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Dr. Baros is a dedicated researcher, educator, and LGBTQ advocate. Her areas of expertise are proficiency-based language teaching and creating inclusive environments for LGBTQ students and people.
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A Comprehensible Interactive notebook

8/1/2018

3 Comments

 
I first learned about interactive notebooks during my pre-service training and loved the idea.  However, I never quite figured out how to make it work for me as a teacher or for Comprehensible Input instruction, where I don't want my students writing down notebooks all the time.  However, with my new plan to end everything we do with a Write and Discuss (coming by way of suggestion from Mike Peto), a clear and purposeful plan clicked.  Just in time, too - my new school is an AVID school so interactive notebooks are a regular part of instruction. I've been working on an example notebook complete with all of the supporting documents, and I'm ready to share my draft* with you!!

Please note that my interactive notebook design is slightly modified from what a "true" interactive notebook is, but maintains many of the principals particularly for our daily documentation of learning (the Write and Discuss section).  I am also attending a Jump Start conference for National Board certification as well as meeting with my colleagues in the upcoming weeks, so it may undergo additional revisions as things get fine-tuned for the 2018-2019 school year.
Why and When we will use the IN
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I mainly want their notebook to be a resource which answers the question "What did I learn?".  It will show the material for a particular day and their mastery of it as well as their progress over time.  Any other activities they are welcome to keep in their notebook in the back, but I am only concerned about the items I want them to come back to throughout the year, including reviewing their progress and accomplishments.

This means there are only certain times which I allow students to use their notebooks or even have them out.  For the vast majority of class, I want them to focus on being present and comprehending input.  However, I hope that by routinely dedicating the last 10 minutes of class to write and discuss with our Interactive Notebooks, students also know they will have plenty of time to write down any notes they wish.  The only other times they will need their notebooks are when they are evaluating and documenting their learning, which will usually happen during specific proficiency activities.

With that being said, the main items in my notebooks (with a more detailed break down below) include:
  • Documentation of input
  • Demonstration of proficiency
  • Reminder of how language is learned and the behaviors that facilitate that process
  • Important rubrics we will use often
  • Light Reading Book Report (as evidence of reading a novel)
  • Charts/graphs of progress
  • Syllabus
  • Questions for La Persona Especial (as we will use these for multiple activities throughout the trimester)

Grading
I have 30% of my gradebook set aside for "Classwork and Activities", most of which will come from items in their IN.  Everything in the IN is going to be graded on completion as part of students' daily formative assessments - this means it's information for me to adjust instruction before the summative assessment of what they achieved.  I want students to get comfortable doing their best and honestly evaluating and discussing their progress.  If they know that items in the IN are graded on quality of completion, it will send a signal that lowers their affective filter and gives them permission to just do their best and not worry about anything else for a moment.  I am going to review their progress each day (see the procedure in the next paragraph) to see what adjustments need to be made or conversations need to be had in order to get them where they need to be.

This policy fits in with the least amount of work for me as well.  As students are working in their IN, I can easily move around the room and stamp/check off pages that have received full credit (or that are done enough that I trust will be worthy of full credit).  I plan to check off the items on my student tracker and grading sheet as well as give them a stamp on their notebook page so they know it was checked and recorded as full credit.  Anything that is less than full credit, I write a small score in the top left corner of the page so they know they still have some work to do if they want more points, but I did check it.  Anything that doesn't get recorded in class, they leave open to the page that needs to be check and turn their notebooks in to the basket.  I finish recording them and put them in their hand-back folder for them to retrieve the following day.

Students are going to give themselves a self-evaluation each day to let me know what's going on.


Structure
I decided to do a binder/spiral notebook combination.  I didn't feel like the hand outs I wanted to give them would work very well in the notebooks and I really dislike the whole idea of gluing and taping papers in (just a personal preference). Plus, after budgeting the number of pages I wanted for their writing activities, I didn't feel like there would be enough room for the handouts.  Finally, I hope that having the combination will prove to be the best of both worlds, especially since students can put things in their binders that I didn't plan on (i.e. Day of the Dead artwork or maps of the Spanish-speaking world) while maintaining the spiral notebook as a documentation of their input and evidence of their proficiency.

In the past, I've used composition books because I didn't want students ripping out pages and spiral notebooks seemed too tempting to do so.  However, I opted for a spiral notebook for the student work this year for ease of grading.  Spiral notebooks easily lay open to any page, so students can set them out or turn them in OPEN to the pages I want to check.  One of the things I've found to eat up time with checking work is simply flipping to the page it's supposed to be on, sometimes finding that there isn't anything on that page in the first place of the student put it on a different page.  Having spiral notebooks that are open to the pages I need to check makes that much simpler.  If students need me to check multiple pages, they can bookmark them with a sticky note.
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Items included in my IN
The spiral notebook will go in the front pocket or clipped into the front if students prefer.  However, unless you get a large binder (which I don't want), having the notebook clipped in makes turning pages impossible, so I prefer it to be in the front pocket.
  • Inside front cover: Self-evaluation rubrics for Write and Discuss - having these here makes them easy to flip to.  After copying the Write and Discuss, students will write down and color code their score.  This makes it easy for me to walk around and make note of students I need to pay more attention to in class for comprehension or follow-up with to help them stay on track.
  • Page 1: Why learn Spanish - students will write and/or illustrate reasons to learn Spanish on this page.  This is the theme of my warm-up for Motivación Mañana (Motivation Morning) on the first day of each week, so hopefully this will be FULL by the end of the course!

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  • Pages 2-3: Table of Contents.  Instead of numbering all of our pages, our "page numbers" will be dates.  I've dedicated the first half of an 80-page IN for Write and Discuss (one per right-hand page) and the second half is for "Meditación Martes" (Meditation Tuesday, where students will respond to a personal journal prompt) and the Free Writes (each Friday).  Although there will be about an equal number of Meditaciones as Free Writes, I want students to write down the date and topic for the Meditaciones  whereas I just want the date for the Free Writes, so I adjusted space accordingly.  For the Write and Discuss section, I wanted to make sure I had enough for almost every day AND I want them to write down the date and title, so I divided that space up into two columns.

  • Interactive Notebook Instructions - I broke these instructions down by section since each one will be used a little differently (here's where the "modified" part of the IN comes in for me).  This gives students a handy page to reference as we complete activities or they are adding artifacts at home.
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  • Section 1: Write and Discuss - I have set aside the last 10 minutes of class each day for Write and Discuss, which doubles as my Closure.  This is when students get their notebooks out and copy down our summary of what we discussed that day.  Side note - I think I am going to allow students who are confident to go ahead and write the summary on their own as I work with the rest of the class and they can check their summary with mine.  I'm not concerned if theirs has errors - we will be working with my perfect copy in class for input and there's no way to guarantee students who are copying won't have errors anyway.  After they've copied the summary of the day, they use the "Comprehension" self-evaluation rubric on the inside of the front cover to score themselves on listening and reading.  If they wrote it on their own or we've done a retell (particularly for days when we're working with a text we already wrote), they can use the "Production" rubric.  I want them to color-code their scores so that I can quickly glance and make note of any students who are in the yellow or especially the red zone.  This doesn't affect their grade, but rather will help me make adjustments for the next lesson or set up a conversation about our game plan for success.  On the left-hand page, students will interact with the text through one of the menu options on the interactive notebook instructions.

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  • Section 2: Meditaciones - Each week, students will respond to a prompt that requires them to expand the vocabulary they know from our characters and stories to a topic that they might discuss in their everyday life.  They will also record their ability to respond on their proficiency tracker, kept in the binder section of their portfolio, as well as record this proficiency, their reasoning for why their response reflects that proficiency level, and two sentences about their next steps on the left-hand page of their notebook.

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  • Section 3: Free Writes - Students will complete their free-writes in this section.  When they are done, they will record their word count (this is more for them than for me) as well as grade themselves using my Free Write Rubric.  This rubric matches the one that they will use on their summative proficiency checks, so I want them to become familiar with it.  Once that is done, they will write a two-sentence reflection about their experience.  Students may use the front and back of their pages, so nothing goes on the left-hand side.  Finally, I want them to show their free-write to a responsible adult (I am going to ask them to say who this is at the beginning of the year, which will usually be a parent but I'm giving them some flexibility because home situations aren't always conducive to that) for a signature.  The adult is also welcome to write their own feedback - as long as it is positive!

