Breakout for Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro

 I wrote my first breakout! It's finished and ready! It was super fun to write and my kids are loving it.

El Perrito Está Perdido- Lost Lucky

Thanks to Carol Gaab and FluencyMatters for giving me permission to share freely with other teachers.  Please note that this breakout is licensed under an Atttribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike 4.0 Creative Commons License.  That means you can share and adapt it as long as you do not profit from it. Use of this work or any part of it for commercial purposes is not permitted.

What is this breakout all about?

In the book Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro, a dog gets lost and found, but we don't really know what happened.  This is the story of the girl who lost the dog.  It is written from her perspective and should be comprehensible for students who have read the book.  There is also a past-tense version of the readings if you want to run it with that text.  Bonus- once you set up the clues, you don't have to do anything other than swap out the readings.

What is a breakout anyway?  

Here are some useful articles for teachers who use CI and Breakouts.
What they are and how to put together a kit
A Breakout for Newbies
Breakout Edu Website  (Confession- I find the website and sharing platform to be difficult and frustrating.  I love the activities but the website is just hard to use!)


Some words of advice:

1) This breakout is HARD!  There are suggestions in the set-up documents for how to make it easier or more challenging.
2) I do not run this breakout as a timed breakout.  It is hard!  Instead, I give students a certain number of "tries" with each lock- between 15 and 20 tickets.  I prefer to do input based breakouts this way so students spend the time getting the input, then trying to solve the puzzles.  It took my kids more than an hour and half to break out.  But they all told me that it was not "too hard".
3) I ask that students read all the "chapters" together, out loud, before working on the puzzles.  This keeps the focus on the input.
4) I probably would not do this as my first breakout with a group.  For an introductory breakout, I suggest you use Vamos a Bolivia.

Note: I run my breakouts with 1 box. 
Here is how I do it:

• Prepare group folders with all materials, including hint cards and UV light pens.  This is super time consuming, but I think it is worth the trouble. 
• Assign kids to heterogenous groups  I aim for 4-6 kids in a group.  
• Give each group a team tracking sheet and a certain number of tickets or stickers.  One ticket = 1 minute with each lock, until the last day (or last 15 minutes), when it is 1 ticket=30 seconds with each lock.
• I have a master sheet that I use to track who opened what lock and I use tally marks to keep track of their tickets.
• When a group opens all the locks, they...hang out.  I ask them to read or work on illustrating stories for our library until most of the other groups have finished or have come closer to finishing.  THEN they get the glory of opening the locks in front of everyone.  

Input Based Stations for an Advanced Class

I LOVE this book.

Thanks to other great thinkers, I created my own input based stations as an introduction to the Fluency Matter’s novel Esperanza.  

As I was preparing to teach this for the first time last year, I felt totally overwhelmed by the resources available and the huge amount of background that I think is important to teach this novel.  Add to that the simple fact that I love Guatemala and having lived there several times and worked with a language school focused on worker’s issues and other social justice concerns, I have a ton of schema and a serious passion for this material.  I also wanted to experiment with some technology tools like Edpuzzle.

I decided to use these resources to create mostly input based stations for my most advanced class. This group is a very strong class  of 8th graders, roughly Spanish 2 Honors.  The idea is that they work in pairs or small groups and I float and support them.  

Logistics: 

You can never give directions often enough.

• I used our learning platform (Canvas) to create an instruction page for each station with directions, links, etc.
• I also made 1 page directions to slip into each station folder.  (You can never have too many directions.) 
• Since I am deskless, instead of having locations for the stations, I just put all materials in folders and kids work where ever makes sense for them.
• Our school utilizes a “big brother” type program called GoGuardian that allows me to see all the students’ screens at once to monitor them when they are sprawled around the room.  
• Fast finishers: groups tend to finish at different times, so students have the following options if they finish before everyone else: read their FVR novel, work on their Chicken Bus designs (after doing station C), or color their 6 facts sheet (after doing station D).  This way, students could work at different rates but still be occupied.   

