Depending on your current situation, some of us might be able to try to teach new content while others may be in a situation of enrichment only activities. To help with all of this, this next strategy is meant to be anchored in what Laura Terrill and Donna Clementi call their major language functions. Here are their major functions that they refer to in their book The Keys To Planning for Learning. The idea behind these language functions is that at all proficiency levels, learners can produce language to accomplish these functions. While at the novice level they may simply be expressing their feelings and emotions by repeating back phrases like "estoy bien/mal", intermediates can take it a step further and explain more by saying "estoy alegre porque puedo pasar el rato con mis amigos virtualmente todos los días" and advanced students could say "me molesta que nosotros no tengamos escuela porque me encantaría terminar el año con mis profesores y mis amigos y continuar a aprender más español en persona". With these 6 functions in the back of my mind, I created an online activity that could encompass these functions as well as the themes/topic we are working with. Here's a copy of my template that I'm working on. Here's the break down of how I set this up.
So this theme was different and asked the students to ask questions, express a preference and narrate their daily routine. Are there mistakes...of course! Are there probably parts they looked up...yes. I accept both of those because reading over this as a whole, I know that this student did his best to complete these language functions. What I appreciate more is the bottom part where they self-reflected. The student indicated that questions were done easily, the explanation of favorite class and narration of their day they want to review more. As the teacher, I can now prepare possible extension activities to target these language functions (maybe using Idea #1 from a previous post).
Here's a blank copy of the template with the directions and the language functions. If you click on it and do file make a copy you can create your own. Here are my step-by-step directions. 1. Make a copy of the document 2. Choose a theme/topic for your writing activity. 3. Decide which 3 language functions you would like to target 4. Write 3 basic questions/tasks for learners to complete where the targeted grammar isn't stated but is implied based on the directions. 5. Provide a space for them to write and give directions if needed (how much to write, can they use Google Translate, are they being graded, are there certain vocab words you want included) 6. Provide a self-reflection at the bottom for them to determine how they felt about their learning.
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As we continue to teach online, there's a strong likelihood that we will want to ask our learners to communicate in writing (whether it be presentational or interpersonal). This makes sense considering that writing is oftentimes a goal in our curriculum. The problem that we are facing in online learning includes outside resources such as Google Translate. It's quite simple for a student to look up a single word, a series of words, phrases, full sentences or, quite frankly, write the whole thing in English and copy and paste the Spanish. We all know that's not what will benefit them and help them learn a language. We know it and, to a point, they know it too. And it's not that they are deliberately disobeying our directions, it's simply that it's a tool at their disposal that they don't know how to use. Should that be a deterrent from doing writing tasks? Absolutely not. I've created an idea that might resolve a few of the issues that we will face with online learning. Look at this example below and I'll explain the thought process. For both of these tasks I started by thinking about my theme or my topic that I'm working with in my classes. From there, I wrote a basic writing prompt that incorporated the targeted grammar point and had them answer a question about themselves or someone else in relation to that theme.
What makes this different than a regular writing prompt is that I've included a word bank with definitions and instructed them to use 5 of those words and some of their own as well. There are a few reasons behind me doing this:
As the teacher, you can now focus on giving feedback that relate to your other areas of your rubric. Instead of focusing on accuracy and dealing with Google Translate taking over your sentences, you can now provide feedback on their sentences (connected vs strings of sentences), their vocabulary (wide variety vs limited), their cultural awareness and their comprehension. Yes, you'll still see words translated before or after the verbs, but in my book that's more ok because those are words they might want to learn/use in future writing assignments. How do you make this template? 1. Open a Google Doc 2. Write out your theme/topic for your unit 3. Write a question that ties your theme/topic with your targeted grammar point 4. Determine how many words you want them to use from the list 5. Write out your word bank dividing up subjects as necessary As we all transition to this world of remote learning and virtual classrooms, we are learning about new technologies, new online methods and challenges in online learning. Throughout all of this, as language teachers we can still look to the ACTFL Core Practices for guidance as to how to set up high-quality, learning-centered classrooms. One Core Practice that stands out to me (as always) is Grammar in Context and as a Concept. In the classroom, this practice can sometimes be a challenge as we try to make our grammar match our unit objectives and we try to put meaning before form. In a virtual