Profe B.com

>
> Let me start by saying I have second year students that had Spanish 1
> explained to them–literally. I started in LICTM, but they are
> really missing a lot of structures. They dont know Ir + a +
> infinitive for example. Should I have started them in LICT? Also,
> my second edition does not have the past tense. Is there a new
> edition?

No, you don’t need to use LICT at all. They will be fine with 2nd
year materials as long as you make them comprehensible. You can tell
the story in the past tense, then have them read the extended readings
in the present. In chapter 4 I believe the extended readings and
vocabulary are listed in the past tense. And no, there is not a new
addition. Blaine has re-done the LICT teacher’s guide to include the
past tense.

>
> I have so many questions. I feel like using TPRS is hard for me and
> I am really struggling, so I feel I am missing something. This is
> what I have been doing:

Keep in mind….none of us just starting doing TPRS one day and had it
down perfectly - not even Blaine! For most there’s at least a 3 year
learning period with TPRS…it honestly will just get better and
better the more time you spend doing it!

>
> I have been taking the mini cuento from the book. I teach the
> actions for the 3 words, then take each word and ask about 10-15
> questions using the word or the structure–for each word. I usually
> mark a question for each word to use that student’s response for the
> PMS in the book. (So if the structure is le gusta jugar, I choose a
> student that answers yes for the PMS). Then I tell the PMS and ask
> questions. This takes one day.

Be sure to limit your gesturing time to about 2 minutes. It really
doesn’t take much more than that. For the questioning, you can do
fewer questions if it feels like too much for your students. But if
they are answering you and enjoying the discussion, then that would be
good! And that’s great that you are incorporating student responses
into your pmss.

>
> The next day, I take the minicuento from the book and give one
> sentence and ask ~10 questions. This is where I dont think I am
> doing it right. Should I not follow the story in the book? The >book

What you really need to do here is through questioning have your
students come up with their own story. I think that it’s much more
effective than using the story in the book. The main problem in my
opinion with LICTM is that there is too much similarity between the
PMS, the Storystrip and the Extended Reading. Because it’s basically
the same story - the students get bored with it because even with
slightly different details, to them it’s still the same story. So I
try to make up a different story for the acting out portion in class
so that the storystrip and/or readings are different for them.

The basic ‘plotline’ for any story is you have a character who has a
problem. They go to the first location and they don’t solve the
problem. They go to the 2nd location and they don’t solve the
problem. They go to the 3rd location and the problem is solved (or it
isn’t and they cry! LOL). For each statement that you make, then ask
as many varied questions about it as you can.

> story seems to have a lot of details. The last question I ask them
> leads them to the next sentence of the story, so they are choosing
> the name of the person or the town, but not much else. This takes
> thoe whole class period. I have been giving the stories in present
> for unit one, present and past progressive for unit 2, etc. Then
> they translate the story out loud and we ask more questions.

At the beginning it’s hard to create a story completely through the
students. I think it’s fine to only give them the names and places
for now, but slowly work toward giving them more and more input into
the story so that they get ownership over it. It’s always YOUR story
so you keep it appropriate and keep control over the storyline so that
it goes where you want it to go, but the more input the students have,
the better your stories will typically go.

Are you giving them the pms in the book to translate? For the acted
out stories in class, I rarely have them translate. I might ask them
to retell the story to a partner though and then randomly call on
someone to retell us the story.

>
> The third day we read the extended version, and ask questions, but
> they have a really difficult time answering them.

Are you translating the story outloud to English? I usually have
volunteers or victims translate either a sentence or a paragraph. I
do a lot of pop-ups during this translating. How did you know that it
was “they” and they’ll tell me (or I’ll remind them) - that’s right,
the ‘n’ on the end tells us they, etc. Then we discuss the story
about every paragraph. I make up my own questions as we go. I ask
them first specific things that come from the story that are easy for
them to answer. Then I ask questions about things that the story
doesn’t tell us specifically. I try in anyway that I can to then
relate the discussion to their lives, which for teenagers makes it
much more interesting for them!

