Proficiency From The Start

Choice and Independence

2019-03-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

Working in a Montessori environment, I'm always asking myself how to build in choice and opportunities for independence for the students. I notice that a lot world language teachers are working on this-because, of course the goal is for the students to be able to be independent and use the language with speakers of the language out in the world. I like the idea of stations, or works, so I've been experimenting with how to use a Montessori like work plan to build in some self direction and independence.

I am not doing this every class, but when asked for feedback, the children really enjoy the format to do occasionally. What I like about it is that it allows for them to make a choice on what they work, based on what is available at any given time, and I was free to both observe them and connect with children one on one--something that is a challenge in our tightly packed FLES schedule. During the work periods that I did with 9-12 students (4, 5, 6th gr), I also noticed that the children relied on each other to answer questions(good ol "Three before me."), allowing them to be more independent.

Below are some samples from the 5th grade unit, "What makes a family?"

As the children entered the classroom, I greeted them at the door, as usual, but this time with their plans, and they got to work right away. Choices included listening to an audiolingua recording and answering interpretive questions in Google Forms, doing a gallery walk of paintings by Carmen Lomas Garza while writing a post-it sized description(with a word list on the board), choosing a partner to talk with at the "chat station" in one of our reading corners*, and reading the poem "Manuela, mi abuela," and answering interpretive questions. When some children finished sooner than others in the group, we always have free reading and the choice works(aka fast finishers) that are mostly Rockalingua activities laminated with dry erase markers for them to use--plus the Mira tu Mundo magazines from Mundo de Pepita--in sheet protectors, so children can complete the activities and erase when done.

*In my school setting, talking about family is generally a totally cool subject. But I think it's worth mentioning that not all kids feel good talking about their families. I am looking to add to this task: talk with your partner about the family in the picture--using family pictures from the Peter Menzel books and UNICEF children's books, etc....Describe what you see. What questions could you ask the family?

I noticed that this activity may take more than one 30 minute class period, which is fine. When the children came in next time, they picked up where they left off. I'm also experimenting with using Edpuzzle as input tool, and Flipgrid for documenting their interpersonal work--I'd like to build toward having the children respond to each other's Flipgrid posts--I'll keep you posted. Progress not Perfection.

Take a Peek at What Kids are Reading for FVR

2019-02-26T08:17:00.000-08:00

What kind of reading material do my students read during FVR? Check out some of the reading choices available to my upper elementary and middle school students below. I rotate a large number of books that I check out from the Chicago Public Library based on student interests and requests. Before we start for the year, I give an explicit lesson on choosing reading material that is a good fit, meaning they can comprehend a large majority of what's being read. After the children read, we end each FVR session with a brief interpersonal activity in Spanish in which the students:

-Greet each other
-share what they read
-give a brief review/opinion of the material
-Sometimes they share what their favorite book is and why, too

(Our subscription to Mundo de Pepita's magazines!)

(A sample of our class CI novels)

(I Spy activities from I Spy books and Spanish Playground-Thanks Jennifer Brunk!)

("Brain Quest" like game from Spain)

Reducing Decision Fatigue or Embracing the House Dress

2017-12-09T09:58:00.003-08:00

Every year...since forever, I start off early fall on a new mission--I'll work less, I'll walk to work every day, I'll take care of myself, manage stress, I'll......screeech--crash! (the sound of my plans spinning at high speed off the road by mid-October)

I was determined to not follow this same habit again this year(no, really!).

At the end of summer, I read this great post by Gerard Dawson at Cult of Pedagogy on decision fatigue in teachers. It was the first time I'd heard that term, but it named the overwhelm I'd been feeling in my work and home life, and described many behaviors I had unconsciously continued doing as I careened toward burnout each year. I recommend taking a look at it. The author made me think about the many distractions and decisions built into my routine, and examine how I could minimize them.

I took the author's suggestions seriously and put some of his ideas into practice and...things are indeed different for me this year. While I still have many stressful days(hello, I'm still a teacher and single mom), I feel more sane, but it meant some changes in my thinking and habits.

In the classroom:

I collaborated with colleagues to establish some simple, clear expectations, especially at the middle school level. We use the CHAMPS model, but I don't think it matters which model we use, as long as expectations are clear, fair and followed consistently. My blood pressure has gone way down, being able to use the simple language built into these expectations to respond to situations instead of trying to always figure it out on the fly. I'm pretty sure my students would say I'm a lot nicer to be around, too.
Work routines: Instead of my old habit of doing something new and different everyday, I have daily routines--different content, same procedures. Practices like FVR Friday, Music Monday in elementary, and individual CI activities for the first few minutes of class as middle school students trickle in(listening to a recording, podcast, short video, read an article--all can be used for interpersonal tasks or for thinking routines during class). My students know what to expect, and so do I.
I've put limits on my innovation by choosing some practices, activities, units, technology(you name it) that work and save big changes for summer or other breaks by pinning ideas to Pinterest and archiving ideas for the future when I'm not in the midst of a full teaching schedule.

In life:

Unless it's really an emergency(really), I don't work from home. It was hard for the first 6 weeks, and sometimes that means staying late or coming in early to make it happen, but it's a firm boundary. I feel more focused and fresh at work as a result, and am a more present mom at home.
My morning routine is only about getting ready for school(no work until I actually get to work!), and my daughter and I have enough time most days to walk.
Food: I pretty much eat the same thing everyday for breakfast and lunch, shopping for the week and bringing items to work so I don't pack a lunch everyday.
Finally, let's talk about the house dress. I couldn't afford to replace my current clothes with a capsule wardrobe, BUT I did downsize my collection(I'm a thrift store hoarder) and treat it like a uniform. When I'm at home, the uniform is off and I put the house dress on. This practice is a concrete reminder that I'm at home and not working. Plus, it just feels amazing.

My biggest take away from Dawson's post was that it's not about having one way to address the stress and decision fatigue, but finding habits that would work for me. I feel a little exposed blogging about these new habits, but I'm hoping that by posting this, I'll have to keep holding myself to them.

So for now, I cling to my house dress.

Building Rapport and Relationships with T.A.L.K. in Middle School

2017-11-05T06:57:00.000-08:00

Learning about T.A.L.K. was a great aha! moment in my teaching--one that I've been able to apply with my 6th-8th graders to give more clear and consistent feedback. (I'm still working on how to use it with younger students, but have to consider that conversational output is much less at those levels).

If you're not familiar with T.A.L.K., in brief, it's a framework to encourage interpersonal communication and give feedback on it. At our school, T.A.L.K. stands for: (T)arget language (A)ccuracy(enough to be understood, using new vocab. structures) (L)istening(being a good, active listener) and (K)eep it going(being a support, active conversation partner).

