Picture Word Inductive Model / Vocabulary

In a search designed originally designed to find some creative interpersonal speaking activities I came across Edutopia's article "Using Photos with English Language Learners."  It was here that I first learned of the Picture Word Inductive Model or PWMI. (I don't know if this makes me way behind the times but it does make me wonder why ELL and LA teachers don't share more resources...)

I've long enjoyed using photos as a speaking or writing prompt in my classes but I really liked the format of the PWMI and decided to give it a shot.

A colleague recently shared a folder of great photographs that he uses but I wanted to find something that could lend itself to the vocabulary we'd been learning. A quick Internet search for "pictures that tell a story" yielded a ton of resources. I decided on this one from Printaholic.com:

Image credit: http://www.printaholic.com/15-cool-pictures-that-tell-a-story/

I asked students, in groups of three, to come up with twenty vocabulary words that described what they saw in the picture. Students were given three minutes to do this and many groups came up with more than twenty words. I asked groups to share out and, with the image projected on the board, I labeled the photo.

The next task was to classify the words into four different groups. I explained that groups were entirely up to them and could be groups according to words type, an overarching theme, even words that began with the same letter. When they finished they had to give each group a title.

Independently (this can be done in groups as well but I wanted to mix it up), they had to write four more words for each group. This time the words didn't have to correspond to the picture but they had to fit the group. Students worked alone on this for five minutes and then shared their words with their groups.

Now it was time to start asking some questions. I started with some basic questions like ¿Quiénes son? ¿Dónde están? ¿Qué hacen? ¿Están durmiendo? 

The students had a ton of vocabulary at their disposal so I started pressing for details, making sure to point out particular vocabulary words I was using. I let the group discussion go for about five minutes- enough so that students had a good outline for a story- and then had students write independently for the rest of class. The directions were to use the vocabulary to describe in 100 words what was happening in the photo and the responses were phenomenal!

While I like to focus more on input rather than output in my lower levels, it is true that everyone (parents, admin, even students themselves) want and expect to be able to actually use the language and I thought this was a great opportunity to get those creative juices flowing! I was so pleased with the outcome of this activity that I found some more interesting photos and made a couple of worksheets to use as sub plans. In the sub plans I asked students to exchange stories, read their partners' story and write down four questions about something in the story they'd like to know more about. The author of the story is then asked to go back and include the answers to these questions in their story.  It might be fun to do this as a speaking and listening activity in class.

Character Analysis

Image Credit: http://www.nonsuchbook.com/2010/01/the-reading-habits-of-fictional-characters-matilda.html

My level one classes are currently reading Robo en la noche. We've just finished chapter where the actual robbery takes place and I wanted the students to make an informed guess as to who the culprit was. I was trying to come up with a plan that would provide valuable reps of the target vocabulary while at the same time teach students to express an opinion. I thought: Character analysis! Students would have to re-read the text (valuable repetitions) in order to find the thoughts and actions of a particular character. Next, they'd have to analyze these actions in order to determine who was most likely to have committed the crime. Finally, they'd have to articulate their conclusions (express an opinion).

I started with an Internet search to see what was out there in terms of Character analysis templates and lesson plans and found some good resources from Read Write Think.  Focusing on only four of the characters, I made a modified Spanish version of the table found here.

The only problem was my students didn't have enough adjective vocabulary to describe some of the personality traits I wanted them to analyze. I decided, since my objective wasn't focused on the acquisition of adjective vocabulary, to just give them the words they'd need. I prepared a list of as many adjective cognates as I could and made a Spanish/English matching activity.

I started with a warm up question:

¿Es más importante lo que una persona dice o lo que una persona hace? Explica. 

This generated some interesting responses and led to more personalized questions like: 

¿Piensas en cosas que no haces? ¿A veces haces cosas sin pensar? ¿Hablas sin pensar? ¿Conoces a una persona que habla sin pensar? 

While we were discussing these questions (a great opportunity to review some of those super verbs like pensar, hacer, and conocer), I passed out the adjective match-up activity. I gave students about three minutes to complete it independently and then projected the answers on the ppt. After ensuring that everyone had the correct vocabulary, I explained that in groups of four students would be going back into the book to find out what each character does and says and then record this information on the table I had given them. I explained that each person in the group would be responsible for researching one character and that they'd share their findings with the rest of the group. As always with group work, I had to emphasize that all the work was to be done in the target language. With a student volunteer and some sentence starters on the board, I modeled how students were to share their opinions about the characters (Yo pienso que Juan Carlos es egoísta porque a él no le importan las aves.).

