TPRS 2.0 with an observer

Ok, like everyone, I get down on myself and my teaching. There are days I get frustrated with how it seems like I am throwing language to my students and they are lost. Or only a few strong students answer and the rest don't. Or kids are being kids.

Yesterday was one of those days where I had to remind classes of their responsibility to answer questions to show me they understand. 

Nevertheless, I was down on myself after some lackluster responses. 

So today, I came in with lower expectations. And we started with the Daily Reading...

You might notice I color coat things to help them make sense of certain parts. They might not even notice, but I like doing it.

Then, we reviewed the story with them Describing the Situation of different parts of the story. They got to choose the character and then spoke to me in perspective for the other. For example:

I am a girl. My name is Elena. I live in Minneapolis in a house with my grandparents. I am in Target. I am wearing a blue t-shirt and brown pants. I have blue hair and am dark-skinned, generous, and kind. I like plastic monkeys.

You are a cat. You call yourself Garfield. You live on Maple street in Muncie, IN with your owner Jon and a dog named Odie. You are lazy, fat and orange. You like to eat, sleep and watch TV. (optional: You hate Mondays.)

My name is Elena. When I was a little girl, I had a plastic monkey. I was six years old and lived in Sydney, Australia. One day, I went to the park. When I was at the park, another little girl went over to me, told me "I am hungry," took my plastic monkey and ate it in front of me. I am sad.

You are a cat. Your name is Garfield. You want to eat lasaña but you don't have lasaña. You went to your refrigerator, you looked for lasaña and you didn't see any lasaña (or there wasn't any lasaña). You ate all the lasaña yesterday and you are not happy.

My name is Elena. I want a plastic monkey. I am in Target and I look for a plastic monkey, but there are none. I leave Target, I go to my car and cry for 24 hours, and then I return to my house.

You are a cat. Your name is Garfield. You are sad because you don't have any lasaña because you ate all the lasaña yesterday. You leave the kitchen and go back to the living room. You watch tv and think about a solution to your problem.

Then I wanted to continue building my story chunk from yesterday and today (practicing "usted" now for the first time actively this year). After I reviewed, triangled and added the information of I like to swim in my money and count my money, students described to me (and if they used tú, I would jokingly say "woah... I need respect!" (in Spanish):

• Usted es un pato.
• Usted se llama Scrooge McDuck.
• Usted es tacaño, viejo y rico.
• Usted tiene mucho dinero. Usted tiene mil millones de dólares.
• Usted vive en una mansión que compró en Duckburg.
• A usted le gusta el dinero. A usted le gusta nadar en el dinero y contar el dinero.

And we got numerous students to try it out and it was awesome to hear! I am glad I waited to introduce it at this point in the year because now their changing perspective has become so natural, this was just a little tweak for them and those who tried were picking it up so quickly!

Of course I was more nervous because a teacher from another school came and observed my classes today to learn more about TPRS 2.0. After seeing two of my classes, she was impressed with what my students could do in Spanish 1!  

And afterwards she said, "After watching you, I know I can do this now!" 

TPRS 2.0 for the win!

then reviewed the new information and focused on triangling that and DTSing that new chunk, and they did great all day! Super neat since this was when I finally introduced a character with usted (formal), and they were picking it up so quickly. 

Of course I was more nervous because a teacher from another school came and observed my classes today to learn more about TPRS 2.0. After seeing two of my classes, she was impressed with what my students could do in Spanish 1!  

And afterwards she said, "After watching you, I know I can do this now!" 

TPRS 2.0 for the win! 

Attached are some slides with the daily reading (based on adapted Elena story from 1.3) and attached slides I used for them to DTS and then where I added "I like to swim in my money and count my money."