Pobre Ana: Story 7 - Transportation in Africa

Structures:

• New Structures:
• tomaba el ______ e iba a ______
• se subió a(l) ______
• se bajó de(l) ______
• Recent Structures:
• Story 6: A dress for Helga
• Story 5: A boyfriend for Linda
• Story 4: Chucky's Chocolate
• Story 3: Frederick's Marvelous Hat
• Story 2: Tiny the Elephant
• Story 1: Maria the Thief
• TPR Words

Story

Había una chica que se llamaba Jane.  Trabajaba en McDonalds en Africa.  Cada día tomaba su tigre e iba a su trabajo.  Antes del trabajo, se subía a su tigre, iba a McDonalds, y se bajaba de su tigre.  Después del trabajo, se subía a su tigre, iba a su casa, y se bajaba de su tigre.  Pero, había un problema.  El tigre quería comer a Jane.  Necesitaba otra manera de transportación.

Tenía un hipopótamo.  Jane siempre tomaba el tigre e iba a McDonalds.  Nunca tomaba el hipopótamo e iba a McDonalds, pero se subió a su hipopótamo, fue a McDonalds, y se bajó de su hipopótamo.  Después del trabajo, se subió a su hipopótamo, fue a su casa, y se bajó de su hipopótamo.  Pero, había un problema con el hipopótamo.  Era muy, muy odoroso y Jane estaba triste.  Necesitaba otra manera de transportación.

Tenía una girafa.  Jane siempre tomaba el tigre e iba a McDonalds.  Nunca tomaba su girafa e iba a McDonalds, pero se subió a su girafa, fue a McDonalds, y se bajó de su girafa.  En la tarde, se subió a su girafa, fue a su casa, y se bajó de su girafa.  No había un problema.  La girafa estaba perfecta y Jane estaba contenta.  No necesitaba otra manera de transportación.

Storytelling Self-Evaluation

Reblogged from Señorita Barragán:

I had to clip this to my Evernote the other night:

Photo credit: twitter.com/soccermom2013

Fabulous find. Thank you @soccermom2013! I’d heard of guided notes during storytelling (students write down target vocabulary, jot down main points of the story, such as main characters, the conflict, etc., draw pictures, and write a summary), but I think I’m more likely to utilize something like this as the occasional exit slip. I took the liberty of creating a file to share. You can download it below:

Inklewriter Story!

I created my first Inklewriter story, complete with personalized details and circling!  Once I got the hang of it, it's pretty easy to use and brilliantly designed.  This goes with Pobre Ana: Story 1 - María the Theif.  Check it out!

"The Theif" Inklewriter Story

Some possible uses for these:

• Out of class reading activity
• Make-up for students who miss the story
• Help with storytelling in-class (you could add additional details and circling, act it out, etc)
• In-class reading activity

And I'm sure there are many more applications!

Just a tip:  Decide what you want to circle and personalize carefully.  Each detail that is circled or personalized adds more work!

Pobre Ana: Story 6 - A Dress for Helga

Structures

• New Structures:
• le gustaba ______
• no podía pagar
• iba a pagar con
• Recent Structures:
• Story 5: A boyfriend for Linda
• Story 4: Chucky's Chocolate
• Story 3: Frederick's Marvelous Hat
• Story 2: Tiny the Elephant
• Story 1: Maria the Thief
• TPR Words

Story

Había un hipopótamo que se llamaba Hugo.  Hugo quería un vestido para su novia, Helga.  A Helga, le gustaba un vestido azul con patos verdes.  Vestidos azules con patos verdes estaban en JC Penny, El Gap, y Marina Vieja de Guerra.  Había un problema. Hugo no tenía dinero.  No podía pagar con dinero.  Pero, tenía 428 iPods.  Tenía iPods verdes con diamantes, iPods rosados con flores, y un iPod de oro.  Iba a pagar con los iPods.

There was a hippopotamus that called himself Hugo.  Hugo wanted a dress for his girlfriend, Helga.  To Helga, to her was pleasing a blue dress with green ducks.  Blue dresses with green ducks were in JC Penny, The Gap, and Old Navy.  There was a problem.  Hugo didn't have money.  He couldn't pay with money.  But, he had 428 iPods.  He had green iPods with diamonds, pink iPods with flowers, and an iPod of gold.  He was going to pay with the iPods.

Hugo fue a JC Penny.  En JC Penny, había un gato que se llamaba Gloria.  Gloria tenía el vestido azul con patos verdes.  Quería $2,793 para el vestido, pero Hugo no podia pagar con dinero.  Iba a pagar con los iPods verdes con diamantes, pero a Gloria no le gustaban los iPods.  Hugo no podía pagar.

Hugo went to JC Penny.  In JC Penny, there was a cat that called herself Gloria.  Gloria had the blue dress with green ducks.  She wanted $2,793 for the dress, but Hugo couldn't pay with money.  He was going to pay with the green iPods with diamonds, but to Gloria to her weren't pleasing the iPods.  Hugo couldn't pay.

Hugo fue al Gap.  En El Gap, había un pero que se llamaba Pepe.  Pepe tenía el vestido azul con patos verdes.  Quería $678 para el vestido, pero Hugo no podia pagar con dinero.  Iba a pagar con los iPods rosados con flores, pero a Pepe no le gustaban los iPods.  Hugo no podía pagar.

Hugo went to The Gap.  In The Gap, there was a dog that called herself Pepe.  Pepe had the blue dress with green ducks.  He wanted $678 for the dress, but Hugo couldn't pay with money.  He was going to pay with the pink iPods with flowers, but to Pepe to him weren't pleasing the iPods.  Hugo couldn't pay.

Hugo fue a Marina Vieja de Guerra.  En Marina Vieja de Guerra, había una ballena que se llamaba Beluga.  Beluga tenía el vestido azul con patos verdes.  Quería $781 para el vestido, pero Hugo no podia pagar con dinero.  Iba a pagar con el iPod de oro.  A Beluga le gustaba mucho el iPod de oro.  Hugo podía pagar y tomó el vestido azul con patos verdes para su novia.

Hugo went to Old Navy.  In Old Navy, there was a whale that called herself Beluga.  Beluga had the blue dress with green ducks.  He wanted $781 for the dress, but Hugo couldn't pay with money.  He was going to pay with the iPods of gold.  To Beluga to him was pleasing the iPod of gold.  Hugo could pay and took the blue dress with green ducks for his girlfriend.

Interactive Reading

Today, I discovered Señora Barragán's website and blog.  She's got a lot of great ideas!

One in particular was for a resource called Inklewriter.




Isn't this exactly what we do for our stories - having a framework, and then allowing students to change the details??  Of course, I would most likely be using the feature that simply changes the nouns used throughout the story...  But, I could also change the ending!  What a great way for students to practice reading stories at home!  Adding this to my must-do list :)

Using Volunteers in Class

I'll take a break from writing stories for Pobre Ana to mention an insight I had last week while preparing/doing my interview for my new job.  One of the things I'll need to integrate into my classroom is parent volunteering.  Parents at Somerset are required to volunteer 30 hours per year...  But I have to admit, I was at a bit of a loss as to how to use them!  Without being fluent speakers nor having an understanding of TPRS methodology and how it differs from what they experienced in most (all) of their classes, it's hard to find something parents can do.

