The Art of Possibility – Practice 2: Stepping into a Universe of Possibility

Practice 2: Stepping into a Universe of Possibility

This practice emphasizes the distinction between The World of Measurement, where we live most of our lives, and The Universe of Possibility, “where new inventions are the order of the day.”

In the World of Measurement, we get to know each other and the things around us by measuring them, comparing and contrasting them. Life is organized in hierarchies, an inside and an outside, competition, success and failure, it is the fight for survival. In The World of Measurement, there are only so many pieces of the pie. It forces us into scarcity thinking, which produces anxiety and fear.

It’s easy to see how most of the schools we teach in are rooted in The World of Measurement. We have set schedules; we are asked to report on students; in many cases, to compare students or assess them in a way that creates a hierarchy; we have standards to meet; and in the case of independent schools, we worry about enrollment and attracting families to our schools.

In The Universe of Possibility, it’s all about relationships, contributing, creating new ideas. “We gain our knowledge by invention.” It’s a world of abundance and openness. Every time someone takes a piece of the pie, the pie regenerates!

A presenter at the NTPRS conference this summer spoke about "fictional attribution", where you notice something a student is doing, and by mentioning it, make it (more) so: “You are a good listener.” “You are brave.” “You always notice things about nature.” By building relationships with our students, by helping them feel known, by providing them with new ways to know each other and the world, we allow them to be successful in ways that can’t be measured. That shouldn’t be measured.

Also, you "are more likely to be successful, *overall*, if you participate joyfully with projects and goals and do not think your life depends on achieving the mark because then you will be better able to connect to all the people around you."

This was the the most difficult if the 12 practices for me to sort out. Writing about it here has really helped.

The Art of Possibility 1

My school recommends shared summer reading books for faculty each year. This summer our elementary division was asked to read The Art of Possibility, by Rosalind and Benjamin Zander. Ironically, I at first grumbled about having some poorly written pop psychology pushed upon me when I could have been reading Alfie Kohn or Malcom Gladwell or somebody I'd been wanting to read when I had time. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that not only is TAOP wonderfully readable, but it is exactly what I needed to help me put a positive spin on things, after wallowing in negativity for much of the past year. In these difficult financial times, our independent Quaker school, normally accustomed to the Quaker decision making process of group discussion and eventual consensus, has been deeply affected by a series of top-down decisions, resulting in personnel cuts, surprising changes to program, and lots of sad, mad, bad feelings.

In The Art of Possibility, the writers suggest 12 practices which define "novel ways of defining ourselves, others, and the world we live in," using the metaphor of music and the arts.

Practice 1: It's all invented

In 'It's all invented,' the basic premise is: "It's all invented anyway, so we might as well invent a story or a framework of meaning that enhances our quality of life and the life of those around us." (p. 12) The epigraph for this chapter tells about two shoe marketing scouts sent to a remote region of Africa to find new sales opportunities. One writes back: "Situation hopeless-- they don't wear shoes," while the other writes triumphantly: "Glorious business opportunity! They have no shoes."

This made me think back to when I arrived at this school to teach elementary Spanish 10 years ago. I found out the week before school started that the previous Spanish teacher had departed suddenly, leaving no trace of a curriculum behind. My initial reaction was "Situation hopeless-- no set curriculum" It took me days, weeks, months, in fact it has taken me years to reach my current sense of "Glorious opportunity-- no set curriculum!" I feel this especially now that I understand so much better how children acquire language and what strategies lead to success for all. The freedom I was granted to invent was, in fact, a great gift.

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...