Cooking as a source of Comprehensible Input

I have a confession.  I am kind of hard core about teaching Spanish.  I am super, super passionate about teaching with comprehensible input and TPRS.  I am obsessed.  I spend much of my free time reading, thinking, planning, and collaborating.  I feel like I have so little time with the students and I need to make sure I am using it in the best possible way.  I hold my kids to such a high standard, and we work incredibly hard.  I HATE taking time to do activities that are not going to give kids comprehensible input.  I do it, but grudgingly.

Cooking as CI 

And my administrator wanted me to relax a little bit.  During my first year teaching middle school,  she really wanted me to do something like go to a restaurant, cook, do projects, etc.  Even at the beginning of my CI journey, I already understood that these kinds of activities were either a) output oriented, and/or b) taking time away from CI.  But, as any good employee does, I wanted to keep my job and say yes.  We compromised on cooking, and I decided to try to make it an input activity.

Well, four years (and several attempts) later, I think I did it.  It is not perfect, but here is how I took a CI unit and extended it to become a comprehensible input-based cooking activity.  And you know what?  It was fun!

Background: In my Spanish 1B class (eighth grade)  I experimented this year with adapting other CI materials to create a unit around food and flavor, based almost entirely on this post from Martina Bex.   It was a great way to start the year, included a parody of Despacito (Elotito!) and I followed it up with one of my favorite units from her level 1 curriculum, Como Agua Para Chocolate.

(Side note- isn't it cool how you can get better at teaching?  I have taught bits and pieces of Gazpacho, Como Agua para Chocolate, and Martina's Comida Latina (unit 8 in the Somos curriculum) several times, and this year I feel like I figured out a lot of pieces- how to make the CI better, more compelling, and more input focused!  This is one of the things I LOVE about being a CI teacher. I get better at it, it gets easier, the kids acquire more, and we all have more fun.)

I finished the whole unit with Martina's free embedded reading and song activity for the song Gazpacho.  

However, based on prior experiences teaching this unit, I added the following activities: 

I read version 2  out loud and we dramatized the action with kids acting as peppers, bread, salt, etc. You can imagine what happens when they all got in the blender (hula hoop on the floor).  It was hilarious.  

Students preparing gazpacho

Then, I laid out pictures of each ingredient and tool in a grid (in a random order) on the floor.  In pairs, students had to draw the path through the ingredients and tools using their reading.  Super weird, but they had fun and it was good practice to set them up for how to navigate clues in a breakout box for future classes!

Next,  kids got into small groups and had a few minutes to decide how they were going to act out their understanding- this is a modification of an activity that was posted on the IFLT/TPRS/CI facebook group.  They had access to props, pictures of food, markers and whiteboards, and they could ask for anything else they needed.  I started to read version 2 very slowly and as a group, they had to act it out.  One group embodied the vegetables, another took turns holding up pictures that they drew, and yet another group held up props in a kind of dance.

Students then received a little cut and paste activity that I created that involved cutting out the steps of the recipe and sorting them in order, and deciding which ingredients and tools they use to make gazpacho and which ingredients (and tools) they did not need to use.  More CI!  

Finally, we listened to the song and read version 3 (the song lyrics).  We then did a quick exit slip to answer the question (in Spanish): What is gazpacho?    Where is it from?  How do you make it?

Reading and re-reading the recipe...INPUT! 

The following day, I set up the following in my classroom: (I made one station for each team- 4-6 kids per team)

Table with cutting board and two bowls

On a separate table, I had the ingredients and tools including bowls, knives, the blender, etc. 

I explained to the kids that this was a competition- they were going to make gazpacho using the written recipe from their notebook and the list of ingredients and tools (from the sorting activity).   They had to send different members of their team to get what they needed.  

On the board, I posted this:

Gazpacho Expectations

1) Wash your hands after touching your face, your mouth, or anything that isn’t clean (chairs, table, notebook, etc.).

2) Spanish ONLY! 

3) Use p. 45 as your recipe.  

4) You only have these liquid ingredients, so you need to decide how much and when to use.

a. 3 cucharas (TBS) de aciete de oliva

b. 2 cucharita (tsp) de vinagre

5) No tenemos un pasapures.  No es necesario.