I came up with the easy ideas of decorating the classroom and making copies, but I really wanted to think of something concrete and meaningful for parents to do.  A slightly better idea was for parents to chaperone/host cultural activities like field trips or after-school experiences, such as going to a Mexican restaurant.

Then, finally, it dawned on me: Speaking!  This is the one area that I found is difficult for students to get sufficient practice in doing.  They're to embarrassed to do it with someone outside of class, I don't have the time to monitor or do formative assessments, and very few students (particularly in Spanish 1) take full advantage of the opportunities I give them to speak with one another because it's still uncomfortable for them.  However.... what if, during certain activities that students are able to pick right back up where they left off (reading!), I had a parent volunteer or two pulling students aside and simply listening to them talk for 30 seconds (or whatever the time requirement is).  I think this would have many beneficial outcomes:

• Under the specific supervision of an adult, students are able to simulate what they will have to do for the speaking section on the final, so they won't be as unfamiliar or nervous about it when the final actually rolls around.  During my student teaching experience, many students did poorly on the speaking section because it was simply a new situation to them (even though I had asked them to practice with each other multiple times and given them opportunities to do so in class).  Upon being given a second chance and knowing what to expect - usually in the same class period - most students who did poorly improved their grade drastically. 
• The fear of making mistakes or saying things in a funny way is minimized because the person can't understand what they're saying anyway!  It's the attitude of "At least I can speak more Spanish they can!" 
• Even if they don't understand any of it, parents are likely able to give me a good idea of how students will perform on the final with a basic rubric: continues talking, frequent pases, talked very little, using made-up words.  I'm fairly positive that if the student sounds like they're saying something comprehensible in real Spanish to a parent, they probably are.  Parents can give them this simple feedback (graphed in their interactive notebook!) - but of course, students will have the most insights into how they are doing and whether they'll need to improve their performance before I listen to them talk.

Pobre Ana: Story 5 - A Boyfriend for Linda

Structures:

• New Structures
• pasaba poco tiempo ______
• le dio un boleto
• llevó el boleto
• Recent Structures
• Story 4: Chucky's Chocolate
• Story 3: Frederick's Marvelous Hat
• Story 2: Tiny the Elephant
• Story 1: Maria the Thief
• TPR Words

Había una chica que se llamaba Linda.  Quería un novio alto y guapo.  Pero, había un problema.  Pasaba poco tiempo con chicos.  Necesitaba pasar más tiempo con chicos para tener un novio.  Su mamá le dio a Linda cinco boletos del teatro en Broadway.  Eran para "La fantasma de la ópera."   Linda llevó los boletos a la escuela.  

There was a girl that called herself Linda.  She wanted a tall and handsome  boyfriend.  But, there was a problem.  She passed/spent a little bit of time with boys.  She needed to pass/spend more time with boys to have a boyfriend.  Her mom to her gave to Linda five tickets to the theater on Broadway.  They were for "The Phantom of the Opera." Linda took the tickets to the school.

Llevó cinco boletos a la clase de historia.  Frankie estaba en la clase.  Frankie era alto, pero no era guapo.  Linda pasaba poco tiempo con Frankie.  Le dio un boleto a Frankie. 

She took five tickets to the class of history.  Frankie was in the class.  Frankie was tall, but not handsome.  Linda passed a little bit of time with Frankie.  To him she gave a ticket to Frankie.

Llevó cuatro bolets a la case de matemáticas.  Chucky estaba en la clase.  Chucky era alto y guapo, per era un chico malo.  Linda pasaba poco tiempo con Chucky.  Le dio un boleto a Chucky.  

She took four tickets to the class of math.  Chucky was in the class.  Chucky was tall and handsome, but was a bad boy.  Linda passed a little bit of time with Chucky.  To him she gave a ticket to Chucky.

Llevó tres boletos a la clase de ciencias.  Victor estaba en la clase.  Victor era guapo, pero no era alto.  Linda pasaba poco tiempo con Victor.  Le dio un boleto.  

She took three tickets to the class of science.  Victor was in the class.  Victor was andsome, but not tall.  Linda passed a little bit of time with Victor.  To him she gave a ticket to Victor.

Llevó dos boletos a la clase de español.  Jeffrey estaba en la clase.  Jeffry era una girafa muy, muy alta y guapo.  Linda pasaba poco tiempo con Jeffry.  Le dio un boleto a Jeffrey.

She took two tickets to the class of Spanish.  Jeffrey was in the class.  Jeffry was a very, very tall and handsome giraffe.  Linda passed a little bit of time with Jeffrey.  To him she gave a ticket to Jeffrey.

Tenía uno más boleto para ella misma.

She had one more ticket for herself.

En la noche, fue a Broadway.  Llevó el boleto al teatro.  No había nadie en frente del teatro. Así, pasaba poco tiempo en la fila.  Le dio el boleto a un hombre del teatro y fue al show.  En el teatro estaba Jeffrey la girafa.  Pasó mucho tiempo con Jeffrey y eran novios.

In the night, she went to Broadway.  She took the ticket to the theater.  There wasn't anybody in front of the theater.  So, she passed a little bit of time in the line.  To him she gave the ticket to a man of the theater and wen to the show.  In the theater was Jeffrey the giraffe.  She passed much time with Jeffrey and they were boyfriend and girlfriend.

Pobre Ana: Story 4 - Chucky's Chocolate

Structures:

• New Structures:
• le gritaba
• siempre comía ______
• buscó el ______ pero no lo encontró
• Recent Structures:
• Story 3: Frederick's Marvelous Hat
• Story 2: Tiny the Elephant
• Story 1: Maria the Thief
• TPR Words

Story:

Había un chico malo que se llamaba Chucky.  Siempre comía chocolate.  Siempre le gritaba a su mamá: "¡Quiero chocolate!"  Siempre le gritaba a su papá: "¡Quiero chocolate!"  Siempre le gritaba a su maestra: "¡Quiero chocolate!"  Nunca comía otras cosas.

There was a bad boy that called himself Chucky.  He always ate chocolate.  He always yelled at his mom: "I want chocolate!"  He always yelled at his dad: "I want chocolate!"  He always yelled at his teacher: "I want chocolate!"  He never ate other things.

Un día, Chucky fue a su mamá y le grito: "¡Quiero chocolate!" porque siempre comía chocolate.  Pero, su mamá no tenía chocolate.  Chucky buscó el chocolate en la casa, pero no lo encontró.  Encontró un calcetín.  Nunca comía calcetines, pero tenía hambre y lo comió.  No estaba contento.

