Choice and Independence

Working in a Montessori environment, I'm always asking myself how to build in choice and opportunities for independence for the students.  I notice that a lot world language teachers are  working on this-because, of course the goal is for the students to be able to be independent and use the language with speakers of the language out in the world.  I like the idea of stations, or works, so I've been experimenting with how to use a Montessori like work plan to build in some self direction and independence.

I am not doing this every class, but when asked for feedback, the children really enjoy the format to do occasionally.   What I like about it is that it allows for them to make a choice on what they work, based on what is available at any given time, and I was free to both observe them and connect with children one on one--something that is a challenge in our  tightly packed FLES schedule. During the work periods that I did with 9-12 students (4, 5, 6th gr), I also noticed that the children relied on each other to answer questions(good ol "Three before me."), allowing them to be more independent.

Below are some samples from the 5th grade unit, "What makes a family?"

As the children entered the classroom, I greeted them at the door, as usual, but this time with their plans, and they got to work right away.   Choices included listening to an audiolingua recording and answering interpretive questions in Google Forms, doing a gallery walk of paintings by Carmen Lomas Garza while writing a post-it sized description(with a word list on the board), choosing a partner to talk with at the "chat station" in one of our reading corners*, and reading the poem "Manuela, mi abuela," and answering interpretive questions.   When some children finished sooner than others in the group, we always have free reading and the choice works(aka fast finishers) that are mostly Rockalingua activities laminated with dry erase markers for them to use--plus the Mira tu Mundo magazines from Mundo de Pepita--in sheet protectors, so children can complete the activities and erase when done.

*In my school setting, talking about family is generally a totally cool subject. But I think it's worth mentioning that not all kids feel good talking about their families. I am looking to add to this task: talk with your partner about the family in the picture--using family pictures from the Peter Menzel books and UNICEF children's books, etc....Describe what you see. What questions could you ask the family?

I noticed that this activity may take more than one 30 minute class period, which is fine. When the children came in next time, they picked up where they left off.  I'm also experimenting with using Edpuzzle as input tool, and Flipgrid for documenting their interpersonal work--I'd like to build toward having the children respond to each other's Flipgrid posts--I'll keep you posted. Progress not Perfection.

 

Take a Peek at What Kids are Reading for FVR

What kind of reading material do my students read during FVR?  Check out some of the reading choices available to my upper elementary and middle school students below.  I rotate a large number of books that I check out from the Chicago Public Library based on student interests and requests.  Before we start for the year, I give an explicit lesson on choosing reading material that is a good fit, meaning they can comprehend a large majority of what's being read.  After the children read, we end each FVR session with a brief interpersonal activity in Spanish in which the students:

-Greet each other
-share what they read
-give a brief review/opinion of the material
-Sometimes they share what their favorite book is and why, too

(Our subscription to Mundo de Pepita's magazines!)

(A sample of our class CI novels)

(I Spy activities from I Spy books and Spanish Playground-Thanks Jennifer Brunk!)

("Brain Quest" like game from Spain)

Teach Better/Work Less: Slow Down on Innovation

I continue to be inspired by Elizabeth Dentlinger and her goal of Teach Better/Work Less, which I've adopted as my own.

While I've got lots of moving parts to the Teach Better/Work Less plan, one area I've had to take a close look at is innovation.  Why do I feel like I must have new and better ways every year, all the time?  There's no doubt that our field is full of learning and innovation right now--making the shift from learning to acquisition, from memorization to proficiency, new ACTFL standards, new research, better ways to spend our class time.....There's a lot of great work to be done.  But I don't have to do it All. At. Once.

After writing a couple of new units for upper elementary and middle school and adding FVR, I started talking about creating stations--after the school year had started.  My good friend and colleague, Siobhan, didn't even look up from her work when I laid out my plan. She simply said, "For next year."

