One of my other big changes for this semester was the introduction of Google Voice. This is a listening and speaking activity that the students are required to complete every week.
After spending two years trying to find good listening for Spanish III and beating my head against the wall, and always trying to find more ways for the students to do graded speaking assessments, I have finally found the answer....Google Voice.
So true, listening to me (una gringa) does not replace authentic listening, I am able to tailor the listening to what we are working on and where I think the students' deficiencies are. Also, it is a very convenient way for me to assign speaking tasks.
The first week, I asked students to just simply leave their name and class period, and only half of them did it. <sigh> This week they have a listening prompt about how their vacation was, etc., and they are due on Sunday night, and as of 9:42 on Saturday, exactly 6 students have done it. So, I think that there is going to be a transition period for the kids to get in the rhythm of doing it, but the ones I have heard actually aren't too bad. I know that the kids are preparing what to say in advance, but that doesn't even really bother me....at least they are speaking.
This is not going to replace the authentic listening we do in class, nor will it replace conversation questions that I expect the students to work on in class. This is just a good way for me to keep them practicing and be able to continually assess their work.
Now I just have to find a way to organize it all ..........75 students doing this (with a lot of hang-ups and call backs) is not easy to organize and I am terrified of deleting anything!
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Reading in FUNdamental, but we aren't so sure about the fun part.....
So, second semester has begun, and I have changed the way I have made some small changes to the way the classroom is structured. I will start with the beginning of class.
First, one of my biggest downfalls in class seemed to be the very beginning of the class period. Many times, I have students that are trying to talk to me before the bell even rings, and are still talking to me, so the rest of the class is pretending that they have no idea what to start with.To conquer this, I have the students reading for the first 15-20 minutes of the class period. We purchased some of the Santanilla readers (El hombre del bar, Asasinato del Barrio Gotico, y El libro secreto de Daniel Torres) and I divided the students into reading groups and they are working on them together. I have a few of my super smarties working on the level 3 book El cruz de Diablo.
I grouped the kids by ability, especially since I know some of my top students are really tired of having to carry the weight of some of the lower level students. Also, some of the lower level students hate always being dominated by the higher students. I also thought that a few of my "sit back and do nothing" kids would have to rise to the occasion if I put them together because otherwise, nothing would get done. ;)
So, I have learned a few things from this. First, many of my struggling kids are in real trouble now. Even though many of them have been able to study hard and make Cs (with the retakes) on the assessments, trying to put it all together is very difficult for them. Some of them just really try to make up what is going on in the story rather than read it and look up the words they don't know. Also, many of my higher achieving students are also having trouble. They are so used to everything being so easy for them, that having to really think about the meanings of phrases, or trying to extrapolate the meaning of words from a sentence makes them just want to whine and give up. As they work, I move from group to group and help with passages, or words that they are stuck on. I also help them understand some of the cultural references. For example, "Why are all these people always in a bar?" "Are all people in Spain alcoholics?" Funny, I know.
Second, I realized that even though we have been reading short stories all along, it really doesn't replace using readers over many class periods. The kids are forced to learn many valuable words because they are used over and over again. (Some of them are still in denial, but I feel confident that they will have them by the end of the book.) Also it is so much easier to do this when you are working with the same writer rather than different writers of short stories. It is also forcing them to finally acknowlegde those pesky direct and indirect object pronouns. It is next to impossible to follow a story without reading them correctly.
Third, I made the mistake of making the reading groups too big. Most groups have four students. I think next time I am going to go for pairs, or threes. There are still many groups that have one person that really doesn't participate at all, and amazingly, these "non-participators" are not the lower level students.
So, now the students are halfway through the books and their reading has definately improved. I will say being able to use their phones and other electronic devices to look up unknown words makes the process so much faster that when I was in school!
Their second benchmark assessment will cover the books, and I am creating a good study guide for them. I taking a page from the English teachers out there and giving them a character list and having them give the information about the character and why they are important. Still haven't quite decided how I am going to structure the questions on the assessment....probably some short answer with the character descriptions and multiple choice.
I will post when I know how these books turn out!
First, one of my biggest downfalls in class seemed to be the very beginning of the class period. Many times, I have students that are trying to talk to me before the bell even rings, and are still talking to me, so the rest of the class is pretending that they have no idea what to start with.To conquer this, I have the students reading for the first 15-20 minutes of the class period. We purchased some of the Santanilla readers (El hombre del bar, Asasinato del Barrio Gotico, y El libro secreto de Daniel Torres) and I divided the students into reading groups and they are working on them together. I have a few of my super smarties working on the level 3 book El cruz de Diablo.
