What is your ideal Exam?

So, I have been a rather vocal proponent of trying to make the traditional paper/pencil exam at my school into an assessment that is more authentic. While my school is unwilling to stray from the two hour traditional format, one of my colleagues asked me what my ideal exam would look like. My answer is not one hundred percent formed, and it would need to be scaled to fit each class level,  but here are the elements that I would like to see included in my (more) ideal final exam.

- Students would create a planned speaking presentation that incorporated two of the themes that we had studied (I would create some prompts to help them get started, and most of my classes have studied between 6-10 themes)

-Students would write a paragraph on one of the themes that we have studied (Again, I would design relevant prompts)

- Students would read two different articles on two different themes and respond to the questions.

- Students would dialogue with another student about a predetermined topic, but without a script or notes.

- Students would spontaneously speak (in the computer lab) without a script or notes on a theme that was not told to them ahead of time.

- Students would listen to an audio text or view a video clip and write or speak a response.

- Students would write, listen, or speak about an element of culture that we had covered throughout the year.

While I have purposefully left my ideal exam a bit vague, I acknowledge that there would be some challenges to creating and using this sort of an exam.: Time (all of my students take their traditional paper/pencil exam on the same day at the same time), Perceived subjectivity by parents and students, Rubric (would need to be highly specific about length, grammar requirements, etc.)

Here to me are the advantages: student can show their ability to use the language, students have some choice in what their exam looks like, this exam would ideally be more reflective of the way the students are being taught.

Is a final exam required at your school? What is your ideal exam?

No Grass Picking! A Self-Reflection

Quite a few years now, I worked at a summer camp, where I had the opportunity to lead small groups of kids in activities. I remember one summer, I vowed to myself that the kids would all be so involved in the activities that I had planned that not a single one of them would pick grass, in that distracted fashion that children do. So, I had my challenge, and I am pleased to say that I met it! I was able to plan activities that kept the kids so occupied and engaged that not a single one of them picked at the grass.

As I think about my lesson plans for the rest of the year, while acknowledging that this time of year students often become distracted and less interested in school, and instead they become more interested in spring activities and the end of the school year. So, as I reflect on the challenge I gave my younger self, I realized that I could issue an even greater one. Can I design lesson plans that keep students so engaged and interested that they don't pause to check their cell phone, or wander off the web page that they are looking at to check their email, facebook, twitter, etc. Can I design and revamp lessons such that there is no "grass picking" for the remainder of the year?

What are your end of year goals?




I have add to this post to note that thus far in the week, I have failed at my goal. The screens continue to beat me. I will have to keep working!

Why I do Projects

My school, like many, invited a speaker in to do a professional development talk on the faculty workday proceeding the December/January holiday break. I have to admit, I am pretty nerdy and generally love speakers. I usually get fired-up to try a new technique and I often think of new lesson plans on the spot while listening. For this reason,  I always bring a notebook to speakers. I don't necessarily take notes, but I jot down my thoughts on how their presentation could be relevant to my classroom practice.

So, generally I love speakers, but I must respectfully disagree with the one that my school brought in most recently. He spoke vehemently against projects, inquiry-based learning, authentic assessments, and really any sort of performance based learning. He also lumped all of the above into one method. So, while he gave the argument that all of these methods are too taxing to the learner, here are my reasons for why I will continue to do projects. I might choose to address some of the other methods later, but for now, I will stick with projects.

1) Engagement! Students get the opportunity to explore a topic that truly interests and excites them.

2) Pacing! Students can work at their own natural skill level with guidance from me. This means that advanced students can incorporate more advanced grammatical structures and higher level words, but the struggling students can stick to the rubric's requirements and still find a lot of success.

3) Projects allow students to incorporate technology, music, video, and other outside interests that I don't necessarily use on a daily basis.

4) Speaking practice! My projects all contain an oral speaking component which students can practice beforehand. As a result students can target pronunciation, fluency, and other speaking skills that we don't practice as much during our spontaneous speaking activities.

5) Vocabulary and more vocabulary! Students use the vocabulary in a manner that makes sense. They are forced to contextualize their learning and this usage in turn causes them to both remember and apply the vocabulary with much greater accuracy than any paper/pencil test (at least in my experience)

6) Listening skills and peer critique! All of my students are required to fill-out some sort of peer critique sheet while their classmates are presenting their projects. As a result, students have to both comprehend what they are hearing and give useful feedback. Giving peer feedback is an excellent life-long skill.

7) Public speaking practice! Again, this is another lifelong skill that every student should have numerous opportunities to practice (in my opinion).

