Projects in World Language Classes: An Opinion

Let's talk about projects, shall we? 

It's something that comes up a lot.   I am basing this on the number of posts about projects in every language teacher forum, even those that are dedicated to comprehension based teaching.  
Important: I am writing this piece, on my blog, about what I think. I am not intending to judge anyone for their instructional choices. I *do* want to explore some ideas that have been sloshing around in my brain around projects and their various purposes. Again, I am not writing this to say that anyone is bad or less good or anything else. And maybe, you might find some ideas that support you in your journey to be a little bit more comprehension based and/or a little bit more equitable, which *is* what I hope to do. 

Some teachers build their whole language curricula around projects. Others use projects to manage an otherwise unmanageable set of school expectations and duties (e.g. coaching, directing a school play, etc.).  Others have such fond memories of their own projects in language class that they can't imagine not doing them! And, finally, some kids love them, parents and admin often love them, and they do seem to part of the unspoken list of "Important Things to Do In Language Class."

What are projects? 

When I think about projects, I am thinking of things like:

• Students write, edit, illustrate, and publish a text to share or include in the class library. 
• Students make a craft of some sort, usually culturally relevant.  They might present about the craft as well. 
• Students research a topic and produce something- a written or oral presentation or product on that topic. 
• Students work together to create a skit  to perform in front of other students. 

Project Based Learning (PBL), a super hot New Thing, has a lot going for it too, and many schools are jumping on the PBL bandwagon to show how their students are using real world skills to solve real world problems.  Now, I have some love in my heart from project based learning as a general educator, and I have a lot of questions and critiques of it as well- again, as a general educator. Having watched my colleagues move to an integrated project based learning system (and being dragged along for the ride), I see how it *can* result in meaningful learning.  IN GENERAL EDUCATION CLASSES.  As a language teacher, I have a lot of concerns. 

A recent post in a language teacher group got me thinking about what the purpose of projects might be, why kids (and admin) ask for them, and how we can meet that purpose in a way that supports language acquisition.  

My Opinion: Most projects do not support language acquisition. Especially for novice and intermediate leaners. 

Teachers might choose to do them for other reasons, so again #nojudgement.  

 I have written before on this subject, but here's a summary of my thinking:  (excerpted from this article):

• Projects are usually not level appropriate.  Most teachers overestimate what their students can and “should be able to” do, and most projects involve specific, contextualized vocabulary that will require time to look up and memorize, as well as discourse beyond their level. A good rule of thumb is “if they struggle with the activity, the task is too challenging.”
• Projects are incredibly time consuming for both teachers and students, using time that could alternately be used to do things that help students acquire language (e.g. input). 
• If the students have to produce something to share with others, either it is fairly low quality (because they don’t have the language yet) or it requires a great deal of time- consuming editing and correction on the part of the teacher.
• Dr. Bill VanPatten talks a bit about project based tasks in chapter 6 of While We're on the Topic, and points out that project based tasks are not intended to practice language, nor are they appropriate for beginners. He gives some solid examples of tasks that might work in upper levels. He also speaks very specifically about Project Based Learning (PBL) in Target Language.  

Most PBL is beyond what students of language can do at the lower levels. Imported from educational contexts, PBL assumes ability with language. This is why it is a popular approach for learning science, history, and other subjects; speakers work in their first language to complete PBL projects, but beginning students don't have skills in the second language equivalent to their first language skills. So PBL in languages might be better for more advanced language proficiency levels."   (VanPatten, 2019)

• Research in second language acquisition (SLA) tells us that practice is unnecessary for language acquisition. Students do not need to speak or practice to acquire. They need to listen to messages and read messages, that they understand. 

What do projects accomplish?

This is some new thinking for me: to really consider what it is that projects accomplish. 

When kids/parents/admin ask for projects, what is the purpose? 

What need is not being met (or not being visibly met)? 

In asking for projects, stakeholders might be asking for:

• more "fun"
• opportunities to follow their interests and personalize learning
• opportunities to create with language
• more time interacting with peers

So my question becomes: are there other ways to directly meet some of those needs, while still giving students lots of input?

Yes! I think there are! My first idea is centered around reading, aka Free Voluntary Reading / Self-Selected Reading / Free Choice Reading. 

