Spanish 1--PQA for those who don't do PQA

Okay, first of all, this isn't "official" PQA.  It's more along the lines of getting the kids used to answering and volunteering.

I am in chapter 2 of LICT.  My words were "he is walking in the street" "the cow is happy", and "he is sleeping in the street".

I start out by having the students draw a 6-frame cartoon on the top half of their paper and then numbering 1-6 below the box.  I start by drawing a cow in the first box.  Then I get my victim cards.  I ask some questions whole class--Class, what is in the cartoon?  A cow.  Is the cow happy? etc.  Then I go to a victim.  One by one, I ask the following questions to victims--one question per victim.  What is the cow's name? Where is the cow (I give them lots of examples from the place cards that are around the room--the city, the country, the store, etc)?  What is the cow doing (easy--look at the vocab list--walking.  Is the cow walking in the street?

We go to the second frame and I draw the cow with a thought bubble.  Victim cards:, what does the cow want?  A friend (these are the answers that were given).  Does the cow have a friend?  Yes.  Is it a giraffe or a burro?  A burro.  Draw a burro in the thought bubble.

Next frame.  Where does the cow go?  To the burro's house.  Where does the burro live?  In the country (notice that there was nothing in the frame--they are filling it in).  Where is the burro?  In his house in the country.  Draw it in.

Next frame.  Where is the cow walking? (This is similar to the last frame.  In the last frame, the cow began to walk.  Now the burro walks to the house.)  Where is the burro?  He is sleeping.  Where is he sleeping?  In the street.

Next frame:  the cow is beside the burro.  What does the cow want?  He wants a friend.  Does he have a friend?  Yes, the burro.  Is there a problem?  Yes, the burro is sleeping.  What does the cow do?  He says, "Hi burro" (talk bubble with Hola Burro).

Last frame:  How does the cow feel now?  Why?  She is happy because she has a friend.

After this, I ask questions such as, Class, where is the cow?  What is she doing?  Where is she walking?  etc.  Then I go to the first frame and ask the students to work with their partners and write a minimum of one sentence per frame.  Then I call on individual students to read their sentences.  I write them down.  Then I ask for volunteers to add on if they have something different.  When that's done, I ask them to remember back when they did their placement writing sample.  Remember when you said you couldn't write any Spanish at all?  Wasn't that less than a month ago?  See big smiles all around.

The thing that's nice about this is that it gives them ownership of the story, while at the same time allowing me to guide it.  Plus, you get reading and writing and speaking all for the price of admission!

what shall I do tomorrow?

When something horrible happens, I think that we would be mistaken should we try to ignore it in class.  While this isn't your normal PQA, you definitely can go with questions and answers about it.  If your class takes ownership of the situation, you can get some very good personal discussions going.

Example,

Class, who here knows what happened yesterday in Boston?

Where did the bomb explode, on the sidewalk or in the street?

Did many people die?

How many people were hurt?

How many people here have family in Boston?

Julie, who do you know that lives in Boston?  Was s/he at the Marathon(be very careful with this.  Be very sensitive to your students.  If they had people at the event, it might help to talk, but it might not be)?

And so on.

After a while, you can start a story.  Of course, this will not be a wonderfully funny story, but it might be a way to let the students get their feelings out.

Skeleton:

John was in Boston.  He was really excited because he was going to run in a marathon.

He runs in the marathon and is very tired.

He comes to the end and is very proud because he is about to finish.

As he is running, he hears a bomb.  He feels _____ (scared, angry, curious)

He looks to the sidewalk and another bomb goes off.

He goes to the sidewalk to try to help.

Suddenly, he doesn't care about winning.  He just wants to help.

The more you talk and repeat, the more you can get not only repetitions but also responses to the horrible event that happened.

Of course, as in all things, use your best judgement.  If it's too raw, don't do it.  We're in AZ, so it didn't affect us, other than making us feel shocked, helpless, and angry, just as most of the US did.

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.

Different ways to tell a story

Okay, this isn't a story, but I think that it's something that is worth saying.