Drawbacks: 

I quickly realized that a couple of the activities were very challenging and prone to misunderstanding, and I needed either to work with that group directly or scaffold and adapt the materials.

It is hard to monitor comprehension when kids
are sprawled everywhere, but that is OK once
in a while. 

Also, I don’t grade much in my classes other than assessments, so I found that it was tricky to see if they understood (or more critically) misunderstood the core concepts without grading every activity.  To get around this, I decided to let go of the idea that they needed to get EVERYTHING PERFECTLY. Instead, floated from group to group.   I spot checked their work, asked questions, and asked them to find the evidence in the text for their answers.  I also have a pretty good sense now of what they are going to misunderstand (and who is most likely to do so) and I can spot check that too. 

Activities:

Station A
Resources adapted from Sharon Birch, (both her TPT store and her blog) and the song, Ave que Emigra, by Gaby Moreno

Students do a matching activity to review vocabulary.  Students read a short booklet that is a narrative of the song.  They listened to the song, read the lyrics, and answered a few questions about it (and drew a line from the song) and an accompanying video.  

I really love manipulatives.
This is a matching activity for mapping.

Station B- Resources adapted  from Martina Bex: Geography lesson

Students read an informational text about the geography of Guatemala and answered comprehension questions.  Then, they placed pictures of geographical features in their approximate place on an 11 x 17 map using internet resources and the reading. 

Station C- Resources adapted from Martina Bex:Central American Chicken Busses

Students did a fan-n-pick type discussion with a partner for 4 minutes to connect prior knowledge of transportation systems (especially public transport and busses).  Then, they watched a video that I modified on EdPuzzle and embedded some short, comprehensible discussion questions (what did you see? What colors do you see? What do you think that bus driver likes to do?) Students responded out loud with their partners in short phrases or simple sentences, depending on their level.  Finally, they read a comprehensible text about chicken busses and did a compare/contrast activity about the system of transportation here and in Guatemala.  For fast finishers, they also got to design and color their own chicken bus.  

Drawing...and summarizing.

Station D- Resources adapted from the Teacher’s Guide published by Fluency Matters, my own materials, and various sites around the internet.  

Students watched a slideshow with very basic facts about Guatemala (kind of an overview with facts about $, clothing, population) and students simply summarize six facts and draw their understanding.  

There is a LOT of drawing (and coloring) during these four days and I think, for the most part, they really like it.  My 8th graders are still kids at heart, and I know that when we finish the stations, we are going to dive into some of the uglier sides of this amazing country, the internal armed conflict, the genocides, and the violence.  So, I don’t mind coloring for a bit.  

More activities for stories...especially for Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro

My Spanish 1B class of 8th graders is really enjoying Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro.  Here are some more activities (click here for chapters 1-4) for pre, during, and post reading that I have adapted or created.  As I mentioned before, I do not want to violate copyright so some of these activities I can not share, but if you own the teacher's guide, you could make them too!

Chapter 5

Still of video...la mano hace...

PRE-READING
Review hace: I wanted to get reps in of hace because it is new for my kids.  I found this incredible video and word cloud of animals in Spanish.  I did a short Movietalk without really pausing the movie.  The script goes:  "La mano hace ....[animal name].  ¿Qué hace la mano? (You know, for variety.)  Kids had to cross off the word on the word cloud when they heard me say (or saw) the animal name.  Not fancy, but engaging.

DURING READING
 Now What: I created a quick, disposable version of this game using about 8 sentences from Chapter 5.  As I read it out loud, students had to find the most logical ending of the sentence.  I quickly went around the room and checked if the kids were right- we didn't do a choral response just because, well, I wasn't feeling it.  But next time I do the activity, I probably will.  I asked the kids if they liked it- they really did.  It seemed a little unexciting to me, but they really enjoyed it.  Note: I read the story to them and they did not read along with me for this, just had the now what cards in front of them.  I could also see doing this as a paired activity where they face off and can see each other's guess and compete.

