From Bob Patrick:
Ben,
I just got off the phone with John Piazza–our weekly coast to coast phone call. One of the issues we talked about is that in our concern for rigor (includes all the rich conversation on your blog of late) we end up being pushed toward something that we have already identified as a problem: skill-based assessment which walks in the door with worksheets, drill and kill and at its worst, rote memorization of grammar charts.
There is a fine line between the call for rigor and the various behaviors that enable a student to engage in language acquisition (let me name some: eyes open, sitting up, focused on what the teacher is saying/doing/dramatizing/drawing/throwing/calling for etc, interacting with gestures that indicate understanding, confusion questions, etc.) and the teacher who categorizes skills to be checked off for a student to “pass” into the next level of study.
How do we articulate the difference in behaviors that are simply a part of language acquisition activities and behaviors that are part of the mechanism that turns off most kids and from which only the four percenters feast? Eye contact between me and a student is essential when I am speaking Latin to them. I can see in their eyes when they understand and when they don’t, and so it becomes a guage for whether I am delivering CI or not. Finishing 5 worksheets in the Latin workbook is the fodder for the kind of “learning Latin” that only serves a small subset of the class. Those who finish them would care whether I assigned them or not, and the rest wouldn’t do it for love or money. (BTW, I don’t use workbooks and wouldn’t assign worksheets, but I had to have an example).
How do we clarify the human behaviors and attitudes that are essential to what we know works in language acquisition?
If you want to toss these questions/ponderings out, John and I would be interested in the responses from the folks on your blog.
Bob
Robert Patrick, M.Div, PhD NBCT-Latin
Metro-Atlanta, GA
My response: I have a Word file going on this with what we have collected so far. What you wrote here can be added to that list:
- eyes open
- sitting up
- focused on what the teacher is saying/doing/dramatizing/drawing/throwing/calling for etc.
- interacting with gestures that indicate understanding
- confusion questions
What we need to do, however, to prepare this rigor piece for next year, is discuss more and come up with a final document. If we don’t, I’ll just use what I already have and mix it in with what you wrote up there. and use it myself. The final document will resemble my current rules, perhaps, and we will have gone around the world to come back to the same place, but it will have been a good trip.
We are now moving from discussion to action on this piece. I felt so weird and actually it really felt neat to explain to my class yesterday, after telling them (for this final exam/story) to turn their desks to face me directly and after telling them that this session would be graded without any testing/quizzing as during the year and that they would be graded pretty much on the skill set you describe above, Bob.
I even had the actress (Miranda in Cheap Jewelry) write down names when I asked her to -she was just sitting on a stool anyway. I wrote down three – one for two boys having a side conversation and the other I can’t remember. That is a lot less bullshit than usual. For the most part, probably due to the fact that it was a final exam but also I am confident that it had at leaset something to do with no quiz/being graded entirely on the behaviors I had just defined all year, I can say that those kids were focused individuals. I could literally see them focused on meaning pretty much entirely. Plus, the script is superior – that’s another factor.
It was certainly not great research, but it is my hope that next year if I give no quizzes (don’t really have time for them anyway) and grade them on the Interpersonal Mode and what I see entirely, I can see an entirely different experience in teaching, which was, I assume, what you and John were talking about this weekend.
So, to be clear, I hear that you want a clarification on those behaviors. Hopefully the group helps us to codfiy those behaviors in the best possible way for next year.
Right now this is what we have from Robert Harrell:
My first two criteria would be something like:
- “The teacher speaks the target language in a manner that is comprehensible to students for at least 90% of the class period”
- “The teacher engages students in negotiating / constructing meaning.”
[Choose the one that is used in your setting. We use Constructing Meaning as the buzz word.]
This his a highly quantifiable criterion that is totally under the control of the teacher. A stopwatch could show whether or not 90% is reached. Comprehension checks will show if the language is comprehensible. A third criterion could be:
“The teacher addresses rigor by 1. engaging students in the class conversation for sustained periods of time 2. pursuing topics in depth 3. holding students accountable for their portion of the interpersonal communication piece 4. asking mediative questions that allow students to demonstrate higher-level thinking skills.”
A fourth criterion:
- “The teacher addresses relevance by pursuing topics of interest and personal application to students.” Those are initial thoughts, subject to revision through further discussion.
I re-did Susie Gross’s checklist. Here’s my new version. Feel free to comment. Checklist for observing a Comprehensible Input Classroom:
- The teacher speaks in the target language at least 90% of the time in a manner that is comprehensible to students yes no
- The teacher engages students in constructing meaning yes no
- The teacher checks for comprehension yes no The teacher raises the level of student’s attention yes no
- The teacher demonstrates enthusiasm yes no The teacher addresses rigor by yes no
- engaging students in the class conversation for sustained periods of time
- pursuing topics in depth
- holding students accountable for their portion of the interpersonal communication piece
- asking mediative questions that allow students to demonstrate higher-level thinking skills.
- The teacher addresses relevance by pursuing topics of interest and personal application to students yes no
- The teacher offers opportunity for sophisticated language use yes no The teacher models pro-active classroom management yes no
- Students are actively engaged in the lesson yes no
- The teacher promotes grammatical accuracy yes no
- The teacher demonstrates appropriate correction techniques yes no
- The teacher tailors the tasks to individual student abilities yes no
[ed. note: that new checklist kicks ass. Susie’s was too long and I know she did it to impress and overpower dimwitted administrators on what really happens in our classes but it is still too long]
And this is the Clarice Rigor poster content:
WHAT DOES RIGOR (HARD WORK) LOOK LIKE IN THIS CLASS?
Language acquisition only happens when written and spoken messages are actually being understood. In this class “hard work” means that ON THE INSIDE you need to:
– Stay focused on the message being delivered.
– Observe what is happening.
– Listen with intent to comprehend.
– Read with intent to comprehend.
HARD WORK (RIGOR) is when you are actively engaged with the language, which means that ON THE OUTSIDE you will:
– Respond with body language.
– Show the teacher when you do not understand.
– Respond with short answers.
– Read and show that you understand.
RIGOR means that you will FEEL:
– Confident.
– Aware of the stream of the conversation.
– Like you understand, but you may not feel as if you are learning.
– You don’t feel lost, confused, defeated or frustrated.
You will KNOW you are learning when:
– You understand what the teacher says or what you are reading.
– French starts to fall out of your mouth in class without you thinking about it too much.
– French comes out naturally and makes sense (even with errors).
– You notice you can write more in French than you did before.
– You are not translating from English to French when you speak or write.
Now, let’s all try to make this into one document from the comments this post creates. I ain’t doing it. Volunteers? Or is this even the way to do it? What do we need to do here?