We’re ending week 3.5 here in Washington state (we started the Wednesday after Labor Day), and I figured it would a good time to plonk some reflection into my students’ laps to help them look back on what we’ve done so far, let me know what’s working and what’s not, and get an affective temperature check. My big goals for my students are for them to feel safe and cared for in my class, and for them to comprehend buckets of input in German or Spanish. (Sometimes both when my brain fails to shift gears during 7th period…oh mein Gott…)
I gave students this half-sheet form, and five minutes of quiet to fill it out before we transitioned to my personal favorite class game, Gimkit. (Edit: the fabulous Kate Smith on Facebook made it into a Google Form, which makes gathering the data EVEN EASIER! Go ahead and make a copy for yourself!) Feel free to modify as needed, as I forgot to do when I gave the version that said “German” to my Spanish class…d’oh. Anywho, I conveyed before we started that their honest and helpful feedback would make me a better teacher, and it would make class better for everyone. So it’s a win-win!
I’ve spent this morning reviewing the trends, and I’m feeling very, very thankful that I did this. I have solicited feedback from students before, and it can definitely be awkward and painful. But I’m going into next week feeling aware of what’s working for them, and overall how they’re feeling in class.
Here are the biggest trends I noticed, both across levels, as well as in individual classes:
Gestures
Classes at every level pointed to my use of hand gestures for verbs as something that really helped them. I lifted how I do them from Tina Hargaden, so it’s nice to see that it truly is a huge comprehension support, and that I’m not just doing the Macarena for myself up in front of the class. This has also really helped me use more natural language, as I can use the same gesture for a verb’s past, present, and future forms, and use context to otherwise make things clear for students. And I can stay in the Target Language so much easier! Which leads me to…
High Levels of Target Language Usage
All my classes told me they liked how much of the Target Language we used during class, for Small Talk, Stories, Calendar Talk, Card Talk…everything! One student told me while we were watching the Homecoming Football Game that their previous teacher usually would do “only the Target Language” like…every other day. Which meant that class was 50% English, 50% TL. They really need the input to grow their mental representation of the language, so I’m glad students are appreciating my efforts to keep things comprehensible and shift that percentage in the direction of the Target Language.
Write and Discuss into Choral Translation + Grammar
Write and Discuss by itself didn’t necessarily get the biggest shoutouts at each level, but many students pointed out that doing a Choral Translation of the class text into English, funky word order and all, helped them see how German and Spanish are constructed and made them appreciate how much they understood. This is the perfect time to slip in fun grammar noticings – German word order is always fun to see at any level, and Spanish can do some wild things, too. And it’s not TOO grammar-heavy for them – one student literally wrote under his positives: “He isn’t making us remember grammar. He’s just speaking to us.” #blessings
Classroom Management
A comment to the effect of “make my classmates shut it during our class conversations” appeared at least once at every level, but was especially prevalent in my level 3 German class. They have known each other for a good long time, and have so many in-jokes and crazy stories from their last German teacher (who was/is a wonderful angel), that we often all get distracted with the fun stories in English and forget to use the most German possible. I see this as a necessary growing pain – I would much prefer that they had positive experiences with each other in the past, but I’m also convincing them of the value of 90%+ TL, so this will be an area of growth for us all. (Being a slightly hyper and easily distracted sort of dude…I am sometimes a culprit. Oops!) I think I can leverage how much my students in each class enjoy hearing the Target Language (as evidenced by their comments) to turn this tide and get us going in a fantastic direction.
Double Checking the Forms I Give My Class
Because I gave out forms that said “German” instead of “Spanish” to my Spanish classes, I received many angry face emoji drawings on my surveys, and one “you could improve by loving Spanish more! (crying face emoji)” SORRY, Y’ALL! (They actually took it in stride, but I definitely don’t want them feeling like I only love my German students…I truly love them all because they’re so FUNNY.)
Sorry, chicos. 😛
Bonus Comments!
I have a couple of heritage Spanish speakers in my level 2 Spanish class, and I got some sweet comments from them, too. One wrote, “I already know the language, but it’s nice being in here.” I have another heritage speaker who sometimes speaks like a Novice – lots of errors, but comprehensible! – and he wrote, “I appreciate that Mr. Fisher tells us that being wrong is okay!” My heart!!!
I want to make sure I do this at intervals for the rest of the year. There are regular slumps in the natural cycle of the school year, and using reflective surveys like this can hopefully help me keep students engaged and contented in class. What’s more, I hope I am conveying to them how much I appreciate and care for them, and can build good will by not pretending to have all the answers all the time.
Go forth, and reflect! What have been your reflections from the beginning of this year? What have students told you? Let me know in the comments below!
Generally, in CI World, we know that students acquire vocabulary most efficiently from comprehensible messages in the Target Language. That means that Ye Olde Vocabulary Lists of yore are not quite as helpful as we used to think. Trying to memorize them engages the brain’s explicit/conscious learning faculties, versus the implicit/unconscious learning that is capable (and more durable, in the case of language) when focusing on getting students as much comprehensible input as possible. For this reason, many CI World teachers have ditched vocab lists and just focus on providing rich, repetitive, compelling comprehensible input in class. And that’s all!
…but what if I want a vocabulary list? What if my students want one? There’s something satisfying about the neatness of a list. It implies and provides structure, and is something to refer to when feeling lost. And maybe your department/school/district requires that you provide and teach students thematic/semantic sets of vocabulary. This is the situation I’m currently in with my school’s Spanish department (I’m a singleton with German – I have more freedom there), so this is something I’m thinking about this year as well.
We have to be mindful that students sometimes struggle with classes that don’t “look” entirely “like school.” Especially in the early levels, we’re mostly asking students to just listen, read, and show that they understand. That is VERY different from any other class they have taken, where they may have to take and summarize notes, respond frequently with their own thoughts, elaborate on those thoughts, work out individual written responses to prompts, etc. Just understanding what you hear and read sounds like a murky goal – even ifwe as teachers know that it is what they need. But maybe having a vocabulary list gives students the comfort they want in “learning” the language when we secretly know that we are creating class such that they acquire the language.
This question actually opens up to two different contexts with distinct solution sets, so let’s explore each context and see how we can best support our students on their quest toward language proficiency.
Context 1: I have a mandated vocabulary list
This context is affecting my Spanish teaching this year. This year, I’m teaching second-year Spanish. I’ve come in to a new school whose Spanish department adheres pretty closely to the scope and sequence provided by a textbook, which is not how I teach. But! I was told that as long as I cover the vocabulary and structures present in the chapters my department uses over the course of the year, I can teach however I want. My district seems big on teacher autonomy, which is truly a blessing.
So, what am I going to do? Here have been my plans for “covering” the vocabulary lists I’m expected to cover this year:
Calendar Talk: Calendar Talk is great for introducing all sorts of new vocab, because it necessarily includes compelling events from students’ lives. In addition to reviewing the Spanish 1 calendar basics (days, months, etc.), we’ll be able to review future plans, and start talking about what students did over the weekend. A seamless and natural introduction to the past tense forms!
Card Talk: Card Talk can be angled to introduce any subject – check the linked post for ideas how to use Card Talk prompts to push conversation towards thematic vocab. School unit? Have kids draw what goes on in their favorite class. Talking about places in town? Have kids draw their favorite spots, and go in on what is around them, where they are located, etc.
OWI: Specify that the One Word has to fit some sort of theme – it has to be an article of clothing, it has to be a toy of some sort, it has to be a food, etc. This will likely draw in other related vocab – pieces of clothing are often friends with other pieces of clothing, for instance. #BillylaBufanda
Storytelling: As with OWIs, unscripted stories can be angled towards problems that mirror the language introduced in a thematic chapter. An OWI that is a pencil can be at school and have some sort of problem with its history teacher. Or, you can go the route of purposefully building in vocab list vocabulary into stories. Or let someone else do it for you! I am a huge fan of Anne Matava’s Story Scripts, just because they’re so wacky and fun, and I’ll definitely be using “You, In the Corner!” and “An Important Test” early on during the school unit because those have always inspired much hilarity.
Picture Talk: Picture Talk can be used to kill 2 birds with 1 stone – I can pull up an image from the Target Culture, and discuss both what is going on in the picture, and if it is different from an analogous context here in the US!
Story Listening: Now, I don’t do Story Listening exactly as Dr. Mason describes, but I love using it to include cultural tales in my classes. I think it will be a fabulous way for students to hear lots of natural language, and because I’m teaching Level 2, it will be good for them to hear the different Spanish past tenses in natural contexts.
There are so many ways to weave in “required” vocab – we just have to be a little creative in sequencing our classes and providing specific communicative contexts so that the vocabulary just happens to come up. (Or, it just seems that way to our students! *wink*)
I think you can also get your kids in on it a bit, too. I explicitly told my students that we have to do similar stuff to what the other classes have to do, but that we’ll try to make it as fun as possible. If we ever run into a situation where interest is waning, we can remind ourselves that we’re doing our best to have fun and “cover” all the stuff. Kids usually like a conspiracy…er…challenge. *wink again*
Context 2: I do not have a mandated vocabulary list
This is my situation with German this year! I am the best only German teacher at my school, and my district (again) provides teachers lots of autonomy, so I have a lot of freedom to teach whatever vocab seems best. For me, I am aiming for natural language usage. So, I’m creating contexts for communication, and we’ll use whatever language comes up!
