Each day, in every single one of my classes (even French 1!) I start with the same question: Quoi de neuf? ("What's new?"). It's a simple, but extremely effective way, to get students speaking in the TL in a no-pressure situation. I let them speak about whatever they want, for however long they want, and anyone who wants to talk gets a chance to have the floor - so long as it's in French. I used to do this mostly on Fridays or Mondays, to discuss weekend plans and goings-on, but it has since expanded into everyday use.
I used to - well, who am I kidding, really, I still do - feel the pressure of having to "get to work" and maximize our scant 55 minutes to dig into our current unit topics and spending this kind of time to just talk to one another about whatever was on our minds felt like an enormous waste. But then I thought about it - doesn't language exist for this reason? To have conversations? What use is it to rush into vocabulary and grammar and reading/writing/listening, however authentic and CI-based they may be, if the kids are happy to just use the TL to speak to each other? So now we talk, for however long we'd like; sometimes it's 5 minutes, sometimes it's 25 minutes. The students are happy because they think they "didn't do anything" in French class that day, and I'm happy because we got to practice speaking without me having to actually prep anything special. :)
I've found extraordinary participation during this Quoi de neuf conversation. Even students who wouldn't normally be willing to participate in regular speaking activities or games are willing to raise their hands and tell me what's going on in their lives that day; I have three tests today, or I'm going to dinner with my family, or I have homework in five classes! Sometimes I'm sneaky and get in a little bit of a grammar reminder, like when a student says that she's "going to go to a restaurant this weekend" and it's Monday - I'll say something like, "Going to go this coming weekend?" as if I'm verifying her detail, and typically that will be enough for the student to smile, re-assess, and tell me, "No, I went!"
My students regularly tell me that this conversation time is their favorite thing about class, and I often get comments such as, "You're the only teacher that actually wants to know about our lives." I feel fortunate that, as the only French teacher in my building, I get to know these students so well and can share these moments with them.
So, go ahead...quoi de neuf?
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Monday, November 24, 2014
J'ai entendu dire que...
We just wrapped our unit on Amour et Amitié (Love & Friendship) in my split French 3/4, and I have to say, I am so far thrilled with the results. I administered an IPA for this unit, as opposed to a traditional test, and I have been very pleased with my students' performances. I combined Storytelling with the inclusion of more authentic resources and lots of in-class discussion. For more structured interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational activities, I used an IPA-style approach to prepare them for what to expect on the summative assessment.
One particular part of the unit that we had a lot of fun with was the gossip/rumor-telling portion. During that time, our targeted structure was J'ai entendu dire que... (I heard that...) as well as refining our use of indirect discourse. I started off using Martina Bex's idea for teaching the structure "Dijo" but instead of focusing on the structure "said" (which my students already know pretty well), I focused on starting off each rumor with "J'ai entendu dire que." The kids LOVED this activity and we kept it going for nearly the whole hour! Like Martina, I had a lot of "Person A likes Person B" but plenty of other very creative rumors, too - I think my favorite was "Mademoiselle actually prefers to speak Spanish." In any case, it was a great way to provide lots of Comprehensible Input for students, and have fun, too. I always love to hear kids say, "We didn't do anything in French class today." They have no idea what they've accomplished!
We also took this time to review how to officially "do" indirect discourse - they already knew, but as I have particular grammar points I am required to hit throughout the course of the year, I took this time to do some more explicit grammar instruction (very limited, however).
After that, I had prepared some questions for discussion, which the students prepared first in partners, and then shared with the whole group:
1. Have you ever told a rumor about a friend?
2. Has a friend ever told a rumor about you? How did you feel when you found out?
3. What kind of problems can rumors cause?
4. Are rumors a big part of our culture? How do you know?
I was fishing for a particular answer for number four, which the kids provided readily when they talked about America's obsession with celebrities, hollywood, tabloid magazines, etc. I used that as a jumping-off point for analyzing an article from the French version of Marie Claire, who had done a write-up on an interview that Carla Bruni had given, discussing her marriage to Nicolas Sarkozy and whether or not she believed he had ever been unfaithful to her, in response to the endless rumors about the two of them. The kids read the article in partners and did the IPA-style activities; this particular article was chock-full of our unit vocabulary, so they actually found it quite easy to read!
