I have a basic outline of the new structure for my class, and wanted to share. (Remember I have 90 minute classes every other day). My goal is to incorporate: a different country during each unit of study, daily life conversation and listening practice, as well as daily (maybe weekly) journaling.
Starters
- Word of the Day
- I have seen this in quite a few AP posts, and don't see why I can't get this going in III and PreAP. I will give the word, definition, synonym and antonym. I want students to make a (good) sentence and identify any other words that they know that are similar (i.e. an adjective form, noun form, etc.).
- Vocabulary (Skits?)
- Task every student with coming up with a good sentence for 5 vocabulary words. Have students (in predetermined groups of 4 or 5) choose the best one. Then have the students with the best sentences "perform" a skit with the sentences put together....or something like that.
- Conversation of the day
- Question of the day
- Based on a daily life topic
- Based on a cultural topic - possibly current event, and then relate it to US
- Individual/Group Work - Listening, Reading , Practice Exercises, working on projects, etc.
- Ongoing Speaking Assessments
- I am basing these on the class conversations
- One formal assessment per student per unit (at least)
- Google Voice - Yes, I am continuing this.
- Weekly voicemails on a variety of unit and life topics that students need to listen and respond to.
- Journaling
- I am going to give topics here, especially first semester. I will probably include some free choice. I am going to use Moodle for this, especially since I just found out about how to use accents in Moodle.*See note below for details.
- I am looking for practice writing and continual improvement. I am not really planning on grading every one of these.....probably will at the beginning though to keep kids on track.
- Random Presentations
- This is a big push for me this year. I want students to be able to be in front of the class and talk in Spanish. I am planning on starting small, with 30 second "describe the picture" and moving up from there.
- I can't stand listening to kids READ when they present. I WILL NOT stand for it anymore. If they WILL NOT PRACTICE, I will MAKE THEM PRACTICE!!!! ;)
*From one of my new best friends from the Flipped Class Conference, Tammy Stevens at eclass4learning. If you haven't done so already, check them out! They have some cool Moodle ideas as well as some great webinars coming up!
Special Characters in Moodle:
On a PC:
You can type special numeric codes when holding down the "alt" key. You can see the codes by using the character code program by going to All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Character Map. On a Mac this link gives info. on how to do it http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/accents/codemac.html
Hola Heather! Great post!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate a model of how you schedule your class time - just to get an idea. Stumbling across your blog was my first exposure to the flipped classroom, so even though I've been obsessed lately with research it helps to have the straightforward answers from a practising teacher.
I briefly mentioned my excitement about flipping yesterday to a previous colleague and right away her response was, "Hmmm feels like it takes the relationship out of teaching...". I was so confused! For me, it feels like the relationship could grow so much more! Seeing your outline makes me feel this even more so. I guess everyone has their own perspective when it comes to paradigm shifts.
A comment about the accents in Moodle - I was curious to find out how you entered accents before discovering the 'alt' codes? I find that I can use 'alt' codes for Word, FB, Edmodo, my Blogspot, etc. I've been using the codes since university and have them so encoded in my brain from writing papers that it's like second nature to me ;) So, other than "Insert Special Character" was there another way you were making accents?
Great video! I also love seeing examples of videos that your students use! I hope you don't think bad of me here, but I noticed some grammar things that puzzled me (I try not to edit the world...trust me, it drives my husband crazy!). I know you say it's still rough, so maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here! Sorry! Also, I'm remembering the fact that I don't have any children to chase after just yet and I haven't been presenting at a conference recently ;)
At around 4:00 mins when you show Marco not having a car, I'm a little confused as to why it goes from 3rd person sing. to 1st person "Pero, Marco no tengo carro..." I thought at first someone was speaking to him, but then it goes back to 3rd person in the next sentence. Typo?
Another one I saw was around 5:30 - I've always understood 'to leave/exit' in Spanish as Salir + de - so it caught my eye to see 'salir la lluvia' - is using salir without the prep okay in this sentence?
One last one (I'm sorry...if you see my blog you'll see that I haven't been in my Spanish class for over a year so I LOVE any exposure to Spanish that I get!) around 6:30 the sentence "¡No lo llevaba a la zapatería para su madre la próxima vez!" - I had to pause here and think about it. To me, it sounds like 'llevar' should be in the future tense rather than imperfecto because you have "próxima vez" - I will not take (llevaré) him to the shoe store for his mom next time.
Love reading your posts!
Since I am new to Moodle, I wasn't sure the best way to go about using the accents, and I don't want any reasons for my students to not start strong! I have the language of my computer set up so that I can move between a Spanish and English language keyboard. I found this was easier since I do so much typing in both languages.
DeleteNothing like making dumb mistakes for all the world to see! Thanks for the feedback. I am going to fix it and repost after the 4th.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI am a Chinese teacher and I am a frequent visitor to your blog to learn how to incorporate more technological tools in my classroom. You mentioned Google voice in your recent post and I gave it a try today. I created the widget call and recorded my greeting, but when I tested it out as a caller I did not hear my greeting. Is there a step I missed? I am planning to use it for students to record their audio assignments. Do you think it is a good tool?
Thank you in advance for your input in this.
May
First, thanks for visiting! Yes, I love Google voice. However, I noticed at the end of the school year that it was acting a little funny. I would change the voicemail through my phone, and it would not change the message, even though it said that it did. What I found that worked was to do it from my computer. If you go to settings (the wheel in the right corner), then click the voicemail tab, you can then click on the record new greeting. Have the computer call you and then change your voicemail. For some reason, that was the only way I could get it to work. It is an extra step, but only really takes a minute. Hope that helps!
ReplyDelete