I had an epiphany today. Today... I-got-it.
Since I've committed to teaching the Standards Based Way, I've tried to re-think how I need to plan my units/lessons with proficiency as the entry, middle and exit point. I was doing backward planning design before but I now realize that I would cheat because of the grammar. I would start with the end assessment and the "I can statements", but I would then look at the grammatical structures and the vocabulary that I had in the unit and arrange things so that I could use them at specific times, as prescribed by my unit packets. For example, Unit 1 is travel and Future tenses, Unit 3 is the Ecology unit with the subjunctive tense, etc. Everything I taught, every Power point, every worksheet, every quiz and IPA was geared towards the mastery of those new structures and vocabulary. But, I did it in a fun way, so most of my kids did enjoy my class and they did learn a lot.
For days, I have been turning in my head how I would approach things differently this year but I couldn't put it together in a cohesive way. So, today, I stayed late in my classroom having a date with my curriculum. I took out the SC State Standards for Language Proficiency, which are basically the ACTFL National Standards and the Tell Project's At-A-Glance handouts given to us by +Thomas Sauer when he came to the SCFLTA conference last winter and I started reading them again. I made a list of the things that I felt my Spanish 3 students already knew and then those skills that they need to have in order to progress from Novice Mids to Novice Highs. (In some skills they are Mids and in others they are Highs).
Then, I looked at my district's unit packets for each quarter and thought PBL was the easiest way to merge these two curricula. I decided that I would do the Amazing Race theme which +Kristy Placido and +Carrie Toth were discussing in Twitter a while back. As I started putting the unit together I was super excited about all of the things that the kids were going to do during Semester 1. Then, I started looking at the language that they would have to use to get there and that is where I stopped myself cold. I literally thought "that is not going to work out because we are supposed to review preterite and imperfect in the first half of Q1 and how are they going to talk about what they will do if we are supposed to be in the past tense". I started trying to figure out weird twists of an Amazing Race game where they would only speak about what they did. As I started getting more and more frustrated by how stupid this was sounding to me, I thought to myself WHY??? Who the heck does that in real life? Nobody only speaks in the past tense or the future tense. There is no reason that my students can't learn and use all of these
tenses right now. The future is a piece of cake and these poor
kids have been marinated in the past tenses for 6
months of Spanish 2, so why continue to torture them with more past
tense for 2 more months of Spanish 3?
I decided right there and then that I would never again let grammar stop me from planning a unit. My kids will be using the present, preterite and future tenses during S1, not because I have to check off some box but because they will need those structures to talk about what they are doing, what they have done and what they are planning to do in their Amazing Race adventures.
Oh and one more thing, as I was looking at all of the novice high I can statements, I was actually sad that my kids can say SO little about themselves and others. That is also, about to change, my friends.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Saturday, August 23, 2014
My Novices are Schooling Me!
Day Three of my new found confidence in ALL of my kids rolled around and I found some profound truths that I had missed before.
When polling my kiddos, I was amazed that 95% of Spanish 1 students are taking Spanish 1 because they want to learn to speak Spanish. As one funny kid said to the class "You never know, I might meet a hot Mexican woman and marry her and how am I going to speak to her if I don't speak Spanish?". When I polled my dream classes of Spanish 3 Honors students, only about 40-50% want to learn how to speak Spanish. The other 50%-60% are there because they want to get into a college of choice and they need the required three years of a World Language to get into it.Once their goal is met, their plan is to be done with Spanish or any other World Language. I plan to change that plan, of course.
As I saw that eagerness to learn the target language in my novices, I vowed that I would try my hardest not to beat it out of them [not literally speaking, ¡por supuesto!], the way that I must have inadvertently and unintentionally been doing it in previous years. I typically have a 30-35% failure rate in Spanish 1. In my defense, I'm 15-20 points below the national average of 50% and those who do pass, excel in Spanish 2. So, I am and have been a good teacher, just not a good teacher for ALL my students.