Before we use it, I have a conversation with the students where we collaboratively defining what each of those areas look and sound like(ie. "A good listener makes eye contact with their partner, and is focused on what they're saying, rather than using their computer, working on work while their partner is trying to engage them in conversation, a good listener is nodding, or interjecting--"yes, me too, I didn't quite understand"). Then, while we do interpersonal activities, I make my rounds to listen and observe, and over the course of a 5-6 week period aim to give each student at least 1-2 T.A.L.K sheets, depending on the class size and frequency. Below is the rubric for my upper elementary group(no grades), but for middle school where 7th-8th graders are graded, point values are assigned--4 pts. each area.

In my 7th-8th grade classes, I use T.A.L.K. frequently, and this fall, I've discovered that this framework provides me with a great opportunity to connect with the students individually, focusing on what they can do, and offering suggestions on how they can 'level up' to make it even better next time. I used to simply hand back the T.A.L.K. rubrics at the end of class, but this year, I'm taking a moment with each student as they leave class to use it for a conversation and a way to connect. The response has been very positive--most importantly, it's giving me a chance to connect with the students I don't know very well, or with which I don't have the greatest rapport. During the course of our first marking period, I've noticed an overall improvement in my relationship with the kids, and deeper engagement on their part(asking questions about their learning and asking for what they need--help with vocabulary development, putting sentences together...).

While I don't think T.A.L.K. is perfect(I don't love the accuracy marker), it has allowed my students and me to use the same vocabulary to talk about their learning and connect personally in our first language.

Teach Better/Work Less: Slow Down on Innovation

2017-10-28T07:10:00.001-07:00

I continue to be inspired by Elizabeth Dentlinger and her goal of Teach Better/Work Less, which I've adopted as my own.

While I've got lots of moving parts to the Teach Better/Work Less plan, one area I've had to take a close look at is innovation. Why do I feel like I must have new and better ways every year, all the time? There's no doubt that our field is full of learning and innovation right now--making the shift from learning to acquisition, from memorization to proficiency, new ACTFL standards, new research, better ways to spend our class time.....There's a lot of great work to be done. But I don't have to do it All. At. Once.

After writing a couple of new units for upper elementary and middle school and adding FVR, I started talking about creating stations--after the school year had started. My good friend and colleague, Siobhan, didn't even look up from her work when I laid out my plan. She simply said, "For next year."

She knows. I'm an innovation junkie. In reflecting more about this penchant for change, it became clear, quickly, that my focus on (rapid) innovation was the cause of a lot of stress and additional pressure on my work load--all brought on by me. I'm now asking myself, "Am I really reflecting on each major innovation? How does it work? How do the children respond? Is the innovation responding to their needs? Is it too fast for them? How does this change focus on the bigger picture and program goals? Given the time limitations, does it make sense?"

So, I'm committed to what I've started and as far as innovation? I started a Pinterest Board with ideas for stations so when I feel the strong urge to start changing things I can pin ideas to the board and then let it go...for now. Same for unit ideas. I'll take some time to sit with the changes already in place, and respond as needed.

Keeping it in the TL: Elementary Version

2017-10-14T06:40:00.001-07:00

A couple of years ago, my colleague, Siobhan, and I attended a workshop that emphasized the importance of teaching students transactional phrases and words in the target language to be used during class activities. The presenters stressed that the value of whatever cutting/pasting/coloring project we had going on could be lost because students drop the TL to speak in English, but it's the transactional language that's the real life part. This rang true for both of us and we went back to school, where between us, teach kindergarten through 8th grade, and put some new practices in place to support TL use in our classes.

As a part of our process, we asked the children what language they needed to get their needs met and express themselves without defaulting to English. The list of language is ever evolving and is posted on our class white boards, so when a situation arises, we can add it to the list. Now having experience with the kinds of things the children need to say, we can predict some of that language and explicitly teach it and have visual reminders posted in our classrooms. What we've noticed is that the children, when given these phrases and words, use them. Phrases like ¿Puedo ir al baño? or ¿Me das un lápiz? can be heard from very young children through middle school. Not only are the children learning necessary transactional language, we're laying the foundation for on-going inquiry and ownership of their language learning. In upper elementary and middle school, rather than dropping to English, students ask "Cómo se dice...?" for something they need to express an opinion or ask a question, and add the language to their personal vocabulary lists for future use. This stems from their early experiences in lower elementary and being supported in using target language from the start.

Proficiency and Families: Parent Night

2017-09-25T06:01:00.000-07:00

I've written on Path2Proficiency about bringing parents in on the path to proficiency, since so many of us learned a language, well, not with a proficiency focus. Because so many of my students' parents had the experience of "studying a language for four years, but can't speak it,"(we've all heard it), I thought I'd share what I send out to parents on our annual fall parent night, to communicate what working toward proficiency looks like.

For the 6-9 year olds:

¡Español!

septiembre 2017

Teachers: Siobhan(Ext Day/6-9) Valerie Shull (9-12/middle school, Program Director) class blog: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

¡ Muy bienvenido al nuevo año escolar! When it comes to language acquisition, long term thinking is required. Starting in Extended Day and 6-9, we envision what the 8th grade graduate will look like, and beyond that- the young adult speaker of Spanish. So, let’s start with that vision and program goals:
What are the goals?
● Language development happens over time-much longer than just one or two school years. By
the time the children graduate 8th grade, the goal is for them to function at the Novice High-Intermediate Low speaking levels in class. What does that mean?

○ Intermediate speakers of a language are know as survivors-they can survive in the target culture.
○ The Intermediate level is characterized by the ability to combine learned elements of language creatively, though primarily in a reactive mode.
○ The Intermediate level speaker can initiate, minimally sustain, and close basic communicative tasks.
○ The speaker can ask and answer questions and can speak in discrete sentences and strings of sentences on topics that are either autobiographical or related primarily to his or her immediate environment.
○ Novice High speakers are on the cusp of being able to perform Intermediate tasks in a sustained and consistent manner.
Remember- Novice High/Intermediate Low is the goal of our graduates . What that means is that in 6-9, the children are interacting and having fun using the language to explore different topics. While the priority is interpersonal communication, we start some reading during the second and third years and introduce writing-all of which support oral communication. The children in 6-9 navigate real life situations encountered in childhood using Spanish-play, asking questions, grace and courtesy, talking about themselves and exploring culture through the language.
We hope that you will sign up to follow the Spanish class blog where we post information on language learning, news on what’s happening in class and practical ways you can support Spanish language learning outside of school. Please contact us with any questions you have. We love talking world languages!

And for the 9-12 year old families:

septiembre 2017

Teacher: Valerie Shull(9-12/middle school, Program Director)



    class blog:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

        ¡Muy bienvenido al nuevo año escolar! I am so happy to welcome you back.

In 9-12 we use a teacher created Spanish curriculum developed based on current research and best practices in the field. This curriculum has been under development over the several years and supports further Spanish language acquisition, aligns to the ACTFL World Readiness Standards, and encourages critical thinking by our young global citizens.