This does lead to things being a bit unpredictable, and honestly, I’ve found it difficult in the past to keep track of what I’ve said to whom. Sometimes I find myself “introducing” a gesture for a verb, and the class is like “omg Herr Fisher get it together, we got this!” Other times, I have discovered that a fairly high frequency / useful word hasn’t come up in a long time, or at all, and I end up doing mental gymnastics trying to introduce it to the class.
Then, I stumbled upon this article by Justin Slocum Bailey, who is an outstanding Latin teacher and teacher trainer. He had an idea that was so simple, I went YEAH: just ask kids at the end of class what words/phrases were most central to the day’s interactions, and what seemed most useful. Boom! The students help you build out a vocabulary list, so there’s a feeling of mutual responsibility. You can then just make a spreadsheet (I keep mine in a Google Spreadsheet) with all the language you’ve used, so you know what each class has heard and used. Boom!
I also check back on my Write and Discuss from each day to see what has come up in class. I write mine by hand on the board to keep them shorter, and then type them up into a Google Doc during my prep. I do this in conjunction with asking the class, because sometimes certain language stuck out to them more, and that language doesn’t always necessarily show up in the Write and Discuss. (See: a super random vocab word a kid asked for during class, a fun interjection, you accidentally taught a swear word when you walked backwards into a chair and fell over and politely remind your students to never ever use ever, etc.)
Now what do I do with this word list, once I have it? The first thing is feel relieved, because if anyone ever asserts “we (they?) don’t even do anything in there!” I can whip the list out and be like “well then, what is all this language we’ve used?! (dramatic music)“
I also have thought out some other, non-affective uses for such a list, which could include: – Building new readings that are recombinations of familiar vocab, either for days when I need to sit to refrain from dying, or for performance assessments (both throughout an instructional cycle, using AnneMarie Chase’s Quick Quizzes, or at the end). – Spiraling the vocab that appears in my Bell Ringers, which are usually reading (input!)-based. – Playing games! I could easily make these a Quizlet set for students to study, if they should so choose, which easily turns into either a Gimkit or a Quizlet Live. Same idea with a Kahoot! – Printing the list for a parent or child. Sometimes they just want some sort of proof, something to study. This could be it! – Reminding myself of other useful stuff that hasn’t come up yet – and then magically bringing it up!
Sometimes, you might want to target other useful vocab that could wow their next level teacher and make your classroom life more flowing. Slip a new word or phrase into the classroom convo when it makes sense, and boom! You have a more proficient user of the target language.
Overall:
If we communicate to our students via lists, they will produce…lists. I’m aiming to use class time to communicate in real questions, statements, stories, etc., so that hopefully one day, my students will be able to do the same. But for as long as we need to hold onto the idea of the vocab list for the world language classroom, then we can certainly provide – and make it useful to us, too!
What do you think? Do you have to follow a set list, or do you have more freedom? Do you have an argument for vocab lists that I’m not thinking about? Let me know your thoughts and ideas below!
I am at a new-to-me school this year, finally teaching German while also still getting to teach some Spanish. (And model how cool multilingualism is, boing!)
The prospect of teaching German was so exciting to me when I applied for and got the job – I know WAY more about German stuff, having lived in Germany for a year, and I just love the language dearly. But I didn’t realize how difficult last year was on me emotionally and mentally until I woke up feeling nervous and physically sick this morning, my heart beating wildly as I imagined facing my classes for the first time.
I kept swirling around in thoughts like: “What if this year is just as hard as last year?” “What if you lose control?” “What if you can’t keep it in German the whole time because there’s so much side chatter?” “What if this is just what teaching is like?”
I’m (finally) seeing a counselor for anxiety, and part of my initial stages of treatment has just been identifying when I’m having negative thoughts at all. Sometimes, just identifying that it is happening is enough to help me dispel the tension. So, I identified that I was feeling scared, and set about repeating to myself the mantras I know to be true and helpful: Go slow. Look them all in the eyes. Maximize comprehension. Give your students love.
Now, I saw all the freshmen yesterday as part of their orientation day, and my German 1 freshmen were very…lively. I worried that they would never settle down, and that it would be the failure I had imagined. But I stuck to my mantras and did my best with them today.
All we got was this short text:
Two kids got jobs. And we got one sentence! “Today is Thursday, not Friday.” It was a hard-earned sentence, but we got it out, because I decided to stay slow, maintain my calm, and make sure that that one sentence was good with everyone before we moved on.
And you know what? I had students come up to me after class and tell me that they appreciated how I teach. And my students exhibiting the most distracting behaviors knew 100% what was going on when I checked in with them. And even my girls (there are like 6 of them and 29 boys, help) were able to laugh with me about the energy of the class, aka I don’t think they hate me.
After school today, I called some parents as part of my mission to establish positive contact with all my families before we get too far into the year. (Currently at 12o-odd kids amongst four class sections, so pray for me.) ALL the parents I called today told me that their kid already liked my class. Even with all this energy, all this containment and calm I was managing! They liked it, and they liked me.
Our students want to understand. They want teachers to take it slow, check in with them, make sure everyone is okay before moving on. So maybe this group will need some training about how to respond and interact in a CI classroom – but if I can stick to what I know to work…we could have a wonderful, wonderful year. I will take the time I need to reflect and grow, and give these students what they want and need – someone they understand, who seeks to understand them.
I am here at my desk, wishing you the best for the new school year. How is it going for you??? Tell me in the comments below!
We are so lucky to live in an age where if we want to learn something new – about whatever topic! – we can just look up the topic online and find all sorts of help, tutorials, guides, etc. As interest in Teaching with CI grows, more and more high quality training materials are appearing online every day, from webinars, to blogs, to whole books that people are writing to support new to TCI teachers in finding their way through the thicket of innovations available to us now.
What’s more, many teachers are catching onto the fact that it is often easiest to learn teaching skills by watching them happen in real teaching contexts. Teachers have taken to YouTube and Vimeo to post videos of themselves teaching their real students, so other teachers can get a sense of how to bring all the skills of teaching with CI together with the ever-expanding repertoire of activities/contexts for delivering CI. Sarah Breckley recently made a plea to teachers to film their classes as much as possible, and post the videos on YouTube. If enough of us do this, then we all get to learn from each others’ expertise, and seeing the same activity or skill used in different ways may help us build our own individual conception of how to implement what we learn in a way that works for us. (I recently bought this tripod for the purpose of recording my classes! #NotAnAd)
(Now, maybe you can’t post your own videos because of student privacy concerns – always make sure you have a release before you post anything! BUT I think the process of filming yourself and then watching the film back can be INCREDIBLE for pushing yourself into exponential growth. At first, hearing your own voice is awful, but it gets easier with time. And being able to see what you’re doing well can be a great motivator to keep improving!)
I really enjoyed this book!
Now, I myself have spent many hours getting some “YouTube PD,” watching other master teachers do their thing with real students. But my recent reading of Ten Mindframes for Visible Learning by John Hattie and Klaus Zierer has given me a lot to think about when it comes to what I’m getting out of all that viewing. It can be easy to fall down a rabbit hole of watching video after video of a teacher that you’re obsessed with…I mean…enjoy watching. I am guilty of sometimes thinking, “Oh goodness, why am I even trying? This person is a super-teacher and I would never be able to get to that level of organization, participation, etc etc etc.!”
But after my reading of 10 Mindframes for Visible Learning, I am going to approach any video I watch with the mindset that Hattie and Zierer pose as the first (and maybe most important) mindframe: I am an evaluator of my impact on student learning. This mindframe has been helping me, well, frame my thinking for what I’ll be doing this year. I have sometimes been guilty of assessing a lesson’s “success” based on whether we get through all the activities I have planned, whether or not students “behaved themselves,” and whether or not I thought the activities were cool. But now, I want to look for evidence that my students comprehended everything that happened, that they felt comfortable interacting with whatever new vocabulary came up that day, and that they felt increasingly more comfortable contributing to class.
Video Watching Mindframe
I want to carry this mindframe into my viewings of YouTube videos of other teachers teaching. I don’t want to get blinded by other teachers’ brilliance – I want to learn from it! Here are some questions I want to keep in mind to guide my viewing and personal professional development:
What is the impact of what I see while watching this video? How do I know that this instruction is having an impact?
Is there a “din” of Target Language in my head by the end of the video? (The “din” is an idea that comes from Krashen – hearing the L2 bounce around in your head after the class is over, which Krashen posits indicates the activation of your brain’s Language Acquisition Device. If you’re experiencing that, it may mean that the teacher used a ton of Target Language and – even better – provided a lot of Comprehensible Input to the class! Sweet – it’s acquisition time! Now, how did they do that? Watch the video with that in mind!)
