I had asked Annemarie for a copy of her write up of a required reaction paper to the iFLT conference last summer in Breckenridge. It’s taken a while, but here it is. It’s a long text, but good reading for anyone who couldn’t attend that conference and wants a very thorough review. Annemarie explains:
Ben –
Finally, here is the write up I had to do from the IFLT conference to earn credit. It’s too long, but I had to use this format to reflect on each workshop: Action-Connection-Reflection:
Learning Lab with Linda Li
ACTION: describe in detail what the participant witnessed during the workshop/ presentation (minimum 1 paragraph)
The first session I attended at the conference was a learning lab with Linda Li teaching Chinese (Cantonese) to a group of 15 middle school students who voluntarily signed up for a “Language camp.” We had a little time with Linda before the students arrived so she talked a little about herself and her teaching experience. She told us that she was a little nervous because she had never met these students and she hadn’t been teaching for a few years due to her maternity leave. She was a very warm person and comfortable speaking with a group of curious adults. I noticed the words she already had up on the walls with their translations into Chinese (not characters but rather pinyin so that students could read and pronounce them.) These are most of the words she had posted: you, me , he/she/it first, good, no, ok-so-so, excellent, not good, everyone, applause, look at, stop, stand up, sit down, hamburger, pizza, chocolate, cry, smile, slow, fast, thank you, hello, good-bye, teacher
I was actually surprised that she had so many words posted for the first day. The chairs in the room were set up into two groups. I looked for a posting of her “rules” but didn’t find any,
After the students arrived, Linda introduced herself in English and asked the students on a scale of 1-10 how excited they were to learn Chinese. I noticed that she was also very warm with the students and smiled a lot, but not in a patronizing way. This woman is a natural teacher, I thought! She explained her class rules to the students. Afterwards in the debrief she realized that she had forgotten to tell them “no English” during her presentation of the rules, but she told them at one point during the workshop because they started speaking English to one another.
For the rest of the class, Linda powerfully implemented all the great tools of TPRS or comprehensible input. She taught the words above by pairing them with gestures, and having the students constantly do them (this would be the TPR-total physical response of CI.) She used several props such as a hamburger hat and a pizza box to increase comprehension and interest. She also would ask one half of the room to do certain gestures while the other half watched and vice versa. She checked for comprehension by asking a student or the whole class, “What does that mean?” or “What did I just say?” She pointed at the words with their translations on the board to increase comprehension. She picked up on students’ individual personalities and used them as actors to create a story in Chinese.
By the end of the class, a story was formed involving three students in the class who were acting it out in the front of the room. There was plenty of laughter. I was impressed at the amount of Chinese they picked up in such a short amount of time. I was also surprised at the amount of output she got from them. Afterwards, she commented on this and said that the longer the silent period, the better their pronunciation when they do begin speaking. Perhaps it was an error on her part, but the students were so eager to speak that she allowed it.
As the end of class neared, Linda passed out papers on clipboards to each student and asked them to draw the story in a six panel illustration. She also asked for one student to come up and draw the story on a large piece of paper for the entire class to see. She assessed the class understanding of the story created in Chinese by saying a phrase in Chinese which described one of the panels and having students raise 1-6 fingers indicating the panel number
that her spoked phrase represented. Another assessment method she used was asking volunteers to say anything they knew about the three different characters in the story. Again, I was impressed with their level of output. One student was able to tell the entire story in Chinese. Linda made sure to give the students plenty of applause and accolades throughout the class. It was a very positive environment. CONNECTION: describe how the participant will implement the activities of the presentation in his/her own classroom instruction (minimum 1 paragraph)
Although I feel that I have a good grasp on how to use CI in my classes, I came away with many more ideas from Linda’s class. What stands out the most is how she not only used commands with gestures, but facilitated an interaction between the gestures. For example, she taught the word “look” along with a gesture and then had the kids looking at each other and then look at the student who wore the hamburger hat, which was another word she taught. I will also use the method of splitting the class into groups. This allows students to watch each other and gives other students a “brain break.” This is a very sophisticated level of TPRS that I haven’t attained yet. I probably will have to write out these interactions before I try them with my classes.
I also liked the props she used. They weren’t overdone and gave the students a visual which increased their comprehension and made it more likely that they wouldn’t get lost. I will definitely use a pizza box as a prop, because the word in Spanish is a cognate and allows them to learn the more difficult word for eat or look.