She knows. I'm an innovation junkie. In reflecting more about this penchant for change, it became clear, quickly, that my focus on (rapid) innovation was the cause of a lot of stress and additional pressure on my work load--all brought on by me. I'm now asking myself, "Am I really reflecting on each major innovation? How does it work? How do the children respond? Is the innovation responding to their needs?  Is it too fast for them? How does this change focus on the bigger picture and program goals? Given the time limitations, does it make sense?"

So, I'm committed to what I've started and as far as innovation? I started a Pinterest Board with ideas for stations so when I feel the strong urge to start changing things I can pin ideas to the board and then let it go...for now. Same for unit ideas. I'll take some time to sit with the changes already in place, and respond as needed. 

Keeping it in the TL: Elementary Version

 

A couple of years ago, my colleague, Siobhan, and I attended a workshop that emphasized the importance of teaching students transactional phrases and words in the target language to be used during class activities. The presenters stressed that the value of whatever cutting/pasting/coloring project we had going on could be lost because students drop the TL to speak in English, but it's the transactional language that's the real life part. This rang true for both of us and we went back to school, where between us, teach kindergarten through 8th grade, and put some new practices in place to support TL use in our classes.  

As a part of our process, we asked the children what language they needed to get their needs met and express themselves without defaulting to English.  The list of language is ever evolving and is posted on our class white boards, so when a situation arises, we can add it to the list. Now having experience with the kinds of things the children need to say, we can predict some of that language and explicitly teach it and have visual reminders posted in our classrooms.  What we've noticed is that the children, when given these phrases and words, use them. Phrases like ¿Puedo ir al baño? or ¿Me das un lápiz? can be heard from very young children through middle school.  Not only are the children learning necessary transactional language, we're laying the foundation for on-going inquiry and ownership of their language learning. In upper elementary and middle school, rather than dropping to English, students ask "Cómo se dice...?" for something they need to express an opinion or ask a question, and add the language to their personal vocabulary lists for future use.  This stems from their early experiences in lower elementary and being supported in using target language from the start.

FVR: Hallelujah!

After seeing so many inspiring posts from teachers using FVR(free and voluntary reading) in their classrooms, my interest was piqued and I really wanted to give it a try. I mentioned recently that I'm over working when it comes to comprehensible input(CI) and I know that reading is important to language development--both reasons to speed up the FVR project in my class.

One (perceived) roadblock for me was the length of my classes--we're a FLES program with 30 minute class meetings, three times per week. I was thinking that the 30 minute meeting time was too short for FVR, and so I'd put it off. However, during summer set up, I started looking through our collection of books in Spanish--it's pretty substantial with a wide range of levels and genres, so why not use them?

What I did:

I set up this little area in my classroom, putting out books that range from three words on the page to novels like Esperanza Renace and short graphic novels for my heritage speakers. Topics include content they're learning in class--biomes, animals, etc(in #earlylang, animals and their babies are king) to story book biographies and short fiction.

I'm in the process of creating booklets of short news articles from Newsela and elementary appropriate articles from Martina Bex's El mundo en tus manos to add to the shelf, and plan to add a basket to include books on loan from Chicago Public Library, as I get to know the children's interests better.

Part of my teaching better, working less project involved creating class opening routines AND sticking to them. (Monday/Tues: Music, Wed/Thur Writing prompts and Fridays start with FVR. So this Friday, I greeted each group, 4th-6th graders, at the door speaking very quietly,  using postcards a la A.C. Quintero 's suggestion for seat assignments. There was quiet music playing inside the room and the children entered and sat down calmly and peacefully listening to the music(I wanted to set a very chill tone in what is usually a very energetic environment).

After turning off the music, I quietly explained that we would be doing FVR(referencing D.E.A.R.-Drop Everything And Read) with which they're already familiar.  Then, thanks to the suggestion of my colleague Siobhan, gave some guidance on how to approach reading in Spanish, highlighting:

• Choosing material that feels like a right fit and is interesting to them
• seeking cognates to help make meaning
• using pictures and illustrations 
• changing books if it doesn't feel quite right 

Then, children chose their books, I set the timer for five minutes and away we went.

