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66 thoughts on “On Lesson Planning”
I defend my right to get a bitchy edge going on the above topic while understanding fully that there is no blame and everyone in language teaching is doing the best they can. All our colleagues are doing what they think is best, or they wouldn’t be doing it. At the same time, an occasional rant like the above does good for my own mental health, and it’s all about me and my mental health. I ignored that for decades with disastrous results. I took my job too seriously and forgot to laugh! Now that is all changed, of course, I have three block classes coming today and the power will lie in my not trying to be the one in control. The classes will be so much different than before! I trust in my ability to ask questions and keep my focus on the kids, while staying in bounds because I am good at this. Such a time of change! So difficult. I applaud and bow to my TPRS colleagues in our community here in this hard time of winter. We are doing every well. In our efforts we are making real change. God bless us. God bless all of us. Change is not easy.
I’m in the thick of classroom management issues with one of my first year Spanish classes. Your statement about letting the kids drive class is really hitting home right now. I firmly believe that I must be firmly totally and unquestionably in complete control of behavior SO THAT the rest of the content of class can be under kids’ control. I think a lot of the issues I’m seeing with my group of 36 (!!) kids is because kids cannot see that dichotomy: teacher’s in charge of everything BUT content. I have been reflecting a lot on this. I think the kids are NEVERTHELESS in control like that. Since it’s so different, they have to learn all over again how to be a student in this environment. And these kids are taking (most of them) their very first Spanish class, so it’s not even a question of “doing Spanish differently”. It’s “being different in school”.
I told my class the other day that I may seem fun and nice but it all ends when language acquisition is endangered. I’ve called so many parents this week. It will pay off in the end. Without exception each parent has said their kid loves class and they’re spontaneously speaking and showing off Spanish at home. Since I stopped giving HW I know it’s simply because they love Spanish. My current theory in these kids’ behavior is that they don’t know what to make of the free flowing class that seems like I could care less about what we talk about (I don’t) YET super strict behavior expectations. I’d love to hear others’ thoughts especially Grant. I was soooo impressed with his classes’ conduct.
Edit. I thought no the kids are NEVER EVER in control like that. Like in no class. Nowhere.
This is great to hear, Tina! You put it so well, that we are the authority in regards to their behavior, not the content. I have great admiration for you!
Thanks so much Sean, that is sweet of you to say and great to hear right now because I am feeling down.
Sadly, things are not happy in Fourth Period Land. I am really, really frustrated with that group of kids right now and I am in great need of some ideas and advice. This class is creative, hilarious, and it USED to be a real bright spot in my day. They are so funny and they are masters at creating tons of imaginary alter-ego-type made-up things. For instance, three boys are on an imaginary synchronized swim team that holds practice in the girls’ bathroom in tiny little pools (coff, coff, those are toilets). But in the past few weeks, the train is getting off track.
Yesterday (Friday) was the WORST class I have ever had here at my sweet new job. I was really surprised. The emotions in class felt borderline toxic to me.
Maybe you want to hear the story of the class. If not, please keep scrollin’ down to someone else’s comments.
OK, so as I said I have been calling lots of parents because their offspring are getting dinged in the Interpersonal Communication grade (40% of the class grade). Some of it is blurting, but most of it is side conversations or using their bodies to distract others (seventh-grade boys can get quite creative in this regard). I have no desks so I can see literally every time they poke or mess with a pal. My trusty Spreadsheet Kid and I were running herd on these infractors and I was calling parents to let them know so their kids could make up points and therefore start building a more solid relationship with me (because they have to write positive stuff about class, and talk with me, and stuff like that to make the points up).
Anyway, on Thursday I kept three boys whose parents I had contacted for a quick chat. My intention was to tell them that their behavior was distracting, I was going to move their seating, and that they need to do make up work. The boys asserted that the Spreadsheet Kid is unfairly targeting them. “Look at this spreadsheet; it is obvious; we have so many more Xs than the others!” I responded it was because they are frequent distractors and I agreed with the marks and anyway, the kid’s job is just to mark what I tell him to.
They then said to me that I am unfairly targeting them, that this is a really chatty class, that others are doing the same things and I am not noticing. I told them that if that was happening, I would work hard to notice and fix it. I also told them that teachers do get trained, that if a kid is a constant challenge, their attention gets trained on them, we are people too, blah blah blah.
So, later in the day I learn that these kids went to the counselor and requested Peer Mediation with Clipboard Kid. They worked it out, apparently, but I was upset that their feelings were so hurt with this other classmate.
Thing is, this kid BEGGED me for the job about a month ago when we had an opportunity to switch to a new job. I never should have chosen him, but he was relentless for a few days so I thought what the heck, let’s give it a whirl. Needless to say, he has been “let go” and so Friday I was hauling this clipboard around everywhere in the room with me.
So, we are doing class, me with my clipboard in tow. We are reading Secret Agents and Picasso’s Mural, and I am enjoying the book. We do SSR Tuesdays and Thursdays and then read and discuss a chapter each Friday. Last week, I started pulling some kids up to serve as actors and do kind of a Readers’ Theatre. For some random reason two of the “talkers” and the Kid Formerly Known as Clipboard were last week’s actors. (Actually, it was probably because I thought naively that involving them would help their focus.)
So I get them up again, and they were certainly distracting, not acting. Like wandering off, sitting down,playing around with the few little props, etc. I guess I should have pulled the plug on them, but I soldiered on. It took a long time to get through the chapter. I should have stopped, and moved on, but I just kept on going. And at the end, I felt like woah, that felt like a slog. Not lighthearted at all, more like a battle.
During all this time, I was very frustrated because not having the Clipboard Kid able to help me added this whole level of thinking into my teaching. AND one of the “you pick on us” boys who was not acting was literally sighing and ROLLING his eyes whenever he saw another kid not doing the right thing. Like, “Did you see that, profe? Did you get that, profe?” So that felt stressful, like this little group now feels like they have to monitor ME for fairness.
As we were transitioning, much English was spoken. This is something I have a hard time controlling. During activities/discussion, it is very very much L2, but during the transitions there is usually a good deal of chatter in English. Anyone got any ideas on that, I am all ears! Or should I even care, maybe not.
And I hear this kid go, “Woah, we just spent an HOUR on ONE chapter.” And not in a tone of wonderment like, “Wow, the time slipped by so fast.” More like, “THAT sure sucked.”
So, I said, in Spanish, “Class, a person over there said, ‘ONE chapter? ONE HOUR!’ but that is good. It is good for your Spanish to hear many repetitions.” i.e. “Una persona dijo ¿un capítulo? ¿Una hora? pero es bueno. Es fantástico para su español entender repeticiones.” and we moved on.
Next thing we were doing was looking over the artist’s drawings of the information we learned about the Special Persons of the week. But we ran out of time to take the quiz on the persons. Usually we review by looking at the pictures and discussing them, then we write sentences about the persons. But we did not have time to do the quiz part. Usually, everyone is OK with this. I mean, no quiz, right?? But I felt this emotional tone in the room of “What a waste of time and what a drag” and I was really sad.
So, what is up? One, I am pining for the gooder old days of having a fun time with this group. Also, I am upset to think that the kids don’t trust me, because they should NOT be thinking of management, as it will impact their language acquisition big-time. And also, I wonder why after all this time there are students who persist in behaviors that I have been training them in all year long. Should I try something new?
Weird thing is, I am doing exactly the same thing in my other three first-year classes and things are heavenly in there. Like seriously, it just feels like chillin’ with my peeps.
