Supporting the New-to-Language Kids: Differentiation in Action

Something that comes up a lot for teachers who have been using an acquisition driven, comprehension based approach is this: what do I do when I have a student who has little to no language in a class of students who have had a year or more of comprehension-based instruction, and have a lot of language under their belts?

We have to accommodate them.

Now, I want to be clear: accommodating them is my job. It’s hard. And to some degree, a little unfair for them- I mean, who wants to be the person with a kindergarten reading level in a 6th grade class? (Which is a close equivalent.)

As a teacher, it’s reasonable to differentiate about 3 sub-levels; like Novice Mid, Novice High, Intermediate Low.

It is a big ask to do 4 or more levels in one class. And in 2022-23, it's totally normal.
So in this sub job that I went to in Fall of 2022, students were put in language class without regard to their level. They were just lumped in.

Which meant that students with 0 language were put in a class with students who had at least a year (or more if they were in 8th grade!) of solid comprehension based instruction. And just to add some more challenge, I wasn't told which of the students were completely new.

It was REALLY hard! For them and for me. 

However, there are some things that I did that are a) good practice, and b) allowed them to successfully read an ENTIRE page of text at the end of our time together. And frankly, I’m really proud of these interventions. 

So what did I do? What were my teacher moves and strategies? How did I think ahead to start to address this situation? 

WHOLE CLASS: Establishing Meaning

What this means is that I told kids what words meant. This looked mostly like me putting the most important words on the board in the target language and in our shared language.
Was it possible to put every word I was going to use on the board? No.
It was possible for me to put the most important words up, and with the support of the question words, cognates, and adding words as needed, I was able to keep our conversations pretty “sheltered”.

But wait! What about the recommendation from ACTFL that says that 90% of the language in class should be in the target language? By telling kids what things mean, aren't I depriving them of "productive struggle"? 

First, ACTFL's recommendation is just that: a recommendation. It's not the law. There are no ACTFL police that are going to come around and fine me. 

While it is absolutely true that I want my students to be hearing (and reading, and interacting in) the target language a whole lot, if I am just speaking in the target language and they are not understanding, they aren't going to acquire anything. And frankly, using a shared language to link meaning is the simplest, most efficient way to make sure that students are able to comprehend the target language. Efficiency is important when we have limited hours of contact. You can read more of my opinion about this here: 90% Target Language.

"Productive struggle" is one thinly veiled way to make sure that some kids succeed and some don't. It's also a concept from traditional education contexts that just doesn't apply in a language classroom. If the goal is for students to acquire language, intentionally making things difficult for them to understand (or making it such that only a select few, or a certain kind of learner can understand) is both elitist and a waste of time. It also leads to the belief that only certain people are good at learning languages, minimal enrollment in upper level classes, and eventually, program closure.   

WHOLE CLASS: Sheltering Vocabulary

When I say “sheltering”, I am referring to the skill of “shelter vocabulary, not grammar.” I was focused on sheltering vocabulary- or as Martina Bex puts it: “protecting students from the words they don’t know and the negative emotions that come from not knowing them.” (And for what it’s worth, this is one of the most challenging skills for a teacher to develop.)
I planned ahead as much as possible and pre-wrote words and their meaning on the board as well - which in turn helped me remember what words to use- it helped me shelter better. It meant that I had a reminder in front of me about which words to use (and if it wasn't on the board, I should really try to not use it!)

WHOLE CLASS: Pause, Point, Slow

I worked really, really hard to speak slowly and point to the meaning of words as I said them. Of course, they had to be looking at where I was pointing, and paying attention to the English meaning. That was tough- but I'll deal with that in a minute.

WHOLE CLASS: Glossing everything

Glossing means adding the meaning of words- like a glossary. If I gave the students a reading, I put the core vocabulary on the top with meaning, and other words that I would not expect them to know as footnotes.

Reminders to myself

I had to constantly remind myself: I can not assume that they know anything. I certainly can not assume that they remember anything because I have no idea who was in class before. So thinking that they "should" know a word or meaning is just not fair. As John Bracey, a colleague and amazing Latin teacher reminds us: there are no "shoulds" in class.

This is such an important thing to remember- and one that I feel so deeply as I sit in my Chinese class and ask about the meaning of the same word...every. single. week. (OK, I ask for one word like 3 weeks in a row, then I ask about a new one.) If my teacher made me feel ashamed for asking, I'd never show up again. 