Personalize Learning & Following Student Interests

Free reading is a great way to let students personalize their learning, follow their interests, acquire vocabulary that is relevant to them, and of course, to differentiate. When one student is reading about music, another is reading a story about immigration, and another is reading about a favorite sport, students are personalizing their learning. 

And remember- you don't have to have a huge budget to buy readers in your target language. There are many ways to get free and low cost texts in your classroom. (Hint: a printer and dollar store page protectors can go a long way!)  

You can read more about how I set up my free reading program here,  and from Alina Filipescu here: SSR/ FVR Reading Program.  Bryce Hedstrom recently wrote an entire book about it (which I have not yet read but plan on it!): High Impact Reading Strategies 

More time interacting with peers

Letting students talk about their books with each other is a very simple, quick way to let students socialize. Yes, I *do* let them speak in the shared language (English, in my case) because I only want them to do this for a couple of minutes. The payoff is huge as they get excited about their books, hear about different books, and engage in the habit of readers everywhere: telling people about their favorites. Andrea Schweitzer has a great activity for this as well- you can read that here, on Martina Bex's blog: Speed Dating your classroom library.

What about Game of Quotes? This game, from AnneMarie Chase, is social, fun, and lets students feel like they are creating with language...while re-reading. It's brilliant.

More Fun

Have you ever played Game of Quotes? Go do that. Have you ever gotten pleasure from telling someone about a book that you enjoyed? Let your kids do that! 

Co-creating narratives (aka Asking a story, story asking, TPRS)

For some teachers, asking a story is really stressful and doesn't work for them. I get that, and also, it works for me and it one of my favorite things to do with students of all ages.   You can read more about story asking here and watch me do it with students here and here. 

When I co-create a story in class, I have a script outline (usually, but not always!). I ask the students for details about who the story is about, specific events in the story, and often the end of the story. Students contribute their ideas, and often these ideas are glimpses into what they are interested in. 

Personalize Learning and following student interests

When you co-create a story and are able to incorporate student interests in that story, it is all about them.  I know it seems like story asking is very teacher directed, but when student suggestions and interests are incorporated, the story really does become their story. From watching Storage Wars to riding on the backs of giant bison (a reference to some popular animated Netflix show), their ideas that are included (and even the ones that aren't included) create a sense that the language in the classroom is theirs. 

More time interacting with peers

I ask students to interact with their peers in a lot of ways, both during the process of story asking as well as after.  During story asking, I might let them turn to a shoulder partner to do a quick recap of what happened so far (in our shared language or in the target language, depending on the level), or to make a prediction, or to decide what happens next.  After the story is done, I might do any one of a variety of interactive activities.  Play doh scenes comes to mind, as do any of the small group variations of Secret Input. (You can even see a video of my kids doing some interacting here: Breathing Space, Resting Space.)  Some of my favorite activities from the SOMOS Curriculum, like Running Dictation, Write Draw Pass, Fan N Pick, and 9-Square and variationss all involve some level of peer interaction (depending on how you do it).  And don't forget all the input focused Kagan activities and cooperative learning that Martina has adapted! The Lucky Reading Game, from AnneMarie Chase, is a blast and is virtually no prep. 

Heck, I have even been known to let students write, with a peer, their own version of the story (I give them 20 minutes and very specific directions). Although they spend their time speaking English during the process, the payoff is a bunch of different stories that I can type up (correcting any irregular language), and that we can then read, illustrate, vote on (funniest, most probable, least probable, most creative, etc.), and add to our class library. 

More fun

Story asking is usually pretty fun, in and of itself. And playing with play doh? Yep, also fun. Any of the post-reading activities I listed above are pretty fun! Some are more prep, some are low prep, and some are no prep.  

Creating with language: Some musings 

Now, you may have noticed that I haven't really mentioned a lot about giving students more opportunities to create with language, although that may be one reason why projects are requested. 

Here's the thing: I think that it is possible to give students lots of opportunities to create with language, but I tend *not* to create activities that force them to do so.  The one glaring exception to this is when I ask students to do Timed Free writes (Fluency Writes).  Please read more about why I choose to do these, if you are curious. 

The reason I don't force them to create with language (with that one exception) is that I strongly believe that forcing them to create won't help them acquire, and it has the strong potential to raise their affective filter- that is- to make them stressed out, which will inhibit their acquisition. 

