First full lesson and story--Spanish 1

Okay, to start off, I have not taught Spanish 1 in many years.  I'm...well, rusty is a good word.  Plus, when I taught in California, I used Look, I Can Talk More in Spanish 1.  It was a trial, and it worked.  I'm not sure why Blaine didn't promote it, but I think it's because the idea of teaching in present/past came up at the same time, and that one seemed more worthwhile, maybe.  Anyway, the school I'm out now uses Look, I Can Talk for Spanish 1 and LICTM for Spanish 2.  So I feel out of my depth.

I started on Friday with our first oral lesson.  We did lots of PQA using the following vocabulary: hay, tiene, quiere, va, le gusta.  In addition, I introduced "quien", "que", "cual".  Friday we had a full day of PQA, then Monday we did an oral story.  It was about a boy who wanted a dog, so he went to a pet store.  He found a dog, but it was one color and he wanted two.  He went to another store, but it was a Pug, and he didn't like Pugs.  Then he went to a third store--he found his dog.  Directly after that, we went to the story.  Like the previous story, it was in the present tense.  I don't go into the past tense for at least a month.  I want some continuity of tense.  Please understand--I have never been part of Von's past/present experiment, and I'm not sure I can do it justice.  I see nothing wrong with it; it just isn't something I'm willing to do right now.

The story is about a boy who wants a blue dog.  He goes to his mother, but she has no dogs.  She says to go to her grandmother.  The grandmother has big dogs, little dogs, pretty dogs, and ugly dogs, but no blue dogs.  She says that there are lots of blue dogs in Walmart (that always got a laugh--not sure why).  So then he goes to Walmart.  There are lots of dogs there, too, and there is also a big blue plastic dog and a little blue plastic dog.  He is very happy.  He buys the big blue plastic dog and goes to his house.

First year--lots and lots and LOTS of repetition.  No matter how much you do it, there will still be some who don't get it.

More later.

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?

Week in review--sequence of events: emphasis on writing

This posts references the post "Going from PQA to oral story to written story".

I thought that you might like to see the sequence of events from PQA to oral story to written story to story that the students write.  Some that are new might be interested.

Monday:  I showed a video by +Deb Read, Chalkbrd.com.  She makes videos in Spanish and French.  This one was about her dog, Renny.  It really had nothing to do with the vocab for the week, but it set up Tuesday's activity.

Tuesday:  New vocab:  sabe (hablar), tiene éxito, se pelea.
First I started by gesturing the words.  I then asked students what sports they knew how to play.  I have lots of football players, so I concentrated on them.  I would find a football player and ask if they knew how to play (sabe jugar) their sport.  Then I would ask if they knew how to speak their sport--I gave the example that everything has its own language.  I know how to speak music (yo sé hablar la música) allegro, andante, moderato, etc.  Once they get it, I asked them again.  If they said yes, I looked for someone who didn't play their sport.  Then I asked them if they knew how to speak football.  Then I asked the other student to speak football to them: inglés o espanol.

I circled tiene éxito by asking what a student played then asking if they were successful in their sport this year.  If they didn't play a sport (unusual in our school), I asked what they were successful at.

I circled se pelea by asking who they fought with.  If the ref makes a bad call, do you fight with the ref?  I brought a wrestler and a non-wrestler up (I have a son who used to wrestle, so I know a little about the sport from watching him).  I had the wrestler take the non-wrestler down, and then I gave the point to the non-wrestler.  I asked if the wrestler fights with the ref over the call.  Emphatic yes.

After that, I brought up the video from the day before and did the story about Deb Read (writer and videographer extraordinaire!! You can find her at http://chalkbrd.com/) and asked a story about her.  I wanted to point out that although I didn't use actors, I can still ask a story because the students can give me needed information, such as sabe hablar español Deb?  Si sabe hablar español,  ¿qué enseña? etc.  No, it's not info that the students make up, but it is putting them in the storytelling process, and it does keep them focused.  It's the teacher's ability to keep them interested that allows them to keep focused on the repetitions, in my opinion.

Wednesday-Thursday (block day--different classes each day): review vocab, written story
I always start the day with a review of the current vocab, which I review simply by gesturing and maybe asking a few questions.  I don't spend a lot of time on it unless I feel that they need review on particularly difficult structures.  Then I might do more PQA.

After we reviewed the vocab, I introduced the story about the boy who knew how to play lots of instruments but didn't know how to be a friend.  I always read the story in Spanish first. I have a smartboard and the story is on the board (24-pt font, if you care :) ).  If the students aren't familiar with a word--it's amazing how a word can be learned just by using it over and over in a story but not teaching it--I write it over the word so they have immediate translation.  I teach Sp 2 and I need to do less and less translation.  At the beginning of the year it would be a word or two per paragraph.  Now it might be a word or two per story.  Then they read the story.  If I have time, I circle, but often a story takes up the whole period, so I don't.

