Another guest story--level one

This is a story from Marji.  She has a level one class that likes to use certain structures, so she made a story from the structures, hoping to get more reps and help them improve their usage.

está muerto (because they insist on adding this element to every story, and half of them continue with "es muerto" or "es muerte")

vomitó (because they also insist on  using this, so I want them to do it correctly)

vomita (trying to differentiate between present/past)

 

Helga la Mala, una pirata horrible, tiene un animal.  A Helga le gusta mucho su animal, un avestruz que se llama Bob.

 

Un día, Helga la Mala regresa a la casa.  Bob está escuchando la música de Helga.  Helga se pone furiosa.

 

Helga le tira unas pistolas a Bob.  Helga le tira muchas pistolas.  Bob grita.

 

Felipe, un hombre, entra en la casa.  Helga le tira pistolas también.  Felipe se cae. 

 

Pero, hay un problema.  Bob el avestruz tiene hambre.

 

Bob come las manos de Felipe.  Ahora Felipe está muerto.  Bob vomita las manos de Felipe.  Está enfermo.

 

Helga la Mala se pone más furiosa.  Helga le tira frutas y legumbres a Bob.  Entonces, Bob los come.  Bob vomita las frutas y legumbres.

 

Helga la Mala agarra la pistola y le tira el avestruz.  Bob está muerto.

 

Hay otro problema.  Ahora Helga la Mala tiene hambre.

 

Helga la Mala come Bob el avestruz.  Ahora, Helga la Mala no tiene un animal.  Helga vomita el avestruz.  Está triste, y llora mucho.

 

Thanks, Marji!!

Guest story-level one

Here is a story I was sent from a level one teacher.  Like many of us, she has certain things because of school expectations, and she's also using tprs.  

School/curriculum tie-in: tener idiomatic expressions

Structures: Tiene que
tiene hambre
tiene sed
(todavía)

There is a boy .  His name is Fido.  He has to go to school.

Hay un chico. Él se llama Fido. Él tiene que ir a la escuela.

He leaves the house and walks down the street.  He's hungry, but he doesn't have a sandwich.

Sale la casa y camina por la calle. Tiene hambre, pero no tiene un sandwich.

He finds a spider.  The spider has eight legs.  Fido eats the legs.

Encuentra una araña. La araña tiene ocho piernas. Fido come las piernas.

The legs aren't enough for him.

A él no le bastan las piernas.

He is still hungry and thirsty.

Él tiene sed y tiene hambre todavía.

He goes to the beach.  He finds a crab.  He saks the crab, "Where is the water?"  The crab responds, "There's a lot of water in the ocean!"  "But," says the boy, "there's too much salt in the ocean." The n the crab says to fider, "Then go to Cumbys!"

Él va a la playa. Él encuentra un cangrejo. Él le preguntó al cangrejo, “¿Dónde está

el agua?” El cangrejo le responde a él, “¡Hay mucha agua en el océano!” “Pero,” dice

el chico, “hay demasiado sal en el océano.” Entonces el cangrejo le dice a Fido, “Pues,

va a Cumbys!!!”

Poor Fido still is hungry and thirsty.  Fido goes to Cumby's and there he can buy hot dogs and slushy (dogs?).

Pobrecito Fido tiene hambre y tiene sed todavía.

Fido va a Cumby’s y allí puede comprar perritos calientes y perritos slushies.

story using se duerme, se desperto, se burlaron

Mark was really tired when he arrived at his house, .  He was part of the soccer team, and the team had had a game against Brophy in Phoenix yesterday.  The game ended at 10pm--Salpointe won, of course--and the school bus arrive at the school at 12am.  Then he had to do homework.  He didn't go to sleep until 2 in the morning.

Marco estaba muy cansado cuando llegó a su clase .  Era parte del equipo de fútbol, y su equipo había tenido un partido contra Brophy en Phoenix ayer.  El partido terminó a las diez—Salpointe ganó, por supuesto—y el autobús escolar llegó a la escuela a las doce.  Entonces, tenía que hacer la tarea.  No se durmió hasta las dos en la mañana.

Mark didn't want to go to class, but his mom insisted.  So the boy arrived to first period--math class--really tired.  The teacher, Mr. Aguirre, was a horrible teacher.  He always spoke in a monotone--how boring!  After 5 minutes of listening to the teacher, Mark fell asleep.

Marco no quería asistir a sus clases, pero su mamá insistió.  Así que el chico llegó muy cansado a su primer período—la clase de las matemáticas.  El profe, Sr. Aguirre, era un profesor horrible.  Siempre habló en un monótono--¡qué aburrido!  Después de cinco minutos de escuchar al profe, Marco se durmió.

           While Mr. Aguirre was talking, some kids began to laugh.  He was a little angry--even more when he realized that Marco was asleep.  The teacher went to his desk and woke him up with by hitting him with a pillow!  Marcos woke up and said, "What's the matter, Mom?"  All the kids laughed (joked) about him.  And afterwards, when they passed him in the hall they always daid to him, "What's the matter, Mom?"  Marcos never slept in class again.

         Mientras hablaba Sr. Aguirre, unos chicos empezaron a reírse.  Él estaba un poco enojado—aún más cuando se dio cuenta de que Marco estaba dormido.  El profe fue a su escritorio y ¡le despertó con un golpe con una almohada!  Marcos se despertó y le dijo--¿Qué pasa, Mamá?—Todos los chicos se burlaron de él.  Y después, cuando le pasaron en el pasillo siempre le dijeron--¿Qué pasa, Mamá?  Marcos nunca durmió en clase después.

se dio cuenta, podia, volvio, de nuevo

Jimmy quería ir a un partido de fútbol americano.  Estaba muy emocionado.  Andaba a la escuela, pero de repente se dio cuenta de que ¡Sr Flannery estaba mirando a los estudiantes!  Sr Flannery lo miró y le dijo –Jimmy, tus pantalones son muy grandes.  Puedo ver tus calzones.  Jimmy volvió a casa y cambió la ropa.