​The Binder:
  • Proficiency Tracker - This is based directly on the 2017 ACTFL Can-Do statements.  As students are able to read, listen to, and discuss a variety of texts, they will complete performance activities which assist in demonstrating overall proficiency.  Each time we complete one of these activities, students will write the date in the appropriate box (I will tell them which row and/or columns they should be using) under the proficiency that best aligns with how they did.  Again, this is not attached to a grade beyond completion - my hope is that students will be able to consistently see that they are increasing in proficiency across a wide variety of topics, ultimately resulting in increased global proficiency.
  • How does my brain learn languages? - This is a worksheet where students look at this poster created by Eric Herman and discuss what each part of the acquisition process is and what it means for students.  I am going to use this as my launch-pad for discussing rules and expectations for my Spanish class.
  • Rubrics - I am including any rubrics that students will be evaluated with regularly.  This year, this includes the Interpersonal Communication Skills Rubric (50% of students' grades, put in weekly) and Habits of Strong Readers Rubric, both by Tina Hargaden.  I am also including my Writing Proficiency Assessment rubric, which I will use as my summative writing assessment and students use to evaluate their own writing throughout the course.
  • Book report - Students will complete a novel and demonstrate their learning from the novel using their choice of book report format.  I purchased Bryce Hedstrom's book Meaningful Reading Comprehension Checks and am going to give my students the option of doing Light Reading Book Report #2, 5,7, 9, 11, or 13 - They cannot use the same book report format within the same year.
  • Speed Reading Graph from Eric Herman - I use these at the end of each semester for students to gain confidence in themselves and as an additional measure of their growth and achievement.  During the week of review and finals, they read each story once and graph their words per minute as well as their score on a comprehension check.  Once they score a 6 or below on two stories in a row, then I let them be done as I feel that's an indicator they've reached the limit of their comprehension.  Ideally, students in Spanish 1A would be able to read roughly the first third to half of the stories while Spanish 1B would be able to read most of the stories 1-30 (but starting where they left off with Spanish 1A).  This is NOT part of their grade - it's just another artifact measuring their growth and accomplishments.
  • Syllabus - I put this in last because it does have important information, but we really don't use it as often as all of the other stuff.  Putting it here is just a practicality decision.
  • Back pocket: Questions for La Persona Especial - I  have a handout with all of the pre-planned questions that might pop up in La Persona Especial or in other interpersonal speaking exercises (see Tina Hargaden's Interpersional Speaking Game/Rubric).  They might also pop up on a final exam or review.  In any case, it's useful for students to have a list of the questions that will come up that they should hopefully be able to ask or respond to organically at some point in the course, but I don't use this as a comprehensive list.  I also feel it will help lower the anxiety for students who are called upon as La Persona Especial since they have a good idea of what questions have been or might be asked.  I put this in the back pocket for quick access and so that it's easy to pull out and use if necessary.

Do you use interactive notebooks in your comprehensible input classes?  What do you include and why?  Are there things you choose not to include?  Share your thoughts below!
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Comprehensibly, translatability, and noise

1/17/2017

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Must teachers be 100% comprehensible? Is there room for noise? And, if so, what amount or type of noise is acceptable?

First, here are a few comments from this article, The Case for Non-Targeted Input (Krashen, 2013)

"For an item of grammar to be acquired, the language acquirer must be ready to acquire the item. It must, in other words, be at the acquirers' i+1, where i = aspects of grammar that were most recently acquired."

"An important corollary of the Comprehension Hypothesis is the "Net" Hypothesis: Given enough comprehensible input, i+1, all the vocabulary and structures the student is ready for, is automatically provided. In Krashen and Terrell (1983) this was referred to as the Net: "When someone talks to you in a language you have not yet completely acquired so that you understand what is said, the speaker "casts a net" of structure around your current level of competence, your "i". This net will include many instances of i+1, aspects of language you are ready to acquire" (p. 33)."

"Ray and Seely (2008) emphasize the importance of translation because they feel that students must understand every word of what is said in class and what they read. As noted earlier, this may indeed be very helpful at the very beginning, but the transparency requirement should give way to the requirement that students feel that they are understanding everything. If only the feeling of full comprehension is required, if input is allowed to contain some i+n, we are no longer restricted to translation as a means of making input comprehensible. We are free to use pictures and realia, as emphasized in Natural Approach (see also comments by Carol Gaab in Ray and Seely, p. 235), as well as other means of making input comprehensible that do not obviously provide a one-to-one mapping from form to meaning (e.g. background readings that provide a general context for a story). If, in fact, the input is truly compelling, it is likely that students will not even notice the "noise" or bits of incomprehensible and nontransparent elements in the input."

I believe there is a difference between "total translatability" and "total comprehensibility" (I dislike the word "transparency" because I think it is confusing and could apply to either case).

Total translatability - students have a one-to-one connection for each and every word. This limits what you can communicate to students as well as the intention of communicating it: the emphasis is on learning forms, not on understanding messages.

Total comprehensibility - I'm beginning to think that acceptable "noise" does not come in the form of incomprehensibility, but rather that the meaning of words that would be incomprehensible on their own are made clear through other methods. For instance, when Diane Neubauer told us the story about the Zodiac, there was a part where the rat jumped over the ox's head. Had she focused on us understanding the words in that part of the story, it would have been overwhelming as well as disrupted the flow of the story - we were right at the climax and focused on what was happening, so it would have been much less compelling (not to mention out of bounds) to sit and focus on the somewhat more-complex language involved in communicating that idea. However, we completely comprehended that very critical part and kept the "flow" of the language going thanks to her gestures. We learned plenty in the process - and she could still use that story for valuable input (as opposed to being "barred" from an otherwise comprehensible story because a key part would have been "out of bounds"). This still counts as noise, however, because I didn't make any connections with the actual target language and couldn't have told you what the words were, even just after hearing her say them.  And, frankly, I didn't care - I understood the message and wanted to hear the rest of the story!  They key is that the message was, in fact, 100% comprehensible even if it did include noise, which was important because it lowered my affective filter and kept me in "flow".  In other words, I didn't get stressed about trying to achieve a deeper level of comprehension than I was ready for nor was I stressed that there were details I was missing, because I felt confident that I had comprehended the entire message.

With regard to i+1 - there have been a few that say if everything is "100% comprehensible", then it is not providing the "+1". However, this position confuses what is acquired with what can be understood. It is important to understand that "i" is NOT what can be understood - it is what is already acquired, meaning that it can be used by the student. The "+1" is the language that is not yet acquired but can be understood (and therefore has the potential to be acquired). This area of "+1" is very broad and flexible as it contains all of the language that can be made comprehensible. For instance, novice students who have never been exposed to the target language before, have zero "i"; thus, the entire first lesson (or series of lessons) are all within the "+1" range. As students acquire "i" from the "+1" input, their ability to comprehend additional "+1" expands, although much of the language that was "+1" will remain "+1". This is why I agree with Krashen (2013) that non-targeted language is ideal for differentiation - students convert the "+1" into "i" at different rates according to the natural order, but as long as students are provided with a "Net" of language that includes "+1" for all students, all students will be able to continue acquiring the language they are ready for at their own pace .

With regard to noise, I don't think that "noise" can be acquired - the grammar and vocabulary from the language used MUST be made comprehensible before acquisition of that particular form can occur. In my above example with the Zodiac story, I had no chance of acquiring the structure for "jump over" because I never really even wrapped my head around the target language words in the first place.  However, that was not a bad thing - in fact, it enabled Diane to tell a compelling story while staying "in bounds" and keeping the affective filter low.  I believe that teachers need to skillfully judge and plan how they will tell a story knowing that the majority should be comprehensible at an level which students can acquire it, but be able to bridge these sections with tiny bits of comprehensible noise (if that makes sense) in order to make up for bits of language that might be beyond the "+1" level yet are still necessary to be compelling.

