Hija del sastre Capítulo 2

Chapter 2

Day 1

1. Warm Up: As a Chapter one review, I started the class by asking students to write what they knew about each of the following story elements:

Emilia

Lorenzo

La Guerra Civil Española

2. New Vocabulary: After reviewing students' answers, I then introduced three new structures to the class, which they copied in their dictionary pages and followed up with some PQA to practice the words.

Structures:

Se negó

Ya pasó

Fingió

Translations:

Los estudiantes se negaron a escuchar a la maestra.

Mi cumpleaños ya pasó pero sigo estudiando.

Luis fingió su propia muerte para no tener que hacer la tarea. 

Personal Questions:

¿Alguien en la clase se niega a escuchar a la maestra?

¿Tú te niegas a contestar una pregunta cuando no sabes la respuesta?

¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? ¿Ya pasó?

¿Has fingido que estás dormido en la clase? ¿Cuándo? ¿Por qué?

Cuando alguien te acerca en la calle, ¿finges que hablas en tu celular?

¿Has fingido saber la respuesta en la clase cuando no la sabes?

3. Reading: With about ten minutes left in the class, I began to read Chapter two out loud.

4. Exit Slip / Antes de salir: In this particular chapter there are a lot of examples of the past perfect (había…) tense. I had already given my students the vocabulary structure “Habían luchado” and I wanted to check that they understood the structure if I used it with other verbs. I projected the structure and asked students: ¿Qué parte de esta estructura significa «they had»? After hearing the correct answer, I projected the slide below and asked the class to write the English translations on their exit slips.

Habian Luchado

Day 2

1. Warm Up: I started the class with four of the comprehension questions from the teacher’s guide that I thought would give the most information in terms of a review. While students were working on their warm-up, I passed out the exit slip from yesterday’s class so that students could use it to help with difficult passages in today’s reading.

2. Reading: I generally like to have students work together to read and comprehend a passage and then review it as a group but because I knew that this chapter was going to be difficult I decided to read out loud with the graphic organizer I made (below) and to work through the chapter as a class. 

After reading the first two paragraphs, I had students label the figures in the organizer. Then we worked through the conversation between Rosario, Lorenzo and Diana (with lot’s of comprehension checks and some enactments). When I was satisfied everyone understood, I had students close their books and re-create, using their own words the dialogue from the chapter. This is what they copied on the organizers.

Cap 2 Graphic Organizer

3. Enactments: As students were writing, I walked around the class passing out slips of paper with each character’s name on it and a corresponding number. I then called all “unos” to the front of the class and had them enact the dialogue.

When I noticed something important missing or incorrect I called on the class to help me correct it. Also, I made a big deal of emphasizing that Pablo wasn’t arrested because the police had new evidence but rather because he refused to talk. Really wanted to get in some useful repetitions of that “se negó” structure!

This was how we ended the class and I asked all students to bring their organizers with them to class the next day.

Day 3

1. Warm Up: Using the vocab. structures from yesterday, I had students translate a short story to English. 

2. Review: Today we were learning about Lorenzo’s escape plan and I really wanted to ensure that all my students were comprehending what was happening. I asked them to take out their organizers and began by using the equity cards to ask some comprehension questions about yesterday’s passage. (I should mention that while all of the questions were asked in comprehensible Spanish, I sometimes wanted students to answer me in English to demonstrate they truly understood what I was asking. Each time I wanted an answer in English I would flash an “Inglés” sign and, when we reverted back to Spanish, I would wave the “Español” white board in the air.)

3. Transition: When I was satisfied that everyone was on the same page, I asked students to do a Think, Pair, Share with the following question:

¿Qué harías si tú fueras Lorenzo? ¿Qué opciones tendrías?

A few of my students needed some extra help with this question so, as students were working, I went round the classroom and reminded struggling students of the situation Lorenzo was by referring back to the graphic organizer.

4. Reading: I continued to read out loud and as Lorenzo explained his escape plan in the novel, we broke it down as a class into more comprehensible (for my students’ level) on the graphic organizer.

5. Comprehension Check / Exit Slip: After we finished the chapter, I projected a short six question true or false quiz taken from the Teacher’s Guide and had students complete it before leaving.

Day 4

1. Warm Up: Today’s warm-up was differentiated to accommodate all students. Students who needed extra scaffolding were asked to explain, using English, Lorenzo’s plan. Students on reading-level, were asked to describe the plan in Spanish, in their own words and those who finished early or who needed a greater challenge, were asked to make as judgment as to whether or not it would work and why. (It seems repetitive, but in order for us to really learn from this book I wanted to review as much as possible and this meant taking advantage of every opportunity to go over the chapter’s events.)