Do you feel like you can answer the teacher’s whole-class or individual questions when they are asked? (If this is in an L2 you don’t speak yet, this means the teacher made themselves comprehensible – again, how?)
How do students respond to teacher questions or classroom events? (This can mean “with what language resources?” as well as “with what affect?” Both of these are worth looking into!)
It is easy to be dazzled by other teachers, but always keep in mind that we’re usually seeing teachers on their best days. (Nobody is going to post a lesson that ABSOLUTELY bombed, unless it’s a “cautionary tale” sort of situation.) But make use of these questions as you watch teacher videos on YouTube, and it might accelerate your learning of new skills as you dive into the world of Teaching with CI. What did the teacher do, and what was the impact?
So, Ben, who are your favorite teachers to watch teach online?
Thanks for asking, myself! Here are some faves that have helped me learn and grow a lot in my journey:
Tina Hargaden was the first teacher I watched using non-targeted CI, and my mind was blown wide open. Here she was, on the first day of a class, speaking so close to 100% TL! Her channel has TONS of video, as she filmed herself every day for an entire year, but this video in particular got the wheels a-turnin’ for me.
Alina Filipescu is a TPRS master teacher. Her classes always look so engaged, so lively, and so fun. She has really driven home the power of expectations for me, as she teaches and reteaches her expectations constantly to keep the class on point. I could watch this video all day.
Brett Chonko teaches in Virginia, and his videos always start with a good-natured “Welcome to Spanish class!” Here he is on Day 1 of a Spanish class, explaining how the class will look in a fun, relaxed way, and getting to a Write and Discuss on Day 1! What a pro.
AnneMarie Chase is an awesome TCI teacher located in Nevada. Her blog is also incredible – she has so many ideas for organization, grading, games, you name it! See her ideas in action on her YouTube channel.
The aforementioned Sarah Breckley is a ball of sunshine energy! It is a lot of fun watching her teach, because she always looks like she’s having a blast. Her blog is awesome, too. Watch this video if you want a great overview of how to provide high quality, comprehendED input.
What about you – who are some of your go-tos for YouTube PD? Comment below and let us know!
Edit from 2020: Are you teaching online? Read the post below first, and then check out this one for ideas on how to adapt it to online teaching and learning! Good luck to you!!!
Card Talk is another essential activity for CI classrooms. It has had some different names throughout the years that you might be familiar with – Ben Slavic’s“Circling With Balls” is definitely the progenitor to what many now just call Card Talk. (Because…#thatnametho) (My understanding is that he named it that way because so many students drew sports balls on their cards when he was teaching. #sportsballs) Many teachers start off the year with Card Talk to build classroom community and learn about their students, but this is an activity whose flexibility really lends itself to being used at any point throughout the school year.
Why should you do it? Not only to learn about the opinions, aspirations, and experiences of your students, but also to connect students to each other through your discoveries! It can be exciting hearing about someone who shares some part of your life when you’re new to a class, to a school, to an area, etc. Plus, Card Talk can be a great way to front load some high-frequency vocabulary about a subject if you’re either required to follow some sort of mandated curriculum, or are diving into a focused unit of study about a (perhaps AP- or IB-aligned) theme.
When do I use Card Talk?
The Create phase is a session of Guided Oral Input. Talk about them there cards!
Card Talk belongs in the “Create” category of activities, or what we might also call the “Guided Oral Input” part of a lesson. This is an experience that generates language and common experience in the classroom, which become the basis for further literacy work. (Most activities, like stories, characters, Movie Talk, etc etc. that people think of when they think of CI fall into this “Create” category, as they generate a lot of novel oral language, but don’t forget to also have strategies from the Write, Read, and Extend/Assess categories to provide the most complete L2 literacy experience for your students!)
As for when to use this activity during the school year…it can really be whenever! Many teachers do this early in the school year (read: first or second day, first or second week) as a way to break the proverbial ice and build classroom community (and also reinforce classroom expectations and procedures). But you could just as easily bust out Card Talk in the middle of the year to align with whatever topic or theme comes next for you. District requires you to do a daily routine unit? Card Talk it! Looking to talk alllll about your culture’s delicious food? Card Talk it! Getting into 3rd- and 4th-year discussions about stereotypes and regional identity? Card Talk it! We’ll see how below…
How do I do it? – Logistics
I have done Card Talk effectively two different ways: on paper, and digitally.
On paper: Each student needs a piece of paper to write and draw on, as well as a marker. I would shoot for 8.5×11″ printer paper, or card stock if you can get it – these “cards” can function as name tents if you want them to. Marker helps the images and names be visible throughout the classroom. If you are feeling NEXT LEVEL, use differently-colored paper for each class, to keep them separate. If you are Recycling Royalty, there’s no shame in using the back of a scrap piece of paper! (I am of German descent, so my Recycling senses are strong…)
Once students have the necessary materials, they should fold their paper in half hamburger-style and write their name in large print on one of the sides. (Is there a more professional way to write hamburger-style folding? Is it “lengthwise?” Whatever we’re all teachers here and it’s my blog darn it) On the same side as their name, students should draw a large image – without words as much as possible – that is a response to the Prompt. You may want to have students divide that side up so that there is space for both their large written name and the image, and we ask for name on the same side as the image to link the two together in our conversation. If you’re doing Card Talk early in Level 1 or 2, your Prompt can be “Draw something that you like – an activity, a sport you play, something you do in your free time, whatever!” (Some students may need some loving reminders of what is context-appropriate to draw on a card for a “school assignment,” *teacher wink*) For more prompt ideas for levels 1 and 2, as well as ideas for upper level courses, see the “Pro Tips” section below.
Sam likes hot Cheetos, and Willa likes turtles. These cards were the source of so much joy and community, and they were scrap paper!
Students only need about 4 minutes max to write their name and draw their picture. (We’re talking a quick sketch in one color, not an artistic masterwork.) After they have finished, you have some choices. I have typically used Card Talk in the beginning of the year, so I have students prop up their cards so I can use them simultaneously for the activity, and to learn names. OR: Scott Benedict turned me on to collecting all the cards, quickly sorting them by category (sports, video games, food, etc.) before choosing a first card for discussion.
Digitally: I link a slide show to our Learning Management System that has a template for students to fill out. There are enough copies of the slides for each student to claim one, and the instructions are right on the slide for students to edit and create their “cards.”
Slide template for digital Card TalkMy example because I LOVE READING AND READING IS COOL
Use your Precision Teacher Judgment to pick a student’s card that you would like to engage the students and class in discussing. You’ll be holding on to it to use as a visual scaffold for much of the activity, or displaying it for the class to see.
To start, signal for students to bring their attention to the whole class, and if you have a signal that indicates a transition from the L1 to the L2, give that signal now!
How do I do it? – Procedure
After you have picked which card you are going to discuss first and gathered your class’ attention, show the card to the whole class. You can say something in the L2 like, “OooOOoo, look at Soandso’s card! How interesting!” Alternately, if you’ve collected your whole class’ cards, you can ask, “Hmm…where is Soandso?” while looking around the classroom. You will likely already know where they are, but it will give you a chance to repeat the student’s name early on in class in a positive light. This also give you a chance to use those question words early and in context, boom.
After you have identified the student and had the rest of the class observe their card, you can repeat simple comprehensible language like “Hmm, look at Soandso’s card! Wow, so interesting!” Again, shower the love early on. THEN: take a stab at describing what is going on on the card, in slow, comprehensible language. Think breaking it up into chunks of meaning, a la: “Soandso…plays…the guitar!” Point to the card as you repeat that line again, and then you might also go to the board to write the word for “plays” in L1 and L2 on the board, and “guitar” if that is not as cognate-y as it is in German and Spanish. Remember: the card is the visual scaffold for your conversation!
All you’ve said so far is that Soandso likes to do something. Easy. You’ve been looking into every students’ eyes to confirm that they’re with you. Maybe do a quick “What did I just say?” in L1. Now is a good time to confirm with the student in question – “Hey Soandso, you play the guitar, right?” This gives them a chance to answer affirmatively, and may sometimes be necessary if a student’s artwork requires a bit more…um…interpretation.
You’ve stated what the student likes to do, confirmed it, and are now ready to expand with some details. Using our example of playing guitar, you can ask things like, “Do you play guitar super well? Like Jimi Hendrix?” (obviously assuming that yes, they are a world-class guitar player) “What songs do you like to play? Are you in a band? How long have you played guitar? What style of music do you prefer to play? Have you ever played a big concert?” Here’s the thing: you only have to pick one or two of these detail options to make an interesting conversation. If this is early, your students might not be able to handle too much more new information/language anyways. Pick a detail and park on it for a while, savoring the new information as it comes.
