My first experience with iPads in Class

I used the new class set of iPads for the first time on Friday with two of my Spanish 1 classes. I felt a little like it was the good, the bad, the ugly experience. Thankfully, what started out as a frustrating experience ended on a good note.

First the bad: My plan was for the students to use the SockPuppets app to write a 3 question interview.  I wanted to keep it short for several reasons, one of them because the free version of the app has a 30 second limit.

The previous day I acted out/taught Episode 10 of Cuentos de Ensalada.  At the end of the episode the father and son say they need to get a/another job to support the family's new twins.  I had given the students a sample interview to use for a recording while getting to know the app.  Then they were supposed to write 3 questions and responses.  I allowed them to make minor changes to my questions and answers, but some students didn't limit themselves to that and really allowed their creativity to show.  The lady from tech support was there most of the class period, which was very helpful, but after one class of that experience I decided I was not going to go through that again.

The problems were:
1 - With 22 students in the class, it was too noisy for them to record in the classroom.  I sent them out to the hall which helped, but it wasn't the ideal situation.  (On a bright note: The superintendent happened to be passing through when they were recording and she was intrigued and asked two girls to explain what they were doing.  They impressed her and she was pleased to see the technology that the school bought being used by the students.)
2 - I should have had them do the writing the previous day. That was my plan, but we ran out of time and I didn't want to reschedule the date for the iPads since the tech lady was also scheduled to be there to explain the expectations to the students when using iPads.  It would have worked smoother if the students were ready to record right away.
3 - The free version of the SockPuppet app on the iPads.  Only after students had made the recordings did we find out that the free version will not allow you to email the recording. That meant we had to share all the videos they made before class ended.  There were 3 or 4 groups that we didn't have time to go over.
4 - A few of the apps made screechy noises.

Before the second Spanish 1 class of the day, I had changed the assignment.  First I asked them to tell me, in the TL, what happened the previous day in the episode and I wrote the sentences on the board.  I erased the sentences (because I didn't want them to copy them).  For the assignment, they had to work with a partner to think of 4 things that happened in the episode that they could sketch and then write on a paper two sentences that explained/described each sketch.  After I checked their sentences, they used the Educreations app to recorded themselves reading the script as they paged through the sketches they made on Educreations.

This worked better.  The only trick was the only way they could email it to me was if they created an account on Educreations.  Instead of asking them to do that, I uploaded them to my Educreations account and then embedded them on to Edmodo so they could share it with their parents online.  

Personally, I felt it was an unsuccessful class because it was all production/output and no input.  The students enjoyed it, but they didn't advance their Spanish knowledge or skills.  It sort of reminded me of my "old school" way of teaching in which I would play a review game with them and they liked it, but didn't really learn anything new from it; in other words - ZERO language acquisition taking place. :(

Now for the good:  Two boys were working in a group. One of them was absent the previous day so he took control of the iPad and was working on sketches.  The other boy is one that rarely volunteers in class.  He was more or less in charge of the writing.  When I checked their first 5 sentences, there were only 2 small errors. The quiet boy had written them by himself with no use of a translator.  I told him, "you are one of those students that don't participate in class often, but obviously all those hours of hearing the language in context and reading class stories and Cuentos de Enslada was sinking in or there is no way you could have written these sentences." They were great sentences! Spanish 1 - less than 92 class hours - and he wrote beautiful, grammatically correct sentences.  That...was the brightest part of my day on Friday and I'm smiling now, as I relive it.

I know I'll use the iPads again, but I'll have to try a different approach the next time.  Please share with me how you have successfully used iPads with your beginning levels, and at the end of the class, still felt that it was a productive, learning environment.  

Freeze Frame to Re-enact the Story

Last week was rough physically.  I was out the first two days due to the flu and pushed too hard to return to the classroom again on Wednesday. Because I rushed to return, Wednesday I didn't have the energy needed to lead a new story with TPRS.  So for my second day back, I felt like I had three days to make-up and in Spanish 1, we blew it out of the water!

There were two things that I felt I had to do to try to get back on track: 1) move to the next episode in the "Cuentos de Ensalada" story, and 2) introduce 3 new structures/vocabulary words in a new through TPRS.

Episode 7 (photo from 2011)

First, I reviewed the last information we knew about "Teresa and Tomás" and then I taught episode 7 from "Cuentos de Ensalada" with the surprise crime scene in the park.  I distributed a copy of the episode and I read several paragraphs in Spanish and then students worked in small groups to translate it to English. When they read it in English, I eavesdropped on several groups and was pleased to hear ALL groups reading through it without any major problems.

Immediately following the reading, I had new structures on the board for them to copy in their notebooks and added the English meanings.  Some we had actually had before, but it was a good time to review.  The structures were:  
- tropieza = s/he trips
- se cae = s/he falls
- es torpe = s/he is clumsy
- derrama = s/he spills

The story was about one of the students in the class that works as a waitress/waiter but is clumsy.  A famous person enters the restaurant, orders soup, which the clumsy waittress/waiter delivers to the table but unfortunately trips, spills the soup on the famous person, and then falls down.  The famous person is quite angry, stands up and leaves the restaurant.  

