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.
Showing posts with label spontaneous production. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spontaneous production. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Another spontaneous output experience #2
Something for us foreign language teachers to consider.
If you polled your students on the first day, "Why are you taking Spanish*?
*Or insert whatever language you teach.
While some of them might say things like:
The other thing they would say is, "I want to speak Spanish!"
So my followup question naturally is: how many of them would say, "I want to learn all about Spanish through its grammar as if I am taking a linguistics class"?
In my experience, the best way I've found to accomplish the goal of helping them speak is through Comprehensible Input and stories!
And while I am only in Spanish 1 this year, my classes at this point in the year are just going crazy with output.
Sure they don't speak perfectly, but what Spanish 1 student does? Comparably, what 2-3 year old speaks perfectly? Heck, what adult speaks perfectly?
If you polled your students on the first day, "Why are you taking Spanish*?
*Or insert whatever language you teach.
While some of them might say things like:
- "I need it to graduate"
- "I need it for a credit"
- "It looks good for college applications to have 2 years of a foreign language"
- "I want to know what 'those people' are saying about me at Walmart'**
The other thing they would say is, "I want to speak Spanish!"
So my followup question naturally is: how many of them would say, "I want to learn all about Spanish through its grammar as if I am taking a linguistics class"?
In my experience, the best way I've found to accomplish the goal of helping them speak is through Comprehensible Input and stories!
And while I am only in Spanish 1 this year, my classes at this point in the year are just going crazy with output.
Sure they don't speak perfectly, but what Spanish 1 student does? Comparably, what 2-3 year old speaks perfectly? Heck, what adult speaks perfectly?
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
TPRS year 5 - spontaneous output
The other day in my Spanish 2 class, I was pleasantly amused by my Spanish students. My class is a mixture of popular and non-popular kids (as most classes are). Generally in my classes this is a struggle all year as we try to build them up enough to get away from those silly social norms.
But last Tuesday, I was chatting with my students about their weekends (or how they were doing) I forget. And somehow it came up that I asked my students a question because I didn't know the answer and there was a pause.
A bright (but somewhat quiet) student said suddenly, "Porque estás en una coma" ("Because you're in a coma").
Suddenly, I was flooded with questions about how I was in a coma and for how long and my students shrugged it off as if it was no big deal and made up a back story as to why I was in a coma. The entire thing was incredibly hilarious (within the contexts of that class). Of course comas are not necessarily funny. But this day, the fact that my students were explaining to me in their Spanish 2 way that all that I knew was an illusion, made for a very interesting and somewhat deep conversation in Spanish.
The neatest part was that regardless of popular status, everyone was contributing to my being in a coma and laughing it off since I am such a loser that no one visited me. All of this of course is a surprise to me.
I love input-based teaching. The output is so much more meaningful to me when it's finally ready to come.
But last Tuesday, I was chatting with my students about their weekends (or how they were doing) I forget. And somehow it came up that I asked my students a question because I didn't know the answer and there was a pause.
A bright (but somewhat quiet) student said suddenly, "Porque estás en una coma" ("Because you're in a coma").
Suddenly, I was flooded with questions about how I was in a coma and for how long and my students shrugged it off as if it was no big deal and made up a back story as to why I was in a coma. The entire thing was incredibly hilarious (within the contexts of that class). Of course comas are not necessarily funny. But this day, the fact that my students were explaining to me in their Spanish 2 way that all that I knew was an illusion, made for a very interesting and somewhat deep conversation in Spanish.
The neatest part was that regardless of popular status, everyone was contributing to my being in a coma and laughing it off since I am such a loser that no one visited me. All of this of course is a surprise to me.
I love input-based teaching. The output is so much more meaningful to me when it's finally ready to come.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Día 112 - students trying
I love how in TPRS, sometimes you forget that you're using the language in class because you're trying to accomplish things with it. It's more evident when students are really enjoying it and they try to use the language to get their point across.
This year, I have had students try harder than ever before to create sentences (even if grammatically they're a little off). But from a communication standpoint, don't I want them to have the confidence to try with the language if they ever meet native speakers? YES! I would rather that they try to communicate and build connections even if their grammar isn't perfect than have them so worried about the conjugations of the verbs that they just decide to stay quiet.