If they can’t answer the questions (are you using the ones printed in
the book? I think that they are hard if you just use those and don’t
use any others to lead up to them) there could be a couple of things
going on. They didn’t get enough repetitions in the story-asking part
with actors to really acquire the vocab and structures so they
honestly don’t know what they’re reading and so they can’t answer the
questions because of that. They could also just not understand the
question. You can always just ask someone to tell you what you just
said in English. If they can’t, then you know that they didn’t
understand the question so you have to make it comprehensible for them
by either translating (not necessarily the whole thing, but maybe just
a word or 2 that they didn’t understand) or re-working those words
before moving onto those questions.
>
> I see the posts that tell about a great story this class or that
> class did today, and I don’t feel like that. I am not creative
> enought to make up stories every day and my stress level is way up
> there! But I really believe in this method and deeply believe it is
> better than using a text. What am I missing? It takes me about 2
> hours of preparation each night to script the questions using the
> text. If I add making up the story too….
>
> This should not be this hard! Help.
>

Do you feel like you could ask the questions about the story without a
written script? I think that that would make your life a lot easier.
That’s too much prep time for anyone I think! Now that you have the
experience scripting…maybe try doing them off the top of your head
and see how it goes?

And this is the true beauty of TPRS. If they don’t acquire the
words/structures…just re-work them again the next day.

I hope that this helps at least a little. We’re here to help so don’t
be hesitant to keep posting!

Carmen in Vegas, baby!

A few things to try:

1) Make sure you are random circling - the questions should be asked in random order. Use a sheet of paper with all the question types and move your thumb up and down the sheet to decide what kind of question to ask next, or put the question types in the back and go up and down the sheet with your eyes.

2) Allow them to add something new, then keep going back in time and asking questions about earlier parts of the story. This is a key technique. Keep doing this whenever you add something new to the story unless you are in the middle of an action sequence in the story. Finish the sequence in that case, then go back and ask questions about the entire story so far.

3) Make goofy mistakes. Have the students shout NO! and correct you. This is particularly effective if you play dumb and pretend you just can’t remember what happened in that line. I use this technique when I need more reps of a target structure and the questioning just isn’t getting me the reps I need. You can even act out the mistakes!

4) Spike the story with a chant. Just say a line of the story (preferably a line with a target structure) rhythmically. Do this in the classes that have lots of energy. They will often “arrange” your chant for you with extra background bits! I actually have one class that is so kinesthetic and so musical that we practically just chant the stories, broken up with some questions before going to the next chant. Horrible TPRS technique, technically, but it was the only way I could make anything even resembling TPRS work with this group.

5) Add another character and compare your student with the new character using your target structure. You are adding something new but still practicing the same structure.

There are probably other techniques out there, but that’s all I can think of right now. Apart from that, give up control whenever possible - at least enough that they feel it is their story and not yours. I have taught stories that were brilliant but that the students didn’t like because they were my stories instead of theirs. A lot of the personalization we do is simply placing the story in their world using their ideas, and that level of personalization is key to successful TPRS lessons.

I hope this helps.

Michael (Moco Loco) Thompson
thompsonmb@hargray.com

I think the fluency circle can be done in step 2 where
we ask the story. I think we could have done better
in the past by not practicing the reading circle words
in step two.
I think we will be well served by using the story
process to practice only fluency circle words and
structures.

When we read and discuss, we will translate. When we
translate, we don’t care whether the words in the
reading are fluency circle words or reading circle
words because we just translate them. But then when
we discuss the reading, we will then tend to use the
fluency circle words and structures in the discussion.

I really thinks this generally solves our problem.

Blaine

So maybe the answer is:

#1 we need to decide which words are the fluency words and center our
curriculums on those words. Once those words are mastered by the majority
of students we can focus on “expanding their fluency circles.”