And here’s a natural segue: I like to alternate between questioning the individual student and panning out to the rest of the class. I can either ask them similar questions to ones we’ve already covered with the student (“Who else in the class plays guitar? Who plays in a band?”) and then compare them to the individual student, or just confirm details and comprehension with the class using some artful questioning. (“Does Soandso play the guitar or do they play the piano?” “Yes or no, does Soandso play in a band?”) Both serve to slow you down from adding too much information, and get some natural repetition on whatever has already come up. Surveying the class and tallying the results on the board can also be a helpful visual scaffold.
If you’re ever stuck, two power questions are “Where?” and “With whom?” (“Do you play guitar in the [Nearby Concert Stadium]?” “Do you play in Justin Bieber’s band?”) Students can answer however they like. We’re not going to call their parents later to confirm that their child plays in Justin Bieber’s traveling rock band…teachers have no time for investigative journalism, per my survey of the field. But kids can be whoever they want in class, and maybe there’s a bit of fanciful invention allowed. Or they can answer honestly! Either way, whatever they say is cool (as long as it’s school appropriate/kind) and can be fodder for further conversation.
Ride the waves of energy that come with talking to the student and the class. HEY THERE remember we are always striving to talk TO the students, not at them. It’s all about the class communicating so that we can all learn more information about each other. That serves both content and affective goals, especially early on. Find out more information about the student, always checking comprehension, involving the class, and reviewing.
When you’ve discussed a student’s card, learned some interesting supporting details, and you feel the energy starts to wane a little bit…move on! You can pick another card and repeat the process. (“Oh wow, that was so interesting that Soandso plays the lead guitar in an emo band. I used to do that, too. Thanks, Soandso. Hey, class, look at Whatserface’s card! She does competitive horseback archery!”) It can be helpful to set time limits for yourself so the Create phase doesn’t feel too mushy and ethereal, so maybe stick to 10-15 minutes of Card Talk at a time before transitioning to another mode. Abandon ship at any time if the “feel” just isn’t there, and be ready to move to the other parts of your lesson early with literacy activities and brain breaks.
What do I do with it now that we’ve finished?
During the process of Card Talk, I find myself writing details on the board that we discover through the conversation. These might be words like “tournament” or “team” or “whaling harpoon” for your sports conversations, or “song” or “genre” for music conversations. You might have supported these by drawing little pictures to go with the L2 words in lieu of L1 translations – or not! Either way, all of this scaffolding that you’ve built up during the oral conversation can be excellent support for the Review portion of the lesson (which might just be a quick series of questions about things you learned together), and then for the shared writing during Write and Discuss. Your writing can flow easily because you can just follow the information that you’ve left as hints for yourself on the board.
Keep all the cards at the end of the lesson, and hold onto them. You can always pull out a card and Card Talk it on a day when you’re feeling less prepared, or if you just want to fill some time with some pleasant conversation. I usually do Card Talk a few days in a row at the beginning of the year to teach how to chorally respond, stay in one conversation, and how to signal when comprehension is lost. Plus, the class gets to know each other better as you help draw connections between students (and yourself!).
It’s also nice to whip out the cards later in the year, and talk about them as fond memories. Students might start producing phrases or sentences as you review them and they bask in the glow of their lovely memories. (One girl last year drew a cat on her card, so naturally we talked about cats, but she was also lightly teasing her own drawing, so we called her “the most artistic artist” for the rest of the year. And it came from Card Talk!)
During Comprehensible Cascadia, someone mentioned that it might be fun to give the cards back to the students and have them use them as talking pieces for little Presentational assessments. Maybe you set up a Flipgrid or Seesaw assignment where they talk about themselves. Using the card as a scaffold/support can help them feel more confident, because they’ve already heard the class talk about their card. I might try this during this coming year!
One last use of the cards and Card Talk is to personalize stories you tell with your class, or any other activity where everyone is interacting. Once you learn things about your students, you can put those things into their conversations and stories. Or maybe you don’t get to a card during Card Talk, but you can pull out the information and put that into a story – the kid who drew it may have forgotten that they drew whatever on their card, and imagine that you’re a Psychic Teacher with Magic Powers. Maybe a kid drew a horse, and in a story you’re telling, suddenly a horse appears! That might lead to an aside with that student, talking about their interest in horses and maybe personalizing the details so that everyone’s heart siiiiings.
Pro Tips!
Go slow! You may be tempted to explore EVERY ASPECT of EVERY CARD of EVERY STUDENT as SOON AS POSSIBLE to BUILD COMMUNITY and HAVE SO MUCH FUN. Slow down there, Turbo. (message cc: myself) We do not want to overwhelm students early in their language acquisition journeys, and each card may cause us to introduce a good bit of new language. Stick to fewer details / less language at first to build student confidence in comprehending and responding, and students will thank you for going slowly in their new language. Plus, this can also help us savor the moments more and remind us that the kids are the curriculum – we got nowhere to be, y’all. Just with our students. Take time also to review “old” cards to refresh that language and that knowledge.
Ask the next natural question! This activity is a lot like making small talk at a cocktail party. Ask yourself, “what do I want to know about this image and this student that will help us know them better and appreciate their lives more?” If you have to script out your questions ahead of time, there’s no shame in that! Take a peak at the cards during your planning period, and make a list of questions, if that helps you feel more confident. Then you can flow more naturally: “You like to swim! Where do you swim? Are you a good swimmer? Do you swim competitively?” There’s no shame in being very prepared, and then magically pulling out that specific card that you’ve prepared well when you’re with your class. You’ll find that preparing for one card actually helps you prepare for the rest of them, as the questions tend to be similar across time and topics.
Compare and contrast with the class! As I hinted at above, it can sometimes just feel like you’re talking to one student while everyone else awkwardly listens in. Involve the class by surveying them, comparing them, contrasting them, checking their memories. You might create a tally of people who do the student’s activity well, okay, and awfully, and then name a couple “experts.” (I have had at least 4 Fortnite “experts” in each class whom I asked all varieties of questions about the game.) Connect students who share similar interests: “Oh! Both Soandso and Whatserface play soccer! But they play on different teams!” This activity is all about building community and common knowledge about the many wonderful people in your classes.
Move on! One time, I pulled out yet another card that indicated that Soandso liked video games, and, surprise, this kid loved Fortnite specifically. I looked around and saw like 8 of my other non-gamer students astral project out of their bodies, because we had already touched on the topic before. So I moved on! If a topic isn’t bringing energy to the class, or the student you pick isn’t providing tons of details that move the conversation along, there’s no shame in confirming what you have learned with the class, and then moving on. Give each card a good faith attempt, and be okay with switching to something else. You can either pick another card, or move into a Review of everything that came up in Card Talk that day.
Provide choices! Especially early on in a course, students might feel uncomfortable responding to more open-ended questions because they might not know if they can say some words in L1, or because they’re worried whether or not they’ll say the L2 “correctly.” You can circumvent this by offering some choices to the student – “Do you play the guitar in a band or by yourself? Do you create your own songs or play songs by famous people?” Include some choice options in your preparation so you can assuage the nerves of your poor L2 babies when you’re like HEY TALK L2 WITH ME and they break out in a panic sweat.
Prompt ideas! – This one gets its own section below…
Prompt Ideas (roughly by level)
You can use Card Talk in any level to learn about what students generally like, but you can also use it to adapt to any thematic unit or topic you might be teaching. Just have students respond to the prompts with a simple drawing! Useful vocabulary for a topic or theme usually comes up in response to prompts like these. Here are some ideas based on what is typically “asked for” by traditional scopes and sequences at each level – if you have more ideas, comment below and I’m happy to quote you and add them to this list! You don’t have to do Card Talk to start any unit if you don’t want to – these are just suggestions!
Level 1: What do you like? What is your favorite place in our school? What is your favorite class? What is your favorite food? What is your favorite food from the Target Culture? What do your typical meals each day look like? How do you stay healthy? What is your favorite room in your home? What do you buy when you go shopping? What is your favorite place in our town? Who is your best friend, and what are they like?
Level 2: any of the above, plus: What are you afraid of? What are your favorite activities in your favorite class? How do you spend your time after school? What is your least favorite/grossest chore to do at home? What is your favorite mode of transportation? What does your ideal weekend look like? What is one of your favorite childhood memories? What holiday means the most to you? What is your favorite scene from your favorite book/movie/TV show?
Level 3: any of the above, plus: What sorts of art do you appreciate most? What do you think symbolizes our local community? What technologies have had the greatest impact on our society (either historically or recently)? What job do you want to have when you are older? How will the future be different from now? (Economically, environmentally, politically, etc.) What is something typically [Home Culture]? On the other side of the paper, what is something that is typically [Target Culture]?
Level 4+/AP/IB: any of the above, plus: What do you think is the greatest challenge the world [/Home Culture/Target Culture] is currently facing? What is a new technology you can think of that would positively change the world of the future? What one stereotype about [Home Culture] do you think is absolutely false? On the other side of the paper, what is one stereotype that you think is true about [Home Culture]? What is one aspect of [Target Culture] that you find very different from [Home Culture] and would love to incorporate into [Home Culture]?