I will work on a future blog post about how I create opportunities to create with language at some point. Annabelle Williamson (La Maestra Loca) has a lot of brain breaks that support students creating language as well- take a look at her blog for some ideas.

One way that allows students to create with language is to give them rejoinders. 

I use rejoinders all the time, and I find that they are a great way to let students express themselves, even when they are beginning language students. For more about rejoinders, hop over to Grant Boulanger's blog and learn more. 

So, to sum up: when stakeholders ask for projects, it's worth it to ask ourselves: what needs are not being met that they think projects will meet? How can I meet those needs in a way that will support language acquisition?  

I hope this blog post has given you some food for thought!  

Mindset reminder: as the new trimester starts and pressure to get kids "ready" ramps up

Backstory:  

Shortly before the grapefruit knee

I decided to get knee surgery after 2 years of PT, tons of doctor's appointments, and a grapefruit-sized knee after our second day of bike touring in southwestern Utah.

When I started paddle boarding because cycling was getting to be too much, I realized that I really needed to do something about it.  (If you don't know me, it might be helpful to know that I started teaching cycling in the public schools, and my previous career was as a cycling educator and advocate. So not being able to ride is major. And I ride to work every day possible.)

Back to school:
I sat on a stool, I put my knee up, and I tried to teach. I tried to follow my plan. I tried not to cry.

I sort of mostly succeeded, in that I didn't usually cry until I actually got home.  Usually.

Some days, the pain was so overwhelming that I could barely form words in English, and the thought of trying to do anything hard in another language brought those tears back.


So I let go.


I let go of my plans.  Instead, I did lots of card talk- only I would give the kids like 10 minutes and sometimes colored pencils to draw, and then collect their papers and make a slideshow for the next time I saw them. (Sounds like a lot of work- it's really, really not, with airdrop and a phone. Here is an old post about how I do this.)

These, plus some other pictures, ended up being an hour of lesson plan
in 2 different classes!

I decided to try Special Person interviews, something I had tried 4 years ago and hated.  The kids loved them and begged for them.  I tacked on some Write and Discuss, and voila, that was the lesson plan.  For an assessment, I had them write about themselves.  (And the results were mind-blowing.  Not a single student said "Yo es 13."  (I is 13).

I even showed funny videos, and used them for input, but I didn't always do a reading afterwards.  (The copier is a LONG way from my classroom.)

I leaned very heavily into FVR.  And Sr. Wooly.  And Weekend chat.  And small talk.  And whatever I could do to keep the language flowing, minimize trips to the copier, or even trips that involved standing up and writing a new word on the board with a translation.

I got REALLY GOOD at keeping my vocabulary in-bounds- and I was already getting good at it!

I'm not counting down. You're counting down.

I guess I want to write this for myself- to remind myself as I stare down the calendar at 40 more days of school, 8 of which are Mondays (at least according to the daughter of the kindergarten teacher, who is good at knowing things like how many days are left), that input is input.


Input that kids are interested in listening to and input that they understand and are interacting with is all good.  In fact, it's the best thing I can do for them.



There is no rule that says I have to follow my scope and sequence. (Thank goodness.)

There is no rule that says I have to cover this or make sure to teach that. (I am very fortunate.)  

There are only the constraints and demands I place on myself, and I really want to cultivate a different mindset.

I am incredibly lucky, I know, and I think I need to remember and acknowledge it.

I know myself.  I know that if I am not careful, I am going to look back at January, February, and March of this year and ask myself what the heck I was even doing those months.  There is hardly anything glued in our interactive-ish notebooks, and if it weren't for Anne Marie Chase's quick quizzes and weekly timed freewrites, there would be no assessment grades in the gradebook.

But you know what I was doing?  Getting to know my kids.  Exploring their interests, and mine.

Shooting the breeze with them, in Spanish.  Watching videos of cats and sloths and penguins and then talking about it. We literally spent an hour discussing the gross things that pets do and eat.  It was one of the funniest hours of my life as kids shared horribly funny stories of their pets bringing them dismembered bits of other animals.  We spent another hour talking about their class trip and what they saw, felt, and experienced in the nation's capitol, which led to an intense discussion about what is feminism, what is sexist, and what is culture.  I could not have planned that if I tried.

I want to remember that some of the fastest and best hours of teaching have gone by when we just read, or chat, or look at interesting pictures and talk about them.

