The Story-Telling Roller Coaster

I just posted this on Ben Slavic's blog, in response to his post about Uninterrupted Flow:

I’ve been making a big deal about uninterrupted flow lately. I teach elementary school Spanish, and interruptions are usually the name of the game. But I’ve been talking to my students about momentum and how much more fun it is when we let the story momentum build and carry everyone along with it. This week one student likened it to a roller coaster, and that image has been working great: when we’re just learning the new structures and circling on them until we’ve got ‘em down, it’s kind of like going up that first big vertical climb on the roller coaster. Once we get to the top (having mastered the key structures), it’s “Wheee!” as the story takes off and pulls us along for a riotous joyride. But if we keep stopping for interruptions during the initial uphill portion, the roller coaster slides back down and we have to start again. They seem to get that. It’s helped me gain some allies who now remind their classmates, “Come on, guys! We’ve got to get to the top!”

Story-Based Language Teaching Workshop

The month after I got home from NTPRS in St Louis was swallowed up by planning for a mini-NTPRS on my home campus. The comparison way over-glorifies what I was able to present to the 29 participants who came to Westtown on August 18th for an all-day workshop on Story-Based Language Teaching, but it captures my inspiration and enthusiasm. Here's the report I sent to colleagues and administrators at my school:

Last week's Story-Based Language Teaching Workshop welcomed 29 participants from 15 public, charter, Friends and other independent schools: Agnes Irwin, Delaware Valley Friends, Independence Charter, Japanese Language School of Philadelphia, Friends School Mullica Hill (NJ), Newtown Friends, Plymouth Meeting Friends, Princeton Day School (NJ), Rose Tree Media-Springton Lake MS, Russell Byers Charter, Salem HS (MI), Twin Valley HS/MS, Upattina's, Westtown and Widener University.

The language teachers among us teach ESL (1), French (1), Japanese (4), Mandarin (1), and Spanish (19); plus three interested Westtown colleagues: a 4th grade teacher, a lower school librarian and a school psychologist. We teach at the elementary (8), middle school (9), and high school (16) levels. Some of us had never seen story-based language teaching in action, while others are experienced practitioners and one is even a seasoned presenter on TPR (Total Physical Response language teaching). Some of us are the only language teachers in our schools or in our divisions. All of us came to learn from each other and to forge new connections.

Anny's morning session featured a step-by-step demonstration and discussion of Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling. With comprehensible input at every step, and a high level of learner engagement, the group built a story about a mouse in search of brussels sprouts, which they were able to narrate, act out, and read--entirely in Polish!--by the end of the morning.

In the afternoon session, Kate Hunt, a multi-level story-based HS Spanish teacher from MI, taught an introductory Spanish lesson to a mixed group consisting of sheer beginners all the way to native speakers. Through Kate's skillful differentiating of comprehensible input the whole group was able to narrate and participate in a hilarious scenario which required use of such structurally complex utterances as: "Si me diera la manzana, estaría contenta." (If he gave me the apple, I would be happy.) Two additional participants came just for the afternoon Spanish lesson. We are exploring the possibility of offering a story-based conversational Spanish class for the adult Westtown community.

In order to make the most of any professional development, there must be ongoing exchange and learning. Members of the group will continue to share ideas in an online wiki set up for the workshop. Many of them, as well as others who were unable to attend the workshop, are interested in trying to get together on a regular basis, both to practice and increase story-based teaching skills, and to consider issues of related interest, such as assessment and grading. We hope to plan regular meetings, hosted by language teachers at different schools around the area, and to grow our professional learning network through continued sharing online, in e-mail, and face to face.

Alaskan TPRS Magic - Michele Whaley

I first saw this session listed in the program and thought-- TPRS in Alaska? What can that have to do with me? Then I read further and realized that what Michele would be describing was exactly what I am looking for: how to expose more colleagues to comprehensible input strategies, get them excited about learning and practicing, and thereby create a network of practitioners to work with.

