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On the Critical Importance of Starting Each Class with the Time, Date and Weather at the Beginning of Each Class We Teach All Year
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17 thoughts on “On the Critical Importance of Starting Each Class with the Time, Date and Weather at the Beginning of Each Class We Teach All Year”
A month ago a kid asked if we could count to twenty. Knowing what I know about frequency, I sort of quizzically looked at him and asked “why would you need to know all the words up to twenty?”
That was a mistake.
To plan a “numbers lesson” is asinine, but this was genuine interest and falls under “roll with whatever interests students in he TL.” Why numbers? It sounds like an easy task and maybe this kid was overloaded with stories. Who knows, but that’s not the point. Talk about a missed opportunity and easy eating up of class minutes to do some counting game.
I imagine day, time, weather playing out like this as well.
My class is conditioned for the Date plus weather. Today I didn’t have the date.
They asked: what about the date? Another student said: I like the date because I don’t what the date is until I get to this class.
I’m thinking to make it quick. I used to use up about 5 mins on it.
If there are at least 20 kids in your class, then you have a daily opportunity to count to 20 even if it’s fake. Pretend you’re taking attendance. Pretend you need the # to pair them off evenly for some activity or game. Count out papers or plastic microphones or pencils or dry erase boards, plastic cookies, chairs – whatever. That’ll get counting numbers in order to 20. (I like adding zero, so we often count down to blastoff)
Otherwise, random #s pop up in stories. As do dates, if you want. It’s exciting (in my elem class) to put certain holiday dates in stories (feb 14, july 4, Dec 24-25, 31.)
Not always – then it’s too forced.
You can also put in times. I’ve had some fun w/11:59 at night.
One of my stories had a meal that costs “3,666 yen”
You could prolly find something important that happened on today’s date in history, or some Hollywood gossip/birthdays, to keep the date thing worthy of everyone’s att’n.
I myself rely on my phone or computer dock to remember the date :]
We do a daily Bienvenida, a different student everyday. They talk about themselves a little, ask some questions (what day is it, what is the date, what’s the weather, what time is it) and always end it with Hoy es un buen día, the more energetic the better. It takes about 2 minutes and has been a great way to start all of our classes.
Ben, you are right that “It’s in the curriculum” is no reason to do the day, date, and weather. However, I think some of the posts above have indicated that there are some good reasons to include this:
– It establishes a routine that helps students transition from everything else to the language class
– It helps students who want to know the day and date for non-linguistic reasons
– Sometimes the date is important (history, holiday, weird occurrence, etc.)
– If the weather is unusual, students want to know how to describe it (i.e. student interest). Rain and fog are high-interest words because those phenomena occur so rarely in Southern California. “Clear” and “snow” are useful for when we go to the field after a winter storm and admire the mountains.
BTW, I am always intrigued by how much more enthusiastic students are about an activity if we do it in the school courtyard rather than the classroom – even though it is exactly the same activity.
The caveats include:
– Follow the energy
– Don’t take much time with it
On my white board I write what number school day it is (using ordinal numbers) and how many school days are left (using cardinal numbers). Some days I mention it and some days I don’t , but is is always there for anyone who cares to read it. (Day, date and weather are also written for anyone who wants to know.) When we hit 99 days left and when we hit 99th school day, I played a music video of “99 Luftballons” (99 Red Balloons) just for the fun of it. Now that we are past the hundredth school day, students are becoming much more interested in how many days of school are left.
One benefit of mentioning the date regularly is that it acquaints students with the difference between US dating (mm/dd/yy) and German (European) dating (dd/mm/yy), which can be important. (I once had a US doctor’s report accepted for an application even though it had been completed too far in the past because the clerk read the date as European rather than American, so 02/06/75 was read as June 02 rather than 06 February. Saved me time and money.)
I talk about holidays as they occur or are relevant to something else (e.g. German Unity Day and US Independence Day). I even teach students how to set the date for Easter as a general piece of cultural trivia. (One of my favorite consternation-causing statements is, “Ash Wednesday is forty days before Easter, but Easter is not forty days after Ash Wednesday.”)
At some point I tell the story of two friends, one American and one German, who agreed to meet on the second floor of a department store. The American compensated for German numbering and waited on the floor one flight up from the entrance. The German compensated for American numbering and waited on the floor two flights up from the entrance. Finally, both decided to check the “other” floor, and they waved at each other as they passed on the escalator.
Early in the school year I take my first-year students (mostly freshmen) on a tour of the campus and show (and tell) them where different subjects are taught, where the anchor and bell are, how to find the student store, what the evacuation route is, where we assemble for fire and earthquake drills, etc. These things can be done in the target language as long as we don’t think that we have to hurry through them to get to the “real” lesson. These are the real lesson and show that we can use the target language to talk about important stuff. (I review the evacuation route and emergency procedures as well as assembly area every year in every class.)