2. Review: I passed out the mini-prueba from yesterday and reviewed the answers with the class, asking students to correct any false information.

3. Vocabulary: Se queda / Se quedó

                        Se mete en problemas / Se metió en problemas

(Although I’d given my students a structure with “quedar” earlier in the year, I felt like many students hadn’t quite gotten it down. With “se mete en problemas,” I wanted to give students a high-frequency structure that would allow them to further personalize the reading.) 

I had students translate the following sentences:

·      Cuando era joven me quedaba con mis abuelos en el campo durante los veranos.

·      Luis se metió en problemas cuando no le dijo la verdad a su madre.

·      Emilio se quedó en DC el año pasado y pasó mucho tiempo en los museos.

·      Lorenzo fingió estar dormido en la clase y se metió en problemas con la maestra.

4. Story Asking / Vocabulary Instruction: Finally, I followed Cynthia Hitz’s Four Part Guided Story Asking Activity. The basic story is below (the words in red are the ones students were asked to contribute):

Teresa no quería estar en la clase de español. Ella fingió que se sentía enferma y pidió permiso para ir a la enfermera. Ella se quedó con la enfermera por dos horas. El director de la escuela habló con la enfermera y Teresa se metió en problemas.

Teresa estaba en la oficina del director de la escuela. Ella no quería estar en la oficina. Ella fingió que tenía que usar el baño y pidió permiso para ir al baño. Ella se quedó en al baño por dos horas. El director de la escuela entró el baño y Teresa se metió en más problemas.

Teresa estaba en la estación de policía. Ella no quería estar en la estación de policía. Ella fingió que tenía hambre y pidió permiso para ir a la cafetería. Ella se quedó en la cafetería por tres meses y comió toda la comida. ..

Our classes are 50 minutes long so the story-asking activity took two days. On the second day, students finished the story and we voted on the most interesting, boring, compelling, etc. ending! My students are really loving the story asking this year and it's totally owing to Cynthia Hitz's Guided Story Asking grid. Love it! And that takes care of Chapter 2, Week 2. On to Chapter 3... 

Hija del sastre Capítulo 1

I’m finishing the year with my Spanish 2 students (they are 8^th graders and have had beginning Spanish in 6^th and level 1 Spanish in 7^th grade) by reading “La Hija del Sastre”.  My classes, like everyone’s, consist of a very diverse group of students with some able to read at a mid-advanced level and others who struggle at a mid-novice level with their reading comprehension skills. Going into the novel, I knew I was going to have to provide a lot of support in order to make it comprehensible and valuable experience for my students. 

I wanted to share my experiences in teaching this novel in the spirit of giving back  (teacher bloggers have been my number one go-to resource for generating ideas) and also as a reflection exercise for next year.  

Chapter 1

Day 1 

I started the novel by giving my students some information from Chapter 1, namely that the main character learns about a secret her parents have, and asking them to draw a personal connection to this bit of information. My warm up activity for the first day was:

1. En capítulo uno de la hija del sastre, Emilia, el protagonista, aprende que sus padres tienen un secreto. En tu familia, ¿tú tienes secretos que no dices a tus padres o a tus hermanos? ¿Piensas que tus padres tienen secretos? ¿Piensas que hay ocasiones cuando no es buena idea decir la verdad?

After sharing out from the warm up activity- I sometimes do this simply by using equity cards or sometimes I have students turn and talk to each other and then ask students what their neighbors said- I introduced three new vocabulary structures for the chapter.

2. I still use MartinaBex’s Dictionary Pages for students to copy vocabulary. They copied the following three structures in their pages:

•       Se convirtió: S/he became

•       Creció: S/he grew

•       Sobrevivir: To survive

3. Again following Bex’s formula for many of her units, I gave my students some translation sentences to practice and followed up with personal questions.

Hija Cap 1 Structures 1

4. Once we had our vocabulary down I had my students complete a short writing activity. I had them think about the warm-up activity and the vocabulary we had learned and to write a short prediction of what they thought would happen in Chapter 1 of La hija del sastre. This served as our exit slip and wrapped up our first class nicely.

Day 2

1. Warm-Up: Students did a short translation using the vocabulary structures from the day before:

Jason creció en Washington DC durante las 60s. En DC habían mucha gente que protestaban la guerra de Vietnam durante esta época (time). Después de la secundaria, Jason se convirtió en soldado y fue a Vietnam. Afortunadamente, Jason sobrevivió la guerra y regresó a DC.