My favorite is that sometimes students parrot the things that I say in the perfect time like such phrases as "¡ES OBVIO!" (It's obvious!)
This will always crack me up because my students just pick that up so quickly and start using it. Sometimes they try to correct the story that they think is going in the wrong direction by telling me that it's obvious and telling me another fact. If the fact has been established, I can't change it but if I am only asking questions, sometimes I'll let them have the victory because "es obvio" ;-)
It's so much fun though. I love how my students are trying and as evidenced by the readings, they are learning the language even if sometimes they are quiet or tired. They are getting the language better than before through TPRS.
Some of the best times are when my more advanced students just come up with the craziest sentence in Spanish and the rest of the class gets it to laugh or they want to know what they said because I laugh. I like to acknowledge their efforts with a laugh or a huge smile. Even if we don't always use the idea.
In fact, the curious thing, I have a student who describes himself as lazy. He admits that he doesn't do homework. I haven't figured out an effective way to assign any yet this year. Hey, I'm still learning! Last year in Spanish 1, he was quiet and often times would just occasionally chatter with the girl next to him in English. This year he has really opened up to the language and does amazing things with it. Sure he makes mistakes, but he's trying and his gains have been incredible. I have to be careful not to get carried away with him in class and stay grounded with my barometer students, but he and others like him this year have definitely helped validate the teaching style for me.
This year, I have had students try harder than ever before to create sentences (even if grammatically they're a little off). But from a communication standpoint, don't I want them to have the confidence to try with the language if they ever meet native speakers? YES! I would rather that they try to communicate and build connections even if their grammar isn't perfect than have them so worried about the conjugations of the verbs that they just decide to stay quiet.
My favorite is that sometimes students parrot the things that I say in the perfect time like such phrases as "¡ES OBVIO!" (It's obvious!)
This will always crack me up because my students just pick that up so quickly and start using it. Sometimes they try to correct the story that they think is going in the wrong direction by telling me that it's obvious and telling me another fact. If the fact has been established, I can't change it but if I am only asking questions, sometimes I'll let them have the victory because "es obvio" ;-)
It's so much fun though. I love how my students are trying and as evidenced by the readings, they are learning the language even if sometimes they are quiet or tired. They are getting the language better than before through TPRS.
Some of the best times are when my more advanced students just come up with the craziest sentence in Spanish and the rest of the class gets it to laugh or they want to know what they said because I laugh. I like to acknowledge their efforts with a laugh or a huge smile. Even if we don't always use the idea.
In fact, the curious thing, I have a student who describes himself as lazy. He admits that he doesn't do homework. I haven't figured out an effective way to assign any yet this year. Hey, I'm still learning! Last year in Spanish 1, he was quiet and often times would just occasionally chatter with the girl next to him in English. This year he has really opened up to the language and does amazing things with it. Sure he makes mistakes, but he's trying and his gains have been incredible. I have to be careful not to get carried away with him in class and stay grounded with my barometer students, but he and others like him this year have definitely helped validate the teaching style for me.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Día 73 - structures
I sometimes forget how impressive things can be with TPRS for the typical students. Let me first share my experiences with learning Spanish as well as teaching Spanish.
In my experience, the Spanish classroom is a place where a few people try to talk and the rest of the people don't really care no matter how hard the teacher tries. The students can learn vocabulary very easily. When it comes to anything else though, they don't get much farther in production than saying things like cavemen. Many do not even try and a majority of the class looks incredibly bored.
In my first 4 years I tried this traditional teaching method. I worked for hours and hours designing lessons and often times would lose sleep trying. My students wouldn't even use the language very much. They were too nervous because they learned the language through vocabulary and conjugating. I gave them all the rules and then let them try to sort out the mess. It wasn't very effective.
Then I found TPRS and discovered that I do not have to kill myself with planning.
So we've been focusing on the structures of the language this year as TPRS suggests. Through circling the information and focusing on the structures and the meaning without worrying about grammar, the students are actually much more comfortable with the language because you start teaching them how it is used from the very beginning.