Preparing for judging!  

Vocabulario Útil

¡Lávate tus manos!- Wash your hands!

Necesitamos....  We need

Yo necesito....  I need

¿Puedo tener....?   Can I have....?

Proximo.... next

Bates - you blend

troceas- you chop

pelas- you peel

It was a blast.  They had to read and re-read the recipe many, many times, and for those that wanted to, they could use complete sentences (using the projected sentence stems from the useful vocabulary list) to ask for things, or they could just use one-word requests.  When they were finished, I made a big deal about tasting each team's effort and using our flavor descriptors (salty, bitter, sweet, acid) to describe each bowl. 

Tip: time saver- cover each table with a disposable tablecloth from the dollar store.  You can use sharpie to write team names, useful vocab, etc. on the cloth.  When they were finished, we just pulled the tablecloth off and threw it away.  Super fast clean up.  Dirty dishes went back to the kitchen on a borrowed cart.  

Soy Yo as a celebration of diversity (and also a sub plan)

Background: (Feel free to scroll down to the actual plan!)

I had the opportunity to sub for a colleague who was going on a weeklong camping trip with the entire 7th grade.  The plan was that I was going to teach her 6th grade Spanish class.  In order to minimize what she needed to do, I also offered to write my own lesson plans for the week because I wanted to try out some of the great lesson plans I have seen others posting and have had kicking around in the back of my head.  Also, I have developed an obsession with Bomba Estereo and wanted to teach Soy Yo.  Since one day of the week would be taught by a non-Spanish speaking sub, I had to write out plans for that, but for rest of the week I was going to wing it. I mean, I had a loose plan.  But it was very vague.

I spent a week in Moab!  

Well, I did not get a chance to teach it.  Instead, due to a family emergency for another teacher, I also went camping in Moab. For a week. And it was awesome!

So we had a sub for a sub, and no lesson plans.  I threw together a plan in between packing knowing that the sub's sub spoke Spanish.

The feedback I got when I returned was that it was an awesome 3-day plan. (Oops- I hoped it would be four days. Oh well.)  She strongly recommended that I teach it in my other classes and had nothing but good things to say.

So, I will teach it to my others (probably my 8th graders, with some modifications), but I thought that I would share it with the world as I am pretty proud of it.  Scroll down for credits, as I borrowed and adapted lots of great resources from other people.

THE PLAN

Day 1 -INTRODUCTION to SOY YO

This activity was adapted from Elevate Education Consulting

Resources:     

Slideshow for Day 1 (circles of care, etc.)      

Activity handout: Soy Yo                        

Day 1 Teacher plan 

Please note: these are view only files. To edit, please make a copy.

1) Circle of care

Awesome activity borrowed from Anna and Rachelle!

Show first slide and demo circles.

Students WRITE NAMES ON PAPER, draw circles of care.

Lead discussion.  -who is in your circle?  (Can do in small groups too- whatever feels right.)

2) Qualities of people we admire.

Show slide two.  Students can write or think. 

Lead brief discussion. 

3) List of qualities (that have easy Spanish cognates!) in our circle of care

Show side 3

Students will add the qualities they admire to the people in their circles of care. 

They can add qualities that are positive that are not included on the slide. 

4) Share with partners or groups of three. 

"The qualities that I admire..."

Then maybe whole group share. 

5) Independent work

Pass out activity.  Students fill in - there are key structures at the top, and word lists at the bottom.  Help them to understand every word.

6) Soy Yo activity. (movement)

  Show slide 4 -

Explain directions- it is about moving if the statement applies to them, not just standing up if it applies to them.

Read the statements in Spanish.  Translate if they are confused.  (Translation is better than charades.)

7) If time, have them turn the activity over and follow instructions. (Slide 5)

DAY 2 Clip Chat / Modified MovieTalk

(This is not part of the sub plan unless your sub has experience doing ClipChats/Modified Movietalks)

Here is a description of Clipchat / Modified MovieTalk from Martina Bex. 

