Skip got this note from his guidance director today and would like some thoughts from us:
Skip,
We have a student who transferred in this year who will be taking Spanish 2 next year. She would like to know how to best prepare herself this summer. [The student] is VERY bright and being fast tracked in some Humanities things already. She is incredibly driven and focused, so if we give her stuff to do, she will do it! What is her best plan of attack to prepare for Spanish 2?
Thanks,
(Guidance Director)
Skip wants answers from the group to the following questions:
How would you answer her? What stuff would I give her to do? (This student has had no Spanish before…)
Thanks,
skip
My response: Luckily she has not had Spanish. Had that not been true, she would have obviously been the 4%er of her last class and would expect to dominate the class next year with her strong academic hammer and then when she saw all the democracy in your class she would have been confused at best. So that is really good. Now, this is a good chance to explain to the parents (where there is motivated kid there is a motivated parent) how things are going to work next year.
First, explain your approach (there are related blog articles here and Robert is sending me some stuff on that for the group as we speak). Make it really simple. Your main task is to diffuse the eventual unavoidable truth that will hit them next year – that their daughter is not going to be allowed to be any more or less important in the classroom than the least talented kid. It’s how you work and CI allows for that.
Next, explain that, since hearing and reading the language in interesting settings that can be understood is what your fluency program is all about, you would suggest that she use the awesome power of the internet to access some sites that do this before next year. Start with Mr. Wooley. The group can suggest other Spanish sites of that nature here – actually some were mentioned here lately.
Just give her a list of sites to visit – and no Rosetta Stone bullshit – so that she can get her ear attuned to the language and maybe read a little as well. And make sure that she isn’t freaking out about not being able to conjugate verbs (her parents might be thinking that way bc that is how they “found success” when they were 4%ers themselves).
That is the main thing, that this family get that your fluency program is not about busywork and memorizing stuff but about being in class and absorbing the language through listening and reading, which she can approximate now on the internet. You may get an objection, but there is where you bring in your principal for support.
I doubt if you will get that, as she hasn’t had Spanish before, but you may get a little discomfort from the parents, as I indicated above. In those situations here in CO we just trot out the new (2009) state standards and our new LEAP document, but you can always just go straight to the ACTFL 90% Use Position Statement (2011).
Tell her that even if she doesn’t do any of the internet input work over the summer, and were, in fact, to do absolutely nothing to prepare for your second year class, that she will be in great shape for next year bc we in TCI have great success in routinely mixing level 1 classes with level 2 classes. On that topic of multi-level groupings, you can refer them to:
(Paul Kirschling, Thomas Jefferson High School, Denver Public Schools; Diana Noonan, World Languages Coordinator, Denver Public Schools; Meredith Richmond, WL LEAP Evaluator, Denver Public Schools)
or Laurie or Blaine or Susie for more on that if they are interested and I know there are others in our community who are quite knowledgeable about multi-level classes – it’s just that Paul has 1 and 2 groupings now going, so he would be the best one to contact.
Here is a link:
https://benslavic.com/blog/2010/04/11/laurie-clarcq-on-multi-level/