After they read, they completed the interpersonal portion of the activity, in which they discussed with a partner the various contexts in which they themselves have been part of the rumor mill, and whether or not there was any truth to things they had said or heard. They were also provided with a series of scenarios that they had to rank using adjectives like "scandalous" or "revolting" and be prepared to orally defend why they felt the way they did. It was interesting to hear their perspectives on what would be the most shocking to them - many reported that the president having an affair would not rock their world, but their favorite athlete taking drugs would be an enormous scandal/shock. Interesting!
Ultimately, this whole thing acted as a lead-in to our discussion of François Hollande and his big cheating scandal, as well as marriage and relationship conventions in France.
In any case, I am providing the link to the work I developed. I departed a little bit from the traditional IPA format and CI conventions by including a very brief grammar section to review the construction of indirect discourse - this can be easily omitted if that is your personal preference! I also do not have a presentational part included for this particular assignment - the students in my classes had to write a blog entry on the theme of rumors and their impact on others, but you could add something in of your own choosing.
Carla Bruni et les rumeurs
One particular part of the unit that we had a lot of fun with was the gossip/rumor-telling portion. During that time, our targeted structure was J'ai entendu dire que... (I heard that...) as well as refining our use of indirect discourse. I started off using Martina Bex's idea for teaching the structure "Dijo" but instead of focusing on the structure "said" (which my students already know pretty well), I focused on starting off each rumor with "J'ai entendu dire que." The kids LOVED this activity and we kept it going for nearly the whole hour! Like Martina, I had a lot of "Person A likes Person B" but plenty of other very creative rumors, too - I think my favorite was "Mademoiselle actually prefers to speak Spanish." In any case, it was a great way to provide lots of Comprehensible Input for students, and have fun, too. I always love to hear kids say, "We didn't do anything in French class today." They have no idea what they've accomplished!
We also took this time to review how to officially "do" indirect discourse - they already knew, but as I have particular grammar points I am required to hit throughout the course of the year, I took this time to do some more explicit grammar instruction (very limited, however).
After that, I had prepared some questions for discussion, which the students prepared first in partners, and then shared with the whole group:
1. Have you ever told a rumor about a friend?
2. Has a friend ever told a rumor about you? How did you feel when you found out?
3. What kind of problems can rumors cause?
4. Are rumors a big part of our culture? How do you know?
I was fishing for a particular answer for number four, which the kids provided readily when they talked about America's obsession with celebrities, hollywood, tabloid magazines, etc. I used that as a jumping-off point for analyzing an article from the French version of Marie Claire, who had done a write-up on an interview that Carla Bruni had given, discussing her marriage to Nicolas Sarkozy and whether or not she believed he had ever been unfaithful to her, in response to the endless rumors about the two of them. The kids read the article in partners and did the IPA-style activities; this particular article was chock-full of our unit vocabulary, so they actually found it quite easy to read!
After they read, they completed the interpersonal portion of the activity, in which they discussed with a partner the various contexts in which they themselves have been part of the rumor mill, and whether or not there was any truth to things they had said or heard. They were also provided with a series of scenarios that they had to rank using adjectives like "scandalous" or "revolting" and be prepared to orally defend why they felt the way they did. It was interesting to hear their perspectives on what would be the most shocking to them - many reported that the president having an affair would not rock their world, but their favorite athlete taking drugs would be an enormous scandal/shock. Interesting!
Ultimately, this whole thing acted as a lead-in to our discussion of François Hollande and his big cheating scandal, as well as marriage and relationship conventions in France.
In any case, I am providing the link to the work I developed. I departed a little bit from the traditional IPA format and CI conventions by including a very brief grammar section to review the construction of indirect discourse - this can be easily omitted if that is your personal preference! I also do not have a presentational part included for this particular assignment - the students in my classes had to write a blog entry on the theme of rumors and their impact on others, but you could add something in of your own choosing.
Carla Bruni et les rumeurs
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Whole-Group Listening Game: Combien de gens comprennent...?
