Teachers and Students are like Glow Sticks!

Over the holiday break I make an conscious effort to disconnect and reconnect with myself, family and friends although I have to admit that I occasionally take a look at Facebook because it makes me smile to see holiday pictures of my friends and their families together. One Facebook post I saw which made me stop and click on was by Mindshift.  Below was the post which originated from a blog named Famous in First by Chris Pombonyo who is a first grade teacher in Orlando Florida. 

This analogy of a Glow Stick relating to a teacher is quite accurate although I think this could also be the used in the case of students as well. I have been a classroom teacher and still in the field of education and I can not agree more with this statement of how a break can recharge a teacher's outlook and energy.

I have two daughters, one who is 12 and another who is 13. Being mother of these two amazing young ladies, I look forward to a time when we can power down our devices and just be present in our surroundings. I was crushed when both were given homework to do over the break which required online research which meant they needed their devices. The homework was not just to read a book, but actual presentations for a final assessment pieces.

This is my plea as a mother, teacher, and ed techie, please consider this break time these students have just as precious and needed as your time.   If you want your students to come back refreshed, I do not think piling on an assessment task over the break is going to do it. I would not have minded a task of reading a book or writing a journal or blog post of what they did over the holiday break.
I promise to make them read a book, engage in face to face interaction, and provide them with learning opportunities which involve active learning experiences.  Just to give you an idea we of what were accomplished over break we:

• visited a Dolphin Research Center in Grassy Key  
• toured  Turtle hospital on Marathon Key
• went deep sea fishing and caught a yellow tail snapper
• re-kindled relationships with cousins
• golfed with my family 
• swam for hours
• collected sea shells 
• stung by a jelly fish
• tied to catch a iguana 
• ate for the first time lobster and crab
• learned the difference between a salt water and chlorine pool

I am sure I am leaving some things about but I sure my point has been made. In fact, everyone deserves time to come back glowing with ideas.

Opening Up the Oral Conversation in the Language Classroom

In my previous post I mentioned that I have been coaching and mentoring a Spanish teacher Manu at The American School of London in the area of integrating technology.

Our main purpose or reason why we are using the technology is to get students orally speaking Spanish with their peers.  The recordings of these conversations can be used for the teacher as a way to formatively assess and as a way to drive future instruction individually or as a whole group.

Below is an overview of a grade 4 Spanish lesson written by Manu himself.  We hope you can use this in your classroom no matter what language you are teaching.

Tellagami app. Grade 4 Spanish

In 4 grade we start conjugating some of the most relevant verbs we used the previous year. The aim is to get students use the expressions they used in grade 3 to introduce themselves to talk about other people. We look at the changes we need to make in verb endings, adjectives and pronouns. Description reaches a deeper level, as we add new vocabulary to describe face and body features. 

Scaffolding:

After reviewing the parts of the body from grade 3 we presented the students with the sheet below, which contains the vocabulary of the lesson.  A number of games and activities are carried out during the unit to raise awarenes of the following concepts:

 PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE: 

 Verb GUSTAR:  Me gusta Vs. Me gustan. 

 Este – Esta: This (M-F)

NEW KNOWLEDGE

 We look at the use of ES and TIENE as opposed to SOY and TENGO.

 We notice some adjectives with no gender change.

 We learn some “ES” plurals such as AZULES and MARRONES.

 We carefully build our sentences using the proper punctuation.

 We differenciate between ES for atributes and ESTÁ for states and places.

Drafting our project:

Students work with partners and interview each other using this template. They are encouraged to change their partner’s answers to make it work for our presentations:

Recording:

We use the Tellagami app. Each student takes a picture of their partner and creates their own Avatar. The idea is have our Avatar talk about our partner. Here are some examples:

Reflecting:

I like asking my students how they felt using the app as a way to improve their Spanish fluency and oral conversation skills:

• How does listening to your own voice help you improve your language skills?
• How creative can you be when the app only allows you to take pictures and record our voices?
• Would you use this app to talk about something or someone that interests you?

Thank you for reading. 

Manu

Formatively Assess Grade 1 Students in Spanish Digitally

Introduction:

In October of 2014,  I started working with Manuel, a Grade 1-4 Spanish teacher as part of my work with the The American School of London. Manuel was very eager to use iPads with his students. I enjoyed his excitement, open minded attitude, and enthusiasm for integrating technology into his classroom.