When students finished, I projected the question:

¿Quién robó las aves? ¿Por qué? 

I also provided the following template for students to use to answer the question:

En mi opinión / A mí me parece / Pienso que / Creo que _____ robó las aves porque 

____________________________________________________________________.

Students were give two minutes to discuss their answers in groups. After sharing out as a class, students had to give their response in writing using 50-75 words. 

Reading Activities Email

I recently emailed a colleague a list of reading activities that I do with my students when reading a novel. I thought it might be a good idea to post here in case I need a reminder...

Image credit: http://www.scuolemanzoni.it/images/gallery/immagini/immagine3.jpg

Four Corners 

This can be done as a pre/during/or after reading activity. Post the posters (Estoy muy de acuerdo, de acuerdo, nada de acuerdo, no estoy de acuerdo) in four different locations around the room. Take a selection from the text (an action of one of the characters, for example) or some related bit of current events (that you've made comprehensible) and project it (or not, the beauty of this activity is that you can use it whenever-- if you're reading out loud and a character has just done something controversial, stop and ask the class whether or  not they agree with the action) and ask students to go stand next to the poster that best represents how they feel about the passage. Once they've done this, give them a few minutes to discuss in groups why they feel this way (great time to practice sentence starters for expressing an opinion: En mi opinion, A mi me parece, Creo que...) and then ask one person from each corner to explain. Extend it by asking if anyone has changed their mind after listening to group explanations. You can find posters here:

http://maestrahenderson.blogspot.com/2015/02/four-corners.html

 

Illustrations

I love this activity because it is so simple and there are so many  variations you can do to make it really work for you. Basically, while you're reading a passage out loud to the class, have them illustrate what they hear on a storyboard. To turn the listening comprehension activity into a speaking activity, have them partner up and show their pictures to their partner. Either have them use the TL to explain the storyboard or have the partner use the TL to try and interpret what they see. To use as a review activity (and a writing assessment), collect the drawings and during the review portion of the following class (as a warm up even), project one of the illustrations and have students describe in writing what they see. You could modify this activity from a whole group activity to one in which students work in pairs. One partner reads out loud while the other illustrates. 

I heard it! / ¡Lo oí!

I got this idea from Martina Bex and it is fabulous for insuring comprehension during a reading oh and the students LOVE it-- great confidence booster. Best to use with a difficult passage. Pre-read the selection you will be reading in class and pick out ten or twelve of the most important events in the chapter. Put them (in sequential order) on a PPT in English. Before you start reading the passage, have students read the event silently, then as you're reading, have students raise their hands and shout "¡Lo oí!" whenever you read the part in the chapter that corresponds to the event on the PPT. Extend it (and have students demonstrate greater comprehension) by asking students to identify specific words and their meaning. You can find more information and variations on Martina's blog:

http://martinabex.com/2014/01/03/i-heard-it/

3/5/10 (whatever!) Most Important Events

Great strategy to use with a really comprehensible selection. Pair  students and have them read a selection and identify the most important events in the selection. Have them write them out and be prepared to explain their choices in a class discussion. By the way, until your class is freely communicating in the target language without any coercion or behavior disruptions, that is to say, until college, you might want to use a rubric for classroom discussions that assigns a grade for participation (speaking grade). Love pair activities too because they allow you to work with struggling students. Extend it for students who excel by asking them, based on the events they identified, what will happen next in the story. 

Summarizing

This is similar to the activity above. I like to use it to get students to re-read a particular selection but it can definitely be used for the first go round. I usually have students work in groups of three for this (I don't particularly like groups of four but the number is really up to you) and I give each group a large post it note and markers. I assign a selection and ask students to read two paragraphs at a time (again the number of paragraphs depends on you and the text) and have students write a one sentence summary of what they've read. When the class is finished (usually the next day), I ask students to go around the classroom reading the group summaries, we then follow up with a discussion as to which group had the most accurate summary and why. Great review activity! Encourage students to use key vocabulary structures as well. 

Simultaneous Acting

Really awesome to use with a text that has a lot of action. Put students in groups according to number of characters in selection. For instance, if there are three characters, put students in groups of three. Assign each student a character and, while you read out loud, students should act out the action. You could do a friendly competition for most creative enactments to encourage participation.

Annotations 

A non-teacher led activity, this is a great in that it allows students to work independently, in pairs, or in small groups. You can choose the annotations you want students to use or, in order not to confuse and to support English objectives, you can use the annotations employed by the 8th grade English teachers (translated to Spanish, of course). Great activity for independent or whole group reading. 

