20 Time in a Foreign Language Classroom

Now that I have a better idea of what I'm in for this fall when it comes to Genius Hour and 20 Time, I've started thinking about how I'm going to connect it to my curriculum.  There are two main areas that Genius Hour can (and should) be connected to in a Foreign Language class: culture and language.

NOTE: A special "thank you" to Denise Krebs and Señorita Barragan for helping me form and articulate my ideas for this post.

Genius Hour Week 3: Three Distinct Groups

Three distinct groups of students have emerged within my classroom and, though my program is a special one for students who might be considered "at risk", I imagine similar groups will emerge in any Genius Hour classroom: the "This is awesome!" group, the "Ok, I get it." group, and the "What is this?" group.

Genius Hour Week Two: 2 Struggles and 2 Successes

Last week I introduced Genius Hour to my students, and this week we spent the entire class period researching various ideas.  We had a lot of interesting experiences today - some shed light on some of the struggles my students may have and that I need to address and others confirmed how awesome this really is.  For week 2, I have two of each to share :)

Genius Hour: Week 1

"How did you know that?"

"I Googled it."

The first student had asked a fairly complicated question out loud ("Do babies dream?"), and within a few seconds, the second student started telling her about the REM cycles of babies, something he knew nothing about just a few moments beforehand.  That's the beauty of Genius Hour.

Free download, and help a school in Costa Rica!

From Karen Rowan via the MoreTPRS Yahoo! Group:

I'm working with a fabulous expert-type woman to do interesting, creative things
that will ultimately support the school in Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica that I'm
trying to create a donated income stream for.

Here's how it works.
1. Write a book really, really fast
2. Publish it as an E-book and make it free for 24 Hours
3. Ask my 2000 closest friends to download it in those 24 Hours and write a
quick 5 star review.
4. Sell it for .99 cents and donate 100% of the royalties to the school.

Step 3 puts it on Amazon's book list, and is more likely to be downloaded in
Step 4 more.

The most urgent project at the school I have been donating books to for 3 years
is that one of the walls was damaged in the recent earthquake and is crumbling. 
The next earthquake has the potential to crush my precious little readers.

So. I wrote the book. It's an itty-bitty book that should really be called,
"Isabela Light." (Real title, "El secreto de Isabela." It's a portion of the
Isabela story that is super-sheltered for brand new language learners. It has 47
total distinct words, and 18 of them are cognates. The total length is 223
words. You could use it with elementary students or with adults right away.

I can only make it free once, so I'm hoping the timing will be such that
students could even download for summer reading. You can share the link with
anyone.

It's Midnight Pacific time Sunday (Monday 12:01am) and lasts for a world-wide 24
hours. So when it's midnight Monday in the last possible place on the planet,
it ends. Amazon is freaky that way.

Here's the link. I'll post again Sunday night begging for your assistance in
downloading and sharing. I really hope that this will be something you can log
into and use in your classroom's, too. Also... if you've always wanted to learn
Spanish OR if you're looking for materials for a super-short adult class, this
would probably work for you.

http://www.amazon.com/secreto-Isabela-aventuras-Spanish-ebook/dp/B00D8RX2SO/ref=\
sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370627725&sr=1-1&keywords=el+secreto+de+isabela


¡Gracias!

Karen Rowan
www.fluencyfast.com

P.S. If you want to see pictures of the school, they're on the Fluency Fast
Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/FluencyFast?fref=ts

Latino Culture Curriculum and Lessons

I'm going to be creating and adding lesson plans and activities for my Latino Culture class over the summer, so I wanted a place to organize it all!  Feel free to dive into my Upward Bound classroom through my plans :)

*Starred dates are when no computer labs are available.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
June 10 NO CLASS	June 11 What is culture?	June 12 NaZa NaZa	June 13* Who are Latinos?	June 14 Genius Hour
June 17 What is the history of Latin America?	June 18 What are typical Latino holidays and celebrations?	June 19 Movie: Peloteros (Dom. Rep.)	June 20 Guest presenter: Diana (Argentina)	June 21 Genius Hour
June 24 What are Latino communities like? (religion, family education, religion, social norms, customs, and roles, clothing)	June 25* Movie: The Devil's Miner (Bolivia)	June 26 Empanadas field trip	June 27 Genius Hour	June 28* Guest Presenter
July 1 College Tour	July 2 College Tour	July 3 Off	July 4 Independence  Day	July 5       OFF
July 8 What does Latino art look like?  Who are some Latino artists? (fine art, dramatic art, architecture)	July 9* Movie: Mad Hot Ballroom (Dom. Rep.)	July 10 Dance Class	July 11 Guest Presenter	July 12 Genius Hour
July 15 Movie: La Misma Luna (Mexico)	July 16* NO CLASS Rafting Leave at 4:15	July 17 Humberto Q&A	July 18 Movie: Las mujeres de verdad tienen cuervas (USA)	July 19  Genius Hour Presentations

Latino Culture: My Paradigm Shift

I've been pondering an issue with my Latino Culture class.  While I am a Spanish teacher and have a basic understanding of culture (especially since I've never lived abroad), I am an expert at teaching Spanish language, not culture, and most everything I could teach my students, they could learn themselves with a quick Google search.  Then I had an idea.... Why not let them do it themselves?

20 Time as a model for the educational system

What if the entire educational system was modeled after the 20 Time approach?  In other words, what if all education were inquiry-based? What if the primary goal of early education was communication - including listening, reading, writing, and speaking - so that students would be able to obtain, learn, and share information independently?  What if students as young as primary school were then asked to form essential questions, research the answers, and then present their results?  What if teachers were viewed as experts and resources in their subject areas that students approached when they needed help or direction?  What if students were then connected with professional mentors with more specialized skills and expertise?  What if student assessment was then based on the products and innovations they come up with, like a portfolio?

I envision a school where teachers are not the content providers, but rather guides and inspiration for students.  Students would more or less take the same courses as they do now, but would form questions related to the topic area and then learn the content in the process of discovering the answers to their own questions.  Students would have access to more advanced levels of instruction as their needs and interests dictate.  Moreover, students in high school (or even middle school) would take a course that allows them to research any topic of interest to them.

Education would be individualized to meet student needs and interests
Students would understand why the information was important
Students would be motivated to master content
Students would be able to apply 21st century skills to find information on their own
Students would learn to rely on one another as resources with a high degree of expertise.

Students would demonstrate not only what they know, but what they can do with what they know.

Would this really work?  I don't know.  But I sure think it's a step in the right direction.

TL in Genius Hour/20 Time

I'm having an interesting conversation on Twitter with a few other foreign language teachers about how to use the TL (Target Language) during these times.  I feel very strongly that students should have the freedom to explore and present their passions without being hindered by having to do it in a second language (yes, that even includes higher levels - I would die if all the things I wanted to learn about and/or present I had to do so in Spanish).  So, the core of Genius Hour/20Time really needs to be done without having to use the language.

However, we are generating ideas for other ways of integrating foreign language.

• Obviously, part of mine is the requirement to connect at least part of their learning to other cultures. (I just had a related idea - rather than making that culture a focus of a project, students could do a sort of mini-project as part of their genius hour to find out ways their topic connects to Spanish-speaking culture).
• Since their passions will include some essential vocabulary and terminology (like the word "input" in education), students could make a vocabulary list of the essential vocabulary for their topic and how those translate into Spanish.  Should they decide to pursue their passions and need to communicate about them in Spanish, these words will be critical to them.