I'm posting today a kinesthetic listening game that can also function well as a formative assessment or review for just about any classroom topic. The idea came from some of the English teachers at my school, who use this activity as a way to practice vocabulary definitions, but it can be easily adapted for use in the World Language classroom, as either a way to review singular vocabulary words, or target phrases/ideas from a story! It is also a good way to provide students with a lot of repetitions of structures, but keep them engaged at the same time.
How to play:
1. Divide the class into two big teams (or three, if you have really large classes. My max is 25.).
2. Provide the students on one of the team's with a word or a phrase in the Target Language. Say it loud enough so that the whole class can hear, but only one team gets to guess first. This can be done with singular vocabulary (Que veut dire, "il y avait" en anglais?) or with details from a story that have already been established. For example, in French 3 we have been practicing the subjunctive with Bryce Hedstrom's Introducing the subjunctive with a story script, so I might ask the students, "Où est-ce que Haley veut que Marcus aille?" knowing that the detail has already been established in class.
3. The students on the team who believe they can confidently answer the question stand up and the teacher randomly calls on one standing student for an answer. I have a set of index cards for each class that have every student's name on one card, so it really is a random "cold-call," if you will.
4. The student gives the answer in English, if doing a vocabulary check, or in the TL if providing a detail from the story. If he or she is correct, his or her team gets as many points as they had people standing up, claiming to know the correct answer. If the answer is incorrect, the OTHER team has the opportunity to steal and get as many points as they have people standing up, PLUS the number of people from the other team who had originally stood up.
This game has been a big hit in all of my classes so far. Sometimes, in the spirit of competition, kids will encourage their teammates to stand up even if they don't know the correct answer, but the fact that by standing up each person makes him or herself eligible to be called on for the answer has tended to keep them pretty accountable and honest.
I have had a few "social loafers" during this activity - you know, the kids who use the idea of a whole group activity to just sit there and do nothing/tune out - but a quick comprehension quiz at the end of the game put an end to that behavior fairly quickly when they did poorly on a "quiz" that I had already given them the answers to and would have been an easy A, had they just paid attention and participated.
Happy teaching - and have fun to all of you attending #ACTFL14! I am beyond jealous - I hope to join you all someday!
How to play:
1. Divide the class into two big teams (or three, if you have really large classes. My max is 25.).
2. Provide the students on one of the team's with a word or a phrase in the Target Language. Say it loud enough so that the whole class can hear, but only one team gets to guess first. This can be done with singular vocabulary (Que veut dire, "il y avait" en anglais?) or with details from a story that have already been established. For example, in French 3 we have been practicing the subjunctive with Bryce Hedstrom's Introducing the subjunctive with a story script, so I might ask the students, "Où est-ce que Haley veut que Marcus aille?" knowing that the detail has already been established in class.
3. The students on the team who believe they can confidently answer the question stand up and the teacher randomly calls on one standing student for an answer. I have a set of index cards for each class that have every student's name on one card, so it really is a random "cold-call," if you will.
4. The student gives the answer in English, if doing a vocabulary check, or in the TL if providing a detail from the story. If he or she is correct, his or her team gets as many points as they had people standing up, claiming to know the correct answer. If the answer is incorrect, the OTHER team has the opportunity to steal and get as many points as they have people standing up, PLUS the number of people from the other team who had originally stood up.
This game has been a big hit in all of my classes so far. Sometimes, in the spirit of competition, kids will encourage their teammates to stand up even if they don't know the correct answer, but the fact that by standing up each person makes him or herself eligible to be called on for the answer has tended to keep them pretty accountable and honest.
I have had a few "social loafers" during this activity - you know, the kids who use the idea of a whole group activity to just sit there and do nothing/tune out - but a quick comprehension quiz at the end of the game put an end to that behavior fairly quickly when they did poorly on a "quiz" that I had already given them the answers to and would have been an easy A, had they just paid attention and participated.
Happy teaching - and have fun to all of you attending #ACTFL14! I am beyond jealous - I hope to join you all someday!
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
First Marking Period Favorites
Bonjour à tous!
