Oh the Places They Will Go…..

Sometimes I feel like a broken record but I will keep saying clear targets that guide instruction are key to success. The World Readiness Standards for Learning Languages outline what we should teach. And the first standard is communication. If you agree that the reason to teach students a language is so they can communicate, then the next natural question is “how well will they communicate?”. It is NOT up to us to decide the details of how students will communicate, such as when or where or with whom. We do not know what the future holds for our students. Nor should we make assumptions that ultimately limit their opportunity by deciding their future. We cannot decide that they aren’t really going to travel abroad so they only need to learn xyz. Our job as teachers is to open the world to our students and prepare them to the best of our ability for what the future could present our students. It is also to provide hope and opportunity to students who may not have even realized or considered that it was possible.

My academic career has been focused in a large urban district. Many of our students have not left their neighborhood much less travel to other states. It is understandable that the idea of our students traveling abroad highly unlikely. Shelby County Schools (SCS) was once called Memphis City Schools (MCS) and the dividing line of wealth and poverty in Memphis was and is the county line. MCS served (serves) inner city poor students. While being painfully familiar with the daily realities of our students, learning another language is often the farthest thing from their mind much less a less commonly taught language. Nonetheless we see the urgency to provide students with opportunities to broaden their horizons. To those ends we offer the more popular languages like Spanish Latin, German and French but we also offer Arabic, Russian, Japanese and Chinese. Several years ago, our only International Studies High School at the time offered Russian and while it was not a big program it was a strong and successful program. The teacher at the time was dedicated to pushing students to exceed their own performance expectations much less others expectations in a community that was largely insular and impoverished. Within this community however, students were focused on developing communicative language skills and competed annually in the Olympiada of Spoken Russian. At the Olympiada third or fourth year outstanding contestants at regional ACTR Olympiada contests have the opportunity to participate in an international Olympiada contest that takes place in Moscow.  This school has a reputation of regularly earning the opportunity for their students to travel to Moscow annually to compete. While some students eagerly embraced the opportunity others did not.

Picture this…Two best friends enroll in Russian to stay together. They quickly fall in love with the language and the course and as they finish level two they both eagerly enroll in Russian three. One friend was optimistic and eager to travel abroad, to experience all life had to offer her. The other was much more timid and quite content to stay home. She was not open to even trying new food! In the spring of their third year, a Russian Senator was speaking at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon. In good will and support of the program, the Chamber extended four tickets to attend the luncheon. These two young ladies, their teacher and myself attended. We were seated at a table in the back of the room Both girls wearing their “Russian Rocks” t-shirts in a room of VPs and executives from international companies including FedEx, International Paper, and more. The Senator gave his speech and finally opened the floor for questions. As silence fell over the room and adults waited patiently for someone to be brave enough to ask a question, our fearless Russian student stood and was acknowledged. She then stunned the room addressing the senator in Russian while her best friend watched. The room was awed and the Senator was pleasantly surprised. He answered her question, and several others. When the lunch ended, the Senator came directly to our students. He proceeded to spend the rest of his time with them conversing in Russian and English. The attendees in the room were convinced these were college students. To say they were shocked to hear they were juniors at an inner city public high school was perhaps an understatement. The student who initiated the public Russian conversation with the Senator, had won the Olympiada of Spoken Russian that spring and was headed to Moscow that summer. Her best friend however, made the biggest shift. She tried new things and approached her Russian teacher that summer to say she was ready to try new things. She went on to place in the Olymipada the following spring and travel to Moscow that summer. She was forever changed by that exchange at the luncheon. This is just one anecdote but it has profoundly reinforced my beliefs in our role of bringing the world to our students.

We know not what our students will become. The role of the teacher is like a gardener who moves before seeing the benefit of their labor. We plant seeds in our students, we show them possibilities and challenge them to imagine things they may have never thought possible.  We do this because we do not know what lies around the corner. We do not know what opportunity will present itself and fundamentally change the course of our students. We know our role as teachers is not just to prepare students for the inevitable but to be prepared to seize the opportunities that present themselves. In a World Language classroom, we prepare our students to communicate. Communicate in whatever context presents itself in the real world, not in artificial contexts in our classrooms. We prepare the students to seize the day… because otherwise, we reinforce their limiting beliefs, contradicting the very core of what we do.

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

You’re on your own. And know what you know.

And you are the one who’ll decide where to go…”

-Dr. Seuss, Oh the Places You’ll Go!

 

 

On their own path this week (04/16/16)

It’s been a busy couple of weeks of learning with teachers around the country, including the yet again amazing TELL Collab in Nashville last weekend (see the Google Drive notes). While I haven’t had a chance to share my weekly blog summary, all the travel hasn’t kept me from keeping up with language teacher blogs from around the country. As the school year is nearing and end, many of us are having lightbulb moments, regret moments and visionary moments for the future. Take a look at some of the posts that caught my attention over the past couple of weeks.