So, to answer my initial questions:
YES, teachers MUST be 100% comprehensible - meaning that students feel that they are comprehending everything.  Some misunderstandings will occur - that's fine.  That is part of language development and their understandings will become refined as they receive more input (also noted in Krashen, 2013).  This keeps the affective filter low as students become comfortable and confident about comprehending messages, forgetting to focus on individual words and whether they can translate them.
YES, there is room for noise, but it must be comprehensible noise that is strategically used only when necessary. In other words, the messages must remain comprehensible even if the language is not.  Moreover, teachers need to use their best judgement in order to maximize the amount of "+1" at a level that is possible for students to acquire.  Yet, they should not feel constrained to only providing input that is at the "+1" level - comprehensible noise can be used as a tool to help students access input opportunities that might be otherwise compelling and comprehensible for students.
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Lesson Planning

1/9/2017

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Someone recently asked about how much time I plan my lessons, especially now that I'm working to differentiate for my classes. While it may look like a lot of work, my lesson planning is even easier and more enjoyable than ever before. Here's what I do:

Step 1: Select contexts and strategies for providing compelling CI
What will my stuents find compelling?  I use a variety of contexts for authentic and compelling input for my students.  I emphasize auditory input, with the "critical input" activities followed by reading what students heard.  Here are a few examples of contexts, although this is by no means exhaustive:
  • Morning news and agenda - We talk about the date, the agenda, the weather, and calendar events (no reading)
  • Comprehensible Comics - I show a comic and describe what is happening in each scene as well as make any dialogue comprehensible (followed by listening and reading OR listening and looking at the comic as well as a formative self-evaluation for student comprehension)
  • Story Listening - If you're not familiar with this activity, please see my other more-comprehensive posts about what this entails (followed by reading, formative self-evaluation of comprehension, and "interaction" with the text using a menu of activities)
  • Co-Creation - I use this to refer to the variety of methods from TPRS and Ben Slavic which involve creating a character, siuation, or story (often followed by write and discuss and reading)
  • Personalized Questioning and Answering (PQA) - Essentially, using the target language to interview and talk about students.  Please research the particular skills and routines associated with this if you're not already familiar with them.  (not usually followed by reading)
  • Structured Reading and Discussion - This refers to a variety of strategies used to read and re-read a text, including discussion and listening.  I recommend looking at Ben Slavic's Big CI Book.
  • Free Reading - Students self-select reading materials based on level and interest.
I have a distict "flow" to my class, so this is a sort of "drag and drop" activity for me and takes only about 10-15 minutes to arrange into a weekly outline.  I might adjust it from there, but this is my "weekly planning".

Step 2: Select the language that will be used and how you will make it comprehensible
What will you talk about and how?  What do you need to do to "stay in bounds," or in other words ensure that students can comprehend what you are saying and not get overwhelemed or oversaturated?  This involves identifying:
  • Words that students already know and can be readily and easily used
  • Words that are familiar but not yet known - these require context or other cues for meaning
  • New or tricky words - these will require the highest level of support
  • "Noise" words - words you might use but that students don't need to necessarily know or even be aware of to understand the message.  These words do not go on the board nor are they intentionally repeated or used in a way that expects students to understand them (assuming you've made meaning clear another way).  For instance, you might "gloss" over a part of the story where you can make meaning clear through drawings or gestures, but where a focus on understanding the auditory input might push students beyond the i+1 level or oversaturate them.  This also provides differentiation for students who might already understand the "core" auditory input and be ready to acquire the "in between" or "extra" words.  After providing the input and assessment may wish to provide a list of these words to students who desire them.
For teachers new to the profession or new to CI, this might be the most difficult step as you get to know where the i+1 level is for your students, what language will work, and what language won't.  However, once you're comfortable with this, it's simply a matter of rehearsing in your head or writing down what you plan to say.  For me, this involves writing up a quick reading for things like Comprehensible Comics or Story Listening using the language I feel will be at the i+1 level, which can be planned ahead of time.  If I have multiple levels, I simply copy and paste and then revise/add/delete the language to match the proficiency level of my other classes.  For my students who I need differentiation (which I'm mainly just doing for Story Listening), I copy and paste the reading onto a new graphic organizer and then delete all but the key words they need to know and write the English translations.  Next, I copy and paste those words into a Quizlet flashcard set (the beauty is that these growing pains are only temporary and you can re-use these free resources next year).

When I get to class, I pick word cards that correspond with the story to guide me and to show to my students as I provide input (these are like my verb word wall, but in GIANT magnetic form with Spanish on one side and Spanish/English on the other).  For more organic activities, I just have an idea of what language I might use to facilitate the conversation and then adjust the conversation and make it comprehensible as appropriate during class.  This does require skill to think on-the-spot about what will be "in" and "out" of bounds, and what you will do with that language.  For this reason, I feel that Story Listening, Comprehensible Comics, and other pre-planned activities are easier for new CI teachers.

Step 3: Determine how you will check for comprehension
This can be done a variety of ways, although the teacher must be careful not to raise the affective filter and make students anxious or feel put-on-the-spot.  I use a variety of methods, and they differ based on the activity.
  • Signals - Students are expected to signal me, either with a red card or a time-out sign, if I've confused them.  I make sure they know that it's the message that's important, not individual words.  However, if they get "lost", then it's time to signal me so that I can do my job better (my job is to make the language comprehensible for them).
  • Questioning - This could be circling or another type of comprehension check.  I do not use extensive questioning during stories, if at all, because it disrupts the flow of the story (the exception is when I ask a "natural" question that fits with the telling of the story, such as those a kindergarten teacher might ask when reading out loud to her students).  However, during interactive activities such as PQA or even finding out what students think about the weather, I circle and compare responses as long as it is still compelling.
  • Body Language and Authentic Responses - this is a much more subtle way to check comprehension and I encourage newer teachers to have a "back up" of some sort to get a second meansure.  However, body language and the ways students respond to information they understand can often communicate comprehension clearly, especially with smaller groups where the teacher is able to pay attention to the behaviors of all of the students.  TPR gestures can also communicate comprehension.
  • Translation, summary, or other reaction to information - I use this at "checkpoint" moments in order to make sure everyone is at the same point.  For instance, at natural transition points in the story, I may ask for a volunteer to summarize what has happened so far.  This lets me know how I'm doing making information comprehensible AND it makes sure that everyone is up-to-speed to the current point and can continue comprehending.  I might also ask for a ticket-out the door which summarizes or responds to the story in some way (What was your favorite part?  Which part would you change, why, and how? etc.)  Finally, I usually only use translation when reading, in which case we might orally translate as a class.
  • Formative Feedback - This is where I get most of my data.  Students simply indicate how much they understood.  They do this either through a single-digit score out of four points (4 = understood nearly everything, 3 = most, 2 = half, 1 = less than half) and/or by highlighting the text that they understand as I read it aloud to them.  I use this information to measure how well I did to make language comprehensible as well as to identify my struggling students.
For me, these are tied directly to my "comfort zone" and style, so there is little preparation beyond the initial student-training and communicating expectations to students.

Step 4: Determine whether a grade will be attached to an activity, why, and how
This is where each teacher will have to determine what fits with their philosophy, goals, and program.  I've changed my grading system three times this year alone, but I do feel that the most recent system might stick because it's easy and authentic.   I grade anything that is formative as a completion grade - these make up 50% of their overall grade.  Students are letting me know how well I am doing my job - it's my 50%, so as long as they let me know how I did, they get the grade.  The other 50% is based on their behaviors aligned with my expectations for them, since those behaviors will lead to acquisition.  Because I have pretty clear routines in my class and pre-made forms, this requires no extra preparation beyond printing copies of resources.
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That's it!  As long as I'm not trying anything new (or blogging about it!), it usually only takes me about 15-30 minutes to plan for all of my classes each day.  I take about 15 minutes to plan my weekly outline ahead of time.  Then, all that is left to do during the week is picking language to use and writing up the reading and any related materials.  Assuming I already have a story, comic, or other context in ind, this takes about another 15-30 minutes to create the resources and differentiate them by class level and student need.

