Here are some significant September 2015 changes to ROA. For those currently using ROA, the main changes involve Steps 6 through 8. I used Robert’s term dialogic reading to describe the elegant Step 6 and suggest here that the directing of actors as they re-enact the play as described below in Step 7 is just about the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in TPRS except for the Three Steps of TPRS:
Reading Option A – ROA – is used for stories, not novels. We use R and D for novels. ROA is a template for doing Step 3 of TPRS. Here is the latest update on this fine eight-year old workhorse that has seen a lot of us through a lot of classes after we have created a story with a class. It now has 16 steps! All are good but Steps 6 and 7 are stratospherically good. Of course there is no right way to use this great strategy.
Important note: when translating the story received from the Story Writer into the TL, I try to embed about 10-15% new vocabulary. The amount of newly embedded vocabulary depends on the class. Sometimes I put the newly embedded vocabulary up in bold letters and in the color green. One can also put the newly embedded structures up on the board before starting the class, and work with them a bit, before starting in with Step 1 of ROA.
Steps indicated with an asterisk are the heavy hitters:
(don’t forget your option here to put up the embedded vocabulary and work with it a bit before starting in with Step 1 of ROA)
*1. Silent reading of the projected story.
*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. (credit: Diana Noonan)
- Pair work to translate. (I only do this if being observed, to get the box checked.)
*4. Choral translation using laser pointer. This must be done with loud voices. Usually a student steps up – the Reader Leader – to guide the class along with their strong measure voice.
*5. Discussion of grammar in L1 (6 and 7 may interweave) Finally, this is when closet grammar teachers get to do what they want. They can point out spellings on verb endings, comparing, for example, a first person singular ending with a plural form, whether it can be seen in the reading or not. They can laser point to their favorite grammatical details and share them with the four percenters in the classroom who also love grammar. They can ask students what certain words mean. They can even point out adjective agreement and even spelling changes in boot verbs! This is the time to go for the grammar! What a great way to explain possessive adjectives! Use English! Just keep the grammar explanations down to under four seconds and never mention the actual grammar terms – the kids don’t want to even hear terms like adverbs. Most kids intensely dislike grammar terminology. They just want to know what it means.
*6. Reading from the Back of the Classroom – It is clear so far that each of these steps in ROA have significant pedagogical value. But this step has the most. This is where you get the most bang for your buck from the reading. In this Step 6 work, we keep the story projected but physically turn the kids away from it to where you are sitting in the back of the classroom. They have to turn away from the text. Their bodies and eyes have to be facing me. Then, starting from the first paragraph of the reading, I start an in depth repetition of the entire story (i.e. intensely circled with very clear and slow yes/no questioning of individual students during the group discussion). I stop at the end of each paragraph to let them turn and face the text for a moment to “reload” their knowledge of the text in order to get ready for the coming R and D on that new paragraph.
This process can take 90 minutes. But it works! It piles repetition upon repetition. We can play with each line in many ways, asking direct content questions about the text but also creating parallel questions by bringing in discussion of how a student in our class may compare or not with the characters in the story. Slowly we work our way through the text. This is big work, a great new addition to ROA. I feel that when I am doing this step of ROA I am doing the best job of teaching my language that is possible. The students look at me providing answers to what are some very sophisticated questions in the TL. I hold each kid accountable and have super contact with my barometers. Bam!
There is an entirely different dynamic when they face you and not the projected text. When they read it they interact with the text but when they can’t see it they are forced into interacting with you verbally in the language This is real conversation in the TL, set up beautifully by all the narrow and deep reps gotten up to this point in the ROA process. When they face you and discuss the text that is right behind them it is the real deal.
In Step 5 above the students are looking at the text and interacting with you verbally and in terms of the grammar, whereas in Step 6 you have switched from being in front to the rear of the classroom as per the above. The difference in what is learned is huge. Step 5 sets up Step 6. In Step 6 you teach for real output. It’s thrilling!
*7. Students go into acting mode and act out the story while the instructor rereads the text again. This is Reader’s Theatre. The instructor directs the action. This is one of the best parts of ROA and will make you glad you are a teacher. Classroom Rule #8 must be fully observed in this step. How to do it? Each time a dialogue from the story comes up during Step 7 above, simply tell the original characters to get up and mime the lines and say the dialogue. This is your chance to use the Director’s Cut technique. I leave the story projected on this because the kids refer to it when acting. The kids like to try to outdo each other with their lines. So if Marc has a line where he says, “You are fired! Leave this place. NOW!”, tell them, just like a director of a play would, to say their line using different adverbs that you can remember if you put them up on the wall. After a student delivers a line, see if anyone else can say the line with more gusto, more romantically, more quietly, more to the left, more to the right, more with one foot off the ground, with head more forward, with head more back, whispering, etc.” Even the shiest kids want in on this and it can be marvelously entertaining.** It can get a little loud, though, so you have to be the one in charge. I like to sit in one of the big armchairs in my room and pretend I am a director. Once, a student next to me said, “Now that is going to be going around in my head all day!” So this is a Din-creator! So what if it’s output? It’s output with a purpose (building fun and a culture of fun in the classroom, not to mention the reps.) Badass. All you have to do in this step is read the story out loud, pausing to allow the actor to do an action or say a line. That’s how simple this step is!
