November 2009

Dear YANA,

I am a Foreign Language Methods teacher at a university.
My question: What do my students need?
My answer: VERY practical information that they can implement immediately.
My plea: Do you have any suggestions? Any good books you’ve used in the past? Good sites where they can retrieve, and hopefully see successful lessons? They are interested in Spanish lessons that work in a demanding, under-funded public school environment with 35-40 kids, one instructor, and students who freak out every time that the instructor speaks in Spanish. What kind of Spanish lessons really work in this kind of real world scenario?

Sincerely, In search of practical information

Dear In Search of Practical Information,

Challenges face us all of the time, and under-funded programs and large classes are truly the challenges of the decade.  When designing lessons and activities for students who are as overwhelmed as you are with the crowding, and not eager to hear or speak the language, you must think about both yourself and your students.  Since I’m not sure what levels of Spanish your students teach, I will try to answer with some general ideas that they can adjust to their particular circumstances.

Practical information to implement immediately
Because you are teaching a foreign language, proficient communication is a principle goal of the course.  Communication requires at least two individuals to be successful.  Think in terms of 20 teams of 2, or 14 teams of 3, as you approach your planning for those classes of 40 students. 

• Provide the students with incremental practice that you supervise – this means no grading on your part.  Walk around the room, listen, interject when necessary, but let the students practice.  Develop the ability to listen across the room; students are uncomfortable when the teacher is near by and more relaxed when farther away.  Every couple of days do something that combines the smaller elements and that provides you with a little more formal handle on their progress.  Every week or so, plan an activity that you formally evaluate.  Each step leading up to the formal evaluation is just that: a piece of the puzzle that your students will put together to create the final product.  The students will start to see that each day leads them to more confidence about what they are learning.
• Listen to the students.  What are their interests?  Design your activities to incorporate those interests. 
• Be sure to present a variety of options, from drawing to performing to music to writing. 
• Students can use a variety of media to show you what they have learned. Let them be creative.  When working in their preferred media, they will be more comfortable, more confident, and happier with the outcome.
• Provide students with clear directions and guidelines and a useful example.  Avoid the “I didn’t understand the assignment” complaint by removing vagueness from what you expect and how you will grade the product.
• Step away from the textbook, while letting it guide what you do.  You will have to cover a specified amount of material and pages to stay with the curriculum of your school system.  However, it is up to you to tailor the learning vehicles to your students.  Students are put off by a textbook, so issue it, refer to it occasionally, but do not have it open all of the time.  See “Getting Away from the book and still teaching the curriculum,”  a YANA column from December 2007. 

Good books used in the past
Probably, none of these are new to you, but they bear keeping in mind and within arm’s reach.

• One of the most useful books for guidance and ideas is Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century, published by ACTFL.  It has loads of learning scenarios in 10 world languages.  The nine languages you don’t teach all have good ideas that you can adapt to your language.
• Judith Shrum and Eileen Glisan’s Teachers Handbook: Contextualized Language Instruction, published by Heinle, contains a wealth of information for the new and the experienced teacher.
• The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher, by Harry and Rosemary Wong, is a wellspring of information about classroom management, as well as hints for preparing yourself and managing your schedule.  It is as useful for the experienced teacher as it is for the novice teacher.

Good sites for successful lessons

• Enter “lesson plans for high school Spanish” into a search engine, and you will find lots of help there. 
• Your state’s department of education website may have some lessons that correlate foreign languages with the core subjects. 
• There are lesson plans on the NCLRC website, in several languages. 
• Museums often have excellent lesson plans on their website that go along with a current exhibit, or with a virtual tour. 
• Carmen Lomas Garza is a Chicana artist who paints everyday scenes that are accessible to urban, suburban, and rural students.  Use them in a variety of ways to encourage students to talk or write about their own lives. 
• Embassies are excellent resources.  The Embassy of Spain’s Education Office is a bonanza of materials for teachers. 

Under-funded schools and students who freak out
Under-funded?   

• With resourcefulness, you can manage to find useful and authentic materials.  Investigate the Internet, especially places like YouTube, for authentic language and events.
• Milk your network of friends who travel; ask them to bring things back for you.  For tips on how to use authentic materials, see “How do I use Authentic Materials in my classroom?" a YANA column from February 2007. 
• Scour the internet for sites that relate to the cultural content of your textbook chapters and to the interests of your students.  YouTube is an incredible source!  (Or, have your students do the scouring.)
• Look to events within your community and involve your students in those events.

Students who freak out when they hear another language? 

• Project text messages on a screen and ask students to read what they see.
• Play a recording of a short conversation in Pig Latin and ask for an interpretation.
• Show a picture (Carmen Lomas Garza is a good choice) and have students write their version of the story they see in the painting.
• Play recordings of the plays called by the quarterback at last Friday’s football game and ask the students to interpret what they’re hearing.   (Ask the coach to record some.)

Each of these activities involves another language, a language they are familiar with and understand.  This should go some distance towards convincing your students that they actually will be able to understand some of this new language they’re learning in your class.  If they can decode these messages and conversations, they already have many of the skills necessary to decode their new language.

For more ideas on how to help your students become comfortable when hearing or having to speak in a foreign language, See “How to Teach Level One Students in the Target Language” a YANA column from September 2007.  These ideas are applicable to all levels, even

Be sure you walk in baby steps, but do not coddle the students.  Build tomorrow on today, which is based on yesterday.  Emphasize that this week’s success will make next week successful.  Engage and involve the students through the controlled chaos that is a proficiency oriented foreign language classroom.

There is no doubt that crowded conditions, large classes, lack of funds, and students who are afraid or unwilling to try to use their foreign language make for a difficult and challenging day.  You will be more enthusiastic if you work to reduce your load of papers.  This will automatically happen when your assignments take on a proficiency orientation.  With a good rubric to guide you the time you spend evaluating reduces because you know what you are looking for, and often you will be able to evaluate on the spot.

Sincerely,
YANA

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