To be completely honest, what takes much more time is finding stories and other contexts to talk about, especially for Story Listening.  Selecting the right context and/or story means becoming familiar with many stories and how they might be both compelling and comprehensible for your students.  However, this is becoming easier and easier as I build a bank of resources (such as this, this, or this, with more listed here) and listen to stories other teachers are telling.  One of my best stories was one I learned as a student of Chinese Story Listening!
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Differentiating with Story Listening

1/7/2017

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I have some students in my regular class (about 40 hours of instruction so far) who are VERY low - as in, out of thirty students, all but three will highlight that at least 95% of the story (indicating they understand it when we read it), and three will highlight about 10% of the story. When I've spoken to their other teachers, they struggle with focusing their attention and retaining information in their regular classes as well. Many of them have low English reading skills and/or low motivation. In any case, I just haven't reached them yet the way I would like to and I'm afraid they're getting left behind by the rest of the class.

This month, my "professional goal" is to meet these kids where they need me. Here are a few of the ideas I've come up with, but I'm also curious to hear your thoughts.

One strategy I'm experimenting is by using the videos of my instruction. Not only am I recording their stories from class and putting them on my YouTube channel (my kids think having a YouTube channel is so cool haha), but I'm also including the reading and a carefully chosen set of Quizlet flash cards that parents/students can practice.

In addition, I just started teaching novice students (0 hours of previous instruction) and am telling them a novice version of the stories ahead of telling my regular class their more intermediate version. I'm encouraging students who might want/need some extra practice and support to pre-listen to these easier versions of the story to understand the basic problem, characters, storyline, and vocabulary that they'll hear in their in-class version of the story (on the condition that they'll still pay attention when I tell it and won't spoil the story for others). These include the reading and flash cards as well. My hope is that by scaffolding the story this way, they'll increase their comprehension level, get more meaningful input, and I will still be able to tell the more difficult versions of the stories that the rest of the class is ready for.

Here are some other ideas that one of our excellent ELA/SPED teachers suggested after I described Story Listening to her (I'm still processing whether and how I would use them; these could be whole-group or small group) - she pointed out that typical students need 40 or more exposures to something to understand it and use it in a new way; students with learning challenges or exceptional needs can need twice that exposure to comprehend. Thus, these activities are aimed toward increasing that exposure in order to comprehend words in new contexts (PLEASE NOTE - I know that these do not lead to acquisition. Acquisition isn't my goal; rather, I would be using these strategies to increase comprehension of the input so that the stories are more comprehensible and effective for acquisition - perhaps think of these as "practical preliminary steps" in order to provide quality CI for all of my students given the particular challenges and demands of teaching in K-12 public schools) :

Interventions for students who are not comprehending the stories in the first place:
  • TPR (whole group): I already do this, but making more intentional effort; my students also report that this is one of the things that helps them the most
  • Signals (whole group): Something I already do, but I will continue training students to use signals to let me know when they are confused.
  • "Preview" the story by going over the main characters, setting, conflict, and key vocabulary with the small group (Not the resolution, so students are still intrested in listening to get the details and find out what happens; Of course, students who watch the novice videos beforehand would have most of his information but this might be a fail-safe for students who don't watch them)
  • Pre-teach the key vocabulary - I would emphasize that the point is to use the words to understand the story better, NOT the other way around, i.e. telling a story to learn the words
  • Provide a Graphic organizer with the key vocab to use as a reference during the story (perhaps organizing the words into boxes that will go along with the images and "scenes" I'm drawing? I might be able to provide basic images as well that wouldn't give away the story, but help students make connections as they hear the story and watch me draw) --> They should NOT be writing on this during the story, but rather using it as a reference  (Here is an example that I made and want to try out for our story next week)
  • After the story, have the whole class re-tell and sequence the main steps (in L1) and have the struggling students put this information into their graphic organizer.
  • Provide flash cards with key vocabulary (I'm doing this with the videos as noted above)
  • Video the story for review (I'm doing this now!)
  • Play games with they key vocabulary (not my favorite, but maybe something to do on a special "fun" day, like the Word Chunk Team Game or a game where students try to come up with the funniest/weirdest/saddest sentence using the verb)

Interventions for students who are understanding the story, but are not transferring what they hear to what they read, whether in context or when applying to new contexts (in addition to providing more auditory input):
  • Have students who are struggling to read (and often struggling to pick appropriate reading materials) read with me in a small group until they show they are able to select and understand materials with ease.
  • Students keep a small notebook to create their own dictionary of words to practice (a Montessori approach)
  • When creating the personal dictionary, I help students write a sentence in a new way/context than the original use.

I think I will explore using the graphic organizer and pre-teaching in the coming weeks, although I will have to re-arrange my class activities to do small groups.  As a secondary teacher, this seems a bit daunting - but I have to give it the good ol' college try!  If I can pull it off and my students are able to comprehend (and therefore acquire) more, then it's absolutely worth it.
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Transcending the Methods

11/23/2016

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Teachers like strategies.  We keep lists of them.  Nearly every teacher has owned (and likely still owns) books of strategies on top of the lists of strategies they've developed themselves that they like to use.  And when we sit around a table and talk, strategies are often the topic of conversation.  How did you do this or that?  How did it work?  How could I try it in my room?
 
Strategies often come in the form of a pre-packaged "method", which includes research-based approach along with clear design and procedure for using in class (Richards, 1986).  In other words, research says _____ increases student learning, so we're going to do that by doing A and B, and the expected outcome is C.  A "method" can form an entire curriculum or even set the context for a school (i.e. "Montessori method" or "Suzuki method").  

Methods are nice - they tell teachers "we've done the research and the work to make you a tool - go take it and teach!"  It allows teachers to focus on their immediate classroom needs.  The trouble with teaching by methods, however, is that teachers are limited to the artificial walls created by whoever designed the method.  If teachers only understand the methods and then hold themselves to the methods, two problems arise: First, they miss opportunities to meet the needs of their students which might be served by a different method that they have either rejected or are not familiar with.  This leads to the second problem, where teachers modify the method in order to meet the needs of their students.  However, this modification can fundamentally alter the method to a point where it is no longer achieving the goals intended.  They may be achieving some goal, but it's like the game of "telephone" - the end result is often some sort of message, but it isn't the original message that was intended.  While this might seem good on the surface (look!  He's learning better now!), it is problematic because the "original message" was research-based and the final message received is not.  Thus, we may no longer be teaching with "research-based" methods.  Obviously, the researchers did not work with our kids and adjustments will always need to be made - this is why we hire professionals to lead our classrooms.  So, how can we know that our real-life decisions in the classroom are really what is best for our students beyond a set methodology?
We must transcend the methods.
In other words, we need to take a step back and ask what principles make a particular method useful, and how can we apply those principles as we adapt our instructions to the students we have in our classroom and the needs of our circumstances (including your own teaching preferences)?  We need to look at the research itself and understand its implications at a deep level.  It's helpful to become familiar with methods based upon the research to understand some examples of application to the classroom while still understanding that most research looks at the nuts and bolts of learning rather than prescribing certain methodologies.

Moreover, we need to use this research to evaluate every method or strategy that we might employ.  This not only includes taking a critical look at any pre-designed methods, but it also breaks down those artificial walls to allow teachers to create new methods based on the needs of their students while adhering to research on student learning.

So, how do we do this?

First, we have to understand the principles established by extensive research.  These are at the core of our teaching philosophy, and so each teacher must carefully research, consider, and eventually adopt the principles they feel are most appropriate for their classroom.  Although we should come to some consensus about what these principles are, teachers teaching by someone else's principles that they do not fully understand and endorse will likely lead to a misapplication of the principles and ineffective teaching.
In the short-term, a teacher who is only ready to teach by methods can "borrow" principles, as we implicitly do each time that we agree to use a method.  Moreover, principles should be constantly reviewed and adjusted based on new learning - both in the world of research and in the teacher's own professional development.

