Scaffolding the Interpersonal Mode

 

Have you noticed it's more difficult to encourage students to interact in the interpersonal mode in the world language classroom than it has been in the past?  If yes, you're not alone.  Common discussions circle around the fact that we were all isolated for so long so students now need to relearn how to converse in L1 before they can be expected to communicate in L2.  Others argue that students are always "plugged in" leaving less time for natural, face-to-face communication to occur.  Either way world language teachers are in a conundrum:  how do we encourage interpersonal communication in class?

One group of language educators started implementing what they refer to as Conversation Stations into their lessons to help with this situation.  What are they and how are they used in class?  Conversation Stations are a set of 10 different mini conversations based upon the same topic.  For example, the theme of School Life, Clothing, and Hobbies have been used with success following this model.  

The first step in creating the mini conversations after choosing the subject matter is to peruse authentic materials in the target language and highlight vocabulary that native speakers use in context.  What questions are common for this theme?  Keep these words and expressions in mind and then its time to let your own creativity come to life.  Now, it's time to develop 6 complete mini-conversations.  Anywhere from 3 to 4 exchanges is appropriate for learners.  Once the six complete conversations have been created, it's time to make 4 mini conversations with only one part of the conversation provided.  The portion provided could be either a question which would require a response from students or it could be the response which would then mean the students would have to think of a logical question eliciting the answer provided.  

The conversations are ready, now what?  In class students either choose a partner or are assigned to work with someone.  They move through the classroom to "stations" where only one conversation is seen.  Students are encouraged to work together to find the meaning of the interaction between the two roles first.  Then each student chooses a role and role plays by reading his/her part.  Students switch and repeat.  The repetition is important as it provides an opportunity for students to really grasp comprehension in context.  The learners work through stations 1-6 with the full mini conversations.  This provides them with a lot of input so that when they start with station 7 and only see half of the exchange, they can pull from what they've seen in stations 1-6 to think critically and solve the problem of how to respond in context to the statement or question provided.  Stations 8,9, and 10 further support problem solving and critical thinking.  After moving through all of the stations students are now at a point where they feel confident in creating their own conversations and the expectation of having them work in the interpersonal mode is more achievable.  

Here are links to several sets of conversations that can be used for various themes in Spanish and in French.  Simply click on the links provided.  

Spanish Conversation Stations Bundle

French Conversation Stations Bundle

How have you responded to the dilemma of encouraging student communication in the target language in your classroom?  

March Music Madness

 It's March!! That means it's time for the annual March Música Madness tournament that SpanishPlans created many moons ago. Check out his Tournament Page and all the amazing resources. See why so many teachers call the SpanishPlans bracket the best bracket. Your students will love these current songs.

If you haven't done MMM before, it's easy! Use the Google Slides with artist information, embedded videos, and a national poll.  Listen and class and have your students vote for their favorite! 

Shared Google Drive with many documents to use
Bracket: Final 16 songs
Google Slides  with song and artist bio, embedded video, and voting links

Bulletin Board Bracket Labels – Print and create a bulletin board bracket of the songs


Facebook Group – If you create any of your own documents, you can share them with other teacbhers

Top Wishlisted Items for Spanish Teachers

With TeachersPayTeachers site-wide back to school sale happening on Tuesday, August 3 through August 4, now is a perfect time to start adding these items to your carts to earn you big savings. These are the most wishlisted items from each teacher's store. 

Check it out below:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Diversity in the WL Classroom

Diversity is a topic that a lot of World Language teachers are thinking about recently.  Discussions in many social media groups have teachers reflecting about the environment and activities that are offered in their classrooms.  Questions such as, "do students see themselves in this curriculum?" are requiring many to revamp and make positive change in their lessons for the 2020-2021 school year.  The good news is that there are already resources available for others to use immediately.  Keep reading to find some ideas below.

One easy way to incorporate a more diverse structure to a curriculum is to make sure that more than one country where the target language is spoken is represented.  This can be done by simply promoting target language countries on bulletin boards or by having students do independent research on a place that interests them.  Here are a few resources that will help:

Country Research Project

Francophone Countries

German Speaking Cities Poster Project

Another way to involve diversity is to add activities which include culture into lessons.  Below are some great activities that can help:

German Trivia Cards

Spanish Culturopoly 

French in the USA Trivia Game

How about introducing students to famous target language speakers?  This is an easy way to have students find connections and comparisons to their own individual circumstances.  The following resources will help:

Famous Germans Biography Research Project

French Biography Project

Spanish Class Project

One final idea would be to incorporate famous quotes and citations that speakers of the target language have said.  

30 Inspirational Quote Signs in Spanish and English

French Women Quotes

German Quotes

Good luck in the upcoming school year as diversity becomes more prominent in the curriculum.  