What if I want to learn more?
Again, Card Talk has evolved over the years, so see the posts above from Ben Slavic to check out “Circling With Balls.” Here’s a video of him talking about it from his TPRS training series.
Cameron Taylor created this document that gives a rundown of how to do Card Talk. It looks like Cameron also gives the instructions for the activity in the L2 – NEAT! And I just found this video of him delivering those instructions!
Brett Chonko has this awesome video here that shows him in the first day of the school year doing Card Talk with students. He also peppers in a lot of talk about what students can expect from a “CI” class, and even does Write and Discuss on the first day! #pro
Here’s Tina Hargaden doing Calendar Talk, moving into Card Talk, and then doing a Write and Discuss. So…much…clapping…! And here’s another video where she sets Card Talk up with her class.
Here’s AnneMarie Chase doing Card Talk with her class. She is an expert at going sloooow, and she uses lots of artful questioning to include the class in the conversation.
What do you think? Do you feel ready to use Card Talk? Comment below and send me any questions you might have!
I set a goal of reading 24 books in 2019 (about 2 a month), and it’s going very well so far! I have read 18 so far this year, so I’m a little bit ahead of “schedule.” (Granted, I have read 5 since school let out on June 19th, but whatever. I will take that as a success, as it means I adequately re-appropriated time I would have spent playing video games or drooling on myself or whatever. Mindset!)
Carol Dweck’s Mindset is a book I think many educators have heard of, and no doubt we’ve all been to at least one conference presentation or PD where someone was like “we want to do [this and this strategy/activity] to help students build a growth mindset!” (And then of course, we all nod sagely because mmm yes mindset.)
As evidenced by that last bit of snark, I had developed a bit of an eye-rolling reaction when growth mindset was brought up in those settings. Growth mindset sounds like a DUH sort of teaching thing, like DUH we should set high standards and believe that all students can reach them, and DUH our own potential as teachers can also grow despite challenges. It also has that flavor-of-the-month feel, sounding like a nebulous platitude that doesn’t necessarily change your day-to-day or give you ideas of what to do when things actually go sideways (kid cusses you out, a lesson is just bombing, your admin is laying the pressure on during an eval and you’re not sure what to do, etc.) “Have a growth mindset!” Ok!!! I did it!!! …now what?
I discovered something that maybe I had learned before, but apparently not well enough: it is so much more powerful to go directly to the source material, rather than hear (often diluted) secondary interpretations. And I am glad for having done this, because I think my processing of this book will help me become a better educator and a better person.
The gist of the book (my German irony senses are tingling) is that people face the many challenges and contexts of life with one of two mindsets: the Fixed Mindset, which says that peoples’ abilities and intelligence are innate and, well, fixed, and the Growth Mindset, which says that intelligence and ability can be developed through a commitment to teaching, learning, and appropriate challenge. Dweck illustrates how these mindsets play out in the realms of business, teaching, parenting, coaching, and even relationships to illustrate how they permeate every aspect of our lives, though mostly unevenly. For instance, a person in business may know they are lacking certain skills and recognize their need to gain experience from hard work and mentorship by others as they learn their trade. They then grow, and can be fabulously successful! That same person can be fixed in their romantic relationship, deciding that their partner and the relationship will always go the way it is currently going, and if it’s going badly, then the relationship was ALWAYS bad and should be allowed to self-destruct. (Two things: if a relationship has ALWAYS been bad after reviewing all the moments together, you should probably get out. But sometimes, all it takes is just telling your partner what you’re thinking and feeling. Mind-reading is not a thing, y’all.)
This all sounds great! Be growth-minded in every arena of life! Believe in change! Try hard! WOO!
But reading this text was actually a little painful for me, and I imagine it could be that way for others. Because in reading about people who typified the Fixed Mindset in their professional and personal lives, I sometimes saw myself. Not in an “oh god I have had a fixed mindset this entire time!” unmasked Scooby Doo villain sort of way, but in recognizing that there are situations and contexts in my professional and personal lives where I am triggered to a Fixed Mindset, and it holds me back from seeing and realizing my true self and true potential.
I’m realizing as I write this how wishy-washy I’m sounding in trying to let you know that I actually had an intense experience with a book/concept that I had perceived to be fairly wishy-washy. Ah! But I want to continue reflecting on how these mindsets have played out for me: now, and as the school year progresses. Here are three quick reflections I had while reading:
“That Class.” This past year I had two classes that regularly drove me up the wall. There were certain characters in these classes that I had subconsciously given up on – in my mind, they were never going to participate in the way that I wanted, and their challenges that existed outside of the school building were going to persist in making school hard for them no matter what I did. We, as educators, don’t want to admit that we think that about any kid, but it’s easy to write off a class with something like “oh, that’s my High Blood Pressure Class.” I know we’ve all had those classes, and that I have to be patient and forgiving of myself. But I want to engage in active, constant reflection this coming school year to avoid falling into the thinking traps that caught me last year. What skills are my students lacking, and how can I bring them to practice and master those skills? Have I made clear to them why these skills are worth mastering? How can I engage my class in problem solving when things aren’t going to plan, so that they get a say in how they learn and I don’t have to generate every solution? This also plays into an idea I grappled with in Radical Candor by Kim Scott – how can I open the doors for honest feedback on my performance so that we all get better, every day? If I catch myself having a “That Class” next year, I want to do a thorough, honest assessment with myself of what is happening, so I can teach.
Classroom Management Leader / Nervous Wreck. I took on a role this year that allowed me and a colleague to give a classroom management workshop over the summer, with the expectation that there would be follow up one-hour meetings during the school year to check in and practice skills. I take on leadership roles because I like being helpful and sharing – and things were going well management-wise in my classes the previous year. But I think having the role almost made me stop learning more about classroom management. I found myself saying “I’ve got this, I’ve got the skills to work with my classes,” but also running into moments where I, uh, didn’t “have” it. I felt like a fraud, because I had been given a neat title, but if anyone had come into my room, I may or may not have been compelled to lay blame wherever to overcome my feeling that things weren’t going as well as I wanted them to, and I wasn’t adapting. I’m a little bit more wary of taking on leadership roles as I transition to a new district and new school, because I end up letting them be a time suck, and if I do end up taking on any roles in the years to come, I want to enter with a boatload more humility. I want to maintain that learner’s stance, always.
Singing and Writing – In my personal life, two of my greatest self-care outlets are singing and writing. I sang in choirs for 6 years, and have been writing poetry since I was 11 years old. (I’m also published, it’s fine.) But asked to present these “talents,” I freeze. I am so afraid of being judged – finding that my voice is unpleasant to listen to, that I don’t sound good singing songs that I like, that my writing is trite garbage. But at the end of the day, truly, truly, they are for me. Only me. I sing and write because it feels good. Now, if I decide that I want to be a pro at either, or even just perform either in public for fun, I will have to accept that people will offer their opinions on my performance whether I want them to or not. And I can either take those as value judgments, or search for nuggets of wisdom and constructive criticism, and grow.
I recommend reading this book for yourself, and pausing whenever you find yourself reflected in a description of a fixed mindset. It is hard to be honest with ourselves about these things sometimes, but I think that this specific hard pain can help us grow. And maybe at the end of the day, you’re very content with your life and will find it to be self-help-y junk. But the other possibility is that you grow.
Have you read Carol Dweck’s Mindset? Let me know what you thought!
List of potential novel topics generated by the Comprehensible Cascadia 2019 Pre-Conference Reading Workshop
Reading is an essential component of any TCI classroom. Written input provides different data for the brain than oral input (think literary language, more passive constructions, sight cognates may be easier than when heard), and Stephen Krashen has compiled numerous studies that show that reading improves learners’ vocabulary, spelling, grammatical accuracy, fluency…you know, ALL THE STUFF. Students need to be reading in the L2 every day, because the benefits are too good to pass up.
Many programs have implemented Free Choice Reading (FCR), empowering students to choose whatever book from the classroom library they like, and read for a predetermined amount of minutes to get some great written input. Of course, the “C” in “CI” stands for “comprehensible,” so we need for reading materials to be leveled so that students’ brains don’t implode when we set them to reading. They need to understand their texts for the input to do its job!
We are lucky to live in a time where there has been a surge in “CI Readers” – compelling stories written in simplified language to help students both enjoy a story and get great input. Companies like Fluency Matters produce beautiful books that are meticulously edited and often have stories that students get hooked on. There are also other authors that sell through vendors like Amazon or Teacher’s Discovery. If you teach Spanish, you are especially blessed, as there are soooo many Spanish CI Readers when compared with other languages.
But what makes a student into a reader is the book that just “fits” them, the “Home Run” book, the transformative reading experience that makes kids unable to put books down. If you are a reader as an adult, chances are you can remember a book or two that was this experience for you. When the Harry Potter books were still being published, my parents took me to a couple of the “midnight premiere” events where you could get the book as soon as it was out, and kids my age were rushing to be the first to finish the newest book and know all the dramatic plot points. I remember powering through The Goblet of Fire at all hours (well past bedtime, with a tiny reading lamp) because it was a wonderful, gripping story. I was a reader!
