This is my first year teaching middle school. I spent 9 years of my career on the beautiful Eastern Shore of Maryland teaching high school. In the past 4 months of my career I have learned just as much about myself as a teacher as any new teacher learns about him or herself in their first year. Reflective practitioner. That term resonates with me. I can remember the great Arlene White from my methods class ensuring we knew as students the power of reflective practices. I cannot count the hours I spent writing reflective journals and annotating my lesson plans ensuring I knew what worked and what didn't. I remember the days things went really well and then days when things didn't- I still have those days each week. We would be simply immortal if we didn't. Each year, or in my case this year, each semester, you get new students. The chance to open the minds of young people to thought, provoke them to inquire, and motivate them to connect to the content, the curriculum, and the world. We cannot do this unless we know who our students are. Taking time to get to know kids is how we learn how to engage them. Connecting with my kids this year I have done a few really fun activities that have taught me about my kids while engaging them in technology and content. On the first day of class this semester I did an activity called, "Let's TACO 'bout it" and it focused on the statement: I am learning a language so that I can..." Students had the opportunity to share with the class their reasons for enrollment in Spanish. Collectively, the student voice screamed, "So I can SPEAK to other people!" I also learned that many of my students have relatives that speak Spanish even though they personally do not. I learned that many students want take Spanish because they want credit, they want to go to college, they want to be more likely to obtain a job, they want to try something new." My favorite reasons are the more personal ones, "My mom still lives in Guatemala, I'm here with my Aunt. I want to be able to talk to my mom and understand her." "I go on mission trips with my church and I really want to be able to talk to the people I am trying to help." The "Taco 'bout it" activity lead to a really great conversation about languages and cultures in general, understanding, patience and tolerance. Even at a middle school age, kids are dying to talk about issues that are important to them, but they need a safe and supportive venue in which to express such thoughts. I highly recommend this activity as an icebreaker or warm-up in the beginning of the year/class to truly get to know why students are in your class and what they want from it. It helps us as teachers tailor our lessons to help students see connection and purpose in the coursework. The taco template I used I found online and placed into a Word Document which can be foundhere. On the second day of class, my students completed a warm-up exercise called, "I wanna be jalapeño business." I pushed a GoogleForm to my GoogleClassroom webpage and had students complete and submit the form. I reviewed these forms and learned about my students, what they like, what they like about school, what they want to do with their future- the typical-ish getting to know you survey. GoogleForms produces a great spreadsheet that was easy to reference. When my students returned to my classroom I was able to say, "I know that Sarah and Matt love music- let's listen to this song and see if we can identify cognates!" That small phrase just indicating that I read the form results and that I cared about what they like, showed those students I care about who they are and what they like and that I want to make sure that this class incorporates their learning style. Every now and then I throw their names and their likes in to purpose the lesson plan so they are reminded how important each of them and their individuality is to me. The GF can be found here: Jalapeño Business I follow the Creative Language Classroom, an amazing resource for the proficiency based communicative classroom. I love their ideas and enthusiasm for language that keeps what is most important to me as a teacher (and based on my student's answers to the "Taco 'bout it" activity")-communicating. The idea of taking an online quiz is new to pretty much no one. The Internet is flooded with "Which celebrity are you most like?" "Who will you marry?" outcome type quizzes. After reading the blog post about a quiz that students will actually like, I was eager to try this activity. I am one of those people that when I set my mind to something I obsess over it. If it is something I am really passionate about I go for it with all my might. How could I use this outcome quiz idea to get to know more about my students while also reviewing last year's material and checking their comprehension and ability to identify cognates? Enter this QZZR I spent about 3 hours making. With ideas from previous textbooks regarding colors and personalities as well as a bit of personality quiz research on the Internet, I created a quiz that reviewed material taught in the first half of Spanish 1, asking students to answer specific questions about themselves, jobs, activities, preferences, seasons, etc. This linked the students to a color (we reviewed colors in class prior to taking this quiz) and then gave a description of their personality based on the color they arrived at by answering the questions. Students then screenshot the color they received that represented their personality and they had to create a poster that showcased with what they agreed and disagreed in the explanation of their personality by illustrating it. The statistics of the quiz on my homepage allowed me to see the quantities of my students who correlated to specific colors. Black was more artistic, green was more naturalistic, blue was athletic- bodily kinesthetic, so on and so forth. This gave me the opportunity to review my student's previously learned material and see what they needed more help with, it allowed me to learn additional information about each one of them, it allowed me to check their reading comprehension skills, it gave me the opportunity to incorporate technology, art, and language all rolled into one. I loved the conversations that ensued. Some students were not satisfied with their outcomes and wanted to take it again and again. As a teacher, that is a very rewarding feeling. The quiz took a bit of time to make, and only on average a minute to take for the kids, but the activity overall and conversations were invaluable.