8) Focus on form! Students have to really consider what grammatical structure best conveys the meaning that they desire.

9) Culture! I think that projects are one of the best ways for students to explore/experience a taste of another culture. I love when my students are willing to try to cook from a Spanish recipe or learn a dance from a video.

Here are some of my arguments for why I will continue to use projects in my classroom. What are your reasons for using projects? If you don't use them why not?

Keeping Language Fresh?

My husband brought me a chocolate crescent from a French bakery today and as I prepared my coffee,  it brought me back to when I was 19 and in Spain. All I needed were the cute tiny fork and knife that they give to you to eat it with, and a glass of fresh squeezed zumo de naranja to top it off.  So I  reflect on being 19 and struggling through ordering a chocolate crescent in Spain (and struggling through consuming bitter coffee before I learned to order it with dulce de leche. Now, I consume way too much coffee of any type, and I definitely don't struggle through it!

I realize through my reflections that it has been 12 years since I have been back to Spain, and almost three since I have been to a Spanish speaking country, and I know from listening to my Spanish as I speak with my level I and II students that it is getting rusty. It is hard to keep the language fresh when teaching exclusively in the younger grades, and when the language department doesn't have the culture of speaking the language amongst itself (which is highly unfortunate, as I have worked in places that do use the language between department members and I think that it provides great role-modeling for the students).

So, what is one to do to keep language fresh? I try to listen to the news regularly, but I'll admit, I get busy and don't always keep it up. I also watch children's shows both with my students and my child, but they only offer so much. I watch music videos, and ask the native Spanish speakers at my school questions-especially when it comes to slang words, which of course teenagers love to use, but I don't know many current ones anymore. When possible, I listen to Spanish radio. I also read other language teacher's blogs in order to obtain ideas as to how to stay more current, and when possible attend conferences.

However, nothing compares (at least in my mind) to the real deal of sitting down in that café ready to relax with a chocolate crescent and coffee that was successfully ordered, paid for, and a side-conversation about where I am from was even had, and it is this feeling, this ability to communicate and enjoy while in a different country that is most important to me to convey to students when they ask "why?" Until I can get back there, I will continue working on my Spanish, just as I ask students to work on theirs. What do you do to keep the language fresh?  

Thanksgiving: Thankful for Teenagers

I have been thinking about this post for quite a while now, and I will admit it is a bit different from my usual classroom ideas, but I decided that it fits well with the Thanksgiving weekend. Today, I would like to say I am thankful for teenagers and for the enrichment that they bring to my life.

I am sure that many of you have had this experience. You meet someone new and they inevitably ask what you do for work. When you respond that you teach they comment something like "Oh little kids are so cute." When you correct them and tell them  that you teach high school, they give you a pitying look and mumble something about dealing with their teenager, or say something like "that must be interesting." I will be the first to acknowledge that teaching teens has its challenges, but often people forget about the teens who are doing amazing things. Teenagers who receive very little credit in the media.

So here is a secret, I admit that I watch (and love) The Voice, and while I am several episodes behind (I watch online), I still have to give credit to Caroline and Jackie. Two teenagers who are onstage night after night, who carry themselves with grace and poise. Two teenagers who can look adults in the face and accept critique without tears, and instead they say Thank you. And, to any who may not teach, I would like to say that all of us high school teachers receive the gift of being able to work with similar teens. I have students who are able to conduct themselves with as much control as an adult. Students who can politely ask for help, come back and give an apology, or look me in the eyes when I have asked them to correct something and say Thank you. So yes, while I teach students that can be challenging at times, it is also good to recognize the numerous teens across the country who conduct themselves more professionally day in and day out than many adults.

Today, I am thankful for teenagers (and my job!)

Pronunciation

Fall for most teachers is extremely busy, and I suppose that my classes have been no exception. However, I have recently been pondering pronunciation and the teaching of pronunciation. I have recently been talking to several teachers who do pronunciation drills and activities, which is very different from the approach that I take. I am not certain which method is best, but I would love to hear what others think!

For older beginner students, I actively teach them the correct vowel sounds, r, ñ, and some of the other basic pronunciation rules such as soft c's and g's when followed by i and e in Spanish. For K-5 students, this active teaching is not really necessary, as these students tend to be very quick at mimicking the correct pronunciation.

