Spanish Reading Materials

I'm working on building a library for my students to read from.  With a focus on Comprehensible Input and minimizing frustration, I plan for students to select their free-choice reading material from my library or to purchase their own books (giving them even more choice and flexibility) from an extensive list of leveled reading resources.  These resources I'm suggesting come from the novels popular with TPRS teachers, short stories (again from TPRS resources as well as my own), carefully selected popular novels that students should be able to read, and authentic resources that include embedded readings and context for students to understand them.  I'll help guide students to what best fits their level and interests, allowing for considerable differentiation and flexibility in choice.  Of course, if students have something they REALLY want to read, then their motivation can overcome the difficulty of the book and it's still valuable, but most students find that my recommendations are usually the most enjoyable since they feel more capable of reading them.

Below are "Amazon Wish Lists" of the books I plan on recommending to my students.  These were compiled based on what's available through Blain Ray, TPRS Publishing, and Susan Gross's list of Spanish novels.

Middle School Spanish (Intro to Spanish)
Spanish 1
Spanish 2
Spanish 3
Spanish 4
Spanish 5
Spanish 6

Additionally, I am selecting authentic resources from NMSU's reading list for students in their Spanish Literature Master's degree list.  Almost all of the items other than the books (they're formatted correctly, so books titles are all underlined) are in the public domain, so you can easily find them online.  These can be very challenging, so I'm making these available to students to read if they want (there's some wonderful poetry and enlightening essays!).  I will be teaching some of these to my Spanish III students separate from free-choice reading as well.

On a side note, I'm trying to raise funds to purchase many of these books so that students have more selection in my classroom.  If you'd like to donate, please visit my GoFundMe page: http://www.gofundme.com/ba121w (I will love you forever if you do!)

Genius Hour 2014-2015

Genius Hour next year is going to look very different than Genius Hour this year for a few reasons. During my first year teaching, I identified a few things that I need to address and fine tune a bit more before I'm ready to take on Genius Hour in the same way again: Spanish proficiency and Structure.  I felt that I was lacking in these areas last year, and Genius Hour was when it showed the most.  However, while re-structuring my curriculum and teaching this summer, Genius Hour emerged in a whole new way that I didn't expect.

Reading is a fundamental element of developing language proficiency.  In my quest to pack as much comprehensible Spanish input into my class as possible, I set aside a daily free-choice reading period for students.  However, I needed a way to hold students accountable for their reading and to check that they're getting out of it what they should be.  I added a reading journal, where students identified what they read and included a brief summary as well as a list of words they came across that they didn't know (note to self - I just had the idea of adding in a "rating" for each entry, indicating how students feel about reading that day).  Then, while deciding the format of my final, I decided to use that daily reading as the source for a book report and presentation, which allowed me to assess speaking, something that can be tricky in a Comprehensible Input-based classroom.  My main objective was simply to translate their reading into a somewhat painless writing and speaking assessment, but I decided to include a "product" of their choice that could represent their book as well as help remind them of what they wanted to talk about during their 1-2 minute presentation to the class.

In my push for more comprehensible input and Spanish instruction, I was a bit sad that I was eliminating Genius Hour, but felt this was needed and that I would be much more successful with my instruction and meeting my responsibilities with my new curriculum plan.  Then it occurred to me... Isn't this reading project just another form of Genius Hour?  I'm requiring that they read... but they're welcome to read anything they want to, create a project that represents their learning, and presenting it.  All the elements are there, PLUS it's all in Spanish!  I feel like I've found my silver bullet and am quite pleased with myself.  Because of some of the attitudes toward "Genius Hour" from last year, I won't be calling it that this year (at least not in front of my students).  However, the fundamental elements are all there and I am so excited to capitalized on this experience again!

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.

Story Format

The format for presenting my stories is similar how I prepare my lesson plans.  An example is given below with highlighted annotations explaining each component and how I implement it in my classroom.

Structures: These are in past tense in order to facilitate more "natural" storytelling and exposure to a variety of verb tenses.

• New Structures: Structures that will be introduced in this story.  I intended these to be the "notes" for the day as students copy them down as well as their translations.  I limit these to three per story.  If more are necessary, I create a new story with those.
• había [un(a)]- There was/were (a)
• quería - wanted
• fue a - went to
• Recent Structures: Structures that have been introduced in previous stories, but will likely need to be reviewed.  These will be included in the actual storytelling to build upon vocabulary and structures that have already been acquired and/or need more repetitions.
• se llamaba - him/erself called s/he (he called himself)
• era - (S/he) was
• tenía - had

PQA:These are in present tense to facilitate normal conversation.