Again with the blogging. I know, I know. This is a big year for me, however, as I am teaching a completely full class load of French 1-4, with no prep hour and a personal goal to stay true to proficiency-based/TCI methods in every class. It has certainly not been easy so far but I am already seeing wonderful growth in my students and am excited to see what this year holds.
As I continue to develop my own proficiency in teaching French, I hope this blog can serve as a place to collaborate with other educators and collect resources to better my instruction.
And as our first marking period winds to an end (seriously? Where did it go?), I thought I'd share a few of the resources that have been helpful to me so far this year.
First Marking Period Favorites
The Creative Language Class: Though most of the instructional resources are in Spanish, the ladies at Creative Language Class have created an incredible collection of tools for any language educator. The proficiency-based rubrics have been especially helpful so far this year, and I've been able to easily adapt them to my many levels of French. They provide students with a clear picture of where their proficiency currently stands and where they're headed as this year progresses.
Madame's Musings: A French-teacher resource blog! Be still, mon coeur. The IPA lesson "packages" that Madame Shepard has made available on her blog have completely changed my French III/IV split and have inspired me to incorporate many more IPA-style practices in my class to prepare them for the actual assessment. All of my reading and listening practices so far have been modeled after what Madame Shepard has done with hers, which are based on ACTFLs recommendations for the interpretive part of the Integrated Performance Assessments. Once we get to our first "big" assessment in November, I think my students are going to do very well.
Français Interactif: Long a favorite resource for French grammar practice, I never realized until just recently that the University of Texas-Austin's Français Interactif offers MUCH more than just grammar exercises. They have vocabulary lists, grammar review & practice, an authentic song for each unit with accompanying listening exercises, a cultural component for each unit, videos and audio samples of authentic French speakers and an "activité internet" that students can easily complete in-class or at home. Formidable!
EduBlogs: This year, my French III/IV students are blogging as way to improve their writing proficiency, in both the presentational and interpersonal modes! EduBlogs allows a teacher to create a class that students can then "join" - which gives the teacher complete access to EVERY student's blog. I can also customize the security settings so that I can moderate each post and comment before they go "live" and so that only members of our class can view the student blogs, making internet safety the least of my concerns with this assignment. It does cost, but it is nothing astronomical and I think the price is worth it for that peace of mind.
E-Pals.com: My French II students this year have the great fortune of having French pen-pals to correspond with! E-pals has been awesome so far; like EduBlogs, I can assign each student a unique and secure e-mail address to use for sending and receiving e-mails to their pen-pals. Can I just say that my students were absolutely OVER THE MOON the day they received their first letters? Also like EduBlogs, I have access to each student's mailbox and can monitor their outgoing and incoming e-mails, making security a virtual non-issue.
So that's a wrap on my first marking period favorites - if you have anything else to add that's been invaluable to you and your students so far, please feel free to share below!
Again with the blogging. I know, I know. This is a big year for me, however, as I am teaching a completely full class load of French 1-4, with no prep hour and a personal goal to stay true to proficiency-based/TCI methods in every class. It has certainly not been easy so far but I am already seeing wonderful growth in my students and am excited to see what this year holds.
As I continue to develop my own proficiency in teaching French, I hope this blog can serve as a place to collaborate with other educators and collect resources to better my instruction.
And as our first marking period winds to an end (seriously? Where did it go?), I thought I'd share a few of the resources that have been helpful to me so far this year.
First Marking Period Favorites
The Creative Language Class: Though most of the instructional resources are in Spanish, the ladies at Creative Language Class have created an incredible collection of tools for any language educator. The proficiency-based rubrics have been especially helpful so far this year, and I've been able to easily adapt them to my many levels of French. They provide students with a clear picture of where their proficiency currently stands and where they're headed as this year progresses.
Madame's Musings: A French-teacher resource blog! Be still, mon coeur. The IPA lesson "packages" that Madame Shepard has made available on her blog have completely changed my French III/IV split and have inspired me to incorporate many more IPA-style practices in my class to prepare them for the actual assessment. All of my reading and listening practices so far have been modeled after what Madame Shepard has done with hers, which are based on ACTFLs recommendations for the interpretive part of the Integrated Performance Assessments. Once we get to our first "big" assessment in November, I think my students are going to do very well.