Michele Whaley teaches Russian in Anchorage, AK. She shares her Prezi of the session here.

Michele and a couple of TPRS colleagues recognized that TPRS teachers (perhaps all good teachers...?) need continuous access to observation and coaching in order to learn and grow. Having more TPRS teachers in the district would help make that possible. The Anchorage school district has 8 high schools, 16 middle schools, and 45 elementary schools. Over the course of 3 years, Michele helped 100 Alaskan language teachers gain access to TPRS meetings, classes, webinars and conferences. Starting with a tentative group of 5 teachers, they have grown to a core group of 25 language teachers who meet and contribute regularly to discussions about teaching with TPRS.

Michele shared these very helpful Nuts and Bolts of getting people together to learn:

Set up meetings

Send two notices (to every language teacher you can think of)

Send follow-ups with additional info

Provide food!

Keep getting training

In the Alaskan Miracle, many national experts were willing to Skype into meetings: Corinne Bourne at AFLA, Ben Slavic, Susie Gross, Laurie Clarcq, Scott Benedict webinars, Jamie Kroll from NC, Terry Waltz, Katya Paukova. Participants clustered around computer monitors and cameras and soaked it all in. I think they even had participants Skype in to the Skype sessions, so they were communicating screen to screen.

Katya (a seasoned TPRS presenter and Russian teacher) taught a Russian class to parents, getting them excited about TPRS and seeing how their children could be learning. Susie Gross went with Michele on their annual exchange to Russia. Many Russian (nationality) language teachers are interested in learning TPRS when they see the results.

Michele arranged for teachers to receive university credit for time spent in training and development:

3-credit class: required readings, attendance, etc.; 1/3 credit for evidence of collaboration; increased conference attendance; on-line presence; very visible at AFLA

Three important elements for success:

COACHING

COLLABORATION

OBSERVATION

As many of us have discovered, it's not enough to go to one workshop and come home fired up and ready to roll. You get through one or two lessons and find yourself saying "What now?" You need to be able to brainstorm with another TPRSer, get coaching form a more experienced teacher, and observe and be observed (see Susie Gross's wonderful Observation Checklist).

In order to be able to do these essential collaboration activities, Alaska teachers received a grant to pay for subs so teachers can observe each other.

My biggest take-away from the session was Michele's observation that Outsiders work best as gurus in the beginning. I have discovered first hand that colleagues don't necessarily respond to ideas for change from one of their own. If an outside expert can get the group charged up, then the group can find its own power to move forward.

Hmm... I already have plans underway for a workshop in August to share TCI strategies with colleagues from my (independent PK-12) school and from area schools. If Michele's observation is correct, the workshop will have more of an impact on visiting teachers than on my own school-mates. We'll see...

Writing Novels for Emerging L2 readers - Kristy Placido

So you want to be an author...?

Kristy Placido is the author of several novels and advanced-level curricula for TPRS Publishing, Inc. She teaches HS Spanish in MI. Handout.

Novels are a great vehicle for compelling, comprehensible, cultural input. They are a mainstay of the Blaine Ray curriculum, providing a culminating experience for language students as well as an added source of comprehensible input that can be accessed outside of class time. Novels authored expressly for teaching proficiency through reading and story-telling are a key stepping stone on the way to reading authentic literature in the target language.

How to get started?

Choose a geographic setting: Google a country you're interested in using as the setting. Look at people's travel blogs. Read Lonely Planet.

Find existing stories: Cuentos de la Alhambra--Washington Irving, in public domain, can be reworked.

News stories—Chilean miners, mudslides, soccer, watch Univision, etc. for ideas.

Visit websites for charitable organizations, find stories, descriptions of people, places, activities they help with.

Travel/history/culture books

A writer is currently basing a novel on an adoption story.

If you start with a plot idea, look for an appropriate setting to develop your plotline.

If you start with your characters, develop each character before you write the story, think about actual people you know, get to know your characters deeply.

If your story is setting-driven, think about: culture, history, landscape, places of interest, experiences, parks, palaces, homes.