​I am working on a post which more fully articulates the following principles that I have developed for my own instruction (second language acquisition), but here is a brief summary:
​
Language acquisition and the rate at which it occurs are determined by the natural order of acquisition, internal syllabus, and the amount of quality input that students comprehend.  Of these, we can only control the amount and quality of comprehensible input that students receive.  Thus, a language teacher’s top priority is to maximize the amount of comprehensible, compelling, and rich input that students receive.  Accordingly, my principles include the following:
  1. Pure comprehensible input is the most effective and efficient way to learn a language.
  2. Input must be compelling.
  3. Input must consist of rich language.
  4. Students must navigate meaning through interacting with the language.
  5. Teachers must create "flow" and do their best to avoid disruptions to this flow.
  6. A Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) program is a critical component of the language program.
  7. ​Assessment should be authentic, proficiency-based, and holistic.
Once we have these principles, we can explore, modify, and create endless methods while ensuring they are still firmly grounded in our instructional philosophies and principles.  As I explore new ways to reach my students, I apply the following questions based on my established principles:
  1. CI is most effective and efficient:   What comprehensible input are students receiving?  Are there any components that are not comprehensible input, such as output, grammar instruction, correction, etc.?  To what degree are they used and for what function?  Are they necessary?  Is there a modification that could be made to increase the amount of comprehensible input?  What effect will this activity have on the affective filter?
  2. Compelling: Will this be interesting enough to my students to be compelling?  Why or why not?  Am I providing this input because I want to teach the students something, or am I providing this input because I know the students will be interested in it?  How will I measure and respond to student interest level?
  3. Rich Language: What language am I using and why?  In what ways might I be limiting my language and why?  How will I ensure that what I'm saying is comprehensible?
  4. Navigate meaning through interaction: What behaviors will show that my students are comprehending the input?  What will they do when they understand?  What will they do when they don't understand?  How will I measure and respond to these behaviors?
  5. Flow: How will the lesson flow?  What interruptions to flow might occur?  Are there any elements of the method that will inhibit flow?  What is the intent of those elements and could they be adjusted to increase flow?  How will I handle those interruptions?
  6. FVR: What are the actual effects on reading for students?  How to students feel about reading during this activity?  Are they more or less intrinsically motivated to engage in independent and voluntary reading?  Will this eventually lead to students engaging in FVR?  Why or why not?
  7. Assessment: Is the assessment authentic or contrived?  Is it based on what students can do with their proficiency with regard to comprehension and communication?  Is the assessment contextualized?  Are students being graded holistically or on specific skills?  Does the assessment format and resulting feedback honor what students can and cannot control or influence (can: behaviors; cannot: acquisition)?
The answers to these questions give the why (or why not!) to every decision we make regarding instruction (and, yes, classroom management deserves its own list as well!).  This is so empowering!  So why is it not a regular practice?  I am guessing that it's because teachers are fed pre-packaged methods from the time they decide to become teachers.  Rather than asking new teachers to explore educational practices on a deeper level and develop and evaluate methods, we like to give them the tools to hit the ground running, and rightfully so.  
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Novice teachers usually do not have the experience, expertise, or even the capacity to engage in this deeper-level thinking - even educators must work their way up Bloom's Taxonomy in their practice, both in scope and in depth.  They are not focused on "practice" as much as they are focused on "tomorrow" or even "next period".  Their main objectives are to remember their lesson plan (which they may or may not have been able to create on their own), understand what it is they're trying to do, and applying it to the classroom.  Hopefully, they able to analyze the results (this usually comes with time), and eventually begin evaluating their lessons to create new lessons that are more efficient.*

​As we learn and grow, however, not only are obligated as professionals to not only move toward the upper tiers of Bloom's taxonomy, but we must also expand the scope of our vision and begin to look at practice.  Transcending the methods requires us to analyze and evaluate the practices themselves, and then effectively create new ones, both through modification and invention, that address the needs of our students and circumstances (which include the needs of the teacher!).  We cannot do that unless we let go of methods and teach by principles.

*Although new teachers might not be able to effectively develop effective principles at the beginning of their career, I think it is a great shame that they are mainly trained to focus on the methods rather than looking for the principles behind them.  Doing so facilitates a culture of "tunnel vision" where teachers may not even realize there is a need to eventually transcend the methods, and it takes trial and error for experienced teachers to eventually learn to do so for themselves.
​
References:

Herman, E. (2016).  Acquisition classroom memo 4.

​Richards, J.C., & Rodgers, T.S. (1986).  The nature of approaches and methods in language teaching.  In J.C. Richards & Rodgers, T.S. (Ed.), 
Approaches and methods in language teaching: A description and analysis (pp. 14-29). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Story Listening: A New Frontier

11/22/2016

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Note to the reader:
  • If you are unfamiliar with Story Listening, I recommend you visit the Story Listening page to get a general idea of what it it involves.
  • The primary person responsible for developing this particular methodology as well as the research behind it is Dr. Beniko Mason, who teaches English to her Japanese students exclusively through Story Listening supported by Free Voluntary Reading.  I highly recommend reading this post, where Dr. Mason details Story Listening in her own words.  It is worth noting that Dr. Mason is successfully using this method to teach her students to listen, read, write, and speak a non-cognate language with a different form of writing.  Moreover, English is not a phonetic language, presenting additional challenges for reading and writing.
  • Finally, there will be those who say that this is "nothing new".  Of course storytelling is not new.  We've been telling stories since the beginning of human history.  That in and of itself should be compelling enough information to consider using more stories in education.  We are wired for language and stories.  However, using it in an academic classroom with specific learning goals and timelines is a new concept, as are the specific techniques and behaviors that accompany Story Listening that Dr. Mason applied and researched extensively with a variety of students.  I am excited to see this research grow as more teachers with different circumstances and students test this method in their own classrooms.  Finally, using Story Listening is a new frontier for me as a teacher, as I imagine it will be for others.  I share my own insights on this, as with anything else, so that teachers who might wish to explore this frontier might be able to do so productively and meaningfully.

For the last three weeks, I've been trying out Story Listening for the first time in my classes.  I was struggling with the Story Asking as we would get stuck, I had trouble choosing details that kept everyone engaged, and many of my students were getting lost in the chaos or frustrated with the "flow" of the story.  My "low" kids weren't understanding what was happening.  My "high" kids wanted to keep moving.  And my "easily distracted" kids were off in their world.  I wouldn't say it was a hot mess, but it was close.  The kids were learning, but I didn't feel like we were going anywhere fast and I was frustrated and exhausted.  I'll readily admit that there are people more talented at "Asking a Story" than I am - but it just hasn't really ever "clicked" for me.  So, after a particularly rough first period, I decided I would let myself off the hook and simply tell a story to the next class.  I knew I had to pick something interesting, and the first thing that came to my mind was "La Llorona".  I found a quick summary of the story online to refresh my memory, printed it out, and "told" it.  Despite the minimal preparation, it was a hit!  I didn't do any drawing - I just put the words they needed help with on the board with the English translation.  After that, I pre-drew my pictures and vocabulary and told the story of "La Llorona" to my remaining classes with the pictures under the projector.  After each class, I asked the students to show me how they felt about the activity by holding up fingers.  A "3" meant they learned about the same, a "1" meant they learned a lot less, and a "5" meant they learned a lot more.  Even with my minimal understanding of Story Listening and almost no practice, every student in every class rated the activity as a "4" or a "5"!  I was sold!  I've made a number of adjustments since that first week and would like to share my "beginners guide" to getting started with Story Listening.

First, it's very important to understand exactly what Story Listening is and is not.  It is not simply storytelling.  Storytelling puts the emphasis on what the teacher is doing and will likely not meet the acquisition needs of students, whereas Story Listening is focused on the person who is listening to the story and responsive to what they need.  In order for story listening to be effective, the following conditions must be met:
  • The story chosen must be compelling.  This is perhaps the most difficult part of Story Listening - accurately predicting which students will best engage students
  • The story chosen must be at the appropriate level.  The content of the story must be easy to follow for the level of students you are telling (generally speaking, concrete, logical, and straightforward stories are easier to understand than abstract, nonsensical, and/or complex stories - silliness is perfectly fine, but it's usually easier to follow a logical train of thought and rationale for events).  You must also be able to tell the story with language at the i+1 level.
  • The teacher must be skilled at measuring whether the story is compelling and comprehensible at all times and be able to adjust the story and their strategies for delivering it when needed in order to meet the first two conditions.