About the program:
The program is centered around themes that both support the children in acquiring Spanish language and encourage critical thinking about the world and the perspectives of its cultures. Some example units include:

Global Challenges in the Natural World(biodiversity and the environment)
Belonging: What Makes A family?
Identity: Who Am I?
Well-being: A healthy lifestyle
Exploring: Where I live and my Place in the World
Challenges: What the World Eats

This way of learning is very different than the way most of us experienced a language class in middle school or high school. You will not see textbook conjugation charts or workbook pages with grammar drills. The children are learning language in context of authentic texts, audio and video and activities in which they use the language as the vehicle for communication. Communication and global competency are the focus; this approach to language teaching is based on the most current acquisition and teaching research.

What are the goals?

Language development happens over time-much longer than just one or two school years. By the time the children graduate 8th grade, the goal is for them to function at the Novice High-Intermediate Low speaking levels in class. What does that mean?

Intermediate speakers of a language are know as survivors-they can survive in the target culture.
The Intermediate level is characterized by the ability to combine learned elements of language creatively, though primarily in a reactive mode.
The Intermediate level speaker can initiate, minimally sustain, and close basic communicative tasks.
The speaker can ask and answer questions and can speak in discrete sentences and strings of sentences on topics that are either autobiographical or related primarily to his or her immediate environment.
Novice High speakers are on the cusp of being able to perform Intermediate tasks in a sustained and consistent manner.

Remember-Novice High/Intermediate Low is the goal of our graduates. Children in 9-12 operate at the novice level-living primarily in the world of the concrete and predictable, answering in words, utterances and sentence fragments. That’s right on track.

I hope that you will sign up to follow the Spanish class blog, where I post information on language learning, news on what’s happening in class and samples of the children’s work. Please contact me with any questions you have. I love talking world language!

FVR: Hallelujah!

2017-09-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

After seeing so many inspiring posts from teachers using FVR(free and voluntary reading) in their classrooms, my interest was piqued and I really wanted to give it a try. I mentioned recently that I'm over working when it comes to comprehensible input(CI) and I know that reading is important to language development--both reasons to speed up the FVR project in my class.

One (perceived) roadblock for me was the length of my classes--we're a FLES program with 30 minute class meetings, three times per week. I was thinking that the 30 minute meeting time was too short for FVR, and so I'd put it off. However, during summer set up, I started looking through our collection of books in Spanish--it's pretty substantial with a wide range of levels and genres, so why not use them?

What I did:

I set up this little area in my classroom, putting out books that range from three words on the page to novels like Esperanza Renace and short graphic novels for my heritage speakers. Topics include content they're learning in class--biomes, animals, etc(in #earlylang, animals and their babies are king) to story book biographies and short fiction.

I'm in the process of creating booklets of short news articles from Newsela and elementary appropriate articles from Martina Bex's El mundo en tus manos to add to the shelf, and plan to add a basket to include books on loan from Chicago Public Library, as I get to know the children's interests better.

Part of my teaching better, working less project involved creating class opening routines AND sticking to them. (Monday/Tues: Music, Wed/Thur Writing prompts and Fridays start with FVR. So this Friday, I greeted each group, 4th-6th graders, at the door speaking very quietly, using postcards a la A.C. Quintero 's suggestion for seat assignments. There was quiet music playing inside the room and the children entered and sat down calmly and peacefully listening to the music(I wanted to set a very chill tone in what is usually a very energetic environment).

After turning off the music, I quietly explained that we would be doing FVR(referencing D.E.A.R.-Drop Everything And Read) with which they're already familiar. Then, thanks to the suggestion of my colleague Siobhan, gave some guidance on how to approach reading in Spanish, highlighting:

Choosing material that feels like a right fit and is interesting to them
seeking cognates to help make meaning
using pictures and illustrations
changing books if it doesn't feel quite right

Then, children chose their books, I set the timer for five minutes and away we went.

How did it go?

Day one was a huge success.

It was a solid block of quiet, engaged reading across the board.
Almost all of the children asked for more time.
I asked the students to reflect and give me some feedback on FVR--the overall theme was empowerment and BEING ABLE to read in Spanish(they can understand more than I thought). The children also overwhelmingly enjoyed being able to choose their own reading material.
I felt at ease and enjoyed sitting and reading with the children--it was a nice change that allowed me to simply BE with, and observe and learn from them .

Here are some highlights of the feedback:

Going forward:

For older students, allow/encourage the children to use their notebooks to add to their personal vocabulary lists(a few made the request).
Build in some time for the children to share what they were reading with their classmates(maybe this will lead to a commercial for their book, in Spanish)--after observing them in action, I could see there's a strong desire.

In the end, I think this is a high impact, low prep activity that's allowing me to teach better and work less.

2017-09-15T15:10:00.003-07:00

As I began my first week of a regular teaching schedule, I found myself landing in a familiar place-- utter face-plant worthy exhaustion. While yes, I have a full day-beginning with community time for 1-3 graders and teaching 4th through 8th classes, reflecting on the week, I've come to a pretty quick conclusion: I'm over working.

Not over working as in too much paperwork or grading. Overworking in that this week I was doing almost all of the work during class time, with the children along for the ride. One of my goals last year and this centers on building my comprehensible input(CI) tool box--using as my guide this very helpful poster from Elizabeth Dentlinger.

After my first few days of classes, which can only be described as performance art all day, Elizabeth sent me some words of support and her personal goal: Teach better, work less.

Teach better, work less.

CI doesn't mean me doing all of the work--talking, acting/gesturing--or always being the source of input. In fact, the students need to hear multiple voices. So, here I go--focusing on teaching better, working less. Some things I have in mind to use as class opening activities(as students enter and get settled):

Free and Voluntary Reading
Listening apps, podcasts and short videos
Using children's magazines and age appropriate news sources in the TL(like Newsela)
Kid friendly info graphics

I've started using some of these the last two days and am looking to expand the opening activities list. From there, I'll be using the Comprehensible Input Umbrella to help me form my class lessons.

I'll be posting progress. In the mean time, how have you worked toward teaching better and working less? Words of experience most welcome!

The Unit Vocabulary List: Focusing on the Essential

2017-08-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

I'm deep into planning the 2017-18 year and sat down to excitedly write a new unit on Global Citizenship for my 8th graders--something I've wanted to do the last couple of years. But, when I looked at the language functions/vocabulary section on the unit plan, I was a little stumped. It looked so sparse.

I went back and looked over all of the authentic resources and language tasks for the unit to again mine them for the essential vocabulary/chunks. Essential vocabulary/chunks. Essential.

I worried that my unit was so light on the student vocabulary list, but again came back to that word: essential. Really, what the students need for the new unit, and most of the other units I use, are those high frequency words and language of their choosing. The students know what they need and want to say, and that's not the same for each of them. And it works. Over the last two years, I've heard students using language in class I know I didn't have on any list, and phrases for which we never had a lesson. It was language they heard in several contexts and was needed and interesting for negotiating meaning.

Even knowing this, I'm still sometimes filled with doubt when I don't have that long vocabulary and infinitive verb list I was so used to using in the past, and that I received as a student myself. I guess old habits and instincts take time to go away--but here we go. I'm starting the year trusting what works and trusting the students in their own learning.

