>
> 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!