Jimmy wanted to go to a football game.  He was very excited.  He was walking to the school, but suddenly he realized that the dean was watching the students!  The dean looked at him and told him, "Jimmy, your pants are very big.  I can see your underpants.  Jimmy returned home and changed his clothes.

       Mientras andaba al partido, Jimmy podia oír los gritos de los estudiantes.  Cuando volvió a la escuela, Sr. Flannery no estaba, sólo una mamá.  La mamá le dijo –Hola, necesito ver tu identificación, por favor.  ¡Su identificación!  Estaba en los otros pantalones!  Pobre Jimmy volvió a la casa de nuevo y buscó su billetera.  Lo encontró en el bolsillo y volvió a la escuela de nuevo.

While he was walking to the game, Jimmy could hear the students' shouts.  When he returned to the school, the dean wasn't there, just a mom.  The mom said, "Hi, I need to see your ID, please."  His ID!  It was in his other pants!  Poor Jimmy returned to the house again and looked for his billfold.  He found it in the pocket and returned to the school again.

       Mientras volvia, Jimmy tenía que esperar porque había mucho tráfico.  Por fin llegó a la escuela—pero era demasiado tarde.  ¡Salpointe ganó 32-31!  ¡Era el partido más emocionado del año!  Pobre Jimmy volvió a casa y lloró.

While returning, Jimmy had to wait becasue there was a lot of traffic.  Finally he arrived at school--but it was too late.  Salpointe won 32-31!  It was the most exciting game of the year! Poor Jimmy returned home and cried.

El perro del papa

Just for fun--a story about the pope.

There was a poor dog named Francesco who lived in Rome.  Hi had neither a family nor a house nor much food.  The poor dog ran in the streets, looking for a bone or someone who wanted to play with him.  One day, he was walking down the street when he realized that there was a lot of noise in the holy city of The Vatican.  There were a lot of people shouting, 'We have a Pope!  Francesco was curious.  He approached the crowd.  There were a bunch of people shouting--We have a pope! Long live Pope Francisco!  The dog was surprised.  Where were they shouting his name?  Francisco sounds almost the same as Francesco sounds.  The dog was catholic and new what a Pope was.  The new pope was named Francisco?  Interesting!




Había un perro pobre llamado Francesco que vivía en Roma.  No tenía ni una familia, ni una casa, ni mucha comida.  El pobre perro corría en las calles, buscando un hueso o alguien que quería jugar con él.  Un día, andaba por la calle cuando se dio cuenta de que había mucho ruido en la ciudad sagrada del Vaticano.  Había mucha gente gritando --¡Tenemos un papa! Francesco estaba curioso.  Se acercó a la multitud.  Había un montón de chicos gritando --¡Tenemos un papa! ¡Viva el papa Francisco!  El perro estaba sorprendido.  ¿Porque gritaban su nombre?  Francisco suena casi lo mismo que suena Francesco.  El perro era Católico y sabía lo que era un papa.  ¿El papa nuevo se llamaba Francisco?  ¡Interesante!

Francesco had an idea.  He began to walk through the streets with pomposity and elegance.  When the other dogs made fun of him, Francesco told them--Peasants!  Don't you know that there is a new pope? He likes St. Francis a lot, and he asked me to live with him as a pet, because my name is Francesco, like the saint.  Some of the dogs laughed even more, but others believed him.  He gave them their food and there bones, because they were good Catholics, too.

Francesco tenía una idea.  Empezó a andar por las calles con pomposidad y elegancia.  Cuando los otros perros se burlaron de él, Francesco les dijo --¡Campesinos!  ¿No saben que hay un papa nuevo?  A  él le gusta San Francesco mucho, y me pidió que viviera con él como mascota, porque me llamo Francesco, como el Santo.  Unos de los perros se rieron aún más, pero otros lo creyeron.  Le dieron su comida y sus huesos, porque ellos eran buenos Católicos también.

Francesco was having a good time when suddenly everything changed.  He was walking by a church--a dog that lived there was a good friend--when he saw a humble old man dressed all in white, leaving the church.  He looked at Francesco and said to him, Hello, Brother Dog.  How are you?  Francesco liked the man a lot.  He started to greet him by wagging his tail and the man smiled.  "Brother, do you have an owner?  Th man looked for a moment, but it was obvious that the dog had no family.  He was dirty and thin.  "Brother dog, do you want to live with me?  Francesco wagged his tail even more.  The man picked him up and gave him to his assistant.  The assistant put him in a little car--and the three went to the Vatican.  Yes, what Francesco had said was now true.  Francisco the dog became Pope Francisco's pet.  What a miracle!

Francesco lo pasaba bien cuando un día todo cambió.  Andaba por una iglesia--un perro que vivía allá era un buen amigo--cuando vio un hombre viejo y humilde, vestido todo en blanco, saliendo de la iglesia.  Le miró a Francesco y le dijo --Hola, hermano perro.  ¿Cómo estás?--  A Francesco le gustaba el hombre mucho.  Empezó a saludarlo por mover la cola, y el hombre sonrió.  --Hermano, ¿Tienes un dueño?--  El hombre buscó por un momento, pero era obvio que el perro no tenía familia.  Estaba sucio y flaco.  --Hermano perro, ¿Quieres vivir conmigo?--  Francesco movió su cola aún más.  El hombre lo cogió y se lo dio a su asistente.  El asistente lo puso en un carro chiquito--y los tres fueron al Vaticano.  Sí, lo que dijo Francesco ya era verdad.  Francesco el perro se hizo la mascota de Papa Francisco.  ¡Qué milagro!