Français Interactif: Long a favorite resource for French grammar practice, I never realized until just recently that the University of Texas-Austin's Français Interactif offers MUCH more than just grammar exercises. They have vocabulary lists, grammar review & practice, an authentic song for each unit with accompanying listening exercises, a cultural component for each unit, videos and audio samples of authentic French speakers and an "activité internet" that students can easily complete in-class or at home. Formidable!
EduBlogs: This year, my French III/IV students are blogging as way to improve their writing proficiency, in both the presentational and interpersonal modes! EduBlogs allows a teacher to create a class that students can then "join" - which gives the teacher complete access to EVERY student's blog. I can also customize the security settings so that I can moderate each post and comment before they go "live" and so that only members of our class can view the student blogs, making internet safety the least of my concerns with this assignment. It does cost, but it is nothing astronomical and I think the price is worth it for that peace of mind.
E-Pals.com: My French II students this year have the great fortune of having French pen-pals to correspond with! E-pals has been awesome so far; like EduBlogs, I can assign each student a unique and secure e-mail address to use for sending and receiving e-mails to their pen-pals. Can I just say that my students were absolutely OVER THE MOON the day they received their first letters? Also like EduBlogs, I have access to each student's mailbox and can monitor their outgoing and incoming e-mails, making security a virtual non-issue.
So that's a wrap on my first marking period favorites - if you have anything else to add that's been invaluable to you and your students so far, please feel free to share below!
Monday, December 9, 2013
The Choice Board
I know I have been nowhere near as diligent about blogging as I had hoped - busy semester!! - but I recently attended a meeting of my county's World Language Advisory Council and came away with a fabulous idea that I want to implement in my classroom as soon as possible. In the spirit of giving, I would like to share it all with you!
Assigning meaningful homework that is conducive to learning a foreign language has been the Achilles heel of many a World Language teacher - including us new teachers! We're relatively limited to workbook exercises and/or worksheets and maybe the occasional presentation or project. Unfortunately, the vast majority of my high school students pursue one of the following options:
1. Google Translate
2. Copying another student's homework in the hallway before class, during lunch, etc.
3. Filling in some completely rubbish answer that demonstrates no knowledge or skill whatsoever because they know I grade based on completion.
Woe.
And this, my friends, is where The Choice Board comes into play. The credit for this concept goes to one of my colleagues in the Rochester School District, though she says she got the idea from someone else at a conference or professional development session.
Click here to view a sample of a French 1 Choice Board
Here is how it works: I divide up the assignments into three categories - vocabulary, grammar, and culture. The students can pick whatever assignments they would like to do, so long as they create a "tic, tac, toe" formation on their board - which means they do one assignment from each category. When they finish the assignment and show it to me, I stamp the box - but only if it is completed satisfactorily.
Below the choice board, I have a list of "can-do" statements that mirror the new Can-Do statements put forward by ACTFL, as a means to clearly identify a student's level of proficiency in any of the categories (presentational, interpersonal, interpretive). The students, whenever they feel they are ready, must come to me to demonstrate that they are able to do the given task - there are four tasks for vocabulary, four tasks for grammar, two for culture and two tasks that are review from previous units. Again, when they demonstrate the task, I stamp the box. At the end of the unit, they turn in their choice boards to me and I assign the points based on how many items they have completed. You can determine whatever sort of grading system works best for you.
Since the due date isn't until the very end of the unit, some teachers brought up the concern that students would procrastinate and then wind up swamped with French or Spanish class homework, to which my response was, well - too bad. Effective time management is a skill that students absolutely need to learn - usually all it takes is one bad experience, and the student won't make that procrastination mistake again (we hope). Likewise, my colleague mentioned that if a student loses his or her choice board, he or she must re-do the activities, even if they had previously gotten them stamped for completion.