Resources

Soy yo embedded reading adapted from Sr. Jordan (USE AS SCRIPT for clip chat / modified movie talk)    
 Soy yo song lyrics  

Slideshow Slideshow (Movietalk from Sr. Jordan)   

Please follow the directions on this slide to access Sr. Jordan's materials and read his blog post!   

Video link 

1. Establish meaning: make sure students understand these words: 

se va- leaves
piensa -thinks 
les debo enseñar mi talento- I should show them my talent
toca- plays

2. Narrate: Either use screenshots or the video, and narrate what is happening in the video. Ask lots of questions and make sure students understand what is going on. Use either version of the Embedded Reading for a script or modify for your students. Remember- you want students to understand the words that you are using, not guess! 

3. The carrot: Be sure and let them watch the whole video a couple of times through!

4. Still have more time? If you have extra time, you can pass out the song lyrics and watch the video or just listen to the song.

DAY 3 
Materials     Soy yo embedded reading

Read the embedded reading- read version 1 together, then version 2.

Learn about embedded readings, created by Laurie Clarcq and Michele Whaley, here. 

Reading activity options:

• You could do a volleyball translation (one kid reads the spanish, the other translates to english then reads the next one in Spanish, then the other translates. They are familiar with it.)  Or, go straight to version 2. 
• With whiteboards or blank paper, each kid picks a moment from the reading and draws it (but no words).  Put the drawings around the room and in pairs, kids wander and use the reading to decide which sentence from the reading best describes the picture.  Play the video.  Stop at key moments and have kids in pairs decide what sentence best describes the action.  

¿De dónde eres...?  
Write soy de - I am from and soy- I am on the board, and eres- you are, eres de- you are from on the board
Read some of the the De donde es…slideshow together.   The focus is on nationality and where people are from,  and work in adjectives from day 1 in your discussion.  Ask lots of personalized questions! 

Day 4- Writing

Updated Jan 2022: I would choose not to do his part of the activity with my stronger understanding of comprehension based teaching.  However, I might use this as a sub plan! 

Materials- Soy yo activities and slideshow from day 1 

I was thinking that the first line is Soy yo, then three lines, then last line is soy yo.

Soy YoSoy yo.
Soy interesante y creativa
soy de Colorado
Soy una maestra.
Soy Yo.

They can illustrate them and make them pretty them on blank paper.

Other ideasLyrics training- lyrics training?  https://lyricstraining.com/play/bomba-estereo/soy-yo/HTX6w0ZWzT#b7w

Read about the special flute Saraí uses in the video- https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaita_colombiana

A video of the band singing the song for NPR live- http://www.npr.org/event/music/551210935/bomba-estereo-tiny-desk-concert
http://zachary-jones.com/zambombazo/tag/como-eres/

CREDITS: I have taken a variety of free resources and adapted them for my needs.  I have asked permission for use and re-posting if the resources were not freely posted in public forums.  Copyright is important! 

• Lyrics to song- posted by Donna Graham Rubio (found in the files of the IFLT/NTPRS/CI Facebook group)
• Original embedded reading-  created and posted by Jeremy Jordan. (Here are all his great resources including the original)
• Soy yo screenshots for Movietalk- also by Jeremy Jordan
• Diversity-positive attributes and circles of care activity by Rachelle Adams  (Elevate Education Consulting) and Anna Gilcher, PhD.
• Original Soy Yo activity that I modified, by Leslie Van How Phillips (found in the files of the IFLT/NTPRS/CI Facebook group)
• ¿De dónde eres?... slides posted by Sara Shreiner (found in the files of the IFLT/NTPRS/CI Facebook group)
• Soy Yo movement activity, adapted from Alina Filipescu 

The Highly Structured Class pays off! (Procedures and Routines)

Last year, I had a couple of tough classes.  Really, really tough classes.  They had great attitudes and were excited about learning, but never, ever stopped talking.  In English.  Running commentary about EVERYTHING that happened.  Constantly.

It was enough to make me groan every time I saw them on my schedule. (Which was every day.)  I tried Plan B.  I tried every trick in my book.  They still made me crazy.

But...(you knew there would be a but, right?) they learned.

Despite all the time I spent away from providing comprehensible input (trying to create community, practicing routines and procedures, redirecting behavior, having class conversations about goals, and loosing my temper) they learned.  They learned a lot.  They retained a lot.

