My syllabus is ever changing. Bits and pieces of it stay the same, but every semester I find something that I need to clarify. This is what I currently have, feel free to steal bits of it, or suggest what might make it clearer š Teaching is a collaborative effort and Iām sure someone will see something that I havenāt seen, or have become blind to.
Thanks!
This semester was difficult. I bit off more than I could chew and it affected what I was doing in the classroom. I was finishing up coursework for my masters. Though I still have a portfolio and some presentations to put together I donāt have anymore classes to take. The two classes I took this semester were tough. One was very time consuming, and the other was time consuming and mentally a challenge. But, I ended the semester with 4.0, and a cumulative 3.94 so thereās that.
I also decided to do two productions as drama club director this year. This past fall we did āClue: On Stage High School Edition. It was such a great production, of course there are always things that I want to do better but this was the first time that I built a set, Iām always a bit of a minimalist with my sets, but I designed what, in theory, was a great set. We had secret passages, six different rooms that looked like the gameboard, I was so happy with it. Of course the night of the first production things didnāt stay where they needed to but hey, thatās live theatre! I was so proud of the students too. They all did such a great job with their characterization, I know they are harder on themselves than I am when it comes to the performances but I think we had a show that everyone could be proud of.
In the last weeks of the semester I decided it was a good idea for me to be in the Christmas play at the community theatre. I had a blast, but my grad school finals definitely took a hit.
And of course we had the incident at one of the intermediate schools. Iām not going to write much about that because I think we are all still kind of processing it a little bit. It was an awful situation, and our community had protocols in place and we stuck with them. My students are safe, my friends are safe and for that I am thankful.
As far as teaching this past semester goesā¦ it was rough. I had some of the chattiest classes Iāve ever had. If Iāve said it once, Iāve said it a thousand times, individually all of my students are great people but sometimes you get them with their friends and they just donāt stop talking and that can affect how the rest of the class goes. I do think Iām getting better at classroom management, but I think I tried to jump all in with what I learned over the summer rather than implement things little by little. Iāve been reading Teach Like a Champion 2.0 and Tools for Teaching although not everything in those books relates to the Second Language Acquisition classroom, there are a LOT of great ideas that Iām trying to take into the classroom next semester. Iāll be writing about all of those ideas later.
The time off between semesters is great, and I need a little more time to get ready to go back, and a little more time to reflect on how I can be the best that I can be for my students.
We are doing a book study at RCS with the book “Shattering the Perfect Teacher Myth”. It’s a very short, very readable book. I’m going to cross post my discussion board posts from the study’s Canvas page here to share out a bit more of what we’re doing.
1. If you knew you would have visitors in your class or in your building what would you address with your students before the visitors arrived? Why not tackle that now?
I have my classroom expectations posted clearly at the front of my room. I try to review them EVERY DAY, and I model what those expectations look like. “Does it look like I am ready for class?” “Am I meeting expectations if…?” We also practice attention getters so that when they are necessary they work.
2. How do we respond to academic and behavioral mistakes differently? Why do we have such different approaches?
I don’t think I respond to them differently. I do a lot of pedagogical research and extra reading on my own and find that the two are extremely linked. If a student is not performing well in my class, I have a conversation with them. I let students put blame on me, or I frame the discussion about what I am or am not doing to support them. It’s my belief that if a student is acting out in class, they probably got bored, or lost, or got lost because they were bored and act out because of that. I try to remediate both the same way by starting each conversation with “Am I going at a speed that is comfortable for you? Am I clarifying things when I see that you look confused?” I do then ask students if they are doing everything they can to meet expectations, and remind them that I am doing my best to do my part in the learning process and they need to do their part. I finally follow up with “What can I do to support you moving forward?”
3. What are the skills we assume students should just have, the ones we think we shouldn’t teach?
I know that every student comes from different backgrounds, so I try not to assume what skills they have.
4. Share a time with a student when “I’m proud of you” and/or “I’m sorry” helped to solidify your relationship.
My professional goal this year is to be more in touch with parents, and I’ve called quite a few parents/guardians this year to compliment their children, and maybe slip in a “we need to work on meeting class expectations”, leading with a compliment has really helped!
Ditching the textbook does not mean that you don’t have a curriculum. It just means that you gotta know a few things ahead of time.
What you gotta know before you ditch the textbook.
You gotta know your standards. Or at least be really familiar with them. Textbooks DO sometimes lay out how they relate to the standards, so if you’re following the textbook you’re getting all the standards… theoretically. If you’re going to get rid of the textbook you need to know what your state/national organization expects students to know.
You gotta know what your goals are. This may look different for everyone. Maybe your goals are that students succeed on the end of course assessment. Maybe your goals are that students have mastered some kind of skill. For me, I know that I want my level 1 students to be Novice mid-High according to my national organizations proficiency guidelines. And I know that I want students to be able to talk about themselves and others in a basic yet meaningful way.
You gotta know what your assessments are. You have your goals… How are you going to know when students have met those goals? How are students going to know when they’ve met those goals? I think that when you get rid of the textbook that people need to be really good backwards planners. I know some people will disagree with that, that’s fine. I’ve seen some teachers go in without a plan every single day (either intentionally or not) and do just fine.