One day, Chucky went to his mom and to her yelled: "I want chocolate!" because he always ate chocolate.  But, his mom didn't have chocolate.  Chucky looked for the chocolate in the house, but didn't find it.  He found a sock.  He never ate socks, but he had hunger and ate it.  He wasn't happy.

Chucky fue a su papá y le grito: "¡Quiero chocolate!" porque siempre comía chocolate.  Pero, su papá no tenía chocolate.  Chucky buscó el chocolate en su carro, pero no lo encontró.  Encontró dinero.  Nunca comía dinero, pero tenía mucho hambre y lo comió.  No estaba contento.

Chucky went to his dad and to him yelled: "I want chocolate!" because he always ate chocolate.  But, his dad didn't have chocolate.  Chucky looked for the chocolate in his car, but didn't find it.  He found money.  He never ate money, but he had much hunger and ate it.  He wasn't happy.

Chucky fue a su maestra y le grito: "¡Quiero chocolate!" porque siempre comía chocolate.  Pero, su maestra no tenía chocolate.  Chucky buscó el chocolate en el baño, y lo encontró.  Encontró chocolate raro y largo.  Lo comió.  Nunca comía chocolate otra vez.

Chucky went to his teacher and to her yelled: "I want chocolate!" because he always ate chocolate.  But, his teacher didn't have chocolate.  Chucky looked for the chocolate in the bathroom (or trash can) and found it.  He found strange and long chocolate.  He ate it.  He never ate chocolate again.

Pobre Ana: Story 3 - Frederick's Marvelous Hat

Structures:

• New Structures
• lo necesitaba para ______
• nunca compraba nada
• vio a la policía
• Recent Structures
• Story 2: Tiny the Elephant
• Story 1: Maria the Thief
• TPR Words

Story:
Había un dragón.  Se llamaba Frederick.  Quería un sombrero maravilloso.  Lo necesitaba para la fiesta de Justin Beiber.  Vio muchos sombreros maravillosos en las cabezas de personas famosas, y quería el sombrero perfecto.  Pero, había un problema.  Frederick nunca compraba nada porque no tenía dinero.
There was a dragon.  He called himself Frederick.  He wanted an marvelous hat.  He needed it for the party of Justin Beiber.  He saw many marvelous hats on the heads of famous people, and he wanted the perfect hat.  But, there was a problem.  Frederick never bought anything because he didn't have money.

Fue a Deseo Bueno.  En Deseo Bueno, vio muchos sombreros maravillosos.  Había un sombrero azul con diamantes.  Era perfecto.  Lo necesitaba para la fiesta de Justin Beiber.  El precio era $2,000, pero había un problema.  Frederick nunca compraba nada porque no tenía dinero.  Había otro problema.  Frederick vio a la policía en frente de Deseo Bueno.  Así que, no lo tomó.
He went to Goodwill.  In Goodwill, he saw many marvelous hats.  There was a blue hat with diamonds.  It was perfect.  He needed it for the party of Justin Beiber.  The price was $2,000, but there was a problem.  Frederick never bought anything because he didn't have money.  There was another problem.  Frederick saw the police in front of Goodwill.  So, he didn't take it.

Fue a Walmart.  En Walmart, vio muchos sombreros maravillosos.  Quería el sombrero rojo con gatos.  Era perfecto.  Lo necesitaba para la fiesta de Justin Beiber.  El precio era $42, pero había un problema.  Frederick nunca compraba nada porque no tenía dinero.  Pero, Frederick no vio a la policía en frente de Walmart.  Así que, lo tomó.
He went to Walmart.  In Walmart, he saw many marvelous hats.  He wanted the red hat with cats.  It was perfect.  He needed it for the party of Justin Beiber.  The price was $42, but there was a problem.  Frederick never bought anything because he didn't have money.  But, Frederick didn't see the police in front of Walmart.  So, he took it.

Pobre Ana: Story 2 - Tiny the Elephant

Structures:

• New structures:
• vivía en ______, pero estaba en ______
• estaba (feeling)
• tenía ______
• Recent structures:
• Story 1
• TPR Words

PQA:

Story:

Había un elefante.  El elefante se llamaba Tiny.  Tiny era un elefante muy, muy grande.  Vivía en Hollywood, CA.  Estaba en la playa y estaba triste.  Había un problema.  Tenía dos bikinis azules, pero quería un mini bikini rosado.  No tenía un mini bikini rosado.  Era un problema grande.
There was an elephant.  The elephant called himself Tiny.  Tiny was a very, very big elephant.  He lived in Hollywood, CA.  He was on the beach and he was sad.  There was a problem.  He had two blue bikinis, but he wanted a pink mini-bikini.  He didn't have a pink mini-bikini.  It was a big problem.

Así que, Tiny fue a Alaska.  En Alaska, había un gato.  El gato se llamaba Whiskers y era un gato pequeño.  Whiskers vivía en Alaska, pero Tiny no vivía en Alaska.  Vivía en California, pero estaba en Alaska.  Estaba triste.  Whiskers no tenía un mini bikini rosado porque no había bikinis en Alaska.  Tiny quería un mini bikini rosado.  Había un problema.
So, Tiny went to Alaska.  In Alaska, there was a cat.  The cat called himself Whiskers and was a little cat.  Whiskers lived in Alaska, but Tiny didn't live in Alaska.  He lived in California, but he was in Alaska.  He was sad.  Whiskers didn't have a pink mini-bikini because there weren't bikinis in Alaska.  Tiny wanted a pink mini-bikini.  There was a problem.

Así que, fue a Florida.  En Florida, había un perro que se llamaba Clifford.  Clifford era un perro grande y rojo.  Clifford vivía en Florida, pero Tiny no vivía en Florida.  Vivía en Californa, pero estaba en Florida.  Estaba triste.   Clifford tenía bikinis, pero no tenía mini bikinis rosados.  Tenía mini bikinis negros.  Tiny quería un mini bikini rosado.  Había un problema.
So, he went to California.  In California, there was a dog that calls himself Clifford.  Clifford was a big, red dog.  Clifford lived in Florida, but Tiny didn't live in Florida.  He lived in California, but was in Florida.  He was sad.  Clifford had bikinis, but he didn't have pink mini-bikinis.  He had black mini-bikinis.  Tiny wanted a pink mini-bikini.  There was a problem.

Así que, fue a Hawaii.  En Hawaii, había una chica que se llamaba Suzie.  Suzie era baja, pero muy bonita.  Suzie vivía en Hawaii, pero Tiny no vivía en Hawaii.  Vivía en California, pero estaba en Hawaii.  Estaba contento.  Suzie tenía muchos mini bikinis.  Tenía mini bikinis negros, azules, rojos, y rosados.  Tiny quería un mini bikini rosado.  No había un problema.
So, he went to Hawaii.  In Hawaii, there was a girl that called herself Suzie.  Suzie was short, but very pretty.  Suzie lived in Hawaii, but Tiny didn't live in Hawaii.  He lived in California, but he was in Hawaii.  He was happy.  She had many mini-bikinis.  She had black, blue, red, and pink mini-bikinis.  Tiny wanted a pink mini-bikini.  There was not a problem.

