Making it to the finish line

I attended a TPRS workshop presented by Laurie Clarcq in DC on Thursday (thank you Lea & Sidwell Friends!) and came away with a lot of ideas on how to make it through these last 4 weeks without giving up on CI. Here are a few:

1) Word of the day: assign one student to say a specific new expression every time you point to him/her (I've just been doing the usual “p-e-e-ero” or “Quién means who”). I have a couple of 2nd grade boys who can’t seem to stay focused and this is just the ticket for bringing them back to attention.

2) Quick acting gigs: Have two kids pop up just to act out one sentence, such as “Juan gives the milk to Mamá.” My classes love to act, and I always get bogged down in major productions, rather than these delightful little pop-up acting opportunities. Plenty for everybody to do, and easier for me to keep track of who’s had a turn.

3) Making students complicit in restoring order: as you are waiting for silence, look around the room, make eye contact with every student.

4) We need to communicate to the students that *they* are the most important thing, not the language.

5) Provide short opportunities for output with well-practiced language: Turn to your neighbor and tell her that Juan and Mamá live in a purple house. Now answer back that the cow lives in the purple house too.

6) Don’t forget to give students credit for *recognizing* language, even if they don’t remember what it means.

7) Write several expressions on the board and don’t talk about all of them, but see if any students figure out the unmentioned ones and use them, then praise them for being so smart, thereby motivating others to notice what’s on the board.

And now I just read Ben Slavic’s blog with his reminder to BE CHEERFUL. It sounds so easy and I know it works every time, but I just keep forgetting and letting the kids get under my skin. I have 17 more days of teaching this year. I will go slower, be cheerier, engage my students more consistently, and know that if it isn’t perfect this time around, there’s always next year! That’s the best part about teaching.

Upcoming Comprehensible Input learning opportunities

It seems a long time since last August's Story-Based Language Teaching workshop. I hope all are having a great year, and finding new ways to incorporate comprehensible input strategies into your teaching.

There are some great workshops coming up this winter, spring and summer, given by nationally known TPRS/CI presenters, some in the Philadelphia area.

ONLINE TOMORROW! Thursday, January 19th, 7 p.m.
Kristy Placido: Online TPRS WEBINAR--Bridging the Path to Authentic Texts (Presented at ACTFL 2011)
Novice learners need to become comfortable operating within the target culture(s) and with authentic texts. However, most authentic texts are quite difficult for a novice to navigate. Participants will see how the novice learner can be guided toward the rich experiences offered by authentic texts without fear and frustration.
$25 - 60 mins. Register here.

Saturday 25 February, 2012 in Hershey, PA
Michelle Kindt: Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling, for World Language and ESL Teachers
National Board Certified French teacher and experienced practitioner and coach of TPRS. I've worked with her at several national TPRS conferences and she's great! (Flier here)

Saturday 24 March, 2012 in Pennsauken, NJ
Susie Gross: TPRStorytelling® in levels 2-AP
The Level 2 – AP workshop includes:
How to teach upper-level classes using TPR Storytelling®
How to get complicated grammar to sound right to students
The importance of reading
Essays, homework, AP preparation strategies
(find Registration form here)

Summer Conferences:
In my experience, the best professional development comes from the week-long national conferences. There are three (!) different national (and international) conferences this year:

June 24-July 1: TPRStorytelling MultiCultural Conference, in Punta Cana, Republica Dominicana July 17-19: International Forum on Language Teaching Conference, Breckenridge, CO
July 23-July 27: National TPRS Conference 2012, in Las Vegas, NV

I'd love to hear from you, to share joys and success, queries and concerns from your language teaching this year. As always, there's a wealth of information and advice available on the various listservs and blogs you can access through the links here.

I wish a season of happy teaching and learning to all!

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.