What it looked like:

Here's an example: I knew that we were going to be doing a ClipChat about a man, on a sofa, who opens and closes the door. On the board, I put up every word that I thought would be unknown- mostly it was verbs (opens, closes, walks, runs, there is, etc.). I tried to do this ahead of each class- this is why I love having a lot of whiteboard space.

Here's a picture of my white board:

Image of a whiteboard with Spanish words, underlined, and English meaning written in blue

For another story, using the EXACT same vocabulary, I made sure that all the words were on the board and on the copy of the text that they were going to read.

We did a gallery walk style reading, where they had to decide who said what based on the reading. Again, all the words were on the board. 

This is differentiation

I want to be clear: making sure that everyone is able to understand is differentiation. It is so easy to teach to the top tier of student- the motivated, the ones with tons of language, the ones that are engaged because they love it. But our job is to teach all the students, and this is the first step: making sure all students understand the target language input.

The Results

Was it perfect? Nope. Not at all. I was imperfect because I am not a mind reader, and I had no idea what they did and didn’t know, and who knew what, and so on. I was imperfect because it’s been since last May that I was in a classroom. I was imperfect because I am human!

It was messy too- because the students who had no prior language experience really struggled with believing that they could understand. They didn’t believe that I was pointing to the meaning of the words as I used them, and they didn’t believe that they were going to succeed. They arrived tuned out, turned off, and disconnected. 

And slowly, they started to come around. The magic really began to happen in 7th grade, when I started using an early unit from Somos. The thing about Somos is that it is structured in such a way that students get a lot of repeated exposure to the same vocabulary and it is written so that it is very easy to shelter vocabulary for the teacher. (Read about my relationship with Somos here.) 

The students really responded to the structure of the unit plan, but more importantly, we were keeping the language really focused on just a few key terms. 

INDEPENDENT WORK: Individual interventions and Small Groups

Any time I had students doing independent or partner work (reading a story, responding to questions about that story, etc.), I tried to either modify the task for the newer students or pulled them in a small group to work with them separately, or both. (Of course, it took a few days for me to figure out who was brand new.)

Sometimes this looked like having them just read the first paragraph with me and translating it. Or just reading highlighted sentences (that I highlighted as they sat down to work- no prep.) Another option was to not answer all the comprehension questions, or not complete the entire task. Remember: all students need not be doing the exact same thing. This is differentiation!

I also had them working together in a homogenous (same level) group so I could work with them and the other students could work independently. 

In 8th grade, I had one student new to language, and she sat with me and read some stories from the very first units of Somos (that I happened to have from previous classes). She translated them or drew them while everyone else was working on a more appropriately leveled activity. 

When we did Quick Draw, a partner activity that I did want her to participate in, I had already created two versions of a text (one in present tense, one in past tense). I put her in a homogenous group and modified the task: I invited that group to play with just 5 of the 10 sentences from the present tense, familiar version. (Read more about quick draw, from AnneMarie Chase, here.)

In another class, I had my 7th graders do a fun variation on a volleyball reading: one I first saw demonstrated by Craig Sheehy of TPRS Books. Note: this was a text that they had listened and read along with me already- it was familiar. 

In this activity, I arranged chairs to be in the formation of a small airplane, 2 by 2. Students were seated with a partner and had to do a volleyball reading: one person read the target language sentence, then the other translated it, and then read the next target language sentence. Then the first partner translated that one. Read more about volleyball translation here from The Comprehensible Classroom (Martina Bex). 

The twist is this: I put up a map of different countries, put on my best flight attendant voice, and every few minutes, announced that we would be landing in a different destination, and the first 2 or 3 people in first class (either on the left or right) had to move to economy. Everyone else moved up. I alternated what side of the "plane" had to move so students would get different partners. They had to go back to the earliest part of the text of either partner, even if one of them had already read that section. 

Image: students sit with their backs to the camera in rows of 2, reading out loud

SUCCESS: Two out of the 3 new-to-Spanish students were able to read and translate the ENTIRE page with their partners.

Note: Only 2 of the 3 did it. I had not managed to convince the 3rd kiddo that I was there to help them succeed. But that’s not too bad for 3 (shortened) weeks of instruction! 

