my classroom so that they can feel safe enough to have fun with the Spanish language in class.  Our storytelling relies on them feeling comfortable enough to shout out goofy suggestions.

But when I criticize them, they aren't going to want to do much of anything.  I must break this habit.  Not just as a teacher but as a person.  I must make sure to remind myself of people's different perspectives and to not criticize anymore.

Día 30 - Señor Bucks

In my previous entry, I talked about being more positive.

Of all the years so far that I have taught, this method of positivity is helping me.  I don't like to be angry.  I don't like who I am when I am angry.  If I get upset or angry at one class, I am more likely to get angry at another class.  If I'm angry at a class, I am more likely to go home and get angry with my wife or with friends!  No thanks!

So I'd rather encourage my students through my positivity to stay positive.  If I model the behavior I want them to perform, I am providing them with a valuable resource on behavior that they might not have in their lives.  They can learn how to behave if I am positive and in that way, I don't lose any sleep or hair over the classroom management.  Sure we'll still have problems once in awhile.  But what class doesn't have one single problem?  We can learn from problems and they can offer us teachable moments to talk about something important in the students' lives as well.  We are teachers of the subject as well as teachers of how to interact with the world.  My curriculum is the students and their lives.

Thankfully through TPRS, I've been able to merge that with Spanish.

I remember learning about different classroom management techniques in college while I was in my 3rd year of teaching already.  I thought that the majority were completely bogus.  It bothered me to think about being positive to students and reward them.  My question has always been, "What police officer stops you for NOT speeding and gives you a sucker?"  They only enforce the rules when you break the law because you're not following the rules.

But maybe I was thinking about that all wrong.  I do not know a lot about my students' home life.  I do not know what kind of influences they have in their lives.  Perhaps I can teach them how to behave though through positive means.

In future years, I would like to do a system with Señor Bucks where students can get those to purchase items in class for doing something like paying attention well or volunteering or always answering questions.  Then they can cash them in for different perks.  I might try to start it after Christmas to give it an easy starting point and time to plan the different perks.  I do prefer positive reinforcement not to bribe students, but instead to teach them the right thing to do.

Día 29 - Positivity

I've never really liked to be the enforcer of rules in my classroom.  I understand that it is necessary but I feel like students should want to be there.  With TPRS, I felt like I had found this method where the students were excited everyday about class and they were enjoying it and participating.

Because I'm focusing on so many things, I didn't crack down on the student here or there who would tune me out.  I know now that I can't move on until I have all of the students' attention.  It's just a matter of training my students that I will not teach anymore if they are not paying attention.  I was reading in Ben Slavic's book that he will just stand and wait for the students who aren't paying attention.  He might make a lighthearted face of impatience or he might show a face that really reflects his annoyance level with the student.

I've been testing something with my Junior High students and I think that it has been working.  My students come from a class that they absolutely hate.  They feel stifled in their class right before mine and often times they come in late because the teacher held them after.  I'm a little curious about how the teacher holds them after class to punish them.  It doesn't seem to work.  The same offenders tend to be late to my class.  She's really only punishing me and my starting class on time with that approach.  If a student comes in late, they might already be a little behind because of our TPR'ing some terms.  They can probably understand the story eventually due to the circling I will be doing with the story.  It still might not make as much sense as to the rest of the class who is there the entire time.  But I digress.

I've noticed every day that the students come in and I can tell how they are doing because I've been making a habit to stand at my door and greet my students as they walk in every day and try and give them a genuinely positive greeting and a smile to welcome them into class.

My Junior High students tend to let me know pretty quick how well math class went through their posture as well as their outspokenness.  I have seen how the legalistic method of the math teacher has not worked at all for this class.  They constantly push and don't feel any motivation to pay attention to her.

That must be where the personalization of TPRS comes in.  We try to get to know our students and use that in class.  We try to use them as props and actors and showcase their talents.  The class is about them and what they can come up with.  It's a beautiful thing.

I've also been working on being more positive in general.  When my students in the Junior High class get a little rowdy, I stop and wait until their ready.  The curious thing is that they apologize to me when they act out.  They'll probably still do it here and there.  But they are not doing it as often as before and when they do it they are quicker to correct each other not because I will punish them.

I have not punished any of the students in class this year.  I've been lucky that nothing horrible has happened.  But I think this is the case because the students genuinely like being in my class and learning from me.  As a result, they are so quick to self-regulate because they understand that they want me to stay happy and to continue teaching so they can keep learning and the silliness can continue.