I will implement some of Linda’s assessment strategies as well. I already incorporate illustrations into my story telling, but she just did it a little differently. For example, when she asked students to show fingers from 1-6, she realized that some of them were looking at others’ fingers to figure out the answer. She changed this by holding up her hand, and only when she brought her hand down could students show their fingers.
REFLECTION: reflect on how the implementation experience will enhance the participant’s future teaching as well as their students’ learning (minimum 1 paragraph)
I think that much of what will impact my students are slight tweaks to my teaching which will help me assess my students more often. Additionally, I have a firmer grasp on how much more I can do with gesturing. I’ve always done gestures with my 6th graders, but not nearly as often with my 7th and 8th graders. Since the 7th and 8th graders are at a greater comprehension level than the 6th graders, I can use Linda’s method of interaction between the gestures as a way of introducing more rigor to gesturing. Lastly, my students will benefit from the addition of meaningful props since this will add to their level of comprehension.
Watching Linda Li teach with such confidence helps me understand how important it is how I carry myself in front of my students–with confidence, warmth, and assertiveness. One of my weakness with this method is that I can get too playful with the class and therefore lose some management. Linda Li is able to play with the students while maintaining control and keeping the class mostly in Chinese.
Learning Lab with Jason Fritze
ACTION: Jason Fritze is another masterful teacher to watch. In his class with 15 elementary aged students, I could see how he perfected the art of “call and response.” Every five minutes or so, he would call out a phrase in Spanish with an expected response from the students. It kept them on their toes and engaged. This class was the second in a series of three classes for beginning level elementary students. His goal for the three days was to teach them a basic children’s song in Spanish called, “los pollitos.” He spent most of the class doing TPR (total physical response) using props and, like Linda Li, having the students interact during the movements. He also played games (matamoscas) and sang the birthday song as well as practicing the beginning part of “los pollitos.” All of the vocabulary he taught was geared toward the vocabulary in the “pollitos” song.
One of the ways he used call and response was when he was looking for something. He would start chanting, “¿Dónde? ¿Dónde está?” and the students would repeat after him. Another significant way he used call and response was by having students fill in the blanks for him. So, he would say “vamos a escuchar y mir———-” and the students would fill in the rest of “mirar.” Also, he often referred to visuals on the walls of the colors, the action verbs, and interrogatives. I could see the students heads turn toward these visuals as he said them and repeated them. I noticed that he mostly spoke in Spanish and repeated almost everything he said at least twice. One of Jason’s teaching trademarks, his snapping when he talks, added to the high energy feel of the class and didn’t seem to intimidate the students as I thought it might.
Assessment and management are two other areas of expertise I witnessed during Jason’s class. He had a chart hanging up with 5 different levels- super bien, muy bien, buen, ojo, para, comunicación con padres. All of the students had their names on clothespins which were clipped onto bien. As the students answered questions in Spanish and participated, Jason moved their names up the chart. When they reached superbien, they would hit the red easy button (which said “that was easy” in Spanish!) This was a fabulous way to give positive reinforcement to the students. Someone asked during the debrief if he ever moves a student down the chart to ojo (be careful) or lower and he basically said no. He said, “It’s crazy to punish kids.” But I guess the threat is still there!
He constantly assessed students throughout the class by asking them questions and having them gesture. At one point he had students drawing animals on white boards. I loved his use of illustration to assess the students and involve the quieter ones.
Finally, he had actors come up to the front and act as the chicks and the hen to further prepare them to learn the “pollitos” song. He gave out little toy chick to each student as well–a nice touch.
CONNECTION: There are many strategies that I will implement from witnessing this master teacher. When I saw Jason present last February to adults, I got taste of his “call and response” strategy. But watching him use it with kids was magical and inspiring. He really coaches the students through class procedures and participation. It’s hard for students to not get it because his method requires so much participation, but it’s unforced. It’s as if the students don’t even know they are learning another language; they are simply acquiring it it through constant comprehensible exposure. I will definitely try to incorporate more call and response in my classroom. This past year after watching Jason Fritze present I did use some of the “fill in the blank” strategy, but I’d like to incorporate even more call and response around class management and procedures.
I’m tempted to use his “behavior” chart with clipping up and down, but I have found in my 10 years of teaching that I tend to not follow through with that kind of plan unless I develop it myself or if the other teachers also use it. I think what I can take from this is the importance of praising the students often and in the target language.