Text to self, text to text, text to world

This is a variation on the annotations idea. Give students about five or six post its as they are reading and ask them to make connections between what they are reading and themselves, between one selection of the text and a prior selection and, finally, between the text and what is happening in the world. You will need to do some modeling for this activity. I would suggest doing it yourself during direct instruction. 

Sustained silent reading with whiteboards

I use this strategy frequently, usually with a not too difficult selection. I think all of Esperanza would qualify provided that key vocab. structures have been taught. First, I assign a passage and then give individual students a whiteboard and marker (or, if working in groups, I give out one whiteboard per group and each student gets a marker). I ask students to read through the selection writing any words they don't understand down on the whiteboard. I walk around the classroom as the students are reading and write the words I see on their boards on the whiteboard in front of the class along with the English translation. I really like this activity since it gives me a feel for how well the students are doing, which words are most challenging and it also allows students to ask for help without singling themselves out as not knowing something. Follow this up with class discussion and then assign reading comprehension questions to be done independently (formative assessment grade).

Here are some activities I haven't used but found from around the web and look interesting and useful:

I can statements

Basically a graphic organizer that gives students goals for their reading. You can do this for a specific chapter, book, two books, or the class. Might make for a good activity for independent reading or reading in pairs.

http://palmyraspanish1.blogspot.com/2014/12/i-can-statements.html

My favorite bailout moves

Not so much a list of reading activities but very useful for those moments when you think to yourself "what do I do now?!"

https://mrpeto.wordpress.com/2014/11/09/my-favorite-bailout-moves/​

Ok, I think this is all for now but I will continue to add to this list and update you. I really hope this helps a little. I know it's difficult trying to think of ways to vary the reading. Please let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to do and how things are going!

Hija del sastre Capítulo 3

I meant to post this way back when school was in session.... 

I wanted to accomplish two things with the chapter: I wanted to make the material comprehensible for all my students as well as to facilitate group work and collaboration. After reading chapter 3 on my own, I was sure it was going to be a challenge. The grammar was more advanced than anything that they had seen before (a lot of the past perfect) and the vocabulary was more sophisticated than what my advanced novice readers were accustomed to. So, how to make this comprehensible? I decided I’d be better off by dividing and conquering.

I divided the chapter into five different sections and put each class into groups of five (students were grouped according to their reading level). I then labeled each section according to its level of difficulty and assigned each group a selection that best matched the group reading levels. Next, I pulled out about ten words for each section and put them into a graphic organizer. Some of the words I let students look up in the glossary, others I had them define from context and, for other words, I simply gave them the definitions. It’s important to note here that these words (those on the graphic organizer) I did not necessarily want students to acquire. That is to say, these were words that would make the passage more comprehensible to students but they were not the high frequency structures that were the focus of this chapter. (The three structures I chose for this chapter were: se esconde / se escondió, amenaza / amenazó, and encuentra / encontró. They were pre-taught before we began the chapter in an entire lesson devoted to PQA and circling after which students used them to make a prediction about Chapter 3.)

In addition to helping with vocabulary, I also wanted the graphic organizers to help students organize information about what they were reading. Below are the organizers that correspond to each section of the chapter.

Cap 3 Part 1 by hendersonak

Cap 3 Parte 2 by hendersonak

Cap 3 Parte 3 by hendersonak

Cap 3 Parte 4 by hendersonak

Cap 3 Parte 5 by hendersonak

I liked my plans so far but the question remained: how was each group going to know what happened in the rest of the chapter? The answer: Jigsaw!

Image Credit: http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/Jigsaw.htm

Returning to my computer, I came up with five comprehension questions for each section of the chapter. Once students had finished reading the chapter and filling out the graphic organizer, I asked students to return to their individual desks and write a summary of what they had read. After they finished with their summaries, students were asked to go back to their reading groups. I handed out the comprehension questions and asked students to review the questions (for comprehension) that corresponded to their reading selection with one another. The next step was to have students share their summaries with the group. I wanted students to read their summaries out loud while the group listened to see how many of the comprehension questions each summary addressed. Finally, students were asked to choose the best summary (the one that answered all of the comprehension questions) or to create a new summary that answered all the questions by combining information from each student’s work.

Once the group had come up with a solid “resumen” of their assigned selection, I designated one student from each group “ambajador” to go around to the other groups, read their summary out loud. In this way, the students in other groups could answer the comp questions (I’m not posting the questions as some are taken and/or modified from the comprehension guide) for different sections of the chapter.