It is also helpful to understand the potential similarities and differences between Story Listening and other methods of CI Instruction.  NOTE: I use the word "potential" because CI instruction can take many forms.  Almost all language teachers agree that we must actually use the language for students to learn it.  In some cases, this takes the form of stating sentences that the students understand.  Most traditional classes use the language in order to give instructions, although this use is incidental to the "real" instruction (i.e. vocabulary, grammar, worksheets, comprehension questions, etc. taking place.)  For this particular list of similarities and differences, I'm going to narrow the list to items that differ between Story Listening and other methods that are grounded in the idea that the instruction itself should be through CI and focused on meaning and proficiency rather than skills and vocabulary.  Even here, however, we find a lot of variance in how teachers instruct and the strategies they use, and and almost strategy has the potential to be used similarly or differently than the strategies employed in Story Listening.

Potential Similarities
  • The bottom line for using CI methods (which includes many different strategies for delivering CI) is that students learn through listening to and reading the language at a comprehensible level.  Story Listening addresses the "listening" aspect.
  • CI strategies 
  • Story Listening and other CI methods are intended to get students listening to, processing, negotiating meaning through interaction, and enjoying the language.
  • CI methods must be compelling, meaning that students are so interested that they are intrinsically motivated to attend to meaning.
  • Story Listening and other methods are student-centered as they respond to what students find interesting and what is comprehensible to them.

Potential Differences: (many of these items overlap, so I apologize for any repetition)
  • Many CI methods ask for explicit, verbal feedback and interaction to measure student comprehension and/or master of the language being used. For example, teachers might "circle" a particular word until all students are able to respond accurately and confidently with little to no hesitation.  While this may be helpful to some teachers and students, this is only one form of student interaction and feedback for the teacher.  When doing Story Listening, teachers use primarily non-explicit forms of interaction and feedback to judge comprehension and interest, such as student body language, pre-established signals, and authentic reactions to the input (gasps, excitement, comments about the story, etc.).
  • Many CI Methods attempt to get students engaged and make the information compelling by including student suggestions and ideas.  Story Listening gets students engaged and makes the information compelling by careful selection of a story based on its appeal to students.  Often, the best stories are those that have stood the test of time and transcended generations and even cultures, such as fairy tales and legends.  Once teachers know their students well, they may wish to find more modern stories or even write original stories that will interest their students.
  • Students are not expected to master anything in particular.  They are only expected to listen and enjoy the story.  Moreover, the teacher does not "teach" the story.  The story is used just enough to be meaningful to students and instruction moves on before students lose interest in it.  Teachers may or may not choose to reinforce what students heard by reading the story.  However, these activities are viewed in the lens of providing additional compelling input and opportunities to negotiate meaning at a deeper level.  Thus, just telling the story is often "enough" and teachers should avoid over-working any particular story.
  • Similarly, Story Listening is untargeted The stories told are not selected for any "content" value, such as vocabulary or grammatical patterns.  The teacher uses rich language at the appropriate level for students to understand what is happening.  The teacher may "target for meaning" (in other words, use the word just enough times to ensure that students understand what is happening), but does not continue to target anything more than needed to facilitate telling the story.
  • Building upon these last two points, students are not held accountable for anything in Story Listening. There is no quiz and the teacher does not assess the students with comprehension questions (although the teacher might ask an occasional question "in the moment" in order to make sure students are ready to move on to the next piece of information).  Students are simply expected to listen with the intent to understand and signal to the teacher if they become confused.
  • Questions are asked with different intent.  Some methods ask questions intended to check comprehension, get repetitions of a particular language chunk, or otherwise aimed at "teaching" students something.  With Story Listening, questions asked are intended purely to clarify meaning (What does ____ mean?) or simply because it is an interesting question.  There are no hidden motives - the teacher is simply communicating authentically with his or her students.  As with any communication, these honest questions and responses do indicate comprehension although that is not necessarily their intent.  
  • Story Listening uses rich language.  Students are exposed to the grammar and vocabulary needed to tell the story at a comprehensible level.  As students are exposed to this wide variety of language, they acquire vocabulary and grammar at their own pace along the natural order of acquisition.  Thus, stories are inherently differentiated, as some students are focused on "understanding" a particular chunk of language while other students are acquiring the language at a deeper level that will eventually lead to mastery.
  • Story Listening is predictable for the teacher.  The teacher knows what language will be used and can use if effectively.  Moreover, because I know what is going to happen with the story, I can pay more attention to whether or not students are actually comprehending the story and be responsive to their needs.  I imagine I am not the only teacher who has felt overwhelmed with simultaneously creating a story and ensuring that all students are comprehending the story (not to mention the other things teachers must attend to as they teach!).
  • Story Listening gives students more structure.  Because students have clearly defined roles and know what will be happening, they are able to feel more secure in that role.  Although it may not be true for all students, many of my students appreciate knowing all they have to do is listen to the story and react naturally to it (including letting me know they are confused).  They don't feel pressure to speak up in order to get their ideas included in a story, to compete with other students, or to demonstrate that they comprehend.  Consequently, most of my students feel more secure with Story Listening and feel that they get more out of class with the richer language and increased "flow".
  • "Flow", or when students are so absorbed in the experience and meaning of what is happening in class,  takes top priority in Story Listening.  There are fewer interruptions to the story by things like deciding on a detail, "targeting" a particular word or phrase, checking comprehension, extensive circling, etc.  Instead, the story flows at a pace that maintains interest.

Finally, I'd like to touch on a few differences in my personal preference for various strategies:
  • I do not get tunnel vision - I can focus on my kids because I already know the story and can anticipate what my students need to make it compelling and comprehensible.
  • Class is calmer and more secure for my students.
  • I am able to provide better language, both in quantity and quality.
  • My students enjoy these stories more.  They're happier, more interested, and have indicated that they feel they are learning more.  Consequently, almost all behavior issues and student frustrations have disappeared.
  • It's just easier for me.  We each have our own styles, and with Story Listening my voice is better, I'm not tired, and I enjoy it more.

So, if you'd like to get started with Story Listening, here are a few tips from my personal experience:
  • Read MANY stories - and sit on them a few days before you choose one to tell your class.   Be sure to consider a wide variety of stories your students might be interested in, including content, emotional affect, themes, etc.
  • Know your story inside and out so that you can focus on telling it in an engaging manner and responding to your students with regard to how compelling and comprehensible your story is.
  • Practice telling the story - and tell it out loud until you are comfortable.  What words will you use?  How will you make them comprehensible?  Especially for non-native teachers, are you comfortable using the language you want to tell the story with (yes, this is an opportunity for you to grow, too!)
  • Draw live.  This slows you down and builds interest.  I'm a terrible artist.  My creativity lies in how to adequately illustrate a story with stick figures.  I think they like my drawings better because they are *so* bad, yet they get the point across.
  • Plan your drawings.  You can do this mentally, but at least consider what images you will draw in order to make the meaning clear.  I recommend including key vocabulary with your drawings and connecting them to the images - you will also want to plan this.
  • Get dramatic.  The kids LOVE to see adults do crazy things.  I yell, beg, sing, smack items, use gestures and facial expressions. Each story is a little more dramatic than the rest.  I love entertaining my kids.  Like with my drawings, I'm a terrible actress - but my kids give me credit for trying.  They know I'm giving them my best and putting it all on the line for them, so they really want to see me succeed and make me feel good, too.
  • Get student feedback about what students like.  My students have started giving me "story requests" - today my students made me promise to write a story about the Chupacabra.
  • This is just a personal preference, but I teach my students transition words with rejoiners.  For instance, I say "así que" in a certain way, often with a hand gesture (especially at the beginning) and my students are trained to respond "sooooo" in the same way that I said it in Spanish.  Other words include "but", "however", "therefore", "then", "before", "after", "although", etc.  Add one word at a time and train yourself to say the word the same way and use the gesture every time.  Practice it a few times and then use them in your stories!  This will give a little extra "flair" to your students' vocabularies, increase interaction, and help connect the ideas in the story.
  • Most importantly, DON'T GIVE UP!  If a story fails, ask yourself why.  Was the story itself simply not compelling?  What about how you told it?  Was the language too difficult?  Was there anything that interrupted "flow" - both of the language and of the story?

