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.

Word Chunk - A fun, minimal prep game/activity

I first heard about this from one of Ben Slavic's dvds that I purchased ages ago.  I have since experimented with it in my classes.

While you could simply do it as a quiz or silly assessment with your students, I prefer the group activity.

My students on Fridays have PAT. So they already have groups. You could easily have them form the groups that day for the activity. Mine have to say a group chant and have a group name already established so that we can simply play this game.

So while I could have a list of every single word we have gone over for the year (or for years if they are in Spanish 2 or another level), I prefer this on the spot activity.

Mafia game - Presentation

This year I use PAT with classes to help with buy-in for being on task during class.

So this week we have a lot of accumulated PAT and since it's the end of the year, I thought we could play a simplified version of Mafia.

I got the idea from Martina Bex last year.

Changes I made:

• I decided for my Spanish 1 class to remove the doctor, because we never finish a game anyway.
• I added a point system because we never finish a game so that way it gives some more semblance of purpose

And here's the presentation I came up with for today to facilitate the game. The language for "se hace de noche" comes from an activity we do earlier in the year so it's familiar.

You could easily take away the language like "killing" to something else. I talk about how the mafia eliminates people, but might use the term "kill" if the classes are familiar with it. The people they accuse go to prison.


If you can use it in your classes, great!  The kids enjoyed the picture of their town in the presentation.

Observation reflection #1

I met Kim Fish and her friend Jeanne at FLAM and they were so gracious to come to my presentations and talk to me afterwards!  During a PD day for their districts, they came to observe my class (on a Friday). It was business as usual in my class.  Kim is a Spanish teacher and Jeanne is a French teacher. I loved observing them while they were watching as they seemed to really be enjoying the overall atmosphere of my classes.

My classes were glad to have them and were definitely showing off their fun attitudes and Spanish (as usual).

During class, we had the usual secret code to get it, then talked a little bit about the kids as usual in PQA, and continued with telling their third spoken story.  Afterwards, we had PAT and played some games reviewing the story and/or the secret agents book we had just started. Since I have 90 minutes, we have to do a lot of different things!

I asked them to write a reflection after observing and here's what Kim wrote in an email:

TPRS year 5 - Preferred Activity Time (PAT) continued...

I posted about this awhile back (see post), but I wanted to point out something I find interesting.

I used to do games every week probably twice or so.  I thought by Wednesday and by Friday we deserved a game.

I have found that with PAT, the fact that they have earned the game is so much more empowering to them.  It also helps during those blocks for them to remember how valuable their attention is (of course we still do brain breaks because I am not a slave-driver).

But notice this graphic to the left.  I have noticed that even with the reward of 1:00 per 15 minutes on task time and giving bonuses for people doing their jobs, we are still getting over 8:00 in some of the classes, which is really awesome for them.

They are constantly being complimented on doing their jobs and hearing that positive encouragement.  This has created an environment where the classroom is charged with excitement as they are walking into my classroom (as I shake their hand and say, "Buenos días".)

The classes that get that 8:00 or more minutes are doing beyond what I could ever ask and that magical fusion creates a class where we can learn so much more that PAT (and more of it) is the best reward to give them, because they are using class time so effectively.

I just wanted to brag about my students.  This is definitely an improvement on PAT since last year. I'm glad it's improving.

If you wanted to see how my board looks, here's another pic.  This is after a class period.  Then I add up the little bonuses (and subtract the negative 5 seconds (each tally) when I lose eye-contact).  The total is circled so I could add it to the spreadsheet.

It might be a little messy, but it has been working for me so far. The numbers are crossed out since I was adding them.  I also make a point to let them know why they are getting those bonuses.

If you don't use PAT in your classroom but find your class could be managed better, consider making the change!  I'm glad I have.

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!

Preferred Activity Time - Cut throat

For today's PAT, we had some structures we were practicing during the week and I thought we could do cut-throat.  I read about it earlier in the year and thought it might be fun for this time of the school year.

See description: http://www.fredjones.com/PAT/CutThroat.html

Now, retrospectively, I might not have read that as well before trying.

I wanted to add an additional competitive element to it with my PAT groups (their chants, camaraderie, etc).

So I had them do the two people at the board (writer and runner).  Other people at their desks could write out the answers on a paper and the runner could run that to the person at the board if they so desired.

After markers were down, we critiqued and they could steal points (100 per error) from the other teams by doing their chant and telling me the error and correction.

This was pretty fun and most were engaged in it.

However, it got downright nasty with saying, "there is no period".  I allowed them to pick out the writing and they were calling out letters for being capitalized or not.

Since some people were writing fast, their handwriting might not have looked perfect so I'm not sure we did that part correctly.

Due to the nature of the critiquing, we only were able to do 3 translation questions (I said the sentence with structures we were practicing in English, they wrote in Spanish).

I'm debating whether or not we should continue with the nitpickiness of punctuation and capitalization so that next time, they will know the expectations, or go easier on them.

I mean, the game IS called Cut Throat.

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. 

Agentes Secretos - Caramba (Game)

Today is a reflection of a game called "Caramba" (see rules here at the top)

So something that I love about teaching is how my activities continue to evolve each year.

My few years, I had NO technology at my school.  Therefore, no powerpoints, etc.

I originally had some notecards with vocabulary words and then a few Caramba cards.  We would play the game as the rules describe.  Then, I started making Caramba's into powerpoints.  That was more fun and of course was more polished.

I slowly transitioned into making "Caramba" more of an immersive experience with TPRS/CI.  I no longer wanted students to just translate something from one language to another (not that that might not have merit in reviewing structures we're going over), but I wanted to keep the game in the language and reinforce the words in context.

This works great with novels.  So in Spanish 1, we're going through Agentes Secretos (and thankfully it's pretty easy for my students due to the groundwork laid).

Today for their PAT (Preferred Activity Time), they needed something fresh.  So we played Caramba (see rules).

However, today I was able to add an element to the rules.  Since they already have predetermined groups for PAT, they sat in those.  They have team names and a chant already.  Before in Caramba, teams would take turns and of course, engagement would be ok.  If a team missed one, they missed it and we moved on.

Today, I allowed groups to steal the question for a point, but of course, they had to do their group chant that we do for review basketball normally.  It added so much more and just creates a more intense, competitive, yet fun atmosphere.  The chants have really enhanced my class this year to get more students involved.

I told my students Caramba is usually the favorite of many of my students (usually they either really love it or really hate it).

Here's the PowerPoint I made for today.  Feel free to use it in your class and change any answers.
Also, you might download it, since Google Docs tends to change formatting.

PAT (Preferred Activity Time) Fridays

From our game "Mono Malo" where kids look for
the "Mono malo" and the rest of us count in Spanish
while they look! Based off of Bryce Hedstrom's "el bebé feo" game.

This year, I have been trying out something new after wanting to for awhile.

Don't get me wrong.  My classes are generally good as far as behavior.  I have kids who don't always look at me or try to put their heads down like in any class.  I do my best to point at the expectations and remind them when they fail them.  Letting them know that is what I expect of them because it's part of their 50%.

But I teach at a school where we use Block Scheduling (4 - 90 minute periods every day)

What I found was that classes were really long and although I've found ways to break it up, it was hard to keep the steam going all year.

TPRS year 4 - Preferred Activity Time (PAT)

This year I have decided to implement PAT.  I have trained my classes fairly well the last two years.  But something that happens in my new school is a pox on my life: block scheduling.

While 90 minutes could thoeretically have wonderful implications for a Comprehensible Input classroom (more time to practice a story; more time to do extensions after story on the same day), it can be a beast for transitions.