While this activity worked fairly well and students seemed to be engaged, I still wanted to review the entire chapter with the students before giving them an assessment. I turned, once again, to Martina Bex and her “¿Quién lo dijo?” activity. I translated to English about fifteen of the most important events from the chapter and put them in a slideshow. I then began to read the chapter out loud with the students reading along. Each time they heard the event being read, they raised their hands and shouted “¡Lo oí!” The students loved this and I think it was a great follow up review activity. The only thing I wanted to be sure of was that I was getting adequate repetitions of vocabulary into the lesson so, if an opportunity arose for circling or doing some PQA with the structures, I made sure I took advantage of it.

The last thing we did for chapter 3 was take a short multiple choice comprehension quiz with most of the questions taken directly from the teacher’s guide. Students scored pretty high on it and I felt comfortable moving on to the next chapter.

MOOCs / Inquiry Based Instruction

As my life has been a whirlwind the last few months (finishing the school year, expecting my first child and moving into our first house) I've taken a bit of a hiatus from writing. However, things have begun to settle and as I await the arrival of my son I'm eager to get some things posted before it's too late. I recently took a Massive Online Open Course (I love MOOCs and find them to be  an excellent source for free professional development) offered by the Museum of Modern Art on how to incorporate Art and Inquiry Strategies into every classroom. The objective of the course was to develop strategies to use art to facilitate inquiry based instruction across content. The rationale being that with inquiry based instruction students cultivate higher level thinking skills by having to construct meaning through their own efforts and interacting with others. Laura Schmidt describes the technique as consisting of three basic moves: Ask initiating questions; Ask questions to respond and follow up and, finally: Insert information at key points. 

I was intrigued to see how I could use these strategies in my L2 classroom without sacrificing valuable input. Below is the artwork I selected along with my final project for the course which I hope to incorporate into my unit using Los Baker van a Perú next year. 

Photo credit: http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/artpages/duane_hanson_tourists_2.htm

Using the Sculpture of Duane Hanson to Facilitate Inquiry Based Instruction in the World Language Classroom 

Please provide the following information in the order that it is presented below: Subject Area; Intended grade level range; Artwork Selection; Artwork Title; Artist; Date & Materials My subject area is level 2 Spanish taught to 8th grade students. The selection I chose was Duane Hanson's sculpture entitled Tourists II. It is a life-size, fiberglass and mixed media sculpture created in 1988.    

Theme/Connection to Curriculum: Briefly describe the theme or connection to the curriculum. I wanted to incorporate this lesson into a unit I taught on travel and tourism. I teach in an IB school and we are required to have a "Statement of Inquiry" that drives all of our curricular units. For this particular unit the statement of inquiry was: "Cuando viajamos podemos aprender más por observar y respetar los costumbres y tradiciones del país que visitamos." In English: "When we travel we can learn more by observing and respecting the customs and traditions of the country that we visit." (It's important to note that because I teach level 2 students who understand at around a high-novice range- as defined by the American Council on Foreign Languages' Performance Descriptors for language learners- the Spanish language I use in the classroom is made "comprehensible" for students. Hence, the use of a lot of cognates or a syntax that mirrors that of English.) Last year I tried to incorporate this statement of inquiry as much as I could into my daily lessons but, as my primary focus was language instruction, I felt like a deeper understanding of travel including the reasons that people embark on journeys and how this affects their perspectives on the world, was largely missing from the instruction. Instead of facilitating critical thinking or probing for deeper meaning, I was simply repeating the statement of inquiry as often as possible and not allowing for discussion around it. I was, therefore, very interested in using art as a means by which to remedy the lack of inquiry and student exploration in the unit as I taught it last year. In doing this project, I have revisited and reworked both the statement of inquiry and the theme for this particular unit. Described below are both my theme and topic.

My theme (using IB language) is orientation in space and time. I want my students to use their language skills to explore the personal histories, relationships, change in perspectives, and discoveries that travel allows them. I also want my students to examine the ways in which tourists are perceived abroad, why this is so, and whether perceptions of tourists are changing as we live in an increasingly interconnected world. My new statement of inquiry or "big idea" is: "La gente viaja por una variedad de motivaciones." Turned into a question, the statement becomes: "¿Por qué la gente viaja?"

Include three open-ended questions related to the artwork in the sequence they would be presented. I realize that I've included more than three questions here but, because it's a language classroom, the extra questions are designed to scaffold meaning and provide some ideas to get students speaking.

¿Qué observas? ¿Quiénes son las personas? ¿De dónde vienen? ¿Qué ves que te hace decir eso? / What do you observe (see)? Who are the people? Where do they come from? What do you see that makes you say that?

¿Por qué piensas que la gente viaja? ¿Cuáles son otras motivaciones por viajar? / Why do you think that people travel? What are some other motivations (reasons) for traveling?