When they came back this year, they blew me away. 

They remembered all the Spanish.  Well, maybe not all.  Probably not the stuff we did in May.  But most of them have a strong hold on everything else.

I have to ask myself why.  Why did that work for them?  The only thing I can fall back on is my greatest strength as a teacher: procedures and routines. (Hey- you have a greatest strength too.  What is yours? It's good to ask yourself.)

 These together form the structure of my class and make it a highly predictable class with a lot of tolerance for chaos (e.g. kids barking, hooting, and stuffed animals flying through the air.)

WHAT ARE MY PROCEDURES AND ROUTINES (P&Rs)?

It doesn't matter.  It truly doesn't matter what mine are.  I am happy to share them (below), but it doesn't matter.  What matters is knowing what they are, and how you teach and practice them.

I came up with my P&Rs by asking myself the following questions:
1) How do I want students to enter and leave class? (procedures)
2) What are the routine tasks that we do most days (sharpening pencils, passing out papers) that can be made faster or more efficient? (procedures)
3) What are things that kids do that make me absolutely crazy that I can train them not to do before they do them? (procedures)
4) How can I make my classroom feel more like a place where we are family, with in-jokes, predictability, and closeness? (routines)

Bryce Hedstrom defines a procedure as:

"Procedures are ways of doing routine activities that help the classroom to run more smoothly so that we can focus on learning. Procedures are not exactly rules, but repeated disregard of procedures will affect learning in the classroom.  There are several specific ways we do things in this class and you will learn them during the first weeks of school."

An aesthetically pleasing notebook arrangement makes me think of procedures.

Some of the resources that helped me develop this list (and my overall approach) include:
Bryce Hedstrom's classroom management philosophy and practice (including passwords and jobs), Alina Filipescu's philosophy of "Discard the Discipline Plan" and Angela Watson's amazingly useful book "The Cornerstone for Teachers", which I suggest that every teacher read.  

A SAMPLE OF MY PROCEDURES
Entering and leaving:

• Kids line up outside, receive their seating card for the day, give me the password, and enter.
• They get their materials for the day (usually scrap paper, glue, and scissors) and get started on the starter.
• When I ring my chime three times, they drop their pencil to indicate that they are focused on me,  and I greet them.
• At the end of class, someone tells me it is time to clean up. (Student job)   
• The kids quickly clean up the entire room and put away their materials.   
• One person picks up the seating cards and puts them away.  (Student Job) 
• A student inspector  (student job) tells me that they are ready: "Listos" and I reply in TL: Thank you for learning.  They reply "Thank you for teaching us" (in TL, of course) and I say good bye.

Papers: I give papers to the two kids sitting in the middle and they pass them outwards.  Kids sitting on the end of the horseshoe put the papers back on the paper table. (rotating job)

Absent kids: I wrote about that job and procedure here. (student job)

Moving chairs from one configuration to another: I model what I want, we practice, they do it.  We practice often, I narrate positives, and if need be, we practice over and over.

Whiteboards: If students are writing on whiteboards, I ask that they do not "show" their work to me until I make a specific sound with my rattle.  This way, I have time to look at individual work, make suggestions or give praise, and see who needs to work on what.  Everyone has think time.  Plus, they know that being the first one done doesn't get rewarded.

Late work: Students have somewhat relaxed deadlines and rolling deadlines.  If they miss something, they put a Missing/Late work slip on it so I know what I am doing with it.  If one kiddo has a lot of those slips, it is a good conversation to have during (or before) Parent Teacher conferences.

Here is a link to a document that I modified from I am sad to say that I can not give credit to the original as it is no longer available.  I am pretty sure I got it from Bryce, but not 100%.  If you know where the original document came from (ABCs), please let me know in the comments or by email!   Here is a link to the document I use in class. 

UPDATED 2023: 

Please note- in looking at the ABCs from a few years ago, my thinking has changed a lot on how I would use them. Now, I still think this is a really great exercise for me but I would not give it to students, and there are some things I would change.  