Conference Going/Conference Burnout

2017-03-18T06:27:00.002-07:00

Last weekend, I had the fortune to attend the Central States Conference here in Chicago--a great opportunity to network with teachers from the region, present and get in some needed learning. I left the event feeling energized and so positive about the work happening in our community.

That has not always been my professional learning experience though. Let's talk openly here about CONFERENCE BURNOUT.

I used to go to conferences wide eyed with eagerness and wanting to take in as much as possible--especially if the presenters were well-known. My preparation consisted of going over the conference guide, circling every possible session I could hit--highlighting topics that seems familiar and interesting. Once there, I would go from session to session, collecting a pile of handouts, taking some notes, then moving on to the next. Heading home I was awash in disconnected ideas of things I would/could do in my program. However, once returning to my classroom, without any time to reflect or digest, and having too many topics to try and put into practice, those handouts and ideas made their way to my storage closet...and then the recycling bin. It was too much to take in, and too unfocused for me to integrate into my practices. In the end, I'm not sure how helpful those conference experiences were.

I left Central States feeling so good because I went in with a plan for my participation that was focused....and limited. I knew going in that I was going to be presenting with colleagues, so I carved out plenty of time to prep and meet with them. Then, I looked at my goals for this year. I set out this fall to focus on getting better at comprehensible input, becoming familiar with a variety of techniques to be able to provide lots of different kinds of input for my students. One strategy I knew I needed more information on is using video content in a comprehensible, culturally relevant way. With this goal in mind, I looked through the conference guide and found two sessions that fit the bill--one on an introduction Movie Talk and another on making authentic film/video comprehensible in elementary(shout out to Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell!).

That's right, two sessions. I added to that a networking session with NNELL, that used an unconference format, allowing us in elementary language to meet in small groups to connect around topics we wanted to talk/learn about.

When I came back to school, I met immediately with a colleague to continue processing and sharing--and she added some other great ways we could use the techniques from the sessions, and we're putting a plan in place to do it. This was the first time I had used such focus going in, and let go of any guilt about limiting the number of sessions I attended. In the end, this was one of the most meaningful conference experiences I've had...and no handouts in the cabinet or recycling bin.

Update: Global Citizenship...in the TL

2016-12-29T08:18:00.003-08:00

Last year, I shared about how we engaged the children in our school--ages 6-14 in Trick or Treat for UNICEF during Spanish classes. One of my goals this year centers around more comprehensible input and deeper cultural connections, and Trick or Treat for UNICEF again presented a great opportunity for both.

While UNICEF does offer some materials in Spanish, they do not offer them for the Trick or Treat campaign, so we made our own and used UNICEF resources from around the world to engage the children with the UN Declarations on the Rights of the Child and fundamental human needs.

Since I'm focusing more on comprehensible input-- old thinking about there being topics that couldn't be broached or explored because they are too complex is being challenged. I'm more and more reminded of Helena Curtain's words: complex thought, simple language.

So, I slowed things down a bit, and gave time to providing lots of comprehensible input--through drawings, photos, acting and videos. I used movie talk with the Trick or Treat for UNICEF videos, so that we would use TL rather than listen to the English voice over. By narrating, asking yes/no questions and then either/or questions, the videos were useful for providing both the content and comprehensible input. I also used this video to help my 4th-8th graders understand the rights of the child, with lots of checking for comprehension, either/or questions:

As extensions in their homerooms, the children set classroom goals and tracked them as a class. We were also fortunate because a fellow from UNICEF was able to come and talk during an assembly, which continued to build excitement and interest outside of our Spanish classes.

I've pinned some resources for exploring these themes in Spanish classes here on my Pinterest Board.

The children tracked their collections in their homerooms and as a community we celebrated raising $5000! Next year, I look forward to spending more time unpacking the Rights of the Child and defining need/want.

A Few Positive Things...

2016-11-27T09:21:00.001-08:00

I'm starting with a confession: I've had a hard time focusing on the ins and outs of teaching this last month. Rather, it's been just putting one foot in front of the other. This post is an attempt to refocus, and acknowledge and reflect on some of the work I've done this fall.

1) High frequency verbs:

I've posted high frequency verbs on my classroom walls, and in the few weeks they've been up, I've already seen the benefits. My 5th-6th graders are using them for putting their thoughts together in class discussions and on writing prompts. I've given the clear message that using them is not cheating--rather being resourceful. In middle school, this scaffolding will be removed as the students integrate them into their working vocabulary. One observation I've made is that it allows the students more freedom of expression and encourages self selection in how to put their thoughts together--it's helping to keep our class in the TL, too. The children also make suggestions on what other words need to go up there and they're used across grades and units.

2) Looking at culture: I used the video "Families of the World(Mexico)" with my 5th graders, who are in the midst of our unit, "What Makes A Family?" I told the class that they would be working to make a Venn Diagram about the two children featured, so they took a few notes during the video. They worked with a partner to make their own Venn, then as a class, we collectively created the one below. You can see lots of high frequency verbs to create sentences. I integrated my large scale classroom map of Mexico, so geography came into play, too.

3) Organization:

Teaching many levels is the perennial challenge in elementary. I've been wrestling with how to give feedback and have the children reflect on their own learning with so many of them, moving quickly in and out of the Spanish room. Here are some things I'm trying--with success so far:

Evidence Collection/Self Assessment

In their notebooks, the children have the unit can do statements for on-going reflection on their learning--note the three categories--yes, with help, not yet. I ask the children to write in pencil as this is a working document and that these are not to be based on a gut reaction, rather on evidence they've collected on their notebooks. This work could be a written task done in their notebooks, or....

on an assessment, TALK score with feedback from me, stored in their "evidence collection envelope," glued into the back of their notebook(below).

The notebooks are for classroom use only, and are organized like this:

A paper girl in a digital world.

I store all of my units, lesson plans and rubrics in Google Drive, however, I'm an old school lesson plan book kind of gal, and have five levels to keep track of. This year, I've created two binders--one for middle school and one for upper elementary. My colleague who has taken over K-3, has a similar system.

The binders are organized by grade level and include the unit plan, lesson plans and progress monitoring--one page of TALK scores and one with the can-do statements for me to check off based on assessments.

This has allowed me to save and organize materials in Google Drive, so I can easily find and edit them for future use, but I can hand write notes and have a hard copy to take with me to classes, and be prepared when technology fails.

How Mexican Indepedence Day Saved My CI Day

2016-09-24T05:25:00.001-07:00

I'm so lucky to teach in the culturally rich city of Chicago. On Mexican Independence Day we have no less than three parades--and cars proudly bearing el tricolor can be seen all over the city.

But, every year on September 16th, I'm haunted by a secret I've been harboring--one that is a source of real embarrassment. I'm a Spanish teacher who doesn't observe Mexican Independence in class. I've struggled with how to stay in the target language and successfully relay the significance of the day, during the first two days of Spanish class for the year. I know, I know--there are great videos of dancers and charros and El Grito...but it has always fallen into the too hard basket for me. Until now.

