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.