Audio Book: I also had students listen to the audio book and read along.  This chapter lends itself very well to audio narration because there both the dog and the boy make dog noises, and it's both funny and engaging.  Students LOVED this too.

POST-READING
Youtube Videos: Finally, we had a few extra minutes in class so we watched this awesome video of a doggie surfing competition.  Because we can.

Chapter 6- the teacher's guide has great activities and supplemental readings for this chapter.

PRE-READING
Check-in writing assessment:  I added a writing assessment that is super easy for the kids after we go over different dog breeds slide show.  They can take guided notes.  (This is based off the resource included in the teacher's guide.)

Click on the link above to see my guided notes for this activity. 

The writing assessment is simply to: Pick two dogs breeds.  Write a short paragraph about each dog.  Be sure to include the following:

·      Description of dog  (You may use your dog breeds page)

·      Is it a good fit for Brandon?  Why or why not?

Story-ask to review vocabulary:  Here is a brief outline of the story.  It includes examples of how I start to include the subjunctive into stories.

Read the Room Predictions:  I also asked kids to write predictions (on the form in the teacher's guide) then used the copy machine to increase the size of the seven or eight most funny, interesting, or weird predictions that were also mostly correct.  (Some I corrected to get that good input.)  As a starter the next day, I put them around the room and students voted for the funniest, most likely to happen, and most creative.  They voted by using little award cut-outs that I have, but you could just have them sign their names or put a star on the one they wanted to vote for!

Brandon Brown Quiere Un Perro- teaching it again and rockin' it! - Activity suggestions for Chapters 1-4

BRANDON!  

I love teaching this book.  It is SUCH a blast.  I have gotten so many resources from other teachers, so I thought I would share what I do here.

Please note: Due to copyright concerns, I do not feel comfortable actually posting my materials.  Most of the materials I created are taken directly from the teachers guides, and I want to honor and respect the work of the authors.  That being said, it has taken just a little bit of time to create the activities, so I think it is worth sharing. Seriously- low or no prep is the best!

This is not a complete list, just activities that I have added for my Spanish 1A  (8th grade) class that are outside of the teacher's guide.  If you are thinking of teaching this novel, buy the teacher's guide.  It is worth every penny, even if you teach high school.

I should say that one activity that I am doing for each chapter is that I read it out loud and ask students to act it out.  Every time.  I think that the first time, they need to hear me read.  I usually ask them to re-read it a second time, either with a partner or alone.  Then, I move to review activities.  I also do almost all of the reader's theatre activities that are included.

Chapter 1

• Review: Kahoot Quiz using the questions and responses from the comprehension questions.
• Pre-teach: Asked kids to email me pictures of their pets and a brief bio.  I put them into slides and present a new one every few days.  Super engaging.  

Chapter 2

• Review: I used the comprehension questions  in Spanish and the numbered heads together strategy to have teams find and write the answers on whiteboards.  This activity never goes as well as I want to, but they read parts of the chapter about a million times, so it got the repetition in!  

Chaper 3

• Review: I made a chain reaction game out of the comprehension questions and answers to review.  Teacher tip from my elementary years: In order to make this game re-usable and keep it organized, I do the following: Copy on card stock.  Take colored markers and color code (by drawing a line, an x, or the quickest way possible) on each sheet, making sure each card is marked.  Mark the same number of envelopes with the same colors.  Cut in stacks with your paper cutter.  Then, quickly sort each card by color (or have a helpful kid do it!).  I always label the envelopes with the color name in the TL and remind the kids to keep them organized by color.  Super smooth game making and it goes quickly!  
• Pre-teach: I also found a list with pictures of all kinds of household chores and created a people-find activity to review ¨tiene que" (since we targeted that structure last year) and talk about household chores and responsibilities.  
• Pre-teach: Because we haven't learned lleva and recoge (carries and pick up), and I thought we needed to review ve and va (sees and goes), I created a story about a student who was in his room,  in bed, when someone famous calls him, and he has to go to a place, pick up something, and carry it to someplace else.  When he arrived, the famous person asks him when he was going to return home.      Underlined words are new or recycled vocabulary.  It was a smash hit!  
• Pre-teach: I used the story I asked and did a Paper Airplane reading.  (I did individual airplanes, not teams, because my kiddos did not need the partner support, but I gave crummy directions and they all picked the first sentence.  I also didn't assess.  I let kids throw planes at me, at selected volunteer from the class, and at each other.  Super fun.  Next time, I will give better directions.  However, what a FANTASTIC Friday afternoon -last class of the day- activity that is also a "secret input" activity.   

