Profe B.com

OK, here is what I think (from the perspective of a Spanish teacher)…
Classical TPR, as presented by Asher, has a few major problemas:
#1. The imperative should NOT be used because the command forms ‘fossilize’ in a level 1 student.
#2. TPR structures tend to be simple. Therefore we short-change our students by exposing them primarily to simple structures.
#3. The length of time that a teacher can use TPR (3 to 6 weeks) is too long, and students get stuck in the TPR structure. (This is obviously related to problema #2.)

So the solution to these problemas is either to jump right into TPRS or do the following:
#1. Use the third person singular instead of the imperative. For example, instead of saying “Siéntate” (Sit down!), say “se sienta” (s/he sits down) and model the action.
#2. Use advanced structures. Instead of saying “corre” (run), say “quiere correr” (wants to run).
#3 Limit the time spent on TPR. For example, my first PMS, is the 3rd day of class. It goes like this. “There is a boy who is in Spanish class. He wants to run to his house. He stands up and runs to the door, but he doesn’t open the door and hits his head on the door. He begins to cry. Why? It’s obvious; he has no eyes!” I have ‘played’ with the following words in a TPR-like mode: ‘stands up’, ‘wants to run’, ‘hits his head’, ‘begins to cry’, ‘opens and closes the door’, etc. The TPR mode helps me ‘play’ with the words, giving students plenty of comprehensible input in a fun and meaningful way. The PMS is presented in a TPRS-mode, with lots of ‘circling’ questions and comprehension checks. I believe that the combination of these two ‘modes’ can be powerful (though not necessary).

I hope this helps.
Chao
Joe

student accuracy

Student accuracy doesn’t just happen. It comes as the
result of effort on the teacher. It comes from doing
the repetitions so the students know the structure.
Learning the basics never goes away. Keep asking “le
dice—what does the le mean?”

Make sure students know
1. What the endings do in meaning. What does the n
do in comen? What does the r do in vivir? What does
mos do in hablamos?
These should be asked hundreds of time if necessary so
that students quickly understand the meaning from
these endings.

2. They need to be able to answer quickly what does
the le, lo, se do. What is the difference?

3. They need to know basic agreement. A girl can
only be contenta no contento. Contento is calling her
a boy.

After your students know this, then you can go on to
more complex pop ups. But the above is the basics.
If they don’t know this, then keep asking. Who cares
how long it takes.

Be sure in their writing they are recognizing the
meanings. If a student writes “Yo come” make sure
he understands that he wrote, “I he eats”. Show him
how funny that sounds.

Use lots of dialog in your stories. Have one actor
talk to the other actor. Feed them their quote lines.

Talk to your actor.

Class, Fred el grande has an elefante. Un momento.
No estoy seguro. Fred el grande, ?tienes un elefante?

If he answers no tiene explain that he is talking
about someone else. Explain that he has to say no
tengo if he is talking about himself.

Timed writings.

When students do timed writings, use that time to walk
around. Look for errors and teaching moments.

This will take some effort on your part but it will be
worth it in the end.

Blaine

Dear Christy,
For some reason I never gor your personal email… how strange. In any case I
did respond to another listero off-line about the very same topic, so here is
what I wrote:

This is an easy homework assignment. I have about 8 to 10 places that are
illustrated by drawings or photos. They are large enough to be seen from anywhere
in the room. So here is how I do it for a class of 30 (my average class
size.) I assign 3 students one place… let’s say “la iglesia”, then another 3
students get ‘la playa”, then another 3 students “la carcel”, and so on. When they
bring their posters to class the next time, we choose the one we want to hang
in the classroom. Everyone gets the same credit for doing the work, but the
best expression of the place gets to be hung in the classroom. Sometimes we
hang two together (for one place) because they are both really good. This makes
minimum work for you and the class gets to participate in creating the
atmosphere of your classroom. (If you have multiple classes do the assignment, then
you can have a vote on the best poster of all 5 classes.)
I hope this helps.
Joe

Melinda Forward has a good system for this. She puts vocab words on the overhead and has the students write a sentence with them and then draw the sentence, or she puts sentences with blanks up and the students have to fill-in-the-blanks with correct vocab words or verb forms and then draw a picture. It works for all levels and only takes a couple of minutes. They could do a week’s worth on one page of paper and then you could collect for five or ten points at the end of the week; grading is just glancing at completion.