I know this has been a lot to read, but if anyone has any advice I am in great need. It’s lonely at my job because I have no peers to really brainstorm with, nor am I on a team like I was at my former school.
Ideas I have that I was wondering what you guys think of them:
1. Do some kind of “clean slate” gesture of goodwill, like review the expectations, change up seating, and let everyone start over clean. And then go kind of slow, like it is September again.
2. Change what is happening in class for a few weeks, like more read and discuss and less acting/freeform chattin’ chillin’ and hangin’. I could type up some of the awesomely hilarious episodes from classes past and we could read them.
3. Go big or go home. Keep it up, stay the course, and come hell or high water, ding the crap out of these kids’ grades till they get with the ding-dang program.
4. Start Movie Talk or Picture Talk or something new. I have never done either with the kids this year, because I hate hauling out the projector cart. Usually I only bring it out on Fridays for the artist’s work from the week.
5. Other ideas?
I am happy to report that I might keep teaching these same kids next year, “looping” every two years with my half-time teaching partner. So it is of the utmost importance that I get these kids trained and on my side.
I hope someone out there has awesome advice. Thanks for reading.
7th grade or 8th grade, right? Sounds like it from your description. Having been there and had a similar experience, my approach was:
4. Start Movie Talk or Picture Talk or something new.
It worked in my case, but part of my problem at the time had been using too advanced language for their comprehension. I had tried to do stories and use lots of “old” vocab they didn’t know (it was a transition year from textbook + CI to just CI no more bad textbook).
I also would not suggest using a student to keep track of student behaviors. I think it could easily build bad will between students.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Based on Ben’s advice I am planning to start something new, but probably not such shiny cool new. I think we will spend some time reading and discussing grammar points and doing dictados and just generally more chill activities. And, yeah, I have gotten the message pretty clearly that the idea of using a clipboard kid has fallen by the wayside.
I love this group and it was like Christmas morning to wake up and find all this advice. THANK YOU.
Tina we would need three hours to even scratch the surface on what you bring up above. Some thoughts anyway:
1. How heavily do you rely on jGR to formulate their grade? Feels like it might be too heavy. It don’t mean the percentage. The percentage was at 70% jGR for me at one point. That doesn’t matter. It’s how heavy it feels to the kids. jGR is a smokescreen, a way of getting compliance but when we use it to the letter we create the kind of enmity you describe above. I think you joined us right about the time jGR was being formulated and maybe I never made that clear. I am sorry. Pls. re-evaluation how you use jGR. Again, it is a smokescreen to gain compliance and should not be used literally.
2. I am not so sure that jGR and evaluating kids in that way is even being used by many of us these days. How many of us are still using it? It was all the rage here a few years ago, but how many of us use it today? And why or why not?
3. The more I do this the more I am convinced that we must absolutely avoid judgement of our children, which is what grades are. We must figure out ways to submit numbers to the computer gods, but they must not reflect any kind of judgement. Rather, celebration of what our kids are able to accomplish.
4. Thus, now my grades in the computer look like free write improvement in word counts, how they did in a discussion, how well they did on a ridiculously easy (if they paid attention) quiz on a story or a reading, dictee (where they are graded for copying correctly).
5. We can’t do this work by connecting it to any form of judgement.
6. We cannot have students help in the evaluation. That point has been made here but not in the past few years. The Clipboard Kid was a disaster.
7. …I was very frustrated because not having the Clipboard Kid able to help me added this whole level of thinking into my teaching….
Why? Do you really think that jGR is about thinking about how they are performing/listening/showing up for class. That is a lie we tell them. When we actually grade them on how they listen we are very lenient. Students always think they are doing better than they are, and teachers always think that students are doing worse than they are. It’s sick. Just fluff them up a little. Fluff up the grades a little. As long as they pay attention and are involved, we are fine. Actually grading them, all of that, it doesn’t really reflect the nature of what CI really is. My opinion. Disagree, of course. But I have avoided numerous fights with students and parents simply by telling them that what they are doing is fine. Am I wrong to do this? Lazy? No, I am not. Because ultimately language acquisition is not something that can be judged or labeled. It can’t. So when we try, even with jGR, we are making a mistake and run into the kinds of problems you express above.
8. …during the transitions there is usually a good deal of chatter in English. Anyone got any ideas on that, I am all ears! Or should I even care, maybe not….
Don’t care. As class returns to more fun, all the chatter will diminish. Trying to control teens is really not easy. Don’t fight it. Roll with it. The entire two year “I’m going to us CI all the time!” chant was not practical, not reasonable.
One, YOU’RE COMING TO PORTLAND?!?!?!?!
YAY!
Summer in Portland is so so so so SO glorious. Just thinking about it is a balm for the soul. Right now we are having our annual Februly–the one week in Feb. that the sun comes out and the temp rises before winter comes right back till June. 🙂
Two, thanks for taking the time to write all those ideas. You can read my attempts at digesting them below. I am having a big shift in thinking based on the replies you gave me and buddy boy you better believe I am feeling grateful for the coaching.
1. Regarding the rubric: I think I must have missed out on the “less is more” discussion…because I have it set up to be 40% of their grade. Is that too much? Also, I am pretty lenient. Like, I do not put every “mark” in the gradebook. This is causing mega problems with this group. Not my other groups…but they are more academic and focused bunches of people for whatever reason. I think one of the reasons this is SO upsetting to me is that I hope to help PPS transition to more CI teaching because I firmly, firmly believe that it is more equitable teaching for ALL kinds of kids. So if I can only make it work with a group of Ivy-League-bound angels, then there goes my argument. So please, please school me in the “smokescreen” aspects of this, or please direct me to an older discussion that can. This is so serious to me, because I could see the emotional problems developing in my fourth period being REALLY toxic with a group of kids over here on my side of the river, where sadly so much more poverty exists and the kids are stressed and in more need of kindness and support than my current kids over in the west hills.
2. I was not actually using the rubric. I was just writing down an X or check when a kid broke a rule of class. I feel terrible that this practice has been judged to be un-useable by the PLC, a bunch of the finest educators I know and whose years of experience I respect so much. I am really curious to know what others are doing, and also why the rubric and grading kids in this way has fallen out of favor. Honestly, it is not exactly my favorite part of the work. But as I wrote above, I am very committed to keeping kids on track with listening and understanding, and I see that task as MONUMENTAL when the teacher is using CI and even monumentaler when using highly untargeted CI and very loose lesson planning, because the kids have a tendency to interpret that as “Hey, sweet, we are in charge here!” I think this is a huge discussion to have: as more of us seem to be transitioning to untargeted CI, how does that affect kids’ behaviors and how can we keep the goodwill flowing while also making sure that the huge, ongoing group conversation is able to happen consistently day after day.
3. The more I do this the more I am convinced that we must absolutely avoid judgement of our children, which is what grades are. We must figure out ways to submit numbers to the computer gods, but they must not reflect any kind of judgement. Rather, celebration of what our kids are able to accomplish.
I did not have the heart to delete this, though it kind of seems like “wasting paper” to my 1980s schoolkid brain. 🙂
Honestly, I feel like they are learning SO MUCH but I do not know how to get a # in the grade book. How do you give a # to something that can’t be seen?
4. Thus, now my grades in the computer look like free write improvement in word counts, how they did in a discussion, how well they did on a ridiculously easy (if they paid attention) quiz on a story or a reading, dictee (where they are graded for copying correctly).