• Hay un(a): Structures that do not lend themselves to the various forms listed below are worked into personalized questions in other ways which are noted.
• action - hand over eye and point to something An action is added to most important words through the TPR method and used throughout stories and communication to facilitate comprehensible input
• 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: 
• Action - palms up wiggling fingers
• Question/responses:Most structures are manipulated into a present tense question (you form), a correct response pattern (I form), and how I will report student responses to the class (3rd person).  I write the following on the board, model them, and translate them briefly with the class.
• ¿Qué / quier/es? = What/want/you? (What do you want?)
• Shouting/calling to someone I add a chant or song to the question so that the entire class can ask it together.  I recommend repeating the phrase at least twice so students can join in on the second one if they miss the first time.
• Quier/o________. = Want/I _______. (I want...)
• Quier/e_______. = Wants/ s/he ______. (S/he wants...)
• Through a process of adding a chant/song to the question and allowing the entire class to participate, students are asked the question, allowed to create a personalized response, and the response is then reported to the class.  The class responds chorally to what the person said.  For example:
• Chant the question (¿Qué quieres?) two times, and point to a student.  Ask "¿Qué quieres?"
• Student responds: "Quiero...."
• Report to the class: "(name) quiere...."
• Class responds
• Va a:
• Action: sweep hand away with "V" fingers
• Question/response
• ¿Adónde vas? = To where go you?
• Watch Señor Wooly's "¿Adónde vas?" Occasionally, I will include resources I find helpful for teaching these phrases.
• Sing (like Señor Wooly video): "¿Adónde vas? ¿Adónde, adónde vas?"
• Voy a_____. = I go to...
• Prompts: "Voy a WalMart/McDonald's/Disneylandia." For when students get stuck trying to respond, I model "sample" answers they can either copy or manipulate
• Va a______. = S/he goes to...

Story: This is a story template limited to only the structures students have already learned.  Feel free to change and add details as you like.  In planning, I'll stick to using mostly the new and most recent structures, but keep the older structures in front of me for adding details about the characters and what's happening.  When I want more details, I'll look at the recent/old structures and ask for a new detail using those structures (hint: if you're using the "structure cards" on my tips page, the students often do this for you!).  I may add a few of these detail here, but it'll really be up to you and your class which details are added.  English translations are in red after each paragraph.  When I have my own class, I will also provide examples of how my students personalized the story.  Again, these stories are in past tense so that students are exposed to all verb tenses.  Shelter vocabulary, not grammar!

Había un elefante.  El elefante se llamaba Tiny.  Tiny era un elefante muy, muy grande.  Había un problema.  Tenía dos bikinis azules, pero quería un bikini rosado.  No tenía un bikini rosado.  Era un problema grande.

There was an elephant.  The elephant called himself Tiny. Tiny was an elephant that was very, very big.  There was a problem.  He had two blue bikinis, but he wanted a pink bikini.  He didn't have a pink bikini.  It was a big problem.

After setting up the story, the remaining paragraphs can repeat as many times as you'd like.  I design my stories so you can copy and paste and then change the details.  If students are getting it and you want to complete the story, limit the number of paragraphs.  If students need more practice, keep adding the paragraphs to include the structures!

Tiny fue a Alaska.  En Alaska, había un gato.  El gato se llamaba Whiskers y era un gato pequeño.  Whiskers no tenía un bikini porque no había bikinis en Alaska.  Tiny quería un bikini.  Había un problema.

Tiny went to Alaska.  In Alaska, there was a cat.  The cat called himself Whiskers and was a little cat.  Whiskers didn't have a bikini because there weren't bikinis in Alaska.  Tiny wanted a bikini.  There was a problem.

Fue a California.  En California, había un perro.  El perro se llamaba Clifford y era un perro grande y rojo.  Clifford tenía bikinis, pero no tenía bikinis rosadas.  Tenía bikinis negras.  Tiny quería un bikini rosado.  Había un problema.
He went to California.  In California, there was a dog that calls himself Clifford.  Clifford was a big, red dog.  Clifford had bikinis, but he didn't have pink bikinis.  He had black bikinis.  Tiny wanted a pink bikini.  There was a problem.

Fue a Hawaii.  En Hawaii, había una chica.  La chica se llamaba Suzie y era una chica baja, pero muy bonita.  Tenía muchos bikinis.  Tenía bikinis negros, azules, rojos, y rosados.  Tiny quería un bikini rosado.  No había un problema.  El fin.
He went to Hawaii.  In Hawaii, there was a girl that called herself Suzie.  Suzie was short, but very pretty.  She had many bikinis.  She had black, blue, red, and pink bikinis.  Tiny wanted a pink bikini.  There was not a problem.  The end.

A classroom like none other

Sometimes I have to smile to myself wondering about my students' reaction this fall when the walk into my classroom.  It's going to be like nothing they've ever experienced before.  And, I'm glad it's my own and I have a lot of freedom with a supportive administration because I'm sure it'd give many teachers a heart attack.  Who in their right mind would have a Flipped TPRS classroom with Genius Hour?

• Though it's a language class, we will not focus on grammar.
• We will be telling and acting out stories in a chaotic manner.
• My class decorations include many toys and costumes you'd expect in a child's bedroom.
• Students will learn the most important material at home, and then come to school to talk and interact.
• Then, once a week, they get free reign to learn about whatever they want to.

Maybe I've gone off the deep end.  But doesn't it take just a little bit of crazy for progress and innovation to occur?

Embedded Reading

In my efforts to flip my classroom, I've been trying to think of an effective way to prepare my students for the reading days.  I wanted to find something that they could read (since that's what they're preparing to do), but that would be easy enough that they could be successful on their own.  I was having some trouble until....

I discovered embedded reading!  This is something that I've been hearing about every now and then without actually understanding what it was.  Initially, I thought it was something like supplemental reading - different texts that would support the themes and concepts in a main text, much like was done in both my US and Latin American history and literature classes.  I decided to finally take a look and see what all the fuss was about.  I found this wonderful blog, Embedded Reading, that set me straight (it's now added to my blog list on the side panel of this page).