I used to always follow the same format:  Day one--PQA, then a mini-story with actors, then review, then retell.  Day two:  written story and retell, Day 3 (and sometimes 4) extended reading and written summary.  Day 5 could have been anything.  Then I moved to a different school, and things changed slightly.  Day one:  mini-story with actors, review, etc.  Day two:  written story and retell.  Day 3-4:  repeat days one and two with new vocab.  Day 5:  catch up if necessary, otherwise start a new story.  This is basically what I still do.

However, I have gotten away from stories with actors.  I still think that way is best--it allows more focus, it gives the students more opportunities to create the story themselves, and so on.  My colleague in 2H does acted-out stories every day with great success.  His students are motivated and love what they do--or at least they realize that their grades rest with comprehension and proficiency, and so they're willing to play along.

Other classes, on the other hand, do not do as well with actors.  It can become disruptive, there are classes in which nobody has the desire to act (and I think that it's important for them to at least be okay with coming up), or it simply isn't in the nature of the teacher or the students.  For these classes, you are faced with the decision:  do you continue to insist on acting and then spend time cleaning up the messes that ensue or do you try something different.

For those of you that have decided that acting isn't working out for you, here are some suggestions.

1.  Story boards.  You can start the class with an empty cartoon box with six squares.  Ask a story, filling in the squares as you go. Here's an example:
Clase, hay un chico.  El chico es alto o bajo--flaco o gord--tiene pelo largo o corto--qué color de pelo tiene--.  Then draw the boy with a thought box.  ¿Qué quiere hacer el chico?  Answer goes in the box.  Second box continues the story.  Third thought box contains the problem.  Fourth box--solution one. Fifth box--why it doesn't work, next idea  Sixth box-- solution.  As you can see, you're still asking the story, the students are still giving you information, and you still are getting lots of ci.  You can also have the students fill in their own storyboards and then use them to retell the story to their partners.

2.  Telling the story and acting it out yourself.  I sometimes do this, especially if the story I'm telling doesn't have a lot of q and a.  I know it isn't "real" tprs, but I will sometimes modify the idea and retell a legend or fairy tale in Spanish.  You still can have q and a, but it's more retelling of info (or them giving you info that they know about the fairy tale) instead of making up the story.  I think that this is doable in Sp 2 and above--not so much in Sp 1.  If you know how to tell a story well, you can keep their attention even without actors.  For example, I recently told a story of a girl who loved to dance, so she went to a hotel where there was supposed to be a dance. Nobody was there, but there were a beautiful pair of shoes.  She couldn't stop herself--she had to put them on.  The minute she did, she began to dance and couldn't stop.  As she was getting sicker and sicker, a handsome man came into the hotel.  She thought he was going to help her.  Instead, he asked her how she liked the shoes--he was the devil. She danced until she died.  I told the story in small chunks and retold it by questioning the studnets.  The students also retold it to each other.  They loved it and keep asking me when they're going to hear another legend.  It's also a good way to bring in culture.  Note--I did do this with a story board.  I like story boards because it gives them something to relate to if they get lost in the story.

3.  Using puppets or dolls.  I have lots and lots of props, enough for everyone in class to have two.  I give them the toys, GIVE THEM TIME TO PLAY WITH THEM (they get 5 minutes--that allows them to get it out of their systems.  After that, if they play instead of work, they get to use their hands as puppets), and then they use the puppets as actors.  I ask the story and then tell them to retell with changes for their animals (había una chica con pelo azul becomes había un perro con pelo blanco y negro).

4.  Skip the story--do a short reading instead.  This is tricky--you are teaching vocab and reading the vocab at the same time.  I gesture the vocab and then when reading, I do the gestures.  That helps.  I also use fairy tales or contemporary people for this, and I make a cartoon with captions, not a real story.  The captions are very content-driven, and it allows me time to ask a bunch of ci-related questions.  I recently did one of these on Snow White.  I was surprised at how easy it was to set up--I simply did a Google Image search for the parts of the story that I was telling--all the photos were there!

5.  Use real stories instead of weird ones.  Last year I did a story on Karen Carpenter for the vocab dealing with gorda, flaca, and gaining and losing weight.  I had photos of Carpenter at different stages of her life--the kids really understood, and they also learned about the problems of anorexia.

Those are just some ideas.  If you have an issue you want to discuss or would like to see more of this sort of post in this blog, please let me know by either commenting or emailing.  This blog is for you, and I'm happy to do whatever you want.  I want to see you succeed!!