The Unit Vocabulary List: Focusing on the Essential

I'm deep into planning the 2017-18 year and sat down to excitedly write a new unit on Global Citizenship for my 8th graders--something I've wanted to do the last couple of years. But, when I looked at the language functions/vocabulary section on the unit plan, I was a little stumped. It looked so sparse.

I went back and looked over all of the authentic resources and language tasks for the unit to again mine them for the essential vocabulary/chunks.  Essential vocabulary/chunks.  Essential.

I  worried that my unit was so light on the student vocabulary list, but again came back to that word: essential.  Really, what the students need for the new unit, and most of the other units I use, are those high frequency words and language of their choosing.  The students know what they need and want to say, and that's not the same for each of them.  And it works. Over the last two years, I've heard students using language in class I know I didn't have on any list, and phrases for which we never had a lesson. It was language they heard in several contexts and was needed and interesting for negotiating meaning.

Even knowing this,  I'm still sometimes filled with doubt when I don't have that long vocabulary and infinitive verb list I was so used to using in the past, and that I received as a student myself. I guess old habits and instincts take time to go away--but here we go. I'm starting the year trusting what works and trusting the students in their own learning.

Update: Global Citizenship...in the TL

Last year, I shared about how we engaged the children in our school--ages 6-14 in Trick or Treat for UNICEF during Spanish classes. One of my goals this year centers around more comprehensible input and deeper cultural connections, and Trick or Treat for UNICEF again presented a great opportunity for both.

While UNICEF does offer some materials in Spanish, they do not offer them for the Trick or Treat campaign, so we made our own and used UNICEF resources from around the world to engage the children with the UN Declarations on the Rights of the Child and fundamental human needs.

Since I'm focusing more on comprehensible input-- old thinking about there being topics that couldn't be broached or explored because they are too complex is being challenged.  I'm more and more reminded of  Helena Curtain's words: complex thought, simple language.   

So, I slowed things down a bit, and gave time to providing lots of comprehensible input--through drawings, photos, acting and videos.  I used movie talk with the Trick or Treat for UNICEF videos, so that we would use TL rather than listen to the English voice over.  By narrating, asking yes/no questions and then either/or questions, the videos were useful for providing both the content and comprehensible input.   I also used this video to help my 4th-8th graders understand the rights of the child, with lots of checking for comprehension, either/or questions:

 As extensions in their homerooms, the children set classroom goals and tracked them as a class.  We were also fortunate because a fellow from UNICEF was able to come and talk during an assembly, which continued to build excitement and interest outside of our Spanish classes.

I've pinned some resources for exploring these themes in Spanish classes here on my Pinterest Board. 

 The children tracked their collections in their homerooms and as a community we celebrated raising $5000! Next year, I look forward to spending more time unpacking the Rights of the Child and defining need/want.

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

Connecting Globally: The Communities Standard in Elementary

"Bring the world to the child." 

 -Maria Montessori

From the World Readiness Standards, 2015: Learners use the language both within and beyond the classroom to interact and collaborate in their community and the globalized world. 

Communities. This is where the rubber really hits the road-interacting with actual humans that speak the language. For teachers in K-8 programs, this standard can present challenges in terms of opportunity and age appropriateness.  I'm fortunate to work in a Montessori environment where independence is fostered and celebrated, so we are able to travel with the middle schoolers(I'll elaborate on traveling with 13 year olds later), but in elementary, making the community connection is still an interesting challenge. This year I'm experimenting with some ways the children can connect and use Spanish outside of the classroom without, well, going outside of the classroom. 

The Peace Corps has a program to connect volunteers with schools, so my third graders are corresponding with a volunteer in Costa Rica. Thanks to technology, our volunteer has been able to email us photos and letters and we can do the same. Fortunately she's a Spanish speaker and it's given my students a chance to use Spanish for introductions and asking questions, and they've learned a thing or two about life in Costa Rica.  

In upper elementary, I'm using E-pals to connect with children my students' age in Spain and Nicaragua. We're using paper letter writing which has been a fun way for the children to exchange tokens such as coins, school photos and friendship bracelets, but are also exchanging sound recordings using Vocaroo/email.   The ripple effects are being felt in our school community and more classroom teachers are asking about how to participate in  project collaboration and pen pal connections in their classrooms, too! 

In what ways are you bringing the world to the children you teach?

Shifting Context

  Averting war is the work of politicians, establishing peace is the work of education.

Maria Montessori

Without context, it's very difficult to learn another language. In order to acquire language, we need to struggle with negotiating meaning...in context.   Thinking about my own language learning, I faintly remember the many textbooks my teachers used that laid out units that jumped from topic to topic-travel, school, clothing, weather, food-all without much cultural context that ever veered off the beaten path of tacos and tapas. 

 In 6th grade Spanish we are wrapping up a unit on food. Well, not on food exactly.  At the beginning of the unit,  students were asked the question, "Qué come el mundo?" What does the world eat?  We starting by considering the book Hungry Planet which documents families from around the world and a week's worth of groceries.  After describing and comparing photos, it became clear that not all families have access to the same quantities or quality of food.  Later in the unit, we considered the work of the Spanish aid organization  Acción contra el hambre which explores some of the reasons for hunger in our world, and solutions to it.  Finally, the children reflected on their work with Common Pantry, and how they can support the hungry in Chicago.  What resulted was using Spanish language to create a campaign to build support for Common Pantry in our community.  Sure, the children learned food words  during the unit, but the enduring understanding is about increasing justice, peace and equality in our community and world.  It's all about shifting the context.