  • I Don’t Do Standards-Based Grading, BUT…proficiencygradingcone

    Like it or not, GRADING continues to be big deal for teachers. And while I don’t have the powers to get rid of grades for teachers, it was great to read Spanish teacher, Laura Sexton’s recent post on how to figure out a grading system that works for her and her students. Sure, you could probably argue with Laura about why she made some of these decision and my guess is she would welcome feedback on her post, but I liked it because of the important messages her system communicates to her learners.  Read Laura’s post –> 

  • So You Use A Textbook…Stop Judging Yourself

    If you get together with a group of language teacher, the textbook question undoubtedly will come up. Next to grammar, it seems to be one of those topics we all have a very strong opinion about. Even my own changes depending on the circumstances a teacher finds themselves in. However, I have been consistent in saying that textbooks are neither the problem nor the solution to language learning. Spanish teacher, Valerie Shull, shares her own aha-moment and reminds us “that you control the textbook–not the other way around.” This using the book as a learning tool (resource) that could help advance student learning seems like a very healthy approach to this hot button issue. Read Valerie’s post –> 

  • Weekend Chat Speed Dating

    Getting students to use language to exchange information in a real-life context. I can’t think of a better goal for a language classroom and yet that is hard to do and I often get asked by teachers: what does that look like in a proficiency-oriented classroom. Well, Spanish teacher Andrea Brown, shared an example from her classroom recently that explained how she got what looks to be a fairly large class talking using language for a purpose. And she even shared a template of questions that might be helpful for others. Read Andrea’s post –> 

  • Primacy/Recency Lesson Plan Template

    Using some brain research in lesson planning is something that would help all of us and I’ve been trying to be much more intentional about my own planning keeping in my what I’ve learned from David Sousa’s important book called How the Brain Works. It was exciting to see Spanish teacher, Sara-Elizabeth (aka Musicuentos) take some of Sousa’s thoughts and put them into a useable template. Finding the right activities for students is only half the planning battle. Ordering activities keeping in mind that students remember best that which comes first, second best that which comes at the end and least that which comes in the middle, is the other half. Read Sara-Elizabeth post –> 

  • The Power of the Do-Over

    French teacher, Megan reminds us of another important message that often gets lost in the grading discussion: when does the learning end for students. Her charge to consider what happens when we don’t allow re-takes has been sitting my head for some time now: “Prohibiting students from retaking failed assessments sends a message – a dangerous one – that if you don’t acquire knowledge or skills at the same rate as your peers, you will not be successful.” Using proficiency as a guiding principle for language teaching emphasizes the need to rethink at what rates students are learning. Read Megan’s post –> 

  • Get it right from the beginning or get it right in the end

    It’s always interesting to follow language learning conversations outside of the US. While some of the labeling of educational practices might be different, it shouldn’t surprise anyone to find that many teachers struggle with the same things. French educator, Steve Smith, shares an interesting analysis that attempts to identify two different ways at looking at language learning: “The label the first ‘get it right from the beginning’ and the second ‘get it right by the end’.” I think both Steve and the original authors might be onto something here and if you’ve been thinking about the notion of a growth mindset, you might enjoy reading Steve’s post –> 

The Life-changing Magic of Tidying the Learning Environment

Book_Review_Kondo_The_Life-Changing_Magic_of_Tidying_Up_feature-minMarie Kondo’s book The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up is all the rage on social media and #1 on the New York Times best seller list. It is certainly a novel approach to keeping a neat, functional house that begins with a radical clean-out or “decluttering,” as the book calls it. She maintains that storage experts are hoarders. The idea is that organizing and arranging clutter does not make it any less clutter.

So, as is my tendency, I began to think about the classroom. In the world language field, we have learned to grab everything we can to help us in providing quality learning experiences for our students. How many conferences have you been to where you came home with a suitcase full of handouts containing suggestions to improve the language learning experience? Every time someone shows you an activity they have used successfully in their classroom, do you say, “May I have a copy of that?” Are you the teacher who keeps all the sample books from the last adoption? What about the old literary magazines you subscribed to last year but don’t have the money for this year? And the realia you collected on your trip to Europe 10 years ago? Let’s face it. We’re hoarders. “Yeah,” you say, “so what’s your point?”

My point is this: A proficiency-based classroom is a very targeted classroom. The teacher uses a curriculum that is based on state and national standards and units derived therefrom. It requires a laser-like focus on the part of teacher and students alike. Yet our collection of “resources” does not always reflect such a focus. It rather reflects a kind of desperation that fears that, should we let go of all the things we have collected, we will suddenly find ourselves without something we need.

That brings me to a question. Is it possible that our eclectic collections of “stuff” in our classrooms result in fuzzy, unfocused thinking in our planning? Do the many options of resources, activities, props, and realia we have collected over the years cause us to give in to the temptation to choose one of these things to use and they try to maneuver the learning target to fit our choice? If so, I fear we may be in danger of losing the essential focus of a proficiency-based classroom.

It goes back to the idea of backward-design lesson planning. We, along with our students, determine our learning targets, decide how we will know we have reached those targets, and then plan how to get there. From our collections of stuff, we need only consider those items that can efficiently and productively help our students down the path toward their targets. The rest is our security blanket “just in case.”