Google plot development for lots of websites that can provide guidance, such as: http://www.learner.org/interactives/literature/read/plot1.html

Outline the story, then begin developing each chapter. Include descriptions of people and places.

Create level-appropriate reading:

Limit new vocabulary (8-20 new words per chapter; 10-15 chapters)

Use tons of cognates, known vocab, appropriate numbers of repetitions: Rule of thumb: minimum 5-7 reps for each new word introduced, preferably within the same chapter. Otherwise, footnote.

Use dialogue to allow for different verb forms.

Ask students for feedback on drafts of your chapters.

Make sure to keep some conflict or suspense for the end of the book. Think carefully about how you will reveal the details or unfold events.

Don't be afraid to scrap ideas and rewrite.

Talk with people you trust about your ideas. Have a native speaker read for correctness and fluency. (Nelly Hughes, Ohio (mexicana) is interested in helping with culture-based stories.)

Before sharing your work, make sure you copyright it: Copyright (c) 2011 Your Name. All rights reserved.

When you are ready to publish, send manuscript to: TPRSPublishing, BlaineRayTPRS, Contee Seeley Command Performance, Self publish: Lulu, Amazon: CreateSpace, Kindle Direct Publishing, etc.

Write every day. Don't put off writing until you have fully formed ideas. Flesh out ideas even if they don't turn into anything.

El Nuevo Houdini: Two in one—present and past.

To see novels for younger learners, check out Karen Rowan series: Isabela, Congo

Steps for Contrastive Grammar: Susie Gross & Betsy Paskvan

Susie Gross is one of the original adopters of TPRS. Betsy Paskvan teaches Japanese in Anchorage, AK. Susie coined the TPRS catch phrase: "Teach to the eyes!" to remind us that we need to see comprehension in our students' eyes and they need to see caring in ours to create the optimal language learning environment. Handout.

To get language into long term memory it must have meaning and sense.

While TPRS does not overtly teach grammar for grammar's sake, we do draw students' attention to salient grammar points in the course of story-telling or PQA (Personalized Question and Answer). For example, French students already know:

danse = dances

When first using a new grammatical form, write it on the board, using one color for target phrase, another color for translation and a third color for grammar focus (I can't do it in this blog, but there would be a green box around /a/ and the /é/ of dansé and the /ed/ of danced.)

a dansé = danced

So, in the course of story, the teacher says "Fifi danse.", then asks "What does this mean?" The class says "She dances" then the teacher says "Fifi a dansé." and again asks "What does this mean?" If students answer correctly, the teacher asks what part of "Fifi a dansé." signifies the past tense. Then maybe asks: How would I say "Fifi sang"? "Fifi walked"? Then movea on. Comprehension has been established. The grammar point has been noted. Every time you encounter the passé composé from now on out, you can do a quick grammar pop-up and ask "What does that mean?" "What makes it past tense?" and then move on.

Then Betsy did a Japanese lesson. Whew! We really had to stretch our minds here, because there were so many words in the Japanese sentences that didn't seem to correspond to words in English.

Here's what I remember of what I learned:

Harry Potter san wa Hermione san ni kisu o shimasu. = Harry Potter kisses Hermione.

Now, it may be that kisu for "kiss" is not really a word in Japanese, but is being used to make that part of the sentence easy for us English speakers and focus our attention on the real grammatical points du jour. Then, we learned that san is a respect marker, so OK, that's taken care of. We still have a few extra words to figure out: wa, ni, and o shimasu.

Luckily, we have a Harry Potter addict in our midst, who points out that Harry Potter does NOT kiss Hermione, Ron Weasly kisses Hermione. So Betsy is able to focus us on shimasu vs shimasen which turn out to mark affirmative/negative.

Harry Potter san wa Hermione san ni kisu o shimasen. = Harry Potter doesn't kiss Hermione.

Ron Weasly san wa Hermione san ni kisu o shimasu. = Ron Weasly kisses Hermione.

