Embedded Reading Questions

1 Comment

Here it is: Sunday evening before we begin week 6 of our longest term of the year. Dinner is in the oven and the dogs are lying down exhausted nearby after their long beach walk. This part of the week always finds me with mixed feelings. Part of me is really excited for the week ahead as I contemplate (with fingers crossed) the lessons planned for the classes while the other major feeling is regret – another weekend is almost finished. I really enjoy my weekends as they give me the time and space to reflect back upon the past week’s lessons, the opportunity to catch up on all those boring jobs that mount up over the week as well as catch up with friends & family and hear how their week went. 

This term, as already mentioned, the older students have been working on the tutup pintu (close the door) story. I tried to do an embedded reading style approach where I simplified the story initially for their first time with the story and then added some extra detail the second time around.  To do this, I made a powerpoint of the Harry Potter version created by one of my classes but found that other classes were not so keen on a version that wasn’t of their own creation. In fact that is putting it mildly! It flopped big time. So instead I reverted to what I have done in the past and simply re-asked the story inviting class input with 

1. Characters (who)

2. Place (where) &

3. Reasons (why) to try and elicit extra details. 

While some classes came up with some brilliant and creative characters & other details, the stories were still pretty basic and I am at a loss as to how I could move on and use them for embedded readings in a way that is both engaging and develops students acquisition of Indonesian. If anyone has any suggestions, I’m all ears!! 

I read on Laurie Clarq’s Embedded Reading website that:

An embedded reading is three or more scaffolded versions of a text. It is designed to prepare students to comprehend text that the students perceive to be beyond their capability.

Embedded readings provide information in the target language in a way that actually develops the students’ reading skills. Using embedded readings not only allows students to acquire language, it provides a framework for improving reading abilities.

The first version of the text, or the baseline version, is at a basic level, easy for any student in the class to understand. It is a summary or an outline that provides a strong foundation for success. Each succeeding version of the text contains additional words, phrases or sentences that provide new information and/or details. The final version of the text is the most challenging. However, each and every version of the Embedded Reading contains the baseline version, and each subsequent version created, within it. The scaffolding of the versions builds success, confidence and interest.

It all sounds so easy and such a brilliant concept but I haven’t yet worked out how to actually implement it successfully with my students. How do I add detail to a story that isn’t mine in the first place? Students do not take kindly to anyone tampering with their story!! 

So my questions are this:

1. Are ’embedded readings’ more suitable for secondary students or at least those students who have had more years of input than mine?

2. Do they work best with stories that are not generated by the students?

3. How on earth do teachers re-present a story with added detail in a way that is engaging for primary students other than just projecting it up on to a screen? 

4. Am I expecting too much of my students?

All feedback gratefully received! 

TPRS Indonesian – Find it on Facebook!

3 Comments

Yesterday I finally worked out (with Googles help) how to create a Facebook page! I have been thinking about the value of a Facebook page dedicated to TPRS Indonesian teachers for several months now and finally convinced myself that it was worth a shot! What tipped the balance for me has been the recent posts on various TPRS facebook pages that have been awesome. I realised that we (TPRS Indonesian teachers) need a forum through which we can share useful Facebook posts, our own personal blog posts as well as short personal annecdotes with each other as well as ask each other for help, clarification or feedback specific to teaching Indonesian via TCI. 

So, check it out, like the page and then feel free to contribute in anyway that supports your own understanding of TPRS in the Indonesian classroom! I look forward to seeing you there!

Kursi Luar Biasa Update…

3 Comments

A few posts ago, I shared with you my adaptation of Bryce Hedstroms special person idea. Here is an update on how this has been going so far this term:

The kursi luar biasa (special chair) is definitely the most popular chair in my room! Students make a bee line to it when they arrive. They sit their expectantly, waiting for the spot light to shine on them and the 2 times I got carried away with other things and didn’t get around to interviewing them, they were soooo disappointed! However their frowns turned upside down when I promised them in front of the class that they would have first choice of sitting in the kursi next lesson!  

