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Targetless Instruction – 15
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21 thoughts on “Targetless Instruction – 15”
“Of course, if a kid goes from a grammar teacher to one of us or vice versa, they’re up the creek without a paddle.”
Kids forget a lot of things in L1. Imagine how much they retain of L2 in a grammar class?
Because I am 6 and “I told you so” is my favorite game, I would like to point out that when the subject came up in February and I said I used targets with ESL because I needed them to modify for a wide-range of ability levels, I got shut down.
So I’ll join Claire out on a limb. I may always end up choosing language to introduce to students more in beginning levels of Chinese than those with an alphabetic, cognate-heavy language. I get it about student interest driving the language and how not planning a curriculum allows that to be maximized. I also know there’s a lot of basic, structural stuff that happens in Chinese 1 & 2 that would (in my opinion) be good to keep there. It might come out rather similar to what would arise naturally in level one & two, but without some planning, reading I can provide would not be comprehensible enough for them if the words were introduced in a different order. With 4 or 5 levels, which almost every Chinese teacher has, redoing all of the reading every year — well, I don’t want that. That is a reason I like that microphone dictation feature in Pages; it might help. I need to provide as much reading as I do listening for their reading development: actually more reading would be better.
What about a hybrid? Kind of what I do with the upper level. There might be some phrases I want to introduce for some reason. Students will drive how we use it/them in step 2. Then maybe one or two more phrases that weren’t chosen by me, but that come up in class along the way, get added. I could see allowing a bit more of that with other classes.
Diane, are we being cheaters together again? 😉
🙂
So what are the main principles of Authentic Assessment? Are we ready to write the criteria? I would suggest to write something by which ANY assessment could be evaluated.
For example I am designing something like a final or quarter exam. What can it look like by aligning with SLA principles AND be authentic? Are rubrics the ONLY way?
Articles
-mine-it is easier to read, so start here:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=7EAFBE0D798F0F9A!11194&authkey=!AEhy01yqPoMFdF8&ithint=file%2cdocx
-more in-depth and scholarly:
*(a very detailed answer to Steven’s what is Authentic Assessment question)
http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=13&n=4
*(an argument for Authentic Asssessment)
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED328611.pdf
My favorite books:
Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners by Valdez & Pierce
Authentic Assessment: The Key to Unlocking Student Success by Baron & Floyd *This is great for beginners, it breaks it down really simply.
Steven, I should mention that if you are short on time, read only page 6 of the second article.
*(a very detailed answer to Steven’s what is Authentic Assessment question)
http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=13&n=4
It is absolutely beautiful and column 1 in particular lays out each feature of Authentic Assessment (their item numbers correspond below):
1. “…students during the assessment are engaged in cognitive processes that are important for successful adult accomplishments” (ISR)
2. ” resemblance to the curriculum or to classroom practice” Instruction and assessment and curriculum all look and feel similar, they are all focused on communication. I actually copy and paste items from my S&S document I shared here into my rubrics used to score assessments, depending on what the assessment was.
3. MY FAVORITE DEFINITION OF AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT: “Assessments are authentic if they are effective for learning or for guiding instruction…(with) the emphasis on the formative aspect of assessment…”
Authentic assessments are primarily focused on informing US, the teachers, how we can best guide instruction. What we do when we “teach to the eyes” is a craft, an assessment skill of the highest quality, and we can’t let ourselves be bullied anymore. With this understanding of Authentic Assessment, we have permission to audaciously, unapologetically assess in a way that actually benefits students.
From page 6 … ” The assessment is regarded as authentic if, for example, students are
engaged in cognitive processes that are important
in successful adult behavior in life beyond school
(Focus 1 combined with Perspective 1)”
Attach this with BVP’s quote on what cognitive processes does it take for student output? Here the process is MORE important that the product (like a poster, a written story, a drawing etc…)
Agreed with 3.
Rubrics aren’t the only way, but they may be the easiest way.
There are also anecdotal records, miscue analysis/running record, peer-assessments/self-assessments, etc.
thanks claire
Thanks for coming out of the ‘targeted hi-frequency foundational language’ shadows. I am lurking there, too. In order to start construction, beginners need the basic building blocks.