Story--first year or 2nd year (review)

Vocab:  anduvo, podía _____r, le dijo, en un rato (despues de un rato), esperar

There was a guy named Bob.  Bob wanted to eat pizza, so he walked to his friend, Raul's house.  Raul told him that he couldn't eat now--he was studying--but he could eat in a while. 

 

 Había un chico que se llamaba Bob.  Bob quería comer pizza, por eso anduvo a la casa de su amigo, Raúl.  Raúl le dijo que no podía comer ahora—estaba estudiando, pero podía ir a la pizzería en un rato.

 

Bob didn't want to wait, so he walked to his other friend, Larry's house.  Larry told him that he coudl eat until 5:00.  They could eat after a while (it was already 4:30.) Another friend who wanted to wait!  Bob was a little angry, but he decided to eat pizza alone.

 

Bob no quería esperar, por eso anduvo a la casa de otro amigo, Larry.  Larry le dijo que no podía comer hasta las cinco—podían comer después de un rato (ya era las cuatro y media).¡Otra vez un amigo que quería esperar! Bob estaba un poco enojado, pero decidió comer pizza solo.

 

Bob went to a restaurant named "Sauce".  When he arrived, the waitress told him that he would have to wait for 15 minutes.  He didn't want to wait, so he went to another reestaurant.  Each restuarant told him that he had to wait, so Bob left every restaurant.

 

Bob fue a un restaurante que se llamaba “Sauce”. Cuando llegó, la mesera le dijo que tendria que esperar para quince minutos.  No quería esperar, por eso fue a otro restaurante. Cada restaurante le dijo que tenía que esperar, así que Bob salió de cada restaurante.

 

Finally Bob arrived at a restaurant named Pizza Hut.  He didn't have to wait, so he entered and sat at a table.  He received his pizza and began to eat.  In a while, he realized that his friend Raul and Larry were in the restaurant, too!  The three friends sat at the table and ate pizza together.  Each friend was very happy.

 

Por fin Bob llegó a un restaurante que se llamaba “Pizza Hut”. No tenía que esperar, así que entró y se sentó a la mesa. Recibió su pizza y empezó a comer. En un rato, se dio cuenta de que ¡los amigos Raúl y Larry estaban en el restaurante también! Los tres amigos se sentaron en la mesa y comieron pizza juntos. Cada amigo estaba muy feliz

 

 

 

.

 

Writing--TPRS, non-tprs

I have been teaching for 20 years, and around 13 of them have been teaching Spanish using TPRS.  For the first six years, I taught in a school where I was the department chair and had total control of the curriculum.  This is how we did writing.

In first year, I didn't have the students write at all during the first semester.  We concentrated on input, input and more input.  After the first semester, I took out my pictures for timed writings.

I have a stack of pictures that I found in National Geographic and similar magazines.  They are cut from the magazines and mounted on construction paper (8 1/2 x 11).  I originally used them for ESL, but they worked equally well for my Spanish classes.  I told the kids to write what they saw.  It could be a list, sentences, or the story of the photo.  I was the dictionary.  Nothing was out of bounds.  After they wrote, they did a word count.  They wrote at their own pace--they did what they felt they could do, from word lists to sentences to simple stories to elaborate stories.  I never checked their work for correctness.  I expected x number of words (50 to start, going to 100 in 10 minutes for 1st year).  If they hit the number, they got the grade.  They didn't get extra credit for extra words, but they did lose points for not having enough--generally 1 point per 10 words.

As they got more familiar with the process, I started having them retell stories.  They had been retelling the stories orally since about the second quarter (with all the help they needed), so it was an easy jump to start writing the retells.  Again, they weren't expected to be grammatically correct.  As long as I could understand the story, they got the grade.

Second year was more of the same.  I never went to the 125 words in 5 minutes that others do, but I did go to 125 in 10 minutes.  Again, I didn't ask them to be grammatically correct.  This was exploratory writing.  I did comment on their improvement, though.

In third year, they went to writing summaries, stories, and essays.  Fourth year was more of the same.

In my new school, as I've said, we assess the students using a rubric.  I have only taught second year, so that is all I can address.

I don't use the rubric at the beginning of the year.  At the beginning of the year, I introduce the preterit and the imperfect discretely, but I try to do it in as painless a way as possible.  I don't expect them, yet, to differentiate from each other, just from the present tense.  We start the year by watching the movie "Cinco amigas", and there is lots of possibility both for description and for detailing events.  Every time they write, they are to give me three descriptions about what the girls wore, what they looked like, how they felt, etc.  The example sentence is in the imperfect.  They are also to give me three sentences detailing what the girls did.  It's interesting to me that students have trouble, at times, differentiating between an action and a feeling, but we keep working at it.  The grading is simple.  If they write in the past tenses, they get full points.  If they write in the present tense, they lose points.  They are always encouraged to come in and make up the points.  I don't make a big deal of it, but it's a start--an introduction.

Later on, we begin to do retells.  I'm not sure why, but I don't do as many retells as I used to (orally, that is).  I've started a grading column for it, only so that i can remember to do it.  But I do have them write a retell.  I do this in several different ways.  Sometimes I ask an oral story, retell it, and then have the kids make a cartoon and caption it.  Credit for completion.  Other times I will have them draw a story while I tell it to them, then I retell the story, then they use the storyboard to write the story.  Completion grade.

Around September or so (we start the first week of August), the students begin reading, and they summarize the chapter that they've read.  Completion grade.

In the second quarter, I introduce the ellos form and we continue that in writing. Before that, though,  I start looking for correct use of pret and imperfect.  That's all--just pret and imperfect.  If they use the right tense but the wrong person (El chico fueron a la playa) they get credit.  Basically, they're just exploring the difference between the two verbs.  This isn't TPRS, but as I said earlier, I'm trying to build a feeling of confidence in them so they feel they can handle the rubric in the 3rd and 4th quarter.