The blog is very thorough about them and I highly recommend heading on over to it, but I'll write a brief explanation here.  Rather than different texts focusing on a particular theme, embedded readings are essentially the same text, but with various levels created for it that are embedded in one another.  The first level is easy enough for anyone in the class to read and understand without effort.  Then, each of the following levels has more detail and elaboration, making the text more complex and difficult, until students are reading a text that would generally be difficult, but not impossible for them.  However, because students already have background knowledge about the text that was easily understood at previous levels, students are better able to understand the more complex levels o the text.  It's scaffolding!

This is the answer to my reading preparation days :)  I want to use these in two ways:

Extended Reading - This will be pretty straightforward as I take the Look, I Can Talk! extended stories and create easier levels for them.  I imagine I'll probably make 3 levels for each story using the "top down" approach (starting with the hardest text and simplifying it):  The hardest will be what is actually written in the Look, I can talk! textbook, while the easiest will be what I have students read at home as part of my "flipped" classroom.  I can see various activities we could do in class to read both the "middle" and "highest" levels.  Since I'll be scaffolding them appropriately, I can easily see us being able to read the stories as a whole class, in groups, and even individually with me there to support them.  One thing I do enjoy doing - especially for independent and group reading - is to have students ask me what unknown words mean and I can write them on the board with their definitions in order to support the entire class at once.

Storytelling/writing - I like this idea to support both reading and writing.  After we tell a story, the students' homework and preparation for the next day is to rewrite the story told in class.  From the stories submitted, I can choose three to edit and type for students to read the next day - one that's basic, another that's a little more difficult, and one that's advanced.  (Another idea I have to support students' writing, especially at first, is to provide a "skeleton story" where students can just fill in the blank to re-write their story, which would be at the basic level).  Then, students can read and re-read the stories they and their peers wrote!

TPRS Post - Judy Debois

Great post on the MoreTPRS goup from Judy Debois that I didn't want to forget!

Interesting questions, Deb. Here are some of my thoughts, for whatever they're
worth.


IMHO vocabulary lists will help some students, those who as you say have visual
memories and those who are interested in languages, as Dr. Krashen says. I
don't see how they can hurt the others, who will ignore them anyway, right? 
Unless you tell them to memorize them, in which case they will waste a lot of
time and effort that will not be very productive. Memorization is by definition
short term. I prefer to give my students a story, maybe a new story, that uses
the vocabulary in question. If they read it through they'll get revision in
context, which will give them new associations to help them remember the
structures. Once they have enough associations, the word/structure will be in
their long term memory. You might ask students who are artistic to illustrate
the new story, which will give even more associations, visual ones, with the
structures. So basically, you have to decide whether your limited time is better
spent making up three categories of vocabulary lists or making up a new story
for the most important vocabulary. (And you can cheat by giving them a story by
a student/students in another class using the same vocabulary.)


Illustrated student stories, written and illustrated by students, are a good way
to build up a library for FVR. It's a struggle for us to make the language
simple enough, but they do it automatically with the limited language they have.
In a small school like yours I'm sure they'll recognize the author's name and
will find it "compelling".


I think you're doing it exactly right when you "echo" what a student has said. 
This is what "caretaker speech" does all the time. Baby says "peas" and you
echo back "please". Student says "la verte voiture" and you smile and nod and
say "Oui! La voiture verte!" The student may catch what you changed and take
note or they may not catch it, in which case it means that they're not ready for
that yet. But they won't feel humiliated because you pointed out that they had
made a mistake, which will make them think twice before speaking up again.


As for "correcting" written work, I prefer to "edit" it. I've explained this on
my blog, but my examples are from small groups of students. With a class I
would choose three papers, one very basic, one more complex and the best paper
of the lot. Then I would "edit" them so that there are no mistakes. I type the
three papers up, and bingo! You have an embedded reading. (I understand that
this is how Laurie Clarq first started doing embedded reading.) When you return
their papers where you have underlined in green everything that is correct, you
also give your students the three edited versions, telling them that they were
written by students in the class but not giving the names. You will see them
reading them closely. Each time I'm amazed at how attentively students read
texts written by their classmates and how willing they are to read the same
story three or four times. I call that compelling comprehensible input. I
answer any questions about structures and vocabulary, smiling like the cat that
ate the cream because I know that they're going to retain my answers to their
questions. If there were frequent mistakes that you corrected and no one asks
why, it means they're just not seeing them yet. You may want to target those
structures in your next lesson.


Basically, one thing that I have learned from horse riding is that it's much
more effective to teach a horse how to do something right than to spend time
teaching it not to do something wrong. Pointing out mistakes is teaching
students not to do something wrong. Giving them correct models is teaching them
to do it right.

Spanish 1 Curriculum

I finally have a draft of my curriculum with general year-long ans weekly plans.  I've updated the "curriculum" tab above to link to this curriculum.  Now, I'm going to go back and work on resources and individual lesson plans.  I'll update here when I make progress!

Tips, Tricks, and Ideas

Here are various tips and tricks I use to create a classroom,  curriculum, and individual lessons centered on TPRS.  Click the links for more information and practical applications!

Story Writing 101

There is a common theme and pattern to every story in TPRS:  There is someone and they want something.  They go somewhere to get it, but they are unsuccessful.  So, they go somewhere else and resolve their problem.  Once you understand this structure, writing your stories are simple.  Here's how...

Class Story Books
Have your students create a wonderful resource for your classroom that can be used to review the next day as will be a keepsake and reading material for years to come!

Inter-class Pen Pals
Get students reading, writing, and building a class community all at once!