On September 15, I decided to confront myself and the roadblocks I felt were holding me back. One of my goals this year is to focus more on CI--especially within the first 15 minutes of class--so I knew whatever I presented needed to fit these requirements. To start, I suspected that the 4th-6th graders would want to complete their Todo Sobre Mi activity we started with earlier in the week, so I wanted some kind of reading that would help lay the groundwork for the children as they finished that work. Here's what I did:

1)I headed over to Teachers Pay Teachers. There are literally 100s of options for simple, well illustrated readers for children about Mexican Independence. I chose one I thought would be best for those levels, had clear language well supported by images, and made copies.

2)I found a video of President Peña Nieto reciting El Grito, got the words to it and wrote it on the board.

3) I looked for any words that the children would need help understanding--I focused on héroes. In order to help them make meaning of the word, I made a list of some "héroes americanos," like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson(planting the idea of independence), Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr, César Chavez, Rosa Parks (giving a range of heroes). I also pulled out a small print I have of Padre Hidalgo and put it next to his name in El Grito.

On the day of class(30 minutes)--here's how it went:

1) Children came in to mariachi music playing, and they found their Todo Sobre Mi work on the tables. I used TL to show that they needed to finish up the work and move on to reading the book on the table.

2) When children finished their work and read the booklets, I started a brief presentation about the day, referring to the calendar, the Mexican flag on the wall and my world map, telling briefly the story--that Mexico was a colony of Spain and fought for independence. I also referred to my calendar card for julio and compared it to the 4th in the USA, doing comprehension checks all along the way. (It was exciting--they were with me!)

3) I told the story of El Grito and acted out being the president...as they would see in the video, (highlighting los héroes, Padre Hidalgo)--they were all in. We practiced El Grito--and each class enthusiastically shouted Viva! after each phrase.

4) Finally we watched President Peña Nieto and the children enthusiastically chimed in. The lesson finished up with a 20 second TV commercial for El Grito Chicago--an annual celebration on Sept. 15 held in Pilsen--highlighting the strong Mexican American presence in our city.

During the lesson I heard lots of "Oh I get it!" Saw many thumbs up with "Entiendo!" It was just the start to the year we needed.

Looking back on it, I thought "Why was that so hard?" "Why didn't I do that before?" But instead of lingering on those questions, I'm choosing to celebrate growth--it was hard for me and I figured it out. That's what I want to remember the next time I encounter something that's challenging in my teaching.

¡Qué viva México!

When It's Time To Move On

2016-09-10T05:50:00.000-07:00

At the beginning-- shiny and new, full of possibility, I was thrilled. At first, I felt like I had found the one, was on the right path. I was so sure, grounded, in control. But as time wore on, we started arguing. Where I wanted depth, I only found the superficial. I didn’t believe in explicit, out of context grammar anymore, and where I sought excitement, there was only bland culture and no real life experiences. I got bored. And finally, I faced it. We were over. It was time to break up.

I was on my own again, well, just me and the kids. At first I felt lost, and relied on what I knew from my own childhood, but that wasn’t working either. At last, I sought support. A great group brought me comfort and guidance--headed up by the likes of Laura Terrill, Donna Clementi, Helena Curtain and the online community for folks like me, #langchat. And then I started just listening to the kids and it made the journey feel alive again.

The fun and excitement are back--no arguing, no regrets. Only growth and forward movement. For me, and the kids.

Life Outside the Bubble

2016-06-05T07:45:00.001-07:00

I believe in language proficiency--real life use of the language. My professional community believes in language proficiency.

I'm realizing we're still a minority in the WL teaching corps.

This post is a way for me to try to work through the feelings I have about sending my awesome Spanish speakers into traditional grammar-driven high school programs in our city. I recently administered the STAMP assessment for the first time, to my 8th graders. It's the best money I've ever spent on my program--the data I'm getting holds a mirror up to my program and is making me look hard at what I do, and celebrate the successes: I have Intermediates and Novice High! Most of my students are graduating 8th grade on the fence of NH-IL--quite a few falling solidly into Intermediate. I've been walking on clouds the last few days. So have my students.   The assessment has confirmed our stated goal of NH/IL as the range of proficiency for our graduates.

But, as the students are taking their high school Spanish placement tests, I'm getting a dose of cold water to the face. So are the kids.

Almost all of them are being asked to take written discrete grammar tests--many disappointingly landing into Spanish I. In trying to advocate for one of my IL/IM students, I sent the STAMP results to the new school, only to get the response that my student "is not proficient in preterite."   My alumni kids who go into such programs always come back wishing they hadn't wasted the year in Spanish I--getting bored and resentful. The ones who attend more proficiency driven programs thrive--and often enter into Level 2 or 3.

Here's where I feel guilty--I feel like I've failed them and I am pulled to go ahead and do some grammar focused teaching to help them transition into life outside the bubble, where they will likely be in the position to fill in the blank to show what they know about preterite, progressive...you name it. At the same time, I know that what I'm doing in my program is working to develop real language proficiency, and I don't want to give up doing that to satisfy the needs of programs that don't.

It's a lot to consider, and I'm leaning toward just helping the kids bridge the gap, and talking to them explicitly about what they may encounter(will encounter) as they transition to high school: Split the difference and focus on proficiency while sneaking in some help on how to play the school game. As much as I hate that idea.

This isn't about judging individual teachers for what they do--I've written before about using textbooks-- but there is a huge disconnect between using language for real life and memorizing certain grammar points because the textbook dictates it. In the end, the students are not well served by this gap.

A much trusted colleague recently suggested that I educate and empower parents to advocate for proficiency based programs at their new high schools. I'm thinking to use my parent blog to do just that--and that will be time well spent, but I live in a city of 3 million with a huge, slow to change public school system. Our students fan out all over to different schools, of which our little school is not a part. I know it will be a Quixotic task.

This is the hardest part about having made the switch. Not the work. Not shifting mindset. Not convincing my school. It's helping my students with life outside the bubble. It's helping them to feel accomplished about what they can do, even though they will be judged for what they can't as they move out of our school.   I'm not sure there's much I can do to help this year's graduates, but I've got decisions to make about next year.

Is this a challenge where you teach? How are you bridging the gap?

Summer Vacation...What I Should Do Versus What I Want to Do

2016-05-21T06:42:00.004-07:00

I'm reflecting on another school year that passed by even more quickly than the previous one. I'm finding myself crawling to the finish line trying to make sense of all the meaningful, challenging work the children did, and thinking about all the ways I want to adjust for next year. Preparing for summer, I'm making lists, just like I do during the year, but you might find this list a little surprising:

What I want to do this summer:

Work on refining and writing new units for my Spanish program.
Revise my system for giving feedback.
Write a couple of really great IPAs.
Attend amazing PD--so many to choose from--which one?!

What I should(and will) do this summer:

Read non-school related books(really).
Shuffle around and pick at my garden(in pajamas with endless coffee).
Have travel adventures with my daughter.
Go camping.