As the second quarter progresses, I continue this type of writing.  In the beginning of the third quarter, I also begin to show them (no reduction in grade) if their noun and modifier are out of synch. That's basically all I worry about.  Then in late 3rd quarter, I introduce the rubric.  I start off by telling them that the first writing establishes a base; they just need to work for improvement.  After they get their papers back, they correct their work.  We work on it together, and the students get a separate correction grade.  This continues throughout the 3rd and 4th quarters.

I am always amazed at the writings that I get.  The students do a fine job, and I'm proud of them.  It gets better and better every year.

Okay, next week, back to stories. I hope.

Writing--how to help them understand (NOT TPRS)

Just a warning--I'm a TPRS teacher, yes, and I do believe in the system.  However, when I started using a rubric for writing, the first few years were really really hard.  Finally, I realized that the students really didn't know how to correct their papers.  So I did two things--I started using examples to show what papers on the rubric looked like, and I made a list of common errors, numbered them, and put them on the students' work to help them.

First of all--the rubric.  It is based on the AP rubric and is used in all classes--1-4AP.  The rubric stays the same, but obviously the expectations change from level to level.  In level 2, the students hope for a 4, 5, or 6.  A 4 is a paper that is beginning to show elementary understanding of the language.  A 5 shows good use of basic language, and a six shows excellent use of basic language.

I have the students write a paper (usually a retell of the story we just did orally or read) and then I grade it using the rubric.  I go through it and mark the words that are wrong so that they can make corrections.  I do this using a list of the most common errors.  For example, if a student writes Las chica quiere va a la playa, I will correct it by underlining chica and putting a 2 over las, putting a 5 (imp) over quiere, and putting a 3 over va.  This tells them what was wrong.
The list is as follows:
1:  wrong person (tú va--should be vas)
2:  problem with noun and its modifier (I know that there's more than that, but I say that for simplicity) el chica, etc.)
3.  problem with infinitive: ( quiere habla--should be hablar. ) (sometimes they use nothing but infinitives, especially if they've transferred from a grammar-based program, and I'll do this:  hablar:  3 pret (should be habló)
4.  problem with DO, IO, or reflexive: (se habla--should be le habla)
5.  problem with tense: I put what tense it should be, at least at the start.

Obviously, I don't give the students the hints in parenthesis--I just wanted to show you.

Yes, this is output.  Yes, it takes time.  But I do it because the school assesses based in part on the students' writing.  If we are assessing something that is output based, then I want to see the students be as successful as possible.  I don't really see much of a correlation between their acquisition and their writing.  I know the one probably drastically affects the other, but I am doing this because if I am going to grade writing and they are going to be responsible for corrections (something that is done department-wide), I don't think it's fair for them not to have an idea of how to succeed.

Now I do want you to understand that I don't begin this at the beginning of the year.  They do write all year long, but most of the time, all I'm doing is asking them to put thoughts on paper.  It's only during the 3rd and 4th quarter that I start grading according to the rubric.

I know it's been a while since I've given you a story, and thanks for bearing with me (I mean one that I actually used for class).  I plan to start that again next week when I have my whole class together every day instead of 1/3 gone one day, and so on.

Hope you are having a great week!

Vocabulary: apareció un Socavón: a sinkhole appeared
quería jugar al golf s/he wanted to play golf
¿Qué pasó? What happened?
ganó, perdió he won, he lost

This is a golf story, dedicated to the master golfer Blaine Ray!

Donny was a great golfer. He liked to play golf, and he played in golf courses all over the world. Spain, Japan, Korea, India, Argentina--Donny wanted to play golf in every country. Wherever he went, Donny always was looking for a new golf course.

One day, Donny was visiting his cousin in Waterloo, Illinois. There was a golf course there called Annbriar. The golf pro, Jon, invited him to the course to play 18 holes of golf. Donny wanted to play golf in Annbriar, Donny and Jon started to play. They played for $200 a hole. They were both good players, and Donny won a hole then Jon won a hole. When they got to the 18th hole, Donny had won $1000 and lost $800. He wanted to win on the 18th hole, so he started to play. Suddenly, there was a loud noise, and a great sinkhole appeared! Donny disappeared! Jon yelled, "Donny, what happened?" Donny screamed, "Help me! I need an ambulance! Jon said, "No, I want to know if you got a hole in one!"

An ambulance came and rescued Donny, but he got really mad at Jon and never wanted to play golf in Annbriar again.

This story is based on an actual story, link below.http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/03/golfer-swallowed-by-sinkhole/

what to do if you are missing kids over an extended period

As I've said, I teach in a private Catholic school.  Today was the start of Sophomore Days of Recollection, so all sophomores will be gone--but one day at a time.  So today I lost some, tomorrow I'll lose some others, and Friday I'll lose still others.

I started the period determined to go into the writing rubric--big mistake.  I only had 2/3 of the class present, so I'll have to redo the whole lesson tomorrow--big waste of time, and 2/3 of my class will be doing independent work.

Independent work--is that what you do when you are faced with a big amount of missing kids?  If so, there are two sites that I'd like to recommend.  One I've talked about before--Deb Read's Chalkbrd.com.  It has big books, sub aids, and other videos that you can use for classes.  Another good site is Miraflores.org.  This site has links to paper books and ebooks, and it's the curriculum that I used today.  We've already read "Viaje de su vida", and "La ruta maya" worked just fine.  It provided good tie-ins and wasn't overly grammar based.  The plus?  Independent work that will last all three days.  Drawback?  Independent work--no teacher-driven input (on purpose--students will be all over the place starting tomorrow, when some students are on their second day and others are just starting.)