Kelly

Ok…here is a list of some….There are gazillions out there… PLEASE share your favorites!! Some of these are more CI oriented than others but nearly ANYTHING can be adapted to be TPRS-friendly with a little imagination. (or the help of a friend if you are imagination challenged some days!!)

1. A short survey in the TL. Use the survey for conversation…make a chart…get ideas for popular tv show, actors, singers, athletes for personalizing stories.

2. Type up (hand out/overhead/powerpoint) a short summary of yesterday’s PMS. Follow with the question: What happened next? Give several choices…have them choose one and add 1-5 sentences to the new “ending”. Did Guapo go to the library and find the new copy of Shogun Jump? Go to Baskin-Robbins and eat 78.339 flavors in one dish? or sit in his bathtub and cry until it was full?

3. Students create Bingo Boards from recent vocab lists. Boards can be TL/English/picture. To make it really quick make a mini-board…3 squares x 3 squares.

4. Post 2-5 words/phrases/sentences for students to illustrate.

5. Challenge them to write a 30 word sentence. Very only counts as a word once. :o)

6. Start with ‘music appreciation” a la Kim K. Intro songs, sing choruses, take requests, teach gestures, play “name that tune”. etc.

7. Class “flash cards”….hold up pictures or objects…review using the “circling ” technique.

8. Start with a “class mascot”. Start class with a favorite stuffed animal, puppet, or poster character. Tell a short passive PMS, use in conversation, make him dance to the song, play Mascot says…etc.

9. I spy with my little eye….Huckle Buckle Beanstalk…

10. Mystery box/bag….for lower levels you ask the questions to help them identify the object…is it an object or a person? Yes..it’s a person! Is it a male or a female? Es obvio…its a female!! etc.

11. Count to 100…by 2’s, 5’s, 10’s or backwards. :o)

12. Have students create a short card for someone’s birthday (great pr in the building!), teacher appreciation week, etc. I have found it is better to have students create cards for another group…ie a 3rd grade class in another building…rather than for their own peers. Stay away from Father’s day , Mother’s day and religious holidays if that is a sensitive area in your district.

13. Create an instant bulletin board: Give each student an index card (or paper shape if you have time, energy, and creativity). They copy the first half of a sentence in the TL and then finish the sentence. For example:

I love ___________ but I hate ____________.
I’m afraid of___________________________ (good Halloween BB)
A good friend is _______________________.
My favorite tv (novel etc) character is ___________ because_________________.

Set appropriate language parameters and give them 4.8943 minutes to complete it. Tack them up on a BB for other classes to see and read.

14. Personal “flyswatter”. Give each student a page with pictures/phrases on it. Call one out loud. They point at it and yell…Here it is!!! Believe it or not some kids would do this for hours…. :o)

15. Rhymes, chants, poems etc. This is a great time to teach Eeney meeney miney mo in your language…give a sticker to whomever is it.

16. Read a short children’s book a la Kindergarten Day. Read just a couple of pages each day and finish the book on Friday.

17. Any kind of round robin activity. Kids fill in a crossword/word search….translate a written PMS…fill in song blanks…fill in blanks to a PMS like a mad libs ….then after one minute pass it on to the next student to continue.

18. PRACTICE SKILLS…Yours and Theirs!!! Take 3 minutes and have the class “practice” responding with “ooohhhhh” etc. Try to tell a story for just 3 minutes..use a previously taught word that needs review….have half of the class be the class and the other half count reps.