First, I  observed Manuel's instructional style as he conducted a lesson that incorporated whole class instruction, singing songs and playing games to learn Spanish words and phrases.  I also noticed there was a lot of movement in his class which I found engaged the students within his lessons.

After observing his lessons, I definitely wanted the technology to enhance the active learning that was already taking place in his classroom.

One thing that stood out in his lessons was the "need" to get students to orally speak the Spanish words and phrases that they were learning.  Yes, the students could sing the phrases as a whole class, but I wondered if:

• the students comprehended what they were conversing in Spanish through singing?
• they could use the phrases and words in a conversation with each other without the music?

Discussions and Planning: 

During this phase we identified the "purpose of the technology" or the reasons why we were using the technology.

The purpose of the technology is to:

• give students a way to "individually" or in a smaller group practice their comprehension and oral fluency of Spanish phrases. 
• assist the teacher in formatively assessing student understanding of conversational Spanish and oral fluency.

Our search for the "just right app"to answer these questions above in hopes to enhance the learning already happening in the classroom

First we started with his Grade 1 students and decided to use an app called Sock Puppets. I knew this app would be engaging and since they had to work in pairs and share an iPad it would also foster skills such as collaboration, sharing, and problem solving.


Manual describes in greater detail his planning and thoughts:

My name is Manuel and I am the Lower School Spanish teacher at the American School in London. 

The following project was developed with grade one students. 

Directed activities are typically targeted to this grade level: repetitions, games, songs, riddles and rhymes… There is a limited time for conversation, and it is always rehearsed and monitored by the teacher. It usually stands out during the morning meetings songs. The following are the typical questions and answers sung by the whole class during first semester:

-¡Hola!, ¿Cómo estás? -Bien/más o menos/mal.
-¿Cómo te llamas? -Me llamo…
-¿Cuántos años tienes? -Tengo … años.
- ¡Adiós! –¡Adiós!

We established this dialogue as the desired outcome. To carry it out we chose an app called SockPuppets that allows two kids to record their voices and create a dialogue between two puppets.

Here are the steps we took to achieve a successful transition from mere song repetition to a real use of the phrases in a semi-rehearsed situation. 


- After some weeks of using the dialogue in songs, we started to isolate each question, changing the order and asking individually to check understanding.

- By the time we presented them with the written form of the dialogue we expected the students to be able to give the right answers orally. Since reading is still at a very mature point, we looked at the most relevant features of each phrase such as: is it long or short? Does it have a number? Can you see a question mark or an exclamation mark? Eventually, kids became more and more able to identify each question and answer on the script.

- The next step was rehearsal. We created three versions of the dialogue: 


1. Spicy:  the whole dialogue
2. Medium: only two questions
3. Mild:  one question 

With a partner, students got to pick and rehearse one of the dialogues according to how confident they felt with their Spanish. They were allowed to switch between dialogues to adjust their skills to the task.

- Before moving to the tech part of the project, we made a live puppet show with real sock puppets, modeling how to take turns, articulate and make the dialogue understandable and enjoyable to an audience.

- Then we showed the students a sample work and provided them with the basic instructions to navigate the app. We gave them some free time to experiment with it and figure out the settings, props, characters and voice pitches they wanted to use for their shows. 

- For the recording session we split the class in two in order to minimize the noise and give them a space where they could complete the task independently and comfortably. Again, free choice and improvisation were encouraged. 

Here are some of the videos our students created. 
Enjoy! 

                                          
 

Overall Findings:

Together Manuel and I agreed that the technology supported the learning of oral and conversational Spanish in a deeper way. The activity gave him some insights as to which students needed further practice and which ones needed an even more challenging script.

Do you have a blog?

I've been asked this question so many times that I have lost count and each time I have come up with the the most widely used excuse of "lack of time".  Yes, I know what your thinking, a bit hypocritical of me since I have helped so many teachers and students start blogs for themselves or in their classrooms.
So this is my way of doing what I preach and to share my ideas, work, and experiences with others. How often will I blog? That really depends as I do not want commit to a number of times per week. I want this to be genuine and full of purpose.  So in order to keep that promise, I developed this below to remind me and to know when I will blog as sometimes I get caught up in life and forget to sit down and reflect.