We want these same experiences for our own students, to make them literate people who can use their reading to build empathy, as well as skill in the L2. And the texts need to both compelling stories, AND written in language students can understand with only a year or two (or maybe even a semester!) of language class behind them. But since comprehension-based readers are a relatively recent discovery for many language teachers, there aren’t a TON of authors or titles available. (Again, more for Spanish than any other language.) Additionally, “authentic” children’s books in the L2 may be more simplified when compared with the literary canon of the culture, but they often contain low-frequency vocabulary, and might not exactly be compelling for a reading-avoidant secondary school student.
This is where you come in. Yes, you! See those topics above? They were generated through observation of student reading habits and by directly asking what students would be interested in reading. Students want to read these books in the L2, but they don’t quite exist yet in large variety.
You – yes, you! – could write a simple, 10-chapter reader that could spark that love of reading in a child, a love that will push them to higher levels of L2 proficiency. A chapter could be like two pages, with lots of illustrations to support comprehension! Not feeling extra creative? Pick one of the Seven Basic Plots and map one of the above themes onto it. JUST WRITE THE BOOK!! WRITE A BOOK! WRITE ANY BOOK!
Your students want to read in the L2, and the benefits are undeniable. So lets put the magic into their hands with some new, exciting readers.
Want to learn more?
If you’re feeling like this might be something you could do (because duh you can) then reach out to Mike Peto. This post was inspired by him, and he is an excellent resource when it comes to all things reading in a TCI classroom. WRITE THE BOOK. WRITE IT!!
I had so many light bulb moments at Comprehensible Cascadia this year, and one of them was about WHY Quick Quizzes are so useful and powerful for you and students. Now I’m convinced that I should be doing one every day for the WHOLE school year – I’ve been spotty in this, but now I’ve seen the light!
Why should you do it? One: You, as the teacher, get quick data on who is struggling with what. If students were alive and paying attention during class, it is reasonable to expect that every student can get 100% on these Quick Quizzes. If someone doesn’t, it is easy to see where their comprehension is faltering, and adjust your instruction towards increasing their comprehension starting the next class period. (Hello, admins! #UsingFormativeAssessmentData) Two: It puts a nice bow on the end of the class period, rounding out the class experience while also sneaking in more input. Score! Three: It can help students see that the work of language acquisition is listening with the intent to understand, every day. “Being fluent in a language” (whatever that means for you/them) is not a goal that is far off in the future – it is a daily effort towards understanding more and more so that you can use more and more. If you can ace the quick quiz just about every day (again, an attainable goal for students with a teacher like you who goes slow, keeps it comprehensible, and keeps it at least mildly interesting!), then you can learn to speak the language. I think this is one of the most compelling reasons to administer daily Quick Quizzes.Four: Unfortunately for our students’ intrinsic motivations, we exist in a society that demands grades be attached to learning. Similar to point 3 above, we can show students that a grade in a CI classroom is something that is built through listening and reading to understand daily, instead of thinking that there is some far-off test to cram for. (I wonder if increasing the frequency of theses Quick Quizzes will help de-center the grade in the students’ experience of the class, moving them from seeing grades as “gotchas!” to seeing them as ways to build their own learning and assess their progress towards goals. “Quizzes” can be scary just because we call them “Quizzes,” but if they’re every day, they can lose that scary edge!)
When do I use Quick Quizzes?
Quick Quizzes are part of point 5, the “Extend/Assess” portion of the Star Sequence of lesson planning
I use Quick Quizzes at the end of a lesson sequence that has included opportunities to engage with both aural and written input. I usually go from Create (oral/aural class language experience), to Review, to Write (co-create class text, modeling strong writing habits), to Read, to Extending the learning through the Quick Quiz. Again, it kind of puts a nice bow on the day’s learning experiences and provides a nice summary moment of what was “covered” that day.
If it’s springtime and your classes have turned especially…er…zesty…you can maybe throw an additional Quick Quiz into the middle of the class period. This can help reset the class and re-emphasize the importance of listening and participating in the creation of the class experiences in the L2.
How do I do it? – Logistics
At this point in class, you and your students have had a common class experience with input about something you and your students (hopefully) found interesting! Depending on how much time you have, you can choose to do either an Oral Quick Quiz or a Written Quick Quiz. I tend to use Written Quick Quizzes more for reasons I outline below.
An Oral Quick Quiz is great if you’re running short on time, and just want to get a temperature check on your class. It’s harder to get data on individual students this way, but it can be a great way to practice choral responses and keep class light and not too…quizz-y. You don’t need any materials for this one.
A Written Quick Quiz gets you data on paper for every student in your class, and quick. This helps you identify students for intervention, and you can even put grades in the gradebook with this information! Each student will need a piece of paper and something to write with. For paper, I suggest having a student job being Paper Passer – and train them how to do it quickly. (Aka count out how many are needed in a row, and pass them to the person on the aisle, NOT handing individual sheets to each student.) You can use scrap paper cut up into quarter sheets, or 3×5 index cards. Students don’t really need a ton of space because the quiz is so quick, and this helps save paper! #recycling #GermansAreGoodAtIt ANOTHER IDEA I just had was maybe the act of getting the paper for the quiz is a brain break! It can be a quick game, or you could leave the paper at strategic points in the classroom so students can just quickly go to retrieve it, allowing them 30ish seconds of movement to revitalize their brains for even more input.
How do I do it? – Oral Quick Quiz Procedure
Tell students (probably in L1) how this Quick Quiz is going to play out: we are going to have a (4-8) question quiz that won’t require any paper and everyone is probably going to get 100% on because they were paying attention in class and have been doing a great job acquiring the new language! (A little encouragement goes a long way! You want students to know you have so much faith in them because they can do this, and this will take the edge off of it being a “quiz.”)
Let students know that you will be making a statement in the L2 about the information covered in class TWO times. They should be silent, and shouldn’t say anything between the first and second time you make the statement. After saying the statement the second time, students should all respond with either a “yes!” or a “no!” (Or True/False!) It sounds a little something like this: Teacher: “(in L2) Ok, number 1! Ben…plays… a lot of video games…on his Playstation. [Holding out hand like a stop sign] Ben…plays a lot of video games on his Playstation.” [Makes invitational gesture] Class: “YES!”
If the correct answer was yes/true, positively restate the information for the class to hear that input again, maybe even adding a quick question that extends the information. (“Yes, class! Ben plays lots of video games on his Playstation. What games does he play?”) If the correct answer is no/false, ask students to help correct you. (“No, class. Ben doesn’t play video games on his Playstation. What system does he play on?” “Nintendo!”) Then, repeat the corrected statement. This whole process is just about getting more input!!
As students get more comfortable with this process (maybe some class periods down the line), you can change from yes/no/true/false questions to this/that questions (“Does Ben play video games on his Playstation, or does Ben play video games on his Nintendo?”) or open-ended questions (“What system does Ben play video games on?”)
Continue on making statements about the information covered/created in class that day. Celebrate all correct, confident answers from the class, and gently correct any incorrect answers. Go for your predetermined number of “questions,” or just go until you run out of steam.
Celebrate! Your students are doing the work of language acquisition by listening and reading to understand! I usually say something like “(in L2) WOW you are all so smart and so good at (L2)!!!”
How do I do it? – Written Quick Quiz Procedure
Tell students how this flavor of Quick Quiz is going to play out: we are going to have a (4-10) question quiz that everyone is going to get 100% on because they were paying attention in class and have been doing a great job acquiring the new language! (Theme: Success!)
Let students know that you will be making (4-10) statements in the L2 about the information covered in class, TWO times each. They should be silent throughout. For each statement, students write yes or no. (Or True/False!) It sounds and looks a little something like this: Teacher: “Ok, number 1! Ben…plays… a lot of video games…on his Playstation. Ben…plays a lot of video games on his Playstation.” Class: “(writing on their papers) Yes.” Teacher: “Number 2!” etc etc I do all of my questions in one go, repeating each one two times (once super slowly, once at more conversational speed (but still slightly slower than that)). ALSO don’t forget to write down your sentences for your own sake so y’all can grade them. I make up my statements on the spot based on what happened in class, so writing down what you said is essential if you’re doing anything involving healthy personalization and frequent questioning.
[As students get more comfortable with this process (maybe some class periods down the line), you can change from yes/no/true/false questions to this/that questions (“Does Ben play video games on his Playstation, or does Ben play video games on his Nintendo?”) or open-ended questions (“What system does Ben play video games on?”) Use a healthy mix of question types, but yes/no/true/false is tried and true and works great for this purpose.]
Make as many statements as you told students you would (and honestly what makes sense for your gradebook…I was on an 8-point grading scale last year so 4- or 8-question quizzes were best for me.).
