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:

• "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?

Another Spontaneous Output experience

So one of the things that I allow my students to do from day one is:

they are allowed to insult the teacher and only the teacher (and no one else in class).

This way, they get to practice all of those negative words (ugly, stupid/dumb, smelly, big loser, etc).

While it not be your style, I have found it to make class so much more lighthearted. And I get to constantly remind them of my stupidity when i make mistakes (intentionally or unintentionally).  It has turned ME into the class buffoon so that they can relax a little more and have more fun.

Something I miss this year since I don't have any Spanish 2 classes anymore is that Spanish 2 is able to talk more and can carry on conversations a little better (due to more input).  So class is more lighthearted and laid back because they are a little older and it's a good time.

Spanish 1 is a little harder because I have to keep them going going going with different activities (in the block) and we're constantly doing something (in CI as much as possible) and lots of brain breaks (still in Spanish though: songs, TPR, movement, quick transition, joke, etc).

And so I have missed having conversations with my Spanish 2s and also letting them run the class sometimes by building off of each other's ideas.

Nevertheless, this year I have been fortunate to have some very talented individuals in some of my classes and they have really been able to figure out the first person and second person forms of the verbs better than any previous year. So the insults, as you can imagine, have been even richer. And they are getting way more creative WITH the language.

Today in one of my classes, the students refused to ask me "¿y tú?" after I asked volunteers how they were doing today because I am not important. And they did a really good job of staying in the language. I couldn't believe some of the things they were saying (and being HILARIOUS in the language).  We were all laughing.

In the following class (last class of the day), I think we were similarly just talking about how people were doing for 20 minutes because of the hilarity that ensued from my students. I accidentally gave the student the impression that he was next to be called on, but I had said "ladies first" before that and as I asked a girl how she was doing, he responded with (in spanish) "you are playing with my head". (Something I tell them sometimes, but he said it perfectly in the second person and all).

When I later asked him how he was doing, he responded with "I am annoyed". And whenever they are mad or annoyed I prod them to tell me if they are mad at a person, mineral, plant or animal. And when they say person I ask silly questions with description words (that they know or don't). And it usually is that they are annoyed with me for some reason.
But the funniest thing all day was one of the cleverer students asked (in perfect Spanish), "Is his hair falling out?"

And I lost it. I went on to joke that there was a line (which I drew) and then I explained "and you are located over here" to which he walked over to that line and then said, "no, my line is here".

I wish I could remember some of the other things from that class, but as you might guess, I was laughing with them most of class.

It was nice to see how much they have been learning this year and to see them speaking (because they want to and because the context and environment allows it).  No one is forcing them and they are the stars of the show!

TPRS/CI year 5 - questions with partner

Something I have been trying to get to do with my students more is to practice Spanish with a partner.  I know that this is not meant to be a big part of class since Spanish 1 especially needs to hear correctly modeled input in order to acquire the language correctly.

But with that said, I wonder at times if asking the students to do a low level form of output after going over the information a lot pushes them in a good way to improve and think about how they would say it.  It's meant to be a very low stress way because it's not in front of the class.

I recently watched a Kahn academy video about how getting wrong is part of learning.  When we are wrong and we reflect on why we are wrong, it's more engaging to our brain than just being right.  It's where our brain grows more.

So how can I get my students' brains to grow more in Spanish?  I believe in Comprehensible Input!  I know the best way is loading them with Comprehensible Input.

But maybe I can occasionally guide them into noticing differences by the way I phrase questions or asking them a question really quick in English (to have them tell a partner/their hand/me/etc).

Here are some examples of things I have been practicing last year (a little bit) and this year (way more) to engage the class and give them a break to say something after all of the input:

1. How would s/he answer this question?
2. What does this question mean?
3. Why did they say [yo form of a verb] instead of the [tú form of a verb]?
4. Tell your partner how they would respond to this question, "What do you want?" (Phrase in Spanish)
5. Tell your partner how they would respond to this question, "What don't you have?" (Phrase in Spanish)
6. Tell your partner how they would respond to this question, "Why did you go to Djibouti?" (Phrase in Spanish)
7. Tell your partner how they would respond, "How are you?" / "Are you happy or are you sad?" (Phrase in Spanish)

I think it's helping push some of my kids and also giving me more opportunities to applaud my kids for figuring out Spanish and also challenging themselves and pushing themselves.  Also, I want them to hear that different form (while I point to it) and for their brain to be able to recognize it as a little different from other forms even if they can't reproduce it yet!

*Disclaimer* This is only every once in awhile and only to occasionally give the brain a break from all of the rich Comprehensible Input.  It also requires some higher level thinking since they have to understand the story details at times to know how the character would answer.  I want to use this to encourage more students to be active participants.

TPRS year 5 - Agentes Assessment

So I was looking at one of the assessments for the Spanish 1 book Agentes Secretos y el mural de Picasso.  Let me be clear in that I felt quite rushed in the book this semester with block scheduling.  And I personally got tired of having an entire quarter revolve around the book and not have as much fun with storytelling.  But I think I know what to do to improve that next semester when we do the Piratas book.

The way that we assessed was in four areas: Reading, Writing, Listening, & Speaking*

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.

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.

Día 106 - patience

Ok.  So I have a class that LOVES to use as much English as possible.  I think I've created a bit of a monster because they tend to blurt things out in English and I've honored it by going with it.