I do “ridiculously easy” quizzes and dictées/dictados too. But so far I have not graded their freewrites on anything but “you did it”, and not even that all the time. How often are you having them write? And how do you grade the on discussions?
5. We can’t do this work by connecting it to any form of judgement.
Yes, I can see that. Like I said, I am sad that I was following outdated advice and following it to the letter with extra zeal. I am an all-in kind of person and I like following a program that I believe in. This could be an extremely fruitful line of discussion here. I am now curious about how to use the rules/rubric as a “smokescreen”. Like, really curious. I hope others will let me know their thoughts.
6. We cannot have students help in the evaluation. That point has been made here but not in the past few years. The Clipboard Kid was a disaster.
OHHHHHHHH, I guess I kind of missed that one. I am a weensy bit glad this issue is happening then, because I need to see the issues with it and maybe it will help others if they are also still doing that.
7. …I was very frustrated because not having the Clipboard Kid able to help me added this whole level of thinking into my teaching….
Why? Do you really think that jGR is about thinking about how they are performing/listening/showing up for class.
Yes, that is exactly how I was thinking of it.
That is a lie we tell them. When we actually grade them on how they listen we are very lenient. Students always think they are doing better than they are, and teachers always think that students are doing worse than they are. It’s sick.
Yeah, I know. I always think the same about my teaching too. Like the class, to an outside observer, might have been awesome. But I am thinking about a bunch of things that went badly in my opinion. I have been like this in every subject area I have ever taught too. It is sick.
Just fluff them up a little. Fluff up the grades a little. As long as they pay attention and are involved, we are fine. Actually grading them, all of that, it doesn’t really reflect the nature of what CI really is. My opinion. Disagree, of course.
I do not disagree at all, and honestly I have pretty fluffy grades. Like, about half of the kid’s “infractions” make it to the actual grade book. No one is perfect. Sooo, I think the “fluffy” nature of these grades has made me kind of go ballistic when they are at a 70% in the listening/communicating category because I was interpreting that as a HUGE issue, considering that if I had actually entered each time they lost points, they would be at a 40%!
But I have avoided numerous fights with students and parents simply by telling them that what they are doing is fine. Am I wrong to do this? Lazy? No, I am not. Because ultimately language acquisition is not something that can be judged or labeled. It can’t. So when we try, even with jGR, we are making a mistake and run into the kinds of problems you express above.
Yes, I can totally see that now! So now this is my question: how to maintain a focused atmosphere so that listening, understanding, and ultimately acquisition can happen…without grading their in-class behavior like I have been doing?
8. …during the transitions there is usually a good deal of chatter in English. Anyone got any ideas on that, I am all ears! Or should I even care, maybe not….
Good to hear…I kind of think of it as a mini-brain-break. I will stop thinking about it AT ALL. There’s too much else to care about.
Tina the smokescreen aspect of this has not been discussed here. Most teachers would disagree vehemently with this idea. I can only say that the rubric came originally from an idea I had, picked up by Robert, while I was in a 99% Latino school with kids of poverty. I had the rubric at 70%. But I never forced it at 70%. I only had it that high to avoid having to grade those kids at all, because any one who has worked the urban shift (Sean in Chicago, Brian in Detroit) knows full well that those kids have no fear of knives, let alone grades. There fears are much more grounded in reality. The other 30%, Tina, was quizzes. Those two things at that percentage gave me a perfect opportunity to create a smokescreen of fake grades. 20%, 40%, 70% – it didn’t matter. What mattered was that I had things in the book that LOOKED like grades but were malleable for me to bump them up or down and use them as my tools for assessment vs. being used by them because I am a “teacher”. Doing this allowed me to put down a grade at the end of each term that I felt was actually far more accurate than any mathematically formulated grade, since grades in FL teaching in my opinion are bullshit upon bullshit. Yes, I made up grades and the rubric and the quizzes made it look real. The admins didn’t know or care; I was doing what they were paying me to do, be with the kids and submit grades. The kids figured out pretty quickly that I was there for them, ready to write a letter or find a judge before a hearing to tell her what a fine student Jorge was and please don’t split up his family because his dad has been here for 18 years founding that business he has now. I say that to show that I never went into this field to be a teacher so much as to help kids. With trust in the air, the kids figured out quickly that if they paid attention or faked it (they couldn’t fake it when the stories were good because, echoing Krashen lately, the kids don’t have to be motivated, the story has to be interesting and then they will pay attention). So that’s the smokescreen deal. Tell me if it is not clear. This kind of loosy goosy grading is a highway to good mental health for the teacher and strong bonds with the kids. It is NOT a good thing for those who still think that school, and in particular teaching a foreign langauge, is still about grading and assessing kids. Really? Give me a fricking break. Let’s get them off the heroin first, and then grade them. And what is the heroin and the other self destructive stuff about? Adults not caring about them. Adults making the holes in their hearts wider because they are not stepping up to the plate in French class and won’t that rubric teach their asses a lesson! Assessing kids in a fl is a joke. Use jGR in favor of the kids by using it as a smokescreen. Again, assessing kids in a fl is a big joke. This is a radical idea and most people will call me nuts. Fine. I welcome that. It won’t be the first time. Break my legs, fire me, but don’t hurt a kid by putting their grade above them.
OK, so it is a smokescreen for the admin and parents, but the kids think it is a big deal? I want to know what you suggest doing now, with all your different experiences, because I am really trying to know how CI works best in urban schools with kids from poverty, because in PPS that is a good chunk of the schools. Not my school, because only a school on the rich side of town can afford a Spanish/French teacher for middle school, apparently. But I want to know mainly how, if this is a smokescreen and the kids are immune to grades (as I am well aware from my years in Gresham), how you maintain focus in class. Compelling CI…I know that. I think class is pretty compelling, could always be moreso, but it is pretty student-centered. Is that the key? Just focus on the interest level of the input?
…I want to know mainly how, if this is a smokescreen and the kids are immune to grades (as I am well aware from my years in Gresham), how you maintain focus in class….
The increased interest in and use of non-targeted CI is just the way things are going. We get much higher quality when we do that. It is causing a huge backlash in the TPRS community as people are now selling TPRS lesson plans and shit. It is necessary for some and I don’t condemn it for that reason, but my heart has always told me that this work is not about planning and therefore those who work from a plan are selling the method short. Everyone who buys Carol’s stuff eventually grows out of it. Good. We have training wheels. But that’s not TPRS. I told Diana well over ten years ago that the more rules we made, the more screwed up TPRS would get. That little idea there bears on the following:
You want to know about those kids who think that, since things are so untargeted in your class, they are in a class where disipline is not there and so they can screw around on you. First of all, that comes from their being in schools in the first place. It’s like a bunch of horses who are whipped every day by their owners (such is school) but then they see a kind owner and they go crazy.
Then you have to keep the discipline, while being loosy goosy with the CI. is that the problem? Make sure I am reading it right.
Well, I would rather be a kind owner of animal who doesn’t beat it with a stick (homework, tests, memorization, etc.) than be one of my colleagues, most of whom shouldn’t be in our profession because so many have MEAN streaks and issues of control going on in them.
Look we are not superhuman. We can’t make a story riveting every time. The classes are far too big, for starters. And so we drive ourselves crazy worrying about controlling them. Dude, I just go to my Classroom Rules, my friends up on the wall for 15 years now. I constantly redirect. I think that Inayat Khan says to do this with kids. Constantly redirect. Keep calm and carry on. Search his name. I think I mentioned him here in an article this year. He’s a badass Sufi master.
So no conclusions, no easy solutions for you. C’est comme ça la vie….