19. Review any /all of the signals you have used with the class up to that point in the year.

20. Head’s down. This one is my favorite for the last class of the day. Kids put their heads down and close their eyes. I turn off the lights. For just a couple of minutes I play a song that they know well, or read a childrens book they know and love…quietly and calmly. Their job is to relax, focus, and listen…. I will also do relaxation exercises (sort of inside out TPR….) They love it. (me too!)

Great ideas! Well, This worked outstandingly well for me at college.

First Day of class

I tell them: You are all stranded on a deserted island and I am the
only one that can save you. I have a 36′ wooden sloop sailboat that
we can sail anywhere. Tell me why I should save you?

from this I get
1. seating chart
2. their most optimistic quality
3. usually a nick name ie party marty, handsome dan, la rescata
4. everyone is histerical and that figure out how playful I am and
the tone of the class.
5. they speak outloud - this is a biggy
6. they get to know each other a tiny bit

hi Cathy,

we had a great exchange of counting some months ago. here you have
the ones i collected.

piedad

–

Din din don de la poli poli tana
un camión que pasaba por España
niño ven acá, yo no quiero ir
chocolate y caramelos pa’ ra ti

—-
Ta Te Ti Suerte Para Ti
Si no quieres para ti
Será para ti
Ta Te Ti Chocolate Con Mani
Ta Te Ti
Suerte Para TI

—-
De tin, Marin
Dedo pingue,
Cucara, macara
titere fue!
—-

pin uno
pin dos
pin tres
pin cuatro
pin cinco
pin seis
pin siete
pin ocho
saque su mocho!

—

Unica, dosica, trecica, gordana,
cuartana, color de manzana,
la peca, la burra,
contigo son diez.
El pajaro verde
se sube al cipres
saque su mocho!

—
una, dola, tela, canela,
sumaca de vela,
velilla, velon,
cuenta las doce
que las doce son.

—-

Pito, pito colorito,
¿Adónde vas, tan bonito?
A la escuela, verdadera,
PIN PON FUERA!

—-

Tin marin de do piringue
cucaramatara titere fue
Cuantas patas tiene el gato?
una, dos, tres, cuatro.

Maracaibo, Venezuela
—–

De tín marín
de do pingue
cúcara, mácara,
títere fue.

Yo no fui,
Fue te te,
pégale, pégale,
Aquella fue.

De tín marín,
de do pingue,
cúcara, mácara,
títere fue.

Saco tabaco,
medio melón,
Cuénta las horas,
¿de qué horas son?

