TPRS year 3 - going back to the book!

This is my third year implementing TPRS in my classroom.  Previously I taught for about 4 years with traditional isntruction slowly moving farther and farther away from the textbook.  I find that even with teaching Spanish "traditionally", the textbook is horrible.

When I found TPRS, I had this moment of "this is it" ("This is what I have wanted to do with my students but didn't know I was allowed!").  So I tried it for two years and noticed quite a few things about my students.  To name a few, they:

1. spoke more Spanish outside of class
2. spoke more Spanish in class
3. enjoyed class (more than before)
4. could write more in Spanish
5. could create more novel (original) sentences in Spanish to express themselves

But the other day one of my Spanish one classes, the students simply weren't doing their job. Since the first week or so I've explained my expectations to them.  I borrowed them from Ben Slavic's site basically and will probably slowly hone them as time goes on.   Basically they are required to sit up straight, offer ideas in class, allow others to talk without having to raise their hands and listen to others' ideas all the while avoiding English. 

My job is to go slow, point, make gestures, use the students' ideas to make class interesting and anything else that can make what I am saying comprehensible.  

I can honestly say in one class I was doing my job.  I was going slow, pointing, even jumping up and down with a smile on my face.  The class was completely quiet.  There was no laughter, there was no one enjoying himself or herself.  They weren't making class more enjoyable.

Now you might be thinking (as my wife said to me):  Wait a minute!  You are complaining because your students were all sitting down, doing nothing to distract one another and were quiet.  That sounds like the dream class!  

If you're thinking that you're missing something vital (like my students).  They weren't engaged.  They weren't making the lesson interesting to themselves.  I (left to my own devices) will bore the class.  I need them to add things that are interesting to them.  I need them to interact with me during class so we can create something meaningful.  

I reminded them of my expectations and told them that I was very disappointed.  I need them to help me make class fun.  I do recognize retrospectively that we all have bad days, even classes.  But I wanted this class to understand how much of it was their job to make sure class was enjoyable.

The following day, I decided to have the Spanish 1 textbooks underneath every desk.  At the beginning of that class, I explained that every day with me is a new day.  If they have a bad day, I understand we all do and I can forgive them of that.  However, the previous day I was very disappointed by what happened (or didn't happen) in class and I wanted to let them know that if they didn't like how I taught, then they did have another option.  I told them to get the books from underneath their desks because we would be doing a lesson out of the book.  I then proceeded to give them a lesson about the Spanish language through the textbook  We talked about standard greetings, tú and usted with some practice pages.  I thought they might stop me but they were very well behaved during this time actually.  After about 30 minutes of lecture-style instruction, I was getting ready to give them their pages of homework practice.  As I was doing that, one student asked me if we could go back to how things were.

This prompted a discussion that the class pretty much lead about what we should do.  I explained they had both options and I would be fine with either because I used to teach via the textbook.  They unanimously chose storytelling.  They explained why they chose it with arguments like, "Class is more fun.", "We learn more in class!", "Class before was more engaging!", etc.  I explained then to them that if we were to go back to storytelling, they must remember my expectations of them.  

They listed those off for me and came to the conclusion that they would do it.  I think this was an important class period for that class because they were able to choose their learning style as a class and determine which was better for their brains and learning.

year 2 - TPRS week 1

So I started at a new school and I have a lot of neat things going on at the new school.  I decided to label the new entries based on what weeks they happen in if possible.  I don't feel the need to blog as much as I used to since I'm doing a lot of the same things.  Now I have to pay attention to some different things since I feel more comfortable with TPRS itself.

The following are some things I've been working on this week:

Native speakers:
I was really excited when I interviewed with my new principal because I know that the school had about 40% of the students, Hispanic.  Many of them are bilingual while a few don't know as much Spanish and know more English.  I know some of the students at the school and always asked them about their Spanish teachers and always heard how boring the class was.  This always made me fearful of teaching there because the Spanish-speaking students have to take the class even though they already speak Spanish. 

In my interview I talked about how the native speakers might still enjoy my TPRS classroom more than a traditional classroom because it's all about interaction and we work on literacy as well.  So he was convinced and gave me the job.

I decided to offer the Native speaking students a few choices (since I learned in Love & Logic that choices are a big deal for students' empowerment):

1. do what everyone else does and pretend
2. read children's books / chapter books in Spanish and write 2-3 sentence summaries

I also let them know if they cause problems, they have to do option 2.  I would be happy with either option because they can help me in option 1 and they can help themselves (in their literacy) in option two.  So for me, it's a win-win.

None of the students really took me up on the reading.  They have told me that they actually like my class because we're speaking in Spanish for most of the class and we are saying interesting things (Thanks TPRS!).

So for now, I'm really excited about having the native speaking students in my class to help out and offer some neat perspectives (especially when we get more conversational)

Attention spans / rebellion:
I've been doing my best to call students out on their attention problems and rebellion during class breaks and different things.  Since I am somewhat confident in my TPRS and PQA abilities, I can now focus on students individually and  teach more to their eyes than I used to. 

So I've talked to a handful of kids that I've noticed slacking a little in class and I've asked them if they're doing ok and if I am not going slow enough for their individual needs.  I also have been doing my best to build a rapport with the students to help squash potential rebellions later by being more approachable.

Thus far, it's been a great first week and I'm excited for the rest of the year.

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.