How did it go?

Day one was a huge success.

• It was a solid block of quiet, engaged reading across the board.
• Almost all of the children asked for more time.
• I asked the students to reflect and give me some feedback on FVR--the overall theme was empowerment and BEING ABLE to read in Spanish(they can understand more than I thought).  The children also overwhelmingly enjoyed being able to choose their own reading material. 
• I felt at ease and enjoyed sitting and reading with the children--it was a nice change that allowed me to simply BE with, and observe and learn from them .

Here are some highlights of the feedback:

 Going forward:

• For older students, allow/encourage the children to use their notebooks to add to their personal vocabulary lists(a few made the request).
• Build in some time for the children to share what they were reading with their classmates(maybe this will lead to a commercial for their book, in Spanish)--after observing them in action, I could see there's a strong desire.

In the end, I think this is a high impact, low prep activity that's allowing me to teach better and work less. 

As I began my first week of a regular teaching schedule, I found myself landing in a familiar place-- utter face-plant worthy exhaustion. While yes, I have a full day-beginning with community time for 1-3 graders and teaching 4th through 8th classes, reflecting on the week, I've come to a pretty quick conclusion: I'm over working.

Not over working as in too much paperwork or grading. Overworking in that this week I was doing almost all of the work during class time, with the children along for the ride.  One of my goals last year and this centers on building my comprehensible input(CI) tool box--using as my guide this very helpful poster from Elizabeth Dentlinger. 

After my first few days of classes, which can only be described as performance art all day, Elizabeth sent me some words of support and her personal goal: Teach better, work less.

Teach better, work less.

CI doesn't mean me doing all of the work--talking, acting/gesturing--or always being the source of input. In fact, the students need to hear multiple voices. So, here I go--focusing on teaching better, working less.  Some things I have in mind to use as class opening activities(as students enter and get settled):

• Free and Voluntary Reading
• Listening apps, podcasts and short videos 
• Using children's magazines and age appropriate news sources in the TL(like Newsela)
• Kid friendly info graphics 

I've started using some of these the last two days and am looking to expand the opening activities list.  From there, I'll be using the Comprehensible Input Umbrella to help me form my class lessons.  

I'll be posting progress.  In the mean time, how have you worked toward teaching better and working less?  Words of experience most welcome!

Climbing the Proficiency Ladder Starting in Kindergarten

We don't need to wait for children to reach middle school or high school before we give them real world tasks-it can start right away in kindergarten!  At our school, we're asking 6 year olds to interpret and navigate interpersonal tasks such as greeting friends, asking about their friends' lives(family, pets), and understanding directions from the teacher and some information from context related recordings.  As they progress through 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade,  children navigate age-appropriate real world tasks, such as:

• Play(Very much real-life when you're a kid!)

 

Comecocos or Cootiecatchers are an opportunity to teach about and practice asking questions. After using a pre-printed one, children can make their own using questions they've used during lessons. Ultimately, this supports children in asking questions in the context of future interpersonal interactions.

Guessing games can be played in a way that ask the children to create and describe with language.  Games like guess the animal or bingo can be reworked so that children are describing-above is an animal guessing game in which the 2nd graders have to describe the animal they are assigned and then read their description for the rest of the class to guess.  In the past I would have played this as charades, which only asks for vocabulary recall-a very basic function. In this version, we're asking much more of them- they can and want to do it.  An activity likes this is paving the way for students to be able to narrate and describe, using complete sentences.  The context is a unit on the role animals play in our lives--especially pets--of high interest to young children.

• Navigating daily school routines:

Everyday our elementary classes begin with community meeting ala Responsive Classroom. During this time the children gather in circle to greet each other, review the schedule for the day, hear important announcements and generally come together as a class community.  This has been a rich opportunity for the Spanish program--I circulate among the classes to run at least one community meeting per week in Spanish.  My colleagues are very much on board and have learned how to write their class schedules in Spanish(although very few of them are Spanish speakers).  This has opened an opportunity for the teachers to model life long learning, as the teachers are learning right along with their students, participating in the meetings and greeting their students with their newly acquired language.