Higher Order Thinking Skills in the WL Classroom

Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) are activities in which learning requires augmented levels of cognitive processing.  On a Bloom's Taxonomy scale these activities would fall under the category of analysis, evaluation, or synthesis.  Chances are that if you're still in the classroom you've heard this terminology a lot.  How can we add these activities in the language classroom?

One way to incorporate HOTS is by providing students with more activities that require problem solving.  Think of conversations where students are only given half of the information and then must complete the missing parts logically to finish it.  This activity could be completed by providing students with blank spaces where the other half of the conversation would be found.  They could work individually to brainstorm possible responses and then after a specified amount of time students could partner up with each other.  Next, they would share their thoughts from their brainstorming session.  Then, students would decide who is Partner A and who is Partner B.  The teacher would provide Partner A with one half of the completed conversation and Partner B with the other half.  Students would take turns reading their role and filling in the page with what they hear from their partner.  Finally, students could create a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting their initial ideas of the logical completion of the conversation with the full conversation they worked on with their partner.  As a follow up activity students could develop their own conversation on the same concepts for a class work or homework assignment.

Check out these ready to go activities for the French classroom:

L'École

 

Les Passe-Temps

La Jeunesse

Greetings and Salutations

How do you incorporate HOTS activities into your WL classroom?  We'd love to hear some other ideas!  Leave a comment below.

Timed Writing

A great way to show student progress in the language is to use timed writings. A timed writing is when you give students a specific amount of time, for example, 5 minutes, to write as much as they can in the target language. The idea is that the more language a student has internalized the more they will be able to write. This is a technique that is used by many teachers who teach with CI strategies such as Storytelling, Story-asking, TPRS, or other CI methods.

First, find a prompt. Some teachers will use timed writing at the end of a particular lesson/unit to measure what the students acquired from a particular story. These end up being re-tells of the story.

What I like to do is to take a picture sequence that I haven't told as a story and have my students write about that. That lets me see what structures they have acquired and can APPLY without just regurgating the same language that I have just provided.

If you are looking to show growth, you essentially need a pre-test. That means you should have your students do a timed-writing early on in the year, during the first few weeks of school. Expect this number to be low. After several weeks of comprehensible language, your students will be able to produce a little more. If you have them do the same prompt every month, you will see students get better every month.

This download includes 2 picture prompts as well as a spreadsheet and google gradebook for tracking the data. The google gradebook is also capable of automatically producing an individual grade report that you can use to communicate student progress with parents.

Let us know what questions you have about Timed Writings and we will post a Q+A, FAQ post nex time!

6 Ways to Use I have...who has? in the WL Classroom

I have...who has is a great game to use in World Language classes to help students hone in on their speaking, listening, and pronunciation skills.  Have you ever wondered what else can be done with this game?  Here is a list of 6 different ways you can get more out of this simple game with your students.

1.  Turn It Into a Class Competition

Distribute the cards to students making sure that all cards have been passed out.  Set a timer and record the time it takes for the class to move through every card.  Write this time on the board.  Collect and redistribute the cards.  Play the game again and see if the class can finish this round faster than the previous time on the board.  This can also be done as a competition between different classes if you teach the same course multiple times throughout the school day.  

2.  Play In Small Groups

Instead of playing I have...who has as a whole class game divide your students into two or more groups.  Provide each group with a set of cards.  Students will have more than one card if you choose to play this way.  On the plus side, they will receive more practice.  This can also be a great way for teams to compete.  See which group can finish first!

3.  Extra Individual Practice
Have individual students grab a set of cards and place them in order from start to finish to practice the concept individually.  The student can choose to place the cards in rows in order or play it on the ground in a wide open space to create a giant circle from start to finish.

4.  Presentational Practice
Combine two to three sets of the same game and redistribute the cards to students.  Have them use the answer part to create complete sentences with the information on the cards.  They can then turn these statements in to receive a homework or classwork grade.

5.  Put The Cards In Order
Use a dry erase marker and write a number on the top corner of the card.  Be sure to use random numbers and to not write them in order.  Then, place the cards in order and write down on a post-it note or other piece of paper the correct order of the cards from start to finish.  Keep this piece of paper with you.  Distribute one set of cards to small groups of students and have them work together to place the cards in order and to write down the numbers from the cards.  The students should then pick a representative from their group to bring their list of numbers to you to check.  The first group with the correct order wins!

6.  Review for Upper Levels
Play the same sets you play with lower levels with your upper level students, but require the students to respond in complete sentences as opposed to just giving the answers.  Advanced students will not only have to produce the correct answer and a logical sentence, but they will also have to listen closely to distinguish the portion that would appear at the top of another card.

These are just a few tips for getting the most out of your I have...who has? sets for class.  See below for some already created sets that you can use right away with your students.  How have you incorporated this unique game in your own classes? 

Present Tense -ER Verbs

 

Present Tense Irregular Verbs

Countries and Capitals

O to UE Stem Changing Verbs