Vocab - the new approach

Yes, I'll admit it. Learning a foreign language is full of new vocabulary. Teaching it, can be an absolute drag some days. I particularly enjoyed the podcast of the new terminology. I am always looking for new ways to "re-invent" teaching vocabulary. I could tell that the students had a rubric to follow by giving the definition of the word, the part of speech, and correctly using it in a sentence or conversation. I did like how the students were given the freedom to compose their sentences and conversations however they deemed appropriate. I'm definitely stealing this idea for my students! It beats boring pre-assessments.

Multiple Texts Assignment

The lesson behind the Multiple Texts Assignment is learning the gender of nouns in the Spanish language. Although this is a very basic lesson, it is hard for some students to grasp this concept as we do not have anything similar to it in English. I chose 3 different texts for this.

The first is an audio practice from StudySpanish.com that offers many free (and subscription) supplemental material for learning the Spanish language. This lesson practices definite articles that determine the gender of the now. Para escuchar, haz un clic

The second text is basically an overview of how to determine gender of nouns. This information can be found in basically any Spanish text book or online. Para leer, haz un clic

Finally, the third text is more practice and reality oriented. It is a resume (or in Spanish, curriculum vitae). In this Spaniard's resume, I have highlighted certain words. Some words have the definite article while others must be determined on prior knowledge. This text is copied below:

DATOS PERSONALES
Nombre: María Jesús López Mañueco.
Lugar y fecha de nacimiento: Granada, 27 de febrero de 1975.
Nacionalidad: Española.
Dirección: C/ Fermoselle 25-27, 2 A. 41070, Granada.
Teléfonos de contacto: 958 315472 - 610 176577.
E-Mail: mj_mañueco@redestb.es

FORMACIÓN ACADÉMICA
- Licenciatura en Filología Hispánica, Especialidad Literatura Medieval Española. Universidad de Granada, Granada. 1998.
- Curso de Aptitud Pedagógica y Prácticas docentes. Universidad de Granada. 1998.

FORMACIÓN COMPLEMENTARIA
- Curso de Formación de Profesores de Español Lengua Extranjera. Universidad de Granada. 1999.
- El Español en los Estados Unidos. Columbia University, Nueva York, Estados Unidos. 1998.

IDIOMAS
Inglés: Nivel avanzado oral y escrito.
* Proficiency in English Language, Cambridge, 1997.
Alemán: Nivel avanzado oral y escrito.
* ActiLingua Academy. Wien, Austria. Junio-septiembre 1996.
Italiano: Nivel elemental oral y escrito.
* Scuola Leonardo Da Vinci, Florencia, Italia. Agosto, 1997.

INFORMÁTICA
Conocimiento a nivel de usuario de Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Access), WordPerfect, Entorno Windows (95 & 98), MS-DOS.

EXPERIENCIA PROFESIONAL
- Septiembre-diciembre 1999: Profesora interina en el Instituto de Educación Secundaria Fernando de Rojas. Salamanca.
- Prácticas docentes en el Instituto Fray Luis de Granada, Granada. Curso Académico 1997-1998.

OTROS DATOS DE INTERÉS
- Disponibilidad absoluta para viajar.
- Monitora de Aeróbic y natación.

Podcasting, Yeah!

Wow! How do you fit an entire book into a 3 minute podcast while still allowing time for seven group members to partake? We ran into a few technical issues, for example, the sound recorder would only record 60 seconds at a time. Obviously we overcame this and made it into a 5 minute podcast. Still, the podcast was a lot of fun and a great way to recap the book.

Anything we can make hands-on for our students is extremely beneficial. It allows them to make something intangible tangible. In doing so, the retention of the material must be astounding in comparison to reading or taking notes. The same can be said for science experiments. This is absolutely something I will implement in my classroom.

Give it a listen

Para Entender, BPR Ch.4 & 15

I think the big dilemma here is: how do we as teachers go beyond making students understand material by making them want to learn the material? How do we create this desire in them? Too often, and I speak for myself too, students will learn the subject matter to take a test and then discard the information as soon as it's over. Unfortunately we are programmed to do this to an extent. I also believe that in order to do this, we basically memorize the material and maybe not fully understand it. Memorizing is quite different that learning, understanding and applying. We need to create this desire as I said above. Motivate our students by allowing them to form their own opinions and think beyond what is in the text book. How does this apply to them? When/Where have they seen or experienced this? Of course this is easier said than done. How do you relate students' lives and experiences to verb conjugations. Nevertheless, we must find this outlet for students in order to increase understanding.

