Connie Navarro is the DPS LEAP observer for WL teachers (LEAP is the district mandated professional evaluation program in DPS for all subject areas). Diana and Connie were observing a class yesterday and Connie sent the following comments to two other (Learning Lab) observing teachers, both who have been struggling with CI quite a bit (names redacted below). Natalia is the Learning Lab teacher doing the demonstration, Teachers B and C were the observing teachers.
This is the email sent by Diana to me:
Hey Ben,
Connie came to Natalia’s lab this afternoon and she just sent some notes to the teachers who attended the lab. Both are struggling. Teacher A has totally embraced CI since day one last year and continues to make breakthroughs. Teacher B is a ‘mixed bag’. She thought she would be able to do TPRS but never really ‘got it’. I believe that her major problem is that she cannot really relate to the students. She is stuck in loving French (grammar) more than teaching kids where they are in terms of life experience and the relevance of school in general.
I thought you might be interested in the notes that Connie sent to us after her observation. See below…
Diana
This is part of Connie’s write up of the class, written in the form of a note to Teachers B and C:
Dear [Teachers B and C]:
It was great to see you at today’s learning lab at North. I applaud your commitment to continuously improve your teaching by attending learning labs. It is so much easier to glean ideas when we see them in action rather than just think about them at the PDU. I wanted to point out a couple of things that Natalia did that were subtle but really impactful for students.
• Making language comprehensible / staying in the target language:
• There was a moment in class when Natalia wanted a girl to know that she had chosen a picture of One Direction because she new that the girl likes that musical group. Let’s look at this exchange between Teacher A (T) and the girl student (GS):
• T- “J’ai mis cette photo parce que je sais que tu aimes One Direction!”
• GS tilts her head, but does not really understand.
• T-“Cette photo (points at One Direction) est pour toi (points at GS)
• GS squints, looks at T
• T slower-“J’ai pensé (points at head) à toi (points at GS) parce que (uses laser to point at parce que=because) tu aimes (points at GS, makes heart shape w hands) One Direction (points at One Direction).
• GS smiles
• T smiles-Tu aimes One Direction, oui?
• GS-oui!
• Do you see how she masterfully kept scaling back her language and checking in the with the student until she was sure it was comprehensible? Natalia restates, goes slower, uses supports until the girl shows she understands. The smile is the moment when the girl understood. She didn’t resort to English, and she didn’t just move on. She masterfully adjusted her language to make it comprehensible. PLUS! she made a deep connection to that student that builds the classroom culture and climate. The secret behind all the kids buy in and willingness to do everything that Natalia asks them to do is the culture and climate. That does not come overnight. It is something effective teachers do all the time, every day. Connections with kids is HUGE, and I love how Natalia did that AND stayed in the target language.
• Differentiated support for students who cannot answer:
• EVERY time Natalia called on a student who was not able to answer, she did a masterful job of Differentiating for him/her, using strong TCI scaffolding techniques:
• She restated the question, slowly, often with supports like gestures or using the laser to point to the word on the screen or the word wall.
• If the student still was not sure, she asked the whole group or another student, “Que veut dire ______?” And then she went back to the struggling student with the question.
• There was ONE time she did not immediately come back to the same struggling student, and I thought “oh no, now he thinks he does not have to answer, or he thinks she thinks he cannot do it. Oh no.” BUT NO! She waited until that word came up again in the reading and then she did ask that same kid. She held him accountable, she scaffolded him for success, and she definitely let him know that “I don’t know” does not get you out of doing work AND at the same time she let him know that she knew he was absolutely capable of doing the work. It was wonderful.
• Holding students accountable for their active listening:
• Did you notice how she consistently cued the choral response by saying “Classe un deux trois” and that she repeated this cue if she didn’t get a big enough % of the students responding?
• Did you notice that she mixed occasionally letting kids blurt with a LOT of cold calling (followed by scaffolds to support students who couldn’t answer)?
• Did you notice all the TPR gestures, and how she scanned the whole group (including students seated almost behind her at the teacher desk!) to be SURE all students were participating?
• Embedded Brain Breaks, in the target language:
• Standing up to do a big review of verbs with TPR gestures (AND the brilliant idea of having a list of them right there in her slide show to help her remember what verbs they knew/ are working on! Right at the top of the list were today’s verbs: sourit, rencontre, etc! I love everything about this.)
• Hit the floor with your feet if you like Beaujo’s/ Pizza Hut / Little Caesars / etc.
• The 4 corners activity was actually PQA in disguise. It was a brain break to move around the room and give an opinion on something that matters to kids AND a genius way to get in a bunch of reps of RENCONTRE! Having the pictures scaffolded this beautifully, and let the students think they were focusing on celebrities and how many people were in each corner, without realizing they were getting so much great input!
• All this, but she never said “ok, brain break.” Fantastic. All in the target language!
I could go on and on, but those were the big takeaways that I hoped people saw. I know we were all in the same lesson, but I also know we come to things with different lenses, so I wanted to share what I saw in terms of highly effective instruction from a LEAP observer point of vi
Natalia, thank you again for hosting! Diana, thank you for facilitating all this for teachers! [B and C], I look forward to seeing you when I am at GW– I don’t know when that will be yet, but I will see you.
Connie