I grouped the kids by ability, especially since I know some of my top students are really tired of having to carry the weight of some of the lower level students. Also, some of the lower level students hate always being dominated by the higher students. I also thought that a few of my "sit back and do nothing" kids would have to rise to the occasion if I put them together because otherwise, nothing would get done. ;)
So, I have learned a few things from this. First, many of my struggling kids are in real trouble now. Even though many of them have been able to study hard and make Cs (with the retakes) on the assessments, trying to put it all together is very difficult for them. Some of them just really try to make up what is going on in the story rather than read it and look up the words they don't know. Also, many of my higher achieving students are also having trouble. They are so used to everything being so easy for them, that having to really think about the meanings of phrases, or trying to extrapolate the meaning of words from a sentence makes them just want to whine and give up. As they work, I move from group to group and help with passages, or words that they are stuck on. I also help them understand some of the cultural references. For example, "Why are all these people always in a bar?" "Are all people in Spain alcoholics?" Funny, I know.
Second, I realized that even though we have been reading short stories all along, it really doesn't replace using readers over many class periods. The kids are forced to learn many valuable words because they are used over and over again. (Some of them are still in denial, but I feel confident that they will have them by the end of the book.) Also it is so much easier to do this when you are working with the same writer rather than different writers of short stories. It is also forcing them to finally acknowlegde those pesky direct and indirect object pronouns. It is next to impossible to follow a story without reading them correctly.
Third, I made the mistake of making the reading groups too big. Most groups have four students. I think next time I am going to go for pairs, or threes. There are still many groups that have one person that really doesn't participate at all, and amazingly, these "non-participators" are not the lower level students.
So, now the students are halfway through the books and their reading has definately improved. I will say being able to use their phones and other electronic devices to look up unknown words makes the process so much faster that when I was in school!
Their second benchmark assessment will cover the books, and I am creating a good study guide for them. I taking a page from the English teachers out there and giving them a character list and having them give the information about the character and why they are important. Still haven't quite decided how I am going to structure the questions on the assessment....probably some short answer with the character descriptions and multiple choice.
I will post when I know how these books turn out!
Friday, December 30, 2011
Final Success!
So, the race to the end of the semester is finished and all of the grades are in. The last unit assessment and the finals went pretty well.
First, let me talk about the unit assessments. The assignment was for the students to have a conversation with another student about their future plans. The idea was that they would use some of the vocabulary from the unit and the future tense. However, I found that only a small amount of vocab was used and virtually no future tense. I got a lot of, "en el futuro, quiero ir a Harvard." However, the students did have CONVERSATIONS! There were virtually no awkward pauses and dead silence. I did have stronger students whispering hints to slower students. I did have quite a few conversations that seemed to involve very few verbs. But, one of my main goals was for the students to have a conversation, and that did happen. I think in hindsight that thinking I was going to require a specific tense was probably ridiculous....I mean as long as they are communicating, what difference does it make what tense they are using?
Final exams went really well. The average was about an 82 across all of the classes. The students performed at the level that I expected for each one of them (i.e. my lowest students got Ds, high students got As.) The final consisted of listening, writing and reading. There were 10 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions. The students seemed to do well on all of the sections.....however, it was amusing to see some of my 8th block kids provide written answers to the question I had asked my 6th block class....lol.
I am working on my start for next semester. I am looking at using Google Voice for weekly speaking activities and having 15 min of reading time at the beginning of each class to work on a short story reader. I am still toying with the idea of taking the last 15 for wrap up......might save that for next year when I see how this semester goes.
Can't wait for Spanish Civil War Unit....the hard part will be not going overboard with the history facts. Since the kids have no idea about the Spanish Civil War, I want to give them main players and broad strokes. Maybe it will even help them out in history class!
First, let me talk about the unit assessments. The assignment was for the students to have a conversation with another student about their future plans. The idea was that they would use some of the vocabulary from the unit and the future tense. However, I found that only a small amount of vocab was used and virtually no future tense. I got a lot of, "en el futuro, quiero ir a Harvard." However, the students did have CONVERSATIONS! There were virtually no awkward pauses and dead silence. I did have stronger students whispering hints to slower students. I did have quite a few conversations that seemed to involve very few verbs. But, one of my main goals was for the students to have a conversation, and that did happen. I think in hindsight that thinking I was going to require a specific tense was probably ridiculous....I mean as long as they are communicating, what difference does it make what tense they are using?
Final exams went really well. The average was about an 82 across all of the classes. The students performed at the level that I expected for each one of them (i.e. my lowest students got Ds, high students got As.) The final consisted of listening, writing and reading. There were 10 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions. The students seemed to do well on all of the sections.....however, it was amusing to see some of my 8th block kids provide written answers to the question I had asked my 6th block class....lol.
I am working on my start for next semester. I am looking at using Google Voice for weekly speaking activities and having 15 min of reading time at the beginning of each class to work on a short story reader. I am still toying with the idea of taking the last 15 for wrap up......might save that for next year when I see how this semester goes.
Can't wait for Spanish Civil War Unit....the hard part will be not going overboard with the history facts. Since the kids have no idea about the Spanish Civil War, I want to give them main players and broad strokes. Maybe it will even help them out in history class!