This week my questions finally began to gell and my peseverence is beginning to pay off. While the students in the kursi luar biasa love the attention, it remains tricky trying to keep the others engaged. Occasionally we get a student who has quirky answers to which we all listen avidly and intently but this doesn’t happen often mainly because I am still learning how to ask the right questions in the way that facilitates this! Then this week, I discovered that asking students to raise their arm instead of stand up keeps the discussion moving a lot smoother. Some students enjoy zoning out and regard it as passive defiance when I ask a question like, berdiri kalau tinggal di Port Elliot (stand if you live in PE) and then remain seated enjoying the quizzical looks of classmates. However asking questions like; angkat tangan kalau tinggal di Port Elliot, angkat tangan kalau tinggal di Goolwa etc (raaise your hand if you live in PE), has increased student focus while getting in multiple repetitions on key structures and has more students responding. Is this because I am trying something different or is it because it requires less effort from the students? For me too, it just flows so much better.  Try it!! 

Another positive has come with the introduction of the word ‘tahun’. This week I decided to have a subtle focus on the word tahun during kursi luar biasa when asking the student how old they were. I put it up on the board, and after asking the question, berapa umur? (How old are you) I repeated what the student said adding the word tahun. Using ‘tahun’ wasn’t a requirement for the student, I just wanted to put the word out there in case it came up in future coversations with Indonesian  (native speaker) visitors. Then I had a brain wave! With the word tahun, I could ask students a follow up question to tinggal dimana? (Where do you live?) with “Sudah berapa tahun tinggal di _______?” (How many years have you lived in ____)  With the older students, these questions that are a bit more challenging really keep them all focused. You  can almost hear the cogs turning in their heads and the satisfaction that comes with comprehension. 

I just love the way that kursi luar biasa covers so much of the Australian Curriulum requirements regarding student interests, family, pets, hobbies, etc.  It is such a great way to cover those topics in a personlised and meaningful way for students and also in a way that is narrow and deep! When I think of all the years I used to teach “kenalkan” (let me introduce myself) as my term 1 theme and then feel disheartened with how little my students retained from year to year,  it confirms for me the benefits made from making the switch to TPRS in my classroom.  

PQA, My Way; By Alina Filepescu

Leave a comment

maxresdefault

Here is an amazing post and video by Alina Filipescu. While the post is specifically talking about how she does PQA in her classrooms, there is actually sooo much more in it that we Indonesian teachers here in the southern hemisphere can learn about. Not only has she included an amazing video of herself brilliantly and seamlessly PQA-ing with a primary aged class but she has also included an explanation of what she does to cue her students when she wants them to respond. It is a truly amazing video and post and I highly recommend that you read/watch it to appreciate where we are all heading with our TPRS skills!! I look forward to the day when  my students participate to that extent and are so engaged in my lessons!

Fleurieu Hub Group Teachmeet

4 Comments

The members of our hub group are all implementing TPRS in their classrooms which is soo exciting! We agreed this year to meet once a term to discuss aspects of TPRS to help each other deepen our understanding of using TPRS in our classrooms. Attending our first Teachmeet were 9 teachers; 5 from local schools, one teacher on leave, one all the way from the other side of Adelaide and a teacher from Victoria via Skype! 

Our first meeting focused on assessment strategies. We had also wanted to discuss the report format but as that is something that each school decides upon and that we ran out of time, it was only touched upon briefly. Enough to realise though, that each school reports very differently and the Indonesian section of our reports varies hugely. From one school requiring just an overall grade each for effort & achievement to another school where the teacher has to write a personal comment for each student as well as a grade each for effort & achievement. One of our schools requires the Indonesian teacher to report specifically against all the ACARA achievement standards which I’m sure was not what the achievement standards were designed for.

At our previous meeting, we brainstormed for assessment strategies we’d like to share and then everyone volunteered to take one and explain it to evryone else:

1. Quick Quizzes – at the end of a lesson, ask 5 – 10 questions about the story you’ve created with your students. The answers can either be ya/tidak or benar/salah. Sharon shared how she has also uses quick quizzes to check comprehension by asking students to write down the English word for targt structures covered.

2. Plickers – Ann shared an online assessment tool called Plickers. This app uses only one ipad which is held by the teacher to scan students answers to teachers questions. 