Pobre Ana: Story 1 - Maria the Theif

Structures:

• New Structures
• era un(a) ______
• había un problema
• quería un(a) ______
• fue a ______
• Recent Structures:
• TPR Words

PQA

• es:
• Write on board: ¿Eres tú un(a)______?/Soy un(a) ______./Es un(a) ________.
• Translate with class on board and add actions (point to person you're referring to)
• ¿Eres tú ______?  = Are you _____?
• Add chant (Are you sleeping?)
• Soy ______. = I am
• Watch "Yo Soy tu Gummy Bear" and/or "Mexicano (Barrio Zumba)"
• Es un(a) ________. = S/he is a_______.
• Chant ¿Eres tú? ¿Eres tú? the question two times (pointing to a student on "tú") and add on noun to complete the question (tell the students what you're asking if s/he is before and invite them to ask the complete question with you)
• Student responds: "Sí, soy un(a)______." OR "No, no soy un(a)______"
• Prompts: "¿Sí o no?"
• Report to the class: "(No) es un(a)..."
• Class responds - follow up to find out more
• finding out what they are, including "¿Qué eres?"
• finding out more detailed descriptions of what they are by adding color with yes, no, or what questions
• Hay un(a):
• Write "hay un(a)" on the board, translate, and add action (cover eye and point to something)
• Have students stand up and tell them "Hay un(a) chic@."
• After this is done a few times, ask it as a question: "¿Hay un(a) chic@?" and students reply with "Sí" or "No."  Model correct answer in a complete sentence.
• Expand to ask ¿Qué hay? and have students respond with "chic@" or "Hay un(a) chic@."  Model correct response.
• Expand to other easy objects (cognates/basic words) with props or pictures (dog, cat, elephant, banana, etc., first asking yes or no questions and progressing to open-ended questions.
• Quiere:
• Write on board: ¿Qué quieres?/Quiero________./Quiere_______.
• Translate with the class on the board and add actions (palms up wiggling fingers)
•  ¿Qué / quier/es? = What/want/you? (What do you want?)
• Quier/o________. = Want/I _______. (I want...)
• Quier/e_______. = Wants/ s/he ______. (S/he wants...)
• Add chant to "¿Qué quieres?"
• Chant the question two times, and point to a student.  Ask "¿Qué quieres?"
• Student responds: "Quiero...."
• Report to the class: "(name) quiere...."
• Class responds
• Va a:
• Write on board: ¿Adónde vas?/Voy a_____./Va a______.
• Watch Señor Wooly's "¿Adónde vas?" video.
• Translate with class on board and add actions (sweep hand away with a "V")
• ¿Adónde vas? = To where go you?
• Voy a_____. = I go to...
• Va a______. = S/he goes to...
• Sing (like Señor Wooly video) "¿Adónde vas? ¿Adónde, adónde vas?"
• Chant the question two times, and point to a student.  Ask "¿Adóne vas?"
• Student responds: "Voy a..." (prompts: "Voy a WalMart/McDonald's/Disneylandia."
• Report to the class: "(name) va a..."
• Class responds

Story:

Había una chica.  Se llamaba María.  Había un problema.  María era una chica pobre.  No había dinero en la casa de Maria.  Quería mucho dinero.

There was a girl.  She called herself Maria.  There was a problem  Maria was a poor girl.  There wasn't money in the house of Maria.  She wanted much money. 

Así que, fue a Banco de América.  Había un problema.  Banco de América era un banco pobre.  No había mucho dinero en Banco de América.  María quería mucho dinero.  Así que, no tomó dinero de Banco de América.

So, she went to Bank of America.  There was a problem.  Bank of America was a poor bank.  There wasn't much money in Bank of America.  Maria wanted much money.  So, he didn't take money from Bank of America.

Así que, fue a US Banco.  US Banco era un banco rico.  Había mucho dinero en US Banco.  María quería mucho dinero.  Pero, había un problema.  No había dinero en la cuenta de María.  Así que, robó mucho dinero de US Banco.  Había mucho dinero en la casa grande y nueva de María.

So, she went to US Bank.  US Bank was a rich bank.  There was much money in US Bank.  Maria wanted much money.  But, there was a problem.  There wasn't money in the account of Maria.  So, she robbed much money of US Bank.  There was much money in the big, new house of Maria.

Pobre Ana

While reading through Pobre Ana, I made a list of the structures that are used throughout the book.  Not all of them are included, but this is a fairly comprehensive list of the most important structures used.  I narrowed my list down to what I could tell stories about for approximately a quarter and grouped them together by what made sense for a story as well as a rough order for presentation due to necessity and complexity.  I  plan to teach these structures using stories and then sum up our learning by reading the book as a class during the final week of the quarter.  

Finally, at the bottom, I listed all of the cultural topics I found in the book that students could research and present to the class.  


Structures/Stories:

• Story 1: Poor Maria
• era un(a) ______
• había un problema
• quería un(a) ______
• fue a ______
• Story 2: Tiny the Elephant
• vivía en ______, pero estaba en ______
• estaba (feeling)
• tenía ______
• Story 3: Frederick's Marvelous Hat
• lo necesitaba para ______
• nunca compraba nada
• vio a la policía
• Story 4: Chucky's Chocolate
• le gritaba mucho
• siempre comía ______
• buscó el ______ pero no lo encontró
• Story 5: A Boyfriend for Linda
• pasaba poco tiempo ______
• le dio un boleto
• llevó el boleto
• Story 6: A Dress for Helga
• le gustaba ______
• no podía pagar
• iba a pagar con
• Story 7: Transportation in Africa
• tomaba el ______ y iba a ______
• se subió a(l) ______
• bajó de(l) ______
• Story 8: Making an Impression
• tuvo que hacerlo
• estaba (-a/iendo verb) bien
• estaba sorprendida
• Story 9:
• podía vivir con una familia mexicana
• le dijo
• no comprendió nada pero sonrío y les dijo "sí"

Culture Topics:

1. Passports and travelling abroad
2. Poverty in Mexico
3. Transportation
4. Mexican states
5. addresses in Mexico and other countries
6. utilities (power/hot water/etc)
7. homes in Mexico
8. Tepic, Nayarit
9. recreation (exercises, swimming with clothes on)
10. food
11. money
12. music
13. dances
14. schools
15. greetings and gestures
16. accents and regionalisms

Patricia Va a California

Culture

1. Guatemala
2. Panajachel, Guatemala
3. Lago Atitlán
4. tourists
5. volcanoes
6. indígenas
7. poverty
8. school
9. huipiles y cortes
10. colors of clothing to represent town
11. seasons of the year
12. work

TPR Words

This is a list of words I want to TPR before getting into stories in order to help students form a base vocabulary as well as experience success at the beginning of the year.  In addition, many of these words will be used frequently in day-to-day activities as well as in stories and novels.  I've chosen to put these into 3rd person form since that is what they will be hearing and using most and can tranfer that knowledge to understand commands when given during class.