Chapter 4

• I used the "Charades" game as suggested in the teacher's guide, and then used the cards for a very simple game.  Directions: Spread the cards out on the floor, either English or TL facing up.  Use the word in a sentence (TL) and one student has to find the English word they heard.  Give the TL word and someone else has to find the English.  
• Top Eight (I did eight, not ten, for time). I had kids in groups of four pull the top eight events then we decided, as a group, which were the most important.  That part never goes as well as I want it to though.  
• Use the top 8 for Running Dictation .  I am always looking for engaging activities to do with this particular group on a Friday afternoon, so this seems like a good one.
• Gallery walk / cut and paste:  Now, I think this group still needs MORE INPUT so I don't think they are ready to read questions and write accurate answers. I created regular page size sheets with questions.  They will be posted around the room.   Students will cut apart the many answers that I provided them (including 5 or 6 incorrect answers) and match them to the correct question.  Yep, they can just see what other kids paste on, but they are still getting the input!  (This is one of those activities that took me about 10 minutes to create.  They will do the cutting as their starter, so I don't take up too much class time for that.  

I hope this blog post is useful.  Remember, you can use almost any of these activities for almost any reading!  

When accuracy counts: Using a simple text, oral input, and student choice to improve output

At some point with intermediate level students, output becomes a little bit more important.  Not a lot. Just a little.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how best to teach a very easy novel with my faster-paced 8th grade students.  For reference, students with a "B" grade are more-or-less intermediate-low Spanish speakers/readers/learners and "A" students are intermediate-mid.  I knew I wanted them to experience an oral novel, read by a native speaker.  I knew I wanted them to do some self-directed activities that they could chose (within limits, of course).

I decided to create a series of 10 activities using resources from the Comprehensible Classroom's products, specifically the Independent Textivities and Discussion Questions.

Due to copyright concerns, I can't post the activities here.  However, I can discuss what I did and how (well) it worked!

The book: Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro

The Menu of Activities:  I gave the students a menu of 10 activities that they could choose from, plus one extra.  The activities were a mix of challenging and easy, in English and in Spanish. I intentionally included a couple of very easy activities with the knowledge that kids could select the activity that was best for them at that time.  I don't always offer a lot of choice in my classroom so this was one way to really put them in charge.  I did not use the format from the Comprehensible Classroom for a menu; I created my own and had the kids paste the activity directions on their paper.

Grading: I decided to grade on a very simple 1-4 scale:  4- Advanced, 3- Proficient, 2- Developing, 1-Emerging, 0- No Evidence.  Completeness of response, spelling, grammar, syntax, and legibility were considered.  However, students who didn't get a proficient score were encouraged and allowed to come in and re-do it.  Most did, and that gave me an opportunity to really spend individual time supporting them.

However, I also decided that since the text was very easy, they would be required to be accurate in their language.  Usually when I grade their freewrites I don't really consider accuracy in spelling and accents and I am forgiving about conjugations, articles, gender agreement, etc.  At least to a point.  But for this project, I upped the game.  Spelling, accents, punctuation, gender agreement, articles, etc. would count.  At first, they were very frustrated, but after about 2 weeks, they started turning in careful work that was accurate.  Some of them had to try three or four times, I admit, but since I rarely give homework, I felt ok about it.