THE ATHENIAN STUDY
By: Von Ray
Edited by: Susan Gross

The 2004 Athenian Study examines the effectiveness of
teaching both present and past tenses simultaneously.
At the onset of the experiment, my hypothesis was that
teaching the two tenses at the same time would yield
better acquisition and production of the two tenses.
This study compares two groups of students from the
Athenian Middle School of Danville, California. The
control group consists of 32 7th graders who all took
Spanish as 6th graders at our school. As 6th graders,
they were taught by my colleague Diane Grieman, who
uses TPRS, Teaching Proficiency through Reading and
Stories. Throughout the course of the year they
received roughly 100 hours of comprehensible input in
the present tense by acting out stories, answering
questions about those stories, and reading
(translating) a number of novels and stories in
Spanish. During their 7th grade year, they received
another 100 hours of comprehensible input from me.
The students acted out stories in the past tense on
even days and read (translated) stories in the present
tense and had class discussions in Spanish on odd
days. The experimental group consists of 13 6th
graders, all of which were true beginners at the start
of the year. I taught the 6th graders exactly like
the 7th graders, acting out stories in the past tense
and reading (translating) stories and discussing the
material in the present tense. Therefore the only
differences between the two groups were the total
number of hours of instruction by year’s end (200
hours to 100 hours) and the fact that the first 100
hours for the 7th graders were all in the present
tense.
Throughout the year, both groups appeared to be
acquiring both tenses well. However, I observed an
interesting pattern among the 7th graders. From time
to time, I would have the students give a 2-3 minute
retell of the story at the end of a given class
period. During these retells, I noticed that 7th
graders would strongly favor the present tense in
speech, even though they had heard and understood
those same verbs in the past tense throughout the
year. For example, when students were trying to say,
“he said to her”, they would often say (in Spanish),
“he says to her”. I saw this pattern among almost all
of my 7th graders.
One on occasion, a boy was retelling a story and he
said “le dice” (he says to her) 5 or 6 times in a row.
I reminded him, “That means “he SAYS to her”, how do
you say “he SAID to her?” After a moment, the student
said, “Oh yes! I meant to say le dijo.” As he
continued to retell the story, he said “le dice” many
more times when he should have said “le dijo”. I
attribute this to their 100 hours of present tense
input from the previous year. Because they heard “le
dice” thousands of times as 6th graders, that’s what
they acquired. That’s what had stuck. They had not
only acquired “le dice”, it had become ingrained.
Even though they understood “le dijo”, they reverted
to “le dice” during retells because they hadn’t
acquired “le dijo” like they had “le dice.”
My 6th graders, in contrast, were much more accurate
in their production of past tense stories. They were
able to say “le dijo” for “he said to her”. The
reason, I believe, is because they had not heard “le
dice” exclusively. They learned simultaneously that
“le dice” means “he SAYS to her” and that “le dijo”
means “he SAID to her”. On days that we acted stories
in the past tense, the 6th graders were hearing “le
dijo” and understanding “he said to her” and on days
that we read stories they read “le dice” and
understood “he says to her”. As a result, they seemed
to have a better feeling for the two tenses because
they were acquiring them at the same time. They were
much more likely to say “le dijo” for “he said to her”
than the 7th graders.
At the end of the academic year, I gave both groups a
short paragraph to verbally translate into English.
They had never seen the paragraph before, but they had
learned all of the words throughout the year. I made
a video recording of each student translating the
paragraph. I gave each student roughly 30-45 seconds
to first read the passage to him/herself before
recording. I did not answer any of their questions if
they asked. The objective was to assess which group
was more accurate in production. Here’s the passage I
gave them:
There is a sad boy. He is sad because he had an
elephant but now he doesn’t have it. The boy was
walking in the park when a girl saw the boy and his
elephant. She said to him, “I want to play soccer
with the elephant.” The girl grabbed the elephant.
Now the girl is playing soccer with the elephant. How
sad!

The paragraph contains five verbs or combination of
verbs in the present: there is, is sad, doesn’t have,
I want to play, and is playing. It also contains five
verbs in the past: had, was walking, saw, said to
him, grabbed. In grading the students, I only graded
them on whether they got the sense of present versus
past correct. Because I was not grading for any other
grammatical accuracy other than correct tense, I gave
students credit for saying “es juega”, “es triste”,
“quiero juega”, etc. They didn’t have to produce it
100% correctly in order to get a point for accuracy.
If they needed to use the present and they used the
present, then I gave them a point. If they needed to
use the past and they used the past but missed
something else, then I gave it to them. I also did
not mark them wrong if they did not distinguish
between the preterite and imperfect tenses. Some of
my students said “caminó” instead of “caminaba” or
“andaba.” A few said “veía” instead of “vio”. I
counted it right because my interest was in
discovering their awareness of present versus past.
This study was not about whether they could
distinguish between the preterite and imperfect
tenses; it was about whether they could distinguish
between the past and the present. With that in mind,
here are the results of the video assessment:
Numbers are listed for both the whole group and the
top half. The percentages are given for overall
accuracy (their accuracy out of the 10 verbs), present
tense accuracy (their accuracy for just the 5 present
tense verbs), and past tense accuracy (their accuracy
for just the 5 past tense verbs).
7th Grade (32 students) 6th Grade (13 students)
(After 200 hours) (After 100 hours)
Oral Accuracy
Overall ALL = 58% Overall ALL = 67%
Overall TOP HALF = 71% Overall TOP HALF = 74%
Present Tense Accuracy
Present tense ALL = 89% Present tense ALL = 84%
Present tense TOP HALF = 100% Present tense TOP HALF =
89%
Past Tense Accuracy
Past tense ALL = 27% Past tense ALL = 49%
Past tense TOP HALF = 48% Past tense TOP HALF = 68%