Creating the choice board itself was much less time consuming than I had initially thought it would be. Ideally, assessing student work via this method would take just as much time as checking in a worksheet and going over the answers in class, so no time is lost there. In fact, there may be time gained, as not all students will turn in their assignments on the same day - which means I can put more time towards in-class practice and providing my kids with the repetitions and comprehensible input they need to acquire the language!
If you have any questions or comments about what homework strategies work best in your classroom, leave a comment below!
Assigning meaningful homework that is conducive to learning a foreign language has been the Achilles heel of many a World Language teacher - including us new teachers! We're relatively limited to workbook exercises and/or worksheets and maybe the occasional presentation or project. Unfortunately, the vast majority of my high school students pursue one of the following options:
1. Google Translate
2. Copying another student's homework in the hallway before class, during lunch, etc.
3. Filling in some completely rubbish answer that demonstrates no knowledge or skill whatsoever because they know I grade based on completion.
Woe.
And this, my friends, is where The Choice Board comes into play. The credit for this concept goes to one of my colleagues in the Rochester School District, though she says she got the idea from someone else at a conference or professional development session.
Click here to view a sample of a French 1 Choice Board
Here is how it works: I divide up the assignments into three categories - vocabulary, grammar, and culture. The students can pick whatever assignments they would like to do, so long as they create a "tic, tac, toe" formation on their board - which means they do one assignment from each category. When they finish the assignment and show it to me, I stamp the box - but only if it is completed satisfactorily.
Below the choice board, I have a list of "can-do" statements that mirror the new Can-Do statements put forward by ACTFL, as a means to clearly identify a student's level of proficiency in any of the categories (presentational, interpersonal, interpretive). The students, whenever they feel they are ready, must come to me to demonstrate that they are able to do the given task - there are four tasks for vocabulary, four tasks for grammar, two for culture and two tasks that are review from previous units. Again, when they demonstrate the task, I stamp the box. At the end of the unit, they turn in their choice boards to me and I assign the points based on how many items they have completed. You can determine whatever sort of grading system works best for you.
Since the due date isn't until the very end of the unit, some teachers brought up the concern that students would procrastinate and then wind up swamped with French or Spanish class homework, to which my response was, well - too bad. Effective time management is a skill that students absolutely need to learn - usually all it takes is one bad experience, and the student won't make that procrastination mistake again (we hope). Likewise, my colleague mentioned that if a student loses his or her choice board, he or she must re-do the activities, even if they had previously gotten them stamped for completion.
Creating the choice board itself was much less time consuming than I had initially thought it would be. Ideally, assessing student work via this method would take just as much time as checking in a worksheet and going over the answers in class, so no time is lost there. In fact, there may be time gained, as not all students will turn in their assignments on the same day - which means I can put more time towards in-class practice and providing my kids with the repetitions and comprehensible input they need to acquire the language!
If you have any questions or comments about what homework strategies work best in your classroom, leave a comment below!
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Month One
We're in the fourth week of school now; nearly a month done and things are going extremely well. I cannot even begin to explain how much easier it is to start the school year in September than it is to try and come into the classroom in February after four teachers and many months of discord. Cue a giant sigh of relief.
On the TPRS/CI front, things are progressing nicely. I'm still so new at these techniques and have so much to learn, but as they say - even a bad day of TPRS is better than a good day of teaching grammar style. It is so true.
My French 2s are the primary recipients of my TPRS techniques, but French 3 is progressing more and more into it this week and French 1 will get there in short order. I have three sections of French 2, and only one each of 1 and 3, and right now I can say confidently that my French 2s can already outproduce my 3s. It's really amazing - for the past week we've been working on a story that I adapted and translated from Martina Bex's website, called Les filles ne jouent pas au football américain. It highlights the structures jouer à, avoir envie de and the verb + infinitive construction. Their level of comprehension is just incredible - we're still working on refining output (writing and speaking) but it's only week 4 an I am excited to see how they progress throughout the semester and the year.
In French 2 today, we did a Horizontal Conjugation based on a reading that we completed in class yesterday. One student in particular, who has had a lot of difficulty with French in the past, was struggling to conjugate être (to be) with je (I) to say "I am." I pointed out the error to him as I monitored, and asked him what the correct version would be, and he could not tell me. Then I went to back to our stories and rephrased the question, asking instead, "What would you say if I asked you, [Are you sad]?" He was immediately able to answer "I am..." in French, without even thinking about it. Wow! Even he was amazed.