The other day my students were doing a reading and they were having a hard time with remembering the structure lleva (he/she takes).
This resulted in a beautiful thing the other day. My students had a reading activity and I asked about if a character in the reading takes a boy to her favorite street or to her favorite bathroom. Then I asked who had a favorite bathroom. A student told me that their favorite bathroom belonged to someone in class. From that point on, in Spanish it turned into a discussion on if they would take me to this special bathroom. She also talked about how she played baseball alone in the bathroom and she fished in the toilet. It was incredibly entertaining. I practiced lleva or llevas (you take) multiple times as I asked if she would take different students in the class to the bathroom. Basically she decided to take the whole world to the bathroom except for me! Even my fat cat was invited. The best part... we practiced lleva so many times, it was used naturally by the end of the class.
Not only that, we spoke in Spanish about a bathroom for about half of the class. It turned out that a student in the class taught how to speak 'butterfly' in the bathroom. Another was a dance instructor. This all came out so naturally in the language and was incredibly entertaining.
It helps me to believe in the TPRS method because the students are so ready to converse in the language with you unlike the traditional method.
In my experience, the Spanish classroom is a place where a few people try to talk and the rest of the people don't really care no matter how hard the teacher tries. The students can learn vocabulary very easily. When it comes to anything else though, they don't get much farther in production than saying things like cavemen. Many do not even try and a majority of the class looks incredibly bored.
In my first 4 years I tried this traditional teaching method. I worked for hours and hours designing lessons and often times would lose sleep trying. My students wouldn't even use the language very much. They were too nervous because they learned the language through vocabulary and conjugating. I gave them all the rules and then let them try to sort out the mess. It wasn't very effective.
Then I found TPRS and discovered that I do not have to kill myself with planning.
So we've been focusing on the structures of the language this year as TPRS suggests. Through circling the information and focusing on the structures and the meaning without worrying about grammar, the students are actually much more comfortable with the language because you start teaching them how it is used from the very beginning.
The other day my students were doing a reading and they were having a hard time with remembering the structure lleva (he/she takes).
This resulted in a beautiful thing the other day. My students had a reading activity and I asked about if a character in the reading takes a boy to her favorite street or to her favorite bathroom. Then I asked who had a favorite bathroom. A student told me that their favorite bathroom belonged to someone in class. From that point on, in Spanish it turned into a discussion on if they would take me to this special bathroom. She also talked about how she played baseball alone in the bathroom and she fished in the toilet. It was incredibly entertaining. I practiced lleva or llevas (you take) multiple times as I asked if she would take different students in the class to the bathroom. Basically she decided to take the whole world to the bathroom except for me! Even my fat cat was invited. The best part... we practiced lleva so many times, it was used naturally by the end of the class.
Not only that, we spoke in Spanish about a bathroom for about half of the class. It turned out that a student in the class taught how to speak 'butterfly' in the bathroom. Another was a dance instructor. This all came out so naturally in the language and was incredibly entertaining.
It helps me to believe in the TPRS method because the students are so ready to converse in the language with you unlike the traditional method.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Día 51 - spontaneous production
Last week I had a bit of a bad week. There are times that this teaching thing just seems as though we are constantly giving all that we can of ourselves to the students and it can appear so thankless.
This week I've been trying to come to work with a better attitude. I've been posting things in my classroom to remind me of this and whatever I can do to stay positive. My students need that positivity. When I start out positive, class tends to go better.
Yesterday, we did another weekend activity. Strangely, for a Monday it was incredibly fun to talk to the kids about their weekend. They really were doing a great job of playing the game and we had a lot of fun together.
My phrases were:
Fui a Des Moines.
I went to Des Moines.
Comí plátanos fritos de Cuba.
I ate Cuban fried bananas.
Besé a mi esposa.
I kissed my wife.
Strangely enough, in my 8th hour class, one of the many bright students that I have told us that another student who said he had gone to Asia told us that "corre del gobierno" (He runs from the government). I changed this to "Corrió del gobierno" (He ran from the government.)