Some of us use the time to review basic skills and learned vocabulary.  I have done that every time but this (we all have combined classes, so Frosh-Senior all have times when they're gone).  It is okay, but once again you have pluses and drawbacks.  Plus--teacher-driven input.  Drawback--you have to do something different for the students who are there all three days, but it can't relate to what went earlier in the week, since you're getting "new" students each day.

Others of us show movies.  Ick.  But if you gotta,  you gotta.  Plus: they're occupied all period.  Minus--aside from the obvious--it's just a time-eater--you have students missing parts while they're gone, unless you really want to start all over every day or do a recap every day.

If you have access to Quia, you can play games and work on review vocab--plus:  fun for students.  minus--students who have to be there all three days might get sick of it.

So here are a few ideas of mine.  What do you do?

Songs in the classroom

Since it's the weekend, I thought I'd take a break and talk about songs.  I've used songs in the classroom for many years, and my students and I both love it.  Students have come up to me years down the line and said that they still have one of the songs we learned in class on their I-pod and still love to sing along.

Originally, I did songs for two basic reasons:  one, they have to listen in order to understand well enough to do the CLOZE activity that is our song quiz every week.  Two, they learn to pronounce properly by having to sing or speak the song.  At first, I introduced a new song every week and we spent one whole period going over it and then 10 minutes a day listening to it.  My colleagues questioned the time involved, so I took their advice and now only take one verse a week.  At one point, I was trying to make everything fit and thought about giving up the songs, but my colleague Joe told me that they still remember the vocab that they learned from the songs when they come to him the following year.  In fact, one assignment that third year had was to write a love letter, and one student was able to write the letter using primarily phrases that he'd learned from my class.

There is a lot of good vocab to be learned from songs, but time doesn't permit for me, so I do something very UNtprs.  I have the students highlight certain words from the songs and then it's up to them to learn it either by singing or by actually memorizing.  I then give a test in two parts.  The first part, the CLOZE activity, is worth 2 points each.  Then I give them 5 sentences that they are to fill in with the proper vocabulary word (Johnny tiene un ______ Pug.)  There is always a vocabulary bank.  Even if the students get every single vocabulary question wrong, they can still get an A on the test.  I'm really much more interested in the listening and speaking than I am in them picking up a few vocabulary words.

Having said that, I've always thought that if I were in a different school, I very well might have tried teaching using songs as my vocabulary base.  There's a lot of great vocabulary that you can teach, and you also can learn about different countries and their culture by highlighting the countries of origin of the singers.

I pick the songs in a variety of ways.  I always start the year with "Te perdí" or "Vamos a la playa" because they're both very popular and easily remembered.  At New Year's, I teach "Waka Waka", because New Years is when you set goals for yourself, and the song has a lot of motivational sayings.  During Lent (Catholic school here), I teach "Lento", a song that reminds the students that if they want to get to know someone better, they should slow down.  The same applies to Christ.  I also do "Buenos amigos" by Selena during this time--the theme is one of a man sacrificing his romantic interest in his friend because he knows she doesn't feel the same.  The girl also sacrifices what would be an easy entrance into a bad romance by realizing that it's better to have a good friendship than a bad love.

Every once in a while, I change it up.  Some things I do instead of CLOZE is to put the lines in different order, to insert a different word in the song and make the student decide which word is wrong and change it, and explain the meaning (not literal translation) in English.

How do you do songs?  Any input is welcome!

Story about time--level 1-2 (all schools), advanced story (Christian schools)

I was asked to write a story about time. It's a good week for it, since most of North America goes into Daylight Savings Time this weekend.

John used to live in Boston, but last month, his family moved to Tempe, Arizona.  His parents were very strict.  They didn't allow their children to use their time unwisely, so there were no radios--not even clock radios, no televisions, cellular phones, or magazines in the house.  They did take the newspaper, but only USA Today.

John had the same schedule every day of the week:  he got up at 7:00.  He had to be dressed by 7:15.  At 7:30 he ate breakfast.  His parents took him to school at 7:45, and school started at 8:00.  John understood the schedule and followed it.  He didn't like it, but he followed it.

One Saturday night in March, John's parents changed all the clocks, since Daylight Savings Time started the next day.  They didn't go out on Sunday, because Sunday was the day that the family spent time together.  They had breakfast together at 9:00, they all played soccer in their big backyard from 11:00 till 2:00, and then they all came in and laid down.  After they rested, they had dinner at 5:00 and then played games and talked until they went to bed at 9:00.

On Monday morning, John followed his schedule as usual.  He got up, got dressed, ate breakfast, and went to school (you could ask lots of questions here to get repetitions of time).  He was about to get out of the car, but something was wrong!  There were no cars!  There were no busses!  There was only one person at school--a teacher walking to her classroom.  John and his father got out of the car and approached the teacher.  She looked surprised and said, "Why are you here so early?"  "Early?  It's 7:45!" "No, it's 6:45".  John's father said, "I don't understand!  With Daylight Savings Time, it's 7:45!" The teacher laughed.  "Oh, you're not from Arizona, are you?  We don't observe daylight savings time!"

John's father laughed and took John back home for an hour.  The next day, the family decided to buy a radio.  They were never surprised by time changes again.

The preceding story could be told in any school.  The following story is for more advanced students in Christian schools.

Time is a funny thing.  Time is used to schedule.  It never changes, except when you cross a timeline or go into standard time or daylight savings time.  The normal family has a schedule that is marked by the clock:  you get up at 7:00, get dressed by 7:30, have breakfast and are on the way to school by 8:00.  It never changes.  The clock never decides to stop for a few minutes or skip hours.

But have you noticed that time doesn't behave itself?  Have you noticed that during 7th period on the last day before vacation, it takes about 3 hours, even though you know that your period is only 50 minutes long?  And have you noticed that your vacation itself is over almost before it starts, even though you know that it is two weeks by the calendar?  Have you ever wondered why that is?