OK, today is Tuesday and yesterday was Monday, and I wanted to share how class went. It went OK. Nothing like Friday. Boy oh boy, that was a DAY.
It was THREE kids’ birthdays (one over the weekend, one today, and one in July but we are currently working through Feb. and July birthdays–we call it Februly.)
I did not give them any huge talk, nor did I change their seating. Just put the clipboard down and started teaching.
We started with a discussion of the Super Bowl and if people were happy or sad. That is pretty captivating, so all smooth there.
I simply stopped each time English erupted, walked slowly to the rules poster, and said “regla no. 1” or whatever rule they were breaking, and waited. That worked pretty well. I used to do that AND mark points on the clipboard. But I was giving the “smokescreen” approach a try. I did not explicitly blow my cover “(Hey kids, I am retiring the clipboard. Let’s go buck wild!!”) but I FELT different when I let myself, based on all your great feedback, loosen up on it. I had more energy for the eyes, for the actual kids, and for the conversation. Plus more attention for the class, not for this piece of paper.
We then celebrated the two kids’ birthdays. One was absent, so we will get him later. That went smoothly as well. Birthdays are fun and engaging so usually pretty compelling CI there.
Today I am planning to start a little competition among the classes to see how long they can remain in the language. I think that will be a great motivator. Also, I am planning to use the “Cambia” idea I got from Grant’s videos. I think it will help because it discharges energy and is silent and fast, so it cannot get out of hand.
I will let you know how things turn out. THANK YOU to all of you. I felt like I had a group of supporters as I started teaching this class yesterday because I know so many people who are interested in our success.
Tina, it sounds like this is your first year at a new school. Bravo to you for having such success with your other classes. That is no small thing for a new teacher at a new school. Having one difficult class is not such a bad situation. Next year the students will have much greater respect for you. I don’t think we can overlook this simple issue of being a new teacher in a new school.
True, Sean, I am new to the school, the district, and also this is my first year teaching languages all day long and my first time teaching Spanish, period. You are right, gotta go easy on myself and celebrate the good stuff!
It was so hard to leave Gresham and especially all my friends out there, after nine years…but I wanted the opportunity to teach languages using CI all day and really sharpen my language teaching skills, but it IS taking on something completely new, and you are right. My teaching is pretty awesome, super engaging, and the kids are learning a TON. Thanks for the reality check!
So Tina no more x’s and more celebration grades. I love that idea. What if we put a “Celebration” grade in the book highlighting one particularly fine quality of each of our kids. Hell yes. THE INTERPERSONAL SKILL OF THE THREE MODES OF COMMUNICATION OF ACTFL INVITE US TO DO THAT. THE DOORS HAVE BEEN OPENED BUT NO ONE IS GOING IN. THEY ARE ALL STUCK IN THE LAST CENTURY, OR THE ONE BEFORE IT. That is because celebrating and not demeaning kids doesn’t fit with their ideas of what a teacher is. A teacher sits down and gives feedback and the kids say thank you and don’t mean it, most of them. The teacher as celebrant is just to out there for everyone. Screw it. Each year I have moved more towards pure celebration of what my kids CAN DO in my classroom. What kept pushing me in that direction? LOVE. You are clearly a celebrant kind of teacher as well. I knew that from our first communication.
…how to maintain a focused atmosphere so that listening, understanding, and ultimately acquisition can happen…without grading their in-class behavior like I have been doing?…
This is the crux of the discussion here. We will have to dismantle this question in Portland this summer. The short answer is to enforce the Classroom Rules repeatedly at every turn and to use such great strategies that the class is naturally interesting. That is why the Big CI Book is so valuable if I say so myself. It has 27 proven strategies that appeared first on this blog over many years. Proven strategies used with the proper CI skills on the part of the teacher – that’s another answer to the question. And this year in India I keep adding new strategies and ideas to that book. Of course, with the small classes I have, some of these new ones may work in my classroom but not in yours.
The truth lies in the honest statement/evaluation that most of us are in a lose-lose situation in our schools. Each year, the people who are trying to destroy pubic education and pensions and provide poisonous water to U.S. citizens who may not be able to buy those things take us a little further into danger. So there is no one answer to this question Tina. We are in a kind of massive destruction of schools. Just getting up and going to work for some of is all we can do and screw the CI.
Speaking of getting up, I am going to bed now (9:45 p.m here) so I can wake up at 4:30 a.m. India time to watch the Broncos hopefully not get too embarrassed by the Cam Dabber Genius QB 6’6″ and 275 lbs. of muscle with his pads on. So let’s continue this when we can. Good stuff Tina. This is real. This is not verb conjugations. There is a battle for the souls of our children. We will win. We just have to believe. We will win this thing. Why? Because our work is part of the real work going on now by so many. What is the real work? We can’t know that exactly right now. But it has something to do with CI and putting the focus of the kids on the story and not the language. We can do it!
To continue with my observations:
1. …So I get them up again, and they were certainly distracting, not acting. Like wandering off, sitting down, playing around with the few little props, etc….
They can’t act any more. Only quiet kids who can follow rule #7 can act. Enforce that. The second a kid starts becoming a distraction, immediately stop the story and go to a dictee or something else.
2. Your ideas here are so good:
…Do some kind of “clean slate” gesture of goodwill, like review the expectations, change up seating, and let everyone start over clean. And then go kind of slow, like it is September again….
I often talk to them when things aren’t working. I explain to them that I haven’t been doing a good job of enforcing my own rules. I keep pointing over and over to rule #2, one person speaks and the others listen. I want them to see that it is not me vs. them, but us together facing in the same direction. For this, this year, I have not used jGR. Even before, at Lincoln High School, I held jGR up as a model but never actually got into slamming their grades because they weren’t paying attention. That fourth period class is on such tenterhooks right now that the only thing that will heal it is a return to stories with very light if zero judgement of the jGR variety. I would see if you could sneak in an Invisible creature, but with no awareness that you were behind the idea, which would ruin it.
3. You suggested changing what is happening in class for a few weeks, like more read and discuss and less acting/freeform chattin’ chillin’ and hangin’….
Yes but more reading and less discussion.
…I could type up some of the awesomely hilarious episodes from classes past and we could read them….
No. Don’t work so hard for them because right now that class is not working hard for you, but are being snarky. I would bet that it all goes back to one or two students. They have won a round but you can still win the fight.
Another thing to do when things go off the rails is grammar for longer than they want, to make them appreciate the stories. Also more reading of a duller nature, for the same reason.
4. …ding the crap out of these kids’ grades till they get with the ding-dang program….
I would never do this. A sure formula for disaster. Back off on that. You have to.
5. RE Movie Talk, I wouldn’t. You want to avoid creating the impression that you are trying hard to reach them. They love it when they have teachers eating out of their hands for approval. I would take the opposite tack and, gently easing up on the jGR process, require by staying in the moment (Skill #22 in TPRS) that THEY SHOW UP for your class. I don’t do MT either. I’m too lazy to prepare it. And it diminishes the creation of really bizarre imagined things. I find MT kind of boring, like the cute cartoons somehow make me feel like I have to work too hard to deliver the CI. That’s just me, I am sure.
Tina can you print this and save it for me when we meet in Portland this summer. I will be out there. Let’s do that. This is the short version of what I have to say on this situation. Of course, please please keep reporting back on this fourth period class. We will solve it together. That’s what we do here.