I think once we’re past the super 7 and/or the top 100 +(?) hi-freq list, we start to circumlocute – that is, like Terry W describes in her now-famous Super 7 post on Diane’s blog, we tell the stories while knowingly staying within the highest freq and now-familiar corpus (love that word!!!).
So when a master like Ben pulls a crazy non-targeted Pulitzer Prize winner like Kandy the Korn outta the holster, he is already massaging it into hi-frequency language, shaping it with familiar work-arounds as the ideas materialize. This is a GREAT skill – an important and learned skill that can be the life or death of the story/lesson – the difference between eyes glazing over and full edge- of -their -seat engagement.
I have observed TPRS lessons in which teachers haven’t yet mastered this skill of simultaneously fielding ideas and converting them into “classroom-comprehensible” language. Immediately the story goes outta bounds, choral responses wane, the energy evaporates, it has the distinct feeling of ‘work.’
That’s why I think all through the many discussions on targeted/non-targeted, I really held fast to targets and loose scripts as guidelines – and also why I was only ready to experiment with non-targeted (w/my second graders) now at the end of the year.
All along and since the beginning there are exchanges and scenes in which we incorporate ‘in-the’moment’ language. This often becomes a target and then gets massaged into the dough. But usually for young beginners I have the foundational Hi-freq targets in mind and/or search for a way to incorporate them.
I don’t think true non-targeted story collaboration can happen without first having a pretty sturdy & established language foundation.
…I don’t think true non-targeted story collaboration can happen without first having a pretty sturdy & established language foundation….
Well it certainly is a great sujet de thèse for some linguist disciple of Krashen. There are probably too many uncontrollable factors for any of us field grunts to come to an accurate conclusion on that, Alisa, since we all use CI differently.
Of course, I like to push in the opposite direction of what you said above, but I agree in principle that we must have ingredients before we can have any dough to make anything out of.
That is why my approach to untargeted includes a rigorous period of two to six weeks doing six start-the-year strategies to “warm up” the ears of the kids so that when we do go full Monty on untargeted we don’t end up in the freak zone.
Setting clear rules and enforcing them, warming up the ears to common verbs, and creating community in the classroom must indeed be done before we can get all jiggy with it, before we get to play in the promised story land.
I waited until the beginning of April to begin the untargeted stories.
Interesting, Russ and I were discussing that VERY SENTENCE that I wrote, Russ said sometime in 2015, and he and I were discussing our evolving thinking on this targeted/nontargeted continuum. I think now that targeting those words (high frequency) can be done in activities and games, and that is the hypothesis I will be using in fall. Using activities like TPR (and spinning small stories out of it) and Circling with Balls (and spinning small stories out of it too) and One Word Images (and maybe spinning small stories out if that) and other Ben activities. Then just start stories because as I was saying to Russ (hey Russ! You there?) I have come to see through the discussion here that you just can’t tell a good story without using high frequency words, cause you can’t talk without them. And that is why they are high frequency, duh. They are the building blocks of language. So, hmm, interesting that this sentence is still in the game. This has sure been a year of growing for me and my thinking! Probably because I finally do nothing except teach language all day. So I can devote all my brain cells to it.
I agree with Alisa. She pretty much explained my opinion on this in her reply above, and did so better than I could hope to. Diane also brings up the point of Languages that are different than English. I think it depends on where you are. Not just in your CI journey but also who you work with what you need to do reach your goals. Personally I feel that the only person who can say what is right for your classroom is you.
Maybe if we all hold each other’s hands as we go deeper into the targetless ocean it won’t be so scary.
A Great Need
A poem of Hafiz
Out
Of a great need
We are all holding hands
And climbing.
Not loving is a letting go.
Listen,
The terrain around here
Is
Far too
Dangerous
For
That.
That is why my approach to untargeted includes a rigorous period of two to six weeks doing six start-the-year strategies to “warm up” the ears of the kids so that when we do go full Monty on untargeted we don’t end up in the freak zone.
I see a line of naked middle age men (Full Monty) wearing ear warmers…is that weird? Oh yeah and they’re holding freak flags…
I love that our sweet Elementary cupcake, Alisa, has a wilder J-Lo side. When it’s happy hour in Chattanooga, I know who I’m hanging out with.