Sean reports from Chicago:
Hey wonderful people on Ben’s PLC!
The hardest part of our jobs, I think many will agree, is validating our instructional approach to our administrators. Here is a little exchange I had this week with my principal, the only person in the building that asks me about students speaking more. My principal is known for being a bit of a robot, that is, a cold evaluator, even if passively, who pops into everyone’s room now and again. Everyone else in my building, thankfully, totally gets the need for a flood of input before a trickle of output (I believe it was someone by the name of Wang who coined that phrase) and appreciates what I do engaging students. My principal doesn’t express this appreciation as much. She’ll throw these passive critiques from time to time. And her critique, to get students speaking more, hasn’t changed for two years, despite my soft responses to inform her on second language acquisition theory and things.
I truly wished it didn’t bother me as much as it does. But it does. I try my hardest to bite my lip and be diplomatic. Reading Robert Harrell’s primer, once again, on dealing with admin really helped me turn the temperature gage in my head from union-activist red down to counselor-mediator blue. There are times when we have to be red. And times we have to be blue.
Anyways, I’m sharing this little exchange for prosperity. Well, in all reality, I’m sharing it to vent so I can, hopefully, let it go. As I read through my response I’m reminded how we have to often jumble ideas and confuse, create a wall of smoke, if you will, as we communicate what we do to our admin because we don’t want to straight out tell them that all we care about is channelling students unconsciousness. We don’t care to force output, nor to activate their analytical minds. We care to create beautiful music that is the language for them to sit back and enjoy listening to. And no, Mr. Admin, I don’t actively drop LSD.
Thanks for listening, all!
Sean
PRINCIPAL:
Hi Sean,
A small group yesterday, but I appreciated that you had them sit up and focus in on the language delivery. I saw Crispin referencing print in the classroom to help as he followed along with your reading. I’m excited to see how much Spanish this group can learn this year! I hope to visit again at a time when I can also catch the component of class when they are speaking and producing as well!
SEAN:
Hi Ms. Principal,
Thanks for dropping in. I too am excited to see how much Spanish they can acquire this year.
Going from a day where students received a tremendous amount of auditory input in our co-creation of a highly compelling story (that particular story was about a dinosaur who wanted to eat sushi) to the next day where students receive a tremendous amount of reading input, and having experiences like this throughout the year, I’m certain that the students will maximize their gains in acquisition.
The listening and reading assessments are embedded and coupled with the input delivery. Then the summatives, in this case, a Fluency Read and a Speed Translate, came after the formative reading assessments. Students are encouraged and prompted to speak throughout the process. Students spend about 90% of the classroom in Spanish. Students work as a group to think of ideas, create together, write together, and I allow for these ideas to become part of the language experience.
Please feel free to look at the two docs below. One is a screen shot of ACTFL’s (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Proficiency Guidelines, specifically, the speaking guidelines at the Novice level. Then, the other is a bar group from ACTFL’s Performance Descriptors showing a time line on how long it takes for students, in general, to move through the proficiency levels.
Hopefully this is all helpful. Thank you for your interest. I look forward to further conversations.
Best,
Sean
https://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/public/ACTFLProficiencyGuidelines2012_FINAL.pdf
https://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/ACTFLPerformance_Descriptors.pdf