One of the strategies I will definitely implement is pre-teaching vocabulary of a song (backward planning) before I introduce a song. Currently, I teach my 6th graders many songs and I give them the translations, but I don’t pre-teach all of the the words. It makes sense to teach the words first so that they understand what they are singing instead of just blindly singing a song in another language.
REFLECTION: Jason Fritz has inspired me to speak more Spanish in class through the methods of call and response and fill in the blanks. I believe that I speak about 60% Spanish with my classes, but if I incorporate the coaching of my classroom procedures in Spanish and use repetition with my commands, I can probably increase this to 90%. Students will hear more comprehensible Spanish and therefore acquire more of the language.
Backward planning will definitely enhance my teaching as well as my students learning. I can have a more solid plan around the structures I’m teaching. Ideally, students will eventually encounter all the structures I teach in a song or novel in a given timeframe. The idea is that when students read or learn a song in Spanish, they will already understand the words. The last step for them is to make meaning out of it and be able to converse about it.
Learning Lab with Carol Gaab
ACTION: Carol’s learning lab was an three-day English class for five Spanish speaking adults, although the numbers fluctuated over the three days. I was curious to see how TPRS is used to teach English. I was a little concerned that it wouldn’t feel relevant for some reason, but I gained an incredible amount by watching master teacher Carol Gaab, who currently teaches English to the players of the San Francisco Giants. She is a giant herself in this realm of language instruction. She began the class (it was already the third class) going over some key structures like “couldn’t” “did not-didn’t” “do.” I’ve always wondered how these structures were taught–English is difficult! Then she projected via document camera a chapter from a book that she wrote about a famous Domnican baseball played, Felipe Alou. She read along with the students and would stop and ask questions about what she read. She asked students to translate into Spanish (most of the times they just did this automatically aloud.) During a part with some action and dialogue, she had three of the adults come up and act out the scene. She fed them their lines. It was fascinating to see this all happening in English because it seemed so obvious–of course you teach language this way because it’s meaningful and contextual. Again I noticed Carol’s warmth and understanding toward the adults, without any condescension.
The second part of the class was very entertaining. She started asking the class personal questions around dedication–she was circling the word “dedicated” which surprised me because this is a cognate in Spanish. But what I learned later during the debrief is that we can’t assume that students get the cognate. I have also had this experience with students and cognates. I will say a word in Spanish that to me sounds just like the English word, and half of my students make the “I don’t understand” sign.
Carol began a story around losing her keys. The phrase was using the past progressive as well as one of structures she had introduced earlier-”I was looking for my keys but I couldn’t find them.” One of the supposedly more timid students in class class piped up, “You left them at my house last night.” Everyone roared with laughter, and subsequently the rest of the class was dedicated to the creation of that story, the acting out of the story, and the writing and reading of the story. I noticed how Carol whispered in her students’ ears to give instructions, creating more camaraderie with that particular student as well as building some suspense for the audience.
Carol sporadically taught some grammar in the TPRS “pop-up” style or “contrastive grammar.” She used different colored marker to indicate how a part of a word translated to Spanish. For example, she wrote harder on the board as translating to “más” and both the -er of harder and “más” were written in the same color. I will use this nifty strategy as I translate words with more complex grammar for my students.
I understand circling so much more clearly as I watched Carol circle the facts of the story brilliantly. Here’s an example:
How did he go to Leslie’s house? Did he go on a horse? In a car? Did he go in a Mercedes? Student says “I have a lotus car.”-he offered up this detail
How many (translates-cuantas) people went to Tristan’s house? Tristan went alone or Tristan went with another woman? He went to Leslie’s house in a Lotus?
Did he drive fast slow or did he drive slow? (student askes what “did” means and Carol clarifies that she’s speaking in the past)
She was able to pull interesting details from the students and therefore giving the students ownership of the story. I like how students asked Carol to write something down. She told students to ask her to write down words, since she didn’t want to write down every new word. Carol also incorporated a conversation into the story, which she had the actors repeat at least three times.
Lastly, Carol played a song, “Elvira,” for the students at the end of the class which incorporated some of the lines from the story they created together. It also turned out that Elvira was the name of one of the students in the class. Another nice personalized touch.
CONNECTION: Carol was a pro at using humor to engage her timid adults. She used it in a sweet and non-threatening way. I believe I use humor quite well in my classes already, but I would like to keep her style in mind. She definitely aimed her humor appropriately at the age group–there were several jokes about age, people lying about their age to appear younger. I could tell she has been working with adults for a long time.