The Greeks had an explanation.  There are actually two concepts of time:  Chronos and Kairos. Chronos is chronological time.  It is measured quantitatively.  It never changes.  Kairos, however, is not measured that way.  It is special time--God's time--and it is measured by quality, not quantity.  For example, the time that you spend talking with good friends and the time that you spend in an exam that you haven't studied for might both be one hour in chronos.  However, the time you spend with good friends seems to last for 15 minutes.  The hour flies on wings.  But the test that you haven't studied for--it can take a year for you to sit, wishing you'd studied, while the rest of your class is busy working.  The time is flying for them, but it is dragging at a snail's pace for you.  You have been stuck in chronos while your friends were in kairos.

Kairos is even more special when you speak of it concerning God.  God is always in kairos--chronos doesn't exist for him.  The Bible mentions, "A day is as a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years are as a day (2Peter 3:8)".  We are chained to the concept of chronos, but God is not.  Therefore, he can send visions and dreams of things that are yet to be, for he has already seen it.  He can give us gifts of time that seem to last forever, yet only take a few minutes to pass.  Have you ever talked with someone, knowing that you could only spend a few minutes, and then forgot about the time?  Most of the time, chronos behaves itself and you end up being late.  But sometimes--and those times are truly blessed--you speak with that person for what seems like hours and look at the clock--and only minutes have passed.  My friend, you were in kairos.

We all live in a world that is chained in chronos.  But we can be blessed by those moments that God gives us in kairos, and we can also live in hope.  We know that one day, we will no longer be chained. We will be allowed entrance into heaven, where those we loved and lost will be given back to us, and the time that slipped away won't matter--we have a universe of time, time without end, to sing God's praise.  Until then, let's just be thankful for the time we have.

present vs all tenses in a story

Sometimes, it seems important that you keep your story in the same tense:  all preterit, all imperfect, all present.  Katie Sevilla sent me such a story today.  While the major vocab is mentioned, keep in mind that she also was covering 15 vocab words dealing with parties.  She's new to tprs and is going half and half right now.

Le manda, Le encanta, está planeando

Hay un chico. El chico se llama Rodolfo. Rodolfo está planeando una fiesta de sorpresa para el cumpleaños su mejor amigo Stan. A Stan le encantan las princesas. También le encanta Shakira.

Rodolfo va a la tienda para comprar lo que necesita para la fiesta. Compra los adornos de Princesa,  las invitaciones de Princesa, y una piñata de Princesa. A Stan le encantan las princesas y Shakira. Stan es el fan número uno de Shakira.

Rodolfo quiere invitar a Shakira a la fiesta de sorpresa de Princesas de su amigo Stan. Rodolfo le manda una invitacion a Shakira para la fiesta de sorpresa de Stan.

Shakira recibe la invitación de Princesa para la fiesta de sorpresa de Stan. Shakira recibe la invitación de la fiesta de Princesas de Stan. La lee. Pero hay un problema. A Shakira no le gustan las Princesas. L A Shakira le encantan los piratas. Shakira le manda un texto a Rodolfo y le dice “No me gustan las fiestas de Princesa, pero me gustan las fiestas de Pirata.”

 Rodolfo tiene una idea…  Rodolfo va a Target para buscar los adornos, invitaciones, y piñata de pirata. No tienen.

Entonces, Rodolfo va a Dairy Queen para buscar adornos, invitaciones y piñata de Pirata. Tampoco tienen. Rodolfo está muy triste.

Rodolfo tiene otra idea… Rodolfo decide ir a Adornos ‘R’ ‘Us’ para buscar los adornos, invitaciones, y la piñata de Piratas. Y SI TIENEN! Rodolfo esta muy feliz.

Le manda una invitacion de pirata a Shakira. Shakira recibe la invitación de pirata y la lee.  Le manda un texto a Stan y le dice “Si! Me encantan las piratas! Yo SI voy a la fiesta de Stan.”

I asked her why the story was in present tense, and she said that it was because the last story was all imperfect.

Here's the thing.  We don't speak that way, and our kids don't think that way.  It's better to write a story naturally and then use pull-out grammar to explain the different structures and why they're used the way they are.  (Keep in mind that this is a 3rd year class.)

I took her story and adapted it so that it is now more natural sounding--unless, of course, I messed up :).  It uses present, imperfect, pret, and pluscuamperfecto, and the students should have no problem reading through.  I would highlight the structures so they can see the different tenses and how they're used, but I wouldn't spend more than a minute or so explaining the reasons.  It's really better for them to get meaning through context.  

Había un chico. El chico se llamaba Rodolfo. Rodolfo había sido  planeando una fiesta de sorpresa para el cumpleaños su mejor amigo Stan. A Stan le encantaba las princesas. También le encantaba Shakira.

Rodolfo fue a la tienda para comprar lo que necesitaba para la fiesta. Compró los adornos de Princesa,  las invitaciones de Princesa, y una piñata de Princesa. A Stan le encantaban las princesas y Shakira. Stan era el fan número uno de Shakira.  

Rodolfo quería invitar a Shakira a la fiesta de sorpresa de Princesas de su amigo Stan. Así que Rodolfo le había mandado una invitacion a Shakira para la fiesta de sorpresa de Stan. Stan no había recibido una respuesta, así que mandó un texto a Shakira.  Ella le contestó que recibió la invitación y la leyó. Pero había un problema. A Shakira no le gustaban las Princesas. A Shakira le encantaban los piratas. 

 Rodolfo tenía una idea. Llamó a Shakira y le aseguró que era una fiesta de princesas y piratas.  Shakira estaba muy feliz y le dijo --He querido tener una fiesta así hace mucho tiempo.  ¡Qué divertido!--

Después de hablar con Shakira,   Rodolfo fue a Target para buscar los adornos, invitaciones, y piñata de pirata. No los tenía.