What would I do next?

In practical terms, moving forward, I would plan on giving the new students nearly the same assessments, but I would discuss a few different options for reporting their assessments with them and their caregivers.

One option would be that they would take the assessment but I would not report their scores for the first trimester or 2. Since my grades are standards-based, this is something that has worked for me before, with admin and caregiver approval. 

I hope this helps you get some ideas about what to do with different levels, new students, etc.! 

Day 3: Working with the stories (and activity ideas)

Day 3

This post is the third in a series about what I actually did the first 3 days of classes.  Here are posts about Day 1 and Day 2.  

In Panamá and República Dominicana (class names for my Spanish 1B classes), my plan was to finish the story we started a couple of days ago.  I was successful in one class, and the other...well,  it's a work in progress.  We sure did get a chance to practice our procedures and routines, I tell you what!  That is a nice way of saying that they needed a lot of practice- practice not talking over each other or me, practice listening, practice not throwing things, etc.  Lots of practice.  

I believe in practice.

My classroom mantra.  

 We did establish a few facts in their story, but I am going to have to finish their story another day.

I also wanted to give all the classes their interactive-ish notebooks, but not spend too much time on them.

I spent about 20 minutes at the beginning of class passing out notebooks, getting names, updating tables of contents, going over expectations for gluing, and gluing in one important rubric- that of daily engagement.  

Then, back to the stories.  In Panamá I dispensed with the notebook stuff because several kids are gone due to a mountain bike race, so we just worked with the story (and finished it!).  In República Dominicana, I focused on the notebook and we will finish their story during the next class.  

In Cuba (Spanish 1 Honors), we did Around The World with Translations and Illustrations. It went really well.   


In my Honors 2 class, Honduras, we started with the notebooks, but since they were with me last year, it took about 5 minutes.  Then, I projected their illustrations from the mural and gave them a copy of the story that I typed out.  They had to write the sentence (on whiteboards) that best described the picture I showed- and if there were different opinions, we had a conversation about it.  (Here are directions for that activity. It is one of my favorites.)

Differentiation
To differentiate this activity and get more input, I asked different students to be interviewed (by me) as a character in the story about what happened and how they felt.   I let any student volunteer, but some students got yes/no and either/or questions and others got more open ended questions.  

Here are some question examples for students who needed more support: 

• Were you scared when ___ happened?  
• Did you go to ___ or ___ afterwards?
• Did you do ___ first or ____?  

Open ended questions:

• Why were you scared?
• How did you feel when ____ happened?
• Did you want ___ to happen? Why or why not?  

Was this forcing output?  Nope, I don't think so.  They were volunteering to be interviewed (they knew that they would be speaking) and I was using different kinds of questions to make sure they were successful.  

I also added a write and discuss so they could see the 1st person forms of the words with the answers the interviewees gave.  

 I didn't even get through all the pictures of the mural when I realized if I wanted to start the movie trailer activity, I'd better move on.  We started just as Amy describes in her blog post- discussing what are the elements of a trailer, and started brainstorming important events.  

Then it was time to go to lunch!

Next week's plans

Next week, I plan on continuing to teach procedures, add in new brain breaks, and add a few procedural things to our interactive-ish notebooks.   (Passwords, birthday compliments, and performance descriptors come to mind.)  

I will use the Around the World translation and reading activity in my standard classes (with their class story) and play some kind of secret input game with the illustrations.  

I also plan on taking one whole class period and teaching them about proficiency levels. (See this post for specifics).

In addition, I will spend at least one class period with my 8th graders setting them up for Sustained Silent Reading (Free voluntary reading), but if I don't get to it until the following week, that's ok.  

Day 2, 2019: some lessons about going out of bounds

Day 2

This is a series of posts about what I actually did during my first three days of class with students.  Click here to see Day 1, and here to see Day 3. 

For some information about what I do to start the year, click here.  

I started each class today by giving students time to read the syllabus and assigned the syllabus homework that I have students do each year.  We reviewed how students enter class and practiced it with one group.  (Here is a sample of my routines and procedures.)

We spent a few minutes discussing the syllabus homework, then I taught them another brain break and we practiced that.  

Next, we continued with the story we had started the previous day. In the case of the class that had no time to start one, we started a new story.   (Here is the rough script that I was roughly following.)  