If we can make jGR work in the context of:
…you my student are a loved human being who’s worthy in our classroom, who has rights to not be perfect, and who is valued for who you are and not just for what you can do…..
then I would say we should use it. If not, if we use it too literally and not just as a rubric-based guideline that we interpret with softness, then we shouldn’t use it.
jGR was never about handcuffing kids’ behavior. I never made that clear before and apologize for that. Would like to hear how the rubric is working for others, if it is in fact being used by anyone.
The way I “use” jGR / aka “Interpersonal Skill Rubric has evolved over the years. At first I tried to use it literally. That lasted about a week. Like you say, Tina, I don’t want to have to think or shift my attention on scrutinizing kids. I just want to have fun delivering CI and opening up the space for the kids to fill it with their awesomeness and creativity.
Mainly I use the rubric as a way to show descriptors for helping the kids learn to listen. They don’t know how, and it is my job to provide experiential learning in the lost art of listening to another person. It’s messy and will never fit into a rubric. But schools like rubrics, so I use them if I have to.
Digression….I truly HATE rubrics. I always have. Back in the 90s when I first learned of them I was instantly turned off. My new school makes you do a rubric to wipe your @$$. No joke. I made up 2 diff. ones that I use for “benchmarks” plus I now use Grant’s version of the interpersonal skills. Minimalist.
Anyhoo….just last Friday I broke out the rubric with my “level 3.” This semester I decided not to talk through all the rubric-y crap on day one. Snore. So I’ve waited with each group, so that they get a feel for how it is. I handed out the rubric with my observations highlighted. Never done it this way, but decided to show them “what I am seeing at the moment.” Many of them were freaking out bc they are at a “2” level. I shared with them my “secreto grande” which is that I do not average any numbers numerically, and that the process is fluid so they can always “change their grade.”
One girl stormed out of the room but the rest breathed a sigh of relief, and we engaged in a pretty interesting back and forth discussion of how language is different, not a subject, acquisition can’t be measured etc. I told them I am looking for a trend. If there are a few 2s and mostly 3s they will get a 3, etc. I did say if I see a cell phone that will knock you down but mostly I am looking to bump you up bc stress hinders acquisition and I don’t want ppl to be stressed in class. They actually thanked me for having that conversation! And these were the super achiever honor roll girls. Stormy girl is in my advisory and she is a loose cannon. Everything is someone else’s fault. I’ll deal with her as we go along.
That was a long ramble to say that I have the rubric in case anyone questions me on my assessment system. I can’t (yet) tell them “I assess with the face.” It seems valuable as a self-assessment tool for kids. I have them choose one skill to focus on for next week. I am not keeping track, just asking them to hone in on something related to listening or responding or asking for clarification. I don’t do this weekly. It’s random, maybe a couple times per quarter.
Tina, I had “that class” last semester. For me the shift came when I decided to let go of trying to hammer so hard on the CI. I call it “letting go of my CI death grip.” I cannot pinpoint exactly how this happened, but it started to change when I wrote my letter of resignation. I wrote this letter bc I was so beaten up, losing sleep, waking up sobbing, etc. Like 3-4 x week for 3 months solid. I remember thinking “if I am not having fun it’s not worth being here.” And then I started to have fun. I have 80 min blocks, so I started having a sort of “recess” in the middle where we’d circle up and play hacky sack and I was not trying to corral them into speaking Spanish…although they naturally started to count in Spanish how many times we kept it in the air. Once we had a ritual like this we all relaxed and they were so much easier to get back on track.
Another thing I did that really shifted the energy was that I did a few “benchmarks” with them spontaneously. IT was a way to get them hyper focused on listening and specifically asking for clarification. It went like this: I told them “Hey let’s do a listening summative!” They started to freak. Then I said I will ask 10 questions, all of them are yes/no. All you have to do is respond yes /no. I also want you to stop me if you don’t understand the question! That’s right! YOu will get extra credit for signaling or saying “what does that mean?” Then I did some very easy y/no questions. I make them put their index finger next to their head (like a “thinking” gesture) when they are ready to say their answer, then I say 1-2-3…and everyone answers in a chorus. I also told them if they did not want to say the answer out loud they had to lip synch. I said I need to see you all answering, then you will get the points.
It was all deliberate, SLOW, EASY. I wrote the numbers 1-10 up on the white board and checked off as we went through each question (I made them up on the spot). 10 checks = 20 points! Plus extra credit for those kids who asked “what does that mean!!!” I recorded them in the computer system. This got the momentum rolling bc they realized all they had to do was answer / ask me what stuff means! When they started seeing 100% in the grade book they realized how easy it is!
I know you will find your sweet spot. You said you had it before, so you can remind the kids “remember when ….” Have faith Tina! You can work together to get back to your fun times. 🙂
The way you express this, jen, is exactly the way I try to assess my kids. Softly. They meet standards if they try to interact with me during class. If not, I pull out the rubric. It is all very soft and malleable. They know I am not trying to play “gotcha” with them. It is a tool for those few kids who need it only.
What you wrote is sensitive and mature. Well, that is one reason why the “”j in jGR stands for jen – jen’s Great Rubric. You are the one who almost five years ago took our ideas and made them real on this topic. This is great comment and I’ll make it into an article. For those new to jGR, if you search “jGR” in the search bar, you will find at least 20 articles on how to use this excellent rubric in assessing your kids.
Ben, when you say you pull it out when needed, do you use it with the kids who need it, or you pull it out for the whole class?
I used it with kids in poverty in DPS who needed to see that there were minimal expectations from me. In that scenario jGR became a “friendly reminder” to kids who most likely have never had the luxury of having dinner with their family and who have been so wounded that they can’t even make eye contact with an adult. I said to the class that I used it for everybody, and I glossed those grades (few kids in those urban schools care as long as they are passing) into the book using jGR (not necessary in this Embassy school now) but I actually only confronted kids who needed it, since part of my job is to get them aware before it’s too late that you have to actually interact with teachers in a human way. Some had never learned that before. Such is our educational system, right? Hope that that answers your question.
Yeah, Jen, I am with you on the just wanting to focus on talking with the kids. I was sure feeling under the gun on Friday with these kids who think I am targeting them unfairly. They were watching me like hawks to make sure that I was targeting everyone at all times. And it was really eating up a ton of attention that should be put on speaking slowly and clearly in Spanish and making sure I am understood by everyone in class. THAT is enough of a brain engager for me right there, not hauling this clipboard around and making sure I am a robot who executes flawless point-dispensing.
I love the “summative” activity. It is graded right there on the spot, delivers CI, builds confidence and community. Nice idea. I think between that and Ben’s sound advice to do more reading of basic, slightly boring material, I have my next two weeks in this class planned out.
You are awesome and I am so so glad that your first semester is over and you seem to be havig a much better time this term. Hope that is true for you!
Another point to make, in case you have to convince people on why you use the interpersonal communication skills rubric, or jGR, is that for students to pass the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program Language Acquisition test they have participate in an Interactive Oral activity where a teacher sits down with a student, one-on-one, and the student must “maintain a conversation” (that’s an actual item in the rubric) with the teacher. The IB “interactive skills” rubric is very similar to ACTFL’s interpersonal communication skills description.
I am very grateful for working in an IB school for this one and only reason: what IB calls the “interactive communication skills”. All have I have to tell students is, “What we are doing here as a whole group is a reflection of what you will be asked to do during the IB DP test.” Beautiful!
I LOVE this since my French teaching counterpart at the high school that our middle school feeds into is in the dark regarding CI. It is an IB school and he seems to think that grammar is the only way to get them ready for the IB test. I am trying to figure out how to approach him because I would love to have a good relationship and help him keep the mojo going with the kids I send him next year. I don’t know a ton about IB, but from what I do know it seems that CI would be the BEST prep for it.