Entonces, Rodolfo fue a Dairy Queen para buscar adornos, invitaciones y piñata de Pirata. Tampoco los tenía. Rodolfo se puso muy triste.

De repente, Rodolfo tenía otra idea… Rodolfo decidió ir a Adornos ‘R’ ‘Us’ para buscar los adornos, invitaciones, y la piñata de Piratas. Y SI los tenían! Rodolfo se puso muy feliz y aliviado.

Cuando regresó a casa, le mandó una invitacion de pirata y princesa a Shakira. Shakira recibió la invitación de pirata y la leyó.  Le mandó un texto a Rodolfo y le dijo --Si! Me encantan las piratas! Yo SI voy a la fiesta de Stan.--

Rodolfo estaba muy emocionado--hasta que vino Shakira--Y su novio--Y su bebé nuevo.  Estaba triste, pero no le importaba a Stan.  Stan estaba muy feliz porque Shakira y su familia estaban, y todos lo pasaron bien.

My backstory and today, plans for future blogs

I am so incredibly lucky!  When I first started teaching high school, I was given a book called Dime.  I was told that this would be the book that my students would use.  I started looking through it and taking down vocab.  I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote.  And wrote.  And soon I decided that this was absolutely ridiculous!  I just felt that if my students had to learn Spanish using this book, they would be totally unsuccessful, and as a result, so would I.  I don't like that idea.  I got permission to find a different type of book, and so I went to Teacher's Discovery and found two books:  A book (whose name I forget) that taught TPR for one year and Look I Can Talk.  I started using LICT for second year (I swear that's what I read it was for) and the other book for first year.

By the end of one month, I had two very different types of classes.  My second years (who had come to class saying "Please don't expect much.  I really can't speak Spanish.) were having the time of their lives.  They were learning new things every day and having a wonderful time.

On the other hand, the first years were also doing well, but I was TPRed out of my mind!  I am not into TPR, and this was all day every day.  I was at my wits' end.  

One day, I was sitting at home and for some reason I looked at the inside of the book.  Blaine Ray was listed as author--and his address and phone number were on the book!  He lived in my city, not 5 miles away from me!  Well, I took my courage in my hands and called him.  Blaine was kind and understanding.  He listened to me cry for the longest time, then he offered me the world!  He trained me, observed my classes, let me see him teach my classes, provided us materials, straightened me out about what book was for what level, and just did a remarkable thing for a beginning Spanish teacher. 

I stayed at that school for six years, and in that time TPRS changed enormously.  It went from many rules to few rules.  Circling was introduced and clarified.  The idea of coaching was brought up and people began to be able to see first hand how to really be successful as a TPRS teacher.

In 2007, I moved to Tucson and began to work at Salpointe Catholic High School.  I wanted to work there specifically because Joe Neilson works there.  I have learned a lot, even though our styles are very different.  We have agreed that I teach a more modern TPRS (more like what all of us do today), while he teaches more of a classical TPRS.   We use the LICT and LICTM workbooks, but we don't use the teacher guides.  We have vocabulary lists that we use to make structures.  Teaching this way has made me be much more creative, since I don't use anyone's stories but my own. A week for me usually contains introduction of vocab (I try to stay with three structures per lesson, but sometimes I use four.  Never more than that.), PQA, oral story, and then writing that story in first person on the board with students providing the language.  The next day, the students read a story using the target vocab, and I often include one new word.  The next day, block, usually is the same as day one.  Friday is the same as day two.  In addition, I teach a song every week and the students also watch a movie for culture.  We read two books a year.

I wrote this to show you where I am.  Please let me know where you are.  I'm starting to get questions and comments, and I love that!  Please, though, include whether you would allow me to answer you in a blog post--by name or anonymously--and what you would like me to cover. 

These are some topics I'm considering:  

using TPRS when you have a lot of what I call "list" vocabulary--a set number of words that you have to get through and show student learning by the end of a unit.  

Teaching with songs:  why and how

Teaching on the block

What to do when you're sick

How do you keep your voice from going away  (by the way, did you know that voice lessons are tax deductible for you as a teacher?)

How to get the students ready for writing (not TPRS, but something I do at school, since we grade using rubrics).

Anything else you'd like to see?  Please drop me a line:

meggiev7777@gmail.com

or

meggiev777@yahoo.com

I look forward to hearing from you!

A tale of two stories

Every once in a while, I go a little crazy and decide that output is important, valuable and worthwhile.  Yeah, I know. But like I said, I get that way sometimes.  I have shared many stories with you--I thought I would share a story of my defeat with you, too.

Vocab: nunca deja de jugar, le quitó, se divierte  (he never stops playing, took it away from him, he has fun).

I decided to start giving my students speaking grades (spur of the moment).  I decided to start the grades by telling a story and then having them retell it.

Neither one of those decisions were terribly bad in and of themselves.  Ready?

I decided to teach them the vocabulary without any circling or any PQA.

Yeah, I know.  Dumb.

My problem was that I felt pressed for time and didn't feel that I had the time to devote to all parts of TPRS.

I've been teaching with TPRS since 2000. You'd think I'd know better.

So I made a storyboard that showed a kid having fun with a WII.  He never stopped playing with his WII.  He stopped talking to his family, stopped studying, and stopped visiting his friends because he was having fun playing with his Wii.  His mom came to his dad's house and talked to him about the problem.  The dad said, "Take away his Wii."  The mom came home and took away his Wii.  He got very mad, but he started to study, started to talk with his mom, and started to visit his friends again.  He came to his mom and asked for his Wii.  His mom said "no".  Now John doesn't play with his Wii because his mom never stops playing with the Wii.