In my classes, I usually have students speak the first ten minutes or so of class. During this time, which is relatively informal, I do not ask students to correct their pronunciation of a word; however, I will recast (repeat the word with the correct pronunciation) the word for the student. Some students will notice the recast and work on pronunciation on their own, but other students seem to prefer to either ignore the correct pronunciation or actively don't want to use the correct pronunciation for fear of being seen as "trying to hard." I do not force the student to repeat the word correctly, but a few of my colleagues do take this approach. What do you think? Should a student be forced to try the word again? I do not want to embarrass the student, especially if he or she cannot say the word on the second try so I do not force students to try it (although many will on their own). I should note that the above activity is an informal assessment of the students and they are not graded so to speak, except for participation.

For oral presentations, I generally give beginning students one or two pronunciation topics in the rubric. For example, the rubric might state that the student correctly pronounces the vowel A and the letter R. The students are also told that they should actively practice and look in a mirror. For upper level students, I expect them to pronounce the majority of the words correctly. So their grading rubric is a bit different. Once again though, I do not correct students or interrupt them at all during graded oral presentations. I do not call any attention to pronunciation during the actual presentation at all. Again, I do not wish to embarrass my students. At the end of all of the presentations, I might choose one or two words that appeared in many of the presentations and was consistently incorrect that I pronounce and ask the class to practice as a whole. Do you interrupt students' presentations to correct pronunciation? What are the benefits?

Two fun things that I do to practice pronunciation without the students really knowing that we are practicing is tongue twisters and reading Dr. Seuss. I will start the class with a tongue twister on the board and give students time to practice saying it. Then, I will ask for volunteers to say it aloud for the class. Finally, we will have a little competition (volunteer participation only) to see who can say the tongue twister the fastest. Most of my freshmen love this activity, and even if they do not choose to participate in the competition they are benefitting from hearing the words pronounced correctly.

I also like to have my upper level students read Dr. Seuss books. While I fully acknowledge that these books aren't truly authentic because they have been translated, I think the benefit of trying to pronounce the rhymes and maintain a nice reading rhythm is sufficient. My students definitely benefit from trying to read aloud and maintain a decent cadence and pace. Furthermore the students love these books! So for a warm-up activity, my upper level students will each take a turn reading a page or two and then passing the book to the next person in the circle. It is a great Friday morning activity.

How do you teach and grade pronunciation?

Back to School:Ice Breaker Activities for Early Intermediate/Beginning Students

In my last blog post, I discussed some of my favorite first week ice breakers for Intermediate/advanced students. I do however, think that it is equally as important to get students who are just beginning the language to speak and feel comfortable in class. Again, I must stress that I think it is especially important that the teacher participates with the student to set the correct tone. Here are some of the activities that I use in the first week of school.

Circle/action Name game: I have my students sit in a circle. Then I model a few times for them, Me llamo _____ , como te llamas, and se llama ____. Then I say my name is ______ and do an action for something that I like to do. The next student will say my name is _____, and her name is ______. and will his/her name with an action for himself, and then say my name with my action. This ice breaker allows each student to say everyone's name, and allows students to move! Another added benefit is that by the end of the activity, most students have a decent grasp on mine name is___ , his/her name is___ I try to finish the game, which is a good way for me to test whether or not I have learned each student's name. I do insert gentle recasts if a student is struggling with the pronunciation.

Trainwreck or fruteria: I have heard this ice breaker called many names. It is basically like a verbal musical chairs. Remove a chair from the circle of desks (or chairs are even better). One student stands in the middle of the circle and says a mi y todos mis amigos nos gusta(n) ______. Every student who likes said object has to get up and switch chairs. Students may not just move over a chair. The student who does not get a chair, is the next person in the middle. With very beginning students, I usually write the first part of the sentence on the board "a mi y todos mis amigos nos gusta(n) _____. I will allow the very beginners to say what they like in English, but I supply the Spanish word for them. Students are often surprised (and relieved) to hear how many cognates there are in Spanish. An added benefit includes students getting early exposure to gustar.

Quien tiene?: With Middle School or upper elementary students, I will often play a game, I simply call quien tiene. This activity requires a coin or other small object. All of the students stand in a circle. One student leaves the room, and the rest of the students pass the coin around in a circle until I call para! The student who has the coin then hides it in their hand or, if the students are sitting in desks, every student places their palms flat on the desk. The student who left the room is called back into the classroom, and everyone asks in chorus Quien tiene la moneda? The student has three chances to guess. For each guess the student should say ________ tiene la moneda. If a student doesn't know another students' name, he or she is encouraged to use como te llamas?

I will sometimes also have students make lists of cognates or words that they already know if Spanish. For example, I may challenge them to make a list of US states that have Spanish or Spanish derrived names. Or, city street names (depending on where you live). Once again, the purpose is to make the foreign language not seem quite so foreign and to activate connections in students' brains.

What are your favorite ice breakers for beginning and early intermediate students?