There’s something else to consider—our students. Maybe you’re one of those people who feels you function just fine in the middle of clutter, or perhaps you’re one who takes great pride in the way you can organize everything you hoard so that you know exactly where you put the things you haven’t used since your first year. But what about your students? Can they function in the middle of clutter? You want to include them in the selection of resources and tools they will use to work toward their targets. Can they figure out your organization system? How can they sift through your entire collection to help choose the tools they will use to meet their personal learning goals? And what about your students who are ADHD? Autistic? Physically disabled? Surely these students, like all our students, deserve a focused environment that minimizes the effects of their personal challenges.

Finally, a classroom where we have everything we have amassed over the years misses the opportunity to communicate a message. The proficiency-based classroom needs to speak to you when you walk in.  It needs to say to students, “Welcome. You will find yourself at home here. Everything in this room has a purpose. This room has been intentionally designed to help you reach your learning goals. It is OUR room. We will work together here to acquire a new language and culture, and everything you see is going to help us. Leave the rest of the world behind. Here we are completely focused on our task.”

So when you get ready to clean out your classroom at the end of this school year, why not resist the temptation to just organize the things you hoard? Why not look at your classroom with fresh eyes and with your thoughts focused on the targets your students will need to reach next year? Ask yourself the question, “Do I need this _________________ (resource, activity, prop, etc.) in order to help my students move toward one of their targets and acquire the skills they need to use this language in the real world?” No? Then do you have the courage to remove it from the learning environment?

I know, it’s really scary. Your budget is tiny, and your extra requests are almost never granted. It’s okay. Your students aren’t taught by stuff. They’re taught by you and through their own discovery. The stuff is just a vehicle. If it makes you feel better, however, box the things that don’t fit your learning targets and put them in the book room or take them home.  We’ll talk again in 5 years to see if you have looked at them since. But consider this—you spend endless hours planning your lessons, including the learning experiences they contain. Why not prepare the environment such that your students have their best opportunity to flourish through those lessons? I can’t wait to hear how focusing the learning environment helps you focus the learning. Enjoy!

Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsdkrebs/7264707952/

On their own path this week (03/26/16)

While many teachers appear to be on spring break around the country, many of them are also taking the opportunity to reflect on their practices. Let’s face it, a teacher’s job is never done and it is hard for us to turn off our brains thinking about improving that lesson, finding that resource, and developing that next assessment. This week provided us with a treasure trove of blog posts and here are just some that caught my attention.

  • Teaching for Proficiency … A Career Long Journey

    Ever feel overwhelmed and don’t think that you can really make this switch to a proficiency-based classroom? Before you go back to your language teaching past, read this post by elementary and middle school Spanish teacher Valerie Shull. In the middle of her own journey she shares some important insights to what she wish she knew when she got started: 1) You are not alone, 2) Be generous and forgiving with yourself and others, and 3) You’re never done. What an important message for anyone to hear every now and then. Read Valerie’s post –> 

  • 90% TL: just do it!

    Screenshot 2016-03-26 07.50.21You can’t go to a world language conference these days without hearing a discussion about the importance of using the target language. We have the ACTFL position statement, the TELL Project reminds us and provides several helpful tools, but when you are standing in that classroom in front of 34 pairs of eyes, it is a much different story. And from my own experience as a teacher, I admit: THIS IS HARD! We often blame our students for not wanting to commit to using the target language more, but as French teacher, Wendy Farabaugh points out so wisely: “I, however, was twice as terrified as they were. I’ve heard it said that the teacher is often what holds a class back from 90% TL in class. And for me, it was SO TRUE”. In her blockbuster post, Wendy goes on to share how she did and more importantly how her students reacted to it. Read this post if you are struggling with target language use. Read this post if you don’t think it can be done. Just read this post, be inspired and then “just do it!” Read Wendy’s post –> 

  • The evolution of my interpretive reading tasks

    As a field we have become pretty good at developing authentic tasks for the interpersonal and presentational modes of communication. A quick google search will yield in a ton of good examples and rubrics to go along with them. It’s the interpretive mode that is a much different story and coming first in the language acquisition process, it’s one we should spend more time thinking about. Spanish teacher, Maris Hawkins, shares an important ACTFL resource that she used to help get a better understanding of how to assess reading with her students. Read Maris’ post –> 

  • Nerd Out: Finding Professional Development Opportunities That Inspire Lifelong Learning

    Finding just the right professional development is not an easy task and it is easy to go down the blaming everyone else for bad PD road. For those reasons I’m including this blog post from elementary school teacher Tamera Musiowsky-Borneman, who reminds us to not  “be afraid of being a nerd. We all have a little in us. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be teachers.” and provides some suggestions for improving your professional development journey. Read Tamera’s post –> 

  • From the Path 2 Proficiency: Another take on the G word …

    Oh, what would we do without grammar? Admit it, you love grammar! I did. It was just so logical (thanks German language) and made sense. Unfortunately, it seldom if ever helped my students learn the language. Don’t miss this great post from educator, Alyssa Villarreal, in which she reminds us that grammar doesn’t have to be a bad thing, if “Grammar instruction is aligned to our targets and be presented within a meaningful context while grammar information is easily accessible so that we best prepare our students to meet or exceed performance targets.” Read Alyssa’s post –>