Okay, so yesterday (the day all my other classes did this), I went through the story section by section.  I would tell the box, ask questions about what I said, had them fill in the blanks about what I said, and then went one student at a time up the rows.  The first several students would say something that happened in the box and the last student would sum up.  It's actually not a bad way to introduce (or reinforce) retells.  But it didn't work at all--all day long.  Why?  The kids had no buy-in.  The story was completely mine, it wasn't a fable or other sort of story, and they were having to do too much work.  It just didn't work.  I hated the whole day and was exhausted at the end of it.

Today, I worked with my last class.  For some reason, they are one day behind everyone else, so today was their day.  I used the same idea, but with a big difference.  I let them embellish the skeleton.

There was a boy named Ray.  Clase, where did the boy live?  Did he have a girlfriend?  Why not?  etc. Ray had fun playing Wii.  What was his favorite game?  Mario Carts.  Zapatito (his name is Brogan and he wanted the Spanish equivalent of his name), what is your favorite game.  Class, did Ray play Mario Cart or 2K10 (or something like that.  When it comes to sports, I immediately go into brain freeze, and the students get a big kick out of it.)

Anyway, as you can see, the skeleton stayed the same and the students embellished it.  They had a much better time, so did I, and we still finished in about the same time.

Moral of the story--TPRS works, but only when you follow the rules.  Don't try to go off without the essential elements.  Otherwise, you create headaches for yourself, boredom for you kids, and an all around sorry atmosphere.  Who needs that?

Embedded reading--Karen Carpenter

This is in response to some who wanted me to give them the Karen Carpenter story. Trouble is, it didn't start as a written story. 

I am overweight, and I have problems with some of the stories in chapter 4 of LICTM.  I'm not saying that they're rude or biased, but I prefer not to use them.  Instead of talking about training and losing weight, I go in a different direction:  what happens if you start obsessing about your weight.

The vocab was as follows: sube de peso, baja de peso, por horas seguidas.  Here is the written story (sorry--I don't remember the oral story or PQA.

Juliana quería bajar de peso.  No era muy gorda, pero siempre pensaba que sí era.  De niña, unos chicos burlaban de ella y le decían que era muy gordita y muy fea.  Nunca olvidó lo que dijeron los chicos, y siempre pensó que era gorda y fea.

            Juliana decidió que no quería comer chocolate, y bajó de peso.  Quitó de comer helado, y ella bajó más de peso.  Cuando decidió que no quería comer espaguetis ni pasta, ella bajó de peso aún más.  Ahora, ella solo comió fruta, legumbres y pollo. 

Después de un mes, ella se miró en el espejo.  “¡Qué gorda estoy!” pensó.  Entonces, decidió que no iba a comer ni plátanos, ni naranjas, ni pollo.  La chica, nunca muy gorda, bajó mucho de peso.  Pero cuando se miró en el espejo, todavía vio la misma chica gorda de que los niños se burlaban.

Después de un rato, había una competencia en la escuela para buscar un equipo de baile nuevo.  Ella quería competir porque le encantaba bailar.  Sin comer más, empezó hacer ejercicios por horas seguidas.  Sin la comida necesaria para la salud, la chica se enfermó mucho y no pudo competir.  Su mamá la puso en un hospital para chicos que tenían problemas mentales y no podían controlar el peso. 

En el hospital, la chica aprendió muchas cosas.  Aprendió que no estaba gorda—estaba flaquísima.  Empezó un régimen para subir de peso, y después de un rato subió 15 libras.  No era fácil por ella, porque la pobre chica estaba segura de que se veía (she looked) horrible, pero sí lo hizo.  Y ahora quiere estar sana, no flaquita.

After that, I decided to try embedded reading.  I had just been to a great workshop by Brian Barabe and +Laurie Clarcq.  So I told  Karen Carpenter's story and then asked the students to write everything they remembered.  I then wrote several stories based on their stories.  Here they are.  They go from very simple to pretty complicated. (Please forgive any errors; correct as you wish)

Karen Carpenter

1

Karen Carpenter era cantante.  Pensó que estaba gorda.  Karen tocó la batería.  Karen estaba anoréxica. Karen bajó de peso.  Karen pensó –Estoy gorda—cuando se miró en el espejo.  Karen no tenía buena salud.  Estaba insalubre.

2

Karen Carpenter era cantante.  Cantaba en el grupo “Los Carpenters”.  Karen también tocó la batería. Aunque tenían mucho éxito, había un problema.  Karen pensó que estaba gorda.  Karen estaba anoréxica. Karen bajó de peso.  Karen pensó –Estoy gorda—cuando se miró en el espejo.  Ella bajó tanta pesa que en 1977, ella pesó solamente 83 libras.  Karen no tenía buena salud.  Estaba insalubre.  Se murió en 1983 cuando tenía 32 años.

3

Karen Carpenter

Karen Carpenter era cantante.  Cantó con su hermano Richard en el grupo “Los Carpenters”. Karen tocó la batería, también.  Empezó a tocar en la escuela secundaria, usando una pareja de “chopsticks” y unas banquetas altas de bar (bar stools).

Karen no tenía buena salud.  Cuando era joven, ella pesó 145 libras, lo cual era mucho porque midió sólo 5’6”.  Ella empezó a bajar de peso, bajo la supervisión de un doctor.  Cuando ella empezó a cantar con su hermano, pesó solo 95 libras.

Aunque Karen tuvo éxito con su dieta, todavía pensó que estaba gorda.  Karen pensó –Estoy gorda—cuando se miró en el espejo.  Estaba insalubre.  Ella empezó a bajar más peso, y eso no era saludable para su corazón. 

Después de un rato, Karen se dio cuenta de que estaba anoréxica. Aunque trató de tener mejor salud, era demasiado tarde.  Karen se murió de un ataque de corazón en 1983. Tenía solamente 32 años.