Tina, a couple of good things can be taken out of the IB Language Acquisition Subject Guide. Not correcting students grammar is one of them. So is talking in the target language.
But the IB Diploma Program Language Acquisition is great in that there are two interactive oral activities; one is this teacher-student interview where the teacher helps the student talk about a visual text, and the other is an interactive activity, like a debate or discussion, where students are evaluated on their ability to respond to each other’s ideas and maintain a conversation (in addition to other things).
Then their is a Free Write part to the exam, where students have to write to a prompt. IB says that the content, or depth of knowledge of the subject, of the writing is not what is being graded but the fluency.
These are good things.
What sucks about IB is having to write their stupid unit plans with their key concepts and related concepts. This unit planning just gives me a bad headache. So, I accept bad scores on my unit plan writing and feel liberated by not worrying about it.
If an actor is distracting, even slightly, I immediately switch with another student.
Was it Blaine that suggested not using random students, but kids that we know are reliable actors? Maybe Tina could have actors -auditionning- for the roles? Lots of extra reps.
For MT I sometimes balance the PC on my lap with the kids seated on the floor in front of me, the way elementary teachers read-aloud holding a picture book. Then again my kids are little. It might not work with 25 7th graders.
Thank you so much for the reply! Yes, I know I should have switched immediately with those actors, but as I mentioned above, I realized that I got carried away with that old teacher voice in my head going, “Gotta finish this chapter, keep going, plow forward…”
I need to learn to ignore that voice and stay in the moment!
…I need to learn to ignore that voice and stay in the moment!…
Skill #22: Staying in the Moment
This is my favorite skill. It requires heart. Staying in the moment means that you do not leave the moment that has been created in the story. You do not digress. You do this to keep the comprehensible input alive. The way to make sure you do this is to:
– teach the student and not the language.
– stay on the sentence until it parallels the original story – see the conclusion of this book for details on how to do this.
– milk in extra details via circling, making sure that the details are connected to the lives of your students.
Staying in the moment may be the most challenging skill of all the TPRS skills because it involves going against so much of what we have all been taught as teachers, which is be in charge, drive the story, say the right thing at the right time, be funny, etc. The fact is that if the teacher is the one driving everything forward, there is no “space” for the kids to join in the game.
Most importantly, if the details of the story are not provided by the students, they will not be interested in the story. The instructor must create spaces via artful questioning that allow for those spaces to be filled by students’ answers that are interesting to them.
This involves staying in the moment, resting there, waiting for the right cute answer, avoiding the desire to push forward.
Yes, send this message to the kids,
…you my student are a loved human being who’s worthy in our classroom, who has rights to not be perfect, and who is valued for who you are and not just for what you can do…..
but approach it like a lecture. This is not a conversation where the kids can be snarky. If you have to, say, “Shush your mouth. I love you. Now shush it. You are going to do great things. Believe in yourself…” until they actually do shush their mouths.
As my current principal, who has 21 years teaching and leading in Chicago Public Schools on the South and West sides says, “with a little love and a lot of foot up the ass, our kids will perform.”
I want your principal’s quote embroidered on a cushion.
I love it.
1. …So I get them up again, and they were certainly distracting, not acting. Like wandering off, sitting down, playing around with the few little props, etc….
They can’t act any more. Only quiet kids who can follow rule #7 can act. Enforce that. The second a kid starts becoming a distraction, immediately stop the story and go to a dictee or something else.
YES! I know I made a huge mistake not stopping everything there. You know, reflecting on it now, the issue was FEELING LIKE I HAD A CHAPTER TO “COVER”. Once again, unscripted true human interaction trumps lesson planning. If I had allowed myself to be in the moment, I would have known that the humans in the room and our relationship/interaction is much, much more important than Chapter 4 in the book. How have I not yet learned this? I like to think of myself as using nontargeted CI and unplanned, spontaneous classes…but look how seductive it is to get trapped in the old teacherly habits of “finishing the chapter”. And LOOK at the results–bad feelings on the part of kids and teacher, groans of “THAT took an HOUR”, and me losing sleep on a weekend!!! ACK!
2. Your ideas here are so good:
…Do some kind of “clean slate” gesture of goodwill, like review the expectations, change up seating, and let everyone start over clean. And then go kind of slow, like it is September again….
I often talk to them when things aren’t working. I explain to them that I haven’t been doing a good job of enforcing my own rules. I keep pointing over and over to rule #2, one person speaks and the others listen. I want them to see that it is not me vs. them, but us together facing in the same direction. For this, this year, I have not used jGR. Even before, at Lincoln High School, I held jGR up as a model but never actually got into slamming their grades because they weren’t paying attention. That fourth period class is on such tenterhooks right now that the only thing that will heal it is a return to stories with very light if zero judgement of the jGR variety. I would see if you could sneak in an Invisible creature, but with no awareness that you were behind the idea, which would ruin it.
OK, great advice. This PLC is worth so much more than the paltry sum I pay for it.
I will talk with them Monday, but my instinct is to just say “clean slate”, “fresh start”, “enforcing my own rules” and “working together” and NOT, “Hey kids, I am throwing out the grading system we have used all year and welcome to a free-for-all!”
3. You suggested changing what is happening in class for a few weeks, like more read and discuss and less acting/freeform chattin’ chillin’ and hangin’….
Yes but more reading and less discussion.
OK, good idea…YES!
…I could type up some of the awesomely hilarious episodes from classes past and we could read them….
No. Don’t work so hard for them because right now that class is not working hard for you, but are being snarky. I would bet that it all goes back to one or two students. They have won a round but you can still win the fight.
TRUTH there Ben! It does go back to a few kids. In this particular class there is this guy who is kind of the “puppet master” and you can literally see him influencing/controlling his group of friends. He is a cool kid and I like him a lot, actually, but he is totally in charge of these kids in a way that I can never touch, being a 39-year-old nerd and a teacher to boot.
Another thing to do when things go off the rails is grammar for longer than they want, to make them appreciate the stories. Also more reading of a duller nature, for the same reason.
YES, dull readings. Hey, I have lots of Look I Can Talk. Been wondering when they might come in handy!
4. …ding the crap out of these kids’ grades till they get with the ding-dang program….
I would never do this. A sure formula for disaster. Back off on that. You have to.
Yeah, I know…that would be just more of what is NOT WORKING.
5. RE Movie Talk, I wouldn’t. You want to avoid creating the impression that you are trying hard to reach them. They love it when they have teachers eating out of their hands for approval.
YES! So true. I was hoping to hear this…I do not want to come in Monday and be all desperate for their love, and with more work for me! Plus, I wanted to save the shiny cool movie talk/picture talk for maybe the end of next year, if I need an “ace in the hole” because I have heard it is lots of fun. You know, I am wondering if part of the reason this came to a head is because this week for some reason I got inspired to do this short slideshow on the Super Bowl and have the Special Person talk with me about football. Maybe that seemed like “pandering” to them, since I literally have NEVER brought the tech cart out except for Fridays all year long, and then only to review the artist’s work.
I would take the opposite tack and, gently easing up on the jGR process, require by staying in the moment (Skill #22 in TPRS) that THEY SHOW UP for your class. I don’t do MT either. I’m too lazy to prepare it. And it diminishes the creation of really bizarre imagined things. I find MT kind of boring, like the cute cartoons somehow make me feel like I have to work too hard to deliver the CI. That’s just me, I am sure.