#2 we can continue to present big circle words to them in the context of
reading and discussion and use translation when needed to clarify them.
Students will add those words to their own fluency circles at their own pace
and many students may never add those to their fluency circles.

#3 When testing, we can assess only the use of fluency circle structures in
terms of student output (communication), but when we are testing
comprehension it is ok to include some of the reading circle structures
since they are necessary for students to comprehend other people.

I think I am still going back to my initial problem I had when I found out I
had to teach level 3 this year. I have a really hard time knowing just what
my expectations should be for them. I gave a vocabulary test last week and
many students aced it and many failed it. Most of the structures were
reading circle for sure.

I am using a book that I co-authored to teach my 3s. Now that I look at it,
I feel that I am seeing it with new eyes as a result of this discussion. I
am realizing that it is FULL of fluency circle structures but also full of
reading circle structures. I am thinking that I can expose my students to
both types of structures with an emphasis on helping them acquire the
fluency structures for their own use. But I wouldn’t really want to take
out the reading structures and “dumb it down” because that would eliminate
the i+1 concept. You never know which kids are ready to accept a certain
structure into their own fluency circle at a given time.

It seems to me that the “fluency circle” concept might be a highly personal
thing by level 3-4, while at levels 1-2 it might be fairly predictable.

I hope we can really keep this discussion going. I am finding it really
valuable! I hope others are too!

Happy Turkey Day!
Kristy
placido@cablespeed.com
www.msu.edu/~sandinkr/

Hi,

I’ve edited this piece. I hope it helps, of course there are other
grammatically correct ways to edit it. Please note that in Spanish the
ending periods or commas don’t always belong inside of quotations.

Un pavo que se llamaba Rico

Había un pavo que se llamaba Rico. Rico era un pavo feliz. A Rico le
gustaba jugar con los otros pavos y le gustaba comer. Tenía una vida buena.

Rico oyó que se acercaba el Día de Acción de Gracias. Para los pavos, era
un día peligroso porque los humanos los matarían y los comerían. Rico tenía
mucho
miedo de los hornos. No quería entrar en uno. No quería morir. Quería
vivir.

Rico fue a ver a la vaca y le preguntó: “Señora Vaca, oí que el Día de
Acción de Gracias es un día peligroso para los pavos. ¿Es verdad?”

La señora Vaca le respondió tristemente: “Lo siento, pobre pavo, pero es
verdad. En el Día de Acción de Gracias, toda la familia del granjero viene
y todos comen una gran comida con pavo y muchas otras cosas”.

Rico comenzó a llorar. “¿Es posible? ¡No lo creo!” Así que Rico fue a ver
al cerdo. “Por favor, señor Cerdo, oí que el Día de Acción de Gracias es un
día peligroso para los pavos. ¿Es verdad?”

El señor Cerdo le miró tristemente. “Lo siento, pobre pavo, pero eso es
verdad. Los granjeros celebran el Día de Acción Gracias comiendo pavo”.

Rico estaba muy triste. Comenzó a llorar de nuevo. ¿Por qué pavo y no
jamón o bistec? Los pavos son pájaros guapos e inteligentes. ¿Por qué no
comen otros animales? Se preguntaba Rico.

Rico fue llorando hacia su madre y le dijo: “¡Mamá! Oí que el Día de Acción
de Gracias es un día peligroso para los pavos. ¿Es verdad?”

Su madre le respondió: “Sí, mi hijo. Lo siento, pero lo que oíste es
verdad. En el Día de Acción de Gracias, los granjeros matan a los pavos.
Eso es lo que les pasó a tu padre y a tus hermanos”. Entonces ella comenzó
a llorar.

“¡No llores, mamá! Tengo una idea”. Rico salió fuera y vio al pato.
Caminó hacia el pato y le dijo: “Hola, Pato, ¿sabes qué día es hoy?”

El pato no era muy inteligente. Le respondió: “No, ¿qué fecha es?”