I admit it, I am in love with my work--I'm obsessed with it. It's so hard for me to step away for a length of time as it always feels like there's so much to do, so much to learn, so much, so much, so much. But, no engine can run forever without fuel. We need a break. I need a break. In introducing so much innovation --by tossing the textbook, writing curriculum, building a proficiency based program, I've teetered on burnout and I need to step back and reconnect with my non-school self.

I am going to focus on the should list(I'm sure my young daughter will appreciate it, too), so I can revisit that Want List feeling refreshed, ready, and focused. For me. And for the children.

Sick Day Dilemma: Tools for Covering Your Absence!

2016-04-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

I mentioned recently that we don't have a sub system in place for our elementary and middle school Spanish classes. If I know I'm going to be out in advance-sometimes our other, part-time Spanish teacher(remember my super creative colleague?) can cover some of the classes. But generally no teacher=no Spanish class. I'm hoping to change that for next year, but it means that the sub will likely not speak the TL, nor be a WL teacher. For me to stay at home means that I have a sick daughter, am in a body cast or on my death bed, so making some creative plans for 5-6 levels of Spanish that morning are well...not going to happen. Feeling motivated but overwhelmed with creating standing plans that would continue moving the children forward, and keeping the schedule that I know my colleagues depend on...I reached out to my generous, smart and creative PLN on Twitter(looking at you #langchat and @Earlylang).

Here is a list of their ideas for sub plans for sick days(Note: some of these ideas involve products. I have not received any compensation for mentioning these):

The SUB TUB.

Julie Hoffman at Mundo de Pepita shared this: A Sub Tub! Julie mentioned that while this was labor intensive to set up, it's well worth having this tool in place, so teachers don't have to plan anything from their sick bed. Rather a sub can grab and go.

Play Verba.

This one requires a little financial investment, but seems well worth it. Verba is a card game, developed by WL teacher Kevin Ballestrini, that practices high frequency words within sentence context--and has an elementary expansion pack, plus a Youtube video that explains the game in English-to bring your sub up to speed. Information for Verba here.

Draw a story from text.

The children draw or create a story board from a text. Or use an activity like the Zombie Sub Activities by Martina Bex(Thanks Bethanie Drew).

Do a reading activities using Newslea .

Newslea is a current events news service for students-starting at grade level 2. I think it is currently only available in English and Spanish. I will unpack this one further in another post--it's a really rich source. (Thanks Maria Cristina Rodriguez-Villa!)

Use QR code or links to videos .

Develop a cache of videos that can be accessed by the students via ipads, computers to work on an interpretive activity. If that technology isn't available, maybe the sub can access it and project it to the group and then students work on a stock interpretive activity--perhaps writing, then talking.

Continue what they're already working on.

Sometime I overlook this one. Can the students continue working on an activity that you started with them during a previous class?

Focus on familiar activities.

Talia Block said that she relies on the familiar--activities like Buddy Bingo, creating Venn diagrams, and video activities. Using something the students are familiar with can make set-up and execution easier for the sub and encourages TL use among the students.

My goal is to set up a Sub Tub that includes lots of these activities(I'll keep you posted on this experiment!).

What do you do when a sub is coming in--especially if they don't speak TL or work in WL? I'll update this list as more ideas come in!

Getting Through The Hard Days

2016-04-14T03:50:00.001-07:00

If you read my recent post, So You Use a Textbook...Stop Judging Yourself, you know that I feel strongly that we have to be forgiving of ourselves. We all have rough days in which survival is the goal. There are those days where there just is not enough coffee, and looking at the day's classes feels insurmountable. In my school, there are no subs for Spanish. So, no teacher =no Spanish class. On the rough days, I hike up my big girl panties and face the day.

But am I always my best, well-planned, game-face-on self? NO WAY.

This time of year, I find myself having more of those days than during the rest of the year, with special events, field trips, you name it interruptions to the schedule.

When I made the switch to teaching for proficiency, I tossed out my old textbooks and worksheets.(Nuts! I miss them on days like these.) Since I've recently switched over to thematic units, I'm also low on 'stock activities' I can pull from when the going gets tough. Facing the last couple of months of school, and a bumpy re-entry from spring break, here are a couple of things I did in class that took little set up or creative energy on my part.(Plus it put more responsibility on the the children!)

5th grade survival class:

We're talking about biomes and conservation. I put up cards that were used in previous lessons that list animals in each biome(picture/TL label) and show a picture of the biome, with its name. The children made bingo cards with the name of a biome or animal in each square. To play, I described the biomes and animals, and the children had to identify them to mark the bingo card. (If they were more familiar with the biomes, I would have had them say something about the biome or animal when they read off their cards.) Even though I was feeling off, we still maintained 90+% TL and worked some vocabulary in context of descriptions with photos. In the past, I would have simply shown the picture and had children identify the vocabulary word--now they're having to listen and glean meaning from the description.

6th grade survival class:

6th graders are exploring the essential question "Where does the world live?" Children came in and started class with a silent writing time, describing this photo:

Afterward, they shared their descriptions with a partner. After reading to a friend, they returned to writing. I asked them to answer the question "Quién vive en esta casa?"(Who lives in this house?). The children then wrote some very funny descriptions of the people who live in this house and what they do. What I did: posted a photo and asked two questions. What the children did: All the work. Something else I could have done is to have the children write three questions they could ask the people who live in this house. I have also used, in a similar way, the photographs from The Material World by Peter Menzel, which provides a rich cultural context.

One change I made this year that facilitates activities like these, is explicitly teaching transaction and transition phrases, like--Please pass me....(pencils, markers), I don't understand, Can you help me? How do you say...?, Can I go to the bathroom, water fountain...? What do you think? What are we doing? My turn? Your turn?

Now, I notice that during something like bingo card preparation, or making a poster about something, the children speak in the TL and the process of setting up the activities becomes an opportunity for them to interact with each other.

Going forward, I'd like to empower the children to take charge of some of these activities, too, especially since they've gotten a sense of working toward proficiency and know it's about TL and communicating in it. I'd also like to build a cache of meaningful activities so that on rough days, I can grab and go, and feel good about my survival tactics.

Are there days coming up when Banagrams in Spanish are coming out? Definitely. It's about survival in these last 35 days.(Am I counting?)

So You Use A Textbook...Stop Judging Yourself

2016-04-10T07:14:00.002-07:00

During a recent #langchat that focused on unit development, amid the caffeinated Saturday morning conversation, several teachers hesitantly shared that they use a textbook for their unit ideas, followed by some self-depricating apologies for it. Colleen Lee-Hayes and I simultaneously tweeted out the same message, "Let it go--let's drop the judgement."

You use a textbook for whatever reason--you're new, your district says you have to, all your teachers used them, you like it, you teach 100's of students and pee only during your lunchtime of 10 minutes. The list goes on. With on-going conversations about what proficiency is and what's the 'best' way to get there, it can be tough if you're at the beginning of making a shift in your teaching or are already mid-stream. So. Let it go. Stop judging yourself. You don't need to apologize. We're all learning and growing. Did you see my post on when things go wrong? Seventeen years in, I'm still wrestling with this and continuing to learn.

