Strategies & Activities

Tiny Fluency Writes

/ magisterp / Leave a comment

Q. What’s worse than thinking you can’t write a lot of Spanish?

A. Feeling bad about it because you’re given a ton of writing space.

Here’s new Fluency Write paper for Timed Writes, Free Writes, Speed Writes, etc., with Novice language learners in mind, particularly those in middle school. There’s still enough space for a fast processor to flip the page and write up to 110 words, but no so much that a slow processor leaves class with a crummy sense of low self-efficacy. Plus, you get 2 Fluency Write papers from every 8.5 x 11 double-sided sheet.

(Front)

fluency 1

(Back)fluency 2

Discipulus Illustris: Those Quizzes

/ magisterp / 3 Comments

**Read about DISCIPVLVS ILLVSTRIS, and Sabrina’s variation for some context**

Should we assess what students remember about their classmates, or should we assess whether students understand Latin?

Although the former has social benefits, let’s face it…we use student details as our understandable messages in Latin. It’s great to know that Johnny’s birthday is in April, but it’s better to be able to read and understand all of the Latin used to express that detail. Inspired by a brilliant new tweak to Ben Slavic’s Quick Quizzes, I’ll be making the following changes:

Continue reading →

Curriculum Vocābulōrum: A Contextualized Classroom Game

/ magisterp / 2 Comments

**Updated English Quadrant Word Race to improve gameplay** 

This is my take on Martina Bex’s Word Race. I consider our activities to be evolved versions of “flyswatter” games that now align more closely to Second Language Acquisition principles. Skip to Martina’s process if you’re unfamiliar with it, then come back to read about my Curriculum Vocābulōrum Variation:

Continue reading →

Parallel Characters: Not just in stories

/ magisterp / Leave a comment

Earlier this week, the following slide during DISCIPVLVS ILLVSTRIS was a huge hit:

DISCIPVLVS ILLVSTRIS Screenshot

The 3 dots on the lower left link to a slide with a bunch of numbers, but my students already understood the interviewed student’s response of quīndecim as 15, so I began using the images and phrases to ask different questions to verify the detail. I almost got stuck when I asked “is he older than…” while pointing to the senex (old man). Instead, I kept my finger where it was, and asked the class “what is HIS name? What is HE called?” One student quickly said “Frank.” Now I was free to use “is he (our interviewed student) older than Frank?” Then I looked over at the Roman boy on the other side of the slide and asked “what is HIS name? What is HE called?” The class looked at the same student who answered before, who said “Phil,” which was great, so I said “Ohhhhhh, how old is Phil?” The same student thought a minute, and said “8.” So, we continued using the four phrases on the board (all using “habet”) and got quite a bit of mileage out of that one.

Continue reading →

Discipulus Illustris: Updated Materials and Variation

/ magisterp / 19 Comments

**See a  more recent post with some changes to the Quizzes**

Last week at TCI Maine ’15, Sabrina Janczak discussed and demoed Star of the Week, her process for student interviews. Although I first discovered a practical interview process from Bryce Hedstrom’s, word has it that original credit goes to Jody Noble, along with Krashen’s 1983 The Natural Approach as a source for conducting “personal interviews” in the classroom (thanks to Eric Herman and Ben Slavic for those clarifications). Before I discuss Sabrina’s process, let me state that no CI classroom should be without some variation of this year-long activity. We often talk about not being prescriptive, but this is too important to overlook. I’m not suggesting that you do this, and neither is Shia Labeouf. Make time in your schedule, and you will be amazed at the positive change in class culture/environment, and increase in student language production. YES, spontaneous language production by June is not out of the question.

Continue reading →

CI Curriculum

/ magisterp / 3 Comments

**Updated 2.28.18 with the Universal Language Curriculum (ULC)**

The bad news; there isn’t one for Latin. The good news; we do have a list of Most Important Latin Verbs. More bad news; most teachers new to CI don’t know what to DO with the list, yet this is what they crave, and NEED the most. It makes perfect sense. There just isn’t time to create a realistic curriculum from the ground up, or tons of Embedded Readings while we’re just getting used to the idea of CI from reading blogs, articles, and research, let alone honing our craft when it comes to delivering understandable messages.

The role of a curriculum changes when a skilled CI teacher is able to use more student details to drive content, and can create teachable moments ex tempore. There’s also the case for non-targeted input which leaves a curriculum optional. STILL, all that’s advanced stuff, and this is about getting teachers help who crave it most.

Some support.

Although I’ve heard recently that some teachers have ditched TPR at the start of the year in favour of beginning storytelling immediately, I will continue to start with TPR since I really haven’t exhausted the possibilities. There’s an updated, or “evolved” version of TPR anyway, which I find is more powerful and I’d like to get some experience with that.

So, I’ve been working on an essential list of classroom vocab (remember, “shelter vocab, unshelter grammar!”) to use with the most important verbs…about the closest thing to the high-demand curriculum that’s needed.

Access the TPR Word Wall here.

 Update 10.08.15 DO NOT attempt to work through the TPR Word Wall as a curriculum to complete. Like EVERYTHING we teach, when something loses steam, move on. My pattern has been to work on a verb or two, then get some details from a student with DISCIPVLVS ILLVSTRIS, and read, give a dictātiō, etc. For reference, I am just past the 8 hr mark with my (online) classes, and haven’t begun storytelling.

CI Online: Personalized Readings

/ magisterp / 2 Comments

Despite the obvious physical barrier, teaching CI online is not very different from the brick and mortar setting (e.g. use words students know, establish meaning of new ones, talk about compelling things, don’t force speech too early, etc.). The format for online teaching, however, typically involves an element of asynchronous “independent work” that most closely resembles traditional drill and worksheet exercises, which we know does very little, if anything for language acquisition.

Continue reading →

Read, don’t Translate: Speed Reading

/ magisterp / Leave a comment

Reading without consciously translating into one’s native language is assumed to be a part of language acquisition, yet is taken for granted and difficult to assess. Through a Speed Reading program, students are encouraged to read chunks of words rather than individual word-for-word-translation. This aligns with how we focus on teaching the most frequent structures rather than isolated word lists. In addition, students find this reading program compelling due to the personal competitive nature.

Take a minute to read the Speed Reading Process (my adaptation of Blaine Ray’s adaptation of Paul Nation’s program).

If you like the idea, all that’s needed to begin is a set of reading passages (perhaps parallel class stories), accompanying document with 10 comprehension questions, and a table showing reading speed per passage. You will need the following files:

Continue reading →