I like to have students trade and grade right after we get through all the statements! I have them write “Corrected By: Soandso” at the bottom so I know they didn’t correct their own. (I tell them that if their grading partner doesn’t do this, THEY get the zero, so they check in with each other to make sure their partner has done it. I’m not that militant about it but, ya know, Teacher Lies!)
Read the statements you made during the quiz again in order, prompting students to chorally respond yes/no/true/false to each question. [This is like the process for the Oral Quick Quizzes above.] If the correct answer was yes/true, positively restate the information for the class to hear that input again, maybe even adding a quick question that extends the information. (“Yes, class! Ben plays lots of video games on his Playstation. What games does he play?”) If the correct answer is no/false, ask students to help correct you. (“No, class. Ben doesn’t play video games on his Playstation. What system does he play on?” “Nintendo!”) Then, repeat the corrected statement. INPUT. INPUT!
If you let students trade and grade, here’s an organizational hack: have them hand you the quizzes as they walk out the door, and then (once they’re gone) literally throw all the quizzes that got 100% in the recycling immediately. Good for them, they did it, but you’re more interested in students that got less that 100%, and on what. Ideally, this will not be many students, and you can make sure to use more comprehension checks and comprehensibility supports for these students in future lessons. If it’s a lot of students, reflect on why that might be, and consider filming yourself to see if you’re going too fast, introducing too much new vocabulary, only focusing on one area of the classroom, etc. I keep track of grades on a class roster in addition to in the online gradebook, and by only marking the students with less than 100% on the quizzes on the roster, it is easier for me to identify patterns and struggling students.
What do I do with it now that we’ve finished?
Hopefully you’ve corrected that sucker! Save yourself the time and effort, and the process of correcting it in the L2 is actually just an opportunity to provide more input.
These quizzes provide you with great data to work with in future class periods. If most students are getting 100%, then they are doing the work of language acquisition by listening and reading to understand! Bam! The ones who get less than 100% can get some extra love and support during future classes so they, too, can continue succeeding in their language acquisition journey. If during an Oral Quick Quiz you get lukewarm choral answers, this lets you know that students could be needing some more training on how to provide choral responses, they could be not feeling confident in their understanding of the language of the day, or they could use some additional love in the direction of taking risks and participating in class.
In order to acquire a language, learners just need access to level-appropriate input and interaction. The quizzes let you know if the input was able to do its job of being comprehended and processed in learners’ brains, and (did I mention??) are just another opportunity to provide more input!
Pro Tips!
Cue student silence and responses! Every class has enthusiastic students who just love to respond. I literally make a “I am a police officer, stop right here” gesture with my hand when students are not supposed to respond, and then gesture towards students with an open hand when I’m ready for them to respond. Students are processing a lot – rules of the activity and class, new language, the magical roller coaster of puberty – help them be more successful by using clear, cuing body language.
Let students know what to expect! Explaining the format and expectations of the quizzes helps students relax, as well as assuring them that they will do well. You also might have to let them know that this is how you gather data to report to their home adults how they’re doing, so their appropriate participation is essential. (Besides, they’re going to kick butt on these quizzes anyways, so if they just do their part, you get to send home the happiest reports!)
Practice and insist on choral responses! I think choral responses are a very important element of a TCI classroom. If you’re getting weak responses during an Oral Quick Quiz, verify that students understood the question first, and then retrain them to offer appropriately full-voiced responses so you can make sure you’re doing your job as best you can. Most of the time, students just need a reminder that this is your only way of knowing what’s going on in their brains, besides the dreaded Boring Paper Test. Celebrate solid responses, too!
Do them all the time! Doing Quick Quizzes frequently (multiple times per week) will take the edge off the “Quiz” part of them, and will reinforce in students’ minds that the work of language acquisition (and by extension, the grades they earn) (ugh I hate grades) is an everyday effort that builds and builds their abilities in super manageable chunks. Bam!
What if I want to learn more?
Here’s a great video of Tina Hargaden doing an Oral Quick Quiz with a French 1 class. This is in March, so Tina is asking students to respond to “Who?” questions that are actually fairly lengthy. At the end, she even has a “Why?” question! She makes sure to cue when students are to respond, which stops kids from blurting. ALSO she does a fun teacher trick – she stands on a table so that students think that she can see everyone, and whether or not they’re responding. Trickery! But it might help your Escape Artists respond more consistently.
What do you think? Do you feel ready to use Quick Quizzes? Comment below and send me any questions you might have!
I have used Write and Discuss ever since I began teaching with CCLT strategies, but it was my experience with it at Comprehensible Cascadia last week in Portland that finally brought it all together for me. This is an ESSENTIAL strategy for classes centered on providing engaging CI, as it makes concrete the beautiful aural experience that students have just had with the language. If the Create phase of the lesson is playing a jazz ensemble piece with your students (structured with some improv), the Write and Discuss is putting that composition on sheet music so you can enjoy those moments and that exciting language again and again.
Why should you do it? To show students the written form of the language they’re able to understand aurally, and introduce how to be a strong writer in the L2 by modeling writing moves that push students towards higher levels of proficiency. Plus, the texts you create can be used for literacy activities and extension in the future!
When do I use Write and Discuss?
Use Write and Discuss after having any sort of language experience with your students, what we might call the Create or “Guided Oral Input” phase of the lesson. These Create experiences could be Card Talk, Calendar Talk, co-creating a story using an OWI or Invisibles, Scripted Stories a la TPRS, Picture Talk, Movie Talk, Special Person Interviews – whatever provides rich, compelling aural input in the L2 to learners. Move from the Create phase to a Review phase (any sort of activity that orally reviews the information learned/discovered/created in the Create phase of your lesson), and then to Write and Discuss.
How do I do it? – Logistics
There are a couple different ways to do this, but they have the same underlying principles. You can 1) write directly up on the whiteboard, 2) write by hand on your doc cam, or 3) use a keyboard (maybe a wireless one!) to type up the information into a word processing document. With any of these formats, you’ll want to save the texts you create somehow because they can become the basis for great literacy work the next day, the next week, or even much later in the year. If you write by hand on the board, take a picture of the completed W+D at the end of class so you have it for later. If you have a hand-written version or a pic of your board, you can type it up, or use Voice Typing in Google Docs to dictate it into a document. (Click “Tools” and then “Voice Typing”! LIFE-CHANGING – make sure you change the document language in the “File” tab as well to ensure maximum awesomeness / self-editing.) Some teachers also assign a student job of typing up what you are hand writing, to save you time and to give a special job to a fast processor.
Once the W+D is in digital form, you can share it with students in a format that allows them to “review” (aka just reread) it whenever they like. I usually create a class Google Slide that has all of the texts we have created as a class over the year, one on each slide, and I share a link to it on our learning management system. Whatever works for you and your students!
How do I do it? – Procedure
The first time I do it, I say (in L1 or L2) that we are going to write a summary text about our class conversation/experience. Also, something to the effect of “Please help me, my memory is terrible!” (Not a Teacher Lie for me…)
I find it helpful to begin every Write and Discuss by writing a good starter word in the L2 (e.g. “Today…” or “There is…” or “Once upon a time…”), and then saying it expectantly while slowly panning out across the class. This says “hey, this is the first word, keep it going!”
Give students a bit of nonverbal encouragement to help finish the sentence, especially at first. Students might be silent for a long while, but then you might get one who says some stuff in the L1. That’s okay – see if giving them an encouraging smile pushes them to try some L2. Or! You’ll get a random string of L2 words from a student. CELEBRATE! This is a chance for students to tentatively try some L2 production in a low-stakes setting. If a student tries to finish your sentence with literally anything, love on them!!
…And then take the language they provide and formulate a (probably more correct) sentence. Say the sentence slowly and thoughtfully – this may cause more students to shout out more details that you can use to enhance the sentence. For German at least, this may trigger some fun adjective endings or some subordinated clauses – fantastic! The students are aware of the language you’re using (because it came up in class and they’re able to provide it now), so you’re just reformulating it in a more natural, flowing way. This will serve as good input that will result in good output – in the future!
Ride the wave of the details you can elicit to make the sentence fuller until you reach a good stopping point. To use Card Talk as an example, this might be repeating the information you learned about a student until students have filled in all the details. (“Ben plays soccer…oh! On a team. Ben plays soccer on a team…is it a school team?” etc etc) At the beginning, you don’t want to go all Thomas Mann (#DegreeInGermanLit) and have a 3-page sentence, but you can safely integrate all familiar language into a nice-sounding sentence that flows naturally. This is the Discuss part of Write and Discuss – if you just take what students say initially and write it right away, you might get shorter, choppier material like, “Ben plays soccer. He plays soccer on a school team. He likes it a lot.” Why not something more like “Ben plays soccer on a school team, and he likes it a lot.” This conveys the same information, but flows more like the language we would want our students to eventually produce. If you have established all this info with those shorter sentences during the Create phase, students will get to enjoy the natural melody of your language as they polish up what they’ve heard with you. Make a nicely flowing sentence, then write it up! Boom! (You might have an opportunity to show students language/conventions that are hard to hear…very fun/natural time to make comparisons between languages or marvel at the majesty of Umlauts.)