Spanish Nicknames
During the first week of school, students choose nicknames that they will use throughout the year.  I provide a list of nicknames, but students are also allowed to create their own as long as it's school-appropriate.  I love this activity!  It achieves many things that are critical in my classroom.  First and foremost, the students learn to "play" and develop a unique relationship in my classroom with me and their peers.  Another perk is that students have a jump-start to their vocabulary as they're already interested in what the names mean and will get many repetitions of these words throughout the year! Rather than real Spanish names, I use nicknames such as "Pato" (duck) or "Vato" (dude).

TPRS in a Week
This is an example of how I would structure my week.  Each "day" is a 45-minute period.  Because most schools in my area are on various types of block scheduling, I have combined the days into 90-minute periods, with one flexible half-day.

Structure/Word Cards
I got this idea from a fellow TPRS teacher and added my own ideas and adaptations to it.  I'd love to hear what you would do with something like this!  For me, it makes me more intentional about what I'm teaching without a lot of effort on my part as well as helps students become more engaged and focused.  Plus, we keep track of the things we've already learned and are able to continually review them as we progress!

Interactive Notebooks

Interactive notebooks are a note-taking method I plan to utilize in my classroom.  Students create their own interactive notebook out of a composition notebook.  Tabs are added to create sections, and students fill in the contents of the notebook throughout the year.  In general, students take notes (teacher input) on the right-hand page, and personalize the information on the left-hand side of the page.  At the end of the year, they will have created a comprehensive record of their classroom experience.

Teaching through Novels
There has recently been a discussion in the MoreTPRS yahoo group about doing novel-based classes, and I am very excited about it!  Similar to how I am pulling structures from the LICT extended reading stories, I would take them from the novels themselves.  It may take a week or a few weeks to complete a chapter as we ask stories in class that circle the structures and vocabulary students need to know in order to comprehend what they are reading.  In addition, I would want to choose books with which I could integrate other activities for students to explore and describe themselves and the world around them.

Games
TPRS-friendly games to play with the class!

Shopping List
The list of items I'd like for my TPRS classroom!

Positive Reinforcement (Rewarding Great Behavior!)

Kindergarten and Movie Days

Syllabus

This is a sample syllabus for a Spanish 1 class.  The main changes for different levels would be to raise the expectations listed in the "Course Objectives" section as appropriate to include speaking for a longer period of time and writing more words in a given time.  In addition, should a grammar requirement be necessary due to curriculum requirements, I would create an additional standard addressing this goal.

¡Bienvenidos a la clase de español!

Welcome to Spanish Class!

Class Description: Spanish I is an introductory class stressing basic language skills and acquisition. The method we will be using is called Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling, TPRS®. Be prepared to listen, read, write, speak, sing, dance, and act in Spanish to learn the language effectively! In addition, we will be learning about other cultures that speak Spanish.

Classroom Rules:

1. Follow directions.
2. Be ready to begin when the tardy bell rings.
3. No put downs, name calling, or hate speech.
4. No swearing.
5. Bring pen, pencil, and notebook everyday.
6. Be respectful in the classroom.
7. No electronic devices unless I permit it.

Your Role During Class: LISTEN

• Look me in the eyes
• Involve yourself
• Show me when you get it and when you don’t
• Tune back in if you tune out
• Español
• No talking over others

Homework: In addition to nightly study and review (about 15 minutes/night) from their Interactive Notebooks, students are required to read in Spanish for a total of 30 minutes each week and record what they read in their Interactive Notebooks.  Students may split this time up and read whenever works best, and students may occasionally get to apply class time toward their weekly reading.  This can be completed independently or with others.  In addition, they may choose from a variety of sources, such as books, magazines, articles, and the internet and I have a class library for students to check out materials.  Anything read online must be printed out and included in the IN, and at least 20 minutes of reading must come from non-electronic sources. 

Class Materials: Every day you need to bring the following:

• 3-ring binder notebook with a pocket with 5 dividers
• Loose-leaf Paper
• Pencil and a colored pen
• Other supplies may be needed and will be announced.

Course Objectives: You will be evaluated based upon the following standards and each is worth 20% of your grade:

1. Comprehend spoken Spanish.
2. Comprehend written Spanish.
3. Write 100 words in comprehensible Spanish within 10 minutes.
4. Speak in Spanish for 30 seconds.
5. Be an excellent member of our class, including
• Regular attendance and participation
• Keeping an organized and complete notebook
• Completing practice and homework activities
• Enhancing your cultural knowledge

Absences and Tardies: You are responsible for the notes, vocabulary, work, quizzes and tests that you miss when you are gone. ALSO, you will need to write a 100-word story (200 for Spanish 2-4) in Spanish for each day that you are absent. The absence stories need to be handwritten on the story form and they are due by the end of the quarter. You will not be able to make up work for unexcused absences or tardies.

Bathroom Privileges: Please use the restroom before you come to class. However, if you need to use the restroom during class, you may ask permission and sign out on the clipboard to leave class.  Keep in mind that trips outside the class will be reviewed when assigning participation grades.

¡Buena suerte en la clase de español!

For information on the class, check out the class website at profabaros.blogspot.com

Stories

I highly recommend first visiting My Story Format to understand how I have formatted my stories and lesson plans.