The following week, I had the students translate the
story in writing. Here are the results of their
writings:
7th Grade (32 students) 6th Grade (13 students)
Written Accuracy
Overall ALL = 65% Overall ALL = 79%
Overall TOP HALF = 80% Overall TOP HALF = 88%
Present Tense Accuracy
Present tense ALL = 92% Present tense ALL = 83%
Present tense TOP HALF = 100% Present tense TOP HALF =
99%
Past Tense Accuracy
Past Tense ALL = 39% Past Tense ALL = 72%
Past Tense TOP HALF = 63% Past Tense TOP HALF = 86%

I have a few conclusions from this data. My first
conclusion is that the present tense is more easily
acquired than the past tense. Maybe it’s the more
complex verb endings of the past tense, maybe the idea
of “past tense” is more abstract for 6th and 7th
graders. The 6th graders received more repetitions of
the past tense verbs throughout the year because there
is more input on days that we act stories than on days
that we read stories. However, they were
significantly more accurate in the present than the
past in both writing and speech
The most important conclusion is that the tenses are
optimally acquired when they are taught
simultaneously. The current model suggests that we
start with the present tense, teach it for a year, and
then move on to past tense and other tenses. Based on
this data, I believe that the past and present (as
well as other tenses) should be taught simultaneously
starting with Level 1. Interestingly, this approach
mirrors first language acquisition. We all acquired
our first language by hearing the tenses mixed. What
would happen if we spoke to babies only in the present
tense for the first 3 years of their lives, the next 2
in the past tense, and the next 2 review the present
and past and then add other tenses? I believe that we
would not acquire the tenses nearly as well than when
they’re naturally mixed. This study suggests that
second language acquisition should mirror first
language acquisition.
Lastly, by observing both groups produce language
throughout the year and in this assessment, I believe
that the 100 hours of present tense comprehensible
input that the 7th graders received as 6th graders
resulted in a less than optimal acquisition rate of
the two tenses. By teaching the two tenses
simultaneously, I believe that the 6th graders
acquired the two tenses at a more efficient rate than
the 7th graders.

I’ve noticed some discussion on participation. I now prefer to use a rubric
that is a fair reflection of what students have actually done during class.
I tend to document days when there is a noticeable lack of participation to
help cover myself. I hope this helps someone. — Michael (Moco Loco)
Thompson

Participation Rubric

110% Acts in the stories and/or responds to almost every
question
Reacts with enthusiasm to the story
Attempts to speak Spanish whenever possible
Always attentive during class

100% Responds to most questions; occasionally acts in a story
Reacts with enthusiasm to the story
Attempts to speak Spanish whenever possible
Always attentive during class

90% Responds to some questions
Reacts with enthusiasm to the story
Attempts to speak some Spanish
Always attentive during class

80% Occasionally responds to questions
Reacts to the story, but with little enthusiasm
May occasionally attempt to speak Spanish
Always attentive during class

70% Rarely, if ever, responds to questions
May react some to the story
Little or no attempt to speak Spanish
Noticeably inattentive at times

60% Rarely, if ever, responds to questions
or below Rarely, if ever, reacts to the story
Rarely, if ever, attempts to speak Spanish
Noticeably inattentive

Options

1. Start with a level two book with true beginners
and don’t do any TPR.

2. Start with a level 1 book and teach advanced
structures in the past and do no TPR.

3. Start by doing some TPR stories. Teach some
stories that have only TPRable words (from the list
of 83).

4. Use TPR in the he form and teach the words with
TPR.

I believe all of these will be successful.

Blaine