After every few sentences, pause to reread the sentences you have already created to the class. More input! And they can appreciate the fruit of their brain labors.
Keep going – discuss, and then write! You don’t want to go too long on this, because it can certainly lose its luster after a while. Some teachers choose to set certain limits: they only write for 6 minutes, or they write until one of their board spaces is filled, or they only write until they have like 5-6 solid sentences. Try not to let the energy die as you get some more good input in, and then choose a stopping point and be satisfied with that.
After the text is completed, many teachers have their students copy the Write and Discuss into their own class notebooks. Do not have them do this while the text is being created – they will be distracted from the conversation if they are simultaneously attempting to hand copy information in the L2, whose writing conventions may need their undivided attention (especially at first). This copying time can give the teacher a break, too! And a notebook full of Write and Discuss can show families and other school community members all the text that your students are able to read and comprehend – what a lovely PR piece…
What do I do with it now that we’ve finished?
What’s fabulous about Write and Discuss is that you’ve just created a level-appropriate text for students that captures the energy of what class was about that day. It makes concrete what was previously a mostly oral/aural experience.
“House Pets,” an award-winning text by the Comprehensible Cascadia 2019 German Track (made comprehensible by my lovely orange Mr. Sketch marker)
The first thing I tend to do is reread the text aloud, so students can hear their creation in all its flowing glory. Then, I tell students that they are going to read the text to me, but in the L1. I go along pointing word by word, in the L2 word order, to make sure that students really understand word meanings, and also to illustrate specific characteristics of the written L2. (German word order, y’all…so funky. So fresh!) I stop to clarify any words/constructs that trip up students, marking the text in a different color to support more comprehension, and then reread to allow students to try it more confidently.
I also allow students to notice things about the L2 after they have seen it written. Some recent noticings have been “Oh hey, these two sounds are very similar! Can you re-pronounce them for us?” or “Oh wow, German capitalizes all nouns!” Let students take the lead and you will get lots of neat grammar noticings…without having to shove grammar down their throats. Win!
After this re-establishment of meaning, there are so. many. things (!) that you can do with the text. You can have students illustrate the text, you can give a Quick Quiz, you can dramatize it with a bit of Reader’s Theater – again, it’s a level-appropriate text that students co-created! The sky is the limit!
One thing to keep in mind is that this text you’ve created can serve as a base text that you can enhance during your planning. Maybe it’s the lowest level of an Embedded Reading that you flesh out to build in more transitions or written language conventions. Maybe you have some thematic vocab that your department wants you to target, and you find ways to slip it in to the text. Maybe you rewrite the text from a different perspective, or have students do that to get more input in different forms! (E.g. taking a story written in the third person, and rewriting it from a character’s perspective. With this, you could include more information about how the character is feeling, or what they are thinking!) This text you’ve created with your class can really be the jumping off point for any language or content goals you have for your classes.
Pro Tips!
Keep it going! Like I said above, short, choppy sentences don’t sound great. (My early Write and Discusses were guilty of this awkwardness…character descriptions would read like “There was an elf. He was short. He was mean. He was blue. He was 12 years old.” Ugh.) Why not make the L2 flow more naturally with some transition words? In the lower levels, it might just be suggesting words like “and” or “but” to keep the expression of ideas going. (It might literally just be inserting a comma that provokes students to add more life to a sentence.) For higher levels, you might use constructs like “On the one hand… On the other hand…” or “Nonetheless…” Again, don’t get all classic-German-literature with the sentence length, but allow sentences to be more natural, longer, and more connected.
Let students drive it! Early on, I tended to just use Write and Discuss to essentially circle information into text form, and I was truly leading the charge on what was written, where, and how. Now, I see it as more of an opportunity for students to try out some L2 and have you be like “AW YEAHHHH” while writing their awesome ideas on the board. Let awkward silence reign – with enough calm slowness in the Create phase, they’ll definitely have language in their heads to play with during the Write phase. (During Cascadia this year, some students – in their first week of German! – were putting the verb at the end in subordinate clauses. German swoooooon!)
Use your boards as a scaffold! Chances are, you will have L2 words or images on your board that supported your conversation during the Create phase. Use these during W+D to help remind you and the class what might get included in the summary. You can indicate an image or word when writing stalls out to inspire students, or just erase information that has already been “covered” by the writing.
Don’t forget dialogue! I often forget to include dialogue when using Write and Discuss, which is a bummer! Dialogue can be a great place to get reps on stuff in the first and second persons (third person often reigns supreme because we’re always talking about someone or something like that). Make sure to ask students “What did Soandso say?” or “What might Soandso be thinking in this moment?” Or maybe even, “What WOULD Soandso say about this?”
Teach some punctuation! While you’re writing, use the L2 words for “comma,” “period,” “quotation marks,” etc. This is easy and natural, and can also help if you are doing a Dictation in the future.
It doesn’t have to be perfect! Whatever text you create might be missing some things you talked about as a class, or the sentences may have come out in a less-than-smoothly-flowing order, despite your best efforts. You, as the teacher, can make pedagogical choices about how to enhance and change the text later, so don’t worry about it being ab.so.lute.ly perfect.
What if I want to learn more?
Many people have written glorious posts about Write and Discuss, and posted videos of them doing it with real students – check these out for more info, and to see if something in how they describe helps it “click” even better!
Mike Peto has an example of doing a Write and Discuss in class here! He also has great posts about what do with W+D after it’s done.
My last post here was in December of last year, and the last post was a month before that. In the meantime, I was still teaching, still giving conference presentations, still going to PD, still trying to be a fierce advocate for communicative language teaching.
But I was also experiencing a darkness in my professional life that I hadn’t anticipated, a life-consuming shadow. My start in teaching had been great! I was making lots of teacher friends, kids seemed to like my class, and my teacher evaluations didn’t make me feel like a total failure. Why, then, did I feel like I was drowning? Why, then, did I silence myself when the rush of learning in my early career was still there, and my growth felt day by day, week by week? Why, then, was I thinking about quitting?
I was finding myself in the middle of the age-old problem: the more I learned, the more I realized I didn’t know. The more I found myself doing, the more I realized there was to do. The more I tried, the more I thought that it would never be enough. And this mode, this mindset was doing damage to my mental, emotional, and physical health.
Around semester (the end of January), I saw the need for change in the way I was living my teaching, but I was stuck in bad habits. Then suddenly, we had five snow days in February, and I had nothing to do. The scared part of me thought I should be creating or perfecting or learning something for school, but for the first time…I just didn’t. I rested and relaxed, and came back ready to go once school got mostly back to normal. (I played a ton of video games and ate a lot of vegetarian chicken nuggets, for transparency’s sake.)
I deleted the Twitter and Facebook apps off my phone during that time. This, paired with committing to spending less time on my phone in general, changed the things I was actually doing with my time. I was enjoying my relationship and my friendships more, and I suddenly had time to read for pleasure. I had justified my insane use of both apps for a long time by insisting that the professional development I got through both was helping me grow as a teacher and be better at it. That was true to an extent, but the drive to compare myself with other teachers on the internet was also causing me to reduce myself in my own eyes, minimize my own accomplishments, and constantly be on the search for something new. There was no joy and gratitude for what I had inside me and around me.
I left any books related to teaching at school. I was in a weird place of having teaching both as my job and as my hobby – I was always reading something about teaching, always trying to find new ideas and research, always trying to be “in the know” about everything in CI world. But no one can do everything, and you certainly can’t learn to do things well if you’re not focused. So school was for school, home was for home.
And I started leaving school earlier. I’d have days where I’d be getting home close to 6pm, having arrived around 7am, and scrambling to get dinner ready and try to have some time for myself before Brent got home. When I looked back, the time at school was spent socializing to avoid work, searching the internet for resources I wouldn’t end up using, and getting lost clicking around my computer. I started thinking: What did we do today, and how can it grow into more proficiency tomorrow? A lot of times, the answer was simpler than I had imagined.
I went back to basics. I found that everything I knew I wanted to do with my teaching was inside of me already. Realizing this helped me slow down, see my students where they were, and actually teach them something. Classes and students I had started feeling despondent about suddenly turned around and created interesting stories and moments for everyone (instead of just for the overachieving do-gooders and the overachieving distractors). And then suddenly, I was able to go to work on time every day, do my work with smiles in most periods, and go home and enjoy my life. MY life.
Sometimes, you need a period of radio silence, the silence going both directions. When you go silent, you often find that you can see and hear things so much more clearly. This was true for me, and I know I am a better teacher to my students for that.
There are lots of blogs, websites, videos, trainings, ideas out there. Forgive yourself for not being able to do them all. My plea is for teachers – thoughtful, hard-working, innovative, passionate, self-sacrificing beings that you are – to just focus on being with and loving your students. Silence the voices (from without, from within) that drive you to scuttle parts of yourself in the never-ending pursuit of more. It’s enough. You are enough.