When we incorporate our students' passions and interests in our lessons, we are much more likely to create environments that are thriving and where kids want to be. Understanding who those young people are is CRITICAL.
Share with me how you get to know your students and how you incorporate content into the experience of learning the learners! :)
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The Holiday season is upon us. A time when language teachers have the innate ability to connect our content to both the culture of our students and the target culture. The holidays bring along with them a wealth of traditions rooted in family and religion. Each year I work to expand my students knowledge of the different happenings around the world, specifically in Spanish Speaking countries. From Las Posadas to Tió de nadal and even to Januká, students can embrace the festivities while fostering cultural competency and having fun! This year I decided to run with a Polar Express theme. As middle school students, they were super excited about this. Just because I used the theme does not mean I used the movie, however I based the lesson off of the idea of Polar Express, traveling, stops, and golden tickets that I punched at each station to reveal a word in Spanish by the end of the lesson. "Creer." As students entered the room I decorated my door with the theme of the lesson! I wore a Santa Apron and fun headband! If you aren't sold on what you are doing then they certainly wont be! Each student received a golden ticket upon entrance and a number. Each student number corresponded with the group number in which they were to sit. The numbers on the cards were just numbers, and the tables were labeled with the spelling of the number, so students had to think just a little more! When the bell rang for class to start I yelled "Todos a bordo!" and they all knew they were in for some fun! Students had 6 stations: 1. Raquel y Januká: where they read a story in Spanish about a young girl and her celebration of Januká. Students had flash cards for difficult words and comprehension questions to discuss as a group 2. Caga Tio: where students watched a brief video in Spanish on their iPad about the tradition, then listened to the traditional song sung by the children of Cataluña and even had the opportunity to hit the Caga Tio to receive a gift of their own! 3. Cartas a Papá Noel. This actually was joined with the Macy's Make-A-Wish Believe Campaign. For each letter that is submitted Macy's donates $1 to the MAW Campaign. I have 150 students which means $150 dollars was donated to MAW because of this activity! Pretty cool! Students had to fill out basic biographical information about themselves in Spanish and tell Santa what they would like for Christmas in Spanish. Students used their iPads to submit these letters on the Macy's website. 4. 'Twas the Noche Before Navidad. Students examined a Spanglish version of "Twas the Night Before Christmas and as a group they were asked to guess the meaning of the words in Spanish from the context of the story. It was a competition to see who could get the most words correct based solely on context! Competition always adds motivation and excitement. Students used their iPads to access the story. 5. Vamos de compras. Students were given $200 which they had to convert to Euros. They had to go Christmas shopping for 3 people in their family. They had to fill out a short bio about who they were shopping for in Spanish in case the clerk at the store asked them if they needed help shopping. Students converted Euros to Dollars and purchased items from El Corte Ingles. Here is the document I used. We are talking about 1st year and exploratory language students, so they document can surely be edited for more seasoned students of the language. Students used their iPads to navigate El Corte Ingles website to make their selections. 6.Students created an "Ojo de Dios" ornament with two popsicle sticks and yarn. I found a quick basic explanation in Spanish on YouTube and had students watch it on their iPads. They then followed the directions to create their own beautiful ornaments! As students were working, I walked around the room at each station, answering questions and hole punching their golden tickets. Creer only has five letters so one station did not have a letter punched, rather just a festive sticker attached! I really enjoyed this part of the lesson, although it took so much time. The kids were SO curious about what I was spelling. :) I used resources that I found online, YouTube, Pinterest, and of course things that I have created in the past. I covered the tables in festive table cloths and played Canciones Navideñas thorughout the lesson. I think it is wonderful to give students the chance to hear actual Christmas songs in Spanish aside from "Feliz Navidad"- although, a great song... others like "Burrito Sabanero" are much more authentic. There are so many exciting things about the holidays and sharing that excitement with our students at a global level makes the celebration of culture so much better! If anyone would like some of the other resources I have used, please don't hesitate to contact me! Keep inspiring! -Caroline Technology is insane.If there is one thing I have learned in the past 3 hours of my first ACTFL workshop here in Boston, it is that I am novice at best in my awareness of applications and tech resources. My world is rocked right now with gaining so much more understanding of how absolutely limitless and empowering the apps that are available to us in the technological world can engage and motivate our students in our proficiency based classrooms.
