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Reading Celebration
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10 thoughts on “Reading Celebration”
Oh my gosh! What a success. And you are so right, the reading was now in context for her and she had the flow of the sounds so they could fall right out of her mouth.
I’m not clear on what happened exactly. Do you mean she read it aloud (which could mean zero/poor comprehension with good decoding or good comprehension with good decoding), or did she read it silently and understand what it meant? Or some mix of both–and if so, how did you know she understood? I want to understand this.
I put up a more deeply embedded text and asked the kids to read as much as they could silently. My next step was to read it aloud in L2 while they listened and then go through my Option A reading plan. So in the silent reading to start the class is when she said that.
Ben, I’ve been using a Matava script to converse the this week and tomorrow we are ready for the reading from my 6 different classes. I want to make sure that 1) the reading is done in the present tense and 2) the suggested Option A list that you have published here is followed in the order you have it listed…..or do you pick and choose which things on the list to do when dealing with Option A?
Jennifer, here is the reading program I have developed. The asterisks are the key things that I do, and the other non-asterisked stuff can only be fit in during a block, if then.
Option A for the W/Th classes:
1. Write on the board, in L2: the title of the story, and the words who, where, what happens, what is the problem? Then tells the students very quickly, those things, in L2. (optional)
*2. Instructor reads aloud in L2 – this allows the student to make the necessary connection between the sound of the story with, now for the first time, what those sounds look like on paper. (required)
3. Silent reading, decoding of the first page of the three page prepared text (usually a generic version of five classes’ stories). (optional)
4. Pair work to translate. (optional)
[note: some classes can’t handle steps 3 and 4 above and should not be allowed those options]
*5. Choral translation using laser pointer. (required)
*6. Discussion of text in L2. (required)
*7. Discussion of grammar in L1 (6 and 7 may interweave) (required)
8. French choral and individual work on accent – this can be a very special time as we finally are able to hear, after a year and a half of constant input and relatively little verbal output, how our students’ brains have organized the language in the now emergent output. We notice how well they pronounce the language IF the output wasn’t too early. (optional)
9. 5 minute write of the story, in which the students answer the questions: who, where, what happens, what is the problem. 5 minute write of the story, and he urges them to use the questions: who, where, what happens, what is the problem. (optional)
*10. Sacred reading of the text – after 4 class periods of either listening or reading input, the students know the material. So, to conclude, read it to them with meaning, dramatic tone, artistry, in a quiet, sacred kind of setting. One teacher read it with such drama that the kids told her she should have been an actress. I generally do this step without the text in front of the students. They are really pleased when they can understand it. (highly recommended)
*11. Translation quiz – pick any paragraph from the reading and have the students translate it into English for a quick and easy grade. (required)
*the steps with the asterisks next to them provide the best CI instruction in reading I have yet found in terms of what works best for me personally.
Jennifer, to simplify the above, the basic overall idea is to (going paragraph by paragraph):
– read it to them while they look at it
– chorally translate (this is the big deal)
– discuss in L2 some of the details (again, make sure this is all paragraph by paragraph)
– point out grammar
– give the quiz, which is the same process used for stories
Also Jennifer I just did this with some visitors today and I haven’t checked the videotape to see if it worked but if it did I will be posting those two classes here as soon as I can.
Discuss in L2 the details- so are you circling the details of the story? asking them questions about the story?
point out grammar- can you give an example? would “see here el and la both mean the but el is mas. and la is fem.” count as pointing out grammar?
…are you circling the details of the story? asking them questions about the story…?
If you read, “Pan went to South Central L.A. and ate the lobster and drank the water” then you ask, “Class, did Pan go to South Oakland and eat the clown fish and drink the coffee or did he go to South Central L.A. and eat the lobster and drink the water?” or “Did he go to South Central L.A. and drink the orange juice?” – or any other variations on this sentence that may pop into your mind – and keep circling that like that. When you go back and forth between the reading and then discussing the reading, you are putting them alternatingly in different parts of their brains and thereby keeping them more focused with that back and forth work.
…point out grammar – can you give an example? would “see here el and la both mean the but el is mas. and la is fem.” count as pointing out grammar…?
Yes up to the point you used a grammar term (fem.). Everyone knows that you can’t teach grammar by using grammar terms. How silly! Grammar is not grammar terminology any more than water is a series of five letters formed into two syllables. We teach our kids correct grammar by speaking correctly to them in the target language! Real grammar – not the stuff that teachers teach, wonderful though it is to 4% of their students – is alive! Poindexter and Twilla (2001) have proven that in the second a language student hears a grammar term her brain goes into a 12 – 14 second state of numbness. If made to hear four or more grammer terms in one class period, her brain starts to lose neurons at the rate of about 4 million per minute. Over ten grammar terms in one class, and the students’ brains begin singing, in an apparent resistance move to the grammar terms, the first five verses of Turkey in the Straw. So yes, point out the grammar, but not with those ridiculous grammar terms, which only serve to confuse. In French, “il cherche” means “he looks for” and “ils cherchent” means “they look for”. So point out the “s” on the “il” and the “nt” on the “cherche”. Say things like, “Class, what does the “nt” mean there? That’s correct, it means “they”. When you see “nt’ there, it means “they”. [credit: Susan Gross]. If you use the term “3rd person plural” there, the things described above begin to happen. And I’m only sharing the things in that report that I can put here. Other stuff happens and it isn’t pretty. One kid, upon hearing the term “pluperfect subjunctive” in an AP class 34 times, ripped off his tie and started running backwards through neighboring classes claiming to be Groucho Marx and yelling obscenities in Hebrew. It’s bad. Don’t use grammar terms when teaching grammar.
Thanks, gracias, grazie, shukran, danke and merci! Hahah. We’ll see how it goes. One other thing, how do you grade the translated paragraph you choose for the kids? Is it a rubric? Do you choose a value that “feels right”? What’s fair? (I know, we all agree the fact we MUST give grades bites…)
If I ask them to translate a paragraph, I go with what feels right and can be done in under 0.6 of a second, including writing the number down. Sometimes, I give a quiz. I just have a Quiz Writer write questions during the reading class and do that Quick Quiz (see category on right for more information) at the end of class. I’m starting to gain a long awaited insight into grading. Administrators largely don’t care how teachers assess their students – they just want some grades. Pity the poor 4%ers who have become language teachers. They just signed up for at least one hour per day of extra work grading shit than teachers who were not 4%ers.