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Finally, finals!
So, after almost an entire semester (finals are next week), the majority of complaining about the flip has ceased. Students grades seem to be spot on, in comparison to past years and the students performance in Spanish II. There are a few exceptions, but they have extreme circumstances. For instance, I have a student that is usually an A student who has a C in class. But she missed some class and never came in to do a retake of a quiz.
I am looking forward to our last Unit Assessment, which is a conversation about the students futures. We have done quite a bit of practice, and I love hearing my students say "Hey I can say way more than I thought I could!". I feel like their listening and speaking have improved quite a bit over the semester....much more than their peers from previous years.
I will say that since there are so few quizzes (6 for the semester) and only 3 Unit Assessments, the kids can be in big trouble if something goes badly wrong. For example, I have 6 students that wrote their fairy tale (the Unit Assessment for the last unit) with a translator and they received a 0. They are all looking at Ds right now. After the Unit assessment next week, there grades should improve, but they can never truly recover from something like that happening.
Some students have asked for more quizzes, shorter vocabulary lists, and there are a few holdouts for a word bank. However, I really don't believe that 35-40 vocabulary words every two weeks is excessive. I keep hoping that they will choose to study over the entire 2 week period instead of always waiting for the last minute.
As I believe I have mentioned, every student can retake every Benchmark Assessment (or quiz). They are required to have "a ticket" which is more practice for grammar, or writing vocabulary words a certain amount of times. I have increased the "price" for the retake as we have continued through the semester, hoping to encourage them to do it right the first time, and for many of them, this has worked. Still, I am surprised by how many students never take advantage of the retake. When I talk to them about it, the answer I usually get is that they are too busy with sports or their other classes. Sad :(
The Final Exam for the semester is going to be an application of the material that they have learned this semester. This is making some of my students crazy, because they want a study guide, a list of exactly what will be on the test, etc. I have told them I am not giving a grammar or vocabulary assessment. They are going to do a writing sample, which will be a letter based on our fairy tale unit. The prompt incorporates fairy tale vocab, future tense and direct and indirect objects. The example I gave them to try was as follows:
The reading selection has presented a bit more of a challenge, and honestly I am still wavering between a government reading and a legend. I am probably going to use the government reading but ask simplified questions. I have decided that I am going to give them the reading first and then after 10 minutes give them the questions. I am SO tired of students not reading things, just finding the answers to the questions.
So, my plan is that the final will be fairly easy if they did their work all semester. I think it will be way better than my exam of old which had the reputation of being "scary" and a "monster". I'll keep you posted!
I am looking forward to our last Unit Assessment, which is a conversation about the students futures. We have done quite a bit of practice, and I love hearing my students say "Hey I can say way more than I thought I could!". I feel like their listening and speaking have improved quite a bit over the semester....much more than their peers from previous years.
I will say that since there are so few quizzes (6 for the semester) and only 3 Unit Assessments, the kids can be in big trouble if something goes badly wrong. For example, I have 6 students that wrote their fairy tale (the Unit Assessment for the last unit) with a translator and they received a 0. They are all looking at Ds right now. After the Unit assessment next week, there grades should improve, but they can never truly recover from something like that happening.
Some students have asked for more quizzes, shorter vocabulary lists, and there are a few holdouts for a word bank. However, I really don't believe that 35-40 vocabulary words every two weeks is excessive. I keep hoping that they will choose to study over the entire 2 week period instead of always waiting for the last minute.
As I believe I have mentioned, every student can retake every Benchmark Assessment (or quiz). They are required to have "a ticket" which is more practice for grammar, or writing vocabulary words a certain amount of times. I have increased the "price" for the retake as we have continued through the semester, hoping to encourage them to do it right the first time, and for many of them, this has worked. Still, I am surprised by how many students never take advantage of the retake. When I talk to them about it, the answer I usually get is that they are too busy with sports or their other classes. Sad :(
The Final Exam for the semester is going to be an application of the material that they have learned this semester. This is making some of my students crazy, because they want a study guide, a list of exactly what will be on the test, etc. I have told them I am not giving a grammar or vocabulary assessment. They are going to do a writing sample, which will be a letter based on our fairy tale unit. The prompt incorporates fairy tale vocab, future tense and direct and indirect objects. The example I gave them to try was as follows:
- Cinderella lost her shoe again and the prince found it. Write an email that says: 1. When you will return it, 2. When you will get married, 3. Where you will live after the wedding.
The reading selection has presented a bit more of a challenge, and honestly I am still wavering between a government reading and a legend. I am probably going to use the government reading but ask simplified questions. I have decided that I am going to give them the reading first and then after 10 minutes give them the questions. I am SO tired of students not reading things, just finding the answers to the questions.
So, my plan is that the final will be fairly easy if they did their work all semester. I think it will be way better than my exam of old which had the reputation of being "scary" and a "monster". I'll keep you posted!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)