Look!  I can Talk! (LICT) Series - Blaine Ray
This story series matches the phrases used in Blaine Ray's "NEW Mini-stories for Look, I Can Talk!" Extended Reading and Exercises for Look, I Can Talk! for Spanish 1.  While there is a teachers guide intended to be used with this book, these particular structures and corresponding stories are pulled directly from the extended reading so that the stories and reading would support one another more closely.  Occasionally, it seemed that more than one story would be necessary to cover the important new phrases used in the extended reading.

While I've decided to start fresh now that I have a new list of structures that I like better, you can still find my initial attempt and creating stories for the LICT series here.

Novels

For a while, I thought I would pull my structures directly from novels, teach them for a quarter, and then finish the quarter reading the novel.  However, I found that there wasn't enough

We will be doing a novel-based curriculum, so I plan to pull my structures from the novels we are reading.  I ordered all of Blaine Ray's middle school and Spanish 1 novels ordered, so I'm currently reading them and pulling out structures as well as culture topics to discuss.  Upon receiving my order, I've tentatively decided to center my curriculum around the Pobre Ana series and use the other novels as part of my class library (I discussed this in this post).  Click below for my stories and ideas!

• Pobre Ana

Problem-Based Learning in TPRS

A recap of the highlights in my conversation on the MoreTPRS Yahoo! Group, with commentary:

What does problem-based learning look like in foreign language classes,
particularly ones using TPRS?

Could it be as simple as just finding a way to express yourself? Or is there
more?

Better put by Martin Lapworth, here's what I mean:

Jillane simpy seems to be saying: "Problem solving? That sounds like what TPRSstudents are doing [subconsciously] all the time. Do you agree?" - Martin Lapworth

I read a post about problem-based learning
(http://plpnetwork.com/2013/04/19/ultimate-education-reform-messy-learning-probl\
em-solving/) and was intrigued. I was mainly inspired by the idea that
problem-based learning better prepares students for the world. Rather than
teaching students to find the "right" answer and bubble it in, students have to
solve "messy" problems that don't necessarily have one clear answer - much more
similar to the problems we face in the real world. I want to teach and
encourage these problem-solving skills in my own classroom and was thinking
about how I might go about doing so.

But then it occurred to me, isn't that point of TPRS and CI? More traditional
routes of language instruction - and how the classes I took in high school were
taught - ask students to find the "3rd person singular preterite" form of a verb
with one correct answer that we as TPRS teachers know is essentially useless. 
However, we ask our students to use what they know to find a way to comprehend
(i.e. 'I know that "ten..." means "have", so "tenía/tengo/tiene/etc. una casa"
means something along the lines of having a house) what they're hearing and
reading. Eventually they begin to express themselves, starting with simple
one-word answers (i.e. circling and PQA) and eventually stringing together words
and phrases to create more complicated language and (someday, hopefully!)
complete sentences. I'm not at all saying this should be forced output, but
when taken in the context of natural and individual language acquisition and
production, this is one of our big goals.

To me, this seems to naturally fulfill the aspirations in the article about
teaching kids to problem-solve using problem-based learning - due to the organic
nature of language, what they're going to hear and read won't be scripted, and
neither will their own production be. Every time they communicate, there is a
problem to solve.  On a *very* small skill, since language is organic
and cannot be memorized, students are constantly problem-solving every time they
are comprehending and producing unscripted language!

Lake put it simply, comparing old-school language instruction with our new-school TPRS:

"Every time we open our ears or mouths to anotherlanguage, we already have a "problem": How do I communicate? ...Old-school language instruction taught formulas and set dialogues, while weembrace that there is likely no one "right" way to express any idea. That alonebreaks TPRS out of the bubble-filling single-correct-answer education system theauthor is arguing against." - Lake

Janet helped me articulate this idea  a little more clearly, that I'm not trying to "teach" this kind of analysis, bur rather am "trying to figure out if that's the kind of things that happen in their brains."  She went on to describe her own ideas:

As I'm trying to improve my Spanish by reading, I am doing thatkind of thing.  Oh I see "ten", it's have, keep reading, like when I just readover words I don't know, and if the whole paragraph makes sense, I don't needthat word, I'll eventually acquire it because my brain caught the meaningwithout my thinking about it.  I'm thinking about the story, not the words,really, and I trust the process.  The only way I might 'teach' the process isdoing a 'think aloud' with the kids when reading by translation--but if I'mdoing my job, their reading pieces should be totally comprehensible anyway.I hope I understood both posts correctly.

So, let's clarify:  There's a difference between encouraging the process to happen, and teaching the kids about that process.  Because, let's face it, the kids aren't fluent and we're trying to turn "slow-processors" into "fast-processors", but without any conscious effort on their part.  No matter what, language is processed, though we're trying to get them to do it by feeling rather than decoding rules.  On a very small, but very important scale, this essentially fulfills the requirements for PBL!

