90% Spanish:
In a previous post, I mentioned that I give out a flamingo (sometimes more than one) to students who are speaking a lot of Spanish in the classroom. This has been amazing and has gotten a lot of students to speak Spanish with me in class. The problem was that students were not speaking Spanish with each other, and I was still getting a lot of English like "¿Cómo se dice 'car' en español?"
Recently, the principal of my school observed my class, and I asked her to look at how much Spanish I was speaking. She did an amazing job evaluating my target-language use. I realized, however, that me speaking Spanish is just not enough.
A few weeks ago, I attended the Massachusetts Foreign Language Association's (MaFLA's) conference for language teachers, and I attended two sessions with regard to the use of the target language (in my case, Spanish) in the classroom. In both presentations, we discussed the language use of the teacher AND the students. This is where I was falling flat. My students were still not speaking enough Spanish.
The flamingo is great for rewarding target language use above and beyond what is expected in the classroom, but how do I get the students to speak Spanish as often as possible? Well, a wonderful teacher in Arlington Public Schools, Na Lu-Hogan, mentioned something during Joshua Cabral's session on target language use that really got me thinking. I do not want to quote her exactly because I do not remember exactly what she said she does in the classroom, but she mentioned using hearts to get the students to speak more target language. I decided to do the same.
I had each student make two hearts (this way, I have a lot of extras). I started a new routine in which the students come into the classroom and immediately grab a heart. If they speak English for any reason without permission, I take the heart away. It seems harsh; I know. However, it has really worked because I have given them the tools to not use English. They can earn the heart back by speaking a lot of Spanish.
The Incentive:
With the hearts, I knew I needed an incentive to get the students on board. So, each group has a secretary who keeps track of the group points. Each heart is worth 1 point, so no matter what, the secretaries are adding points just for keeping the hearts. If, at the end of the class period, though, every student has a heart, the whole class gets a point (I keep track of this). I teach six classes, so it is a competition between all six classes. At the end of the term, the class with the most points will get some type of prize. So far, this has worked incredibly well.
The Tools Needed:
The first step for me was developing a circumlocution poster. I based mine off of Joshua Cabral's circumlocution posters (thank you, Joshua!). I have one section for descriptions and one for questions the students can ask. This poster gives the students some tools to describe items instead of switching to English. Ex. it's an animal. It's a place. It's round. It's used for... is it ___ or ____? etc.
I also told the students that they should rely on gestures if the circumlocution chart isn't sufficing. The reason I allow this is because it is communicating without using English, and this is so important for students who are interacting with a non-English-speaking person. If they go to Cuba and speak with someone who doesn't speak English, switching to English is useless, but movements can be very communicative.
The other tool--by suggestion of a student--was to have a specific place on one of my whiteboards for students to draw. I am SO thankful to the student who thought of this because I teach 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, so their language skills can be very limited. Having a section for drawings is amazing. Today, I had a student who was looking for the word "ground," and he kept saying "the place underneath the house" by using the circumlocution chart, but I wasn't getting it because I thought he was looking for "basement." Eventually, after much negotiation of meeting (and me failing to understand), he drew a picture, and it clicked for me what he was looking for.
If, even after all three options above, I am still not getting it, I ask the student "is it super important for me to understand this right now?" Most of the time, the student says "no," so I ask the student to tell me after class and we move on.
The Concerns:
At first, I was skeptical of circumlocution charts and stuff because I thought it would take up too much class time. First of all, it usually doesn't. These interactions are very quick. However, even if it does, the students are using the language to communicate real messages in a meaningful way. Isn't that what we want?
My other concern was for the younger students who can basically only tell me their names and where they are from. How are they going to be able to do this? Trust me. They do. They rely more on movements and pictures, but I had a sixth grader tell me that he spoke in Spanish with the waitress at Casa Blanca, and he told me this without having to use English. They find very creative ways to communicate their message.
The other concern that my team has brought up, which is also a current concern of mine, is: are we getting to know our students still even though they are not speaking their native language with us? Are we building relationships with them? I still struggle with this concern, but as I think about my sixth graders and the students I did not have last year, I still feel like I am learning a lot about them. I suppose my argument is that, even though I am asking them to speak a language that is not native to them, I am asking them to do so in a communicative classroom. Communication is the expression, interpretation and negotiation of meaning in a given context. So, if I am giving the students communicative tasks, I am learning about them every day because we are using the language realistically. I am curious what other language teachers think about this.
Below, I am sharing a picture of my make-shift circumlocution chart and the section of my whiteboard for drawings.
Gracias por leer,
Timothy
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