2. Introduction of new vocabulary: I wanted to pre-teach three more structures that I thought would be really helpful not only in understanding Chapter 1 but also work in terms of facilitating more in-depth discussion about the Chapter and it’s themes. I gave students the following three structures:

•       Ayudaba en el taller: S/he helped in the workshop

•       Pasaba mucho tiempo: S/he spent a lot of time

•       Habían luchado: They/You all had fought / struggled

3. Practice: Like the day before, we followed up the new vocabulary with some short translations and practice questions. This go round, each time we arrived at a question I had students turn and talk with their neighbors before calling on students to share their answers. 

Translations: 

• La maestra ayudaba a los estudiantes en el taller de gramática. 
• A.J. ayudaba a los jóvenes en el taller de guitarra clásica. 

• Olivia y Alejandra eran mejores amigas y pasaban mucho tiempo juntas. 
• Antes de convertirse en doctor, Enrique pasaba mucho tiempo estudiando.

• Los republicanos habían luchado contra General Franco en la guerra. 
• Las mujeres habían luchado por el derecho de votar en este país. 

Turn and Talk: 
¿Has tomado un taller de arte, escritura, música? ¿Cómo te pareció? ¿Piensas que los talleres nos ayudan a aprender más o prefieres trabajar sólo?

¿Pasabas más tiempo estudiando en el grado sexto o el grado séptimo? ¿Has pasado mucho tiempo estudiando este año? ¿Piensas que pasarás mucho tiempo estudiando en la secundaria?

¿Piensas que a veces es necesario luchar por las causas? ¿Tus padres o familiares han luchado por una causa? 

4. Reading: Finally, after six new vocabulary structures, I thought my classes were ready to begin reading. I put students in strategic pairs with students needing a lot of extra support partnered with higher-level readers who were able and willing to assist. I gave students the reading guide I had created (below) and had them work together to read through Chapter one and complete the first page of the guide.

Cap 1 Organizer

Day 3 1. Warm Up: I had students describe a picture using the six vocabulary structures from the past two days. Students shared out from their writing as I checked off the vocabulary structures, as they used them, on the board.

2. Review: I wanted to begin the instruction with a review of what they had read from the day before. So, I asked all students to take out their reading comprehension guides and we began to review the characters by playing ¿Quién es? (I wrote up a short description of each character and the students had to tell me who each person is in the story).

3. Partner Review: Our objective for the class today was to write a summary of the Chapter one (both in order to demonstrate comprehension and also to practice writing) and I wanted to give my students as much writing help as possible. I asked students to form the same pairs as they did the day before when they were reading Chapter one and I gave them Martina Bex’s “Los cinco elementos de un cuento” (an invaluable resource for writing summaries and demonstrating comprehension).  Students were given about ten minutes to work together to identify the elements. We reviewed them as a class before moving along to the writing activity. 

4. Writing: The last fifteen minutes of class students spent individually writing a summary of Chapter one on their reading comprehension guides.

Day 4 

One of the things I struggle the most with in my classes is how to give effective, meaningful feedback that improves learning. Grading is one of my least favorite activities as a teacher but I know both from my own experience as a student and from research, how valuable feedback can be and how essential it is to the learning process. I have, however, run into several logistical hurdles when trying to evaluate and comment on student work. First among these problems is: How can I grade 120 writing prompts and do anything else including plan for lessons, eat, sleep, etc.? Also, how can I get students to think about the feedback they’ve received and use it to improve future work? I mean we’re talking middle school here. My students are accustomed to seeing a check on work and shoving the work in the binder or trash bin where it is never to be seen again.  This was what I was up against while planning today’s activity. How can I use the summaries that the students wrote yesterday to not only review the chapter’s events but also improve students’ writing ability?

I decided first of all not to grade all of the student summaries. There was no way I could get it done in one night and I also believed that if I could involve my students somehow in the evaluation process (instead of doing it all myself) they would be much more likely to internalize any feedback they were given. I started by reading through the summaries to get a general idea of the writing abilities in each class. I chose one summary per class that I thought was accurate in terms of content but that embodied the types of errors that were commonplace in that particular class. I then typed the summary up and created both student handouts and PPT slide.  

1. Warm Up: I had several reading comprehension questions from the Hija del sastre Teacher’s Guide up on the PPT and had students write their answers in complete sentences. As students were working, I walked around the classroom reading students answers and giving feedback to individual feedback to students. 