One of the most freeing things I've heard along my teaching journey is that you control the textbook--not the other way around. It's a resource. What can we do with it? Some questions to explore: Can we take the good cultural stuff at the end of chapter and use it as input and to pique interest at the beginning the unit? What about writing an essential question and can-dos for the chapter? How about scanning Pinterest for some rich authentic materials that go along with the chapter theme and support cultural competency and provide needed input? Is it possible to write an IPA or some performance based formative assessments? Do you have the freedom to re-order or combine some chapters to create a unit? Do the students have to have the unit's whole vocabulary list or can you get that paired down so they can focus on function? How to flesh out the three modes--are there plenty of opportunities for communicative tasks?

Personally, I am in the process of writing my own units. The amount of time this takes plus teaching sometimes overwhelms me. Using a textbook may be the resource that is allowing you to address other teaching duties (Hello carpool and committees! Recess supervision anyone?).

During the process of writing this, Colleen Lee-Hayes sent me this post . Colleen is a #langchat moderator and teacher I respect--her words on judging ourselves are balm for the language teacher's soul.

Teaching for proficiency is a mindset, not a material. You control the text, not the other way around. Let's drop the judgement.

When Things Don't Go As Planned

2016-04-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

In case I've given you the impression that things always go as planned in my classes... let me set you straight. I will you tell you the tale of two teachers presenting the "same" lesson.

I am blessed to have a wonderful colleague who teaches kindergarten and 1st grade. At the moment, the 1st and 2nd graders are working on "A Healthy Life," a unit we're co-writing, and I'm working on with the 2nd graders.

We had a fun lesson planned working with a great authentic resource from Mexico--a children's video that focuses on healthy choices. It's below.

My colleague's preparation before viewing the video with her class:

She also found a cute video clip that demonstrated "mover el esqueleto," and previewed some of the phrases the children would hear--priming the pump for them to work with the video.

Here's my preparation:

I think you can see where this is going.

My colleague's students left understanding that eating foods of various colors and moving their bodies are part of a healthy lifestyle. My group...well, did not make those connections as clearly.

Sometimes when I've found a resource I'm excited about, I give it short shrift--plowing through it energetically, but lose the opportunity to milk it for all it's worth. While the children in my group enjoyed watching the video, they didn't make all of the connections to the unit I was hoping they would, and didn't have the chance to learn and use some new and possibly relevant language chunks/vocab. I went too fast.

After lessons like this, I remind myself that it's important to lay a good groundwork for authentic resources, give processing time, and then work the resource until we've rung it dry(and/or the kids lose interest). It's not a race. It's perfectly fine if the children spend several classes, doing a few different tasks on one resource, as long as they're still invested. Working this way takes time, and it's OK(and worth it) to give it that time.

I've decided to be forgiving with myself and learn from my creative colleague for our next go round!

Talking to Parents About Proficiency

2016-03-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Working toward proficiency is the focus of my K-8 Spanish program. But when I try to explain this to parents and colleagues in my school community, I struggle a bit to find a succinct way to do it--especially since it's contrary to the way so many of us learned language(if we did!). Last week, I posted this to my classroom blog for parents(keep in mind, in Montessori, the levels are ages, not grades):

At our school, the Spanish program focuses on proficiency--this is a different paradigm from the grammar and vocabulary list driven programs most of us experienced in high school. Working toward proficiency focuses on the process of acquiring the language and using it for real world purposes. This means that I focus on what the children can do using the language.

So, what does that look like?

Extended Day children use Spanish to greet each other, talk about their feelings and express some of their likes and dislikes.
6-9 students can converse with a friend about what they like to do in class, what they like to eat, talk about where they live, and describe how other children in the world live. 6-9 year olds can also ask each other some questions.
In 9-12, children can talk about real world challenges, like biodiversity, conservation, health and hunger and suggest solutions for them. They can also understand some information from recordings of native speakers and interpret context related videos from other countries. They can open and close a conversation. They can order in a restaurant, understand a letter written in Spanish and write a response.
Middle school students can be understood by a native speaker accustomed to foreigners, ask and answer questions during predictable transactions, and use Spanish for travel(tested out during our trip to Costa Rica). These students can get needed information in Spanish from websites and blogs. They can answer some higher order questions using Spanish. Middle schoolers can also sometimes talk about things that happened yesterday, last week or last summer and what they plan to do in the future.

By focusing on what children can do using the language, we are preparing them to use Spanish for study, work and travel in their adult lives.

This, of course, is not the first time I've sent out a message like this, rather I make it part of my regular communication, and a consistent message to my school community.

Want to see what I send out on parent night? It's part information, part sales pitch:

¡Muy bienvenido al nuevo año escolar! We’re so happy to welcome you back and share exciting news about our Spanish program. Last fall RPMS was recognized by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages(ACTFL) Global Engagement Initiative for our 8th grade trip to Costa Rica.***This initiative recognizes outstanding community and culturally-engaged learning experiences within the world language curriculum at all levels on instruction. We so look forward to sharing this impactful travel experience with your children when they are in Aspen.

When it comes to language acquisition, long term thinking is required. Starting in Extended Day and 6-9, we envision what the 8th grade graduate will look like, and beyond that- the young adult speaker of Spanish. So, let’s start with that vision and program goals:

What are the goals?

Language development happens over time-much longer than just one or two school years. By the time the children graduate 8th grade, the goal is for them to function at the Novice High-Intermediate Low speaking levels in class. What does that mean?

Intermediate speakers of a language are know as survivors-they can survive in the target culture.
The Intermediate level is characterized by the ability to combine learned elements of language creatively, though primarily in a reactive mode.
The Intermediate level speaker can initiate, minimally sustain, and close basic communicative tasks.
The speaker can ask and answer questions and can speak in discrete sentences and strings of sentences on topics that are either autobiographical or related primarily to his or her immediate environment.
Novice High speakers are on the cusp of being able to perform Intermediate tasks in a sustained and consistent manner.

Remember-Novice High/Intermediate Low is the goal of our graduates. What that means is that in 6-9, the children are interacting and having fun using the language to explore different topics. While the priority is interpersonal communication, we start some reading during the second and third years and introduce writing-all of which support oral communication. The children in 6-9 navigate real life situations encountered in childhood using Spanish-play, asking questions, grace and courtesy, talking about themselves and exploring culture through the language.

We hope that you will sign up to follow the Spanish class blog, where we post information on language learning, news on what’s happening in class and practical ways you can support Spanish language learning outside of school. Please contact us with any questions you have. We love talking world languages!

***Blog reading friends--you should also apply for this on the ACTFL website this coming spring!

Climbing the Proficiency Ladder Starting in Kindergarten

2016-03-24T07:20:00.000-07:00

We don't need to wait for children to reach middle school or high school before we give them real world tasks-it can start right away in kindergarten! At our school, we're asking 6 year olds to interpret and navigate interpersonal tasks such as greeting friends, asking about their friends' lives(family, pets), and understanding directions from the teacher and some information from context related recordings. As they progress through 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade, children navigate age-appropriate real world tasks, such as:

Play(Very much real-life when you're a kid!)