Good luck with your Story Listening!  I would love to hear from more teachers trying this in their classrooms and will continue to post videos regularly of my own.

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The New FVR Program - Update

11/19/2016

5 Comments

 
This is a follow up to my post The New and Improved FVR Program.

Well that was interesting....

Give a kid assigned reading, and they do what they have to to get the assignment done (maybe).

Eliminate the homework and give a kid time in class to read with options and support, and they check out books to take home.

That about summarizes my experience this week.  It was magic!

​Context: These students have had approx. 70 minutes of Spanish every other class day for 2.5 months. I assigned reading as homework three weeks ago (30 minutes), but eliminated all homework this time and decided instead to give students structured free-reading time during class with options for various materials, levels, and scaffolding by working with partners, in groups, or individually (see below for more details). Then, I said "go".

Yesterday, a future Spanish teacher was subbing in the room across from mine. Her kids were at lunch, so I invited her over to see what was happening in my room. The reading time was well under way. I asked her the most important question in education, "How do you know they're learning?"

She looked at them for a moment, and then said, "Because they're doing it?"

YES! It seemed so simple, too obvious to be the right answer. But, glancing around my room, I could see students demonstrating sustained focused on a page to read it, and then turning the pages when appropriate. Students were reading the books out loud to their partners. Students were laughing and reacting to the information in the books. Some students were switching from materials that were too hard or not interesting to materials that better fit their needs.  Everywhere, it was very obvious that the kids were DOING IT. They were READING. So then I asked, "If I know they're learning, then do I need to give them a quiz, test, or some other form of assessment to know that they're learning?" NO! I already know that they are learning. Their behavior IS the assessment, and it doesn't take a trained teacher to know that some awesome learning was happening in there.

Oh yeah, and no fewer than 7 students asked to check out items from me this week, even though they have access to all of them online. In fact, I had a sub on Thursday, and on Friday two girls approached me with books in their hands. They apologized because they "accidentally" took the books home with them, but I could tell from their body language that they didn't want to give them back. So, I asked if they'd like to check them out, and they were so excited! My library is getting smaller and smaller.....

Here is how I structure reading in my classroom:
First, I explained to students the intention of the structured reading activity: I want to help them feel successful reading and find something they enjoy reading, so much that it inspires them to keep reading on their own simply because they want to, not because anyone is forcing them to. I also explained that this might take a while for them, so don't expect it to happen today or even this trimester. As they learn more language, they'll find it easier and easier to read and I will keep working to find something they enjoy. I posted Bryce Hedstrom's poster "How to choose reading material" and briefly went over it with them. I plan on educating them about effective reading for 2-3 minutes each time we do Free Reading.

I assigned some Reader Leaders ahead of time and gave them instructions on how to conduct a reading group and model effective reading and troubleshooting. These were students that already have high reading ability (based on my formative benchmark assessments, which I've created by adapting Eric Herman's speed readings) AND who I felt would be good leaders. I assigned each of them a three-chapter segment of Eric Herman's "Ataques de Hambre" - I chose this book because the students already know the fairy tales and three chapters to a story is less intimidating than a whole book, so it was like a "gateway" to novel reading.

I gave students the options of reading alone or in the groups led by my Reader Leaders. Most students chose to join a group - I found it was best to limit the groups to only 4-5 students (including the leader), smaller for groups that might have trouble focusing (which included, not coincidentally, my lowest readers). There are some students who are on my private "must read with a group" list, but nearly all students chose to read with a group anyway so I didn't have to ask them to do so.

For students not reading in the groups I gave them access to my extensive class library of Fluency Fast and TPRS novels (I only put out my Nov-Low and Nov-Intermediate novels, and then personally invited my advanced students to select from my higher-level novels if they would like to), embedded readings of stories they've already heard in class (one group of three ladies chose these), the "benchmark assessment" readings (Some REALLY wanted to keep passing off stories all period), and access to a Google Drive folder (no one used these - they all preferred hard copies since they were available) where I have more short stories for novice readers, "Mundo en tus Manos" from Martina Bex, and some other resources. I also introduced my highest readers to Newsela. I've reserved the computer lab for all of our future reading days so that students don't have to use their devices to access these materials.  I plan to continue observing what students choose to read (including what they put down and pick up throughout the period) and tailoring my library according to their decisions.

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What is Compelling Comprehensible Input?

11/6/2016

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In one sentence, Compelling Comprehensible Input is when students listen to or read messages in the target language at a level that students understand, and the messages are so interesting that students are compelled to understand.
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Compelling Comprehensible Input is student-driven - the messages communicated and the language used is chosen based on what will be compelling for students, not what a curriculum, textbook, or teacher decides is “needed”.  The kids literally become the curriculum as teachers set up and guide comprehensible input experiences centered on what students find compelling.

Compelling Comprehensible Input is loving - It accepts and validates students both academically, socially, and individually.  Academically, students are taught at a level which matches their current abilities and comfort zone, and there is no pressure to do any better or worse or more or less as long as they are comprehending compelling messages.  Socially, students are given free reign to interact with one another and their teacher to create a class culture and environment that supports every student.  Individually, student input and interests are valued and incorporated as the instruction centers on what students wish to discuss.

Compelling Comprehensible Input is fun and engaging - As teachers and students dive into using the language to communicate messages that are compelling, the experience is naturally rewarding and pleasurable.  Teachers and students genuinely enjoy creating and communicating together so much that they want class to continue past the bell and often share the stories and discussions with others outside of class time.

Compelling Comprehensible Input is meaningful and motivating - Both the messages discussed with students and the experience itself are meaningful for students.  Students are intrinsically motivated to participate because the information is so compelling, and they forget that they are learning a language.  Yet, when the experience is over, they realize that they successfully navigated the experience in the language that they are learning and they are able to apply what they learned to new and authentic contexts, showing evidence and practicality of their learning.  This pleasurable success reinforces how meaningful the class is to them and motivates them to continually engage themselves in future experiences.

Compelling Comprehensible Input is flexible and freeing - Anything that is compelling and comprehensible for students is fair game to use.  Only a general idea and lesson structure are necessary to get a lesson going, and the students run with the language from there.  Oftentimes, the “lesson plan” may evolve and change as students become engaged in shaping what is meaningful and compelling to discuss.  Compelling Comprehensible Input not only leaves space for this to happen, but enthusiastically encourages this type of organic language experience.  Since there are no hidden agendas about what language should be learned, everything is gained and nothing is lost or missed when this happens.

Compelling Comprehensible Input is honest - There are no hidden agendas when communicating compelling input.  The messages are not selected based on teaching a specific grammatical form nor a vocabulary list.  The messages are simply compelling, and all of the language that students need is provided through the rich and understandable language used to communicate them.

Compelling Comprehensible Input is simple and easy- Neither students nor teachers have to worry about whether students learn specific vocabulary or grammar targets.  They don’t have to worry whether students have learned what they need to.  Teachers only need to focus on whether the information is compelling and comprehensible, and students only need to focus on listening or reading with the intent to understand and letting the teacher know if they don’t understand.  If this is occurring, language acquisition will happen with no intentional effort or studying.

Finally, Compelling Comprehensible Input is all that language learners need - Many classrooms do not use Comprehensible Input or they use it along with a variety of other strategies in order to help students “learn” a language.  However, an impressive body of research, both completed and ongoing, shows that pure Compelling Comprehensible Input is both more efficient AND more effective than any other instructional approach (SOURCE).  Teachers and students can take confidence and find reassurance in the fact that that comprehending compelling messages is all that students need in order to acquire the language and develop proficiency at all levels.

This last item warrants shouting from the rooftops over and over, but I’ll just say it again here:
Compelling Comprehensible Input is all that language learners need and it is both more efficient and effective than any other instructional approach.
Let’s discuss this for a moment.  This means that the following instructional activities become unnecessary and even disadvantageous: grammar instruction and drills, vocabulary lists and exercises, output (speaking and writing), comprehension questions, drilling, repeating, corrective feedback, and any other conscious learning process. (For more research on this, see Chris Stolz's research page).