  • From the Path 2 Proficiency: Finding Resources is the Hardest Thing

    Finding the right resources can be very time-consuming, and educator Sharon Deering, provides some guiding question you should ask yourself BEFORE looking for that perfect resource. “Does this text fit well into my overall curriculum and move us toward the learning target? Is it age appropriate in terms of content and interest? Can the students effectively interact with this text and thus acquire or solidify some new skill(s)? With whom can I share the outstanding resources I find?” Find some answers to these and more questions in her post. Read Sharon’s post –>

  • From the Path 2 Proficiency: Solving the Note Taking Puzzle

    Have you ever been told: “You are not supposed to be the center of attention. You are supposed to be facilitating the learning.” How do you do that and still provide input to your students? Spanish teacher, Rosalyn Rhodes tackles the note taking puzzle in her latest post. She figured out a way to provide input to students, allow them to process it and immediately start building ownership in the target language. Oh and she even shares her resources. Don’t miss this post! Read Rosalyn’s post –>

 

 

 

Finding Resources Is the Hardest Thing

“Effective language learning experiences are facilitated by the use of strategically selected resources designed to support course, unit and lesson performance objectives”

the Teacher Effectiveness for Language Learning (TELL) Framework tells us. I was sitting in a meeting the other day listening to one of the publishers of new textbooks for the state of Texas, when it came home to me once again what a mammoth task confronts the language teacher in terms of the selection of resources.

About the time we began to realize that the true use of language is in the real world and that students need to confront authentic oral and written text created in the real world, technology took a giant leap forward.  The internet became readily available, and suddenly blog posts, newscasts, ebooks, magazines and any other number of text sources became available for use in the classroom. Teachers greeted this windfall of resources with the enthusiasm it deserved, but they soon discovered that pulling resources adequate for their purposes in the classroom took an unbelievable amount of time and energy, and that often, after a tremendous investment of said time and energy, the resource didn’t work, and they were hard-pressed to explain exactly why.

So how do we go about selecting appropriate resources that will help our students build the skills they need to use a new language in the real world?  Here are some questions we can ask ourselves:

What is the expected learning outcome for this lesson?  

It’s that old adage—begin with the end in mind. A lot of us think of backward design as something that’s done in curriculum writing, but it pays to do lesson planning the same way. It is tempting to browse the internet, the textbook, or the various supplemental resources in our classrooms and from some resource we choose, derive a learning target. The result is often a mismatch between what happens daily in the classroom and the students’ proficiency targets. If we begin by establishing proficiency targets with the students, we are led to ask what skills the students need to acquire in order to reach that target.  Those skills then become learning targets, and both we and the students have a solid idea of where we are going.  Now it is much more likely we will choose resources that can lead to the expected outcomes.

What are the particular needs and interests of my students?  

We know that text is most engaging when it is relevant, appropriately rigorous, and has an emotional connection.  Any piece of text that is chosen in light of the day’s learning targets merits a second look to see whether or not it is interesting to the students and will engage them. For example, a formal letter is not as likely to engage students as an email or a quote from Facebook, Twitter, or some other social media outlet. Letters are not highly relevant to today’s student, but students use social media every day. The challenge is to find text from social media that is sufficiently rigorous to stretch the students’ decoding and comprehension while having an emotional component—excitement, disappointment, anger, fear—that is age appropriate and engaging.

Does this text add to my curriculum and meet a need in my classroom?

There is a real temptation when we are searching for resources to go after the “shiny thing”—the resource that looks new or intriguing or fun to use. We need to exercise great care to be sure the text we are choosing fits into the overall learning plan.  Many teachers sacrifice significant, precious instructional time only to find that the resources they have pulled don’t quite serve their intended purpose.  A new resource needs to do more than break the teacher’s boredom or engage the students. The use of any resource must advance the ball in terms of the students’ language acquisition.

What can I do if I cannot locate something that fits my needs?  

Sharing is the teacher’s best friend. The most effective teachers I know are those who have built a network for sharing ideas and resources such that they feel they are part of a team.  These teachers are continually growing and improving their craft, and they have more time and energy for family and activities other than teaching. There are a number of blogs and websites that are wonderful places for sharing. No question. There is, however, no substitute for sharing with close colleagues in your school, your district, or your region. Just remember that sharing is a two-way proposition.  Don’t hesitate to share what you find of value. When we work together, we can provide learning tools that allow our students to acquire the skills to use their new language in the real world.

Taking a piece of text, auditory or written, and turning it into a real learning tool is a demanding task. There are so many different elements to consider. Does this text fit well into my overall curriculum and move us toward the learning target? Does it meet a particular need for one or more of my student? Is it age appropriate in terms of content and interest? Can the students effectively interact with this text and thus acquire or solidify some new skill(s)? Who can help me if I’m struggling with a given resource? With whom can I share the outstanding resources I find? Agreed. It boggles the mind. If, however, we systematically consider the questions noted above, we can arrive at some tools that will help us provide some extremely profitable learning experiences for our students.

