Just had a student tell me after class that she tells her grandmother stories and things we talk about in class to which her grandmother responded, "That doesn't sound like a class!" and my student responded, I love this class.
#ThanksTPRS #ThanksComprehensibleInput
Showing posts with label students. Show all posts
Showing posts with label students. Show all posts
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Saturday, June 22, 2013
TPRS Year 3 - Am I preparing students for success in future Spanish classes?
This is something I have struggled with since switching to TPRS and one of my major insecurities for the coming year.
I ran across some of my former students in Walmart the other day who were taking some Spanish classes in Upward Bound. Evidently the teacher shows my Chistes series to them in class but teaches more traditionally. My students were struggling. One of these was a student who had me for Spanish 1 last year and soared with the language. While she was quieter, I could tell by her warm-ups and writing samples how much of the language she was absorbing.
But she couldn't get the paradigm in this new class with the conjugation and probably being "taught" Spanish out of context.
I guess her grade isn't doing very well. I apologized for not doing a better job preparing her for this experience but told her that the fun part is she is better at communicating in Spanish than many Spanish 1 students taught through traditional methods. Although this still won't change her grade in her class.
This has brought up my own feelings of apprehension about the coming year with teaching in a department of more than ONE. Yikes! I can prepare my students for speaking Spanish and reading Spanish, but can I prepare them for GRAMMAR?
[sigh]
How do others do it without wasting too much time on grammar?
I ran across some of my former students in Walmart the other day who were taking some Spanish classes in Upward Bound. Evidently the teacher shows my Chistes series to them in class but teaches more traditionally. My students were struggling. One of these was a student who had me for Spanish 1 last year and soared with the language. While she was quieter, I could tell by her warm-ups and writing samples how much of the language she was absorbing.
But she couldn't get the paradigm in this new class with the conjugation and probably being "taught" Spanish out of context.
I guess her grade isn't doing very well. I apologized for not doing a better job preparing her for this experience but told her that the fun part is she is better at communicating in Spanish than many Spanish 1 students taught through traditional methods. Although this still won't change her grade in her class.
This has brought up my own feelings of apprehension about the coming year with teaching in a department of more than ONE. Yikes! I can prepare my students for speaking Spanish and reading Spanish, but can I prepare them for GRAMMAR?
[sigh]
How do others do it without wasting too much time on grammar?
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Día 57 - MY students
A student from the local university needs to do a practicum in which they plan out and teach a few days for a few classes. It's nothing major. But it is something that could be incredibly great for your students or it could be something horrible for them.
She hasn't really learned much about TPRS prior to coming and observing last week. But she has been excited about the idea and was able to see a little bit of the language gains one can accomplish through TPRS. The day she observed, we only went over a written story and then made up some different parallel storylines. She came yesterday to do two lessons with two of my classes. The first class went ok. After watching, I'm really glad that I had a little bit of an idea already how to tell a story through TPRS thanks to the workshop this summer. Granted, I still have so many questions and things I need to improve on. The main idea is to circle structures with questions and to go somewhat chronologically.
I noticed I hadn't explained it very well because the first class went in all sorts of different directions and the students (as well as the student teacher) were having a really hard time trying. The good thing is that I was able to model it a little more for her during the 2nd period class and she improved quite a bit between the first hour and the third hour classes.
Today she came back and did even better. The kids were enjoying the language and she was having a good time with them. Overall, I think she did a great considering she'd never learned with this method or really seen it modeled well. Tomorrow she'll come back for a reading with the kids.
But while I've been observing, I have found myself feeling kind of territorial with my Spanish students. They're MY students. I want to teach them. If something isn't taught how I would have taught it, I feel myself get uncomfortable about the concept. It's strange. It feels weird to give up my class to some stranger.
Lastweek I had a student transfer schools and in their new school they told me the teacher is just doing conjugation (the traditional way of teaching) and she's probably going to drop the class! That makes me sad because she did a great job in the class with the language with TPRS.
Long story short, I guess I care about my kids more than I thought I did.
She hasn't really learned much about TPRS prior to coming and observing last week. But she has been excited about the idea and was able to see a little bit of the language gains one can accomplish through TPRS. The day she observed, we only went over a written story and then made up some different parallel storylines. She came yesterday to do two lessons with two of my classes. The first class went ok. After watching, I'm really glad that I had a little bit of an idea already how to tell a story through TPRS thanks to the workshop this summer. Granted, I still have so many questions and things I need to improve on. The main idea is to circle structures with questions and to go somewhat chronologically.
I noticed I hadn't explained it very well because the first class went in all sorts of different directions and the students (as well as the student teacher) were having a really hard time trying. The good thing is that I was able to model it a little more for her during the 2nd period class and she improved quite a bit between the first hour and the third hour classes.
Today she came back and did even better. The kids were enjoying the language and she was having a good time with them. Overall, I think she did a great considering she'd never learned with this method or really seen it modeled well. Tomorrow she'll come back for a reading with the kids.
But while I've been observing, I have found myself feeling kind of territorial with my Spanish students. They're MY students. I want to teach them. If something isn't taught how I would have taught it, I feel myself get uncomfortable about the concept. It's strange. It feels weird to give up my class to some stranger.
Lastweek I had a student transfer schools and in their new school they told me the teacher is just doing conjugation (the traditional way of teaching) and she's probably going to drop the class! That makes me sad because she did a great job in the class with the language with TPRS.
Long story short, I guess I care about my kids more than I thought I did.
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