1. ayuda
2. grita
3. se llama
4. trabaja
5. pone
6. necesita
7. endtiende/comprende
8. mira
9. saca
10. se levanta
11. se sienta
12. baja
13. agarra
14. habla
15. toma
16. camina/anda (hacia)
17. toca
18. escucha
19. pregunta
20. lee

New Books!

I received my 20 books from blaineraytprs.com yesterday!!  Yay!  I ordered all of the novels for the middle school and level 1 classes.  Then, I labeled all of them with my name and the level they were written for (Novice-low/mid/high).  Finally, I'm reading all of them to see which ones I want to center my curriculum around and decide how I want to use them.  So far, I've read "Pobre Ana" and "Patricia va a California", and am just starting "Casi se muere".

My first impression is that I want to center my curriculum on the Pobre Ana series since they are so consistent with structures and draw upon a lot of culture.  My original plan was to pull a few structures for storytelling from a chapter, work on those structures for a week, and then read a chapter or so of the book.  However, there are so many structures used right from the beginning and the repeated throughout the book (which seems logical now), that it doesn't seem that would be effective.  Instead, I've adjusted my idea to use the book like a "unit".  I'll pick out the most important structures from the entire book, pair those with mini-stories (either from LICT or my own), and then work on those for a number of weeks.  I imagine I want to stretch these out over the entire quarter, and I think there's plenty of structures in the book to do so.  Then, at the end of the quarter, we'll set aside a week or so to simply read and discuss the book!  That week, there wouldn't be any independent reading or storytelling - just simply reading the book in-class, discussing it in Spanish, and possibly some sort of homework to reflect on what was read that day.  Another TPRS-er mentioned they liked reading books all at once this way because it's easier to remember and discuss some of the more minor details that make the story interesting.   I'm very excited about it!

In addition, I had another idea for culture.  Since I'd like to do about books per semester (one each quarter), I can compile a list of culture topics related to the book.  To keep the topics organized by which book we're reading, and possibly to help students create connections between different aspects of the culture, each topic would have an assigned date with one topic per day.  Students would sign up for which date/topic they would like to research and do a brief presentation on.  (Depending on how students sign up, I could either skip the remaining topics or do them myself.)  I want to explore different "approved" presentation methods to allow students some flexibility to use their strengths and interests along with a topic somewhat of their choice.  With only one 3- to 5-minute presentation per day, these would be spread out across the course of the semester, but not on our week set aside for reading.  Instead, all of the topics related to that particular book would be presented before our class novel-reading, which I believe would greatly enhance the class's background knowledge about the book and our discussions during the reading.  In lower levels, students could do their presentations in English, and, eventually in higher levels, I could require students to do their presentations in Spanish.

I can't wait to read more!  I haven't read any of the other novels (except "El Nuevo Houdini"), but right now I feel like those would best serve as class library books for free-choice reading.  If I got a few of each novel, I'd have enough books to go around and most students should be able to find something appropriate for their level :)

Culture Projects

Culture is going to be an important aspect of our curriculum, and I had an idea as I was laying out my curriculum map.  One of the most valuable learning experiences I had was my senior project in high school as well as my capstone class report in college.  What set these assignments and projects apart from the rest of my school experience was the degree of flexibility we were allowed in selecting our subject.  Given loose guidelines, I was able to choose something of most interest and relevancy to me.  For example, in my senior project, I had to choose something I wanted to change in my community, form an opinion, and propose a solution (persuasive).  My capstone class was more expository and I had to select a topic related to any of the themes or ideas presented in any of the literature and media we had read/viewed during the course - the topic was the Dirty War in Argentina, but had many underlying themes like friendship, family, love, and patriotism, so anyone could find something they were interested in if they searched hard enough.  While the subject matter was flexible, the requirements were very specific.  For example, my senior project required a research paper and proposal as well as a presentation in front of a panel of judges, while my capstone class took us through a series of activities and assignments that culminated in a presentation of our paper to the class during which our classmates graded us using a rigorous rubric.

I'd like to give my students this same opportunity.  Since our curriculum will be novel-based, I'm thinking that we'll read one novel each quarter, then students will have time to prepare a "culture project" with specific requirements, but flexibility in what students choose to present.  I imagine I would like to do this similar to my capstone course and require students to choose a cultural theme or idea present in the novel we read that quarter.  Of course, students will need to get their topic approved by me first, but I think this would be a fantastic way to dive into the culture in our books.

Here are a few ideas I have for projects, mostly inspired by the projects I did in high school or college:

• Create an artistic representation of your idea and present/explain it to the class
• Prepare a dramatic piece (can perform a scene, interpretation, monologue, puppet show, etc)
• Create a cultural artifact (food, clothing, tool, model, etc....)

Getting deeper into the book, there are more specific things like creating a political poster, a passport, diary of a character, design a house or market booth, draw a map, etc.  Once I select the books I want to use, I'll make a list of ideas I have but also allow students to come up with their own (approved) ideas for their projects.  I did find a lot of cool ideas on this site!

I'm excited to dive into the books and begin thinking about the culture we could pull in!

Props!

Props really enhance storytelling as students enjoy playing with the toys and costumes and are inspired to add new details.  My cooperating teacher had a wonderful supply of props and accessories, and I'm excited to start gathering my own!  I called my mom and asked her if my 300-item Beanie Baby collection had ever gotten donated.  By some miracle, it's stayed in my old bedroom for the last 5 years, so it'll be my jump-start animal collection for stories!  Gotta love Beanie Babies :)  I also stopped by Deseret Industries and picked up these lovely fellows:

They'll make excellent story-telling characters/props since the words are easy cognates that students remember (mono, girafa, y hipopótamo) and they have a lot of character.  The hippo sits up on his own, but looks grumpy/sad all the time.  The giraffe is happy, and those horns are perfect handles for riding him somewhere.  And the monkey is simply cute, pink, and funny-looking with really long arms and legs that even have velcro on them so we can make him hang on to things.  When I mentioned I was getting these for my class, the cashier asked what grade I taught.  She wasn't expecting my answer: middle and high school!  I love my job :D

Student Work

As I plan for my class this fall, I'm envisioning the types of things students will be doing and how they will be turning them in.  I'm not a fan of paperwork and homework - it's too much to grade and doesn't really do much anyway.  However, I've come up with a few ways to organize student work that I think will work very well.