Con esta escultura, ¿qué piensas que el artista quiere decir sobre los turistas y el turismo? / With this sculpture, what do you think the artist wants to say about tourists and tourism?

Include 3 bullet points of information about the artwork that is related to the theme/curriculum connection. Hanson moldeó las esculturas de personas reales. / Hanson cast these sculptures from actual people. No existen límites claramente definidos que separan el arte de los espectadores. / There are no clearly defined boundaries separating the sculptures from the viewer. Se asocia el arte de Hanson con el género de pintura y escultura que se conoce como Hiperrealismo. Hiperrealismo representa sus sujetos como objetos vivos pero con mucho más detalles que los objetos en los cuales están basados. Se usa para crear una realidad basada en la realidad actual pero que nunca existía. / Hanson's work is often associated with a genre of painting and sculpture known as Hyperrealism. Hyperrealism presents its subjects as living objects but often with much more detail than the object from which it is based. It is used to create a reality that never really existed.

Include an activity (multi-modal approach) for this artwork and include the following: Brief description of activity: What will the students do? (i.e writing, drawing, movement) Directions: How will you introduce this activity and what directions will you give your students? Goals: What are your goals for including the activity in the conversation?

1. Students will write a postcard from the perspective of one of the two tourists in the sculpture. Students will have to describe where they are and what they are doing.

2. I will introduce this activity after we have fully discussed the open-ended questions above and the students have had an opportunity to share who they believe the subjects in the sculpture are and what the artist intended by portraying them the way he did. Specifically, I will ask students to think about the conversation we have just had regarding the sculpture and to imagine that they are one of the two figures represented in the sculpture. From this perspective, they will have to write a postcard to a friend or family member back home and describing where they are (what they see, hear, and feel) and how they are getting along, detailing any particular complaints or pleasures.

3. I will have my students share their writing with the class. While students read what they've written, we will both be practicing our language skills as well as gaining a deeper understanding as to how individual students interpreted the artwork.

Hija del sastre Capítulo 2

Chapter 2

Day 1

1. Warm Up: As a Chapter one review, I started the class by asking students to write what they knew about each of the following story elements:

Emilia

Lorenzo

La Guerra Civil Española

2. New Vocabulary: After reviewing students' answers, I then introduced three new structures to the class, which they copied in their dictionary pages and followed up with some PQA to practice the words.

Structures:

Se negó

Ya pasó

Fingió

Translations:

Los estudiantes se negaron a escuchar a la maestra.

Mi cumpleaños ya pasó pero sigo estudiando.

Luis fingió su propia muerte para no tener que hacer la tarea. 

Personal Questions:

¿Alguien en la clase se niega a escuchar a la maestra?

¿Tú te niegas a contestar una pregunta cuando no sabes la respuesta?

¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? ¿Ya pasó?

¿Has fingido que estás dormido en la clase? ¿Cuándo? ¿Por qué?

Cuando alguien te acerca en la calle, ¿finges que hablas en tu celular?

¿Has fingido saber la respuesta en la clase cuando no la sabes?

3. Reading: With about ten minutes left in the class, I began to read Chapter two out loud.

4. Exit Slip / Antes de salir: In this particular chapter there are a lot of examples of the past perfect (había…) tense. I had already given my students the vocabulary structure “Habían luchado” and I wanted to check that they understood the structure if I used it with other verbs. I projected the structure and asked students: ¿Qué parte de esta estructura significa «they had»? After hearing the correct answer, I projected the slide below and asked the class to write the English translations on their exit slips.

Habian Luchado

Day 2

1. Warm Up: I started the class with four of the comprehension questions from the teacher’s guide that I thought would give the most information in terms of a review. While students were working on their warm-up, I passed out the exit slip from yesterday’s class so that students could use it to help with difficult passages in today’s reading.

2. Reading: I generally like to have students work together to read and comprehend a passage and then review it as a group but because I knew that this chapter was going to be difficult I decided to read out loud with the graphic organizer I made (below) and to work through the chapter as a class. 

After reading the first two paragraphs, I had students label the figures in the organizer. Then we worked through the conversation between Rosario, Lorenzo and Diana (with lot’s of comprehension checks and some enactments). When I was satisfied everyone understood, I had students close their books and re-create, using their own words the dialogue from the chapter. This is what they copied on the organizers.

Cap 2 Graphic Organizer

3. Enactments: As students were writing, I walked around the class passing out slips of paper with each character’s name on it and a corresponding number. I then called all “unos” to the front of the class and had them enact the dialogue.