I want to remember (in May, when the pressure to have my 8th graders "ready" is really building up) that I am preparing them to communicate, not to conjugate.

Reading, reading, reading

I got to hear Dr. Stephen Krashen twice this year.  Both times he talked about the importance of reading at the intermediate level for language acquisition.

What a force of nature he is!  What a smart, funny, elegant speaker!  Who makes all his research available...FOR FREE!  http://www.sdkrashen.com

What a nice person who let me take a selfie with him.  (I plan on putting it up in my reading library next to all the quotes I printed out and stuck to the walls.) 

Some highlights from my notes (paraphrased): 

• There are two camps of thought about second language acquisition.  One camp believe that comprehensible input develops language skills.  Research backs this up, over and over again.  The other camp believes that skill building (verb forms, worksheets) develop language.  There is not research that backs this up, but it is taken as a given in education that This Is How Language is Learned. To paraphrase Dr. Krashen,  the latter camp is an axiom, not even a hypothesis, and is pervasive in our culture.  He would like for this axiom to be reduced to at best a hypothesis.  (Aside: you know you have been hanging out with SLA researchers when people start saying things like "I posit.." and "My hypothesis is..." 

• Read and eat- let kids eat and read!  Why not?  (Our brilliant librarian at my school already does food and book projects...she is so cool.)
• Junk reading is good for you.   Dr. Krashen talked about comics, Sweet Valley High (and related Sweet Valley Twins, Sweet Valley Jr. High, etc.), and others.  No more shall I feel guilty for my paperback mystery crime thrillers!  
• People who read more know more.
• People who read fiction are better at dealing with uncertainty.
• Star what you like: a simple system for rating books in a library- kids like it, put a star in the front cover.  BRILLIANT.
• The more accountability there is for reading=the less reading students will actually do.  This makes me so grateful that I have come to the conclusion that reading with no accountability is ideal.
• Fake reading (a popular argument against SSR/FVR in L1 and L2) is not really happening, and when it is happening it can be traced to crummy program implementation (books that are too hard, too boring, accountability, rigidity, uncomfortable places to read, etc.). 
• Light reading will prepare you for academic reading. Researchers showed that every hour of self-selected, sustained reading of any sort resulted in a .6 points on the TOEIC, a high-stakes test of English in many Asian countries.  
• We need more books.

Note: all the notes that I took were from lectures given in July 2017, in Denver, CO (Fluency Fast/IFLT) and San Antonio, TX (NTPRS17).  For the research and evidence, please see Dr. Krashen's website.  

How my own observations have found all this to be true:

Since I started Sustained Silent Reading/Free Voluntary Reading in my class, I have felt my own language improve.  Between reading the level 3 and 4 readers over a week or two during class time (because the biggest distraction to reading is a teacher who is not reading) and tearing through the level 1 readers (so I can make better recommendations to kids about what to read), I feel more confident in applying preterite vs imperfect, subjunctive, past subjunctive, and even the condition + subjunctive past.  

FVR outside, last day of Spanish

My kids took to FVR like kids in a water park on a summer day.  They ate it up, asked for more, begged for it!  They volunteered to do book talks, and shared their favorites, and curled up together, and groaned when I rang the chimes to indicate it was time to do something else.  They voted for a reading party outside for their last day of Spanish in 8th grade.

I saw changes in their language too- mostly in their writing.  Students began using longer sentences, more complex descriptions, and words that rarely came up.  Their spelling and syntax improved and their overall comprehensibility did too.  I never edited their writing nor taught a writing workshop, all year long.  

So, FVR, I am recommitting to you, and to my beautiful new classroom with a READING LOFT!  

Other Posts about FVR/SSR

Sustained Silent Reading / Free Voluntary Reading: it begins!

I started a FVR/SSR program with my Spanish 2 (8th grade) class this year.  I am SO EXCITED to report that it is a smashing success.  Kids ask for more, say thank you, and have a palpable sense of excitement when I announce it and a sense of disappointment when I ring my chime to indicate that it is over.

I researched and read a great deal about how to do it, and pulled in my background as an elementary reading teacher to set up a program.  Here is (roughly) what I did to ensure success.

If you haven't read everything that Bryce Hedstrom has written about FVR and reading, stop reading now, click here, (scroll down to Establishing a free voluntary reading program)  and read it. All.    Bryce has assembled a vast collection of truly useful resources (for free, for other teachers, for the good of the kids) and I can not overstate the impact his teaching style and philosophy has had on mine.Then come back to read how I applied my learning.