All in all, though there have been a few hiccups and I'm trying to adjust to the learning curve that comes with a new method of teaching, things have been going smashingly well in the first month of school. Let's hope the progress can continue upward!
On the TPRS/CI front, things are progressing nicely. I'm still so new at these techniques and have so much to learn, but as they say - even a bad day of TPRS is better than a good day of teaching grammar style. It is so true.
My French 2s are the primary recipients of my TPRS techniques, but French 3 is progressing more and more into it this week and French 1 will get there in short order. I have three sections of French 2, and only one each of 1 and 3, and right now I can say confidently that my French 2s can already outproduce my 3s. It's really amazing - for the past week we've been working on a story that I adapted and translated from Martina Bex's website, called Les filles ne jouent pas au football américain. It highlights the structures jouer à, avoir envie de and the verb + infinitive construction. Their level of comprehension is just incredible - we're still working on refining output (writing and speaking) but it's only week 4 an I am excited to see how they progress throughout the semester and the year.
In French 2 today, we did a Horizontal Conjugation based on a reading that we completed in class yesterday. One student in particular, who has had a lot of difficulty with French in the past, was struggling to conjugate être (to be) with je (I) to say "I am." I pointed out the error to him as I monitored, and asked him what the correct version would be, and he could not tell me. Then I went to back to our stories and rephrased the question, asking instead, "What would you say if I asked you, [Are you sad]?" He was immediately able to answer "I am..." in French, without even thinking about it. Wow! Even he was amazed.
All in all, though there have been a few hiccups and I'm trying to adjust to the learning curve that comes with a new method of teaching, things have been going smashingly well in the first month of school. Let's hope the progress can continue upward!
Monday, August 19, 2013
new year, new methods
At the time of my last post, I was halfway through my student teaching experience, which transformed into a long-term substitute teaching experience, and I was also being headhunted by another school district in desperate need of a permanent French teacher. Happily, I was offered the job and began teaching there at the end of January and the craziness of the ensuing semester left little time for anything else but planning, planning, planning.
I would like to say that the semester was a smashing success, that the kids were enthusiastic and willing to participate, that they produced comprehensible output, that I stayed in the target language 90% of the time and that my activities were authentic, contextualized, and well-received by an enthusiastic mass of students just waiting to speak French!
Unfortunately, none of that would be true.
While I had great students, I was not the best teacher I could be. I could chalk this up to a variety of factors - the crappy start to the year the kids had (I was the 3rd teacher of that year); the culture established by my predecessors; the lack of time I had to assess the students' ability and prepare accordingly - and they would all be true. But ultimately, the real problem came down to the way I was teaching - it wasn't working.
I left college with a wealth of knowledge about "best practice" and a binder full of resources and what I encountered in the classroom was students who were not motivated, unable to produce and unwilling to participate, and who couldn't retain information from one chapter to the next. They flipped out anytime I spoke French and I couldn't understand it - I was providing input + 1! I was giving them time to "practice" the grammar point I just explained in English! We analyzed, compared and contrasted, made graphic organizers, listened to music - you name it, I tried it, and none of it lasted.
Why? Because "teaching" grammar, analyzing vocabulary and sentence structure, comparing and contrasting, and making graphic organizers - that is not how we acquire language.
Our mothers don't speak to us for the first year of life in exclusively the present tense; she doesn't present us with a list of 30 new vocabulary words, say them once or twice, and expect that to stick. Mom doesn't sit down for a daily grammar lesson and explain the difference between the past tense and the imperfect; future and the conditional, hand us a worksheet and say, "go for it!" No! What do our parents do? They talk to us.
A mother shows a baby a ball, and it goes something like this: "Can you say ball? Ball? Do you see the ball? Do you want the ball? Can you say ball? Look at the ball! Ball! Say 'ball', sweetie! Ball! Give Mommy the ball! Oh, did you give Daddy the ball instead?" And then something miraculous happens: the baby says ball.
