After attending iFLT, I spent another week in Reno at NTPRS. While iFLT offered more opportunities to observe teachers teaching students, NTPRS offered more opportunities to actually BE a student for those of us in the Experienced track. I appreciated the short demos that most presenters gave, even when the workshops were not titled “___ language demo.” There are some game changes here that warrant their own posts  (e.g. embedded readings straight from the source, Michele, Whaley), but I have much  else to report on. Like last week’s iFLT post, this one includes more of what I intend to think about and/or change for 2016-17. They’re organized by presenter:

• Talk & Move. Teacher says statement (e.g. “I have lived in Europe”), if the statement applies, the student moves (e.g. sits or stands, whichever isn’t happening) & talks (e.g. “it’s me”).
• Student Jobs – Posters. In addition to posting questions and rejoinders on the wall, also give them to students as jobs. I’ve done The Who (e.g. “quis,” “whoooo”)  as a single student job, but now will make copies of question posters and have students hold up their card when I say the word while pointing. Engagement.
• Guess/Suggest Signal. Alina’s kids know when she wants a detail vs. discussing.
• Class Password. When kids don’t know the password, they just get back in line (vs.waiting in the hall or something).
• Seat Assignments. Tape one set of playing cards to backs of chairs, then hand duplicates out at door while doing Class Password. Could be repeated daily.
• No Desk Name Tags. No desks? Wear name tags/Circling With Balls paper around neck with some string.

• 3 Ring Circus. I’ve never been interested in doing this until I got to feel what it was like as a participant. Conceptually, it helped me think of 3 Ring Circus as a “TPR loop.” Set up a few kids with a their own sequence of at least two actions (I saw it done with 4). Be sure to include at least one action as a sound, (e.g. whisper like a Parseltongue, the Harry Potter snake language), and vary speed of actions.
• Selfie HW. For reading homework accountability, students take and email selfie with adult at home holding the reading.

• PQA 4 All. Full class thinks about their own Answer to a Personalized Question. From time to time, actually ask class to think of their own answer. This could help re-engage students, and also remind them the point of PQA comparisons.
• Actor as Professeur. For variety, student actor chooses detail instead of the teacher (e.g. “it’s MY story”) or Le Professeur, a student job.
• Students Limit Vocab. Get detail from students in order to limit vocab (if they offer, it’s already comprehensible!).

• Teacher as Character. Include self as another character for sake of comparison and exposure to verb forms. In TPRS MovieTalk, the character might not even be in the video clip. This is totally fine.
• Actor Speech. Actor speech other than the initial one-word response is NOT forced output. Why? We guide actors by whispering what to say, or pointing to the board. They are not expressing their own ideas. They are our prop so the rest of the class hears input from their peer(s) instead of from us all the time. Just remember that they NEED support, and won’t be able to respond in complete sentences without guidance. THAT would be considered forced output.
• Comp & Con. Check BOTH comprehension AND confidence. Comprehension is about understanding what’s going on. Confidence is more about processing speed and amount of hesitation. Not the same thing, but important for us to know.

• Reading Time. During Silent Sustained Reading (SSR), or Free Voluntary Reading (FVR), Bryce makes a circle and reads to kids who don’t want to read on their own.
• La Persona Especial (Discipulus Illustris, in Latin). For the first few easy Qs at the start of the year (e.g. name, nickname, age, grade), he asks several students within a single class period. They all just sit in their chairs. In fact, none of the students need to come to the front of the room if they don’t want to throughout the year.

• Vary Speed! When students know the first part of your question really well, say it faster, but then slow down for the new stuff. It’s actually insulting to go TOOO slow if everyone gets it. Check on that barometer student for this one.

• Bill VanPatten Dictogloss. Listen to an audio clip (length varies according to level), then retell/recreate as best they can in groups. Repeat. Groups get competitive with this one.
• Quizlet Live.  This knocks Kahoot out of the water. It automatically groups students who join and there is a series of questions. Each group member has their own (different) response options so the group must work together to find who has the answer, and select it on that device. Groups work at their own pace but race against each other to finish first. You can also import from vocabulary lists.
• Embedded readings. This requires its own blog post later, but key points are to ALWAYS use a parallel reading (e.g. not just the class story you co-created, or an adapted textbook narrative, but a new one the kids don’t know that includes the phrases/structures from class), the name “embedded reading” is derived from the fact that the lowest version is embedded within the next higher version, and the versions should include new INFORMATION, not just details to make sentences longer/more complex.

• Yes/No Variation. Instead of asking “does he have X?” which requires “yes/no,” Justin often asks  “he has, or he doesn’t have?” which works really well for Latin, a language that often repeats the verb to affirm or negate without adverbs (i.e. “habet, an nōn habet?”).
• Non-Targeted Input. This is NOT about “winging it,” or not having a plan. It’s more about context. Talking about Harry Potter because you know kids like it is non-targeted, but choosing that hat-sorting scene from Harry Potter because it has particular verb forms that you want to expose students to is targeted.
• Spiced-Up TPR. Set up a Harry Potter wand “duel,” or create an obstacle course.
• Embedded Reading Twists.

• Sub Plan Output. Susan Gross knew that her kids wouldn’t get quality input from their sub, and that her kids woudn’t be able to negotiate meaning when reading on their own (even if it’s a “known” story). As such, she planned for output activities during sub days.
• Trust Actors. USE actors and wait for THEM to do something funny…it’s doesn’t have to always be up to us.
• Reading is KEY. Reading is one way, or perhaps THE WAY to bring together colleagues who disagree about teaching methods.
• Delay Gesture. Wait a second after saying something before using that favorite gesture of yours. Give the kids time to process the word, and then use the gesture to confirm in their minds, or jog the memory of those who are slower.

• Picture Predictions. Obscure part of a picture (e.g. edit in MS paint, or place half of it off-screen) for predictions.

• Tourists. Some students might be in your language class because they intend to travel as a tourist and not pursue it academically. This is totally valid. Others might even be interested in just being a tourist…in your class! There’s nothing wrong with taking a language because it’s fun, even if students have no intention of ever continuing it beyond high school. They should be allowed to take the class just as much as the more academically-focused students.