Long Term Leave Question

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4 thoughts on “Long Term Leave Question”

  1. Hi Erin,
    I know you are new to the group so welcome!
    In my opinion, if you are not able to find a person acquainted with comprehension-based methods, let alone TPRS, the only thing I would do is reading b/c that is the other source of input, beside stories and PQA. Of course, there are no guarantees they will read and b/c they will have a sub they may be undisciplined, but they will anyway. You could give them worksheet and book stuff, but it will only help 4% and it wil do nothing for the remaining majority.
    Give them busy work with the reading, try to diversify the reading, making sure it is simple enough. And may be some movies with subtitles.
    Good luck, it s tough, but not insurmountable!

  2. Thanks for the advice.

    I do have a classroom set of Mi Propio Auto with worksheets from the teacher’s guide, so I am thinking that would be good for one of my classes. I am not even sure of getting a sub that knows Spanish, though.

  3. What level are the classes? Mi Propio Auto is not that easy for lower level kids. This is why we need to have the conversation about what book to use with what level. I will try to remember to ask Diana when I see her tomorrow.

    The most important thing with this leave, Erin, in my opinion, is that the kids feel that they can do the work easily. I might add that another most important thing is that, as Sabrina implied, they read, read and then read some more, as much as possible, and so, again, the effortless of that reading is the main thing.

    What I do on sub days is ask the sub to get the kids doing FRV with our simple French storybooks (we are lucky to have a ton of them thanks to Diana), then they do SSR in the novel we are reading, then they do a freewrite to end the period. My reason for a class period where they 1. read quietly for half an hour with the FVR followed by the SSR and then 2. write, is that both of those activities keep them quiet and involved in their own process.

    I would never group them into pairs during this time. I would try to keep them in their own little bubbles. The sub who is hired for this must impose that process of “bubbling” the kids hard in the first two days. I would play the Calming Music (see “TPRS Resources” on this site) while they read, or even all period. I would pray for a teacher who can at least read with them on the second part of this three part daily lesson plan, the SSR. It would break the silence of the class.

    It would be a special sub who reads enough Spanish to be able to walk up and down the aisles for the second (SSR) part of class and simply read aloud and have the kids read aloud with her (a very powerful way to learn a language!) and use jGR to get a daily grade on the level of choral reading with the sub that each kid was willing to do.

    The sub would have to become the real teacher in the room and take control of the quiet FVR, the choral reading with her during the SSR, and then keeping the room quiet for the free writes in the last 15 min. of each class, which would be collected and get a daily grade as well. So the sub, if she can even just read Spanish, can gain, via this plan, a modicum amount of power over the kids. Without that, there is a high chance of chaos.

    Here is the suggested schedule outlined simply:

    1. FVR with calming music if books are available. This quiet atmosphere allows the teacher to collect herself, deal with tardies, call roll, and hang out for the first ten minutes of class. Hell, I do this with SSR everyday. I don’t know how a TPRS/CI teacher can NOT start each class with these ten minutes of SSR and calming music, frankly.

    2. SSR – the teacher stands up, tells the kids to turn to whatever page the class is on, and starts reading in English, and the kids MUST READ ALOUD WITH THE TEACHER and be graded on it at least a few times per week using jGR. When a kid starts failing for not doing this, the teacher must have ample power to report that to the parents and administration.

    If the school doesn’t give the sub this power, there will be chaos. When the kids don’t see the grading power of the teacher on them in school buildings, they officially charge of the class.

    As stated above, loud choral reading of a very very easy book like Pirates of Pobre Ana or Houdini brings unbelievable gains. I believe now this year for the first time in my 12 years with TPRS/CI that my level 2 kids’ awesome ability to write is directly due to this loud choral group reading of books that are at a level BELOW their natural level. So in listening, as per Krashen, it should be i + 1, and in reading it should be i – 1, as it were.

    NOTE THAT IF THERE ARE NO FVR BOOKS, THEN JUST REPLACE THE FVR ABOVE WITH SSR TO START CLASS. THE KIDS WILL ALL READ AT DIFFERENT RATES, BY THE WAY, SOME WILL GO AHEAD AND SOME WILL BARELY KEEP UP, BUT THE CLASS CAN BE KEPT AT A SIMPLE SLOW PACE, INDEED IT MUST. IT WORKS. CALL ME AT 303-995-0526 IF YOU NEED MORE EXPLANATION BECAUSE THIS SSR WORK IS KIND OF HARD TO EXPLAIN BUT IS VERY EFFECTIVE. IN FACT I NEED TO ADD IT TO MY LIST OF GAME CHANGERS FOR THIS YEAR LIKE LEIGH ANNE SAID IT WORKED FOR HER.

    So if you have FVR books you are doing

    FRV – 15 min.
    SSR – 15 min.
    Freewrites – 15 min.

    but more likely than not you will be doing

    SSR – in silence – 15 min.
    SSR – chorally with the class – 15 min.
    Freewrites – 15 min.

    Actually the second option may work better bc it gives the kids a chance to read the text silently before reading it chorally with the class.

    Again, be sure to have the sub enter daily SSR grades at least twice a week, unannounced, by the way, to keep the kids on their toes, and to collect the freewrites twice a week, also unannounced, and give them specific grades on those two days. If they are not graded on both SSR and on the freewrites, they will control the entire class process.

    Lastly, the point must be made that the sub MUST have that minimal ability to lead a class through a choral translation of the SSR passage for that day, usually two pages in the book. A bonus would be if the teacher could actually do some basic R and D with them, as per the category here.

    One caution – if the teacher is a former traditional grammar teacher, you are going to have to muzzle their desire to point out grammar during this process of SSR with the class. Tell them not to. Come in and check on whether they are doing that. Sneak up and listen at the door. Burst in. Yell, “Stop that useless explanation of pronouns! The kids don’t care!”

    Anyway, that’s one set of ideas – it is very similar to what I do on normal sub days.

  4. Ben,

    Thanks for the suggestions. I think, with the easier novels, a semi-competent sub could lead the class, but since my high school classes are 85 minute blocks, it would be hard to do a month and a half solid of SSR for that amount of time.

    This is my first year teaching at a magnet school with a K-12 foreign language program. Most of my students have had Spanish since kindergarten, but I find that their level by 8th grade is about the same as a regular high school Spanish II. Novice-Mid to Novice-High, I believe.

    I will also have a class called New HS Spanish I/II (mixed level) for students coming into the school with no language background, and regular HS Spanish I. I am the only TPRS teacher in my department, and there is a curriculum checklist I have to follow. In the 8th grade, I’m expected to teach certain irregular verbs in the present tense and introduce the preterit. In HS Spanish I, reflexive verbs and the preterit in full. I’ve been using Realidades TPRS materials and other activities from the series that apply to CI methods.

    I think what I may do is get novels from TPRS Publishing. Maybe Piratas for New HS Spanish, the past-tense version of Robo en la Noche for regular HS Spanish I, and El Nuevo Houdini or Esperanza for my 8th graders. (We read Patricia va a California in the first quarter this year, and it was a stretch for most of them.) I like the teacher’s guide materials that come with them.

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