  

Here is a pic from google to show what it looks like in a classoom: 

 
3. Ya/Tidak cards – Carmel shared her red & white laminated yes/no cards which she has yet to use because she feels that handing them out and using them would be too much of a distraction this early in the year. They looked fantastic. The idea is that the teacher askes a question and students answer using the cards. Great repetition for ya/tidak.

4. Listen & Draw – On a sheet divided into 4 or 6, students listen to the teacher and then illustrate the sentence in the specified square. While the students are drawing, the teacher repeats the sentence over and over again, getting as many repetitions  in as possible.

5. TPR  (Total Physical Response) – Teacher says a word and students do the actions. Great for introducing verbs in a fun and kinesthetic way. It is also perfect for introducing classroom phrases like duduk, berdiri, kasih hormat, kasi, pakai topi etc. Simon says is a popular TPR game to play and is loved by all primary students. TPR is a good brain break too. Asking students to close their eyes while doing TPR helps the teacher to identify which target structures need more repetitions!!

6. Dictation – As a post story activity, students write silently the sentence the teacher says. The sentence is then shown to the students via smartboard or data projector and any errors are fixed by rewriting the word/sentence on the next line. On the third line, the sentence is translated into English. A space is then left before beginning the next sentence.

We then discussed a behaviour management technique that Sharon shared with us previously. We are calling it ‘pandai/nakal’ to get repetitions of pandai (term 4 2015 kancil & Buaya story) and nakal (term 1 2016 tutup pintu story). The teacher takes a name of a student randomly (either by paper or paddle pop sticks) and puts it somewhere visible without showing anyone whose name it is. On the board is written pandai & nakal side by side and throughout the lesson, tally each time students are pandai or nakal. At the end of the lesson, if the tally marks for pandai are greater than those for nakal, theatrically announce the name of the student and present them with a reward. If the tally is the reverse, the name goes back in the pot/hat without mentioning the name. Hannah tried it this week and said it worked beautifully for her younger students!! 

We finished up by agreeing to meet again in March on our regional training and development day to ensure we have access to relevant and meaningful training. Topics to be covered include designing an open ended assessment task, how to record student progress & how to circle. I have also invited an AIM French teacher to come and do a demo lesson with us so we can experience AIM methodologies. 

Kata Sandi – Passwords

2 Comments

Bryce Hedstrom has been updating frequently his blog post about secret class passwords and I’m curious! Would it work in the primary school? Would it work with large classes? 

  
The idea is that the teacher meets the  students at the classroom door before each lesson and like entering a secret clubhouse, students say the class password before entering. Passwords can either just be a fun word, a phrase or a response to a set teacher question (eg siapa nama?). The password can be changed as frequently as is necessary and this would depend on how often the teacher sees each class per week. For me, I teach some classes once a week and some twice, so I would start with a weekly password.  The passwords that Bryce has used cover a huge range of words/phrases and his latest additions includes morals like ‘slow and steady wins the race’. 

  
For my students, though, I can see the benefits of this idea with:

  1. Kenalkan questions eg siapa nama, tinggal dimana, berapa umur, suka warna apa etc
  2. Slang exclamations which would be useful/cute during story asking eg NGP (gay-en-peh –  gue nggak peduli)
  3. Repetition opportunity for target structures

  
Go to Bryce’s website and read what he has written so far and then enjoy fossicking around all the other fantastic resources and suggestions he has shared. 

Specialist Teachers Unite!

4 Comments

For the very first week of the year, the 5 specialist teachers at my school collaborated to present a united program to students. The 5 specialist are

  1. Performing Arts
  2. Digital Technology
  3. PE
  4. Geography
  5. Indonesian

We first discussed the idea during a No Tosh workshop last year with the idea being that instead of students coming to each one of our classes in the first week of school and hearing the same message over and over again from each one of us, we would collaborate and clarify our expectations together. Here are our initial notes:

 We met during the holidays and excitedly agreed to trial the program. The idea was that we all came to our timetabled lessons in the gym with a short activity prepared for a large group of combined class levels. The activities had to provide us all with the springboard to discuss group skills & minor problem solving through our school values of community, confidence & respect.