 Assembling a FVR library: 
Thanks to a generous grant from a parent, I was able to purchase a LOT of books.  I leveraged my grant and waited until a conference special, and bought as many books as I could carry.  I also used the conference attendees as a resource.  Brilliant teachers such as Karen Rowan and Alina Filepescu both made incredibly helpful suggestions in the moment as I was purchasing.  I love this TPRS community!

I also print out copies of each and every story that we create in class and have been doing so for two years and have those in page protectors.

Many TPRS teachers offer their stories for free on TPT and/or through their blogs, and I always take advantage of printing those up and adding them.

Newspapers, magazines, phone books,  and other community things get scooped up and added, and I inherited a bunch of stuff from another teacher.

Last, careful selection at Scholastic warehouse sales and Goodwill have earned me a good number of affordable non-fiction and very easy fiction.  Remember though: most children's books are written at an intermediate-mid level or higher, so they aren't necessarily a great fit for novice readers.  

FVR library organization:
Bryce Hedstrom and Mike Peto both have great resources for FVR library organization.

I approached the challenge of library organization like I did when I had an elementary classroom reading library: it neeeded to be organized, inviting, easy.  I decided to remove all the bilingual books *for now*.  I sorted children's books into very easy categories and used a simple bin/numbering system to keep it organized.  This way it is really easy to see where books go back and it stays relatively organized.  

Each book is tagged with our school's name, a bin number, and if it is a specific TPRS novel, the level (according to Bryce Hedstrom's great resource for leveling novels, click above and scroll down).
Here is a link to the bin categories and the labels that I use to label them.  Velcro on the bins (bins from the dollar store) + velcro on the labels means that the bins can be reorganized easily as needed.  Plus, you get a new book? Just figure out what number bin it goes on, label it, and add it.  Easily expandable!


Introducing FVR
Day 1: I showed students this slideshow, courtesy of a brilliant Latin teacher, adapted from a similar slide show.  The presentation is intended to show what 98%-95% comprehensible reading really is, and how the jump from 95% to 90% is really enormous.

I also showed some quotes from Bryce's excellent resource about reading; mostly quotes from Dr. Stephen Krashen, an influential researcher about second language acquisition and the power of reading.

Next, as a group, we looked at the library, discussed organization, and I had a couple of kids model browsing for books and taking them out.  This last step seemed silly, but someone had suggested it (I am so sorry that I forgot who and can not attribute!) but I think it really helped.

Each kid got a bookmark and wrote their name on it; they can check out books (click here for my check-out form) overnight but they can also just leave their bookmark in the book and I won't let that one leave the building until it is read.

 I gave the kids the expectations.  They need to read, just read, and read.  There is no accountability other than to list the books that they read.

Finally, I let them pick books and read.  For 4 minutes.  It was SO hard to stop them, but I wanted to leave them wanting more.

The following week I gave them 8 minutes.  They were so happy and asked for more.  The next week, they got 10, and yesterday, 15.  I also am reading, per Bryce's great suggestion, and it just feels so very, very good.

I hope these resources are helpful to anyone else who wants to try FVR/SSR.

NTPRS! NTPRS! NTPRS!

So, as the title implies, I just got back from NTPRS 2016.  I feel like a different person.  NTPRS is one of the national TPRS conferences put on by the great folks at TPRS Books.  I have had the great privilege to attend a two day workshop previously, but five whole days of "experienced track" TPRS teaching was an incredible gift.  I took Japanese, Romanian, and Latin classes and every day experienced the feeling of being a novice student and completely clueless.  I met some amazing, dedicated teachers who are trying to repair the world, just like me, through language teaching (and oh so much more).  I made some great friends and found a whole new community to inspire me.

I have so many blog posts rolling around in my head and feel inspired to actually write them.  But first and foremost, I want to say thank you to everyone who came up to me and said that my deskless classroom helped inspire them.

I LOVE YOU.

I leaned so much this week that I can't even begin to process it.  Since I tend to process by writing, I plan on using my next few posts to process some of my aha moments and huge takeaways from the different workshops that I attended.

Suffice it to say that I was reminded just how important my work is, and that I am not alone.

Also, here's me with all the books I bought spread out on the floor of my office....I am most pleased.