First, I am a huge fan of interactive notebooks and plan for students to create their own.  I've mentioned this before, but now as I'm working through my curriculum, I have a much clearer idea of what I want their notebooks to look like.  This takes a huge amount of forethought and planning as there are a limited number of pages and they cannot simply be added or taken away, but should contain evidence of all the learning and activities students complete as a part of my class.  As I solidify my ideas about what I want students' notebooks to look like, I'm also creating my own version as a test-IN as well as a future example for students.  Thus far, my IN is laid out like this:

• Front cover: Name, Class, and Teacher (and any other decorations and designs as they please)
• Inside front cover: Glued/Taped-in Table of Contents
• Page 1: Taped-in Syllabus
• Pages 2-3: Grouping arrangements
• Pages 4-13: Grade Trackers
• Page 4: Objective 1: Listening (Semester 1)
• Page 5: Objective 1: Listening (Semester 2)
• Page 6: Objective 2: Reading (Semester 1)
• Page 7: Objective 2: Reading (Semester 2)
• Page 8: Objective 3: Writing (Semester 1)
• Page 9: Objective 3: Writing (Semester 2)
• Page 10: Objective 4: Speaking (Semester 1)
• Page 11: Objective 4: Speaking (Semester 2)
• Page 12: Objective 5: Citizenship (Semester 1)
• Various chunks of this grade have their own tracking sheets taped in
• Page 13: Objective 5: Citizenship (Semester 2)
• Various chunks of this grade have their own tracking sheets taped in
• Pages 14-69: Pruebitas (warm-ups)
• This is the only section that we will be using on a daily basis to check understanding and learning, so there needs to be plenty of room.
• Pages 70-89: Timed Writes
• Students will do timed writes in their notebook and on separate sheets of paper taped in to conserve notebook space.
• Pages 90-155: Stories
• The first two pages are reserved for hand-outs with an overview of all of the structures.
• The remaining pages are for notes about the stories on the right-hand pages (writing the structures and any info about them, events in the story, etc), while the left-hand pages are reserved for student interaction with the information, such as re-writing the story in various ways, illustrations, etc.
• Pages 156-200: Misc
• Everything else, including culture, songs, alphabet, numbers, anything extra we do with the novel, etc.  Oftentimes, these will be taped-in hand outs or notes.

Though most in-class work will be completed in the IN, which will be checked/stamped periodically and assigned a mid-term and final grade, there are a few other activities that won't be included in the IN other than where they're recorded in the grade-tracker.  Here's what I've got so far:

• Reading Journal: Assigned and submitted weekly via EdModo using a form or template.
• Re-Writes: Students can submit their re-writes of the stories the same night via EdModo (see my Classroom Storybook post).
• Pen Pals: I can check of that students have turned in Pen Pal letters before distributing them

VERY exciting news!

This last weekend, I took a trip down to Logan, Utah, for an interview.  Through networking on the MoreTPRS Listserve, I had connected with one of the teachers at Somerset Academy of Las Vegas, Sky Pointe Campus and there was a position for a secondary Spanish teacher.  I never even dreamed of Las Vegas being in the plans for us, but it was too great of an opportunity to pass up.  I planned to meet the principal for an interview at the job fair in Logan that she was attending, and my husband and I discussed this position and possible move constantly over the next week or two.  By the time I showed up, I was almost positive this was the position for me.  The interview confirmed my feelings - and ended in an offer!

So, I'm excited to announce that I will have my own classroom full of students this fall in Las Vegas.  This will be quite the transition for us and a brand new start and adventure!  Plus, now I get to focus my planning and materials on a REAL curriculum that I'll be using in my very own classroom!

Since we want to move toward being more novel-based, I ordered the entire set of Level 1 readers from Blaine Ray's website, including those for middle-school students.  They shipped Friday, so I should be getting them soon!  The plan is to read all of them and pick which ones I want to center my curriculum around and order class sets.  I plan to take 1-2 months on each novel, connecting my storytelling, culture, discussion, and reading all together.  I'm going to pull my storytelling structures from the novels, so I'll be working on those stories once I figure out which novels I want to use.  For now, I'll be putting my LICT stories on hold, though I may continue them if I have time and motivation haha.  Instead, I'll post my stories for the novels and am hoping to start creating the materials (both physical and digital) I want to go with them!

Here we go!

QR Codes in TPRS

I'll admit, I'm a little behind the times on this one, especially for having grown up in the technology-infused generation that I belong to.  I'll blame it on my stubbornness to pay the premiums that Verizon demands for data.  However, I have since found a cheaper phone carrier and purchased a smart phone.

And today, I discovered the name and function to those funky little squares popping up everywhere: QR codes (thank you Señora Hitz).  And now, my brain is working in warp speed on all the ways I could use these within my classroom.

Mind = BLOWN.

I'm so excited!  Here are a few of my ideas:

In my last post, I described the supplementary TPRS ask-a-story videos I'd like to create.  These would have all been great fun and accessible from my website, but, let's face it, many students will never make it there.  Unless.....  there is a QR code!!  What if, when I gave students the list of all the structures we plan to do, there were QR codes included that students could scan and go directly to the stories with those structures!! Awesome!!

And the class story-books that I want to create for each class?  I could include a QR code for the video that teaches the structures contained in the story story as well as for an audio file of that exact story being read with correct pronunciation so students can listen to the story and read along.  Epic!!

And of course, now I'm thinking of all the many places I could put QR codes for students to access digital media, which I use constantly in class.  All the Sr. Wooley videos, Prezi presentations, class website and EdModo page, my Spanish music playlists on YouTube and Pandora, any hand-outs or materials I want them to have, approved research websites.......  The possibilities for integrating media seamlessly into the classroom are endless!  Welcome to the 21st Century Classroom!

Kathy Shrock's Guide to Everything is an excellent resource I found with more information and applications for QR codes as well as a number of resources for getting started with them in your classroom!

UPDATE: Vocaroo is a great resource that allows you to record audio and then generate a QR code to hear it - I'll definitely be using it in the future!

TPRS without a teacher

I've been planning to create videos for the stories and structures that I TPRS.  These wouldn't necessarily be the exact stories that students came up with in class, but still teach the same structures, complete with questioning, adding details, and then circling them.  I even purchased an animation program with which I can animate pictures of things - i.e. famous people (including myself), animals, stuffed animals, etc. - to compensate for my lack of hand-illustration skills and then adding audio.  Of course, students wouldn't be able to suggest details to include in the story, but these would achieve taking TPRS home to prepare/learn/practice/review the structures we did in class with "real" TPRS.  Plus, students can pause, rewind, and replay as much as they'd like!  Of course, I want them to do that in my real-life classroom as well, but watching a video on your own removes some of the inhibitions to signal me to stop/slow down/repeat that will remain in a real classroom setting no matter what I do.

I imagine a few uses for these videos:

1) First, for my use, I have a way for students who miss class or need to review to do so in a classic TPRS-style.  Sure, the stories may not be as interesting or interactive, but that's why you show up to class!  However, it is still a useful and valuable resource for any students that need and/or want it as well as something that I could assign for review.

2) Second, for other teachers' use.  I want to spread the word about TPRS!  One of the best ways to learn about TPRS is to actually experience it.  This would open up opportunities for other teachers to realize the strength and power of teaching through asking stories as well as provide a rough guide for how it's done.

3) Third, for other students' use.  Unfortunately, I cannot be my husband's or little-brothers' full-time teacher.  However, with videos like these, I can give them a starting point for learning the structures.  Of course, that would then be supplemented with leveled reading material.  And, with a motivated student, I can almost simulate the TPRS experience for them to learn on their own time and schedule.