Friday: review yesterday's story, student story

Once again, the day begins with vocab review.  After that, I retold the block day story.  I don't start with a full retell.  I ask the story all the way through.  Usually the story is in the past tenses, but this time it was in the present, so I made sure to retell it in the past.

John knew how to play some instruments, right class?  What instruments did he know how to play?  Students answer with either full sentences or just instrument names--their choice.  It seems that there are some who really want to be proficient, and they take the extra effort.  It's not my call, it's theirs.  I asked the story from beginning to end.  Then I ask it again, this time totally either fill in the blanks or true/false (John wanted to be successful, so he formed a _______.  John knew how to play the piano, right?).  Then I went into English.

Our school is going into common assessments, and so we have agreed that all classes will use the same writing rubric.  Thank God for Joe Neilson!  He understands the proficiency that's attainable by the different levels, so he has taken the AP language writing rubric and given us a grading scale and full explanation of what to look for and what the numbers of the scale mean.  Yes, I teach with Joe Neilson.  He actually is in the classroom next to mine.  You may be suitably impressed :).  This was my class' first time with this rubric, so  I explained to them the difference between what we have done and what we will do.

I guess I should say here that this emphasis on writing is not necessarily TPRS.  I know that there will be an assessment at the end of the year, so I work all year to get my students ready.  From the beginning of the year, we work on the difference between pret and imp.  I don't take a lot of time, but I do keep drilling the idea that imp is longer  hablaba vs habló.  I am a big one for mnemonics, so I remind them that it's longer because it's not perfect so it has to try harder.  I show a movie every block day, and the first one I show is Cinco Amigas.  I show it not so much for the culture as because the girls are very different from one another, the story has lots of action, and I can get a lot of mileage out of that.  The students have to come up with three descriptions of a scene and three things that happened during the scene.  It's interesting to me that the students have more problems with actions than with descriptions.  For example--John wanted a dog comes up as an action.  I have to remind them that feelings aren't actions.  The idea seems new to them.  In my opinion, the majority of student issues with writing (aside from the obvious pret-imp issues) comes about because they really don't know how to write in English either.

I don't use the AP rubric until late third quarter.  I start with a very easy rubric--pret/imp.  If they use the correct form, they get credit.  In other words, a student who writes John iban a la tienda (John they were going to the beach) gets credit.  The only time you don't get credit is if you use present tense.  I know--not TPRS.  But it does open some eyes.  If I didn't have this writing emphasis, I wouldn't start this till later in the year.  I know all about the affective filter.  However, I do writing so seldom that it doesn't seem to make a difference.  I don't make them responsible for anything until I start emphasizing it.  After the él form, we go to ellos, then yo and nosotros.  (third person singular and plural and 1st person singular and plural).  I don't really emphasize the 2nd person in stories--it's not natural to me--I do that in PQA.  In the second semester I start emphasizing the noun-verb correlation (correct person) and the noun-modifier correlation, but they're just notified, not held accountable.  I don't want to overwhelm them, but I start marking their papers to make them aware.

So it goes until this point in the year.  Now, in English, I tell them that they are now responsible for EVERYTHING--make sure that you read your papers before you turn them in.  By year's end, they will have done 4 papers.  The first paper is a baseline.  You can't get below a C.  Classwork grade. The second paper is graded as classwork, but you get what you earn.  The third is a quiz grade and the fourth is an exam grade.  There's actually a fifth--part of the final.  I tell them that I want to see improvement.  If you go from a 2 to a 3, you're fine.  If you go from a 3 to a 2, you need to see me.  The students are given an explanation of the rubric and allowed to correct their work.  I get a lot of students in for tutoring this way.

My school has two tracks--honors and regular.  FL is unusual in that the student can start in one and go to the other.  I teach regular 2 and from there, the student can go to 3 or 3H.  So I give slightly different assignments.

If a student is going to Spanish 3, they are to retell the story as closely as possible to mine.  They are to keep it in the 2 past tenses.  They do not have to go into present unless they choose to.

If a student is going to 3H, they are to write a similar story using the same target vocab.  They may not retell my story.  They must keep primarily to the past tenses, but they must use a minimum of two lines of dialog using present tense.

I just started grading, and most students are getting 2s and 3s--not mastering basic expressions.  That's very common at this point.  Some are getting 5s--excellent--a 6 is the highest you can get in 2nd year.  I know that some of you might be interested in the rubrics and the explanation of numbering--comment here with your email or email me and I'll send you the forms on Monday.  DO NOT go to Sirena.  I can't use FB at school and I don't have the rubric at home.  My email is meggiev777@yahoo.com or meggiev7777@gmail.com .