A vegetarian chupacabra and Elmo.
I LOVE TPRS!  

In Honduras, the class that looped up with me (they were Spanish 1 honors last year, now Spanish 2 honors), we spent very little time practicing procedures, but jumped straight to a complex story about a vegetarian chupacabra that wanted to be popular, but also refused to hunt. It was a classic TPRS story in that there were multiple locations and unexpected details- Mall of America, a roller coaster, and Elmo.  (If you want more information about how to ask a story, you are in luck!  We made a whole episode of our Summer Fun Club on this Story Asking-  and here is even more information! )

When the story ended but there was still class time, I turned to my favorite activity- a Cooperative Mural.   Students had 10 seconds to draw one moment of the story, then I narrated and verified what part they drew. 




At the end of class, I took pictures of the mural with my phone.  I know that I will use these in some way the next time I see the kids.  

For the other classes, I took pictures of the board again. 

TEACHER FAIL 

In Cuba, Spanish 1 Honors,  I had a terrible fail.  I used WAY too much vocabulary (went way out of bounds) and overloaded them.  Although I did a good job of making sure they understood the words (linking meaning, writing words on the board, etc.), I used WAY too many words.  I have no idea what I was thinking in that moment- all I can say is that I forgot my audience. It was a pretty epic TPRS fail and I knew I had to think of some ways to scaffold the crap out the story and make sure they felt supported.  More about that below.  

In that sense, it was ok because I showed them that I am going to make sure they understand- I did all the things that I try to do- each time a kiddo showed me they didn't understand, I clarified (and said thank you and gave them a high-five), and each time they didn't answer my questions with confidence, I clarified, and I gave them lots of processing time...so I guess it wasn't a total fail, but not an experience I hope to repeat.  I have to remember to give myself some slack, right?  

In República Dominicana and Panamá (class names), I had two incomplete stories, but we had established some hilarious facts and had some laughter in Spanish, so I was happy with that.  

End of day  

At the end of the day, I had two completed stories to finish typing out and two half-completed stories to start typing out.  Still exhausting, but I had a big block of planning time before I saw three of the four classes again, so I had some time to work.

I also had the illustrations from the mural to work with for one class.  

What I prepped for the next class:

In Cuba, the class with which I used too much vocabulary, I decided to do an input-based translation and reading activity.  I wanted to reinforce the idea that "you are going to understand everything, and I am going to help you."  This was the best way I could think of to overcome my epic fail.  

AROUND THE WORLD Translation and Illustrations

Click for examples that you can use or adapt:

Directions I post

The handout with story

Translations to put up around the room 

1) I typed up the story and divided it into 9-12 paragraphs.

2) I created a handout with the story and a space to write a number next to each paragraph. I made one for each student.  I also included a box for small illustrations.

3) I translated each paragraph to L1 and assigned each one a random number.  (This is an easy way to teach low frequency vocabulary like numbers. Just use them!) 

4) I printed up the translation paragraphs, cut them up, and put them around the room.

Students need to walk around the room, reading the story and the translations, and write the number of the translation in each box.  When they finish, they sit down and choose some scenes to illustrate.

*The reading and matching L2 to L1 is the most important part of this activity. The illustration is an extension for kids who fly through the first one, giving them something to do while slower processors take the time they need.  I will let them know that the illustrations are not meant to be completed (although I bet I have some fast finishers who will) so the slower processors don't get stressed. This is one way that I differentiate. 

On Tuesday, when I next see them, I will have them read the text again, and we will review the activity.  THEN, I will have them cut out their illustrations and we will put them in a big pile and do some variation of a Secret Input activity. I think that this group, which is boy heavy, will enjoy some healthy competition, so I need to think about how to do that.  Or maybe I will divide up the illustrations and kids into small groups, and have the students pull one illustration and their group members have to find that scene in the text and write it on a whiteboard.  I will see how I (and they) feel.

For the other class that finished the story, Honduras, I took the pictures of their mural and put them in a quick slideshow- click here for more information about that- so we can do some kind of secret input game for our next class.  

I also went back to my notes from all the PD I did this summer and decided that I wanted to try this idea from Amy Marshall, which requires no prep from me other than having a story.  Perfect!  

I also typed up my notes from the other classes, and came up with a way to end the stories we started.  

I went to bed at 8:15 that night. 