Somewhere in our Spanish 1 classes, something is happening or not happening that is really discouraging those eager kids who want to learn how to speak Spanish. Now, realistically speaking, as teachers we can only do so much. After all, a number of those students think that they will learn to speak Spanish by osmosis and not have to do any of the work or put any effort into the process. But, I am specifically speaking and thinking about those students who do try and who desperately want to succeed but for whom the curriculum that we teach makes this a simply unattainable goal. I am putting the responsibility on me, to be an encourager and to teach in a way that gives every child the opportunity to have at least a nugget of success every single day that they are in my class. Some will get a pea size nugget and some will hit a gold mine. Some students will dig a few inches and hit gold and some may have to mine for a few days to find something. Regardless, I want them all to get something that tells them that the excitement that they had on Day 1, 2 and 3 will be rewarded.
I also discovered that I had been too quick to judge books by their cover. I am thinking of one particular kid, who would previously have irritated the you know what out of me and whose behavior I would have shut down very quickly in the past. He is an attention seeking kid but he is the kid who is the most excited to learn Spanish. On Day 3, he was asking me "come se dice I need a piece of paper". Instead of telling him that he needed to come in with all of his materials, I taught him how to ask for what he needed. He excitedly said it to me in Spanish from memory and with a great accent. I pointed him to my free stash of paper and was so happy with his success that I forgot to remind him of the expectation that he needed to come to school with all of his materials. I'll let you draw your own conclusion as to what else he may or may not have in mind for his future as far as his motivation to learn Spanish.
I thought I would teach my novices all of the great things that I had learned during the last six months. What I didn't bargain on was that my novices would be schooling me.
When polling my kiddos, I was amazed that 95% of Spanish 1 students are taking Spanish 1 because they want to learn to speak Spanish. As one funny kid said to the class "You never know, I might meet a hot Mexican woman and marry her and how am I going to speak to her if I don't speak Spanish?". When I polled my dream classes of Spanish 3 Honors students, only about 40-50% want to learn how to speak Spanish. The other 50%-60% are there because they want to get into a college of choice and they need the required three years of a World Language to get into it.Once their goal is met, their plan is to be done with Spanish or any other World Language. I plan to change that plan, of course.
As I saw that eagerness to learn the target language in my novices, I vowed that I would try my hardest not to beat it out of them [not literally speaking, ¡por supuesto!], the way that I must have inadvertently and unintentionally been doing it in previous years. I typically have a 30-35% failure rate in Spanish 1. In my defense, I'm 15-20 points below the national average of 50% and those who do pass, excel in Spanish 2. So, I am and have been a good teacher, just not a good teacher for ALL my students.
Somewhere in our Spanish 1 classes, something is happening or not happening that is really discouraging those eager kids who want to learn how to speak Spanish. Now, realistically speaking, as teachers we can only do so much. After all, a number of those students think that they will learn to speak Spanish by osmosis and not have to do any of the work or put any effort into the process. But, I am specifically speaking and thinking about those students who do try and who desperately want to succeed but for whom the curriculum that we teach makes this a simply unattainable goal. I am putting the responsibility on me, to be an encourager and to teach in a way that gives every child the opportunity to have at least a nugget of success every single day that they are in my class. Some will get a pea size nugget and some will hit a gold mine. Some students will dig a few inches and hit gold and some may have to mine for a few days to find something. Regardless, I want them all to get something that tells them that the excitement that they had on Day 1, 2 and 3 will be rewarded.
I also discovered that I had been too quick to judge books by their cover. I am thinking of one particular kid, who would previously have irritated the you know what out of me and whose behavior I would have shut down very quickly in the past. He is an attention seeking kid but he is the kid who is the most excited to learn Spanish. On Day 3, he was asking me "come se dice I need a piece of paper". Instead of telling him that he needed to come in with all of his materials, I taught him how to ask for what he needed. He excitedly said it to me in Spanish from memory and with a great accent. I pointed him to my free stash of paper and was so happy with his success that I forgot to remind him of the expectation that he needed to come to school with all of his materials. I'll let you draw your own conclusion as to what else he may or may not have in mind for his future as far as his motivation to learn Spanish.
I thought I would teach my novices all of the great things that I had learned during the last six months. What I didn't bargain on was that my novices would be schooling me.
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
My Conversion on the First Day of School
This proficiency and performance based teaching and learning does a funny thing to a world language teacher. It turns her neat world with all of its preconceived ideas about language learners upside down. It also completely removes the elitism that, I think, pervades the teaching of World Languages.