classroom, this Core Practice stands strong and can be incorporated meaningfully. I'd like to provide a ton of resources as I keep thinking through Grammar in Context in a virtual environment. Here are a few of the resources I have created and am currently trying to implement with my classes. For each one, you'll see an overview and a link to a separate blog post which will have more examples and templates for you to copy and use. Please use them and fix anything you think needs to be fixed. And if you have more ideas please let me know! #knowledgeispower Idea #1- Virtual Writing Tasks In our curriculum, we have lots of writing tasks both small and large, most of which are done in the classroom where we have control over the outside resources they could be using. In a virtual classroom, we are presented with an ever-so-familiar challenge...Google Translate. Simply put, learners could look up a single word, a phrase, a sentence, or more to complete a writing task. We know that they aren't using the language they've acquired and have been practicing in class but they see it as a way to complete the task. In an attempt to fix that, I've created these Virtual Writing Tasks that incorporate targeted grammar and a writing prompt with an attempt to have learners use grammar in context. The basic gist is that learners are given a question and a word bank and told to use these words and others to write a response to the question. With the definitions given to them, this grammar point becomes a vocabulary word and students are tasked with finding out how to best include those words in their sentences. Click here for more examples and the templates you can use in your class. Idea #2- Language Function Writing Laura Terrill and Donna Clementi in their book The Keys To Planning For Learning published an excellent list of key language functions that help us determine what grammar students need to be able to complete certain tasks. Using this chart I created a series of tasks for learners that are based on the language functions plus the theme/topic we are working with in our classroom. Click here for more examples, student samples of this and the template you can copy and use in your own classes. Idea #3- Structured Input with Buzzfeed Quizzes We've all probably taken one of those quizzes like "how popular are you?" or "are you a good friend?" from old magazines or random websites. These are great opportunities to use a concept called Structured Input (click here for an explanation). The basic idea is that learners are engaged with a fun quiz related to the theme/topic that calculates their score and provides a point of conversation. The best part is that your targeted grammar structure is embedded in the quiz. Click here for more examples, a break down of what to do after the quiz and a template you can copy and use in your classes.
Idea #4- PACE-like Lesson If you have a new grammar concept you want to teach your students through a virtual classroom you can use my favorite strategy PACE (see explanation here). The basic idea is that you'll find or create a resource that relates to your theme and incorporates your targeted grammar naturally. Students interpret the resource and you later draw their attention to the grammar, co-construct it with them and extend the learning with more opportunities to use the grammar in the context of your unit. While certain aspects of this could be tricky in a virtual classroom, it certainly can be done! A month later but better late than never. I was fortunate enough to present on one of my favorite topics at #MaFLA19- Grammar as a Concept and in Context. It seems like one of those topics that gets brought up in department meetings but is usually not spoken about, quite frankly, because it’s a touchy subject that gets people worried.
In my presentation (linked here) I tried to calm people down and realize that ACTFL’s Core Practice isn’t all that scary if we read their position statement. Taking a look at what they’re suggesting by looking at the phrasing of “grammar in context” means simply choosing grammar that we need to be able to complete our unit can do statements. So for example if my goal is for my students to be able to express their opinion on environmental issues I can brainstorm some language functions they might need to be able to do that (the subjunctive, verbs like gustar or plaire/déplaire). When I plan my units I always refer back to Laura Terril and Donna Clementi’s language functions chart to help anchor my thoughts in a communicative function. The second part of their position statement brings up some interesting brain research. While linguists still contemplate over the role of implicit and explicit language instruction, ACTFL took the statement to say that in a learner’s language learning journey they should be exposed to some implicit and some explicit grammar. Now, as language teachers we are REALLY good at explicit grammar teaching but implicit takes some time. In the presentation I give some examples of PACE (see my blog posts) and Structured Input (see my blog posts) to help learners figure out grammatical patterns implicitly or through discovery. Redefining grammar’s role in the classroom is such a fun challenge and one that allows me to continuously learn. My current goals are finding authentic resources to use in PACE lessons and also finding out the role of discovery grammar in upper level classes where they’ve already been exposed to the grammar. #alwayslearning I will start this post out by making it very clear that I am not an expert on grammar in the classroom. I experiment with different methods, I have found some amazing techniques that have helped my students and I know that what we were doing before wasn't helping students communicate in the language.