I started the story without any actors, but quickly added student actors when I saw the student interest.  The class enjoyed hearing the story from beginning to end with the actors.  That alone would have keep their interest, but I had one more activity for them - FREEZE FRAME, an activity that I learned from Carol Gaab's session at ACTFL.

In the first Spanish 1 class of the day, there were 3 parts so I put students in groups of 3 and they decided which person they would portray.  Then the groups spread out through the room and as I told the story, I paused at times to say FREEZE FRAME, and they froze their actions.  They needed no encouragement whatsoever to get into their roles.  The 2nd Spanish 1 class only had two roles and after a few practices, they were just as creative and imaginative with their poses as the first Spanish 1 class.  The best part was their laughter and enjoyment of the activity.  Of course, the fact that they followed along as I retold the story without any problems made the activity "worthy".  

It was two out of the ballpark homeruns in one class period - twice.  Yesterday's frustration is a dull memory. 

 

Describing Characters in a Story

Episode 7 of "Cuentos de Ensalada" (the story I'm working on with my Spanish 1 students) has so many important events that I wanted to make sure the students had a fresh review of the characters and their names before presenting the action-packed episode.

I don't tell one episode a day because I need to take a day or so to pre-teach vocabulary that students don't know. Also, episode 6 gives information about the daily routine of a character that is not mentioned in episode 7. Therefore, it had been several days since my students heard about the main characters and I felt they needed an activity to review facts about the characters in order to appreciate episode 7 to its fullest.

As you can see by the photo, the events in episode 7 are a major part of the soap opera. (By the way, the props and script are clearly described in the book.)

If you have a dramatic side of you trying to get out, this episode will allow you that creative part of you to break through - especially when the friends of Tomás "llora". I believe the neighboring classes may have heard my interpretation of that!

My plan was to type an activity for the students to read to review the characters, BUT I ran out of time so I thought I'd just verbally review the characters with them. Fortunately, when the students were reading the previous episodes to their partner, an idea came to me and it actually turned out to be a success.
Character Review
1. I listed and numbered the names of 7 of the characters that were mentioned in previous episodes on the board.
2. I tore copier paper into fourth's and wrote a number (1 - 7) on each paper.
3. Students found their partner for the day (I use the Amigos de Sudamérica map from Bryce Hedstrom's website).
4. Each pair of students received a number of a character. Then they wrote as many sentences (minimum of 2) about the character. Most groups wrote 3-4 sentences.
5. I collected their sentences and then read them to the class, making corrections as needed.
6. The students told me the number or name of which character was described.

I read one sentence per paper, students told me the name of the character, and then I crossed out that sentence and read a sentence from the next paper. I kept circulating through the papers until all the sentences were crossed out. It turned out to be a great activity with 2 reviews built in: when students wrote the sentences and the Comprehensible Input when I read the sentences.

Last minute ideas come in handy at times.

Below are the words and stories made to prepare for episode 7:
- no sé
- una cosa rara
- tiene mucha curiosidad
- hay mucha sangre

Additional photos: the "funeral" of Tomás Tomate (2nd half of Epiosde 7)

The student story doesn't have an appropriate ending because we ran out of time in class and we were ready to move on the next day.

"Babalía y el caimán"

(P.S. - The name of the girl, "Babalía" is my creation. A student in my upper level class had asked me that week how to say "drool". I didn't know so I looked it up. Using the name "Babalía" in a story for Spanish 1 not only helped make that word concrete in my mind, but when I tell my students in Spanish 1 next week what "baba" means, I'm fairly certain that they will not have to do any work to acquire that word because it will already be associated with "Babalía".)

A Felt Board and TPRS

With all the great technology that is available for digital storytelling, I want to know if there are any teachers (language teachers in particular) that use felt boards to tell stories.

Last Monday I started telling my students the story from "Cuentos de Ensalada: A Soap Opera in Spanish 1 & 2". It was written by Stephanie Campbell and was sold through Teacher's Discovery.

When I decided to go full-out TPRS with my Spanish 1 class this semester, I dug through a stack of books that the previous teacher left, found "Ensalada" and started reading through the soap opera. The characters in the story are vegetables and the plot involves a crime, an investigation into the crime, and concludes with a jury trial. I asked my fellow moreTPRS friends about the story and they had favorable comments about using it. (Green light!) I bought the materials and made the felt characters and props. The prod. tech. teacher at my school was kind enough to make the felt board for me (thank you Scott!).

I used TPRS to tell episode 4 yesterday with the felt board, a felt school bus, and the vegetables to help teach sube al, baja del, and maneja el bus. My students already knew the other words for the episode or they where cognates such as la estatua, el museo, los dinosaurios. The book suggests starting the story 2 weeks into the school year, but I think it is better to start it later because you can keep the new structures to 3 an episode.

I'm looking forward to next week because I can't wait to teach episode 7; that's when an event takes place that will surprise them and the props include yellow ribbon to mark off the crime scene!

I'm looking for other ways I can use the felt board in my other classes. Have you ever used felt boards in the language classroom? I'd love to hear from you on how you have utilized a felt board to tell stories and to make the story come alive, or ideas on how I can use it in my upper levels.