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Syllabus Change
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14 thoughts on “Syllabus Change”
So expressed in the above syllabus in red is something very powerful I can use to address the constant and annoying (did I say annoying?) expectation from admin and parents that we give homework. It gives them what they want but keeps things nice and easy for me. How? First, read the part in red above.
Comment on the reading homework: Really it’s explained above but basically all I have to do is post the stories on my school blog/website and the kids have to read them to their parents. They all have iPads in this school. I know full well that it’s not feasible in many schools but if your kids have computers or iPads you can do it this way, and there’s no work for us involved except remembering to post the stories whenever we finish one. Just ask the parent at conferences if their kid read the story to them twice a week or whenever you did one – we have to write it anyway for class to use ROA on. Full responsibility to get this done is on the students, not us, the way it should be.
Comment on the writing homework: This is easy. I just have a folder for each class and they come in with their two free writes each week and put them in the folder. I don’t even look in the folder. I have proof of who did and who didn’t do their French homework. Onus of responsibility shifted.
These two things don’t entail a lot on the part of the student either, which is of key importance to me. However, by the time you get through asking the parents whether they did their reading homework for you or not over recent weeks, you just shifted the entire burden of “giving homework” off your backs and onto theirs. Same with the writing. If it’s in the folder, they did it. Big whoop. It’s pretty cool, really.
I thought those additions looked like the school requires homework to be given! Nice way to handle it.
Ben, I’m curious as to whether you would still give those homework assignments if the school didn’t require you to. I adopted a no homework at all policy this year but gave my kids plenty of ideas of how they can increase their exposure to the language and engage with Spanish outside of the classroom pursuant to their interests if they choose. I hope I didn’t go wrong here?
No required homework in this school. Marc I am doing this as, since you have served in uniform I will use this term, a pre-emptive strike. It is my experience that parents in general, whether homework is required or not, view not giving homework as a sign of low quality instruction. I don’t want that to be the case, so I fulfill expectations with this kind of homework. It is new. Maybe it won’t work. I’m trying it. You didn’t go wrong because there is totally no right or wrong in this work. There’s just us, doing some good things and not so good things. We’re learning. It’s ok to not get this CI work perfect. We never will. I just think it is very cool that we have soldiers on this website.
Sounds like a smart plan… I will clarify the options for “homework” on the syllabi for classes. Preparing those today.
I like that approach Marc. You’ve given them options and direction. A teacher doesn’t need to be regularly shuffling things kids do outside of class too, IMO.
I am going to use this as a template. It will save me many hours of writing too many details that nobody will ever read!
We are not required to give homework. But this statement rings true for me: “parents in general, whether homework is required or not, view not giving homework as a sign of low quality instruction. ”
My plan is to describe the reading and free write on the syllabus as the best ways to “keep the Spanish flowing” or something like that. I hesitate to make them required given the demographics of this community. It sounds like there is a lot of instability. Principal said by December many of the addresses / contact info for parents/ guardians is no longer relevant. That said, I suppose kids could read their stories to someone else (? like another teacher, advisor, coach???). I don’t want to overcomplicate. My original gut feeling on this was not to require outside work but now I am waffling. Suggestions from those in underserved communities are most welcome.
Ben, is the writing something they do at home or while they are in class?
You mention that they use the posters in the class to help them?
My kiddos also have ipads. I was thinking that they could use them to keep track of their writing progress, similar to when I used to have them keep a small composition notebook. They could take a picture of their free write and create a book creator book entitled “Free Writes” or “My stories” or “My Writing Journal”
…is the writing something they do at home or while they are in class?…
Melissa (and I am talking about first year kids or maybe second here) the instructional minutes in my view are so precious – given what we know about the time involved in mastery of a language – that at those levels I am all about providing almost constant input to my students in the form of listening and reading using all the cool beans strategies we have discussed in such detail here over the years.
That said, it’s nice to give them a break from all that input to create something once in awhile. Speaking is out of the question, like asking a seed to become a flower before it is a twig. So we do in-class free writes for ten minutes once a week or so. Not much, but a start. (The free write rules poster is on the TPRS Resources page of the external part of this website.)
It’s the old output song. Practice in output doesn’t lead to acquisition. It just wastes time. So we can have them write at home like I describe above. Hopefully if we aren’t in their faces too much about it, they actually want to write more at home. It’s possible. Stranger things have happened.
Does that answer your question?
Sorry just need to editorialize on that because it’s been on my mind a lot lately. Really, what are these people doing asking kids to output the language in the first semester of their first year? What is up with that? Do they really think that authentic speech and all the infinitely complex neurology required for that can happen in a few months when they aren’t even speaking the language in the classroom in the first place? Really? It just makes so much sense with these vulnerable and scared children. Give them something they are good at. Speak to them in a way that they can understand and want to understand. Don’t make them do handstands out of the cradle. OK I feel better.
Yes! Thanks!
I have a question about the novels Brandon Brown à la conquête de Québec and Brandon Brown veut un chien (or their equivalents in other languages for those who have taught them. I’m considering using them for my high school level 1 French classes, but worry students will disengage because of the age of Brandon (9 and 12 years old). Any thoughts on this? I have used Pauvre Anne for several years and would like to experiment with other novels because often my students have already taken Spanish 1 and read Pobre Ana in middle school. Thanks!
You may consider telling that it is a novel that is “below” them but you need it as background to set up their reading of Houdini. Then blast through it. Just a thought. Maybe Carol will come in on this.
She is so busy doing workshops, teaching the SF Giants English and also coming up with great new books, but maybe this is a good time for questions on her books here. Then if we get one we can alert her and get her thoughts on those books.
Ben,
I was wondering if you would share how you would change or update your syllabus today. I noticed some of ideas on TPRS etc. have evolved.
I noticed that you have shortened your classroom rules from the The Big CI Book. Since my parents need, as well as, my students a detailed explanation of what each classroom rule “looks like” so I will need to explain/model precisely, how their students need to act for each rule.
Is there anyone out there who has written his/her syllabus for either French 1 or Spanish 1 for the upcoming 2019/20 that you would be willing to share so that I would have a model from which to create mine? It would be very much appreciated.
Merci bien.