8. Jump into the Space! – this is another technique for encouraging speech output to be used when you are in Steps 7 and but is recommended to be used with only upper level students. Here is a good way to encourage speech output in upper level classes without forcing it:
With the story up, instead of accepting one word answers, largely the rule in levels 1 and 2, with third year kids or above (could maybe be used in level two as well), invite them to answer in full sentences. For example, in the text written by the kid it says that Ann has a very small light blue castle in Italy, in the suburbs of Rome. We have been working with the text following the ROA sequence and arrived at this optional step in the sequence. If I feel like it, I ask the kids to respond with good mimicking sentences in the TL as per:
Teacher: Class, does Ann have a very small light blue castle in Italy, in the suburbs of Rome?
Student: Yes, sir! Ann has a very small light blue castle in Italy!
Just keep processing information via circling but inviting them to speak as per the above example. They only jump into the space if they want to. How to do that? I just use the expression, said in English, “Jump into the space!” and I hold out my hands to the space in front of me there in class and invite them to fill it and then I wait. Some play, some don’t. Those who do rock the house. I ask them to put style and swagger into their sentences and feel as if they are French and make that pout thing with their mouth and spit R’s from the back of their throats all over the place. The kids like it because they finally see the payoff of the first two years of listening.
9. French choral and individual work on accent –this can be a very special time as we finally are able to hear, after a lot 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. It is too early to expect anything exact in terms of their accents, but they love reading a text that they already know aloud in the TL so that is enough reason to do it. Be sure to not make this feel like a forced activity.
*10. 5 minute write of the story, in which the students answer the questions: title, who, where, what happens, what is the problem. I give them the following template in the TL to fill in each time:
This is the ________ story (fourth, tenth, etc. – teaches them to write ordinal numbers). The name of the story is ________. The main character is ________. The story takes place ________. What happens in this story? ________________________________________. At the end of the story, ________________.
*11. Process the work of the class artist. This does not require much time. We pretty much just enjoy the drawings and I use this time to get more reps on the structures, but in a different context. Fun!
*12. Textivate. Download this program for $40 – it’s worth it – from the internet to work more deeply with the written story – it plugs right in from Word and you can eat up lots of class minutes with the cute things Textivate offers for us to do with any reading we create from a story. http://www.textivate.com/
*13. Sacred reading of the text. After all the opportunities they have had to both listen to and now read the same basic text, the students know the material. So, to conclude the Reading Option A process, and this is a most special time with your students in class, I read it to them slowly with meaning, dramatic tone, artistry, in a quiet, sacred kind of setting, as if I am gently reciting poetry. I was told by one teacher that one day she read with such drama and emotion that her students told her that she should have been an actress. I generally do this step without the text in front of the students, turning off the LCD or document camera so that they can just listen and not be distracted by the words on the screen. The students are really pleased when they can understand a foreign language read to them in this way. (highly recommended because you and the students will enjoy it so much)
*14. Translation quiz – pick any paragraph from the reading and have the students translate it into English for a quick and easy grade.
*15. Content quiz – have ten yes/no questions prepared before class. I no longer employ quiz writers. They just couldn’t make good enough tests.
*16. Free Write based on completed story – student write for ten minutes for ten minutes as per the Free Write Rules posted on this site. They enjoy making up their own stories based on the structures and plot of the story just completed.
**French:
avec enthousiasme
d’une façon romantique
en play-back
à droite
à gauche
en haut
en bas
en riant
en hochant la tête
avec pudeur
un pied dans l’air
la tête an avant
la tête an arrière
les bras dans l’air
en chuchotant
à haute voix
à voix basse
avec de grandes dents
les yeux fermés
le nez fermé
d’un ton sévère
tout à coup
rapidement
lentement
très rapidement
très lentement
en mangeant
en buvant
en se tournant
les mains sur les genoux
les mains sur la tête
comme un roi
comme une mitrailleuse
comme un robot
dans une voix élevée
dans une voix profonde
legato
six fois
quinze fois, etc.
en touchant la couleur jaune, etc.
en courant sur place
avec peur
fier
soulagé
avec remerciements et inclinations
victorieux
d’une façon embarrassée
grincheux
qui gratte
d’une façon mystérieuse
épuisé
fatigue
en train de s’endormir
vexé
avec du calme
marrant
avec douceur
câlin
avec de petites mains
à petite bouche mais les yeux grands
comme un lapin, une vache, un serpent, etc.
les mains sure les épaules
**English:
with gusto
romantically
quietly
like a Munchkin
to the left
to the right
looking above
looking below
laughingly
sheepishly
with one foot off the ground
with head forward
with head back
with arms in the air
while whispering
loudly
with face scrunched
with eyes closed
severely
suddenly
fast
slow
really fast
really slow
while eating
while drinking
whiile turning around
with hands on hips
with hands on head
like a king
like a clown
with certainty
in a staccato voice
in a high voice
in a low voice
in a legato voice
six times
fifteen times, etc.
while touching something yellow, etc.
unevenly
nervously
obediently
proudly
relieved
thankfully
victoriously
in an embarrassed way
grumpy
itchy
mysteriously
worried
calmly
happily
proudly
relieved
in a silly way
thankfully
victoriously
sweetly
cuddly
with tiny hands
with big mouth but small eyes
like a bunny, cow, snake, etc.
hands on shoulders
Summary of ROA Steps:
- Silent reading
- Instructor reads aloud
- Pair work
- Choral translation using laser pointer
- Discussion of grammar in L1
- Dialogic Reading
- Acting mode
- Jump into the Space!
- Work on accent
- 5 minute write
- Class artist
- Textivate
- Sacred reading
- Translation quiz
- Content quiz
- Free Write