A few of my notes that I have jotted down can be found here, but please remember that these are quick notes I gathered that were outside of the presentations that I made copies of in my Google Drive. We worked collaboratively to develop pros/cons/speed bumps regarding some of the more familiar Google applications in G Suite that you can find here. It is a brief synopsis of each. I am so inspired by the people who are sitting in this room. There are so many passionate, driven learners in this professional congregation who have the best interest of children in mind. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be among such esteemed colleagues both national and international and I look forward to the afternoon! Loving Boston, loving ACTFL #actfl16 #crazyspanishteacher -Caroline Could I possibly shout that any louder?!?!?! I can't wait to share my resources and excitement! Check back for updates! Follow me on Twitter as I wander through Boston in my professional dream come true!
@senoramark #actfl2016 100% addicted. How amazing is this APP? Seriously? Number 1: Let's talk about their support. I have had more than a few questions and they have responded to all of them! I am so thankful for a company that stands by their product and works with the consumer to maximize the student experience! I feel as though not enough can be said about the potential of this application in the 1:1 language setting. I have had the opportunity to explore this app first hand with my students, then with my world language colleagues in a PD session I hosted, and finally with my colleagues at my Arts Integration Magnet School, Western Heights Middle, where the opportunities are endless for this video response and reflection! Recap sent an AWESOME T-shirt and a few goodies for my staff! I was thankful for the quick shipment and willingness to support the teachers who are excited about this app! Thank you, RECAP!
As a user, the teacher dash is easy to navigate. You can design multiple classes and have students sign up by their email and a class join pin so we as teachers do not have to pre-load students into the program. Students can access their recap assignments quickly, answer quickly, and submit for feedback hastle free. My favorite feature of this app is that students do not have to upload or download anything. They open it, answer the questions, it shows up on my side, and I can give quick feedback to students. Students can then check out the feedback I give to learn from it and I can adjust my instruction based on their Recaps! The ESSENCE of formative assessment! The student dash has the ability to add multiple classes to one email address so students should have access to all classes using RECAP in the same school with the same email address by simply navigating between classes for which they have join codes. Students can receive notifcations of the Recaps posted and due. I love the self eval feature at the end of the Recap, where students can rate whether or not they understood the material. This is also a great way for me to quickly see who feels confident with a concept and who doesn't and has become a pretty good indicator as to whether I can expect Recaps that indicate proficiency or maybe Recaps in which I need to re-teach concepts to support advancing my students' proficiency. I have encountered a few glitches, but Recap is working diligently with me to correct the issues. I am so thankful, again, for their support. If you have not tried this program out, I highly recommend you head over to the app store and connect with this amazingly powerful formative assessment tool! Click on the app picture at the top of this blog to access the Recap website! Sometimes I get really frustrated with technology. Honestly. There is a fine line between using technology for proficiency and using technology for the sake of using technology. There are so many options for apps to incorporate technology, but one cannot simply take an assignment he or she has been using for years and just throw in technology and make it work. How are we thinking as teachers and leaders? How are changing the delivery of content to keep up with the times? Throwing technology in for technology's sake is not truly facilitating learning. How can a proficiency based classroom incorporate technology that pushes students to seek understanding? I think those questions are tough and I kind of just laughed to myself in writing them because in conjuring up my answer, I realize just how different my lessons today are from 10 years ago. Reflection. What a beautiful thing. I was going through my desk drawer the other day and came across a lesson I had video-recorded for my undergraduate career. HOLY GUACAMOLE! What was I wearing and why was my hair so short?!?! Also- what was I actually doing? I was standing in front of the class. I played a recording of a story in Spanish, I gave the kids like 30 seconds to look over the comprehension questions and then I asked the questions aloud eliciting response from a group of reluctant high school sophomores. They answered, I praised them in Spanish, and moved on to the next. This 10 year veteran is looking at that young teacher cringing. Where is the wait time? Why did I not give them more than one pass at the story? Why didn't I offer a chance for students to interpret meaning from the story alone? Then maybe with a partner? It was a straight interpretive, mechanical-esque activity that had SO much potential and I just left it there. 