This semester I have been doing more spontaneous CI. I’ve been having fun. I have friendly classes. Before fourth block today, I actually found myself thinking “oh good, I get to teach again now!” Then after work (after hour-long dept. meeting) I stopped at the General Store in my town to get some food. Ran into the parent of a student. This woman is an old acquaintance/friend. We said hello to each other, and I said how glad I was to have her daughter in Spanish class, what a bright light she is. This parent said back to me, “well, I asked her about Spanish class and she said that it is kind of slow.”
I know I have to learn to let this kind of thing roll by. I have made huge strides in letting the students’ unhappiness roll by without taking my self esteem or joy along with them. Of course I want to do my best for them. I do my best for them. But I can’t control whether or not they like the class. This next layer is my peers, their parents. I am afraid that I will fail at this, that my classes will empty out and all the advocacy I’ve done in my department for CI and SLA-responsive teaching will be laughed out of the curriculum. This kind of comment plays right to that fear. But I can’t let that fear, or this parent’s careless comment, control me. It’s just information. I will continue to respond as best I can to all relevant and useful information. THAT IS ALL I CAN DO. I cannot control the outcome. Okay, now I’m going to go write up today’s stories so we can read them in class tomorrow.
Angie, the fact that your class seems “kind of slow” is actually a good thing. It means that she is understanding what you are doing. At some point you may want to see how you can throw her some higher-level questions, text, etc., but the real problem is that the daughter has too little life experience – and certainly pedagogical knowledge – to recognize the value of being able to understand everything.
It’s unfortunate that you don’t get to spend four years with the same students, because it is after they have been in the course for several years that students begin to realize what is happening. About five years ago, one of my fourth-year students said to me, “You know, Herr Harrell, when I’m sitting in class each day, it doesn’t seem like I’m learning anything, but today a German 2 student asked me a question, and I realized that I know a lot.” Today in class, a current student echoed that recognition: “There is no stress in this class, but man have I learned a lot in four years.”
Don’t be defensive or let the comment get you down. You can’t please everyone, and as long as you know that you are giving the best you can give, no one can honestly expect more. Hang in there!
Wow, thank you so much for your wise words, Herr Harrell.
Always something trying to wear us down in this business, Angie.
As I understand it, you can ride a horse for a long distance at a slower pace or you can ride it full speed for a short distance. There is always the pressure, internal or external, impelling us or driving to rides our horses to death.
Someone commented to me recently that she sees how she could have covered more ground curriculum map-wise. It was not to make the students more comfortable with the language. Just an arbitrary, pre-set goal, based on the Table of Contents in the textbook.
The Pony Express was designed on the capability of the horse, to be able to cover ten miles at a gallop before tiring. The curriculum express is often driven by the felt need of the teacher to move on before the grammar point du jour gets too tiresome.
Thanks, Nathaniel. Interesting comparison!
” I am afraid that I will fail at this, that my classes will empty out and all the advocacy I’ve done in my department for CI and SLA-responsive teaching will be laughed out of the curriculum. This kind of comment plays right to that fear. But I can’t let that fear, or this parent’s careless comment, control me.”
Thank you for sharing your fears here; it’s brave and honest and so relatable. I feel the same fears, and I too try not to let them control me. It’s hard, though.
I had a class complain that they weren’t learning anything, so I dragged out the write-ups of stories they did in September. The first story was something like: Bob plays basketball. He plays well. He plays better than Lebron James. Lebron is mad.
I said to the kids, in September it took you guys all period to come up with that. Now let’s look at yesterday’s story. We looked at the story. The kids got real quiet, and the complaining stopped.
I said, when you learn this way, sometimes it feels like you are not learning, because it isn’t hard. Was it hard for you to learn English? Why should it be hard for you to learn German? Language acquisition is as natural as breathing, and a lot more fun.
“Language acquisition is as natural as breathing, and a lot more fun.” Awesome comment. I feel that energy today.
I had a 3rd grader who told me at the beginning of the year that he wanted to feel challenged at school, because by being challenged that’s how he would be sure he was really learning. (‘Scuse me, but that was scripted by his parents, dontcha think?)
Angie perhaps the contrast between your low filter class and the stress and stacks of dittos from other classes suggests to that kid/her mom that there’s not a lot going on in your classroom…But oh! if they could only see all the brain gears turning as your lucky Ss process all that high quality CI!
Humans are creatures of habit. SLOW breaks the school habit for sure. Turn the comment on it’s head. It’s a very good thing.
To start my class off with a routine, a signal that everything is ready to begin, I do the calendario. It was boring and too routine at first a few years ago, but when I switched it up and turned it into a chain drill (six questions, date, day of week, day last night, tomorrow, weather, time), that made a huge difference. The kids fight over who gets to start the calendario, because it’s fun to get to be the person to pick some unsuspecting classmate. Answers are short, especially weather. I also translate the cafeteria menu into Spanish every day and display it quickly on a flipchart. Some have interest in what’s for lunch or breakfast, and they pick up the Spanish in a more natural way than a “unit” on food. It’s just part of the day.