Another take on the G word …

Many teachers I meet who are interested in making the shift to a performance driven instructional repertoire have this idea of a false dichotomy. The all or nothing approach – either we teach grammar or we teach toward performance and proficiency.  I can say there are few things in life are that clear-cut. Teaching toward performance and proficiency does not negate the need for grammar instruction. It provides us a cadence to how and when we teach grammar. We need for our students to communicate. If no one can understand them, communication is not possible. Just like if our students lack cultural understanding, they also cannot communicate if they are insulting those with whom they interact, but that is another post. Teaching grammar has a very defined role so long as we honor three basic principles. Grammar instruction is aligned to our targets and be presented within a meaningful context while grammar information is easily accessible so that we best prepare our students to meet or exceed performance targets.

Grammar instruction is aligned to our targets.

While the World Readiness Standards outline for us what we should teach and how to connect it to the student’s native language and community, it is the Proficiency Guidelines that outline for us the pacing of language functions. Textbooks traditionally introduce past tense at the end of level one of modern language courses. By this point, teachers have introduced, present tense (I run, I eat…), simple future (I’m going to study), and maybe commands. While students may be able to form sentences in using these in discrete practice activities, getting students to applying all of these with ease in spoken and written exchanges in another level of communicative ability. It is the difference of knowing how to form it vs. how and when to apply it. In teaching for proficiency we are looking for the latter. We are looking for how and when students use the language they have learned in the unit or lesson.

If we align verb tenses to proficiency levels we would discover that there is a disconnect in how we  pace the introduction of the tenses and when application of this information actually happens. In reading the proficiency guidelines we can see that application and control of the past and future tenses occurs at the Intermediate High proficiency level. In my district, Shelby County Schools (TN), our level one performance target is intermediate low. We are looking to get students to perform at the sentence level all the time. By sentences it is important to note that we are looking for students to move beyond the sentence frames we teach. How can they combine these frames or add some reasoning to the sentence? When we shifted our curriculum to focus on targets, we also shifted our vocabulary instruction to focus on meaningful chunks of language. I am not so concerned about how students fill in the blanks of the sentence frames. The benefit is that students naturally function at the sentence level except that those sentences have been taught as linguistic chunks. So looking at how and when we introduce the mechanics of grammar instruction has to be aligned to our targets. We need students to understand the mechanics of forming past tense but we need them to be in a space and place to APPLY it. Students must be afforded the time to apply and manipulate the pieces of grammar instruction they receive because in the end, it is not what they know about the language but rather what they can DO with the language. We teach “I like” as a lexical item – as a chunk. For students to personalize this or manipulate this to go beyond the memorized chunk we need students to personalize that phrase. For example, moving beyond “I like to run” as a chunk to personalizing it to “I like to run because I run with my dog in the park”. This is a completely realistic phrase for our level one students IF they have the grammar to support it. IF they can conjugate the regular verb “run” they can work towards creating an original sentence that goes beyond the memorized chunk they learned in class. I must point out however that teaching students to conjugate the verb ‘run’ is within the context of talking about what they like to do. It is not just teaching students to conjugate for the sake of conjugating.

If we followed along with the traditional pacing of grammar instruction or pacing supported by textbooks, we lose sight of our ultimate goal – proficiency. Proficiency is built through sustained performances at a certain level. In other words, students have to practice in expected contexts and experiment with recombinations of learned language in order to one day sustain performance across contexts which yields a proficiency level. Teachers absolutely need resources and textbooks can provide that to us, but we must have clear targets that help us screen and make the best choices of resources. Choices that allow students to progress along the performance continuum by equipping them with tools that advance performance.

Grammar instruction is presented within a meaningful context.

We can absolutely teach students grammar for the sake of giving them more information. However, more often than not, teaching grammar without a context, is really just a waste of our time. I don’t know about you but time is a precious commodity to me and the older I get the more precious it becomes. If we are to train students to become proficient language users, then we must present language within the strongest context possible. This includes pacing the introduction of explicit grammar instruction so that grammar is introduced to support the communicative context and the performance target. This could mean that initially students are taught first the I and you forms of the verbs because early on that is what students will focus on – talking about themselves. As students get a firm grasp on talking about themselves and demonstrate they are ready to talk about others, add third person and plural forms of the verb. Or introduce it all at once but only hold them accountable to the singular forms of the verbs.

If we are to truly embrace backwards design, then first and foremost we have to identify what our target is. The target helps us to identify and clarify what grammar is needed when it is could be best introduced to meet the goal. We want to incrementally build the students’ performance in a manner that sets them up for success. It is our responsibility to pace language and content in a way that builds steadily toward the target. Creating a real world context helps us maintain this balance of teaching toward our target. Focusing instruction and student performances on replicating possible real world communicative exchanges helps to pace grammar instruction. Helping students talk about themselves including biographical information such as “I am from but I live in….” or “ I am … years old”; likes and dislikes “ I like to do or eat or watch or listen to…”; building to talking about their family and what they like to do together; and even talking about their community. Helping students express their opinions and preferences or express a need are skills that are everyday life functions. Communicating in these contexts happens predominately in the present tense. Expressing oneself with ease in the present tense takes time. Moving from single sentences building to paragraph length discourse of interconnected sentences takes time and effort. Introducing advanced grammatical chunks without the mechanics helps to build toward that intermediate high performance level while allowing students time to practice and experiment with the language they have recombining these chunks into novel and new expressions of self. Just like input takes time before we can expect output, the same can be said for explicit grammar instruction. If we create real world contexts that are age and performance level appropriate, we can scaffold and spiral in grammar in a meaningful way that will yield increased student success in growing toward and beyond the targets.