Inter-class pen pals

Ever since we wrote to pen pals in my second grade class, I have always loved the idea of giving my students the opportunities to write to pen pals.  Particularly in Spanish classes, this would be a wonderful way for students to practice reading and writing Spanish.  While I would love to do this with students from other countries in upper grades! I think students in lower grades would be nervous about writing to fluenct Spanish-speakers and also have difficulty reading.  However, yesterday a teacher told me about how students at her school have inter-class pen pals!  I thought this was such a fantastic idea I had to write it down! Students would write letters to a pen pal using their curreent vocabulary and be paired with another student at the same level and therefore using the same vocabulary.  They would use their Spanish nicknames, so they likely wouldn't know who they were writing to, at least at first.  This gets students practicing their Spanish reading and writing as well as creating a community between classes.  What a great plan!  Moreover, I could pair students in a way that they could learn from each other as each student has their own strengths and weaknesses in their writing, and students would begin to notice what they're doing correctly and what they need to improve on by reading their classmantes' writing.  I imagine I would require students to write back and forth each week (citizenship grade!), and then reveal pen pals at the end of each quarter and assign new ones to get more variety.  I can't wait!

Classroom Story Books

While coming up with ideas for my class library for free-choice reading, I'm tackling the issue of providing materials that are interesting for students while still being comprehensible.  Using childrens or other books, particularly for beginners, is difficult because they often contain strange and unusual words or ideas that are really not necessary or even helpful for devloping fluency.  Mreover, students will get discouraged when struggling to read books meant for children much younger than them.    One solution I plan to use is by providing leveled readers designed specifically for second-language learners, such a Blaine Ray's mini stories and novels.  I fact, I've got an entire set of beginner Spanish books from his site on the way to read and select my favorites to order for the class!   I've also been toying with the idea of providing my own reading materials based on the structures and stories used in my own classroom, which led me to this idea...

At the end of each year, I want to type up and bind/publish a collection of all the stories created within a class.  We would record each story we tell and each class would have their own book.  I imagine that many students would probably want their own copy as well, which would be an excellent resource to show evidence of and review what they learned that year.  

I got even more excited when thinking about how to get these recorded - In a combination of ideas from the MoreTPRS listserv, I plan to assign three students each story day to re-write the story from class in Spanish (I might consider dong it in English for the first few weeks in Spanish 1) and create an illustration.  I would be willing to take volunteers for the three people assigned that day to do it to ensure I got at least one version back, but I would probably require each student to submit a mininum number of re-writes whenever they wanted to throughout the semester as part of their citizenship grade.

 Edmodo would be great for this (though illustrations would probably need to be turned in on paper) as students can submit their stories that night and I can provide individualized feedback on their writing.  The next day, for review, I could also edit/combine the stories and hand out correct versions of a few stories for students to read and review the story from the day before.  Ultimately, I would create one "master" version that I would combine with the illustrations to go into the class story book to be published at the end of the year.  I love this idea because we can do so much with it with listening, reading, and reviewing, as well as create so many personallized resources for the class and that students will love to have for themselves!

Harlem Shake - TPRS Style

Today was one of my favorite subbing experiences.  The teacher knew I was certified in Spanish and so left plans that actually involved teaching.  Being a grammar-based curriculum, the students were working on "we" commands using subjunctive.  After reviewing what they'd already read in the book, I began doing some basic PQA with them, asking what the class should do and having them respond with "we" commands.  As a sub, I have to work some quick magic to build rapport and get the students out of their shells, so I had them act out whatever their classmates commanded them to do.  Then, one student commanded us: "Bailemos el Harlem Shake!"  And thus, I participated in my first Harlem Shake video today.

This is by far one of my favorite things about TPRS - it's always an adventure to see what students will do once they take the language and run with it!

On a related note, the teacher came in during the last 20 minutes of the second class I was subbing for and go to witness another PQA activity, and loved what we were doing!  She got a kick out of seeing "Bailemos el Harlem Shake" on the board and is looking forward to the video as well :)

What I love most about teaching

Don't get me wrong - I'm grateful to be in the schools with students and I love the opportunities I have for growth and development.  Subbing is a fantastic job.  At the same time, however, it is also very difficult and frustrating for me.  I finally realized that this is because subbing lacks the three things that I love most about teaching.

First, I love building enduring and meaningful relationships with the students.  Sure some subs are frequently found in the same classrooms with the same students, but right now I see new students and am in a different school almost every day.  Sometimes a student or two recognizes me (and it makes my day when they tell their friends I'm an awesome sub!), but I really only get those students for a few hours at most.  While I enjoy getting to know the many students throughout our district as well as the many wonderful stories and personalities they have to share, I miss getting to know the kids in my classroom on a deeper level and really being the teacher/counselor/role model/etc. that I get to be when I see them daily.

Second, I love to do what I know how to do best.  I'm very confident and passionate about what I do when I conduct a class.  I get to plan lessons that I feel will be of benefit to my students, practice strategies that I know are research-based and effective, adjust those lesson plans during the class, and then reflect and improve upon each of these in preparation for the coming classes.  Moreover, I know who I am as a teacher and what works best for me and my students, loving every minute of it.  As a sub, not only am I not able to do each of these things, but I am more or less required to be a specialized babysitter as teachers often leave basic lesson plans with the objective of simply keeping their students managed in their absence.  I am usually out of my element with a subject that I do not specialize in teaching, but I'm also following someone else's plan.  Early on in my student teaching, I learned that I am my very best when I do me rather than trying to do anyone else's style and method of teaching, but I'm not afforded that luxury as a substitute.

Third, I love the opportunity to see these students learn and grow.  This is possibly the most difficult thing for me not to have as it is the core of why I became a teacher.  The ability to achieve this depends on the first to reasons I love teaching.  Since I have limited time and ability to build relationships with students and am not able to teach the way I know how to, I usually don't get to experience the joy of seeing my students learn and grow.  As a sub, I get a brief glimpse of where these students are, and, on occasion, get to revisit them later and receive updates on how they've progressed since the last time I subbed.  On very special occasions, I have the opportunity to explain a concept that they didn't understand at the beginning of the period and the pleasure to see things click and they experience success, even excitement, over their newfound knowledge and skills.  Unfortunately, even this joy is only half-fulfilled since I won't have the opportunity to re-assess tomorrow and make sure they truly learned the material and then build upon that knowledge.

There are many valuable things I have learned from substituting in many classrooms with a variety of subjects and countless students of all ages and backgrounds.  The experience and insights I've gained are priceless and will make me a better teacher than I could have been without having subbed.  And, each morning when I get up, I still look forward to the lovely faces I'll meet as well as what I will learn.  But more than anything....

I want my own classroom full of my very own students!

Independent Reading

I would really like to encourage my students to do their own independent reading outside of class.  To me, beyond simply studying, this seems to be the best form of homework for my students to improve their vocabulary and get correct input.