You gotta know how to deal with the unexpected. Much easier said than done. With a textbook, you can meticulously plan every second of your class with ease. When you don’t have, what some might call, the crutch of a textbook, what do you do when the lesson is derailed or an activity that you thought was so great falls flat? My suggestion is to have some go-to bail out moves. Maybe you have a Kahoot or Gimkit ready to go *just in case* you need to fill time, or catch your breath. For me, it might be a quick way to turn a listening activity into a writing activity. Even the most foolproof lessons fall flat sometimes, just gotta be prepared.
You gotta know how to find resources. This is probably the toughest part. And I’m sorry, I probably don’t have a lot of real advice for teachers who don’t teach languages. We essentially have all the knowledge of the world at our fingertips. Even though it’s not my favorite thing because I there is so much to dig through, Pinterest has a lot of stuff there, and other teachers who have ditched the textbook have probably been nice enough to share what they like to use. Or Twitter, once you find the right hashtag, like for language teachers #authres to find authentic resources, you will find so many ideas to use in your classroom.
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Ditching the textbook isn’t easy. I think, though, that it allows teachers to inject more of their personality into their lessons, and allows teachers to teach what they believe is truly necessary for students to succeed.
Within the classroom I am pretty confident in my abilities to create engaging, meaningful language experiences. However, one of the challenges that I often face within my classroom is classroom management. Personally, I think that teacher education courses often forget about classroom management. In my undergraduate program I did take a classroom management class, but after the first few classes I felt the course did not focus much on classroom management.
Jon Cowart, a language teacher from Memphis, Tennessee has long been an outspoken force for classroom management in language classrooms. Specifically in urban settings. Before this session, I thought that maybe I was just bad at classroom management, but Jon brought to my attention that there are outside forces at play too. Things that we do not see in the classroom can cause issues in the classroom.
Mr. Cowart also walked participants of the presentations through some actual scenarios that can happen in the classroom. He did demonstrations how he would use the target language to positively narrate the class, providing students with more input in a non-threatening way. He said that when doing positive narration, try to avoid personal feelings, only state what you see.
During the session, Jon also emphasized the importance of positive relationships. He shared some stories of having positive relationships with students and keeping their stakeholders involved in their education. I plan on setting aside a day, or at least half a class, a week to hold some individual conferences with students to try to better establish those relationships so that I can show them they have a positive adult role model, and to help maximize their investment in my class.
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Some other quick tips that Jon gave us were to:
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Make directions SOC(Specific, observable, concise). Jon helped us practice this, and reaffirmed that we ācannot punish students because we are unclearā.
positively narrate classroom actions
make sure that everyone is paying attention when you are giving directions
use the phrase āWhen I say goā¦ā when giving directions allowing students to hear all of the directions before attempting to work on an assignment
create concise, positive instructions āNo blurtingā becomes āRespond when I signal youā.
Not redirect actions until after positive narration is done to give students one more opportunity to hear the directions
Positively frame consequences, eg. āIām moving your seat so that you can learn moreā
End hallway conversations with āWhat can I do to help you more?ā
One of the talks that I was most looking forward to was a talk from Dr. Stephen Krashen on the Net Hypothesis and āDrop-inā language classes. Dr. Krashen started his presentation by discussing an overview of some of his foundational hypotheses such as the comprehension hypothesis, and the natural order hypothesis.
Dr. Krashen discussed in length the natural order hypothesis and the pedagogical implications of it. The natural order hypothesis states that there is a predictable and reliable order in which constructions are acquired in a language be it in first or second language acquisition. What is sometimes misunderstood about the natural order hypothesis is that the natural order may not rely on what we believe to be simple versus complex constructions. In some cases, what are typically described in grammatical textbooks as complex. Dr. Krashen states that even though we know that there is a natural order, any type of grammatical based syllabus for a language class should not be used. By using any kind of grammatical syllabus, teachers would be under the assumption that the students learn what the teacher is currently teaching, which is simply not true. We still have to account for individual differences.
Within the classroom, because individual differences occur, Dr. Krashen suggests that the Net Hypothesis will take care of the individual needs of students at the appropriate time. He says that if we cast a large enough ānetā of input, i+1 will be available and students will acquire language. He did also reaffirm in this talk that the āiā of i+1 does not necessarily stand for anything, it was just the variable he chose to use. Dr. Krashen gave a great metaphor, as is typical whenever I have seen him speak, he said that if we have a balanced diet (compelling comprehensible input) then all of the vitamins and nutrients (i+1) will be available and one does not need to worry about adding supplements to their diets.
An issue that arose for me during this talk is that Dr. Krashen was talking about how ānoiseā in the input, that is language that is not ready to be acquired, is fine. I did ask Dr. Krashen if he had an idea of how much ānoiseā was appropriate in the language classroom, his response was simply āLetās find outā, as though it were something that we still needed to investigate.