Jeff Klamka had a few ideas for how to engage in PBL using TPRS more explicitly:

I'm looking at the summary of "problem-based learning" and it strikes me asquite simply a list of PQA topics for advanced-level classes. (Actually, theycould make for some fascinating discussions).--How should we respond to climate change?--How should the government be spending our tax dollars?--How should education be reformed?Or even, brought down to the level of the students:--How much time spent online is too much?--Should junk food be sold in the cafeteria?--If you were in charge of the school budget, what would you cut to balance thebudget and why?
Important questions with emotional impact. By focusing on a couple of keyphrases, it could make for great PQA. - Jeff Klamka

Pat Barrett had another PBL PQA question:

One that elicited output, unforced, was, “Should we close the campus” i.e.put a fence around it and keep kids on campus during lunch?Pat Barrett

I love all these PQA questions!  Many of them have basic structures that are taught as low as Spanish 1, while a few would be excellent in teaching higher-level structures!  I wonder if students would focus more on the meaning as they get excited to discuss their ideas. Moreover, I came across a great post about putting this into action while teaching structures to discuss illegal immigration.  Lake made an interesting point, though:

Though I do agree that the idea to incorporate some of the author's "messyquestions" into the classroom could be interesting, it seems to be creating"problems" on top of "problems" and the examples are a little cognitivelyadvanced for the level of proficiency.
I think it's "messy" enough just to think "How do I say that?" (even if it's notabout a big life question like the importance of education or the economy orwhatever) because language is inherently messy. There are a multitude ofdifferent ways to say the same thing. - Lake

Which made me think that maybe I'll save "real" problems for higher level kids, if ever. 
One thing I assume we all run into are kids that have something they want to
say, but they haven't yet figured out the skill of simplifying it down to what
they can say. I can see this happening if I were to use questions that they are
likely to be opinionated on. Asking "What color of shirt should she buy?"
doesn't provoke the same sort of opinionated responses that students might want
to express and defend with "real" problems.

So... lots of great ideas!  In sum, TPRS promotes the ideals of PBL simply by being what it is and teaching students to communicate in an organic manner that has countless possibilities, a VERY "messy" question!  If we do want to address other problems, PQA may be a good place to do so, but with caution and making sure students are set up for success :)

Flipping my TPRS classroom

This is an idea I've been letting fester in my head for a long time, and the other day I cam across a cool graphic shared on Twitter that really got me going (see below).  Being the "idea" person that I am, I'm very intrigued on the idea of a flipped classroom, and I think it's very possible with TPRS.  Why might I want to do this?  I think that by flipping the TPRS classroom, I will have more time to engage students with more authentic and organic CI.  Essentially, if I can give students basic CI before class begins, I can provide more advanced CI when they're with me to practice!  With my students, they won't get the kind of practice (Including correct modeling) they can with me anywhere else - but I believe they can receive basic CI if done properly on their own - so I'd like to make the most of the time they have with me.  I would really like to give this a shot this upcoming year.  Luckily, I have a few advantages when it comes to some of the barriers that most teachers run into.

First and foremost, I've got time on my side right now to plan this all out.  One of the biggest hurdles to overcome in flipping your classroom is making sure students have the materials they'd need in order to come to class prepared.  Given that I'm subbing now, am only committed from 3-5pm each day during the summer, and don't have a lot of other things to attend to (like a kid), I'm sure I'll be able to come up with the resources I need for next year.  Plus, I can be a little obsessive over stuff like this (i.e. my class haha).

Second, many educators are concerned about students having access to technology at home to study.  I don't think that will be a problem at Somerset :)

So how am I going to do it?

1. What am I going to teach? Given that I want to take advantage of all the time I have now, I need to have a clear idea of what I'm going to teach during the year.  I just finished writing all my structures and am pretty happy with them!
2. How Am I going to teach it? This will determine the types of materials that will best prepare my students for class each day.  I know that I'm going to have a rough weekly outline of doing PQA, storytelling, and reading - with some other stuff like culture and novel-reading mixed in.
3. What materials will my students need?  This is the big one - and what I'm going to focus on now.  In order to flip my classroom, students will need to get CI, CI, CI - at home without a native speaker.  They can't just take notes, and I won't just do a Youtube lecture.  Rather, here are my initial plans:
• Before PQA:
• List the structures for that lesson with their translation (possibly hidden for them to bring up), as well as an audio clip so students can hear how they sound.
• Provide the PQA questions with possible appropriate responses.  Give them the opportunity to create their own responses (which they can send to me through Edmodo).
• Based on what they send me, I'll know how well they comprehended the vocabulary and where I'll need to start with them.
• Before storytelling:
• Give them a very short and simple short reading (with audio) to do - on Inkelwriter!
• I also want to create storytelling videos that students can hear and see the video. (Since these basically achieve the same goal, students could choose which format they like best?)
• Since I'll be writing "skeleton" stories as part of my lesson planning to guide my storytelling, I could just provide these to my students!
• Based on the reading, they can give me a brief summary showing how well they understood this "skeleton" story.
• Based on how well they comprehend the story, I know whether I need to re-teach or if they're ready to move into full-fledged story-telling.
• After storytelling:
• Students can write a summary of the class story to me in Spanish (they can use their notes and simply "fill-in-the-blank" - one that I'll edit and bring in for reading and discussion the next day.
• For speaking, we could even use Google Voice for students to record themselves telling the story!  Of course, we'd only do that when students were ready to start practicing speaking.
• Before extended reading:
• Students can read a similar story (with audio) and write a summary to demonstrate comprehension.
• Update: Embedded readings would be great!
• Before culture:
• Students can research the culture topic we'll be working on and bring their newfound knowledge to class to share.  This also facilitates preparing students for the future by using their resources to teach themselves!

Some of those ideas wrote themselves as I was creating this post.  I'm very excited to start creating all these support materials.  I imagine this will all come together as a website with everything on it - allowing students to go back and review/catch up as well as move ahead if they so desire.  Plus, maybe my husband will finally learn Spanish! - If I do this correctly, motivated students should realistically be able to teach themselves Spanish, using class time to elaborate, engage, and personalize.  And don't worry - I'll update when I get these going!