Grammar information is easily accessible.

As we introduce grammatical concepts it is important that students have easy access to reference this information as they are practicing for performances. One way to do this is creating a grammar wall. Posting reminders about subject adjective agreement may be something you need to post. Simple verb conjugation, once presented can be posted as well. The concepts often are not difficult nor are the mechanics when students are ready for the information. Post it, let them practice it. Exceptions to the rule? Post it. Providing students access to the concepts they should be applying in their performances will be helpful. Out of sight out of mind applies here. Be sure to explain how to use the wall so students can use it as effectively and independently as possible. As we scaffold more and more information and language chunks in the target language we have to be help students keep it all together and not forget pieces.

Language learning can be a difficult process if we do not focus on making implicit language understandings explicit. By the time middle or high school students enter into language study, their native language is a complex implicit system in which students must focus on making that implicit learning explicit so it can be replicated and developed in the target language. We are not only seeking to transmit the meaning of each sentence frame or vocabulary term, or grammatical concept, ultimately we are looking to create the mental representations for each of the new stems/terms/grammar systems for our students.

Using a grammar wall helps make the grammar explicit, visible and concrete for students. This visual representation of the grammar is critical and needs to be easily accessible for students. The grammar wall also builds in opportunities for differentiation. You can add past tense to your wall even if you have not explicitly taught it. The students who are ready to take the risk of trying advanced grammar to express themselves are able to take those risks but using the wall. It doesn’t take a whole class of direct grammar instruction to empower students to take the risk. Those who are ready will ask or will experiment with the language. To promote comprehensibility and meeting or exceeding the performance targets, make the grammar easily accessible and student friendly.

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Image Credit: http://headguruteacher.com/2013/01/09/teaching-mfl-pedagogical-approaches-that-work/

Solving the Note Taking Puzzle

So, here’s the thing that was happening in my classroom, and it has been making me crazy.  I am fighting every day to be the most engaging and interesting thing in the room so that my students will pay attention to me and learn Spanish.  I am speaking in the target language 90+% of the time with my big, colorful, amazing visuals, pantomiming things they don’t understand, using simplified language, and doing what I believe I am supposed to be doing.  Did you roll your eyes yet? I know.  I would have too.

Are you hearing your admin (or saying to yourself) “You are not supposed to be the center of attention.  You are supposed to be facilitating the learning….”  I get that.  I hear it, but I’ve been fighting it. I felt that I needed to always be the one dancing in front. I mean, my visuals are clear and it’s not a list, right?  I mean, this slide pulls prior knowledge of colors and stores and adds new vocab that I label and we describe… It’s not that bad, right?  Do I sound desperate?  Yeah, I felt desperate.

My principal’s favorite phrase is, “The students should be doing the heavy lifting” but I hadn’t really bought into that until recently when I realized why I was getting so irritated.  I was annoyed that they’re not engaging with my amazing visuals or target language notes.  Why not?  Because they aren’t actually DOING anything while they’re “taking notes”.  Well, that’s not true.  They’re writing down what I write, drawing what I draw, and some awesome eager language-learners are actually responding to my questions.  Those learners are probably 4 out of the 32 kids in my room.  The rest are mostly cooperating, but even on my best day, there are students completely zoned out.  Now, before you sign off this blog saying “Wow, she’s a terrible teacher”, let me share what I’ve done recently to adjust.

Let’s talk before and after…

I realized I needed a different approach to this whole note-giving thing.  One that would put the responsibility on them, but still seem like something fun.  So, I decided to get out of the way.  I rearranged my furniture so the classroom doesn’t have a “front” anymore and changed the traditional notes from a “listen to me” format to a “read and think” format.  My graphic organizer became a reading puzzle.  It doesn’t have the listening component, but seriously…were they really listening?

BEFORE 

Students come in, get materials, sit down, do their warmup, and then I dance around with visuals and introduce vocabulary out loud, and they write words and sentences, and maybe draw.  It’s all in Spanish.  It’s all solid.  It’s just not particularly engaging and requires NO brain effort on their part.  Basically none.

AFTER

Students still come in, get materials, sit down, do their warmup, and then they are given a notes puzzle.  The “I Can” Statement is on the board as their learning target to explain WHY they have to do the notes.  The “I Can” says “I Can understand a fruit or vegetable when I read a description of it” or something like that.  Their eventual goal is to be able to shop for items or order food in a restaurant, but before that, they need to be able to read about food.  They cut apart their puzzle, with an image, the word in Spanish, and my created description.  They can’t use their phones or a dictionary, they just have to cut and sort and think until they have what they think is right.  Then they ask me for help.  I remove the ones that are wrong and they try again to figure it out.  It takes longer than the notes would have taken, but I’m moving around my room, helping individual students question their thinking, and EVERYONE is working.