A SAMPLE of my ROUTINES 
To me, routines are different than procedures because they add fun and a little chaos into the class.  Most of these routines I learned from Alina.  Here are some of the ones I have adapted:

I was very impressed with this class! 

• ¿Quién?- when I say this question word, a student holds up a stuffed owl and says "woo whoo"
• Sneeze- when someone sneezes, a student says "uno-dos-tres" and the whole class says "salud"
• If a student impresses me, I say "Clase, estoy impresionada" and they respond (as if they can not believe that I could be impressed "¿Usted está impresionada?" and then I explain, in L1 or L2, why I am impressed (someone was a risk taker, someone was extra kind, etc.) and then I throw that person a stuffed animal to cuddle with.
• Pero...all kids hold up their index finger, one kid goes "dum dum dum..." in a slightly ominous way
• Perro- someone barks.
  
• Queso- any time someone who is not in class walks in my door, someone jumps up and sings/dances "¿Qué es esto?" and the whole class responds "Esto es queso" and then we pretend like nothing ever happened.  

Our director of admissions giggles EVERY TIME she walks in our room with visiting parents.  It's so awesome.

Differentiation in the TPRS/CI classroom

Definitions: 

Differentiation:  "Differentiation means tailoring instruction to meet individual needs. Whether teachers differentiate content, process, products, or the learning environment, the use of ongoing assessment and flexible grouping makes this a successful approach to instruction."

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/what-differentiated-instruction

I chose this definition, not because I love Reading Rockets, but because I have a lot of respect for the author of this article- Carol Ann Tomlinson- who has written a great deal about differentiation in the classroom. 

Barometer student (aka Pacesetter): the student in your classroom who is often the slowest processor and needs the most supports (visual, gestural, etc.) to fully comprehend everything.  They also need more think time and comprehension checks.  Note: TPRS/CI teachers use this term differently than behavior specialists.  

Every class, regardless of level, has a wide range of students.  That includes (but is not limited to): processing speed, previous exposure to L2, emotional status, gender, executive functioning, motor skills, basic needs being met (or not), attitude about learning, attitude about self, motivation, literacy skills, critical thinking skills, etc.  

photo taken from https://calicospanish.com

In one class, that may look like: native speaker, student who came from immersion school, student whose grandparent only speaks L2 (and lives with them), an extremely good test taker, student with strong oral skills and low reading ability, one with strong reading ability but slow processing speed, one with sensory integration issues, and a student diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum.  And that is only 6 of them.  In my already tracked "honors" class.  

My job is to teach all of them, right?  TPRS/CI is about creating equity in the foreign language classroom and helping each kid succeed.  Right?  (At least it is for me.)  

So, here are some strategies that I use to differentiate for all students.  However, most of these strategies are for faster processors and native speakers because your TPRS/CI skills are supporting your barometer students already.  

My goal is that my barometer student(s) comprehend everything and my other students stay engaged and are pushed. 

 I want to add that this is HARD.  It takes constant practice (on top of juggling all those other TPRS skills!).  This is work that I have been engaging in for years, with a lot of reading, workshops, thinking, trying, failing, trying again.  I am not an expert, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve.    

(I am going to assume that basic TPRS skills are being developed or are in place, because those are the skills that you need to reach your barometer student(s).  These skills include pause and point, going slow, staying in-bounds, translating low-frequency or new vocabulary, comprehension checks.)

Class Jobs that require output for fast processors

(I would like to credit the people whose ideas these are adapted from (or taken from) but I honestly don't remember the specifics.  Probably Bryce Hedstrom, Alina Filipescu, and Ben Slavic, but also probably others.) 

Faster processors during stories can be challenging. Give them a job that will challenge them and help you. 

Story Writer: This student writes the narrative in L2 as best they can.  Great for heritage learners as you can later drill down on the kind of input that they need based on what they write.  You can also use their narrative for when you sit down and write out the story- invaluable for when you have multiple classes all doing different stories!   You could also have a student do this in L1.

Quiz writer: This student writes 5-10 true/false questions in L2 (or L1) based on the story.  You can use this quiz later, at the end of class, to check for overall story comprehension.  

Hint:I print out the directions for each job and stick them at the front of two notebooks, used only for either story writing or quiz writing.  Here are the directions for quiz writer, and here are directions for story writer.  