So we're still left wondering about wa and ni. Are they somehow masculine and feminine markers?

When Betsy switches the sentence up to say that Hermione doesn't kiss Harry, we notice that wa and ni markers stay where they were in the first sentence and eventually discover they mark subject and object roles.

Hermione san wa Harry Potter san ni kisu o shimasen. = Hermione doesn't kiss Harry Potter.

Finally we try it with a new verb, kicku, and are able to describe Hermione's reaction:

Hermione san wa Harry Potter san ni kicku o shimasu! = Hermione kicks Harry Potter!

The whole verb portion of the sentence still felt a bit mushy, but in the end it seemed like maybe XXXu o shimasu really means something like "gives a XXX" as in "gives a kiss" or "gives a kick". At least that makes it easier for me to parse.

We had this session on the first day of the conference, so I'm not sure if Susie and Betsy refined it as the week went on. I would have simplified the Japanese lesson so there weren't so many points of perplexity for American learners. Either do just the negation contrast or just the subject/object contrast, but not have both in one sentence. It felt like we were being asked to take too much for granted and that it was hard to hold onto everything. I think I understood it pretty well, however it was way more left-brain thinking than I am used to in a TPRS class.

Comprehension Checks with Leslie Davison & Barb Cartford

Leslie Davison is a K-5 Spanish teacher in a dual immersion school in Colorado. Barb Cartford teaches Spanish and Swedish in Minnesota, and does an amazing Lisbeth Salander impersonation (but that was last year...). Handout.

Leslie spoke about the importance of distinguishing immersion from submersion : we want our students to hear the target language, but we don't want them to drown in it! To make sure they are keeping their heads above water, we need to develop ways to check for comprehension. These may range from quick translation checks: What did I just say?* to a variety of subtler student feedback checks:

One-word quick check: El gato fue al cine--What does "fue" mean?*

Ask students to respond to statements in the TL with "Ahhh!" if they understand or a time-out signal (such as raised hand, T-hands, hand swooping overhead--"That went right by me!"--or fist in palm, e.g.) if they don't. Often it's the abler students who use this strategy most-- they know what they don't know more readily than slower processors. How do we serve the slower processors?

Do a quick poll of students, asking them to close their eyes and raise both hands using 1-10 fingers to show how well they understand. The teacher can see who is feeling less than 8 and focus on raising comprehension for those 'barometer students'. In older classes, students can be polled using their cell phones and texting to the website www.polleverywhere.com.

When reading a text, students can show full comprehension by translating into English, then discussing in the TL.

*Teachers wanting to use as much of the target language as possible teach their students early on how to say and understand comprehension check language such as "What did I just say?" and "Show me with 1-10 figures how much you understand.")

At the end of class, give a quick 5-question, 5-Point quiz.

Yes/no

Name

Place

When

Solution

Practice numbers by asking who got more than 80%; aim for 100%.

Barb Cartford did a fun Swedish lesson, practicing some of the comprehension checks we had heard about. She used the story of the Bilingual Mouse, based on a Cuban folktale in which a mother mouse saves her mouse children from a threatening cat by barking at the cat in Dog language, the lesson being: "It pays to be bilingual."

Vocab needed to tell and understand the story:

yes/no

and/or

there is

comes from

is a cat

not

says

eats cheese

is scared

plays baseball

walks

runs

Later in the conference I talked to a teacher who has students teach their parents this vocabulary as homework during the weeks before Parents' Night, then the teacher tells the Bilingual Mouse story to parents on Parents' Night so they can experience the wonders of TPRS! I may try it this year.

NTPRS 2011 - St Louis

I've been to the National TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) conference for three years now. In the first two years, there were four different types of activities: 1) in the morning, a loose assortment of tracks aimed at beginning, intermediate and advanced TPRSers, as well as a track especially for FLES (foreign language in elementary school) teachers. Just before or just after lunch, a language immersion class (Mandarin, Swedish, German, Japanese, French, Spanish), followed by more topic-specific sessions. Throughout the day, there were rooms set aside for coaching, where anyone could go and practice teaching particular strategies under the guidance of a trained coach. Participants floated among levels and languages according to personal interest, taste, and perceived need for development.