My thoughts have been, I can help them translate a phrase.  But I can more than ever see the two words rule of Ben Slavic as being important.  So much time can be wasted in English.  I would rather them just use as little English as possible so we can practice the structures in Spanish.

Yesterday I kind of failed (thus the name of the previous entry) and I actually stopped class a little early by stating... "Guys, there's a little too much English today and I'm just going to end class early because I'm frustrated with it and I don't want to yell."

I know it wasn't the best course of action.  If there were a kid who wanted to end class early, he would just speak in English way too much from now on to frazzle me.  Sure... it's possible.  But I am not saying I will let it happen anymore.  It was a wake up call for me to be more pro-active about production.  I am not referring to making students repeat what I say.  I want them to TRY in the target language.  In TPRS, they do learn how to speak in the language, but laziness compels us all to take the easy road sometimes.

So today when some students spoke in English during the story, I paused.  I looked into the class with a blank look.  The question was that a girl wants to buy a big wig in a store.  The wig costs the other hand of a student.  (In a previous story, something else cost him his first hand).  I staired blankly when a girl suggested that it cost "His other hand".  Eventually some students tried to explain in Spanish what the student wanted to say.  I wasn't sure if they remembered, but a students said "Otra mano" (other hand... WITH feminine agreement! WOW).  This happened at a few times in the class and it seemed to work well.  At the end of class, I explained that I hope no one feels bad.  If I think they can try to say something in Spanish, I will patiently wait for them to from now on.

We'll see how it goes.

Posted by el Señor Jordan at 12:18 PM

Día 17 - Weekend Activity 2

Today I started off class with one of the warm ups.  We looked at a piropo (pick up line) in Spanish.

Then in class, the following was my "lesson plan":
----------------------------------

Durante el fin de semana....

     During the weekend

Fui al cine
   I went to the movie theatre.
Hablé por teléfono.
     I talked on the phone
Comí en un restaurante.   
     I ate in a restaurant.
No bailé
     I didn’t dance.
---------------------------------
Now I saw "lesson plan" loosely because we were able to focus on one sentence for a majority of the class.  Each class was different.  It is seriously crazy how good my kids are getting at playing the game.

Every story, as usual came out completely different.  I started off telling the class: Durante el fin de semana, fui al cine, while pointing to the board and the individual words.  The students responded as they were supposed to: oooOOOOooooh!  And from there I asked: ¿Con quién fui al cine?  (With whom did I go to the movie theatre?)  Some remembered the word from previous lessons and said: la esposa (wife).  It is neat to see that simply by conversing in the language how quickly the kids can pick up words.  It's important to assess them, but it is getting to the point where it feels like we're hanging out every day.

What surprises me more is the desire from most of the students in class to add the output.  Now in previous years, my students were forced to respond to a question in Spanish usually by various methods.  The end result was most of them were not comfortable enough with the language yet to produce the output.  With TPRS, each day the students help more and more in the stories to add different details.  It is so true that adding in the details is really easy when you tell the story.  Each class' personality will shape the vocabulary that we learn.  But since we're practicing structures, the vocabulary is like the icing on the cake.  But as my fifth year of teaching, I have never had so many students wanting to blurt out answers to questions.  I think part of it is the desire for them to help me in keeping the story moving.  If they don't answer, I will assume they don't understand.  If they don't understand, I'll have to stay on the same things over and over again without adding much additional information.  So these past few weeks have trained them very well.

I'm so excited for each day of teaching.  I remember that a teacher once told me that you should try to do at least one thing each day in your class that you enjoy.  With TPRS, I've found an entire class period of something that I enjoy.  It makes the classroom come alive with the language so much more than I had ever imagined.

Today based on my "lesson plan," I had students going on dates with one another, going to other's houses with 10 ugly fat smelly girls.  A lot of the suggestions are coming from the students...

It all started in one class like this...  keep in mind there is some additional circling that I do in here but I have tried to abridge the story for you to see the progression.

Clase, ¿o el profesor fue al cine o Agustín fue al cine?

     (Class, did the professor go to the movies or did Agustín go to the movies?)

Bien clase.  El profesor fue al cine.

     (Good class.  The professor went to the movies)

¿Agustín fue al cine?

     (Did Agustín go to the movies?)

No.  Agustín no fue al cine...

     (No. Agustín didn't go to the movies.)

¿Adónde fue?, clase.

     (Where did he go, class?) ---- take suggestion

Oooooh clase, Agustín fue a la casa de Chinchilla.

     (Oh class.  Agustín went to Chinchilla's house)

¿Fue a la casa de Chinchilla con una chica?

     (Did he go to Chinchilla's house with a girl?) -- Class said "¡Sí! "

Clase, ¿con cuántas chicas fue Agustín a la casa de Chinchilla?

     (Class, with how many girls did Agustín go to Chinchilla's house?)-- suggestions--> 10 girls

OOOOOH.... Agustín fue con 10 chicas.

     (Ooooh. Agustín went with 10 girls)

Clase, ¿las chicas eran muy bonitas o muy feas?

     (Class, were the girls really pretty or really ugly?)

And from there, the class started adding more details and poor Agustín (who was a great sport) went to Chinchilla's house with 10 ugly, fat, smelly girls.  Chinchilla played right along and said "¡Muy bien!" as if to say that's what he wanted all along.