Day 1 in my classroom, 2019

I started school last week!  This year, my schedule is less convenient, I lost prep time, and I added another class.  I am doing my very best to be positive and sanguine about these changes, while looking ahead at what I will need to do to maximize my limited time.  I expect another blog post about planning time to come soon, as soon as I have lived it a bit more! Here is one planning post to get you started, if you are interested.  

But what the heck did I do during my first three or four days with the kids?   This post is about Day 1 and my overall goals.  Click here for Day 2 (with some examples of activities that I do) and Day 3. (with examples of how I differentiate an activity).  

Overall Goals 

My goal for the students was to help them see that this class is fun, that they will understand the Spanish we use, and also fun.  My teacher goal was to introduce them to some procedures and routines that will be the foundation of our year (like how we return to our seats from brain breaks and how we interact with each other in class).  My academic goal was to spend enough time in Spanish to make it feel like a language class, while not overwhelming or scaring them.  

My favorite way to do this is with a story.  But sometimes it doesn't go as planned! Read on for details, and a couple of ideas of what to do with the stories once they are finished, or skip to here for detailed activity ideas.
   

Day 1 in middle school 

Short classes!  In each class, I started with teaching the procedures for walking into my classroom.  (Because that first moment is the most important opportunity to establish how it is going to go, at least in my opinion.)  I had name tags for the kids, seating cards so they had random, assigned seating with less anxiety, and directions on the board.  

Kids lined up outside my room to wait for me.  I pulled one kid who I sort of knew and had them be my helper; they stood by the materials and made sure each student saw the directions and saw where the materials are located in the room.  Meanwhile, I greeted each student, asked them their name pronunciation and preferred nickname if applicable, and welcomed them.  

I did not welcome them in Spanish.  I did not start class in Spanish.  Once I taught them my "class is starting" procedure (in English) (click here for an older post about procedures and routines) and we practiced it a couple of times, I welcomed them in English.  

Then I made a little time for them to tell me what they were excited about, what they were nervous about, and what questions they had.    I smiled a lot.  We chatted.  I answered their questions and concerns, and I shared mine.  One class had more questions, and one was silent so I had to do a think-pair-share.  

I said several times "I am speaking in English now because I want you to know what is going on in this class, and I know that we will be speaking plenty of Spanish later."  

Then we did a quick brain break- I taught them to form 2 lines quickly and we practiced that a couple of times.  Then, they made a complex handshake with their partner(s) and practiced it- they had one minute.  I did this all in English, except for the second time we formed two lines- then I gave the direction in Spanish.  

I told them this handshake partner was their compañero de Bolivia, (Bolivian partner) and whenever they heard me yell BOLIVIA they needed to run to a space in the room with their partner and do their crazy handshake.  

We practiced that a couple of times, and then practiced how I get them back to their seats. (I do a call and response, which I learned from Annabelle.)  I praised them for doing it correctly and invited them (invited is a nice way to say that I forced them, but in a friendly way) to practice it again when they didn't get it quite right.  

Then, depending on how much time that all took, we started a little Spanish story.  

In two classes (I use class names as Annabelle suggests in this post- so these classes were Cuba and Honduras, both honors classes), I had them move chairs to how I like them for story asking, and we got started. 

 Here is the outline of the script I use (and some other beginning of the year resources) but it is very loose.  And remember, I am *not* teaching beginners!  If I was teaching beginners, I would start out doing exactly what is described in SOMOS 1, Unit 1, available for free on TPT.  *

With República Dominicana, the story went nowhere, but we did establish that one kid had shoes that smelled delicious, and that it was bad behavior to eat other people's sandwiches.  

Panamá ran out of time to move chairs and start a story, so I started talking about animals.  I used my rather gigantic collection of stuffed animals to ask (in target language) "Who has a dog?  I have a dog. Jay, you have a dog?  Who else has a dog?   Who has a cat?"  I used gestures and comprehension checks and the realia of the stuffed animals to support.  When I got to a stranger animal (moose, otter, giant spider), I started asking "Who wants a ___?", again checking for comprehension and using gestures.  

At the end of each class, I took a picture of whatever I wrote on the board so I could recreate it later.  

This wasn't quite a story, but it was a lot of input!  

