Becoming an Anti-Racist Educator: Where to Begin

I two-timed the blog world, sorry!  Click on the link to see my post about Becoming an Anti-Racist Educator over on the Comprehensible Classroom's blog.

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.

Encouragement and Community: NTPRS 17

Photo by Daniel Collins

It is hard to know where to begin. I learned a ton and experienced a thousand new ways to do something that I already love to do, only better.  I tried try new things and took big risks.  For example: the can-can in front of my colleagues!

My iPad notes are covered with scrawls and pictures and highlighted with "don't forget" and "TRY THIS".  I learned so much this year. More on that later.

But perhaps my biggest takeaway this year is how badly I need my CI colleagues.  How much I need friends who are serious SLA geeks and want to listen to Tea with BVP and get excited to talk about Standards Based Grading.  People who believe the same things I do about second language acquisition, who are influenced by the same thinkers that inform my practice, and who want  communicative competence AND equity and work-life balance and who are passionate, even nerdy about this stuff.

I have great colleagues in my school and an A+ administrator who supports me and challenges me to be the best I can be.  I am fortunate.

Image by Cool Text: Free Graphics Generator -

But what I needed from NTPRS was the cheerleading, the support, the goofy songs, the feeling that we are all in this together, and we are a strong, loving community, even if we are spread out around the country and world.  I needed the late night conversation about coaching in my unique school environment and brainstorms about how to work with some tricky situations.  I needed to hear how someone else solved a problem, and to be challenged to answer "why do you do that."  I needed to be told about what I do well, so I can continue to grow and be proud of my successes.  (Thanks, coaches!) I needed to take risks:  to get up in front of my peers and demo teach, then demo coach, then coach for real!

Notes, using Noteshelf iPad app

So, while I brought back pages of notes and ideas for my classroom, for how to be a better leader and coach for my colleagues, and more, my biggest take away is...feeling thankful for a week of encouragement, leadership, and positivity.

When it is worth it

This year has been challenging for so many reasons.  I came home in tears often, usually just because of sheer exhaustion.  This is hard, hard work.

But then something like this happens, and it is all worth it.

In a final free write for one of my 8th grade classes, a student who was new to Spanish last year, who thought she would never learn another language wrote this: (Note- I edited out another student's last name!)

In short, it is a story about our first TPRS class story last year.  She goes on to describe how we have lots of crazy stories, and how sad  she is that she will not have Spanish next year in her new school.  Then, she talks about how she is going to Mexico and how her dream is now possible, she speaks Spanish and she loves Spanish.  She also mentions that "Señora C es una professor muy incréible."  (With some spelling errors!)

As I am grading this in my prep period today, I started crying.  Seriously!  This is why I do it- to give confidence and strength to all kids, to help them love the language and feel great about speaking it.

TPRS teachers have a high tolerance for errors, so if you come across this writing, judge it for the fantastic essay on why she loves this class, not for her errors (because hey, we all make errors) or what she doesn't know.

Rethinking: How I use TPRS in novice levels and how I had to un-learn.

Recently a teacher posted on the moreTPRS listserv about her intense and incredible frustration with TPRS.  Her questions and concerns seemed to indicate that she wasn't familiar with some of the basics (which is understandable).  Several others addressed her concerns in a generous way, and I added to the discussion.  Here is a recap of what I wrote.  I am reposting based on a request from someone, and because I think, well, the questions were really legitimate.  Her frustration was real, and rather than discounting it, the community reached out to support her.

On starting TPRS 

Explaining to students  *why* you are asking questions (aka circling), and how language acquisition works is a pretty important part of helping them understand why you are asking them to do what you are doing. Being confident that you are on the right path helps them believe that you are making a change.  Believing that comprehensible input is (probably, at least in my opinion) the most effective way to teach a language and knowing that TPRS is probably the most efficient, interesting, teacher-and-student friendly way to deliver that input, and being confident about your knowledge will help you stay the course and help them buy in.  

On working with novices or students who may have language experience but not sentences
In my novice classes, I start them with very, very few words in Spanish. and I use a ton of cognates, plastic toys, pictures, and stuffed animals to reduce the cognitive load.  However, I start my novice-high kids (some who have had 6 years of Spanish classes) with the same story outline because most of them have a lot of random words bumping around in their heads but no idea how to make actual sentences with them.    They can do great things with a verb table, but can’t apply that knowledge in context.  