I learned the effectiveness of circling while watching Carol do it so well with the class, especially in English. I think I may start writing out my circling of questions in the beginning of the year to ensure that I actually circle. I have a tendency to go too fast and skip the repetitions.
I liked how Carol ended with a song which incorporated the vocabulary from the three days of class and the fact that it was the name of one of the students. She really made each student feel special-a remarkable feat in three days. As I mentioned before in the reflection of Jason’s class, I’d like to pre-teach the words to a song before introducing the song. I will incorporate this pre-teaching into my curriculum for the fall.
The use of the Felipe Alou story drove home the important point of using reading materials that are relevant to students. Although most of the adults were Mexican and not Dominican, they most likely had experienced some bias as immigrants just as Felipe Alou had upon his arrival in the US and in the subsequent years. I have used reading material geared toward the middle school age group and I will continue to do so, as it engages them.
REFLECTION: Watching Carol gave me some ways to improve my circling. She gave me ideas on how I can keep circling interesting while repeating the structures at the same time. My students will benefit from this as they will learn the structures by hearing them in context multiple times.
Also, I plan to use the Felipe Alou story. Many of my students are interested in sports (in fact, it’s all they’re interested in), so this will be a way for them to connect to the material. Hopefully we will have some important discussions about discrimination.
Scaffolding Literacy with Michele Whaley
Unlike the write ups for the learning labs, I reflected upon the action, connection and reflection in order of the steps of scaffolding literacy and how it connects to TPRS.
This workshop focused on the role of scaffolding literacy in a TPRS classroom. It seems that this workshop was geared more toward teachers who instruct students in the upper levels of foreign language learning, since the end goal is fluent reading. The point of scaffolding literacy is to help struggling readers with tools that fluent readers use to improve their reading ability. Michele also explained how this relates to TPRS. First, Michele used us as students and did an example “mini-lesson” in Russian to help us understand some ways to scaffold literacy. I had a difficult time following this lesson since I didn’t understand any Russian, but I could see what she was trying to do.
After the mini-lesson she explained the steps of scaffolding. Preparing for reading: First , the teacher prepares the students for reading by choosing a text that is slightly above the students reading level. I like the idea of choosing a novel in Spanish that will be somewhat challenging for my students. This reminds me of the zone of proximal development–the distance between what a child can do on their own and what they can do with help. It will keep their interest without discouraging them. This first step of scaffolding aligns with the beginning steps of TPRS in which the teacher establishes the meaning of the structures with gestures, pictures, and conversation (PQA=personalized question and answer.) Basically, I’m scaffolding an eventual story for my students. I like thinking of it this way as “scaffolding” because it helps give me a structured way to think about story creation with my students. It also give me another way to explain the progression of TPRS to other educator who may not understand TPRS but who already understands scaffolding literacy. The second step of preparing for reading is orienting the students to the book by reviewing the plot, setting, and characters. This step aligns with the stage of TPRS in which the teach “asks” the story and circles important structures to establish meaning and familiarizes the students with the novel. The teacher can even create mini-stories using students in the class instead of the characters in the book while at the same time using the key structures.
Soon after the teacher reads the novel or part of the novel aloud to the students to orient them aurally. This is a step I also use with my students. It’s important for students to hear the flow of the story in the target language. Throughout the aural orientation of the novel or story, the teacher can ask questions that draw students attention to particular words and/or phrases in the novel that explain something about the story (“Which words tells us…”) This is a new strategy I have not yet used which I am planning to implement with my 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. It’s just another level of questioning and circling which assessing their understanding and repeats important structures.
The next part of scaffolding literacy which follows the reading preparation is language analysis in which students retell the story in the target language. More advanced students can include answers to questions such as, “What would happen in the story it…?” I can see using this strategy particularly with my fast processors. These particular students find the novels too easy, but I challenge the by asking more sophisticated questions that require them to use more advanced language. Another part of language analysis is supported spelling and grammar in which students look at parts of phrases and words that the teacher can cut up. I have not tried this strategy before and I certainly will in the fall with all of my classes. I can see cutting the end off of “alto” and putting an “a” on the end and asking students the difference between the two. This image will be very effective with my visual learners. I anticipate using this strategy when I’ve written out a story we’ve created as a class and pause on an interesting grammar concept that they may or may not recognize. The presenter also suggested purposely leaving out letters or words in a story and have the students correct it. This would be a welcome break from dictation work.
