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.

 

 

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.

le quita el $ =

Pat takes $ away from him/her

deja a su novio =

Pat drops/ dumps her boyfriend

se divierte =

Pat has fun (enjoys herself)

Jonathan and Darlene had been a couple for many years.  They always went out on the weekend

and had fun, but one day Darlene met a new boy named Charlie.   Charlie was very handsome and

very nice. Darlene went to the movies with Charlie, and she had a lot of fun.  She decided that she

wanted a new boyfriend, so she dumped Jonathan. 

Jonathan y Darlene había sido una pareja hace muchos años.  Siempre salían durante el fin de 

semana y se divertían, pero un día Darlene se encontró con un chico que se llamaba Charlie.  

Charlie era muy guapo y muy simpático.  Darlene fue al cine con Charlie y se divertió mucho.

Decidió que quería un novio nuevo, así que dejó a Jonathan.

During the weekend, Darlene wanted to go to the movies, so she waited for Charlie to call.  Charlie

didn't call

so she called him.  "Hi Charlie, it's Darlene.  Do you want to go out?"  "Sure!" So Darlene and Charlie

went to the movies.  Darlene was excited, and Charlie was nice, as always.  But there was a

difference between Jonathan and Charlie.  Jonathan always paid for everything.  Not Charlie.  When

they had dinner, Charlie took money from Darlene for her meal.  When they went to the movie, 

Charlie took money from Darlene for her ticket.  Darlene had fun, but she had no money at the

end of the date. 

Durante el fin de semana, Darlene quería ir al cine, así que esperó para una llamada de Charlie.

Charlie no llamó, así que ella le  llamó a él.  --Hola Charlie, soy yo, Darlene.  ¿Quieres salir? --

--¡Claro!--  Por eso, Darlene y Charlie fueron al cine.  Darlene estaba emocionada, y Charlie era

simpático como siempre.  Pero había una diferencia entre Jonathan y Charlie.  Jonathan siempre lo 

pagó todo.  Charlie no.  Cuando cenaron Charlie le quitó el dinero de Darlene por su cena.  Cuando

fueron a la cena, Charlie le quitó el dinero de Darlene por su boleto.  Darlene se divirtió, pero no tenía

más dinero al final de la cita.

When Charlie dropped her at home, Darlene thought about Jonathan.  Had she made a mistake

when she dumped him?  She called Jonathan and said, "I'm sorry I dumped you.  Do you want to be

my boyfriend again?"  Jonathan said, "No, but we can still be friends."  Darlene and Jonathan went

out, but Jonathan took money for her part of the date because they weren't a couple.  Darlene

realized that she'd make a mistake.  Poor Darlene.

Cuando Charlie la dejó en la casa, Darlene pensó de Jonathan.  ¿Equivocó cuando dejó a su novio? 

Darlene llamó a Jonathan y le dijo --Lo siento que te dejé.  ¿Quieres ser mi novio de nuevo?--

Jonathan le contestó, "No, pero todavía podemos ser amigos.--  Darlene y Jonathan salieron, pero

Jonathan le quitó el dinero de ella por su parte de la cita porque no eran una pareja.  Darlene se dio

cuenta de que había sido equivocada.  Pobre Darlene.