It’s not something you can do every day, but I don’t introduce vocabulary every day.  I will introduce fruits on one day, and then work with them for a day or two, and then introduce vegetables.  I am finding that this way of doing notes has grabbed the attention of more than 80% of the class, and they are working harder and working together to figure out the language. Some of my most reluctant students have even said “Ms. Rhodes, I love this!” which I NEVER would have thought I’d hear.

It’s made it more fun for them, and taken the pressure off of me as the sole owner of Spanish knowledge.  I have included the fruit and vegetable puzzle notes below if you want to give it a try.  I hope this helps take the pressure off of you too! Have fun!

Download My Fruit Vegetable Reading Puzzles

 

 

On their own path this week (03/19/16)

Looks like spring is finally here – well at least where I live – and with it are all those thoughts of renewal and spring cleaning. Unfortunately, our outdated school calendars don’t allow for much of that thinking and for so many teachers March is a rough time and often represents the end of an incredibly long uninterrupted stretch of teaching days. It’s with that thought that I hope you are reading this post either on your way to or from spring break or with plans for a weekend that includes some activities designed to take care of YOU. Perhaps you shouldn’t even be reading this right now at all and just bookmark it for later. In any case, here are the blog posts that caught my attention this week:

  • 5 ways to use infographics in language class

    Using authentic resources is certainly one of the ways that we can engage students with language, but many teachers don’t know where to find the right resources and what to do with them once they do find them, especially when it comes to Novice language learners. Spanish teacher and super blogger, Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell shares five specific strategies that cover a range of both input and output activities. Be sure to also check out the comments where I shared the link to a fantastic wikispace and Pinterest boards of graphic organizers curated by language and theme. Read Sara-Elizabeth’ post –>

  • Encouraging Risk/Rewarding Growth with “Checks And A Smile”

    True learning happens in the heads of our students. It’s hard to get into the heads of our students and their reactions to whatever we have planned for them on any given day doesn’t always paint an accurate picture of the success of an activity. More importantly, completing an activity doesn’t necessarily mean that students have grown as a learner. Japanese teacher, Colleen Lee-Hayes, shares her latest attempt of making learning a bit more transparent and transferring the ownership of the classroom to her students. It’s really an easy trick, but one I bet will pay off down the road.  Read Colleen’s post –>

  • CSCTFL 16 Takeaways

    A lot of world language bloggers from both within and outside the CSCTFL region attended this year’s conference and shared some interesting summaries about their learning, aha moments and plans for the future. I should have written one as well, as the content of so many session was pointing towards a new direction for our field which is pretty exciting. Since I didn’t, feel free to explore these great summaries from Carrie, Wendy, Laura, Talia, Mademoiselle.

On their own path this week (03/12/16)

After taking some days off for a mini-vacation, I’m back this week with another blog summary.  The extra time allowed me some extra time to filter through more posts and the blogosphere didn’t disappoint. Below are some my favorite reads from the past couple of weeks. Of course, the weekend might also be a good time to review some of the incredible resources shared during the four regional conferences this past month. Pull up a chair, open your favorite note taking app and learn from your couch: #scolt16, #nectfl16, #swcolt16, #csctfl16.

  • Grading: it’s only a matter of time!CLC_grading

    Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you likely have been reading and inhaling every single post that Megan and Kara at the Creative Language Class have shared over the past couple of years. This week’s post really caught my attention because it addresses one my personal interests: Grading and the power it has over teachers. For most teachers it is all-consuming and Megan shares some interesting counterpoints to many of the myths of grading as well as outlines a powerful vision for how teacher could and should spend their time instead of grading.   Read Megan’s post –>

  • Attack of the Translator: What is the debate REALLY about?PBLTL_translating

    As if providing some alternate solutions for grading wasn’t enough, Spanish teacher, Laura Sexton, tackled another one of those hot button issues for many teachers this week: online translators! I can’t imagine a language teacher who hasn’t encountered this issue at some point. It’s been around as long as the Internet and I remember having many of the same feelings of frustration, disappointment and perhaps even helplessness when students did it. But Laura moves beyond the natural anger you might feel, and walks us through some tough questions and even comes to a powerful conclusion. Perhaps the entire debate has nothing to do with online translators.  Read Laura’s post –>

  • From the P2P Blog: Language Advocacy Starts With You

    After weeks of very admirable advocacy efforts in Florida, we got some good news on Friday evening. The coding instead of world language legislation had failed. While this was an impressive rallying of the profession to support our colleagues in the sunshine state, we should also view it as an important reminder that EVERY teacher is an advocate and Alyssa Villarreal’s outlined this notion in her post this week. Not every teacher feels compelled to write a letter to the editor, call a legislator, or testify in front of an education committee. And perhaps the best kind of advocacy actually starts in our classrooms where every teacher decides what future leaders opinions are of world language learning.  Read Alyssa’s post –>

  • From the P2P Blog: Finding the Right Word

    We all know the value of circumlocution, but it’s also one of those skills that’s not that easy to teach. Yet, when mastered opens the doors for our learners to use language and engage in conversations so much more freely. Spanish high school teacher, Jaime Basham, shared (step-by-step) how she tackles this issue even with her first year students.  Read Jaime’s post –>