That being said, in many different language teacher circles I have ended up in conversations with teachers about what the "evils" of grammar teaching. Some of these thoughts are self-created while others are miscommunicated by higher ups. I wanted to put together some of those ideas and talk through my approach to these "evils". Idea #1: If I teach grammar then I am not teaching for proficiency My answer to this is no that's not true. I say this for many reasons. First of all, there is no actual definition of what it means to teach for proficiency. We all interpret that differently and that's ok because what we're saying is that our goal is the same...communication in the target language. Second, ACTFL put out their 6 Core Practices and says that one of them is "teaching grammar as a concept and in context". In a statement, ACTFL says that learners should learn grammar both implicitly and explicitly. So what this means is that we still need to teach grammar but how we do it needs to change. Instead of front-loading all of the information and essentially giving it to our students, we need to create situations where they discover the meaning of the grammar. This can be done through PACE Lessons or Structured Input Lessons and these are usually followed up several days/weeks later with an explicit explanation. In not so many words, we are still teaching grammar because without grammar we don't have a language. But if you're teaching grammar to cover it in a textbook that's one thing but if you're teaching it in a meaningful way to help promote communication then I don't see the issue with that. Idea #2: The kids like verb charts Ok let's be real...a verb chart can be kind of satisfying to read right? But that's because we're grammar people. A student can say they love a verb chart all they want but how does that actually help them? How does reading the imperfect subjunctive chart of a verb help them use that in a conversation? Kids like the charts because they think it's a cheat sheet to figuring out the language but in reality it's not going to help them. My suggestion: If a kid came from a traditional class and wants the chart then I'll point them in the right direction but I make it abundantly clear that the chart can't be used in class and is only a temporary crutch to using the language to communicate. Idea #3: I can only teach grammar implicitly See the ACTFL statement above about grammar instruction. Some grammar points are really easy for students to figure out while others take a lot more guidance. As ACTFL says, during a student's language learning journey they should have both implicit and explicit explanations of grammar to help their memories. My suggestion: Try to include as many implicit grammar lessons as possible and plan them out as soon as possible. From there, if there are some that don't work for whatever reason, find ways to incorporate those high frequency verbs in your vocabulary list and ask students to discover the patterns that way. And whenever there is a gap between what they discover and what they need to communicate feel free to explicitly fill in those gaps. Idea #4: I teach novices and intermedaites so I only teach the present tense Thomas Sauer also phrases this one nicely as well. When you have a 2 year old child, do you speak like a 2 year old to them? No. You speak like you normally do with some more comprehensible wording. So why would we limit our novices and intermediates to only ever speak in the present tense? Yes, the ACTFL Can Do Statements show us that up to Intermediate Mid we expect them to be mostly in the present time period when speaking/writing. That doesn't mean they can't be exposed to the past and future time frames earlier. In MOPI training they explain how students will go from a conceptual understanding to a partial understanding to a full understanding of a grammar concept over the course of several years. It would be unrealistic of us to expect students to be able to narrate in the past in that magical year between Intermediate Mid and High. My suggestion: Begin exposing students to different time frames when it fits in the context of your theme/unit. However just because you introduce them to these time frames and practice with them in class doesn't always mean you have to assess them. Especially if they are in the early stages of understanding the grammar. Idea #5: If they don't have these tenses by level 3 then they won't succeed on AP My thoughts on the AP exam aside...it would be unrealistic to think that students will use every tense on the AP exam. At a quick glance you can tell what kind of language students need in order to do well on the test. Lots of present tense to describe, persuade and answer questions, subjunctive to express opinion, maybe conditional to be polite, maybe future to make a plan? There is not a lot of need for imperfect subjunctive or all of the perfect tenses or commands. If you look at the exam in terms of functions you can see what is needed and what isn't. That being said, you can expose them to different tenses along the way as long as they are appropriate to their performance level but the expectation that they will A. know every tense by AP, B. use every tense in AP, and C. need every tense in AP is a cognitive overload at its best. My suggestion: Take the AP test yourself and see what tenses you used when answering the prompts. I've realized how much I love a challenge over these past few years and putting grammar in it's place is one of those challenges I love trying to overcome. I'm thankful that I don't have a ton of baggage in terms of teaching the traditional grammar-translation teaching so it allows me to embrace different methods.