Comecocos or Cootiecatchers are an opportunity to teach about and practice asking questions. After using a pre-printed one, children can make their own using questions they've used during lessons. Ultimately, this supports children in asking questions in the context of future interpersonal interactions.

Guessing games can be played in a way that ask the children to create and describe with language. Games like guess the animal or bingo can be reworked so that children are describing-above is an animal guessing game in which the 2nd graders have to describe the animal they are assigned and then read their description for the rest of the class to guess. In the past I would have played this as charades, which only asks for vocabulary recall-a very basic function. In this version, we're asking much more of them- they can and want to do it. An activity likes this is paving the way for students to be able to narrate and describe, using complete sentences. The context is a unit on the role animals play in our lives--especially pets--of high interest to young children.

Navigating daily school routines:

Everyday our elementary classes begin with community meeting ala Responsive Classroom. During this time the children gather in circle to greet each other, review the schedule for the day, hear important announcements and generally come together as a class community. This has been a rich opportunity for the Spanish program--I circulate among the classes to run at least one community meeting per week in Spanish. My colleagues are very much on board and have learned how to write their class schedules in Spanish(although very few of them are Spanish speakers). This has opened an opportunity for the teachers to model life long learning, as the teachers are learning right along with their students, participating in the meetings and greeting their students with their newly acquired language.

During community meeting we start off by singing songs, and then always have some interpersonal time in which the children greet each other, asking questions like How are you today? What did you eat for breakfast? What are you going to do today? What do you like to do? This time also focuses on what in Montessori we call Grace and Courtesy, or developing good manners--all in Spanish. Practicing interactions that require I'm sorry, Are you ok? Please excuse me? Would you like to work with me? The children are encouraged to use these during their classroom work time.

Our final activity is reading and interpreting the daily schedule. This includes saying the date, and reading times and class activities. Beyond that, I ask the children to interpret asking some questions in English to see what they understand about the schedule, or what seems different from their normal routine. This activity has ended the topical units on telling time and school words. They're doing it, in context and on a real life task.

Navigating the classroom:

I focus on making transitions and transactions count. By explicitly teaching phrases that the children will need to participate in class activities, we stay in the TL and reinforce interpersonal interactions. These interactions between the children are the real life part of language class-negotiating and collaborating using TL.

How do children in your programs navigate real life tasks, helping them to start climbing the proficiency ladder?

Teaching for Proficiency...a Career Long Journey

2016-03-20T11:40:00.000-07:00

Proficiency refers to the ability to do, to function. Language proficiency refers to one’s ability to use language for real world purposes to accomplish real world linguistic tasks, across a wide range of topics and settings.
-Language Testing International

A few years ago when the idea of teaching for language proficiency came into my world, I felt energized and on-fire--it put words to what I felt deep down about being a language teacher. Language for real life use--of course! Why hadn't it occurred to me before? When I thought about how that would play out in my classes, I felt overwhelmed, anxious and guilty. All of these feelings came up during the few hours I sat in that one proficiency focused workshop!

At that point I had already been teaching Spanish for about 10 years. I doubted my previous decisions, and I was racked with guilt about failing my students all those previous years. With little planning time I had no idea how I was going to shift my focus to proficiency in my classes for 1st-8th graders. Feeding my anxiety was working as the only WL teacher in a small private school with few proficiency focused materials available or colleagues with which to collaborate.

Why hadn't it occurred to me before?! I wish someone would have told me then, "Give yourself a break! Be gentle with yourself. You don't have to know it all." I grew up in language programs that were based on grammar driven textbooks--from middle school through university. The modeling I received didn't focus on proficiency. Nor did many teachers I met along the way.

It has taken several years, working step by step, to build a program (and mindset) that focuses on developing proficiency, and it's still a work in progress(and always will be!). Along the way, I've plugged into meaningful PD, and forged relationships with colleagues outside of my school community, who support this way of working.

Here's what I wished I had known when I embarked on the proficiency journey:

You're not alone.

There are lots of teachers who are working on this and want to collaborate, share and support you as they grow themselves. These teachers are blogging, tweeting, and presenting at conferences. Find your people. #langchat is a great place to start, as is your state language teacher organization. This post from Amy Lenord is a rich resource for teacher-bloggers.

Be generous and forgiving with yourself and others.

You're doing your best. You love your students, care for them and want the best for them. We all want the best for our students and are learning along the way. Reserve the harsh judgment-of others and yourself.

You're never done.

There is no proficiency finish line. We're all continuing to learn and innovate. And we'll likely never be done.

For my colleagues who might be a little further along the proficiency journey, what would have helped you at the beginning?

Self-Selecting Vocabulary: The Sequel

2016-03-18T04:35:00.000-07:00

The topic of how to encourage students to create personal vocabulary for themselves has been very present for me lately. The following is a lesson I gave last week as a part of a 6th grade unit called, Where does the world live? exploring how people live in the world, and what challenges some face, relying heavily on the book, Material World and Where Children Sleep.

Since both of these books are in English, I use them for their thought provoking and highly engaging photographs that we use in class for describing, narrating and asking questions in the TL. In the context of this unit, I created a lesson around the following IKEA ad:

What did I do?

I divided up the students into groups of three, after we watched the video once.
I told them that their group would eventually tell the story of the video, and asked them to think about what language they would need to tell the story of the video, and identify the gaps-or language they didn't know but would need for the task.
While watching the video a 2nd time, the students individually make a list of 10 or less words they needed to look up to help them tell the story- none of the words on the list could be verbs(they're not working with conjugating verbs from infinitives). While they worked to create a list of their unknown words, I wrote recycled, conjugated verbs on the board(from previous units), like es, son, tiene, hay, va, da, lee, mira, limpia, come, invita, cambia.
After the 2nd viewing, the groups worked together to come up with a final list. Using wordreference.com, they looked up the words they would need to write the story.
Next, during a silent writing time, each student wrote an opening line to the story using new/recycled language. After a few minutes working by themselves, they shared their opening lines with the group. As a group, they decided how to combine/use the language for a group created opening line. We put those up on the board, and took a vote on what would be the opening line to use for the stories.( This was an opportunity to fine tune and do a little instruction):

Working in a similar manner, they created the last line of the story.
Finally, each student wrote 2 sentences to go in between, and the group worked together to again combine language from the individuals to create the group story.
With the text from their stories, some of the students wanted to make a storyboard version of the video.

I treat this activity as a forum for instruction and creation. The students are creating with the language, self-selecting new vocabulary, recycling previously used language chunks and vocab(feelings, weather, activities, descriptions), and getting lessons throughout on vocab/grammar use(for example, drawing their attention to the repetition they see among sentences and asking them to co-construct the grammar rules). This process takes 3-4 classes(FLES length), and helps to lay the foundation for their performance assessments on which they need to describe or explain by themselves.