Daily Records Keeper: This student keeps track of paperwork when a student is absent.  They also note the activities, homework if assigned, any low-frequency vocabulary, etc. that comes up.  I could not function without this job.  Requires no output in L2.  For more about this job, read this. 

Class jobs that require staying focused on the input

Question word sign holder:  They hold up the question word signs (one per kid) when you say them.  Alina Filipescu calls this her 3-D classroom as it moves the pausing and pointing that you do from a wall to the center of the student.  I usually only assign who and what.  This is also a great job for kids who benefit from having an active job that helps them stay focused.

Rejoinder sign holder: This is a great job for a fast processor because they demonstrate their understanding of the story based on when they hold up the sign.  However, I don't only give this job to fast processors.  It just depends on the kid.

What about jobs for the slower processors? Don't they get jobs too?

Yes.  Of course.  But this is a post about differentiating for fast processors and native speakers. 

Teacher Strategies for Differentiation

One place where Bloom's might be valuable!

Questioning: All students should be able to answer yes/no, either/or, and "what does ___ mean?/what did I just say?" questions.  Right?  Good.  But "who/what/where/when" questions are a little bit harder, even with question signs and supports.  You probably should be asking all kids those question word questions too, but they are more challenging. 

"How" and "Why" questions are the hardest, and a great way to ask more challenging questions of your faster processors and/or native speakers.  Yep, they do require output, but you know your kids.  It might even be junky (incorrect) output, but you can rephrase it, and it helps hold them accountable.

UPDATE: Here is Bryce Hedstrom's very in-depth take on differentiation with questioning.  I think he deserves the credit for my basic ideas!  

Partners and Groups:

This is tough.  In a TPRS/CI classroom, I rarely do partner and/or group work, unless the activity is completely input based.  And it is something that I am sure they can do on their own.  And it is completely scaffolded.  And...you get the idea.

However, here are some strategies that I have used successfully. 

1) Homogenous groupings with embedded readings.  Groups or pairs of faster processors start with harder versions of the embedded readings, and progress further.  Groups of slower processors start with the easiest versions of embedded readings, and progress at their own pace.  

2) Heterogenous groupings for input based group games.  (Whole class activities like Word Chunk, scrambled eggs, running dictation, Jeopardy, Unfair Game, etc. are different in that the teacher is still controlling the input.)   I don't love games in the classroom.  They take forever to make and require a lot of work to make them truly input based (or secret input based), and a lot of teacher management to justify their use in class. (In my opinion.) 

 However, if you have a good input based game, faster processors and/or fluent readers can help provide the input by reading out loud.  That is not to say that the others don't read.  I just don't use homogenous groupings when I want things (sentences, not paragraphs!)  to be read out loud.  

What do I mean by input based group games?  Here are examples:  

Chain Reaction

First, Second (I haven't played it but plan on it)

Go Fish with TEXT on the scenes (so students read the text and get the input!)

Memory- I made this one for the last chapter of Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro.  In each "deck", there is a question, an answer, and a visual of that answer.  (See images)

Using Profiency/Standards based grading- I can't even start to discuss why this is a good practice for differentiation. It is too big of a topic and I am not an expert. And this blog post is getting really long.

There are a lot of resources available on this topic; assessing knowledge and competency is, for me, the core of differentiation.  Carol Ann Tomlinson, Robert Marzano, and TPRS teachers/trainers such as Lance Piantaggini (MagisterP) and Scott Benedict (TeachforJune) have a lot of information.  Books such as Grade Smarter, not Harder, Fair is not Equal are good resources as well. Here is a good great  intro written by Scott Benedict over at TeachforJune.


There are many more differentiation strategies. These are just a few that I turn to daily to try to meet every student's needs.  I didn't even go into alternate assignments or novel-based independent studies.  For more on that, check out Martina's blog post on multi-level classes.

Updated: I just stumbled across this incredible post by Kristy Placido.  Read it!  You can thank me later!  

 Updated again:  I am presenting on Differentiation in the CI classroom at Comprehensible Online 2020.
Use code ELICIA for a $25 discount!

https://comprehensible.online/