When I noticed something important missing or incorrect I called on the class to help me correct it. Also, I made a big deal of emphasizing that Pablo wasn’t arrested because the police had new evidence but rather because he refused to talk. Really wanted to get in some useful repetitions of that “se negó” structure!

This was how we ended the class and I asked all students to bring their organizers with them to class the next day.

Day 3

1. Warm Up: Using the vocab. structures from yesterday, I had students translate a short story to English. 

2. Review: Today we were learning about Lorenzo’s escape plan and I really wanted to ensure that all my students were comprehending what was happening. I asked them to take out their organizers and began by using the equity cards to ask some comprehension questions about yesterday’s passage. (I should mention that while all of the questions were asked in comprehensible Spanish, I sometimes wanted students to answer me in English to demonstrate they truly understood what I was asking. Each time I wanted an answer in English I would flash an “Inglés” sign and, when we reverted back to Spanish, I would wave the “Español” white board in the air.)

3. Transition: When I was satisfied that everyone was on the same page, I asked students to do a Think, Pair, Share with the following question:

¿Qué harías si tú fueras Lorenzo? ¿Qué opciones tendrías?

A few of my students needed some extra help with this question so, as students were working, I went round the classroom and reminded struggling students of the situation Lorenzo was by referring back to the graphic organizer.

4. Reading: I continued to read out loud and as Lorenzo explained his escape plan in the novel, we broke it down as a class into more comprehensible (for my students’ level) on the graphic organizer.

5. Comprehension Check / Exit Slip: After we finished the chapter, I projected a short six question true or false quiz taken from the Teacher’s Guide and had students complete it before leaving.

Day 4

1. Warm Up: Today’s warm-up was differentiated to accommodate all students. Students who needed extra scaffolding were asked to explain, using English, Lorenzo’s plan. Students on reading-level, were asked to describe the plan in Spanish, in their own words and those who finished early or who needed a greater challenge, were asked to make as judgment as to whether or not it would work and why. (It seems repetitive, but in order for us to really learn from this book I wanted to review as much as possible and this meant taking advantage of every opportunity to go over the chapter’s events.)

2. Review: I passed out the mini-prueba from yesterday and reviewed the answers with the class, asking students to correct any false information.

3. Vocabulary: Se queda / Se quedó

                        Se mete en problemas / Se metió en problemas

(Although I’d given my students a structure with “quedar” earlier in the year, I felt like many students hadn’t quite gotten it down. With “se mete en problemas,” I wanted to give students a high-frequency structure that would allow them to further personalize the reading.) 

I had students translate the following sentences:

·      Cuando era joven me quedaba con mis abuelos en el campo durante los veranos.

·      Luis se metió en problemas cuando no le dijo la verdad a su madre.

·      Emilio se quedó en DC el año pasado y pasó mucho tiempo en los museos.

·      Lorenzo fingió estar dormido en la clase y se metió en problemas con la maestra.

4. Story Asking / Vocabulary Instruction: Finally, I followed Cynthia Hitz’s Four Part Guided Story Asking Activity. The basic story is below (the words in red are the ones students were asked to contribute):

Teresa no quería estar en la clase de español. Ella fingió que se sentía enferma y pidió permiso para ir a la enfermera. Ella se quedó con la enfermera por dos horas. El director de la escuela habló con la enfermera y Teresa se metió en problemas.

Teresa estaba en la oficina del director de la escuela. Ella no quería estar en la oficina. Ella fingió que tenía que usar el baño y pidió permiso para ir al baño. Ella se quedó en al baño por dos horas. El director de la escuela entró el baño y Teresa se metió en más problemas.

Teresa estaba en la estación de policía. Ella no quería estar en la estación de policía. Ella fingió que tenía hambre y pidió permiso para ir a la cafetería. Ella se quedó en la cafetería por tres meses y comió toda la comida. ..

Our classes are 50 minutes long so the story-asking activity took two days. On the second day, students finished the story and we voted on the most interesting, boring, compelling, etc. ending! My students are really loving the story asking this year and it's totally owing to Cynthia Hitz's Guided Story Asking grid. Love it! And that takes care of Chapter 2, Week 2. On to Chapter 3... 

Hija del sastre Capítulo 1

I’m finishing the year with my Spanish 2 students (they are 8^th graders and have had beginning Spanish in 6^th and level 1 Spanish in 7^th grade) by reading “La Hija del Sastre”.  My classes, like everyone’s, consist of a very diverse group of students with some able to read at a mid-advanced level and others who struggle at a mid-novice level with their reading comprehension skills. Going into the novel, I knew I was going to have to provide a lot of support in order to make it comprehensible and valuable experience for my students. 