A story script can be as simple or as challenging as you want it to be.  Here is one that I do in my first week of absolute beginners: [Bold words are my targeted structures…rockin’ it old school.]

Week 1 There was a (girl/boy).  [Name of girl/boy] had a problem. S/he wanted a ____. [I use a stuffed animal - in Spanish, a cognate, in other languages…a stuffed animal that you know is recognizable].    With circling, added details, TPR, brain breaks, and first week scheduling surprises, this is a full week! 

Week 2- I added that the main character went somewhere and the [animal] was not there, so they went someplace else, and the  animal was there.  The girl/boy was happy.   The amount of functional language required was about 25 words, written for students to comprehensify in L1 and L2 if possible, with language posted for the student actor to speak (are you a girl? I am a girl.  Do you want/I want, etc.).  

Week 3- we reviewed the story in many of the ways that others have discussed, or that can be found for free by many brilliant teachers who generously make their work available.  

After week 3, I do not expect them to produce anything.  At all.  They do not have to answer in complete sentences (I often have to discourage that), they do not have to write anything, they don't have to say anything other than yes, no, and one word answers.  I do want them to answer questions- yes or no, a boy or a girl, who had the problem, etc.  In TPRS, this is known as asking circling questions, or just circling.  

On keeping it REALLY comprehensible and fun
I should also note that I have all the question words on the wall to point at, all the English translations of the bold words, and a handful of posters with other useful words- like with, or, and, to, for, except; also before, after, sometimes, always, also.  In this way, these common words for story telling are already made comprehensible, and all I have to do is point and pause for kids to understand what the new word is.  I train kids to hold up signs with the question words when I say them, giving more comprehensible input, and use a lot of sound effects to help keep it fun but also more understandable.  An example of this is when I use the word but, a student hums a three note "impending doom" song, and when I use dog, someone barks.  When I use the word for who, someone holds up an own and goes who who.  I also use a lot of ASL (sign language) and some signs and gestures that I made up myself.  Again, this helps keep it comprehensible for students and requires me to slow down and really consider the words taht I use.  

On teaching (and selecting) structures- rethinking how and what you teach
In TPRS, we talk about functional language (also known as language chunks, targeted structures, super 7, sweet 16) to mean high frequency words in context.  Words like had, was, wanted, are all functional language, not isolated lists of semi-connected words.  Instead of teaching I had, you had, they had, we had, I teach s/he had, then weave a story about what someone had or did not have.  I use a student actor as the person who did not have the thing.  I interview the student actor to get I had and You had or you have and I have.  Don’t get me wrong.  It is a whole new way of thinking about language and has taken me a long time to get my head around it. 

Managing and eliciting student responses: How can they create the story if they don't know any words?  

Allow 2 words of a shared language for student suggestions if possible.
Drawing, on paper or whiteboards is another option. 

Cognates, inexpensive toys and stuffed animals, and even printed pictures are other options.
However, it is important to be aware of possible misunderstandings with pictures especially- a picture of a man running could mean: a man, legs, fast, running, to run, street, or many other things.  

 One of the least discussed (I think) and most important TPRS skills is how to keep your language really, really simple when it needs to be- how to keep it “in-bounds”.  (This means how to talk to them just using those 25 words that they know, and not add in anything else.)  Practicing that and training students to let you know when you are out of bounds (or they just don’t understand) is important!  Many teachers establish a signal that means "Teacher, you have not made yourself clear."  They celebrate the courage it takes for students who admit when they are lost!  

Not Complete Novices?  

 For my novice - high classes and above, I use a lot more language.  A LOT.  I assume they have acquired almost all of what I previously taught, so my language is more complex.  

 For instance, I am doing a story right now with “is hungry”, “is sad and cries”, and “eats”.  (This is from Martina Bex's SOMOS unit 10, Como Agua para Chocolate) They are familiar with tiene hambre, está + emoción, and most can figure out that llorro means “I cry” instead of s/he cries.  But they haven’t acquired all of those structures yet to use them without errors. They know what they mean…but they need more practice.  My job is to give them that practice (input) in compelling ways.   So my story uses all the language that they have (which is a fair amount) but I focus on using the new words- cries, is sad, is hungry, eats- in a bunch of new ways.  Who is hungry?  Are you hungry? Were you hungry after school yesterday?  What do you eat when you are hungry?  Is there food you can not eat?  What do you eat when you are sad (or happy, or excited).  I also added in laughs and smiles because they are included in a great activity about Celia Cruz, so students were familiar with them.  I know they know tiene hambre but I don’t think that they know tenía hambre very well, so I focus on that.