Thing is, they do show up. They are into it. They LIKE class, all of them. So I can clearly see that the issue was my misapplication of the Interpersonal Communication points and the Clipboard Kid. I firmly believe now that I need to back off on that and give this group more stories to read.
Tina can you print this and save it for me when we meet in Portland this summer. I will be out there. Let’s do that. This is the short version of what I have to say on this situation. Of course, please please keep reporting back on this fourth period class. We will solve it together. That’s what we do here
Thank you so much for all this. Lots to digest. Main question I have is:
How do I maintain focus and good listening in the classroom if I back off on the Interpersonal Communication points? And how much of this do I let them know?
Tina, this (and you) is exactly why this PLC is so great. We all have had similar experiences whether we care to admit or not, unless you live and work in some fairytale setting.
I haven’t read everyone’s comments to your 4th period class, but I gather it’s a few Tazmanian Devils that are spoiling the experience. Perhaps you shouldn’t need to worry about changing the way you teach at all. Perhaps you don’t need to think of different ways to engage them. Your teaching, I imagine, is already above and beyond engaging. My first reaction is to stop teaching until they get control of themselves as they should. Here are a few things that can be done:
1) Give long “come to Jesus” lectures to the entire class about how you “Have high expectations and high hopes for you guys… It is a competitive world out there and I know you can contribute… I believe in your abilities but right now we have to take a step back and establish norms”. I would lecture them until they bore to death. And I wouldn’t talk over them. Just wait for them. Wait for time to lapse. Let them feel the pain in having to wait.
2) Have restorative chats with the kids out in the hallway. When they are disruptive, ask them to wait for you right outside the door. When you are ready to talk to them, go ahead and talk to them. Usually when I have these restorative chats, I’m long and dry and repetitive in what I say. I don’t look at these moments as an opportunity to bond with the kid. I look at them as an opportunity for some austere reflection.
3) Send the kid to a neighbor classroom. I’ve done this a few times this year and it has been glorious! Knowing that you can send the kid out is such a glorious feeling.
Thanks again, Tina, for sharing.
Thank YOU for all the great feedback. I love this group. Now I am going to go outside and enjoy Februly in Portland OR. Our traditional one week of springy weather in Feb. before the long haul to the clear skies of July.
I love this post so much. I embrace the bitchy edge 🙂 Yesterday was probably the most chill day I have ever had teaching. It was because I wrote up a (fake) plan on the board, just in case anyone popped in.
Then I read the energy in the room. EAch period was different. First block was sooooo sleepy so we started with “extended version” of our daily meditation / guided relaxation. 20 mins! Then we had a rollicking game of WCTG. Everyone was laughing. Even the kids who had not cracked a smile yet.
My challenging large “level 3 class” did a 10 min mediation. Then instead of the usual SSR, I had them go back in the reading they’d already done (bc there is a huge range of ability and esp a couple ppl who are scared that they will fail….4% era who have never interacted in the language)….anyway, I had them do story boards / essential sentences. I put on Mayan flute/nature sound music. Ahhh, 30 mins of bliss. I floated around and responded to questions. They were sprawled on blankets happily drawing and “writing” (copying sentences from the text). I did not freak out when at times they started whispering to each other. I am not going to cling to my CI death grip with juniors and seniors. They really and truly focused for the most part. Then WCTG. So fun!
8th grade…they are more wiggly so we just did 1 min meditation, then partner volleyball translation of our “lazy” story. This was day 9 of their exploratory. Amazing! Especially bc everyone in the building complains about the 8th grade. I love them. They are fun and playful. I only have 4 wks with each group. Ppl ask / tell me “you can’t do much in 4 weeks, right?” Um… we kick ass in 4 weeks. Keep your assumptions to yourself.
Anyway, no planning.
Maybe the meditation idea could help my wild n’ crazy bunch. What do you do? Is it in English or L2?
Every day to start class we have “la práctica de atención.” It can take as little as 30 seconds-1min. Of course you can make it longer.
I start out doing it in English so they know what to expect. Then I do it in Spanish/English to make sure they comprehend. After awhile I go all Spanish. Unless I do the “extended version” which I only do occasionally. That is in English.
This is not so much for CI, although with consistency it could be. It is specifically to help them gain some tools to balance the nervous system.
The typical practice we do is body awareness and sound awareness. I find that these are concrete enough so they aren’t too “weird.”
Body awareness: I ring the chime, which is the signal to get in your personal bubble…no eye contact with others. Can have open or closed eyes but if open, find a gazing spot that is not another person. Then I go slowly from head to toe. Day one might be head, legs, feet. Do that for a couple days, then add one more point of focus. The practice for kids is simply to bring attention to wherever I say. It teaches that they always have a choice where to put their attention.
Sound awareness: Start same way, eyes closed or gazing point. Have them follow the sound of the chime until they can’t hear in. then have them choose a different sound that they hear in the room or hallway…any sound. After a couple seconds have them let go of that one and pick a different one. etc. 3-4 sounds. End with the chime again.
That’s not too woo-woo and just might work!!! Thank you!
Tina, Here is a short video I am showing today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuyPuH9ojCE
4 mins long. I am 2 + weeks into the new semester and we do “attention practice” every day without fail. i am noticing a few kids starting to engage each other so today am going to show this to reinforce the practice. we can’t force anyone to do these practices if they resist, but we can create the environment for them to choose. i need to reel in a few of them now 🙂
my friend posted this article just yesterday! there is so much evidence (haha science and data finally catching up with thousands of years of real time practice)
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/08/health/mindfulness-teenagers-schools-stress/index.html
I needed to read this today jen. Just needed to read it. Thank you!
This is just what I needed to start my Friday! Sometimes I don’t trust in myself to go with the flow, but when I do it is just so fun! We have all been laughing more lately and even though English is creeping in, it is worth it for the laughs. Like you said, these kids are sitting in many classes they hate all day and just enjoy a place where they can sit back, relax, learn and laugh which is so good for the soul.
On a side note, I had a dance battle between two boys yesterday the last 5 minutes of class. They chose a Spanish song to dance to for one minute and it was a riot. They asked if we could do this every week, and so I was thinking of having “talent Friday” where the last 5 minutes one kid can get up and showcase his/her talent or whatever. I have a kid today doing a comedy routine. Yes, it will be in English but this is a great way to build a community in a classroom and it’s only 5 minutes a week!
Your dancing idea is so cute.
To work English in, we used the History of Hip Hop Dance with Jimmy Fallon and Will Smith clip. We watch each dance and saw the names of the dance–all of them were hilarious. He also has a hilarious “Mom Dance” with Michelle Obama that would be fun for Mother’s Day. These students were more advanced and happened to be reading a book (To Dance by Sienna Carson Seigal) and had vocabulary words related to dance and body parts–beginners would need support.
…and it’s only 5 minutes a week!…
We went on a two year jag here recently about how we all wanted to do was stay in the TL more and more. I had it up to 98% at one point for those who were in on that thread. It got kind of weird.
Thank goodness that’s over! Thank goodness we are now putting our mental health first, and putting the CI second. So when we talk about slipping into English during class, what seemed like a bad thing now doesn’t seem so bad, as long as we have long periods of at least 20 min. in each class when we in fact DO stay in the TL.
The truth is that school classrooms don’t lend themselves to CI. How much research has been done on CI in the classroom? How many teachers who know about TPRS actually keep their instruction above 95% CI? Show me the classroom research. Not there? I thought so?