Rico le dijo: “Oh, hoy es Halloween. Necesitas un disfraz para ir a pedir
dulces. ¿Tienes un disfraz?”

“¿Eh?, no”, dijo el pato. “Quiero ir a pedir dulces porque me gustan mucho,
pero no tengo disfraz. ¿Puedes ayudarme?” Rico se rió. “Sí, yo sé un buen
disfraz. Tú puedes disfrazarte de mí y yo puedo disfrazarme de ti. ¿Qué
dices?”

“¡Qué buena idea! ¡Me gusta mucho! Yo puedo ser tú y tú puedes ser yo. Yo
puedo ser pavo y tú puedes ser pato”. El pato estaba muy contento.

Rico agarró dos disfraces y le dio el disfraz de pavo al pato. El pato se
puso el disfraz de pavo y Rico se puso el disfraz de pato. Rico le dijo:
“Ve a esa casa y di: “¡trato o truco!”. Yo iré a otra casa, después
cambiamos”.

“Está bien”, dijo el pato disfrazado de pavo, y fue a la casa del granjero.
Llamó a la puerta y el granjero abrió.

“¿Qué es esto? Es nuestro pavo para la comida del Día de Acción de Gracias.
¡Qué bueno! Ven conmigo, pavito. Tienes una cita con el horno. ¡Ah, me
gusta mucho el pavo para el Día de Acción de Gracias!”

El pato, que llevaba un disfraz de pavo, trató de correr, pero no pudo
correr lo suficientemente rápido. El granjero lo atrapó. El pato no
estaba contento y, de hecho, está muerto.

Anda a … and Va a…

It doesn’t make comprehension impossible, but it really makes a difference
to the native ear.

In Spanish, you wouldn’t say:
Ella camina a la recepcionista.
That is an English construction, Spanglish. For those of us used to hear
English all day, it becomes a habit to literally transpose structures from
one language to another. In Spanish, natives wouldn’t say:
walks to.., they’d rather say: goes walking to: va caminando a… They
wouldn´t say:
runs to.., they’d rather say: goes running to: va corriendo a…

Another thing: Natives would usually say: va hacia la casa. or va hasta la
casa, rather than always using the preposition a in many of those
expressions.

Elvira

Hi Jennifer–

One thing about TPRS, it is very predictable. However, what’s wrong with predictable?

I want to tell you something about my class that is very true. It might help you see something important that you might be missing regarding routine.

I have a schedule that hardly ever varies week to week. Monday we act out the story. Tue we read and discuss the short story and work on retell. Wed and Thur we read the long story. Friday we do Christian TPRS, where I use the vocab of the week in a Christian setting. In addition, Mon I introduce a song, Tue and Thur we read, Wed we write. That is set in stone from the first week with Sp 3 (by Oct with Spanish 1) and it NEVER changes (well, hardly ever :D).

Last year was a difficult year for me in that we had a new CEO (we’re a private school and have a different setup of administration). He was not comfortable with TPRS and I spent most of the year trying to convince him.

Finally in April he came to see my class. He was very impressed. He said that of all the classes he’d seen, mine was by far the best behaved. It was the most on track. My students were the most involved. They were obviously learning and obviously enjoying what they were doing. What was I teaching? It was Tue and we were doing the story. It wasn’t even a fun acting Monday.

Why were the kids so happy, so connected, so on task? BECAUSE WE HAVE A SCHEDULE THAT NEVER VARIES. Students need constansty. They need routine. They need order. And they need variety within that constancy. TPRS gives them all of that. We have the same thing every week. We follow the same routine. I’m pretty sure that I could take over for you or you could take over for me and we would be perfectly at ease doing so. However, what is important is that there is always something fun and interesting within that routine. The stories are interesting. The discussion is interesting. Speaking and being understood in a different language is interesting.

My kids are just like everyone else’s, I’m sure. They say that they want something different. Thing is, when I give them something different, even if it’s fun and games, they still ask me when they’re going to do stories again.