At the end of the day, I took a few minutes to type out as much of the story we had done, based on the photo of the board.  This is a CRUCIAL, if exhausting step, both to help me decide where to go tomorrow, and to help me remember what we talked about.  I remembered why I usually don't do storyasking at the same time in all my classes if I can help it!  

Read on for Day 2 and 3!   

*Full disclosure: I now work for Martina Bex and the Comprehensible Classroom, but I do not renummerated based on sales or commission- at all. I am recommending it because it is fantastic.  

  

Responding when comprehension breaks down, and a simple story

This year, I was invited to be an apprentice teacher in the Teaching Lab at iFLT'19.  It was a great experience, and a fantastic learning opportunity.

Co-teaching and planning with 3 other amazing teachers!  Teaching adults! No curriculum!  The set up was one master teacher and 3 apprentice teachers, planning each day and then team teaching and co-teaching.  Leslie Davison, the master teacher, brought some props and had a few high frequency (and hilarious) words in mind, and an idea about a theme for the week.  The theme: durian fruit.  It just so happens that I use a reading by Kristy Placido in my classes about the durian, so that worked out well. But that's not what I want to talk about today.


Instead, I want to talk about when comprehension breaks down, how I beat myself up, and how our team responded.  I also want to share a very simple story that anyone could use. (The example is written in Spanish. Scroll down for the English version.)  

I want to focus on the moment when we realized we had to slow down and how we responded.

We had a wide variety of levels, from total beginners to folks who could write full paragraphs in Spanish, although the class was advertised for beginners. (Sound familiar? Like any class in any school!)

We had just discovered (through some formative assessment and comprehension checks) that some of our students were not understanding our messages, and were not stopping us to clarify.  This was a huge wake-up call for me.

For a while, I felt like a real failure- my one job that week was to make these adult students feel positive and confident about their language, and to create an environment where they understood everything and felt safe to say if they didn't.  I was already out of my comfort zone (It turns out that I think that adults are terrifying.) and was feeling unsure of my skills and my role as a co-teacher.    (Not because my colleagues weren't rockstars- they were. But because co-planning is really, really challenging if you are just meeting each other for the first time!  It got a lot easier pretty quickly.)

Martina helped me flip my mindset about this- she pointed out that I *was* doing my job- that I was checking for comprehension, and based on the information I received, we made a plan to meet the students where they were at.  She also helped me see that I had developed a strong enough relationship with the students to notice when one was very uncomfortable and figure out what was going on.  

Our teaching group (me, AnneMarie Chase, Jahdai Jeffries, and our fearless leader Leslie Davison) decided to focus deeply on three structures and work very hard to stay in-bounds for just those three words.  They were wants, goes, and gives (to).   We had already introduced these structures, but we wanted to really spend more time on them.  We felt comfortable adding the expressions is feeling happy  and is feeling furious because one is a cognate (furioso)  and the other we had used a ton and could easily explain.

A very simple script

I wrote a simple script and made a slide in Spanish.

Click here for the slide, reading, extended reading, and activity


I think that this is a great example of a very tightly constrained story taught at the beginning of an instruction cycle.  If I do say so myself!


I asked the story, using all my skills to keep it comprehensible, checking for understanding, and most of all, personalizing the story so that it was fun and funny.  I went as slow as I felt I could go, and I challenged myself to keep the words that came out of my mouth very limited.  This is known as sheltering vocabulary.

I was delighted to find that a student who came late to the class was super excited to be an actor in the story, and although she had no prior language skills, she was a hilarious presence and knew how to have fun with the story.

Here is the first story:  (Click here for the English version)

Now here is the cool part.  Because we were co-teaching, once I was finished asking the story, AnneMarie got up and continued to work with it.  She decided to flesh it out and add more details- because we knew that everyone understood the base story.  She did a variation of this activity, while retelling it and adding more specifics.   Notice how Version 2  of the reading is more complicated and uses a bunch more words.  It's also way more interesting!

Student draw-along from our story

While she was teaching, I was sitting in the back of the room typing up the story, and adding details as she went.  I was also creating a very simple formative assessment (but also more input!) to give to the students when she was done.  I took sentences from the story and created two options for details, e.g. Risha (wants/has) a monkey. 

Students wrote the correct word on a whiteboard, but really, they had to re-read the sentence and make sure they knew what it meant.  To further scaffold all the reading, I added a glossary on the bottom of the page so all the words were easy to find.