Up until last year, I thought that "some" kids should not be in Spanish because they were too low academically, or too unmotivated to learn, or not college material or failing in other subjects, etc. If they couldn't write properly in English, how could they write in Spanish? If they didn't know English grammar, how on earth would they EVER be able to learn how to speak and write Spanish properly? If they had low Math scores, well... that went hand in hand with difficulty learning another language. At least, that is what someone told me that the research showed - not that I ever got my hands on said research. So, in the past, when my students showed up in my classroom with all of their struggles and baggage, I assessed within the first month, who I thought would succeed and who would fail in my class. Funny thing is that I was generally proven right, particularly at the novice level.
Then, this summer, a funny thing happened on my way to a new year. I hooked up with a radical group of world language educators who wrote and spoke about proficiency based learning and testing, throwing grammar based approaches out, having realistic expectations and approaching world language teaching with an inclusive approach. This couldn't have come at a better time, as I was rather dismayed at the end of last year, when I realized that I had been assigned 3 Spanish 1 groups this year. After all, "those children" who shouldn't be in Spanish, are generally found in those novice classes.
After spending 2 months in Twitter Chats #langchat, Google+ Group @langcamp sessions and sharing wonderful ideas with more experienced colleagues, I felt that I needed to walk the talk. So, I took several deep breaths and became determined that no matter who ended up in my class, I would welcome them with open arms and believe from the bottom of my heart that they could learn Spanish IF I taught it in a way that they could grasp it.
This week, I met my new students and they didn't look any different outwardly that they had in the past. But, I felt a surge of emotion when I saw all of them. I looked and saw in the anxious faces of "those children" failure written across their faces. I looked them in the eye and told them that they COULD learn Spanish. I showed them a video clip of their favorite sports stars and actors speaking different languages. I created an activity on the first day that ensured 100% success from every single member of the class. They left Spanish 1 being able to say 3 short sentences and they met one of the I can statements for a novice level. There was a warmth in the room that I had never felt before in a novice class, there were smiles, there was engagement and there was a connection with each other and with me. My heart is very full tonight knowing that for one day, all of my students experienced the success of learning to say something meaningful in another language.
Up until last year, I thought that "some" kids should not be in Spanish because they were too low academically, or too unmotivated to learn, or not college material or failing in other subjects, etc. If they couldn't write properly in English, how could they write in Spanish? If they didn't know English grammar, how on earth would they EVER be able to learn how to speak and write Spanish properly? If they had low Math scores, well... that went hand in hand with difficulty learning another language. At least, that is what someone told me that the research showed - not that I ever got my hands on said research. So, in the past, when my students showed up in my classroom with all of their struggles and baggage, I assessed within the first month, who I thought would succeed and who would fail in my class. Funny thing is that I was generally proven right, particularly at the novice level.
Then, this summer, a funny thing happened on my way to a new year. I hooked up with a radical group of world language educators who wrote and spoke about proficiency based learning and testing, throwing grammar based approaches out, having realistic expectations and approaching world language teaching with an inclusive approach. This couldn't have come at a better time, as I was rather dismayed at the end of last year, when I realized that I had been assigned 3 Spanish 1 groups this year. After all, "those children" who shouldn't be in Spanish, are generally found in those novice classes.
After spending 2 months in Twitter Chats #langchat, Google+ Group @langcamp sessions and sharing wonderful ideas with more experienced colleagues, I felt that I needed to walk the talk. So, I took several deep breaths and became determined that no matter who ended up in my class, I would welcome them with open arms and believe from the bottom of my heart that they could learn Spanish IF I taught it in a way that they could grasp it.
This week, I met my new students and they didn't look any different outwardly that they had in the past. But, I felt a surge of emotion when I saw all of them. I looked and saw in the anxious faces of "those children" failure written across their faces. I looked them in the eye and told them that they COULD learn Spanish. I showed them a video clip of their favorite sports stars and actors speaking different languages. I created an activity on the first day that ensured 100% success from every single member of the class. They left Spanish 1 being able to say 3 short sentences and they met one of the I can statements for a novice level. There was a warmth in the room that I had never felt before in a novice class, there were smiles, there was engagement and there was a connection with each other and with me. My heart is very full tonight knowing that for one day, all of my students experienced the success of learning to say something meaningful in another language.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Creating Community from The First Day
I taught FLES for several years before I switched to HS and one of the things that I loved about teaching elementary was the sense of community that the children had with the teacher and each other. I started teaching HS 4 years ago and I noticed that community is missing from the high school classes. Every year, we get to the end of the year and some kids still do not know every classmate's name.