By the way, let me know if you want to see my student writing.  Some are great; some are not.  I'd be happy to share, but only if you're interested.

Hope that clarifies things.  I know that writing is confusing for the newbie.  Hope this helps.

Going from PQA to oral story to written story (when you're not using actors)

I thought I'd just post what I did yesterday and today in my class. Actually, it started day before yesterday.  I attended a funeral on Monday, and so I knew that I was going to be gone 5th and 7th.  I used one of Deb Read's wonderful DVDs (I don't remember exactly what you call them, Deb, but they're great).  This was one of three about her dog, Renny.  Because I'm too lazy to change lesson plans (and really because it's good for a change of pace and is packed with lots of good vocab), I played the DVD in all my periods.  For those of you that have never heard of Deb--AKA Chalkbrd--she is a great resource to have.  Deb lives in Indiana, and she writes Sub Aid videos and other videos.  My school recently purchased her entire collection. It was very reasonable and can be used throughout the levels.  I have used Hermie the skeleton, Invierno en Indiana, and Soy yo, Renny with my Spanish 2s.  She also writes materials for French and English classes.

Anyway, back to Monday.  All classes saw the video, so all classes learned that Renny's owner was named Deb.  They also learned a lot of other stuff.  The next day, I introduced the following vocab:  she knows how to, she is successful, and she fights.  I thought that this might be a good time to give the students some background info about Deb.

First, I introduced the students to the vocab using gestures and PQA.  Before I came to my current school, I never used gestures, but it's done here, so I do it, too.  After the gestures, I asked the students what they knew how to play.  One boy said that he knew how to play football.  I said, "Oh, do you know how to speak football?"  He looked at me like I was crazy, but I just waited, and then he got it.  He said, "Yes, I can speak football."  I then asked another student, "Do you know how to speak football?"  He said yes, a little.  I then asked the first one to say something to the other one in football.  I thought he was going to say "throw me a pass (in English)" or something like that.  Instead, he gestured the way that he would have on the field!  I had no clue!  I asked, "Do you know how to say that?" And the other student did!  I think it's always a plus when the student knows more than the teacher.  I show them how little I know about sports on a regular basis.  They think it's quite funny.  :)  We continued to PQA using the vocab--do the refs know how to play football?  Do you fight with the refs?  Does your coach fight with refs? Is your team successful?  Etc.

After about 20 minutes, I started into a story.  I had a picture of Deb on the smartboard, with the board on blank.  I asked the students "What was the dog's name yesterday?" Everybody knew--Renny.  Where did he live? What state did he live in?  Who was his owner?  After we got to Deb, I turned the screen on and showed her picture.  (By the way, Deb, I took liberties with your story.  I hope you don't mind).  I said that Deb was successful.  She knew how to speak Spanish and French, so she was successful as a Spanish teacher and a French teacher.  Circle circle circle (vocab--she knows how to and she is successful).  But Deb had a problem.  Deb got sick.  She had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  I had another pic of Deb with the words in Spanish below.  I translated the words (actually, one of my students did, since they were cognates) and then we went on.  She got sick and wasn't successful.  She didn't know how to teach when she was always tired.  She knew how to teach Spanish, she knew how to teach French, but she didn't know how to teach when she was sick.  Circle circle circle.  The principal fought with her because she was absent a lot because she was sick.  She fought with the principal, but finally she stayed home.  She wasn't successful.  Circle circle circle.  She had to find a way to live, and she thought, What to I know how to do?  I know how to speak French.  I know how to speak Spanish.  And I know how to use the computer.  Circle circle circle.  Deb had a dog named Renny.  She knew how to make a video with Renny.  The video was successful.  Then she made videos about climate and the seasons, etc.  I showed all the videos I had.

After I told the story (no actors necessary--the students were focused and understood everything), I retold it and then called on individual students to help me rewrite it in the "yo' form.  I do this by saying, "?Qué es Deb? Deb es profesora.  Good, now how would you say, "I'm a teacher?" Yo so profesora.  Etc.  I keep it in Spanish as much as I can, though I admit that's a weak spot for me.  The rest of the period was taken up writing the story in the "yo" form.  The students then translated it to each other--one read the first half and the other read the second.

Today, we reviewed the vocab and then I went right into a written story using the same vocab.  This was the story about the boy starting a band that I share a couple of days ago.  I had them read and translate, but I didn't ask very many questions--another weakness.  If it weren't block day and I had them again tomorrow, I would give them an activity using the story--either t/f, fill in the blank, or cloze.

I do this pretty much every time I do a story. I try to find things that are current and interesting for them.  Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't.