Of course, even reading in their native language can be an arduous endeavor for students and many students end up hating it altogether (see my post "Death to Reading"), so how do we get them to read in a language completely new to them?  Luckily, for me, this is an opportunity to help my students re-discover a love of reading (see my post "The (Re)Birth of Reading").

I plan to set a weekly reading time requirement for students to read and journal about.  At first, it may be as little as 10 minutes of reading each week, building up to 30 minutes for higher levels.  Time is a better requirement than a certain number of pages/words as every students can make an effort for 10 minutes and progress as far as their level and ability allows them to, while a set number of pages or something similar might take a higher student a small effort to complete while it is near impossible for another student to complete no matter how long or hard they try.

Along the same lines, I want it to be as flexible as possible so that students feel they have some choice in the matter and are able to find what works best for them.  For instance, I don't want to put a requirement on the texts they read.  While we will complete novels and reading in-class that we use for discussions and other assignments/work, I want students to select their own materials to read outside of class.  Of course, I will guide them toward the materials of most benefit to them in language acquisition through teaching them how to tell if a book is an appropriate level for them as well as providing a "leveled" library of materials that they may check out, including readers such as those published by Blaine Ray and Carol Gaab and even short stories written by me and other students.  However, should students find books like children's stories or popular novels they've read in English more interesting and rewarding, they would be welcome to try reading those as well!  They would be welcome to find books on their own either from the library or bookstore (and hopefully even donate them to the class library when they're done!).  I did consider allowing students to use online materials, but believe that would result it text being copied and pasted into translators.  I think I'll just stick to books :)

A reading journal would be used to help students (and me) keep track of their reading.  Students would record the title and author of what they read as well as a brief summary/translation of the text and/or what they learned.  Since the goal would be to improve reading, I would allow them to write their summaries in English or in Spanish, but encourage students (especially upper levels) to try writing their summary in Spanish.  Of course, there would have to be a minimum requirement for how long the summaries have to be - possibly one word per required minute?  For instance, students required to read for 10 minutes each week would have to have summaries at least 10 words long.  In addition, they would create their own "personal dictionary" logging the new words they found.  Having done this myself, I would give them a minimum number of words (maybe using the same guideline for length of reading?) so that they don't have to log each and every new word.  I would also encourage them to log the most important words, whether it's a common word that they hear/read often or because it is a word they want to incorporate into their vocabulary.

I believe this process will set them up for success and allow them to gain a love for reading and an important means for input.  Now, I just need to start building up my Spanish library!

EDIT:  More reasons to support independent reading!  Is Self-Selected Pleasure Reading the Cure for the Long-Term ELL Syndrome? A Case History

The (Re)Birth of Reading

In my last post, I discussed how it seems that reading had been given a death sentence, particularly with high school students.  So what do we do now?

I believe that there are two main goals for reading, and they will dictate the route to reviving reading for our students.

1. Reading for information
2. Reading for language

Regardless of the purpose or goal for reading, there are a few things that each of these routes have in common.  First and foremost, the text must be comprehensible.  There is no point in reading if students cannot create meaning from what is being read.  Second, interest is critical.  We are all fully (and often painfully) aware that a student that is unwilling to learn cannot be taught, but that a student determined to learn cannot be stopped.  Likewise, a student that is unwilling to read cannot be forced to truly do so, but a student that is determined to read will succeed.  Even when the reading level is beyond a student's ability, a student determined to read and learn will find a way to do so.  If we are able to foster interest in our students, reading will follow.

Reading for Information

First, let's tackle reading for information.  This is the purpose of reading in many subjects.  Realistically, most informational texts are not going to be read from cover to cover.  Rather, we use various tools (like the Table of Contents or, my personal favorite, "search" function in electronic texts) to sift out the exact information we're looking for.  The other information will only be read if it is of interest to the reader or if it seems relevant to the task at hand.  Rather than forcing students to read an entire text they most likely will not take meaning from anyway, shouldn't we be teaching effective skills for finding this information?  Moreover, in the real world, students will most often not be given a specific text or source in the first place, but rather have to find their own reliable sources of information (in the case that they do have "required" reading, it will be in the career of their choice and I would assume their paycheck will be much more persuasive than a letter grade).  In today's technology- and information-infused age, shouldn't we focus on teaching them how to find reliable sources of information hidden within the countless resources students now have at their fingertips, or in their pockets?  Moreover, this would allow students to select the articles of most interest to them, and together the students and teachers can evaluate and critique the information as it pertains to the task at hand.  Wouldn't this prepare students for real-world situations and requirements?

In addition to allowing student to select their resources for information, we could also facilitate better comprehension and the opportunity for growth by providing students resources with a broad range of reading levels.  Even a more complex text can be simplified by hi-lighting and/or annotating the most important information so student's get lost in.  A library of resources on a broad range of subjects relating to the class and of various reading levels could be provided for students to find information as well as free-choice reading.  The teacher still has control over where the information is coming from, while providing student opportunities for students to select the resource of most interest and comprehensibility to them.  Even the highest readers could benefit from a library such as this which could include even articles from recognized Journals, which they will be asked to comprehend throughout college and, sometimes, their chosen careers.  Such a library encourages students to become active in their own learning and discover the joy of reading for learning information of value to them.

Finally, even the most boring textbook can be made interesting if read with the zeal and frenzy of a mad scientist.  (Of course, that also begs the question of 'why is the text boring?  Are the students understanding what the words even mean?)  Students' impression of subject matter highly depends on how the teacher presents it.  I assume you don't think your subject is boring, so why give your students the chance to think so?  Whatever happened to reading a text out loud?  And, when we do read out loud, is it always the best idea for students to be the ones reading out loud to the rest of the class in a monotone suck-the-life-out voice the best way the material could be presented?  And, anyway, isn't more effective and meaningful for you (or a student) to put it in their own words?  Isn't that what investigation and presentation is all about - finding the information from experts, creating meaning from it, and then re-wording it in the most effective way?

Reading for language

So, when should students actually be required to read a text word-for-word?  It's simple, and the research backs it up: Reading improves language.  It's builds vocabulary and strengthens grammatical forms.  As my mission is to teach language, this is where reading is not only necessary, but critical.  However, if I provide reading that is incomprehensible or of little interest to students, I will fail entirely.  Thus, we have the (re)birth of reading.  Starting from square one, since that is where my students generally are, I need to select texts the way that elementary teachers have done so well.  Required texts are not selected by the reading level at which they are written with subject matter that captivates the story-hungry child within all of us.  In addition, students are guided and supported throughout the reading.  Beyond required reading, students should be provided with opportunities to read based on personal interest and choice.  A library of Spanish books including everything from Dr. Seuss to Harry Potter as well as links to interesting articles and websites online are priceless resources in my classroom.  Students often take joy in re-reading a story they often heard as children and discovering they can also read it in another language.  Higher-level students take pride in being able to decode what the words mean and understanding more complex ideas embedded in the text.

Ultimately, nothing motivates like success.  So let's begin helping students experience success in reading - and the rest will follow.