During community meeting we start off by singing songs, and then always have some interpersonal time in which the children greet each other, asking questions like How are you today? What did you eat for breakfast? What are you going to do today? What do you like to do?  This time also focuses on what in Montessori we call Grace and Courtesy, or developing good manners--all in Spanish. Practicing interactions that require I'm sorry, Are you ok? Please excuse me? Would you like to work with me? The children are encouraged to use these during their classroom work time.

Our final activity is reading and interpreting the daily schedule.  This includes saying the date, and reading times and class activities. Beyond that, I ask the children to interpret asking some questions in English to see what they understand about the schedule, or what seems different from their normal routine.  This activity has ended the topical units on telling time and school words.  They're doing it, in context and on a real life task.

• Navigating the classroom:

I focus on making transitions and transactions count.  By explicitly teaching phrases that the children will need to participate in class activities, we stay in the TL and reinforce interpersonal interactions. These interactions between the children are the real life part of language class-negotiating and collaborating using TL.

How do children in your programs navigate real life tasks, helping them to start climbing the proficiency ladder?

Focusing on Global Citizenship...Even with the Littles

 

One of the foundational materials of the Montessori elementary curriculum is Fundamental Needs of Humans. I think this can be a gold mine for WL teachers.   This material focuses on the interconnectedness of people and their needs- a great base when broaching global citizenship with elementary aged children. At my school, children participate in Trick or Treat for Unicef,  and I thought this to be an untapped opportunity for Spanish class.  

What did we do?

• I volunteered the Spanish department  (OK, that's me and a part time assistant teacher) to sponsor our school's elementary-middle school Trick or Treat for UNICEF efforts. (Can you say positive PR for WL?) That meant that I was responsible for ordering the trick or treat boxes, distributing them, collecting the funds and sending them in. 

•  We adapted some of the Trick or Treat teaching materials to Spanish and tapped UNICEF España for back up here: Check out their Pinterest Board.   I had to accept that there would be some English use in this-UNICEF has amazing videos, in English, to help explore the challenges children in the world face around water, nutrition, education and health.  However, the majority of the materials are great for adapting to the TL, and UNICEF produces all kinds of child friendly teaching materials, in a variety of languages, including  these video clips and games from the UNICEF-Pocoyo partnership on los derechos del niño.

• Something that really helped was partnering with the homeroom teachers to take care of the business that would have been too advanced for our students in the TL, creating a great tie between Spanish class and the homeroom.  This was a school-wide effort-children from kindergarten through middle school worked on this in Spanish classes. (Below was used with K-6)

UNICEF offers lesson plans on their website-with photos perfect for describing and discussing.  We used many of these photos to create flashcards with needs in Spanish: bomba de agua, vacunas, nutrición, etc.  At the beginning of the unit, we used these to teach new vocab, but in combination with photos of videojuegos, dulces, juguetes, etc, we asked the children to start categorizing and thinking about whether something is a need or a want.  Simple language: ¿Es necesario? o ¿No es necesario?

While considering what's necessary we introduced the question about what children might be lacking in places around the world(geography connection!).  I never want to pose problems to the children in which they feel helpless-this is why I love this program, because the children can develop awareness of needs in the world AND take action in an age appropriate way. 

During Spanish classes, we set goals based on these graphics:

(photo below)This part was done in the homeroom, then the information could be used in Spanish class-talking about how much money was raised and then what material support could be provided: # de vacunas, bombas de agua,  protección contra malaria, etc).

This first go was a lot of work, but in subsequent years, it will get easier and more automated for us, and well worth the preparation.  

In the end, children(in the TL) can:

 1) Identify needs, wants  

 2)  Identify challenges in the world to meeting needs

 3) Identify and suggest solutions to these challenges

 4) Name/find places on a map that are mentioned in lessons

 5) Talk about which materials goods (and how much) they were able to provide