That will change this year.
I plan to create community in my Spanish classes and plan to start from Day 1. I will tell my story in the TL with lots of pictures. This year, I plan to play them my favorite song (an authentic song, of course!) and use Memes to show them some of the classroom expectations. For my Spanish 1s (novice low), I plan to do Ben Slavic's circling balls activity (as posted in Carrie Toths's blog http://somewheretoshare.com/), have students introduce themselves to each other and the class, have them pick a favorite something/someone by doing a M&M activity.
Each student will pick one M&M and then I will give them their category. I will provide some options for them to choose from and will rely heavily on cognates. The students will draw their favorite item and write the word/name on the paper. When telling my story, I will model "My favorite .......is ....." but I will accept one word answers from them.
The Categories are: Red = favorite subject, Blue = favorite sport, Yellow = favorite actor, Brown = favorite season, Orange = favorite social media Ap/tool, Green = Favorite food. For my logical/mathematical kids, I will create have a graph on the SmartBoard with each color so that we can compare how many people prefer a color most or least.
I have to say that this is the first time that I am really excited about teaching novices. I have learned SO MUCH through my Twitter PLN that I can't wait to start these kids on the journey to being life long learners of Spanish.
I will also be teaching Spanish 3 Honors and I plan to also get the kids to know each other. I am going to have them do the Speed Dating game with a list of questions that they will ask each other. I also want to adapt Vacation Wars (Carrie Toth's idea from her blog) and get them started telling us their story. Their first homework will be to come back the next class period and do a short presentation to the class to tell us who they are. This will be a formative assessment (their grade will be strictly based on completion) that should give me an idea regarding where they are in their presentation skills.
In order to do all of these great ideas, I think I am going to have to change the layout of my classroom and it is kind of freaking me out. I have had a U shaped classroom for the last 2 years and it has worked quite well. But, these activities require the desks to be in pairs or pods of 4.
Note: I teach on A/B block schedule for 90 minutes.
That will change this year.
I plan to create community in my Spanish classes and plan to start from Day 1. I will tell my story in the TL with lots of pictures. This year, I plan to play them my favorite song (an authentic song, of course!) and use Memes to show them some of the classroom expectations. For my Spanish 1s (novice low), I plan to do Ben Slavic's circling balls activity (as posted in Carrie Toths's blog http://somewheretoshare.com/), have students introduce themselves to each other and the class, have them pick a favorite something/someone by doing a M&M activity.
Each student will pick one M&M and then I will give them their category. I will provide some options for them to choose from and will rely heavily on cognates. The students will draw their favorite item and write the word/name on the paper. When telling my story, I will model "My favorite .......is ....." but I will accept one word answers from them.
The Categories are: Red = favorite subject, Blue = favorite sport, Yellow = favorite actor, Brown = favorite season, Orange = favorite social media Ap/tool, Green = Favorite food. For my logical/mathematical kids, I will create have a graph on the SmartBoard with each color so that we can compare how many people prefer a color most or least.
I have to say that this is the first time that I am really excited about teaching novices. I have learned SO MUCH through my Twitter PLN that I can't wait to start these kids on the journey to being life long learners of Spanish.
I will also be teaching Spanish 3 Honors and I plan to also get the kids to know each other. I am going to have them do the Speed Dating game with a list of questions that they will ask each other. I also want to adapt Vacation Wars (Carrie Toth's idea from her blog) and get them started telling us their story. Their first homework will be to come back the next class period and do a short presentation to the class to tell us who they are. This will be a formative assessment (their grade will be strictly based on completion) that should give me an idea regarding where they are in their presentation skills.
In order to do all of these great ideas, I think I am going to have to change the layout of my classroom and it is kind of freaking me out. I have had a U shaped classroom for the last 2 years and it has worked quite well. But, these activities require the desks to be in pairs or pods of 4.
Note: I teach on A/B block schedule for 90 minutes.
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