As none of us work full time and our days are spread evenly over the week, it meant that each day we either had 2, 3 or 4 teachers on deck at any one time working with 2, 3 or 4 classes respectively. Two junior primary classes received our combined spiel 5 times and the remainder received it 4 times yet because the teachers each day were never exactly the same and the classes who came were also never exactly the same, the dynamics changed significantly each lesson.

We began each lesson with our shared expectations and communicated to students clearly that this year there will be significantly more communication between class teachers, leadership and specialist teachers  through a new monitoring system we will hope staff will support to ensure that behaviours in our classes are followed up on.  Other issues we talked about included the fact that our lessons are only 50 minutes and thus all students to repsect the learning of others so that time isn’t wasted.

We then shared the microphone around and led an activity each. It was brilliant being able to focus on group skills and problem solving repeatedly with mixed group levels. We would ask students to get into groups and then after a few minutes, ask everyone to stop. This gave us the opportunity to talk about the confidence needed to be proactive and approach a group and ask to join their group, how the request needs to be answered respectfully and diplomatically, to be resilient and persist till you join a group, make strong choices about who you group up with etc. We did this over and over again in various ways all from our own specialist subject viewpoint and students definitely improved over the week.

My activities included Bu Cathy Berkata (simon says), kancil, buaya, mangga (get into groups of 3 and decide who will be kancil, who will be buaya and who will be the mangga. Berjalan kaki around the gym in your group and each time I say ‘buaya/ mangga/kancil’ the kancil stands with their hands cupped on their head for ears, the buaya lies on the ground and the mangga curls into a ball) and on the last day I extended the language by asking students to ‘cari satu teman – satu perempuan dengan satu laki laki’ and it was fantastic that students used the stop gesture (tidak paham) and others could translate for them.

The geography teacher came up with her own activity which involved rings of students representing different aspects of the globe and then the finale was asking them each to turn either clockwise or anticlockwise. The final movement was amazing and I filmed it which should be good for a future brain break! It truly demonstrates why the weather is never  predictable.

Natalie, our performing arts teacher did one activity where she divided the students by gender. Each group had to put themselves into a line in order of birthdate and then she turned on some very loud music. Each group did well with only a couple of errors (not bad for 2 groups about 40 students) and afterwards she sat them down and discussed with them the impact of noise, congratulated the studetns who had shown leadership & asked the groups to explain the methods used. It was a brilliant activity for upper primary.

Evan brought ipads to the gym and asked the students to get into teams of 10. Each team had to take one continous video on an ipad which was passed respectfully clockwise around the circle and each person had to film the person on their left saying one positive thing about the who was person filming them. The groups that worked collaboratively and respectfully completed the task had time to watch their film yet the groups that did not collaborate well had many disappointed team members who didn’t get a chance to use the ipad. IMG_1615

We met on Thursday afternoon to review the program and we all agreed the week had been a huge success and one we’d be keen to repeat in 2017.  The comments from staff were also incredibly positive noting that the sense of community created in the gym felt very real. We found it a great way to start the year because it gave us a chance to meet the new students and learn their names as well as the names of a few of our many new reception students. It gave Evan and Les some breathing space in which they could learn about our school and students in a collaborative atmosphere before we all go it alone next week . All up the sense of community was strong not just for students but also for the 5 specialist teachers!

Tea With BVP

Leave a comment

Each Friday morning at 6am (Australian time) Bill Van Pattern hosts a discussion about second language acquisition with Angelika and Walter.

tea with bvp hosts

Every session has a topic and today’s topic is:

“Are vocabulary and grammar learned differently?”

Here are my notes that  I took while listening:

  1. Vocabulary and grammar are learned in essentially the same way.
  2. Acquisition is fundamental as opposed to learning (remember that the only thing that matters is the acquisition of language).
  3. Colourless green dreams sleep furiously. (Chomsky) Gibberish but the words fit grammatically!!
  4. Let’s hope teachers aren’t still asking students to memorise lists of vocabulary.
  5. Thematic conversations are not the same as thematic topics (e.g. restaurant, sport, body parts etc) Carol Gaab
  6. Frequency lists – If we use every day language, then we generate frequency vocabulary naturally.
  7. Verbs account to 20% of language. Nation (1990) 4000 – 5000 most frequent words account for up to 95% of written text & 85% of speech. Carol Gaab
  8. Be aware that context in classroom will be different to context out of classroom. If we prepare for outside experiences out of the classroom, then it is out of context. Stick to what students need in class. Stick to what is important to your cohort of students.
  9. Body parts (as a theme) will come naturally into speech when students need to know that specific vocabulary.
  10. Acquisition is effortless and involuntary – Karen Rowan
  11. You don’t have to talk about grammar unless your students ask for a clarification
  12. Is grammar acquired involuntarily? Word meaning is thought about consciously but grammar is not, by language learners.

