Vice Versa
One of the things that we try to do is to get to know our students. Ben Slavic has been posting some great pieces written by Bryce Hedstrom. Bryce writes about talking with kids in the TL in class.
He says: "One important point here is that we are NOT talking about intimate secrets concerning the actual lives of our students. We are not intruding into their personal space. We are “personalizing.”"One important point here is that we are NOT talking about intimate secrets concerning the actual lives of our students. We are not intruding into their personal space. We are “personalizing.” He says more, so when you get a chance, check it out. It's extremely well-written and very important.
Getting to know our students allows us to personalize stories and connect the language to our students. And vice versa!
Today we were working with a skeleton story written by students earlier in the day. The focus structures were: had the desire to, just about to start, and without rest ( the last two from songs we have been using this week....the first because it is a high, high, high frequency structure in Spanish). The skeleton story was this:
Two characters had the desire to win a race. They practiced for a long time without rest. Suddenly they realized that the race was just about to start. Oh no! Would they get there in time?
We had just finished an activity that had gone really well with the other two level one classes this morning...but not with this one. It went.....but not well. When we started with the skeleton story, I wasn't really expecting bells and whistles. Oh my was I wrong!!
Our skeleton stories often use "characters" so that each class can choose their own. I took suggestions....Pee Wee Herman (how do freshmen even know who he is?!!), Barney, Terrell Owens (we aren't far from Buffalo)...nothing seemed to click. Then someone suggested Obi Wan Kenobi.
BAM!!!!! The class popped out of their seats!! All of a sudden they were suggesting names for the second character....each one calling out their favorite Star Wars character and using Spanish to explain why that character was a better choice for the story. Three boys who rarely get fired up were falling all over themselves to get involved.
Then one girl raised her hand and said, "Nunca miro Star Wars". A very quiet kid YELLED, "En serio?" (sorry...I'm on the laptop and cannot do the upside-down interrogative!) Now they wanted to start to tell the story of all seven (?) movies in Spanish lol.
I had absolutely no idea that so many of the kids in this group were Star Wars fans. Had we not started this story, I'm not sure if I would have ever found that out. Now I have a topic that has united about 10 students who have been stubbornly resisting any kind of unification. Self-proclaimed geeks, jocks, troublemakers, and three Twilight groupies are now uniting to make sure that the rest of the class learns to appreciate the Star Wars saga in all its glory.
So far Obi Wan and Yoda are training without rest on Tatooine, so strong is their desire to participate in and win this race. When they realize that the race is just about to start, and that it is on Coruscant they must use the Death Star 2 to get there in time.
But look at what else we were able to do with those phrases via Star Wars.....
Has the desire to....be a Jedi, help Luke, find his father, join the dark side ( I knew we'd find a good use for "lo mas oscuro" this week!!!!), kiss Leia, etc., etc,
without rest....train to be a Jedi, fight the dark side, protect Leia, etc. etc.
was just about to start.....the war, the search, the battle,
And that was just in the last 10 minutes of class!!!!
I started the activity thinking that they would want to talk about themselves as runners, or their favorite athletes....hoping to use personalization to "hook' them into the story. Well...it did...just not in the way I anticipated. Personalization leads to great stories....and vice versa!!
with love,
Laurie
He says: "One important point here is that we are NOT talking about intimate secrets concerning the actual lives of our students. We are not intruding into their personal space. We are “personalizing.”"One important point here is that we are NOT talking about intimate secrets concerning the actual lives of our students. We are not intruding into their personal space. We are “personalizing.” He says more, so when you get a chance, check it out. It's extremely well-written and very important.
Getting to know our students allows us to personalize stories and connect the language to our students. And vice versa!
Today we were working with a skeleton story written by students earlier in the day. The focus structures were: had the desire to, just about to start, and without rest ( the last two from songs we have been using this week....the first because it is a high, high, high frequency structure in Spanish). The skeleton story was this:
Two characters had the desire to win a race. They practiced for a long time without rest. Suddenly they realized that the race was just about to start. Oh no! Would they get there in time?
We had just finished an activity that had gone really well with the other two level one classes this morning...but not with this one. It went.....but not well. When we started with the skeleton story, I wasn't really expecting bells and whistles. Oh my was I wrong!!
Our skeleton stories often use "characters" so that each class can choose their own. I took suggestions....Pee Wee Herman (how do freshmen even know who he is?!!), Barney, Terrell Owens (we aren't far from Buffalo)...nothing seemed to click. Then someone suggested Obi Wan Kenobi.
BAM!!!!! The class popped out of their seats!! All of a sudden they were suggesting names for the second character....each one calling out their favorite Star Wars character and using Spanish to explain why that character was a better choice for the story. Three boys who rarely get fired up were falling all over themselves to get involved.
Then one girl raised her hand and said, "Nunca miro Star Wars". A very quiet kid YELLED, "En serio?" (sorry...I'm on the laptop and cannot do the upside-down interrogative!) Now they wanted to start to tell the story of all seven (?) movies in Spanish lol.
I had absolutely no idea that so many of the kids in this group were Star Wars fans. Had we not started this story, I'm not sure if I would have ever found that out. Now I have a topic that has united about 10 students who have been stubbornly resisting any kind of unification. Self-proclaimed geeks, jocks, troublemakers, and three Twilight groupies are now uniting to make sure that the rest of the class learns to appreciate the Star Wars saga in all its glory.
So far Obi Wan and Yoda are training without rest on Tatooine, so strong is their desire to participate in and win this race. When they realize that the race is just about to start, and that it is on Coruscant they must use the Death Star 2 to get there in time.
But look at what else we were able to do with those phrases via Star Wars.....
Has the desire to....be a Jedi, help Luke, find his father, join the dark side ( I knew we'd find a good use for "lo mas oscuro" this week!!!!), kiss Leia, etc., etc,
without rest....train to be a Jedi, fight the dark side, protect Leia, etc. etc.
was just about to start.....the war, the search, the battle,
And that was just in the last 10 minutes of class!!!!
I started the activity thinking that they would want to talk about themselves as runners, or their favorite athletes....hoping to use personalization to "hook' them into the story. Well...it did...just not in the way I anticipated. Personalization leads to great stories....and vice versa!!
with love,
Laurie
Laurie!!! Did you realize that you just came full circle? Your whole idea for us started with the kids' telling about movies!! But the slight tweak of having the stories be theirs means that they run it and get involved. I really don't quite understand why the little addition of the entire story is so different from having them give us just the details, but it does...and then they can go back to all those other stories. And suddenly, I don't have to know all the Star War stories to be able to work them into what we're doing. If the kids want to, they are the movers. SOOOO cool. (I seem to be saying that a lot lately!)
The other thing is...look at how the frequency words are coming in here again--when you really hit a high-frequency phrase, it is necessary and can be used in every story a human can tell. Absolutely fascinating.
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WOW!!!!! YOU ARE RIGHT!!
Language...and teaching with it...is really an organic process when we leave it alone isn't it.
You asked me before, how do I pick phrases? They seem to show up...just like the ones above.
I also ask the kids to pay attention. When we are reading or asking stories, point out to me when you see a phrase, or when you want to use a phrase that you don't know yet, over and over. We need to work on it!!
with love,
Laurie
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