2. I gave all students a copy of the summary I had chosen for that particular class and projected the summary on the whiteboard. I gave students about three minutes to read over the summary. Then, I asked students to turn to their neighbors and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the summary (turn and talk). After about two minutes, I started to call on students to share out from their discussions and as I wrote their commentary on the board next to the projected summary.

3. I then asked students to take out their Correction Guide for Written Work. I asked students to spend two minutes identifying any mistakes they found in the first sentence and assigning each mistake a number from the grid. (This activity could be done individually or in pairs. Originally, we did it individually but I think in the future I’ll do it in pairs just to make the lesson a bit more interactive.) Then, as a class, we reviewed and re-wrote the first sentence correcting all the identified errors. We repeated this process for the next two sentences.

4. Next, I gave students about five minutes to read through and identify errors in the rest of the summary. At this point there were about four more sentences. I walked around the class looking at student work and helping to direct the process where I could. Then, I handed out my version of the corrected summary and had students compare their work with mine.

5. Finally, I had students re-write the summary making the corrections to the errors we had indicated.

Things I’ll do differently next time:

In step 2, I ‘d give students questions to help structure the commentary on the student summary. For example:

·      ¿El autor falta información importante en el resumen?

·      ¿Ha incluido todos los elementos de un cuento (los personajes, conflicto, escenario, etc.?

·      ¿Los errores lo hacen el resumen difícil de leer?

·      ¿Cuáles tipos de errores son lo más frecuentes?

After students have re-written the summary correcting the indicated errors, I’d like to have students exchange papers and correct each other’s writing.

Day 5

           

I wanted to give my students some background on the Spanish Civil War and, since we’d had a lot of direct instruction this week, I wanted to provide an opportunity for some cooperative learning, so I created a Jigsaw Reading activity from the Spanish Civil War Reading in the Teacher’s Guide.

                                   

1. Warm Up: Not feeling particularly creative this week, I did a repeat of Wednesday’s Warm Up using some additional vocabulary structures. Students described another image (from the internet, of course) using the following words:

Trajo

Habían peleado

Sobrevivir

Pasaban mucho tiempo

2. I split students into five different groups and gave each group a different section of the reading as well as comprehension questions for all sections of the reading. I gave student groups five minutes to read their section (out loud) and answer the questions that corresponded to their section. As they were completing this activity, I gave one person from each group a laminated gold star.

3. After five minutes, the person with the star rotated to the nearest group in a clockwise direction. That person was responsible for explaining what their section was about and helping their new group to answer the corresponding comp questions. The group, in turn, then had to explain to their new member their own section and questions. Todo en español, ¡obviamente!

4. We repeated this process until the students with gold stars were back at their original groups.

5. I followed up the Jigsaw activity with a brief PPT on the Spanish Civil War during which we reviewed the comprehension questions.

Teaching Esperanza / Guatemalan Civil War / Personal Reaction

I am currently teaching Carol Gaab's novel Esperanza to my 8th graders. The novel has been a real hit with students and I am particularly fond of it because of the potential for really rich cultural and historical study. It doesn't hurt that there are a ton of resources out there from some very creative teachers for use with the novel. For example, Martina Bex has a ton of beautifully designed graphic organizers aligned to each chapter. The teacher's guide is packed with excellent teaching ideas (among my favorites is the simultaneous acting which I intend to blog about later) and a thorough supplement of presentations on Guatemalan history, culture, family, and traditions. Finally, the Language Educator recently published an article by Carrie Toth on using the novel to develop global awareness. We have just completed chapter four of the novel and my students are really excited as this is when the action sets in. I've used the teacher's guide and the novel in order to facilitate some pretty interesting conversations regarding justice and injustice, worker's unions, and the right to strike but, I wanted my students to know more about of the history of the Guatemalan Civil War, in order to give the events in the novel more of a meaningful, historical context. This was a tricky thing to do for various reasons. The first biggest challenge was that the Guatemalan Civil War was an extremely long, violent, and inhumane conflict throughout which the United States did not play a particularly sympathetic part. The second problem was that I teach middle school and I didn't want to derail the unit on Esperanza into a far too sophisticated exploration of the causes of the Guatemalan Civil War. Finally, I had to keep it comprehensible. Aware of these potential pitfalls, I began searching for resources that would let me develop a comprehensible explanation of the causes of the Guatemalan Civil War without overwhelming my middle schoolers. Below are some of the best resources I found in my search:

•   PBS Newshour's timeline of the Guatemalan Civil War 
•   PBS Guatemala: The Secret Files. A comprehensive site with video, personal narratives, links to newspaper articles, interactive maps and more. 
•  Guatemala: Eterna Primavera, Eterna Tiranía. Photographs from the Guatemalan Civil War by Photojournalist Jean-Marie Simon. 