Another step in scaffolding literacy is fluent reading. In this step, students read along with the teacher and use text markings to ask questions as well as indicate their understanding. I like the idea of students drawing emoticons or small illustrations as they read. This way I can do a quick glance around to see that they are engaged with the text and comprehending it. I also will use the idea of an index card to help students follow along in the text and write important pieces of the novel on that card. I can then use this card as an exit ticket as well as w formative assessment. According to the presenter Michele, the step of fluent reading probably comes after language analysis in foreign language classrooms since the students will need as much language scaffolding as possible before attempting to fluently read.
The last step of scaffolding literacy is scaffolded writing. This is the step in which students finally produce some output in the target language. I tend to wait a few months before I ask my 6th graders to write in Spanish since it’s important for them to acquire as much Spanish as possible before output. Michele spoke about text patterning by showing us a clear chart in which pieces of the read story are in one column, what the language does is indicated in the second column, and then a class example of the same text pattern is in the third column. I can see how I could do this with the entire class after we’ve created a story together and before they’ve written their first free write. I can also have my fast processors fill out their own chart. This really supports students in writing in both their first language and target language since it not only gives them a pattern to follow but also draws on an example they’ve already read as a class. I can see myself doing a teacher think aloud with a class–basically filling out the chart myself and explaining my thinking aloud. After the students do a few of these text patterning charts together as a class, they could certainly begin doing them on their own as practice. Another benefit of text patterning is the teaching of transitional phrases. Students can see how transitional phrases are used in the examples and then use these phrases in their own writing.
Although Michele did not explicitly address assessment, I’d like to explain a few ways I could asses students throughout these steps.
1. Preparing for reading: Assessment method: Mostly formative, not assigned grade a. Questions directed in target language to class and individual student, especially barometer student (slowest processor.) b. Quick quizzes addressing important structures c. Students self-assessing to determine level of listening to understand ci. Students illustrate characters, story told thus far 2. Language Analysis Assessment Method: Formative and Summative a. Students point out grammar and spelling as class, can turn into quiz, b. Put students into groups to analyze phrases, matching endings with words
3. Fluent Reading Assessment Method: Mostly Formative
a. Use of Exit ticket-Students use index card while reading and/or following along with reading and mark on card answers to questions teacher asks about text or questions they have about text. b. Students chorally read along the text with teacher, students read in pairs c. Students draw illustrations of what’s happening in the margins to show their understanding or write question marks
4. Scaffolding writing Assessment Method: Formative and Summative a. Students fill in their own text pattern charts b. Students do free write based on their charts
Content-based comprehensible input with Amy Terán
ACTION: This workshop detailed how to write and implement a content based unit in “10 easy steps.” This unit was about Frida Kahlo, her life and her art. Ideally the unit is taught in Spanish. I was particularly drawn to this workshop because I’ve taught about Frida Kahlo before but haven’t managed to teach it in Spanish. This workshop gave me some tools to implement this curriculum while staying in the target language.
Amy Terán went through the 10 steps which are as follows(as copied from my workshop notes):
1. Choose a topic/theme or both- example Frida-overcoming hardship 2. What are your goals and objectives 3. Find resources and do research-you have to know your material-age-appropriate 4. Read book on Frida and take out essential vocabulary words and make list: era, era de, vivía en, se enfermó (TPR), le dolía (TPR) “TPR snap”-empezó 5. PQA-Personalized question and answer using important structures-se enamoraron, ocurrió un accidente 6. Build mini-story using targeted structures 7. Pause, circle, repeat-at each detail, pause-ask yes or no questions or poster words-who, what where when why 8. Retell, park it if students aren’t getting it yes, no, either/or, question poster 9. Extended reading time-Students read story that teacher writes about Frida with sheltered vocab. The story students write is based on Frida; teacher shelters the vocabulary so that they know all the vocab. in the story Students read story to themselves or worked in pairs-or kindergarten time and teacher read it to them, teacher reads a sentence and student translates it After comprehension is assured, teacher reads AUTHENTIC text and pause for question.