It is important to note that the results of instruction through Compelling Comprehensible Input are qualitatively different than other methods and so cannot be measured the same way.  Traditionally, language acquisition has been measured through the completion of isolated language tasks such as translating sentences, vocabulary tests, verb conjugation, etc.  These almost always require conscious effort to recall and apply explicit rules and information to communicating in the target language.  The assumption is that by learning the skills, students will eventually be able to communicate.  However, these types of activities do not reflect real and authentic communication and so do not translate to real-world skills and proficiency.  In order to successfully apply skills to real-world scenarios, language learners must know the rule, be thinking about the rule, and have time to apply the rule (SOURCE: Krashen Keynote).  Unfortunately, these conditions are usually only met in artificial classroom environments.  In authentic conversations, participants usually have an extremely limited amount of time to comprehend, process, and respond and would be focused on the conversation rather than the linguistics used to form individual words, phrases, and sentences.  Moreover, most people simply don’t care about the language and rules in the first place - they simply want to be able to communicate and understand meaning.

With Compelling Comprehensible Input.  By understanding compelling and comprehensible input in the language, the students subconsciously acquire the skills in order to develop proficiency.  Moreover, the students develop these skills along the unalterable natural order of acquisition at their own unalterable pace.  Because the skills are subconsciously acquired and we cannot control the order nor the pace that they are acquired, it would be unfair to mandate that students learn specific language patterns along a set course or timeline, nor would it be fair to hold teachers accountable for student mastery of those patterns.  Moreover, the most important vocabulary for students to learn is the vocabulary that is meaningful, compelling, and useful to them, which cannot be appropriately covered using a predetermined list from a textbook.  Through Compelling Comprehensible Input, students are continuously exposed to both the vocabulary and grammar that they need in a contextualized manner that is interesting, fun, pleasure, and more efficient and effective than any other way.  The product of such instruction is natural and authentic holistic language proficiency.
​
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Language Chunks and Targeting

11/6/2016

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Note: This is my expansion on the ideas presented in a blog post on T1 and T2 by Dr. Stephen Krashen.

A key difference between Compelling Comprehensible Input and other similar approaches lies in the use of language and targeting/circling.
​
Language chunks can be described as WHAT is taught and are defined as “groups of words that can be found together in a language” (SOURCE).  Than can take various forms, but the rule of thumb is that they should communicate meaning rather than exist as an isolated word or word segment.  Occasionally all you will need to make communication meaningful is a single word, but teachers should make an effort to contextualize the words within a meaningful chunk.  Collocations (words that are often found together) expressions, idioms, and phrases that illustrate grammatical patterns are all examples of chunks.

The language chunks introduced in a class usually come from two sources: the curriculum (established chunks) and the students (emergent chunks).  Traditionally, the language to be learned has been established by a pre-determined curriculum.  While this may allow for comprehensible input, focusing on a particular chunk at the sacrifice of student interests will likely inhibit learning in two ways.  First, it focuses student attention on the language to be learned rather than simply comprehending the messages.  Second, it focuses teacher attention on using the chunk rather than catering to student interests and ensuring that the input is compelling.  While many talented teachers can use established chunks to provide Compelling Comprehensible Input, these chunks are unnecessary and many other teachers are restricted and feel pressure to artificially infuse them into a lesson that would otherwise be focused on using the language that would be naturally compelling for students.  Emergent chunks are the slices of language that emerge from a compelling context as necessary to communicate meaning within that context.  These are solely focused on student interest and needs and have no hidden agenda behind them, although much, if not all, of the vocabulary and grammar that students will eventually need to acquire is present in them.

Targeting (or a lack thereof) involves HOW the language is used and can be described as using a particular language chunk repeatedly in order for students to acquire that chunk at a certain level.  Circling is a specific type of targeting where a teacher asks a series of questions using the language being targeted.   There are multiple types of targeting that can be differentiated based on the intent behind repeating the language chunk.  Only one type of targeting is fully compatible with Compelling Comprehensible Input.

Targeting for Meaning
This is the only type of targeting that Compelling Comprehensible Input encourages.  Essentially, the teacher repeats the language chunk as necessary in order for students to comprehend the message.  They might repeat the chunk while pausing and pointing to the board, recycle the chunk as they build context around it, use the chunk in different contexts, do TPR (Total Physical Response) by adding actions and having students do the appropriate actions the words they hear, use gestures or images, ask the students to chorally translate, etc.  As soon as the students understand the language chunk, the teacher moves on.  This process might have to be repeated each time the chunk comes up, but the sole intent behind targeting the word is simply to ensure that all students understand what is being communicated.

Targeting for Repetitions
Students often need to hear language chunks used numerous times before they can acquire it.  Thus, teachers sometimes attempt to maximize the number of repetitions that students hear and read within a given lesson or series of lessons, especially when the chunks are pre-established by a curriculum that teachers feel obligated to address through the language they use.  Whether the language chunks are established or emergent, intentionally getting as many repetitions as necessary focuses teacher and student attention on the language being used rather than comprehending meaningful messages.  It also inhibits the level to which he messages are compelling.  Some chunks are more “sticky” than others and require few if any repetitions for students to understand them.  Additionally, students will acquire the chunks at different rates, so intentional repetitions of a particular chunk will likely become boring and students may disengage as a teacher attempts to use the chunk enough times for all of the students to acquire it.  Not only is this undesirable, but it is unnecessary.  By putting Compelling Comprehensible Input first and focusing on simply communicating compelling and comprehensible messages using the language chunks necessary when they are necessary, the teacher quickly establishes and clarifies meaning where needed.  Over time, students will get the input and repetitions necessary to fully acquire the language.

Targeting for Mastering Grammar
Finally, some teachers target with the intention to help students master the grammatical patterns associated with a given chunk, usually associated with verb conjugations.  They repeat the chunk in different forms, often various conjugations, in order for students to hear the different grammar patterns.  The idea is that by using the different forms, students will acquire the grammatical patterns and be able to apply them when using the particular chunk and eventually to similar or related chunks.  Again, this diverts attention away from communicating and understanding compelling and comprehensible messages, can become boring, and focuses students and teachers on conscious learning rather than subconscious acquisition.  While teachers should ensure that all of the grammar is contained in the language used, they should do so through using rich language rather than intentional repetitions of specific language chunks various forms.

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Kagan Update

10/16/2016

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Although I felt like my prior posts on using Kagan with CI caused a bit of a stir and a fair amount of conversation, I didn't realize just how much those ideas might endure and be attached to me until someone approached me at a Conference this weekend and asked me about using Kagan.  Due to this, I feel like I need to post an update about my current position on Kagan Cooperative Learning in the CI classroom:

Due to my experiences over the past few months, I've had a "rebirth" of sorts into the CI world.  Because of this, I have taken some significant steps away from using Kagan as a main method in my classroom and instead focusing on simply storytelling and communicating compelling and comprehensible methods.  However, Kagan and the underlying principals of cooperative learning do still have their appropriate places and are used often in my classroom - just not as extensively and not in the same way that I was using them before.  I do still feel that cooperative learning is essential in my classroom for a few reasons - it demonstrates my faith in students to figure something out on their own, allows them to build relationship through supporting one another, adds variety to the classroom, and especially because it gives me an opportunity to hear how they verbalize their internal processing of the language - I occasionally realize that the class was "understanding" something in a different way than I intended, and this gives me a quick break from instructing to monitor and adjust instruction as we move forward.  I generally use teacher-centered instruction for co-creation of stories, which forms the backbone of the language that we use in class.  The cooperative activities (including Kagan) come into play when students are processing input together, such as re-reading a story that we co-created.  There are excellent structures beyond Kagan that utilize cooperative learning, such as the "Running Dictation" or any variation thereof.  As long as students are engaging in Positive Interdependence, have Independent Accountability, have Equal Opportunities to participate, and are Simultaneously Interacting, then all of the benefits of true cooperative learning are present and valid.
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