From these resources I pieced together this PPT presentation that made use of the vocabulary structures we were studying (these structures were taken directly from the novel).

La Guerra Civil de Guatamala

The problem then became, how do I present this to 8th graders? My objectives were threefold: To have students understand some of the causes of the Guatemalan Civil War in order to give the novel some historical context. To reinforce the vocabulary structures we were learning in class by providing comprehensible input. Finally, to have students understand and recognize "injusticias." Below is an outline of the lesson I taught.

1. I had students write down the words "justo" and "injusto" with their English definitions in their notes. Then, I projected a series of sentences like "Hay una fiesta y solo los que lleven camisas rojas pueden ir" on the board and called on students to identify each as either fair or unfair. (This activity was taken directly from the Teacher's Guide to the novel.)

 2. I then showed the class a three minute clip from the film, When the Mountains Tremble, in which Rigoberta Menchú describes her experiences working on the sugar plantations as a young girl. The clip also shows actual footage from the worker's movement in Guatemala and the military's decision to crack down on this movement. The clip runs roughly from 1:10 to 1:07 of the film. During our viewing I paused and asked students whether events were "justo" or "injusto" and had them explain.

 3. I then began to present them with the PPT. The presentation took two days. After the first day, I had them complete the reading below which is essentially the text from the presentation. I wanted them to read first before we discussed the presentation.

La Guerra Civil de Guatemala by AnnaHenderson

4. After finishing the presentation, I had students write a personal reaction to the history. I explained that a formal personal reaction should start with an explanation of what they had read/seen/heard. The next step was to describe the emotion that they felt when reading, viewing or hearing a description of the events. (I gave them guided questions and sentence starters to help them with this activity. For example, ¿Cómo te sentías cuando leíste el artículo, «La Guerra Civil de Guatemala»? Me sentía ... porque...) I then wanted the students to give me details and examples (detalles y ejemplos) and, finally, they were asked to make a personal connection to the text (¿Has experimentado / leído / oído de una injusticia?).

Circumlocution / The World Cup

Among the many reasons I enjoy teaching using the theory of Comprehensible Input is that it has opened up the possibility of discussing current events in the classroom. This past year I found that by giving students vocabulary structures and circling those structures sufficiently, I could introduce topics as far ranging as the death of Nelson Mandela to whether or not students should be fined for arriving to school late (a resounding "NO!" on the part of the students). And, while I was content to provide the input, it was great to see the urge in my students to take part in the discussion. I also saw them struggle when they wanted to communicate an idea or concept that they lacked the necessary vocabulary to express. Anyone who has tried to communicate in a language they have not yet mastered has experienced a similar frustration. It can lead to a lot of self conscious behavior which does little to promote language acquisition in the classroom. In order to help students how to get past this particular challenge, I began teaching my classes to use circumlocution skills to use what they know to express what they want to say. Of course, I did not go it alone but instead took to the Internet and, as usual, found some inspiring work by and for teachers. The lesson shared below is based on the work of a collective of teachers found Language Links 2006. The site includes a ton of ideas for cultural lessons, staying in the target language, and, you guessed it, circumlocution! It's a great resource and really worth taking the time to explore. The lesson I'm sharing here has to do with The World Cup in Brazil and whether or not developing countries should host international sporting events because of the cost. I'm sure that my students are going to want to weigh in on this one but I'll need to get them there by giving them the skills they need to be able to approach this topic in the target language. After introducing the topic to the students, I'll start the lesson by explaining some guidelines for getting around those words that you need but don't have. Suggestions include classifying the word as either a person, place, thing, or idea, stating what the object is not, and explaining who would be using it and to what end. I then put together some pictures for students to practice describing in pairs. The idea (which came to me by way of our local high school department chair and is brilliant) is that one student sits with their back to the PPT slide and the other has student describes what they see. (Because the topic of this particular lesson is fairly sophisticated, I chose to include the English word along with the visual because I didn't want there to be any confusion as to what concept the students should be describing to their partners.) When the student with their back to the slide guesses the word correctly, both students stand up. I usually ask the students to share their descriptions in order to point out the ways in which students used their circumlocution skills to "get around" a word.

World Cup Circumlocution Edited

In the World Cup lesson below, I will follow this up with a paper version of the same activity.

Circumlocution World Cup Partner Work

Finally, I'll give the students a reading that discusses the topic in detail and provides multiple perspectives on the same issue, giving the students some background on which they can base their own opinions.

Where Should the World Play the Beautiful Game?