This year, the 11th National TPRS conference underwent a radical and brilliant change in format. Registrants were asked to classify themselves as either experienced or beginners, and were assigned to groups that were tracked accordingly into a series of morning sessions. The 8 experienced groups rotated through 8 skill-oriented morning sessions over four days. We stayed with the same group and, by the end of the week, had all had the same training with 20+ of the best TPRS trainers, coaches and language teachers in the country. Each morning session included presentation of a specific TPRS skill, followed by a language lesson highlighting that skill, then time for each of us to practice and be coached. In the afternoon we could choose among 10 different sessions, ranging from How Alaskan teachers brought TPRS to Anchorage schools, to Revitalizing the Sauk Indian Language, to Power Grading, to Managing the TPRS Classroom, to Writing and publishing your own TPRS novels, to Stephen Krashen speaking on The Politics of Education. And there was always coaching available, with an hour set aside each afternoon when that was the only thing on the schedule.

Though I had initially been skeptical of the change (if it ain't broke, why fix it?), I quickly saw the genius of the new format. It was great to travel with the same group every morning. We got to know each other, knew who to follow to find the next session, and were able to form a new network we can tap into during the school year if we don't have local colleagues we can brainstorm with. The dedicated coaching hour eliminated the need to choose between sessions and practice. The clustering of experienced and newbie groups allowed everyone to move at an appropriate pace on appropriate topics. The focus on skill-building in the morning sessions and broader issues in the afternoon sessions allowed me to feel that I could get what I need from 8:30-12:00, and pick and choose from the 30+ afternoon options, including choosing to skip sessions to share ideas with new colleagues or take a nap.

In continuing imitation of Mme Hayles, the posts that follow will be my session by session notes on my experience at NTPRS 2011.

If Mme Hayles can do it...

I'm inspired by a teacher I met last week at the National TPRS conference in St Louis-- Bess Hayles, who keeps a great blog of her experiences as a TPRS teacher. I've been following her since last year, and her blog inspired me to start mine, though I've been ve-e-e-ry slow to get into the routine of posting. OK, so I haven't really developed any routine of posting. Mme Hayles is now posting a session by session account of her week at NTPRS, so I think I'll do the same here, just to get me back on blogging track. Feel free to compare and contrast.

Sabbatical Phase 1: Eleuthera!

On sabbatical!

First stop: The Island School, Eleuthera, Bahamas. Picture a windswept fishhook-shaped island, 110 miles long and often no more than a mile wide, due east of the Florida Keys; crystal clear waters in unimaginable shades of turquoise; on-site solar and wind power; gardening in raised beds and hanging half pipes in the school Farm with food crops grown all over campus; composting of food scraps, seaweed, yard and animal waste; pigs, goats, ducks, chickens destined for the dining hall; aquaponics and fish farming at the Cape Eleuthera Institute; forty-eight 10th and 11th grade students here for a semester of place-based learning; and about as many faculty, fellows and interns. We arrive during the first week of the new term, when all students take part in a 3-day kayaking orientation and a 3-day SCUBA orientation. Classes begin next week. Every day begins with some form of physical activity, such as swim-run or SCUBA Psychosis, plus campus chores before breakfast.

Staying with our nephew Rob and his fiancée Nadine, both teachers at the school, we enjoy the life of the school all around us, partake in meals with the school community, and explore the surrounding area. Rob gives us an evening walking tour past their boat, the Fisher's Hornpipe, to the marina at the end of the cape. Larry and I sleep on board the FHP in the Triangle Cut next to the school, while Henry enjoys the guest room of Rob and Nadine's bright and airy campus apartment, overlooking the sound. We bike the Eleuthera "Boulevard" Loop with Nadine, learning about the resort and 18-hole golf course that was built there some 35 years ago, and of which little evidence remains. Tuesday afternoon, we snorkel at High Rock with Rob; wander through the school's Farm and Institute learning about local flora and fauna; and watch the neighborhood nurse and bull sharks chow down on scraps tossed into the marina waters by the day's successful fishermen.