 

As Bill is a professor of second language acquisition at Maine University, his knowledge of relevant theory and practice is prodigious. He would be a compelling lecturer because he sprinkles irreverent comments throughout which at first seem bizarre but once attuned to his sense of humour, listening to him becomes very entertaining.

The conversation between the 3 presenters is largely theory based but it is balanced practically by Walter & Angelika as well as the many language teachers who contribute to the discussion either on Twitter, Mixlr, by email, or by calling in and talking directly to the panel.

The conversations can either by listened to live however if that isn’t possible, then go to the TeawithBVP website and listen via links to past episodes on sound cloud.

Every week there is a SLA Challenge Quiz – a multiple choice quiz with prizes (coasters today) depending on the number of questions you get correct. Those listening on MIxlr generally help who ever is taking the quiz by posting answers. A true example of the collegiality that exists amongst TCI practitioners!

Here is a taste of the SLA Quiz!

Q1 just like grammar that has syntax and morphology, vocab is largely is largely acquired by

  1. ?
  2. Interaction with input
  3. knowledge of the first language
  4. Examining Trumps speeches

 

Q2 Researchers refer to vocabulary as?

  1. A morphological units
  2. The mental lexicon
  3. The syntactic and network
  4. One fish red fish blue fish

 

Q3 words can be changed not only from one meaning to another but also from a found to an adverb. How do we refer to how a word changes from one category to another?

  1. Inflection
  2. Extension
  3. Derivation
  4. Freudian catharsis

 

If you are keen to learn more, then sign up for the newsletter on the “Tea with BVP” website.

Another option is to listen to BVP talking about aspects of second language acquisition. Here is the first in a series and this one is titled “What Everyone Should Know About Second Language Acquisition.”

https://youtu.be/X1LRoKQzb9U?list=PL7AsHYMEToB7gSRuN1WBRF4hL6QOSLagr

IFLT/NTPRS/CI Teaching- How To Involve The Whole Class When Storytelling

Leave a comment

A great thread appeared overnight on the iFLT/NTPRS/CI Teaching Facebook page Have you joined yet? If not, I highly recommend it. It is a global  community totally dedicated to all levels and aspects of TCI. Your own personal PLC where you can comment on other posts or ask questions about teaching with Comprehensible Input and TPRS. For those of us here in Australia, where TCI is only just taking off, this group is awesome. Whether you prefer to be a lurker or a contributor makes no difference because the other teachers here bring a wide variety of experiences and the knowledge they share is impressive. They too cover the spectrum of experience and once you take the first step and. join, you will discover what a warm and generous community it is. My only word of caution though is: go with your gut feeling. Remember that we Australians aren’t the only ones frustrated by the lack of training available here and thus interpretations of TCI vary. If a suggestion sounds a little off centre, don’t worry or stress; it is most likely because of a different understanding of what TCI actually is. If you need clarification, ask openly on the page and no doubt an experienced practioner will chime in and clarify. There are certain names to look out for and you’ll recognise them from all your readings. 

The thread I enjoyed reading this morning asked how to involve more students when reviewing a story. It was posted by a parent/teacher who has a child in one of her classes.  I remember the pros and cons of teaching my own children and this was definitely one of the pros. I totally appreciated the insights into both my teaching and the students in the classes. 

Here is her question: 

 
The answers to the question were awesome and most of them are worth sharing becausse they would work very well in our primary classrooms. Interestingly though, is that secondary teachers have also shared here!  

   
The answer below by Karen Rowan actually fits in after Grants initial comment above.

  

  
 
So many great ideas here to not only gets heaps of repetitions but also to keep our students engaged in the story.