To keep it compelling, I ask things like “Do you eat your sister when you are hungry, or do you prefer to eat chairs? I prefer to eat chairs, but only if they are  stone chairs from Bolivia”.   Their laughter lets me know that they understand.  And the golden moment: when the actor says something like “I don’t like to eat stone chairs from Bolivia; I prefer to eat stone chairs from Mexico when I am hungry.” (Golden moments don’t happen that often, but you know you are weaving a compelling story when they do!)     

Students know to let me know if they are lost, plus I do a lot of comprehension checks (translate the sentence that I just said, summarize in L1 what just happened, what does the o at the end of a verb mean, etc.) in the moment to make sure.  As soon as I am confident that they are solid, I add something else in.  

Pacing

 I do about 3 structures in one story, not per 3 weeks.  Stories tend to run 1-3 classes to create, then we spend another class or two or three reading and reviewing the story, then I usually do another reading or a Movietalk to further review those structures.  Then maybe a cultural story or short film that, again, uses the structures in a totally different way.  In my case, using a curriculum written by Martina Bex, called SOMOS, after I do a story, review, read another similar story, and watch a silly movie about someone who is really hungry, we are going to watch part of Como agua para chocolate, and use the target structures to discuss what we saw, read about it, and write about it.  Since we are watching a scene about eating and crying, I am confident that they will have the language to discuss an authentic piece of culture at their level.  

Sometimes I do more, depending on the level, and sometimes I do less- again, depending on the level.  In my first novice story, the structures are había, era, tenía/no tenía, quería.  Then I added in fue, estuvo, and estaba (emoción). But also remember that I have the present tense on the board for them too, so I can interview my actors.  Era- eres, soy; tenía tienes/tengo.  It is all written out for them to remember, and so the student actor responds correctly.    

If your students are frustrated, you can move faster- until their comprehension level is reached, then back up a bit. If they are frustrated because they don’t understand what you are saying or why you are doing what you are doing, maybe back up and address that too.  

TPRS is Equal Opportunity

[The original question-asker mentioned that she felt like TPRS worked only for kids from high socio-economic backgrounds in the US.]   

I do not agree TPRS only works with students from high socio-economic backgrounds, because it seems like most teachers in more diverse (economically diverse, racially diverse, etc.) communities have just as much, if not more, success with it.  I know that for my students who are labelled as lazy, recalcitrant, pains in the butts, etc., it is a real change for them to have fun in class by just listening and responding.  Since my school doesn’t yet use proficiency based grades, they still don’t get good grades, but they can read whole paragraphs in Spanish after just a month and after 4 months, can give (error ridden) opinions and descriptions.  Yeah, it is hard for them to buy in at first, but it is hard for high achieving students too, since often they just want to memorize and fill in blanks, but that doesn’t work in my class.

Mindshift for students AND me 
Students  have to be willing to listen with the intent to understand and admit (signal) when they don’t understand, and they have to let input be input rather than jumping straight to output.  It is a mindshift for everyone.

I had to let go of my idea of what “good” language production looks like. I had to learn to embrace the errors in their writing and speaking, and not judge them (it turns out that they are not, in fact, lazy or stupid.  They just need more input.)  or myself (I am a pretty good, caring teacher and I just need to get better at being patient and providing more, compelling, input.).

In fact, I had to let go of my ideas of output, partner activities, etc. completely, and start asking myself with each and every activity “Does this provide students with more good, comprehensible, reasonably compelling input?”  If the answer is no, I don’t do the activity, unless I want to do it for other reasons (engagement, class buy-in, brain breaks, and of course assessment).  

Final Thoughts

Languages take time to learn.  That is why TPRS teachers often use the phrase "Teach for June”- not sure who coined it originally, but the idea is that everyone learns at their own pace, and as a teacher we just keep giving comprehensible, compelling input and they will get it.  By June.  Because everyone acquires at a different rate.  

