Things are moving along with our vPQA design for next fall. Like anything new, it’s a bit confusing right now. It will clear up, though.
I have added two Primer articles on vPQA. Other articles on how to use Haiku Deck to set up our own PLC library/data base/kick ass lesson plan collection of slide shows will follow in the next few days.
There are a few points about vPQA that I would like to make here. They will make sense and fit into the larger picture later. My thinking is that vPQA will radicalize our options in our CI instruction.
In my mind, vPQA is nothing less than the next great thing to happen in TPRS since stories, and for those who don’t feel all that comfortable with stories, vPQA will provide the safe harbor that they have always wanted in this work with comprehensible input based instruction.
Now, that last sentence may be hyperbole for some but it is not for me. It is an extremely strong statement that I never thought I would make because CI was always going to be basically about stories. But setting up stories with this is just incredible!
Safe harbor in CI instruction. I could just take those five words and put them in a big goblet and drink them in triumph. Make a smoothie. Inhale them and feel them wash away this fifteen year long gnawing sense of discomfort I have always had with stories.
OK I’ll get over it. But think of it – safe harbor in CI instruction. No more sense of skating out of control on ice. That’s what those slides do!
[Note: It is possible that Julie Soldner, the originator of vPQA which is the particular form of using slides to instruct kids she invented and that I think is best (far superior to general use of slides in CI teaching), may be in St. Paul with us in the iFLT War Rooms this summer to show us how she does vPQA. More on that as it develops.]
Below is the first point that I wanted to make in this post. (Hey I tend to rant, have I ever said that here?) The key elements of vPQA that give the mojo in Julie’s design and lead to the speech output we have talked about here over recent months are in red here:
Making a vPQA Slide Show on Haiku Deck:
When making a Haiku Deck to share on the PLC, please try to include points 3, 4, 7, and 9 below. Also don’t forget to include some Debate slides and questions (given to you by your Debate Captain). Those are our trademark goals for each slide show we make.
Visual PQA (vPQA) Classroom Step by Step Process:
1. Choose 3 structures from a district Scope and Sequence word list, or from a novel or authentic reading, or from a story script.
2. Create a PowerPoint vPQA presentation following the general sequence described below.
3. Slide 1: Do Now questions (one question on time/weather; three random questions)
4. Slide 2: Presentation Slide. This presents the first target structure with an image (e.g.Waldo carrying books). On this initial slide provide a visual and the L1 meaning of the target structure(s). This is the only slide that we have English on, because if we sequence well and gradually shelter and scaffold the subsequent slides, there shouldn’t be a need for English.
5. At this point establish the meaning and the gesture.
6. Continue on with a few more slides like this and maybe even show the words using the infinitive, past tense or a different form of the present tense so the students see it in other ways.
7. Image and Sentence Caption Slide: This presents the first structure with an image and a sentence caption: “The boy is carrying an elephant on his shoulders.” Read the sentence slowly aloud and use the pointer to emphasize the different words. It is crucial to find an appropriate and effective visual to accompany the sentence so it serves as an aid in understanding the text if there are any comprehension difficulties.
8. Ask for a volunteer to translate the sentence. Julie Soldner adds: “If the translation is not perfectly translated, ask for another volunteer or just randomly call on someone to try again. The reason why I do not put the English up there is really two-fold. First, they can become lazy and just read the English (because why not? It is the easy route…and then they don’t push themselves to try and understand it)…also I like to just keep the slides simple and clean-Spanish text and visual. It keeps things uniform. But the goal is always for them to be entirely in the target language so when I eventually get to the question slide, they can read the options and then raise their hands to keep the discussion going. I may also have the support of sentence stems on the slide so they answer in complete sentences and use the new vocabulary structure.”
9. Question Slide with Response Options. This slide asks a question and provides possible responses. Ex: “What do you carry in your backpack?” will offer on the same slide a list of options like: books, notebooks, pens, pencils, food, erasers, money, candy, cell phone. You can provide a sentence frame at this point as well to help them get the verb form right when they answer.
10. Presentation and discussion of more slides.
11. Repeat the entire above process with the second target structure (or third if there is one).
12. Do the Debate.
13. With the PQA now over, ask a story based on the structures. (Step 2 of TPRS)
14. Read the story using Reading Option A. (Step 3 of TPRS)
15. Give the quiz.
I also wanted to mention the student jobs that have cropped up in our work with PQA:
The four jobs that are associated with vPQA:
1. vPQA Writer (this is the same student as the superstar Story Writer during stories.)
2. Quiz Writer (same person who writes the quizzes during stories.)
3. Slide Switcher – changes the slides in response to the teacher’s requests in the TL to do so during the vPQA. (Credit: James Hosler)
4. Debate Captain – sets up the debate questions – with this student writing all the debate questions during the vPQA classes for the coming debate, the teacher merely needs to pull the appropriate slides into the vPQA Haiku Deck for that lesson and ask the questions.