31 year old me wants to go back and save 21 year old me from that lesson. But what I realized was that I really was using what I had. I had a chalk board, an overhead projector, a VHS player, a boombox, and students. I had a recording of the reading. I played it using my technology. I could have structured the lesson to be more meaningful and communicative but as far as technology went, I used it. I guess my point is that I used the technology, but it didn't mean anything because the lesson wasn't beneficial. I thought I was doing something awesome by playing the recording of the reading and using that technology, but it wasn't awesome at all. In my classroom, not only have I come leaps and bounds in terms of the technology I use, but the best practices that come with it. Language learning isn't about answer questions, conjugating verbs, responding to multiple choice questions, or translating. It is about communication, interpretation, presentation, and interaction. It is about traveling, exploring cultures, understanding the lives of others, appreciating diversity, and using that experience to inform the way you live and what you do. When we throw technology in to substitute for something, we are doing a disservice to our students. When we plan meaningful interactions that guide our students to communicate within and beyond the classroom via technology, we are showing them the power of understanding the ever-shrinking global society. Here's to technology and TEACHnology! -Caroline Not much is more important than building relationships and a sense of community in the school. This week was spirit week at WHMS and the students did an amazing job participating in such a fun week! I really enjoy participating in these things as a teacher! When the students see that you connect and are willing to put yourself out there- they are too! I walked through the halls singing "Ole!" today. :) Such a fun job we have. Cheers to the fellow teachers who go all out to connect with kids! 'Today my students in 1b are working on making their own communities and describing what is where, and where they go in the town to do certain things. Its a pretty fun little project and a presentational writing component allows me to see if they can use the verb IR correctly and if they can use prepositional phrases to describe location. I have always loved project because the students have such different final products! It also showcases what the student's preferences are, my more athletic students always have fields and parks where as the artistic student includes a theater or amphitheater. I love it. Their lives are so intriguing. So... we don't just arrive at drawing maps and writing where we go and describing location. This is a product- like a mid-way through the unit check/assessment- to see what the kids can do with all we have engaged in in class. We first started out reviewing our own community. I am new to the Hagerstown area so it was fun to get to know the area by exploring the parks, museums, shops, etc. I used pictures from the Hagerstown community to present and engage the students in the new vocabulary. The kids were excited to see places they had been, which lead me to ask them if they liked certain restaurants, what grocery store they prefer, and where they go to get certain things. We had a discussion on whether Hoffman's Meats or Penn Ave. Meats was the better carniceria in town. The next day, we started class using polleverywhere.com (see APPS) and voted on the best grocery store in Hagerstown. We then went into other stores in the area and what you could buy there, and we used the Hagerstown Premium Outlet Mall to discuss location of stores in relation to others. I always have my students sing a silly song to remember the prepositional phrases: So after we practice and practice, we sing it without me, then without me pointing. We then take a look at a basic map which then leads to allowing us to manipulate the Hagerstown Outlet Map. There are a few other steps in this process to build confidence including cloze notes and a game called "Donde esta la planta" where they race in teams to place the plant in the correct location based on what I or another student says. We then do a blind speaking activity where one student describes a room to another student and the student has to position objects in the room based on what the other student says. (Interpretive!) Students work in partners to ask the location of stores to other students. They are both asking and answering questions (interpersonal communication!) The map is color coded so you can ask students to use colors as well to recycle information! We also completed a fun QR code activity using our iPads to explore our community of Hagerstown and gather simple information about our community. They also must identify what vocabulary word is associated with the place they are investigating. It is a ton of fun and the students get to review things they have previously learned in the target language but also explore their community to answer questions using their current