Lately I have been working a lot with Bill Van Patten's idea of Structured Input. In short, this method is drawing attention to the forms of different verbs and asking them to make meaning of those words before worrying about how to form those words. Last year I dabbled with the idea when introducing the preterite and working with preterite vs imperfect with my intermediate mid level students. This year I'm making them ahead of time for all of my units as a simple warm up or prime-time activity to give my students input. Here I've created a step by step guide to creating Structured Input Activities. 1. Choose a single grammar point. When I say single I really mean single- think as minimal as possible. For example: present tense verbs in the yo form, yo vs él/ella form of verbs in the preterite or singular adjective agreement. You can break down a larger idea like a tense into smaller segments but each one of those should be it's own activity. 2. Create a context for your structured input activity. Think of your theme and write a scenario for your activity. If it's not related to your current theme students will likely see this as a grammar activity and not as an input activity. 3. Choose whether your input will be written or oral. You should have a mix of both throughout the unit but think of what makes sense. I know in French hearing the difference between verb forms isn't always possible so choose wisely. 4. Decide what your students will do while processing the input. Think of your favorite input activities. Will they be categorizing the sentences based on who they belong to, will they be selecting options that match their personal interests, will they be deciding if something is logical or illogical. All of this to keep learners processing the input. 5. Begin writing your sentences. This might be the hardest part. There's so much you have to keep in mind when writing your sentences. a. Don't put subjects in front of your verbs- Learners will process the first word the best and the last word next and anything else in the middle will not be processed. b. Don't put time markers in your sentences- If you say the word 'yesterday' in your sentence they don't need to process the verb to learn it's the past tense...they just know it because yesterday means past tense to them. c. Write sentences that make learners pay attention to the meaning of the whole sentence- Think of your input activity they will be doing with those sentences. The answers should be pretty clear whether they belong to one category or another. While you are focusing on the grammar point you are also focusing on them making meaning of the sentence before worrying about the grammar. 6. Decide what learners will do right after processing the input. I like to have my students use the sentences from the first part and begin making their own sentences using those as models. For novice students you may ask them simple questions like do you agree or disagree with this sentence. Either way it is crucial to have students do something with what they just interpreted otherwise it is just an exercise with little meaning. These exercises can be done multiple days in a row and they're quick, easy ways to work on some of those grammar points that don't work with methods like PACE. You can vary up how you do the activities by having them select one day, categorize another day and take a survey on the next day. These activities really guide student thinking and make them focus on the meaning of the words to help them then produce them in speaking and writing. For more information you absolutely should read Bill Van Patten's Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen. In my continued journey with PACE I’ve began working with authentic resources to help enhance my lessons. In this unit on health our targeted structure is the present perfect to talk about how we have improved our health based on what we have learned in class.
I started this lesson by having students read through Tweets that talk about health changes that also included the present perfect. I couldn’t believe how simple it was to go to the search bar and type in “salud” and “cambiado” or “mejorado” or “comido” and have a plethora of resources at my fingertips. I chose a few appropriate ones and gave students some quick interpretive questions. From there I began talking about a trip I took to the doctor’s office. Prior to the presentation students predicted what health problems the doctor mentioned (I had to have a high level of self-confidence for that haha). From there they listened and marked the changes I recently made and added their own ideas of what I probably have done recently for my health. This was the right mix of processing what was heard and giving them the guided practice to identify the targeted structure and apply it. As a whole I’ve had amazing results from kids as we extended the lesson to talk about how your diet has affected your health, how the high school has helped or hurt your health and how technology has impacted your health if at all. Day 1: I can classify the message of a tweet as either positive or negative -Warm Up: Vocab Warm Up with Pictures (Introducing vocabulary needed for the lesson) -Group discussions asking students who they follow on Twitter, what they post on Twitter and why people really like Twitter -Reading Tweets with partners and interpretive questions -Review messages of the Tweets Day 2: I can predict what Señor has probably done recently to improve his health -Warm Up: Questions about the Tweets -Predicting what problems Señor had when he went to the doctor -Listening to me describe what the doctor said and what I have done since the visit. Students fill out what changes I did -Working in groups to predict other things that Señor probably has done for his health -Reporting out answers talking directly to me (using the tú form) -Reading other people’s problems and determining what they logically did to improve their health Day 3: I can describe what I have done recently to improve my health -Warm Up: Questions about yesterday’s presentation -Finish determining logical actions for other people (from day before) -Writing a paragraph about your own health changes -Draw attention to the form -Co-Construction to determine