  • Availability of Foreign Language materials in OER repositories

    Guiding students down the path to proficiency requires many resources. Finding just the right one takes a lot of planning  and sometimes keeps teachers from the path to proficiency, because let’s be honest: who has the time to find all those resources? The Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning did a nice round-up of multiple websites that offer FREE materials for language teachers. I know, I frequent many of these sites on a weekly basis. Read COERLL’s post –>

Finding the Right Word

I read a scholarly article (that I have since misplaced in my digital hoard) that highlighted that native Spanish speakers employ the use of circumlocution because of the linguistic variety and different dialects.  As I thought about this, I realized that I also utilize circumlocution frequently (in both languages that I speak).  I decided to implement this process (baby steps) in my classroom.  I started it a few years ago with my Spanish 2s.  Last year, I simplified it to teach it to my Spanish 1s.  At this point, all of my students know how to describe something, even if they don’t know the proper word.  

I introduce this concept with my students by introducing it in Spanish.  In the parenthesis you will find the translation into English.

Circunlocución: Cómo hablar de temas que no sabes (Circumlocution: How to talk about themes that you don’t know)

We get started by breaking things down into 3 categories (you can break it down further, I just start with the 3 to ease them in).

[lists style=”style6″ line=”0″]

  • ¿Qué es?  ¿Cómo es?  ¿Quién es? (What is it?  What’s it like?  Who is it?)

[/lists]

[lists style=”style5″ line=”0″]

  • Es una cosa que es / tiene… (It is a thing that is / has)
  • Es una persona quien es / tiene… (It is a person who is / has)
  • Es un lugar donde tiene ... (It is a place that has)

[/lists]

[lists style=”style6″ line=”0″]

  • Por ejemplo: Es una persona quien es muy grande.  Él es verde.  No es amigo de Thor.  Él le pone enojado fácilmente.  ¿Quién es?  (For example: It is a person who is very large.  He is green.  He isn’t a friend of Thor.  He gets angry very easily.  Who is it?)

[/lists]

[lists style=”style5″ line=”0″]

  • Es Hulk (It’s Hulk)

[/lists]

Once we get the hang of that, we are able to expand upon other concepts.

Here is the generic handout that I provide for my students:

[lists style=”style4″ line=”0″]

  • Es una cosa que… – It is a thing that …
  • Es una persona que… – It is a person that …
  • Es el opuesto de …. – It is the opposite of …
  • Es la acción de… – It is the action of ….
  • Es lo que haces/comes/dices/usas … – It is what you do/eat/say/use ….
  • Es una comida… – It is a food that ….
  • Es un lugar donde… – It is a place that ….
  • Es como … – It is like …
  • Es algo/alguien que … – It is something / somebody that …
  • Tiene – has
  • Necesita – needs
  • Puede ser – can be

[/lists]

(Adapted from here: http://profehanson.weebly.com/uploads/1/7/9/9/1799974/circumlocution_level_2_examples.pdf)

An example of a more advanced circumlocution:

[lists style=”style6″ line=”0″]

  • Puede ser roja, verde, amarilla, y/o rosa.  Es un tipo de fruta.  También puede ser un tipo de jugo.  Es deliciosa con caramelos o con crema de cacahuate. ¿Qué es? (It can be red, green, yellow and/or pink.  It is a type of fruit.  Also, it can be a type of juice.  It is delicious with caramel or with peanut butter.  What is it?)

[/lists]

[lists style=”style5″ line=”0″]

  • Es una manzana. (It’s an apple.))

[/lists]

Eventually, we are ready to play the “Juego de Tarjetas” of “Game of Cards.”  The card game is when each student receives an index card.  They think of a person, place or thing (IN SECRET).  They then have to describe that concept on the index card, using the phrases and circumlocution phrases.  They do have to say what they are describing on their card (as well as their name for credit).  Once we are all ready, they read their clues to another student (or have it memorized and can recite it to a classmate), the other student has 1 chance to guess the concept.  If they guess correctly, they then get the card.  If they guess incorrectly, they carry on to another opponent.  The entire object of the game is to end up with the most cards.  If you have the most cards, you get an awesome price (usually in the form candy or stickers).  This game gets intense.  The competition gets cutthroat.  I will suggest that as a teacher, you need to have a few extra cards that you made yourself (or recycle from other classes). This is for the students who lost their cards, or the students who struggle.

I know that this activity is “staged” and wouldn’t be considered authentic.  However, I feel as though the skill of circumlocution far exceeds this.  My hope that if/when my students do find themselves in an authentic situation and aren’t able to explicitly state the word, they can work their way around it and still converse.  Additionally, I know it is how you bridge the gap between a novice learner and an intermediate learner. You have to start somewhere, right?

*Quick side note, I do allow my students to use WordReference (either the app or wordreference.com).  I have scarred them for life as to what Google Translate can do with this video: Fresh Prince: Google Translated by cdza. Therefore, I would rather them look up a word and use the infinitive than using Google Translate.  

What do you do to help bridge the gap between novice learners and intermediate learners?