Wednesday we rent a car and drive (on the left!) up to Governor's Harbor for lunch and body surfing at the Old Club Med Beach with its amazing pink powder sand. Car rentals here are an informal affair; a word-of-mouth search turns up individuals willing to rent their spare cars to travelers in need of automotion. Ours is a Nissan Presea, rented by Gigi at the Coco Plum restaurant. Her daughter drives down from Rock Sound to pick us up. After a stop at the bank, the car won't start. Gigi's daughter handily pops the hood and gets out with a tire iron to tighten a connection on the battery. Confident in our ability to handle our new ride, we drop her off at the Coco Plum on our way north, cruising the Queen's Highway to Governor's Harbor.

Thursday we do our first two SCUBA open water certification dives; enjoy dinner of conch burgers (each 'burger' pounded for several minutes before being breaded and deep fried) at Sharil's in Deep Creek; and move from the Island School over to the Cape Eleuthera Resort, a 10-minute walk up the road and a major psychological shift from the eco-conscious mindset of the school to the consumer comfort focus of the resort. The two aren't really that far apart-- the school has plumbing, electricity, internet service, comfortably furnished rooms, apartments and common areas, delicious meals, and a warm and wonderful staff-- but we find the availability of unlimited hot and cold water a great luxury after the 1-minute (cold) "Navy showers" and "if it's yellow, let it mellow" advisories on campus.

Today, rain and iffy weather postponed our second session of diving, so we're hanging out in our luxury condo, watching with horror the news coverage of Japan's earthquake and resulting tsunami, and getting ready to go snorkeling at 4th Hole if the weather clears. This afternoon we pick up son Sam at Rock Sound airport and our family vacation begins a new phase.

Stay tuned!

Making plans

I've been granted a 3-month sabbatical by my school to visit TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) practitioners and users of other methodologies which differentiate instruction to better serve all learners; study schools with successfully articulated K-12 language programs; and share ideas with educators thinking about the place of language acquisition in 21st century education.

Three snow days and a long weekend in early February gave me the chance to research my options, talk to teachers and administrators in other schools, and start to plan my itinerary. I have four major trips scheduled so far:

1) In early March: A family vacation to Eleuthera, in the Bahamas, to visit my nephew and his partner who teach at the Island School. While the IS does not offer language instruction, it does offer an exciting place-based curriculum, using island and marine ecology as the basis for study of math, literature, art and science. I'm hoping to get inspiration for my gardening-based Spanish curriculum at Westtown. (As a side benefit, all of my family will complete our open water SCUBA certification!)

2) In late March: a New England road trip to Glastonbury School District in CT, to experience their exemplary K-12 language curriculum which uses a set of cross-disciplinary essential questions to guide instruction at each level; and St Johnsbury Academy in VT, a semi-private high school where the language department has embraced TPRS as a key tool for language instruction.

3) In late April/early May: a western trip to San Francisco, where I'll visit the Tamalpais high schools which use TPRS district-wide; and return via Denver, with 3 days seeing various languages taught at various levels K-12 in the Denver Public Schools, using a variety of TCI (Teaching with Comprehensible Input) methods.

4) In mid-May: a Midwestern road trip to Canton, MI to see a friend who teaches upper level Spanish using TPRS at Salem High School, near Detroit; Cincinnati, OH to visit the K-12 language program at Summit Country Day School, where use of TPRS is just part of a school-wide focus on developing global competence; and Pittsburgh, PA to learn about the K-12 program at Sewickley Academy and see how they have succeeded in integrating a Global Studies program into their K-12 curriculum.

Between long-distance visits, I hope to sit in on classes with colleagues at local schools, work in my garden, and reflect on what I learn through entries in this blog.

Please check in from time to time and feel free to comment, challenge or share.