10. Additional activities -Human timeline-applies reading skills, translating, sequencing -Write sentences that documented Frida’s life as we’ve learned it
Print out sentences on piece of paper and students have to walk around and put them in the order of Frida’s life
CONNECTION: I hope to do a scaled down version of this unit with my 6th grade. I often start by having them do a gallery walk of paintings by Mexican artists. Most of them are struck by the ones by Frida Kahlo, which leads to in-depth conversations about her art as a reflection of her life. I’d like to shift these conversations more toward happening in Spanish, and this workshop has given me some ideas about how I can do that. I already have a bilingual book about Frida from which I will pull important structures. I will pre-teach these structures using personalized question and answer and creating a story with the class using the structures. Then, I will do perhaps four different embedded readings, to expose the students slowly to the meaningful structures. I can even use the text patterning I learned from the scaffolding literacy workshop. I love the idea of creating a timeline with the class as a culminating project and perhaps having them illustrate different parts of Frida’s life.
I can envision myself using these content based comprehensible input skills while doing some cultural units with my 7th and 8th graders also. In my 8th grade class we do a three-month long art expedition in which students choose and research a Hispanic artist and study how the artist’s culture manifest itself in the art. The expedition culminates with individual creative projects which are reflections of each of the student’s particular artist. My main issue with the expedition is that I tend to teach very little Spanish language. I’m hoping to use some aspects of this content based unit template to incorporate more Spanish language into the expedition.
REFLECTION: One of my weakness as a Spanish teacher is incorporating culture into my classroom teaching. I tend to focus on just teaching the language. I find it difficult to teach “culture” in a Spanish classroom since there are so many to explore, although I realize it’s difficult to separate a language from its culture. I understand the importance of exposing students to different aspects of language’s culture, it’s just that sometimes I feel that I can’t do it justice confined in a classroom. This workshop has given me a way to continue speaking in the target language while also teaching culture. Of course, the beginning level of my students will limit the depth of the conversation, which I will keep in mind. I notice that my students most remember their experiences in my classroom when it’s something experiential such as a Hispanic food fiesta or the building of an altar for Day of the Dead. Students want to experience something different and outside of themselves. It gives them a different perspective. Last year I showed them a video about Hispanic region where people eat grasshoppers and ant eggs. We had a lengthy discussion (in English) about why this seemed so strange and “gross” to us, but to others it was completely normal. I do want to avoid students exoticizing another culture, since this further distances them from a culture and romanticizes it.
Telling Jokes in Spanish with Bryce Hedstrom
ACTION and CONNECTION: This was a simple, straightforward workshop. Bryce outlined five skills to joke telling and gave some examples. These are the five steps:
1) Choose the right joke-Make sure students know the vocabulary enough to understand the punchline 2) Scaffold jokes in order to tell them at different levels 3) Use student actors and incorporate them into stories 4) Sequence the joke to set up for punchline 5) Include student input
Bryce used a joke to illustrate the five steps. Afterward, he had us get into pairs, look and three different jokes in Spanish and talk about how to adapt them to fit our students. There was only one joke that I could imagine simplifying enough to tell my students. I think the kind of jokes I would tell my students are the one or two liners (ex, ¿Qué hace el pez? Nada). It would be too difficult to go through a joke which required a lengthy story behind it, because I would inevitably lose students. I can imagine adapting a joke so that I do comprehension checks along the way. I think that joke telling is not really a necessary or even important skill to have as a language teacher, but rather something I could add to my “bag of tricks.” I do get tired of feeling like I have to entertain my classes, and this is what joke telling feels like to me. Another way I could implement joke telling is by asking for a volunteer to look up one simple joke in Spanish each week. I like to assign jobs to my students, and this could be a job for a student who likes getting on the computer and doing some research. The student could give me the joke at the beginning of the week. I would make sure to cover the main structures so that students could understand the punchline. Then, I would tell the joke at the end of the week after the weekly free write, and we could all go into the weekend with a good laugh (that is, if they actually understand the joke.)
REFLECTION: I don’t believe that joke telling will necessarily enhance my teaching, since it seems to me an personal preference as opposed to an indispensable skill. However, if I used it regularly, the students could become skilled at noticing the nuances of the Spanish language in order to “get” the punchline. Furthermore, introducing idioms within jokes gives the students some real language to connect with native speakers, and this is an important skill to acquire as students advance in another language.
Embedded Reading with Laurie Clarq
ACTION: This was an excellent workshop. I thought I understand embedded reading beforehand, but I realized that I didn’t see the whole picture. Laurie clearly explained the purpose, benefits, and steps of embedded reading, which I will explain below.