Upon us asking how he ran from the government to Asia, the same student said (using my preposition poster), "fue dentro de una chica" (He went inside of a girl). To this I simply laughed and laughed while the rest of the class looked at me and wanted to know what incredibly hilariously unexpected thing that their classmate had said. It was magical. The boy turned out to ride in the mouth of the girl alone to Asia in order to run from the government.
In another class, we were talking about one of the characters that the class had created in their story, Dougie the pig. It turned out that Dougie went to a pig-processing plant this weekend and he is no more. While talking about Dougie the fictional pig who is now dead, a student said "Brett Farv jugar fútbol con Dougie" (Brett Farv to play soccer with Dougie). I helped him after congratulating him on his intelligence that Brett Farv played american football with Dougie (Dougie's skin that is). It turned into a storyline after that. It doesn't matter to me on Mondays because we're talking about the weekend and the spontaneous language is the best kind. Later the same boy told us that he was in the same discoteque that a student and Brett Farv were playing football in with Dougie the deceased pig's skin. It turned out he was dancing on top of a desk like Michael Jackson. He got the phrase "on top of" from the preposition list next to his chair.
These past few days, students have been taking more risks with the language and it is really neat! In fact, while we had a student from a local university observing TPRS, one of my students created a little story spontaneously without me even needing to ask any questions. He told us that he had a small island near Antarctica. The island has pirates and piñatas. Pepe the class piñata is the president. It was ALL Spanish. I was floored.
In previous years, it was so hard to get kids to produce the language. But now they are with TPRS. Today I told my kids to show off a little bit for the observer and they did. We used so much Spanish it was amazing. I'm not as worried now for when my principal comes to observe me. My kids do awesome under pressure.
This week I've been trying to come to work with a better attitude. I've been posting things in my classroom to remind me of this and whatever I can do to stay positive. My students need that positivity. When I start out positive, class tends to go better.
Yesterday, we did another weekend activity. Strangely, for a Monday it was incredibly fun to talk to the kids about their weekend. They really were doing a great job of playing the game and we had a lot of fun together.
My phrases were:
Fui a Des Moines.
I went to Des Moines.
Comí plátanos fritos de Cuba.
I ate Cuban fried bananas.
Besé a mi esposa.
I kissed my wife.
Strangely enough, in my 8th hour class, one of the many bright students that I have told us that another student who said he had gone to Asia told us that "corre del gobierno" (He runs from the government). I changed this to "Corrió del gobierno" (He ran from the government.)
Upon us asking how he ran from the government to Asia, the same student said (using my preposition poster), "fue dentro de una chica" (He went inside of a girl). To this I simply laughed and laughed while the rest of the class looked at me and wanted to know what incredibly hilariously unexpected thing that their classmate had said. It was magical. The boy turned out to ride in the mouth of the girl alone to Asia in order to run from the government.
In another class, we were talking about one of the characters that the class had created in their story, Dougie the pig. It turned out that Dougie went to a pig-processing plant this weekend and he is no more. While talking about Dougie the fictional pig who is now dead, a student said "Brett Farv jugar fútbol con Dougie" (Brett Farv to play soccer with Dougie). I helped him after congratulating him on his intelligence that Brett Farv played american football with Dougie (Dougie's skin that is). It turned into a storyline after that. It doesn't matter to me on Mondays because we're talking about the weekend and the spontaneous language is the best kind. Later the same boy told us that he was in the same discoteque that a student and Brett Farv were playing football in with Dougie the deceased pig's skin. It turned out he was dancing on top of a desk like Michael Jackson. He got the phrase "on top of" from the preposition list next to his chair.
These past few days, students have been taking more risks with the language and it is really neat! In fact, while we had a student from a local university observing TPRS, one of my students created a little story spontaneously without me even needing to ask any questions. He told us that he had a small island near Antarctica. The island has pirates and piñatas. Pepe the class piñata is the president. It was ALL Spanish. I was floored.
In previous years, it was so hard to get kids to produce the language. But now they are with TPRS. Today I told my kids to show off a little bit for the observer and they did. We used so much Spanish it was amazing. I'm not as worried now for when my principal comes to observe me. My kids do awesome under pressure.
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