I think that teaching adults in this situation was a good reminder that no one needs to be made to feel bad for not remembering a word- I put those words on the slide as support- if they needed them, great. If they didn't, they could ignore them.

I have never had the experience of co-teaching with other experienced teachers, and once we figured out how it was going to work, it was really fun!  Adults weren't really that scary, and I did actually know what I was doing, and there is ALWAYS room for improvement!

Carol Gaab, Jahdai Jeffries, AnneMarie Chase, me!, Jason Fritze, Linda Li, Donna Tatum John, Mark Mullaney, Dina Marshal, and Grant Boulanger, IFLT10 Closing 

Teaching about proficiency levels

At the beginning of the year, I take 1 whole hour per class to teach about proficiency levels. In English. (Gasp.)  It is a day where I provide virtually no input in the target language.  Double gasp!  But aren't you a CI teacher?  Don't you have to speak in 90% target language for students to acquire language? Yes, yes, and yes.  But I also have to teach in a school, which means I have to do all kinds of things that have nothing to do with language acquisition. I have to make compromises. I bet you do too!

If you have been reading my blog, you know that I do my best to use standards based grades, and that I try to spend as little time as possible assessing (in class) and grading (out of class) for many reasons.  (Curious to read more about how I actually do it? Here you go: Assessing writing, assessing reading, and what goes in the grade book.)

Those reasons include (but are not limited to): it takes time away from providing input (unless it is an input-based assessment), it takes time away from planning great lessons, developing relationships with students, and taking care of myself. Since learners can't control their rate of acquisition, it is kind of pointless.  (See this post for a long, philosophical meditation on standards based grading.)

AND the ACTFL proficiency levels were *not* developed for schools.  Wait. Please go back and re-read that sentence.  My understanding is that they were originally developed for the Foreign Legion- to categorize overseas workers.

I KNOW!  So why do we used them?  Well, I use them because they come from our national organization, they provide common language, and someone else already invented that wheel (click here for resources regarding that wheel)  so I don't have to.  And, using these standards  means that I have a great deal of professional discretion in teaching what is going to be most effective for language acquisition.  Because the standards say nothing- NOTHING- about accuracy and grammar.  

Providing clear targets for learners *is* good practice in other subjects, and I have to squeeze into the school box and the grade box for my job.  And since I switched to talking about (and assessing with) proficiency targets, I have seen a HUGE shift- like earthquake level- in the mindset of my students when it comes to acquisition (instead of grade grabbing).

That in and of itself makes it worthwhile.

This is what it looks like at the beginning of the year:

I tell the kids that my goal for them is to have a certain level of proficiency at the end of the year.  My job is to give them as much input as they can, which is the only way to get there. Their job is to engage with the language.  But, I teach middle school. They want to know what that proficiency level actually means!

I use this activity from The Creative Language Class to introduce the different levels.  (Note: the authors have updated the original lesson plan from what I used- use the updated one that is linked!)




1) Show the first slide and come up with something that the class is going to describe.  Basically, there is a new kid in town and you have to describe something to that kid, but you can only use the kind of language you are given (novice low, intermediate high, etc.)
We have used these in the past: a watch, grocery store, taco, bicycle, cat, and circus.

2) Group students and give them markers, an 11 x 17 sheet of paper, and a card from the lesson plan.
     I have them glue the card on the paper.

3) Ask them to do their best to follow the directions on the card and try to explain what the thing is - IN English (or L1).

4) With time remaining in class, stop the kids and invite them to present.  They can read their card, then read their poster.

Here is a video of them presenting with a bonus peek at how I manage my classroom (making them practice routines, walking and pointing to the rules).

5) I usually project the slide for that level after the group goes.

Novice Mid poster

Intermediate Mid poster

6) Feeling frisky?  Good at making displays?  (I am not. See below.)  Make a display of the posters.  I leave mine up all year and have gotten very positive feedback from parents and administrators.  I also print up some of the slides to display.

Display 

Important:

Make sure that you remind them multiple times to write in L1 (English, in my case).
Check in often with the group that has novice low and novice mid.  They tend to need the most support.
If you have big classes, do 2 or 3 different groups for the same card.
This takes much longer than you think it will. That's fine. Go with it.
Have fun!