An embedded reading is basically a reading (in the target language) in three or more levels in order to provide repetition of important structures, differentiation for student ability, and inject interest into a base story. There are many benefits to using embedded reading. Scaffolding the reading builds student success and confidence, and maintains their interest in the material. It helps students integrate in a comprehensible and step-by-step way new structures and information. Even as different details are added to the reading, students still recognize the original structures and benefit from this repetition. The teacher can also personalize the story by asking the students for different details.
The three main steps are as follows: 1) Create a summary or outline that conjures up a clear picture and establish meaning 2) At each succeeding level, add additional information and details (to create challenge), don’t make story longer 3) Read and illustrate with students
Laurie also explained some tips for success: inject new information that I want them to re-read, alternate levels of language difficulty and new information, and include surprise and humor.
CONNECTION: I definitely plan on using embedded reading with my new understanding of it. In the past I’ve just done one reading with a particular story that a class has created. Now I understand how adding two more layers provides the opportunity for repetition of difficult structures as well as adding challenge for my faster processors. I can also see using this to prepare for the reading of a new novel. Another way I can use it is by pulling our a chunk of a novel, remove nonessential information and structures, and create a three tiered reading. Obviously this takes quite a bit of planning, but I could just focus on a particularly difficult passage. First I need to think about what my students need and like and how they can be successful–I need to set them up for success. If I make the reading too hard, they will become discourage and lose interest. This goes back to the zone of proximal development. I need to create a reading that contains slightly more language than they understand.
REFLECTION: One of the areas I continue to work on as a Spanish teacher is challenging my fast processing students. They tend to get somewhat bored in my class since I go slowly so that all of my students to understand everything (and my fast processors get it the first time I say it.) Using embedded reading is an excellent way to challenge these students. I think using embedded reading will also help me begin a new novel or reading with more deliberation. Now I have a place to start to plan these readings. My students will certainly benefit from the multitiered aspect of embedded reading and will find it interesting since I haven’t yet done the activity with them.
Three Ring Circus with Berty Segal
ACTION: Although I’ve already used the TPR skill of three ring circus, I wanted to learn it from one of the founders of TPRS, Berty Segal. Berty explained the three levels of questioning in the three ring circus as she did an example with participants from the workshop. She spoke in Yiddish as a target language (something I didn’t find out until afterwards-I thought it was German) and made it comprehensible but pulling up actors, pointing to their clothing and describing them in the language. She used many cognates like blusa, which helped me tremendously. She used four people and described each of their clothing, their height and their hair. I have never done this before and I thought this was a great way to teach clothing vocabulary.
She explained the levels of questioning: 1) Teacher provides all the vocabulary and students answer yes/no 2) Teacher provides mostly all of vocabulary and students answer additionally with either/or and one word verb or noun 3) Teacher asks where, what, who questions 4) Teacher asks what person is doing, requiring student to use more than one-word answert 5) With faster processors, teacher can ask them in three different tenses what’s happening in the three ring circus-what’s happening (present progressive), what happened (preterite), what’s going to happen (immediate future)
There are many great take-aways I got from Berty;s workshop which I’ve outlined below: •Deal with real things in front of the students’ eyes-clothing, height, hair, etc. •The brain loves movement and what is real, relevant and useful •Teacher asking for choral response from students makes them feel safe to answer •Relax the requirement for full sentence answer, while modeling the full sentence as a teacher •Don’t push pronunciation
CONNECTION and REFLECTION: I use the different levels of questioning with my students, but I hadn’t understood it as levels, which makes sense. This is yet another way I can differentiate. When I’ve done the three ring circus activity in the past, it’s only lasted 5-10 minutes maximum, but I see how I can really draw it out by Berty’s demonstration. Not only can I have three students doing different gestures, I can describe them as well and use that as another route to comprehensible input. I will also keep in mind the “take aways” that I outlined above. It was inspirational to watch a woman in her late 70’s teaching with such tremendous energy and enthusiasm (and at an elevation of 9,500 feet in Breckenridge!)
My ability to question the students will be enhanced as I think specifically about the levels of questioning Berty articulated and demonstrated. Consequently, students will gain more repetition of the structures and vocabulary. Students will also feel challenged in a variety of ways as I ask them to reply chorally. Student choose to answer at the different levels. Students therefore won’t feel put on the spot and will feel more comfortable in the classroom.