The structure: Fridays were novel days.  I usually started class with a para empezar taken from the previous chapter's discussion questions or quiz questions, to review from the week prior. Then I'd put the audio book on, one chapter per week.  We'd listen to it once, then I'd offer the kids the option to hear me read it or to listen to it again by the narrator.  At first, they chose me to read.  After about the 4th week, they chose the narrator.  They took notes but didn't have to; they could use the paper copies of the book for their activities.  I usually lead a short discussion to make sure they understood key points, but the text is relatively simple so they didn't struggle too much with it.  Then they had about 15 minutes to start the work.  In those 15 minutes, I returned work and met individually with kids who needed extra support, or made appointments to follow up.  Then they had the weekend plus a school night to complete the activity they chose.

The payoff: When I asked the class if they felt the independent activities and novel study were valuable, they all agreed that it was.  They liked having the choices and gave me some feedback on what activities were more helpful vs. less helpful in terms of their learning.  Their overall accuracy in written language has improved a hundred fold, and their confidence in understanding seems to be greater.

The next steps: For the last trimester, I have about 9 weeks and 10 chapters of Nuevo Houdini, told in the past tense.  I am doing something similar but instead of 1 activity per chapter, I gave them a menu of 6 activities; they have to do 5 of them total, plus some on-line practice quizzes.

I want them to see the structures of past tense over and over and over again, so the quizzes are in Spanish, but open-book.  If they can't remember something, they can go back and read it again (and again) in the novel.

During class, I plan to use a similar format as before, but pay careful attention to their comprehension.  I started last week but I read the first chapter and asked lots and lots of comprehension questions along the way.  On a scale of 1-5, 5 being "I totally got this, Señora", they all rated their understanding as a 4 or 5.  So, I'm feeling good about it!

Looking ahead to next year, I think that I will probably use the same format again but do a different book for next year's 8th graders.  Maybe Esperanza?  Or maybe Agentes Secretos because it's so fun!

One other benefit for me that was totally unexpected: to have my first class on Fridays be led by an audio book was truly brilliant- a little bit of breathing room when I really needed an extra 10 minutes!  Knowing that they were still learning but giving myself a little break: priceless.  The students liked the routine of it too- on Fridays, they get stuffed animals, listen to someone read, then work independently.  Predictable and yet still interesting.  Win-win.

Going with the flow

I think that the past two weeks have seen me hit some kind of magic flow. I wish I knew why everything is working so well, but for now, let me just celebrate.

I started teaching Brandon Brown Quiere Un Perro with my smallest, most challenging class. I had no idea what to expect from them in terms of comprehension or interest. I didn't really know what kind of activities would work for me and them, what the pace would be, and how much to plan that was other than reading. I still have no idea about pacing or activities, but I am finding myself creating compelling input easily and naturally, and the students are responding in truly incredible ways.
Here's what I wrote in my little reflection that I'm keeping about teaching it.

I am clearly planning too much- tareas de la casa seems like the past already.

There is no way we'll get to the ciclovias movie...even if I desperately want to show it and talk about my friend Clarence the moviemaker.

But, I feel like they are getting SO much better at spontaneous conversations, and I'm getting better at PQA. Today, I asked them about bikes in their house, then skis, and made a quick graph on the board. We compared and discussed, then I showed them the bicicletas slideshow very quicky. We also had a hilarious discussion about pet collars, and one girl swore that her hamster had a collar while her friend disagreed. There was SO much language. I love teaching this novel.

 I love that I have the headspace to sit and write a quick paragraph about my lessons!  Of course, those 50 narrative progress reports are not being written, so there's a trade-off.

Also, I hit the local Goodwill this weekend and scored on stuffed animals, mostly cognates.  I have enough for every kid to have one.  So far, one class got to snuggle with them while we talked about ghosts and monsters and I did a Movietalk about El Cucuy (from a great unit from Martina Bex).  Another class had to explain why their chosen animal would not make a good pet.  And finally, one class got to do a spoken retell to their chosen stuffie today.  Just because it's fun!

S