Duh, Mademoiselle. In my brain, I knew all of that to be true but making that concept jive with the methods I learned in college seemed impossible. Impossible, that is, until I attended a TPRS workshop in July. 'TPRS' stands for Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling and it's a method of teaching that most closely mimics the way human beings naturally acquire language. You provide students with input that is comprehensible, clear, repetitive, and you don't force them to speak until they're ready to produce. You make it personal and, therefore, interesting. You don't shelter them from grammar - this means using past tense and present tense concurrently - and any explanations of grammar remain short and tell students only what they need to know for clarity.
It's hard to explain all the ins and outs of this method in a single paragraph, but my experience at the workshop was transformative. I spoke full sentences in Chinese, in German, in Spanish - after just a mere hour or two of instruction in each of those languages. After those three days, I can't imagine going back to how I had been teaching, and I'm thankful that I discovered this method now, and not after 15 or 20 years.
It's new. It's scary. It'll take time and practice to get used to, but I think it will be so worth it if I can just stick to my guns. I'll be chronicling the ups and downs of my forays into this new method here on this blog - stay tuned!
I would like to say that the semester was a smashing success, that the kids were enthusiastic and willing to participate, that they produced comprehensible output, that I stayed in the target language 90% of the time and that my activities were authentic, contextualized, and well-received by an enthusiastic mass of students just waiting to speak French!
Unfortunately, none of that would be true.
While I had great students, I was not the best teacher I could be. I could chalk this up to a variety of factors - the crappy start to the year the kids had (I was the 3rd teacher of that year); the culture established by my predecessors; the lack of time I had to assess the students' ability and prepare accordingly - and they would all be true. But ultimately, the real problem came down to the way I was teaching - it wasn't working.
I left college with a wealth of knowledge about "best practice" and a binder full of resources and what I encountered in the classroom was students who were not motivated, unable to produce and unwilling to participate, and who couldn't retain information from one chapter to the next. They flipped out anytime I spoke French and I couldn't understand it - I was providing input + 1! I was giving them time to "practice" the grammar point I just explained in English! We analyzed, compared and contrasted, made graphic organizers, listened to music - you name it, I tried it, and none of it lasted.
Why? Because "teaching" grammar, analyzing vocabulary and sentence structure, comparing and contrasting, and making graphic organizers - that is not how we acquire language.
Our mothers don't speak to us for the first year of life in exclusively the present tense; she doesn't present us with a list of 30 new vocabulary words, say them once or twice, and expect that to stick. Mom doesn't sit down for a daily grammar lesson and explain the difference between the past tense and the imperfect; future and the conditional, hand us a worksheet and say, "go for it!" No! What do our parents do? They talk to us.
A mother shows a baby a ball, and it goes something like this: "Can you say ball? Ball? Do you see the ball? Do you want the ball? Can you say ball? Look at the ball! Ball! Say 'ball', sweetie! Ball! Give Mommy the ball! Oh, did you give Daddy the ball instead?" And then something miraculous happens: the baby says ball.
Duh, Mademoiselle. In my brain, I knew all of that to be true but making that concept jive with the methods I learned in college seemed impossible. Impossible, that is, until I attended a TPRS workshop in July. 'TPRS' stands for Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling and it's a method of teaching that most closely mimics the way human beings naturally acquire language. You provide students with input that is comprehensible, clear, repetitive, and you don't force them to speak until they're ready to produce. You make it personal and, therefore, interesting. You don't shelter them from grammar - this means using past tense and present tense concurrently - and any explanations of grammar remain short and tell students only what they need to know for clarity.
It's hard to explain all the ins and outs of this method in a single paragraph, but my experience at the workshop was transformative. I spoke full sentences in Chinese, in German, in Spanish - after just a mere hour or two of instruction in each of those languages. After those three days, I can't imagine going back to how I had been teaching, and I'm thankful that I discovered this method now, and not after 15 or 20 years.
It's new. It's scary. It'll take time and practice to get used to, but I think it will be so worth it if I can just stick to my guns. I'll be chronicling the ups and downs of my forays into this new method here on this blog - stay tuned!
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