vocabulary focus. They work in partners to negotiate meaning of the questions and formulate responses. Following this, we talk about where we go in our community and what we get at each of those places, which allows me to introduce IR with a specific focus on the verb but using the context of our community. They use the activity to tell me what store is represented by the picture and what they get there. Then we focus on the probable meaning of the words. The students are then given a calendar with information about where a family goes. Sometimes the calendar says the thing they need to get and other times the place they need to go. Students have to use their vocabulary and the verb IR to organize the calendar so that everyone in the family knows who is going where and when! I collect and grade these looking to correct specifics and give them back to the students to use and learn from. Insert- MAP PROJECT- I added a use time wisely category because, well, it is middle school, we are on a block schedule, and I have to push them! I have had great results from adding this regarding their time on task. I am excited to see the towns and what the students have to offer in terms of language output and creativity (Presentational!) :) That was mucho.... It makes sense in my head- but if you're interested in using any of my resources or want some clarification on what I am talking about! Shoot me an email or comment below! Also- I am totally open to suggestions for making things better or a more appropriate way to say something. I live by the fact that we never stop learning :) So if I made a mistake email me! [email protected],us 11/17/2016- post Actfl16 conference I am super struggling- in an all out mental battle with myself about adding the time in class component Ronny rubric. How does that time on task in class measure language proficiency and output? It doesn't! But then- How do I balance character development & content proficiency while holding students accountable for both without one influencing the other? Ah!!! Reflection! Sometimes it is not about technology... but technology certainly can get you there. . My students used Google Classroom to review a quick video explaining, "Día de los muertos." and submitted a quick comprehension check using google forms (target language use is key! What can my 6th graders pull out of this... boy was I surprised!" And then, we constructed our own ofrendas. I believe technology gives us the access to explore the world and it's culture, the people and their values and beliefs, all from the comfort of our classroom. But it is what we take from that and how we use it that truly counts. My students constructed their own offerings and brought tears to my eyes as they included pictures of their deceased mothers, fathers, grandparents, friends, and even animals. Some of the lives these children lead, I cannot imagine. I'm 30 years old and couldn't imagine losing my mom or dad, much less doing it at age 10.
Make it personal, make it relevant, and bring world language to life. I'll let you know who wins- 6th grade A day or 6th grade B day! Everything is better with a little competition! - Caroline Students in my level 1a Spanish class embarked on their first Integrated Performance Assessment, for which we had much preparation! The task of grading such an assessment is certainly no small feat. It took me the majority of the weekend to get it done but as laborious as the task was it was incredibly rewarding. Here is what I learned about my students from their IPA's
1. They know what they are doing 2. They don't give up 3. They tackle authentic text with the mantra "It is ok that I do not understand everything, it is about exposure." and boy do they tackle it! 4. They can identify theme 5. They can identify author's purpose 6. They can identify author's perspective 7. They can locate information in authentic text documents 8. They can pull out the information they have learned 9. They are amazing 10. They are capable 11. They were inspired by being rated at the "Novice mid" proficiency. When I passed these IPAs out for my students to review their grades, the smile on their faces and the chatter in the classroom was intoxicating, "Look how much I understood!" "I knew it was a library car form!" "I knew Francesca was a student, she talked about school!" I loved it. Success on Integrated performance assessments doesn't come by just handing out the paper and saying a prayer that they get it right. It takes skillful planning, opportunities for students to observe, listen, produce, communicate, and examine the language. You want students to be able to listen to a native speak and pull out information, well then you better give them multiple opportunities to do it! You want them to be able to identify the theme of a text or the purpose? You better give them multiple opportunities to do it! You want them to communicate with each other in the target language? You guessed it! You better give them the opportunity to do it! I couldn't be happier with what I learned about my students following this first IPA! I better get to planning more awesome experiences :) -One happy Spanish 1 teacher |
Author14th year Spanish teacher Archives
June 2020
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