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.

Word Walls / Vocabulary Instruction

Word Wall in my classroom for Los Baker van a Perú

When I first started teaching at my school six years ago each classroom was required to display a series of bulletin boards. Because we were an IB school we were required to have an IB Board, because it was meant to boost achievement, we were required to post a Data Wall and there was the requisite that each teacher should have a Word Wall in their room. I didn't object; it seemed logical that a language teacher should have target language vocabulary posted in the classroom. Yet, one thing that has long bothered me is how to incorporate that word wall into daily instruction so that it is not just a classroom decoration but is instead is a tool that students can use to practice and acquire vocabulary. I should say that I use the word wall, it reminds me to incorporate vocabulary structures into my speech and I often find myself referencing it when I'm talking. The problem is that I'm not sure to what extent my students are using it. So, I've begun brainstorming some ideas. As I continue to make word walls for my units I hope to add to this post and, as always, if anyone else has any good ideas please share!

Word Walls for Story Re-tells: Throughout a unit I introduce students to new vocabulary structures and, after the kids have them in their "student dictionaries," I tack them up on the word wall. This is to say that I don't put vocabulary on the wall that the students aren't familiar with. As a review activity, I'm thinking of having students in pairs, use the words on the wall either to re-tell the story that we have been reading and/or creating in class. While one student talks the other student can keep track of the number of vocabulary structures used. I'm thinking it would be good to give students a goal of maybe using ten or fifteen structures in a story re-tell within a specific period of time say, for example, four minutes. Of course, prizes for students who can do it!

Gesture Competition: In my class each time I teach a new vocabulary structure I teach it with a gesture. I do it to help them remember the structure and also for the little bit of physical activity it provides. I was thinking of doing a variation on the vocabulary game where the class forms two lines and the two students at the front of each line compete to give the definition of a structure. In this version, students would compete to give the correct gesture. Could be done as a quick end of the class wrap up activity or as prep before a vocabulary quiz.

Word Review (need a catchier title): Place students in groups of four to five and give each group the word wall words written on index cards. Students take turns selecting an index card and using the structure either to describe an action or character from the novel or using the structure correctly in a sentence. If the group agrees that the student correctly used the structure then that person gets to keep the card, if not the card gets passed to the next student in the group and that person has two opportunities

IB Unit Planning / Los Baker van a Perú

Image taken from: http://teacherknowledge.net/cohort2/?p=128

Warning: This turned into a much larger post than I had intended and maybe serves as a better reflection on unit planning than a sharing of resources and/or ideas.

My school is IB which, in part, means that our curricular units have to be centered around a "Statement of Inquiry" that we explore and connect back to throughout the unit. Because most of my units are centered around a novel (TPRS readers) and are taught for the sole purpose of facilitating language acquisition among low to mid novice learners, the IB aspects of unit planning have, prior to now, largely taken backseat in my curriculum planning. Previously, the following two questions: "Is this useful vocabulary for my students to know?" and "Is this the most effective way to teach and assess acquisition?" were my guiding questions for everything I did in the classroom. However, I've found that with the increasing emphasis on IB throughout our school and the recent mandate that Spanish 2 align it's curriculum with French 2 (still not convinced about the benefit of this but that's another blog post...) that I better jump on the bandwagon in a major way. Luckily for me, there is nothing incompatible with how I've been curriculum planning and the IB framework for developing units. And, while it does create more work for the teacher, I believe it also makes the units more rich and interesting for students. Below is a quick outline of how I develop IB units using the TPRS novels in the classroom:

1. Read the novel! Obvious but indispensable first step.

2. Pull out the major themes/topics of each chapter and the novel as a whole.

3. Develop a "Statement of Inquiry" based on the topics of the text.

4. Decide the assessment criteria (in non-IB speak this just means determining which skills- reading, writing, speaking, listening- you will be focusing on throughout the unit. IB recommends focusing on no more than two at a time and this, along with the emphasis on summative assessments, has long been problematic for me. Again, another blog post.) and develop a unit assessment. I am currently using ACTFL's Integrated Performance Assessments as a model for summative assessment tasks.

5. Stockpile as many authentic resources as possible (Pinterest is a great place to do this) related to the topics (Statement of Inquiry) and aligned to the assessment criteria.

6. Write & Incorporate individual lessons within the curricular unit that allow students to explore these themes.

For our current unit, we are reading "Los Baker van a Perú." From the novel, I've pulled out the following topics of interest:

• Do opposites get along better? 
• Do people behave differently at school than they do at home? 
• Watching television in a different country. 
• Is it important to speak the language of a country you are visiting? 
• Eating in a different country. 
• Is history important?
• Do adults and teenagers have different interests when traveling? 
• Is visiting museums while traveling important? 
• The importance of the potato to Peruvian society. 
• Las líneas Nasca. 
• Cuzco & Incan Civilization. 
• Altitude Sickness. 
• Bad Luck. 

From the above topics, I developed this Statement of Inquiry:

When we travel we can increase our cultural understanding by observing and respecting the social patterns and traditions of the country we are visiting.

The next step was to determine the assessment criteria. For this unit I decided to focus on three. (This goes against the IB recommendation of focusing on only two criteria but for longer units I feel confident that I can incorporate all three effectively.) For the Interpretive Task, Criterion A: Comprehending Spoken & Visual Text.  For the Interpersonal Task, Criterion C: Communicating in Response to Spoken, Written & Visual Text. And finally, for the Presentational Task, Criterion D: Using Language in Spoken & Written Form.

Once the Statement of Inquiry and Assessment Tasks were taken care of, I began to stockpile authentic resources. I really wanted to be careful that these resources were aligned to the assessment criteria and provided and opportunity for incorporating the Statement of Inquiry into the day to day lesson plans. Below is an example of a video (aligned to Criterion A) that I used both to practice listening comprehension and to incorporate the Statement of Inquiry.  The first part of the video is very fast but the second part is slower and more comprehensible. (I uploaded it from a downloaded video but you can find the original here).

Now, how to turn this into a lesson plan? I wanted the lesson to model the assessment criteria I had chosen. That is to say, I wanted the lesson to have an interpretive, interpersonal and presentational component.

I started with a simple warm up: ¿Cómo se define «un viajero»? ¿Cómo se define «un turista»?

Then I developed a comprehension guide for the video. I tried to use vocabulary structures from the unit but without repeating the exact vocab used in the video. The idea being that students would have to comprehend what they heard not just listen for key words within the video. Still a work in progress.

Turista o Viajero Comp Guide

Next, in pairs of two, students completed the questionnaire in order to determine if they were "más turista" or "más viajero." (Questionnaire adapted from original  by Federico Escudero Álverez on Todoele.)Students shared out from this activity, explaining both their own results and those of their partners.

Turista o Viajero Questionnaire

Finally, before leaving, I asked students to complete a "Think, Pair, Share" activity with the following questions:

¿A dónde llevarías un turista en nuestra ciudad? ¿A dónde llevarías un viajero?

Then I used equity cards to call on three or four students and have them respond to the question. Done and on to the next authentic resource!