I wanted to share my experiences in teaching this novel in the spirit of giving back  (teacher bloggers have been my number one go-to resource for generating ideas) and also as a reflection exercise for next year.  

Chapter 1

Day 1 

I started the novel by giving my students some information from Chapter 1, namely that the main character learns about a secret her parents have, and asking them to draw a personal connection to this bit of information. My warm up activity for the first day was:

1. En capítulo uno de la hija del sastre, Emilia, el protagonista, aprende que sus padres tienen un secreto. En tu familia, ¿tú tienes secretos que no dices a tus padres o a tus hermanos? ¿Piensas que tus padres tienen secretos? ¿Piensas que hay ocasiones cuando no es buena idea decir la verdad?

After sharing out from the warm up activity- I sometimes do this simply by using equity cards or sometimes I have students turn and talk to each other and then ask students what their neighbors said- I introduced three new vocabulary structures for the chapter.

2. I still use MartinaBex’s Dictionary Pages for students to copy vocabulary. They copied the following three structures in their pages:

•       Se convirtió: S/he became

•       Creció: S/he grew

•       Sobrevivir: To survive

3. Again following Bex’s formula for many of her units, I gave my students some translation sentences to practice and followed up with personal questions.

Hija Cap 1 Structures 1

4. Once we had our vocabulary down I had my students complete a short writing activity. I had them think about the warm-up activity and the vocabulary we had learned and to write a short prediction of what they thought would happen in Chapter 1 of La hija del sastre. This served as our exit slip and wrapped up our first class nicely.

Day 2

1. Warm-Up: Students did a short translation using the vocabulary structures from the day before:

Jason creció en Washington DC durante las 60s. En DC habían mucha gente que protestaban la guerra de Vietnam durante esta época (time). Después de la secundaria, Jason se convirtió en soldado y fue a Vietnam. Afortunadamente, Jason sobrevivió la guerra y regresó a DC.

2. Introduction of new vocabulary: I wanted to pre-teach three more structures that I thought would be really helpful not only in understanding Chapter 1 but also work in terms of facilitating more in-depth discussion about the Chapter and it’s themes. I gave students the following three structures:

•       Ayudaba en el taller: S/he helped in the workshop

•       Pasaba mucho tiempo: S/he spent a lot of time

•       Habían luchado: They/You all had fought / struggled

3. Practice: Like the day before, we followed up the new vocabulary with some short translations and practice questions. This go round, each time we arrived at a question I had students turn and talk with their neighbors before calling on students to share their answers. 

Translations: 

• La maestra ayudaba a los estudiantes en el taller de gramática. 
• A.J. ayudaba a los jóvenes en el taller de guitarra clásica. 

• Olivia y Alejandra eran mejores amigas y pasaban mucho tiempo juntas. 
• Antes de convertirse en doctor, Enrique pasaba mucho tiempo estudiando.

• Los republicanos habían luchado contra General Franco en la guerra. 
• Las mujeres habían luchado por el derecho de votar en este país. 

Turn and Talk: 
¿Has tomado un taller de arte, escritura, música? ¿Cómo te pareció? ¿Piensas que los talleres nos ayudan a aprender más o prefieres trabajar sólo?

¿Pasabas más tiempo estudiando en el grado sexto o el grado séptimo? ¿Has pasado mucho tiempo estudiando este año? ¿Piensas que pasarás mucho tiempo estudiando en la secundaria?

¿Piensas que a veces es necesario luchar por las causas? ¿Tus padres o familiares han luchado por una causa? 

4. Reading: Finally, after six new vocabulary structures, I thought my classes were ready to begin reading. I put students in strategic pairs with students needing a lot of extra support partnered with higher-level readers who were able and willing to assist. I gave students the reading guide I had created (below) and had them work together to read through Chapter one and complete the first page of the guide.

Cap 1 Organizer

Day 3 1. Warm Up: I had students describe a picture using the six vocabulary structures from the past two days. Students shared out from their writing as I checked off the vocabulary structures, as they used them, on the board.

2. Review: I wanted to begin the instruction with a review of what they had read from the day before. So, I asked all students to take out their reading comprehension guides and we began to review the characters by playing ¿Quién es? (I wrote up a short description of each character and the students had to tell me who each person is in the story).

3. Partner Review: Our objective for the class today was to write a summary of the Chapter one (both in order to demonstrate comprehension and also to practice writing) and I wanted to give my students as much writing help as possible. I asked students to form the same pairs as they did the day before when they were reading Chapter one and I gave them Martina Bex’s “Los cinco elementos de un cuento” (an invaluable resource for writing summaries and demonstrating comprehension).  Students were given about ten minutes to work together to identify the elements. We reviewed them as a class before moving along to the writing activity. 