Censorship, BPR Ch. 6

Censorship is always a debatable subject. For me, I believe it is good to a certain extent, but is fairly detrimental too. Of course you have to censor within context. You don't want to hand a kindergarten student a photographic depiction of the Holocaust. We, as teachers, must chose wisely - not only for the sake of our student's innocence but for their benefit as well.
Still, if we censor material out of our classrooms, are we not promoting some form of ignorance? Yes! Even though a kindergarten teacher might not go into graphic detail on the Holocaust, if the subject arises, the teacher must be prepared to answer "Yes, it did happen."
On a more age appropriate level - for me that is - issues such as sex, drugs, and online safety (i.e. chat rooms, myspace) must be addressed. My school does not promote literature in these fields, but invites guest lecturers to discuss the matters. To me, even though these presenters offer good persuasiveness, it is the shock factor that is what is delivered to the children. The shock factor works to an extent; but what happens when children are shocked too much? They shut the information out!
Allowing children (middle school students for me) to read about these pressing issues that face our youth today gives them so much more. They are allowed and promoted form their own opinions and beliefs. The most important aspect of censorship is choosing the right material to be presented, not just any piece of fiction on sale.

Vocabulario, BPR Ch.7

For beginning Spanish (or any foreign language) learners, the classes are very vocabulary intensive. There is simply no way around this. Each lesson presents new words and applications (i.e. conjugations) that the student must obtain in order to move on to the next level. The order in which a student learns a foreign language is very rigid - like building blocks.

I agree with Allen that students must be able to know and apply vocabulary; not just memorize it for the test and forget it. Like in many other contents, you must know the material presented now for the new material presented tomorrow. However, I do not feel compelled by Allen's research on vocabulary as I do not believe it is directed to vocabulary-rich contents like Spanish. Nevertheless, I have taken into consideration her processes of learning terms and will try to mold them to my content area.

For example, the fill in the blank activity called "Poop on Poop" can be integrated into a Spanish classroom. Depending on the level of the class (Spanish 1, middle school or high school) is how it should be arranged. For me in a middle school, my fill-in-the-blank activity will probably be in "Spanglish" - leaving the text in English and the word bank in Spanish. I think this will be a fun sponge activity for students in practicing new vocab.

Blog. Compose. Podcast. Jam. Share..., BPR Ch10

"When I was a student, for instance, we read, wrote, spoke and did 'rithmetic; now, according to the poster in the Apple store, kids "Blog. Compose. Podcast. Jam. Share. Photocast. Chat. Switch. Play. Create." (Burke, 150)
How true is this? I am 23 years old, a mere 10 years older than my students, and I don't know half of the terminology listed above!
In an article by Gloria Ladson-Billings, she explains the link between education and culture by telling the story of a Native American Educator, "one of the reasons Indian children experience difficulty in schools is that educators traditionally have attempted to insert culture into the education, instead of inserting education into the culture." Of course this was quoted referring to the actual culture - race, ethnicity, religion - of the Native Americans, but think of the culture our kids today have, regardless of color. We live in a very technologically advanced society, and even though the older generations are struggling and racing to keep up with new advancements, it comes very naturally to our youth.

However, if one aspect rang true in this chapter, it was that of the "Passionate Personalizers." We must keep our society competitive - if not in prices and wages, then in services and products. We must express and educate this to our students. It is not enough to have one trade anymore. Instead, we must be able to market ourselves to be what the consumer needs.

Bringing the learning to the student: BPR, Ch.1

As I read this chapter, it ironically referred to a book that my mom just finished reading, "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman. Mom had me find and buy this book for her on half.com and since completing her reading, has spoke extremely highly of it.
I went upstairs to get this book from the shelf for my own reference in blogging. It was filled with post-it markers throughout the pages. I noticed one that said "Brandi on teaching," and this is what I found:
"Some kids are just born [curious], but for the many who are not, the best way to make kids love learning is either to instill in them a sense of curiosity, by great teaching, or stimulate their own innate curiosity by making available to them all the technologies of the flat-world platform so they can educate themselves in an enormously rich way." (Friedman, 2006)
Before today, I had never connected online or technological avenues such as blogs to be appropriate in the school setting. As Beers said in this chapter, they are mostly "online diaries." But why not? This is a fantastic way to bridge the generation gap between schools and students, and teachers and students (and it saves paper too!). Still, in Collin's case, his passion wasn't his blog - it was the environmental issues that perplexed and drove him. So this may be the "cool" new thing the students get excited about at first, but as a teacher, I must find a manner in which to challenge them and allow them to learn. Yet, I cannot lose sight of what goes on beyond the classroom in our community, society and world and make sure these important factors are brought into the learning community.