In the classroom, the idea of the Net Hypothesis, especially with the background in Natural Order Hypothesis allows me to view student growth in a different way. I do still use some targeted input, so I am sure I may not be casting a large enough ānetā for students, but perhaps when evaluating students I will take a look at what it is that I am asking them to be able to do. Perhaps the studentās individual net is not catching all of the input yet to produce what I am asking them to produce.
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2017-2018 was my first conference free school year since I started teaching. It was weird, but also kind of relaxing. 2018-2019 however is going to be a whirlwind and I’m starting off with iFLT in Cincinnati.
iFLT is the international Forum on Language Teaching. The conference is often held in the US. I did attend last summer, in Denver and it was AMAZING. This year, the conference is a bit closer, in Cincinnati so I’ll be driving down tomorrow to start the conference.
I am starting my week at the Coaching for Coaches workshop. We will be practicing, and discussing coaching styles to better train teachers that come to our workshops/events etc. After that We will have our first coaching session, and then I will meet with my Adult Spanish teacher team.
I am one of five teachers that will be teaching the Adult Spanish class. What is unique about iFLT is that conference attendees can go and watch real classes with real students. This is the first time that iFLT has done an “apprentice” program, so I will be paid with a Master teacher who will observe me being observed. I am so looking forward to this experience, especially because I’m wanting to start an adult Spanish class of my own.
My mornings this week will be filled with the the language labs, and then I’ll have time to go to other sessions and talks that pique my interest. But there are SO MANY OPTIONS! I think I am most looking forward to learning more about the Net Hypothesis with Dr. Stephen Krashen. I have a basic understanding of the Net (that if you give students enough input, they will have uptake in whatever they are cognitively ready for), but I think it will be a very interesting session.
While I’m at the conference, I will be working on grad school. I’m currently taking a Methods Course, and doing an experiential module(essentially, a self planned project). My EM, originally, was going to be conference attendance/reflection. But after talking with my adviser, we decided to go a different route. I will be using what I do at this conference as a basis to develop training modules for language teachers (Look for those in Spring 19).
And of course, one of the biggest reasons I am looking forward to iFLT is to hang out with my teacher tribe. It is such a rejuvenating experience to be around folks who believe the same things you believe, but who are also willing to challenge you in those beliefs.
Part of my EM will be reflections on sessions I attend so I will probably create a Master Post for that where everything will hang out.
BTW, check out all of the iFLT18 tweets here!
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I have tried an failed over the years to incorporate a PAT(Preferred Activity Time) point system.
In brief, a PAT point system awards a class with points to earn some sort of prize.
I’ve tried giving points for staying in the Target Language, but that ended up being too much running back and forth with a timer, sometimes felt subjective, and wasted my time when I had to keep resetting the timer.
I know some people work wonderfully with a timer, but it just wasn’t my thing. I decided I needed to take a look at my class expectations, and see how I could reward students for meeting and exceeding those expectations.
These are the expectations that I hold students to, and potential for points in meeting/exceeding these expectations.
So there are some of the things I give points for. Now… how many points are they shooting for and what happens when they get those points?
When I test drove this point system in the last few weeks of class, we were shooting for 100 points by the end of class Thursday. That seemed pretty reasonable. If my classes are 25 students and each student puts up a phone every day, voila! Maybe I’ll up it, I’m not sure.
So 100 points earned students 10 minutes of a preferred activity at the end of class Friday. I think maybe an additional minute for every 10 points after 100.
So I’ve done, outdoor time, dance party, a game, a movie (I know 10 minutes of a movie doesn’t seem like long, but they know they can earn extra class points). I’m still working on compiling more rewards though. A friend of mine suggested something that *I* do, like sing a song in front of the class, dance in front of the class… or something. I’m not sure. What do you all do for PAT?
I have tried an failed over the years to incorporate a PAT(Preferred Activity Time) point system.
In brief, a PAT point system awards a class with points to earn some sort of prize.
I’ve tried giving points for staying in the Target Language, but that ended up being too much running back and forth with a timer, sometimes felt subjective, and wasted my time when I had to keep resetting the timer.
I know some people work wonderfully with a timer, but it just wasn’t my thing. I decided I needed to take a look at my class expectations, and see how I could reward students for meeting and exceeding those expectations.
These are the expectations that I hold students to, and potential for points in meeting/exceeding these expectations.
So there are some of the things I give points for. Now… how many points are they shooting for and what happens when they get those points?
When I test drove this point system in the last few weeks of class, we were shooting for 100 points by the end of class Thursday. That seemed pretty reasonable. If my classes are 25 students and each student puts up a phone every day, voila! Maybe I’ll up it, I’m not sure.
So 100 points earned students 10 minutes of a preferred activity at the end of class Friday. I think maybe an additional minute for every 10 points after 100.
So I’ve done, outdoor time, dance party, a game, a movie (I know 10 minutes of a movie doesn’t seem like long, but they know they can earn extra class points). I’m still working on compiling more rewards though. A friend of mine suggested something that *I* do, like sing a song in front of the class, dance in front of the class… or something. I’m not sure. What do you all do for PAT?
Languageley 