4. Writing: The last fifteen minutes of class students spent individually writing a summary of Chapter one on their reading comprehension guides.

Day 4 

One of the things I struggle the most with in my classes is how to give effective, meaningful feedback that improves learning. Grading is one of my least favorite activities as a teacher but I know both from my own experience as a student and from research, how valuable feedback can be and how essential it is to the learning process. I have, however, run into several logistical hurdles when trying to evaluate and comment on student work. First among these problems is: How can I grade 120 writing prompts and do anything else including plan for lessons, eat, sleep, etc.? Also, how can I get students to think about the feedback they’ve received and use it to improve future work? I mean we’re talking middle school here. My students are accustomed to seeing a check on work and shoving the work in the binder or trash bin where it is never to be seen again.  This was what I was up against while planning today’s activity. How can I use the summaries that the students wrote yesterday to not only review the chapter’s events but also improve students’ writing ability?

I decided first of all not to grade all of the student summaries. There was no way I could get it done in one night and I also believed that if I could involve my students somehow in the evaluation process (instead of doing it all myself) they would be much more likely to internalize any feedback they were given. I started by reading through the summaries to get a general idea of the writing abilities in each class. I chose one summary per class that I thought was accurate in terms of content but that embodied the types of errors that were commonplace in that particular class. I then typed the summary up and created both student handouts and PPT slide.  

1. Warm Up: I had several reading comprehension questions from the Hija del sastre Teacher’s Guide up on the PPT and had students write their answers in complete sentences. As students were working, I walked around the classroom reading students answers and giving feedback to individual feedback to students. 

2. I gave all students a copy of the summary I had chosen for that particular class and projected the summary on the whiteboard. I gave students about three minutes to read over the summary. Then, I asked students to turn to their neighbors and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the summary (turn and talk). After about two minutes, I started to call on students to share out from their discussions and as I wrote their commentary on the board next to the projected summary.

3. I then asked students to take out their Correction Guide for Written Work. I asked students to spend two minutes identifying any mistakes they found in the first sentence and assigning each mistake a number from the grid. (This activity could be done individually or in pairs. Originally, we did it individually but I think in the future I’ll do it in pairs just to make the lesson a bit more interactive.) Then, as a class, we reviewed and re-wrote the first sentence correcting all the identified errors. We repeated this process for the next two sentences.

4. Next, I gave students about five minutes to read through and identify errors in the rest of the summary. At this point there were about four more sentences. I walked around the class looking at student work and helping to direct the process where I could. Then, I handed out my version of the corrected summary and had students compare their work with mine.

5. Finally, I had students re-write the summary making the corrections to the errors we had indicated.

Things I’ll do differently next time:

In step 2, I ‘d give students questions to help structure the commentary on the student summary. For example:

·      ¿El autor falta información importante en el resumen?

·      ¿Ha incluido todos los elementos de un cuento (los personajes, conflicto, escenario, etc.?

·      ¿Los errores lo hacen el resumen difícil de leer?

·      ¿Cuáles tipos de errores son lo más frecuentes?

After students have re-written the summary correcting the indicated errors, I’d like to have students exchange papers and correct each other’s writing.

Day 5

           

I wanted to give my students some background on the Spanish Civil War and, since we’d had a lot of direct instruction this week, I wanted to provide an opportunity for some cooperative learning, so I created a Jigsaw Reading activity from the Spanish Civil War Reading in the Teacher’s Guide.

                                   

1. Warm Up: Not feeling particularly creative this week, I did a repeat of Wednesday’s Warm Up using some additional vocabulary structures. Students described another image (from the internet, of course) using the following words:

Trajo

Habían peleado

Sobrevivir

Pasaban mucho tiempo

2. I split students into five different groups and gave each group a different section of the reading as well as comprehension questions for all sections of the reading. I gave student groups five minutes to read their section (out loud) and answer the questions that corresponded to their section. As they were completing this activity, I gave one person from each group a laminated gold star.

3. After five minutes, the person with the star rotated to the nearest group in a clockwise direction. That person was responsible for explaining what their section was about and helping their new group to answer the corresponding comp questions. The group, in turn, then had to explain to their new member their own section and questions. Todo en español, ¡obviamente!

4. We repeated this process until the students with gold stars were back at their original groups.

5. I followed up the Jigsaw activity with a brief PPT on the Spanish Civil War during which we reviewed the comprehension questions.