what is the present perfect, how it’s formed, are there irregulars, what happens in each subject etc. Students do most of the talking and brainstorm what they notice. Teacher guides conversation and only helps to fill gaps. Draw attention as well to the Can Do Statement of the day to help give meaning to the form -Return to the paragraph that was written and correct and continue writing Extension Activities: -Read article on Mediterranean Diet and talk about what foods we’ve eaten recently that have been healthy, what diets we’ve heard of, if they’ve helped or hurt -View school schedules in Latin America and decide how school itself has affected our health (physical and mental) -Read short article on technology helping and hurting health and debating whether technology has helped/hurt our health. Have you ever learned a new technique that sounds so simple that there's no way it could possibly work in your class? In my case this concept is Structured Input and let me tell you it has been a game changer as I teach grammar as a concept. I owe my gratitude to Greta Lungaard's MaFLA presentation Putting Grammar In Its Place and to the king himself Bill Van Patten in his book Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen. In this post I'll try to summarize what I've learned from these two experts and show a few examples of what I've done that has worked. What is Structured Input? If we think of how languages used to be taught, students were typically given some kind of input in the beginning stages, they then take the time to think about what they heard or read and soon after we ask them to begin producing that language they recently heard. The time that it takes to think about the input could take a mere second or could take years for it to become part of what's called the intake or what stays in a learner's working memory. Structured Input takes that same timeline of events but tries to target that development stage with specific activities. BVP calls it manipulating the input so that learners are paying attention to the meaning while processing the forms. This sounds fancy but essentially what this is saying is that Structured Input activities are activities that are designed to help kids process what they hear or read which in turn is helping them better process the meaning of different grammatical structures. What do you need to keep in mind when creating Structured Input Activities? BVP lists a few guiding principles that teachers should keep in mind when creating Structured Input activities.
So what does this look like? Check out this document where I take some examples of structured input that I've done in my classes or that I've made that follow BVP's guidelines. Each one has a description of what makes it work or what elements need to be changed. Are there any steps to creating a Structured Input activity? Here are my step by step guidelines to creating these activities: Step 1: Choose a grammar point that you want students to process •I have done well with present tense, past tense, difference between past tenses, subjunctive, adjective agreement (more to come) Step 2: Create a situation or scenario in which learners will need to process input Step 3: Write simple sentences using the grammar point that you want students to process •Remember to avoid time markers like yesterday or tomorrow •Remember to format them in a way so your subject pronouns aren't the first word they see Step 4: Create an input activity to manipulate the input students are receiving (ex: categorizing) Step 5: Create an extension activity that requires learners to refer to the input and do something with it •Add three more ideas to this list •Decide if you agree or disagree with these statements Once you get the hang of this, they become really easy to write and the kids get into a routine with them. Let me know if you have questions or what you think! This is a French example of a PACE Lesson that I did during a unit on vacations.
My unit Can Dos:
HERE IS THE LESSON: Day 1: I can answer yes/no questions about someone else's vacation -Warm Up: Picture warm up introducing new vocabulary (purposeful use of the past tense) -Pre-Reading- Students will view a photo of two people talking in the airport. They will share their observations and discuss what they think the relationship is between the two. -Pre-Reading- Students will complete a survey asking them questions about their vacation. They will then interview each other to find out information about their vacations. -Reading- Students will read the story once and answer simple yes/no questions asked by the teacher. Day 2: I can summarize what happened during someone else's vacation. -Warm Up: View photos related to the story and discuss their observations -Reading- Students will re-read the story and answer sequencing questions and the main idea. These will be discussed with the whole class. -Reading- Students will view two inferences and decide which one is better using the story to back up their findings -Elevator Talk- Students will recap the events of the story to their partner. Day 3: I can differentiate between what someone else usually does and what they did during their vacation -Warm Up: Sentence starters using past tense ideas from the story -Complete the structured input ideas- did these events happen in the past or do they happen every weekend. Then come up with your own ideas. -Attention/Co-Construction- Students and teachers will then go into a dialogue to co-construct the passé composé. After this the extension activities begin. See the last sheet of the packet for sample ideas. PACE lessons take a long time to develop and this one in particular is several years in the making. It took a few tries before I created a product that does what I want it to do.
For me every PACE lesson should:
In this lesson, students are going to hear a presentation that talks about how the environment has changed over time. During the discussion, they will have an interpretive guide that they will complete which will help them with their overall comprehension. Here is the run down of my lesson plan. (PACKET / PRESENTATION) Day 1: I can determine information mentioned in a presentation on the environment.
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