As a 3rd year TPRS teacher, I am seeing that trusting in it and worrying less if the kids are getting it (and working more on my own TPRS skills) does pay off.  My kids who have been on a full TPRS diet with me for the past year and a half are excited, reading, and speaking.  And they are anything but perfect.  I am not perfect.  They still make mistakes that make me grind my teeth…and that is ok.  Next year’s kids will maybe make fewer of the same mistakes, because I will be a better teacher.   Which leads me to my second important thing: 

TPRS skills are really hard.  Highly skilled TPRS teachers make it look so easy…but it isn’t.  It takes practice, coaching, patience, more practice, and failure.    Also, some TPRS teachers are super theatrical and are really happy to pull out duck faces and bat wings and cat ears and wear them (so that the students will too).  And some aren’t.  TPRS works for me because it is equitable, personal, fun, WAY easier than teaching from a textbook, works better for the kids, and lets me channel my energy and love of silliness and the absurd.  For others, who are perhaps differently energetic and less prone to wearing bunny ears, it works for other reasons.  (I have heard some folks’ classrooms described as meditation rooms.  Not mine.) 

Being a Student and the Importance of Pause and Point

Note: This is a series of posts about my takeaways from the NTPRS2016 conference.  It was life changing and teacher-affirming.

Conferences can be overwhelming.  TPRS can be overwhelming.  How do you even begin?  New people, new ideas, hotel rooms, whirlwind schedule, and more.

A few years ago, I presented at a National Safe Routes to School Conference on teaching bike safety to kids.  I had never been to a conference before and a wise colleague of mine suggested that I try to get one great aha moment out of the conference and just enjoy myself the rest of the time.  Good advice.

At NTPRS2016 I got a lot more than one great aha moment, but I also decided to focus on one discreet TPRS skill for myself.  I attended three coaching sessions as a teacher and several others as a student or observer, and tried to really pay attention to how the skill was used.

The skill: Go Slow.  (Corollary to Pause and Point).
Why: So many others have written about why we should go slow...how can I add to their brilliance?
Suffice it to say that taking Japanese with the incredibly talented Betsy Paskvan after a full day of conferencing was challenging.  And I am a fast processor!  Her speed (or lack thereof) really supported me and made me feel confident.  I also noticed that when she sped up and I couldn't understand something I got really anxious.  It was a great lesson for me about why going slow makes a huge difference.

In coaching, I found myself starting slow and then getting really excited (because let's face it, I LOVE teaching with TPRS and want to do it all, right now) and going too fast.  Slowing down, focusing on one structure, and using the time to walk over and POINT to the written word all helped my "students" feel encouraged.  Let me say that again:  for me, using the time to walk over to the board/poster/sign and POINT to the written word was a game changer for me.

Let's see if I can put it into practice now!

Diego is my mental image for GO SLOW.  He only has one speed: dignified, slow, and with penchant for belly rubs.

Roses and thorns

Thorns: last night after school I had 3 pins that were holding some wrist ligaments together removed. It was an outpatient, fairly minor procedure, but it still hurt (still hurts) and I had a full day of teaching today. I hadn't really counted on the loss of the meager functionality that I had in my wrist this morning, so it was especially frustrating. Socks and zippers are beyond my skill set at the moment, so my husband had to zip me in my jacket and I had to keep wearing it until my morning duty was over. Also, I couldn't put my hair in a bun, so all day, my hair was in my face. Grrr.

Roses: a mother of a former student mentioned that in parent-teacher conferences, her child's Spanish teacher was very complimentary of his preparation and skill. Another student told a much younger kindergarten kiddo "You will love Spanish in middle school, Señora is the best."

Finally, after asking one class to work on a challenging on-line assignment, I asked them to reflect. I have noticed that many of my students, for whatever reason, are so afraid of "getting it wrong", no matter what "it" is, that they can't do anything without step by step hand holding. Throughout this assignment, I kept asking them again and again to persevere and risk writing something down that was incorrect. When I finally called it quits and we were in a circle, the students who had the most difficulty showed a great deal of self-awareness about their need to grow- to take risks, to try, to get it wrong. Other students kindly, sweetly, shared their strategies for succes, and it was a really neat moment.

Nope, it wasn't TPRS, it wasn't comprehensible input. It was a great discussion about our school's essential attributes, and I would argue that there is value in that.