Check out this cool graphic about flipping your classroom:

LICT Attempt 1

I've decided to go in a similar, but new direction with the LICT series and am starting fresh with my structures.  However, you can still find the link for the stories I've already created here:

1.1.1: Descriptions

1.1.2: Tiny the Elephant

1.1.3: The Dragon's Suit

1.2.1: Balooga the Whale

1.3.1: The Diamond Necklace

2.1.1: Blue Fish for Debbie

2.2.1: Lady Gaga's Puppy

2.3.1: Britney Learns to Sing

3.1.1: Magical Charlie

New Focus

I've had a few insights over the past few days that have given me new focus for how I want to develop my curriculum:

First, I was reminded of one of the things I learned during my first week of student teaching:
LU+R=S  which means Listening and Understanding + Repetition = Spanish

With more educator-type terms, I can rephrase this to say:
CI+R=A i.e. Comprehensible Input + Repetition = Acquisition

How did this help?  Because, while I've been focusing on comprehensible input, I forgot to account for repetition.  I was getting frustrated trying to pull structures directly from the Pobre Ana novels because, while they have plenty of repetition, it isn't presented in a format that is simplified or repetitive enough to foster language acquisition like I want to.  There is a step missing between learning new vocabulary and being able to apply it in that more complex context.

I've found that step by going back to using the LICT extended stories.  These stories are built upon one another, structure by structure.  Through reading them, students receive the repetition and spiraled material that fosters acquisition.  However, the teachers guide unfortunately doesn't match up with the readings as well as I'd like, so I'm back to developing structures and stories for LICT that I can use and really feel like my students are getting what they need.

So then that leaves me to decide how I'm going to incorporate my novellas into my curriculum - though, in my last post, I discussed that to quite an extent.  Simply put, I'm going to reserve the last two weeks of the semester for reading novels, which works quite well into the other things I have planned.  In a nutshell, I'm going to design my curriculum like this:

• 7 weeks of TPRS and culture instruction, including all assessments, based on the LICT extended stories and structures pulled from them.
• 2 weeks of novella reading, during which I collect notebooks for grading (since students won't be using them!) and finalize everything before the end of the quarter

It seems simple enough to me, and I'm almost done developing my structures.  Once that's done, the next step will be writing stories, developing PQA questions, and creating materials (I can't wait to make more Inklewriter stories!)  During all of this, I'm creating an Interactive Notebook that corresponds with my curriculum as an example for students and for me to really think it through.  Things are starting to really come together!

Authentic Resources and TPRS

Just read a great blog post from Kristy Placido on the use of authentic resources in a TPRS curriculum.    Without repeating too much of what she had to say, I wanted to express my thoughts on the subject.

I believe that authentic resources in a language classroom is important - inasmuch as they are comprehensible.  Bottom line is that students won't learn anything from something they cannot understand.  To promote language acquisition, I use my leveled readers as the core of my curriculum.  This upcoming year, we're going to use the Pobre Ana series along with the New LICT extended readers to form our curriculum.  These contain the most important words and structures need to learn to get started, and giving them materials that they can fully understand - mostly on their own - is a powerful learning experience.  In the end, Spanish is still Spanish, whether it comes from me or an "authentic" material.

Because students are learning the most common and important structures and phrases, they should be able to find them in authentic resources as well.  Ultimately, students should be ready to read and listen to these resources in a comprehensible way.  At first, that may include authentic stories that I present, as Kristy described:

For instance, if I want to discuss a news story, I might show my students an article or a short video about it (in Spanish). However, if the items are incomprehensible, I might use them primarily as a visual and speak about them myself in simpler language, focusing on a small amount of new vocabulary, relying on cognates, visuals, and previously-acquired vocabulary, and using very natural grammar and syntax. For higher-level classes, I might even type up an “embedded reading” in which I simplify the story for reading/discussion prior to delving in to the authentic resource.

I'm lucky enough to be working in a school where students have more than the "usual" amount of Spanish instruction and will be beginning high school with already three years of daily Spanish instruction with a CI curriculum.  I believe this will enable me to take the highest level classes another step forward and use authentic resources as the core of my curriculum, similar to the literature books we used in my college-level classes.  Of course, this will often have some sort of scaffolding to prepare the for the structures and vocabulary used in the material.  It'll be a few years before we have students at that level, but I'm very excited to see where this might lead in the years to come!

More curriculum Ideas

I'm trying to figure out what and when I want to do certain structures and readings, and how it will all tie together, so here is my current plan...

Structures:

• Week 1
• Structures:
• había
• era
• quería
• fue
• Reading:
• LICT 1.1
• Week 2:
• Structures:
• vivía
• estaba
• tenía
• Reading:
• LICT 1.3
• Pobre Ana Ch. 1 (pages 1-5)
• Week 3:
• Structures:
• le gustaba
• le dio
• le dijo
• Reading
• LICT 1.2
• Pobre Ana Ch. 2 (pages 6-9)
• Week 4:
• Structures:
• quería tener
• buscó
• elefante con Jacuzzi
• Reading
• LICT 2.1
• Pobre Ana Ch. 3 (pages 10-14)
• Week 5:
• Structures:
• sabía que
• vio a
• lo llevó
• Reading:
• LICT 2.2
• Pobre Ana Ch. 3 (pages 14-18)
• Week 6:
• Structures:
• no sabía hacerlo
• podía
• no hicieron nada
• Reading:
• LICT 2.3
• Pobre Ana Ch. 4 (pages 19-21)
• Week 7:
• Structures:
• tan rápido como
• buscando
• tenía que
• Reading:
• LICT 3.1
• Pobre Ana Ch. 5 (pages 22-25)
• Week 8:
• Structures:
• decidió comprar
• pasaba tanto tiempo
• sabe bailar
• Reading:
• LICT 3.2
• Pobre Ana Ch. 6 (26-29)
• Other:
• directions
• Week 9:
• Structures:
• le parecía
• tenía que
• lo encontró
• Reading:
• LICT 3.3
• Pobre Ana Ch. 7
• Week 10:
• Structures:
• iba a bailar
• para hacerlo para ella
• pensaba mucho en
• Reading:
• LICT 4.1
• Pobre Ana Ch. 8-9

Patricia Va a California

• Week 1:
• Structures:
• creía que debía entrar
• sigieron buscando
• salieron
• Reading:
• LICT 4.2
• PVaC Ch. 1 (p. 1-3)
• Week 2:
• Structures:
• estaba muy preocupada
• había buscado
• llegó
• Reading:
• LICT 4.3
• PVaC Ch. 2 (p. 4-8)
• Week 3:
• Structures:
• tenía que hacer un plan para conocerla
• si tuviera lecciones, podría bailar bien
• si bailara bien, iría a Las Vegas
• Reading:
• LICT 5.1
• PCaC Ch. 3-4 (p. 9-13)
• Week 4:
• Structures:
• se los dio
• le importaba mucho
• volvió
• Reading:
• LICT 5.2
• PVaC Ch. 5 (p. 14-18)
• Week 5:
• Structures:
• iba a costar
• conoció a una chica
• me gustaría comprar
• Reading:
• LICT 5.3
• PVaC Ch. 6 (p. 19-23 )
• Week 6:
• Structures:
• tomó otra decición
• se puso muy contento
• le encantaría
• Reading:
• LICT 6.1
• PVaC Ch. 7 (p. 24-28)
• Week 7:
• Structures:
• se ensució
• lo dejó
• no observaba lo que estaba haciendo
• Reading:
• LICT 6.2
• PVaC Ch. 8 (p. 29-33)
• Week 8:
• Structures:
• no podría venderselo por poco dinero
• volvió a casa
• podría ganar dinero
• Reading:
• LICT 6.3
• PVaC Ch. 9-10 (p. 34-39)
• Week 9:
• Structures:
• None - Review
• Reading:
• PVaC Ch. 11-12 (p. 40-45)

Pobre Ana: Story 8 - Making an impression

Structures:

• New Structures
• tenía que hacerlo
• estaba (-a/iendo verb) bien
• estaba sorprendida
• Recent Structures
• Story 7: Transportation in Africa
• 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 Isabel.  Quería un novio.  Le gustaba Brad Pitt, pero a Brad Pitt no le gustaba Isabel.  Isabel tenía que hacer algo.

Isabel fue a la casa de Brad Pitt.  A Brad Pitt le gustaban chicas que bailaba.  Isabel nunca bailaba.  Pero, tenía que hacerlo.  Isabel bailó mucho en la casa de Brad Pitt.  Brad Pitt la miró.  Brad Pitt estaba sorprendida porque Isabel estaba bailando en la cabeza.  Isabel no estaba bailando bien.  A Brad Pitt, no le gustaba Isabel.  Isabel estaba triste.  Tenía que hacer algo diferente.

Isabel fue a la casa de Brad Pitt.  A Brad Pitt le gustaban chicas que cantaban.  Isabel nunca cantaba.  Pero, tenía que hacerlo.  Isabel cantó mucho en la casa de Brad Pitt.  Brad Pitt la miró.  Brad Pitt estaba sorprendida porque Isabel estaba cantando como Shakira.  Isabel estaba cantando bien.  A Brad Pitt le gustaba Isabel.  Isabel estaba contenta.  No tenía que hacer algo diferente.

Pobre Ana Series

I just finished reading the Pobre Ana series for Spanish 1! 

I really like the Pobre Ana series for "required" reading that we do as a class because it sticks to common phrases and vocabulary that I can easily teach through telling TPRS stories.  Since they're all about life in general, they stick to the most common words, getting progressively more complex which each level.  Moreover, it brings in a lot of culture - each book takes place somewhere different and has a lot of really good themes we could focus on.  These are books I could easily center a curriculum around!

"Amigos Detectives" is a little different as it focuses on a science and biology theme.  I found myself stopping more frequently to look up words in it more than any of the other books because I didn't know words for animals and other specific vocabulary.  I think it would be a good "extra" book that uses the most frequent vocabulary and structures in new ways.   If we had time, or we just wanted to read a book "for fun" I would use it, but feel that teaching the vocabulary needed to read the book without looking in the glossary often would be difficult.  If it was read out loud as a class, this wouldn't be so much of an issue since I could just translate those words for them, but I feel there's power in reading a book that the students feel they can read without my assistance, especially if it's a central part of our curriculum.  Plus, I will likely want to vary how students are reading, including independent, and I don't want them to get discouraged or frustrated.  Checking the glossary every now and again is ok, but I felt I had to do it so much that it disrupted the flow of the book.

Just my two cents so far.  I'm excited to read the other books - 6 down, 14 to go!