Meg

Jennifer Adams wrote: I feel like I’m in a teaching rut. Here is what my typical week looks like:

Monday: TPR new vocabulary, students do picture dictionary, start a PMS
Tuesday: TPR (practicing the same vocab), continue (hopefully finish) PMS
Wednesday: Read extended version together, for HW students answer
comprehension questions or draw the story
Thursday: Translate and sing a song or play a vocabulary game
Friday: Kindergarten day/FVR/timed writing

When Monday comes around, I pretty much start all over again. Does anyone
have any activities that I can do to switch up my lesson plans? I might
preface this request with the fact that all my students have not had any
TPRS until these past three months with me, so their output skills are still
low. I currently have my 8th graders writing a story using past vocabulary
in pairs. After writing their story, they will make a power point and share
their products with the class. They are making so many grammatical errors,
and constantly asking me to translate for them! Should I correct their
grammar or let them make mistakes?

Also, now that progress reports are due for the 2nd quarter, I worry that I
don’t have enough grades. I only have three grades in my gradebook for 8th
grade and four in the 7th grade!!! This is not a good thing when a student
may choose to not complete one assignment.

Hola Listeros,

This has been a very interesting thread. I came across this site:

http://www1.harenet.ne.jp/~waring/vocab/principles/commonsense.htm

and this article:

Basic Principles and Practice in Vocabulary Instruction
To Appear. The Language Teacher 2002
Rob Waring Notre Dame Seishin University Okayama

?
Abstract

This article presents some of the major `common sense’ principles of vocabulary
instruction and learning. It then discusses whether general language teaching reflects
these principles well, finding that often it does not. Several implications for vocabulary
teaching emerge from these findings…

The following are first lines of some of the paragraphs:

Teaching a word does not mean the students learned it.

We do not learn a word from one meeting.

There are 2 major stages in word learning. The first stage is matching the word’s spelling
and pronunciation (its form) with its meaning.

It is easier to forget a word than remember it

Students cannot guess the meaning of an unknown word from context if the surrounding
text is too difficult.

Words live with other words, not in isolation

Written and spoken vocabulary are different.

There is very low recycling of vocabulary in course books

Teachers all too often teach too many words at one time.

Most vocabulary exercises only test rather than teach………..

This article supports all that we do in TPRS.
Happy reading

Vivian Sutch
Retired Spanish teacher teaching English (TPRS) in Costa Ric

ctually, they do. I googled around for awhile and found the Bart Pizarra section and copied those that appeared to be somewhat for classroom consumption. I teach 6th graders, so I had to be more careful about content than most. Here is what I copied:

A nadie le gustan las bromas pesadas

Debo usar la ropa interior por dentro

El café no es para niños

El gas neurotóxico no es un juguete

El lodo no es uno de los cuatro grupos de alimentos

Elvis no ha resucitado

Este castigo no es ni aburrido ni inútil

La habitación de los chicos no es un parque acuático

Lanzar bolas de pintura no es forma de arte

Las garantías individuales no dan libertad para eructar

Las judías ni son una fruta ni hacen música

Los chicles de ajo son de mal gusto

Los dientes flojos no necesitan de mi ayuda

Los hámsters no pueden volar

Los niños no deben tomar café

Los ruidos divertidos no son divertidos

Mejor dejar los transplantes de órganos a los profesionales

Mi maestra no tiene lepra

Mucho trabajo y poca diversión hacen de Bart un niño aburrido

Nadie me dijo que hiciera esto

Nadie quiere ver mis axilas

No debo bailar la Macarena en class

No debo cobrar por entrar en el baño

No debo comer cosas por dinero

No debo conducir el auto del director

No debo decir “se murió” cuando pasen lista

No debo emitir ruidos flatulentos en clase

No debo enseñar a otros a volar

No debo enterrar al chico nuevo

No debo eructar en clase

No debo hacer fotocopias de mis pompas

No debo hacer prescripciones medicas

No debo jugar con el refrigerador de la cafetería

No debo jugar en el patio de los pequeños

No debo tirar objetos

No debo llamar Cabeza de Papa al director

No debo pegar a mis compañeros

No debo traer ovejas a clase

No debo vender la propiedad del director

No debo vender terrenos en Florida

No eructare el himno nacional

No gritare fuego en la clase

No intercambiare los pantalones con los otros

No soy un dentista

No soy una mujer de 32 años

No debo atormentar a los de primer grado

No volveré a hacer nada malo

No volveré a patinar por los pasillos

Un eructo no es una respuesta

Yo no he visto a Elvis

Yo no me llamo Doctor Muerte

Here’s a list I found somewhere (maybe FLTEACH?) and I apologize for
not being able to give credit to the author.

Debbie Fowler
Buckeye Valley High School
Delaware OH

Bellwork/Do Now Ideas

Give it a cute name. Allons-y! for French, Ahora or Vamonos for
Spanish.

1) scrambled sentences
2) scrambled vocabulary words—match to English or write meaning
3) draw picture for a sentence
4) write sentence(s) from picture
5) fill-in-the-blank with a word that makes sense (give word box,
multiple choice, or nothing)
6) basic questions (name, age, birthday, weather, time)
7) edit the sentence (ex: spelling, s-v agreement, etc) 3 sentences telling what weekend plans are (give sentence builders)
9) 3 sentences telling what you did last weekend (give sentence
builders)
10) fix the false sentences based on…book class is reading/personal
information
11) solve math problem in French, based on items in French culture
12) convert Farenheit to Celsius or metric to common measurements
13) copy new words, illustrate/define
14) weather report for day with blanks to complete
15) French words used in English
16) put math problems into French words, or put number sentences into
regular numbers
17) 4 sentences about someone in the room w/o using their name, then
read aloud and class guesses who it is
18) 3 truths and a lie about the teacher—copy the sentence they think
is a lie
19) 10 sentences written on board, copy the ones that are true for you
20) 3 things in the room that are…color/adjective/bigger
than/smaller than/etc.
21) trivia question of the day
22) write sentences, is each sentence about one person or more than
one (verb recognition)
23) write sentences, is each sentence about a boy or a girl
(adjective agreement)
24) what do the students need to review: numbers, weather, time,
personal questions, etc.
25) draw clock and students write out time, or write out time and
students draw clocks
26) draw paragraph (paragraph must be illustrate-able)
27) discussion questions to do with partner
28) type up the pms from the previous day and have students translate
it
29) have students answer 3-5 questions after reading the previous
day’s pms
30) match the TL vocab to English
31) unscramble sentences, then arrange into a story
32) make up 5 commands
33) write down what your partner did over the weekend
34) figure out a riddle (from book of riddles)
35) tell what you like best about class so far, & what you like
least. Give one good idea to improve the class.
36) look around the room and write 2 questions about what you see on
the wall (what’s that a picture of? What does that mean? What
country’s flag is that?)
37) write down 3 funny boy’s names, 3 funny girl’s names, and 3 funny
places you might or might not want to visit
38) read the description on the overhead and name that celebrity
39) seasonal short stories, e.g. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas,
Mardi Gras, etc. Put one on overhead for warmup. Have students
underline words they don’t recognize. Write definitions of those
words. Read & translate story.
40) write as much of yesterday’s story as you can (French or English)
41) listen to a song and fill in the missing words (from list)
42) write a short story with yesterday’s words
43) draw yesterday’s story
44) draw a story using yesterday’s words and tell it to someone or
something
45) come up with 20 words that begin with the letter “…”
46) interview your partner and ask them…what’s happening in their
life…questions about yesterday’s pms…plans for holiday/weekend
47) I have a complete list of everything Bart Simpson had to write on
the board at the beginning of the show, 14 seasons, French and
English. Sometimes we do multiple choice/matching the French &
English. My kids adore the Simpsons!