Very very few of us can even approach 70% of instructional minutes in the TL. It’s not a fault in us, that we “can’t do it”. It’s the system. We are doing enormous work right now and 70% in the TL is a VERY high number to hit.
All that to say that Polly I think doing stuff like getting kids dancing is of key importance to our programs and the heck with the CI Police. Fun is FAR more important in a CI classroom. I haven’t always thought that way, but I think that way now.
I used your idea of whipping around in English to report out on our books yesterday in my French two class. It was a valuable experience even though we talked in English for thirty min. The horror, right?!?! But I think it was a good experience. The kids’ energy was good and I liked hearing from them. I’m considering trying something akin to book clubs with them. Like four kids read a book together and have short check ins on the books.
Also an update regarding my eight graders. I posted quite a bit on them back in October. They are my inheritance from my predecessor, a book and worksheet type. I followed Ben’s sage advice to stop trying CI with a snarky group. However since winter break this same group is happily listening to full tens of minutes of French input. Because I started La Personne spéciale and they love each other. We’re plugging away through the class. They’re liking it. I’m pretty happy with how far they’ve come. Just a good example of how important it is to make kids the center of class. They hate “hearing me go on and on in French”….UNLESS I’m talking about one of them.
“The opposite of play is not work. The opposite of play is depression.”
I am in a school with 2x the state attempted suicide rate. Rampant depression, anxiety, fear, addiction, heroin, etc. Play and fun and joy in my classroom are my #1 goal, along with practicing some tools to balance the nervous system. Spanish is the vehicle we drive while we do most of these things.
It seems that the vehicle of Spanish in all of this actually allows the students to become a different version of their usual guarded shut down selves. I could be making that up, but aren’t’ our classrooms sort of parallel universes???
Polly I love the dance off idea. We must be on the same wavelength today. 🙂
On the students being different in a different language… that could really be part of it. The new language is letting them be different. Did you see some of those articles on how people who are bilingual very often act a little differently or decide differently based on which language they’re using at the time?
If their new language sets them free, that’s wonderful.
Diane said:
…people who are bilingual very often act a little differently or decide differently based on which language they’re using at the time….
This makes my head spin about what language even is and what we are doing.
I feel like each language is a new map of how to think about the world and how to categorize experience through the filter of words.
Yes! Language is so incredible. I think of it like we’re allowing students to build a new mind. Got to be careful saying that… I don’t mean schizophrenia. It’s a wholesome thing, like gaining new internal resources. It’s like looking at the same world with a fresh lens. This is partly why when I first was able to participate in worship in Chinese it was such an incredible experience. Like a whole new, richer avenue opened up.
I love my Chinese way of looking at things. No tenses is so awesome, and Chinese compound words! Oh my. Stopping myself from geeking out too much about Chinese here.
It helps me to hear from others that mental health comes first. I have let go a lot with my “plan” this year and my mental health has greatly increased. I still find myself completely drained sitting here on a Friday afternoon–maybe someday I will end a week with more energy? Does that ever happen?
Today, we listened to the song “Encore un autre hiver” and started talking about it in English. The song talks about “yet another winter” –the feeling of being immersed in a world of problems, and the feeling of despair yet hope about what change can be made. I asked my students about how change is made and if change is possible. Wow-that got deep. We talked about power and who has power. Does money mean power? Politics? We had a student suicide last week and it was brought up (second student death in the month of January). It seems like many students have little hope or positive outlook for the future. I have to say I enjoy talking to my students in English sometimes, though there’s always this twinge of guilt in me, like “omg we should be speaking French!”
…maybe someday I will end a week with more energy? Does that ever happen?….
I have three answers to that question:
1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. Yes.
I am very sorry to read of the suicides in your school. That has got to be part of your fatigue right now. The whole community must be grieving. Thinking of you…
Jen said:
…the vehicle of Spanish in all of this actually allows the students to become a different version of their usual guarded shut down selves. I could be making that up…
You’re not making that up.
Your students are real lucky to have you, jen!
Emeka said:
… I have to say I enjoy talking to my students in English sometimes, though there’s always this twinge of guilt in me, like “omg we should be speaking French!”….
If we are up there editorializing in English about what we think, we are making a serious professional error. We know we are doing this when the kids slump down and wait us out.
If we are discussing things with them as you did above, Emeka, we are doing what we need to be doing as teachers. Why?
Because it’s not just about our mental health but theirs as well. They don’t get to have discussions with their teachers or just about anyone else. Children are suffering horribly and need someone to show up on their radar during their day when the message is “YOU count more than the content of this class.”
Our mistake is to try to mix the two. In one class I may (rarely) use as much as 75% English and 25% French. So what? I no longer feel that twinge of guilt that I should be speaking French, and I know that feeling well and am glad it is gone.
I just won’t mix/water down my CI when we are rolling along in French. As in, almost zero L1. No mixing, Jerry! No mixing!
How is our class different than the Ss’ rest of the school day?
1. The communication is in a different language than the rest of their classes.
2. We build & maintain an “anything is possible in here” mystique.
3. (If you give them) names in the TL – this supports the alternate persona: ‘This is Spanish class & you are ‘Federico’ for 30 minutes’
4. More 2-way conversation; less conceptual content (at least for beginners) to master
5. Less (no?) fear about points, grades, remembering details for tests, taking thorough notes
6. We encourage use of imagination, fun, laughter, silliness, creativity, cute answers;
7. We insist on courteous interactions.
8. We rely on a healthy classroom community and can’t optimize our content without it.
9. The curriculum isn’t signed and sealed in some stuffy ole text; we co-create it as we go
10. There’s no unhealthy competition or blatant judgement on how good/smart you are;
11. No reason/incentive to copy your neighbor’s work or cheat.
12. We rely upon, honor and invite their story details & ideas.
13. The teacher is having lots of fun; or at least, we’ve seen him/her laugh with us!!
Thank you for this. I love it and will save it and share it with my CI PLC group here.
I shared it and they loved it too. Beautiful words you wrote! Thank you.
I teach in a small rural school–thankfully, no suicides, but I had a student attempt suicide last year, another one this past month, another in a mental health facility for a couple of months last fall. All girls.
Sometimes, I feel that there is this ugly underbelly in our school and I, as a teacher, am just clueless about it. My students don’t care about playing around in Spanish or anything else when their world seems–I don’t know–hopeless? scary? They don’t sleep well. They don’t eat well. Their emotions are yanked around by the tiny screens that run their lives.
So I keep trying to connect and respect when someone is having a bad day. Because I’m clueless.
Justin Solcum Bailey says it right ¨Don´t prepare your lesson, prepare yourself¨
I tried doing another card talk on a favorite summer memory. It just left me realizing how the best way, by far, to deliver comprehensible input is through stories (including OWI leading to stories).
Did you turn the card talk into a story?
Once we got the “What” and “Who” and an image, we can certainly go into a story. My favorite with card talk, is to have students play a sport or videogame with someone. I ask “with whom” then it becomes a story. I definitely got this from you Ben, when you had me playing guitar with Jerry Garcia and it was drawn by our artist.
In fact a lot of the CI mystery was solved the minute I realized that “where” and “with whom” were the power questions I needed to leverage an image up into a story. That’s why they are right in the middle of the seven questioning levels.
Thanks Steven. I did not turn this particular card talk, a favorite memory, into a story as I otherwise would with a favorite activity. Rather, I was trying to hold true to the real life details that the student experienced. It all fell flat. I need to simply ask “where” and “with whom” and tap into our imaginations.