More Spanish

Student blogging in Spanish class

I started planning my student blog project last fall.  I mentioned that I had tried a variation of student blogging with previous classes, but didn’t care for the results.  Although it is still very early in the project, I really like the changes I made and the results so far are encouraging.  Let me start off by describing how I organized this project.

Purpose:  I want my students to produce written communication for an authentic audience.  I also want my students to self-select and internalize vocabulary that is of interest to them, and that in turn, they might be able to use in other forms of communication.  Another goal for this project is to allow students to gain confidence using web 2.0 tools, and develop an academic presence online.  It’s my hope that students will continue to write in their blogs as long as they are enrolled in a Spanish class at my high school, giving them a digital portfolio that reflects their growing fluency over the next two and a half years.

I wanted a component of this project to be student driven, so I allowed them to select any topic that was school appropriate to write about.  I gave them a week to think of what they might want to write about.  This has been the biggest difference between previous blogging projects.  Last time I attempted a blogging project, I gave my students a prompt or assignment, and had them write to that.

Audience:  Although I would like for my students to have an audience of native Spanish speakers, I have not been able to successfully find that audience for them.  I teach a total of 120 intermediate language learners, and I believe that they can be their own audience.  I have assigned a specific “blog buddy” to each student.  This student is in their physical class, and will be the primary peer editor during this project.  In addition, I had my students self-select 3 other blog buddies from any of my Spanish classes.  They signed up for their partners on a spreadsheet that identified the blog topic and blog url.  When a student’s slots were filled, the student would need to select a student that still had available slots.  Some students selected blog buddies based on the topic, but most selected blog buddies based on friendship. Each student has at least 4 blog readers, but I have noticed that some students are visiting and reading other blogs beyond the 4 that they have selected.

Organization tools: I am using Google Docs and our class Ning to help manage the organization.  I loaded my class roster on a Google Spreadsheet, and had each student type in their blog url and topic.  I have each of these documents posted online on the sidebar on our class Ning.  Students can always go to the Google Doc to get the url if they need to.  After they added the urls, I change the permission on the Google Docs so that students wouldn’t accidently delete information.  I printed a spreadsheet with the student names and had the students use this one to sign up for their blog buddies.  I kept the hard copy in case I have to refer to it or if the students forget who their blog buddies are.

I did a little research on blogging formats and decided to use Blogger.  Our district is using Google Apps, so the same account that they use for Google Docs, and Gmail should also work for their blog.  Our high school is in the process of rolling out these web tools. Most of my students are just starting to use some of these tools this year, so that meant that my students were using their Google account for the first time when they signed up for their blog.  

I found out the hard way that having more than 25 blog requests coming from the same IP address raises a flag at Blogger, and after my first class created their blogs, my third bell students were denied the requested blog.  I believe Blogger thought it was being spammed. I switched platforms with my fifth bell class to Wordpress.  The same thing happened there after 20 or so blogs were created.  This means that I have students working off of two blogging platforms.  The good news is I get to compare the two, and see which is easier to use for future projects.  The students who were not able to create their blog in class did it for homework.  Both platforms are easy enough to figure out, and with one or two exceptions, the students successfully had a blog to start writing on the following day.  

If you are doing this with a single class, I don’t think you will have any problems.  If you have more than 30 students, you will want to have the students create their blog at home or stagger the classes that are creating the blogs over the course of a few days.

Previously, my student’s blogs were housed on our class Ning.  Although this is very convenient and easy to use, the blogs would not follow them when they moved to Spanish 4.  They can also customize what their blogs look like with both Blogger and Wordpress, and I think it helps give them a sense of ownership over them.   Another advantage is other readers can comment on these blogs outside of our school.  The class Ning has a limited membership, and non-members cannot leave comments.  

I will do my best to write a follow up post on how I have been grading this project, and share a few sample student posts within the next few days.  If you have any experience with student blogging, I would love to hear from you.

Oral Assessments

We are finishing up midterm exams, and this is the first year I feel the test has been meaningful for my students.  This year I set the test up to have three parts: an oral assessment, a written assessment and a traditional vocabulary/grammar section.  

The students recorded the oral assessment on Google Voice the last two days of the term, giving me a weekend to start grading them.  They have been practicing story telling all quarter, and I was very pleased by the recordings.    Students have been telling each other stories based on cartoons their peers drew for homework. The day of the test I took 5 different cartoons and shuffled them all in one big pile. Each student received a different cartoon, but it was a cartoon they had previously seen in class.  The students were asked to flip the paper over at the same time, and I gave them two minutes to think about what they were going to say.  All my students called Google Voice at the same time and talked. The story needed to be narrated in the past tense (preterit & imperfect) and was thematically specific to a lesson from this semester.  I told my students they needed to talk for at least 90 seconds.  Most talked for 2-2:30 minutes.  

My rubric is very generous for this assessment, but I strongly believe it needs to work in favor of the language learner, and reward the steps they are taking toward becoming fluent speakers.  I told them that I did not expect perfect grammar.  Out of 140 students I only had 6-8 who had problems using the past tense consistently, and even those students could tell me a story, they just narrated primarily in present tense.  

Although my students are asked to produce & use Spanish in their Spanish 1 & 2 classes, my class is the first time they are assessed orally. Although they have practiced this activity for over 12 weeks, they were still nervous. Although the assessment is far from a natural conversation, I feel it accurately reflected how each student can communicate orally. 

I would like to do more of these types of assessments, but they are very time intensive to grade.  At 2 minutes per student (assuming I don't have to listen twice), that is 280 minutes or 4 hours and 40 minutes.  I will continue to assess my students with Google Voice, but rather than grade all, I will randomly grade the recordings, keeping track of who I have listened to until I get to all of my students... and then start the process over again.

I would strongly encourage language teachers to include some form of oral assessment for their students.  I really believe it brings together everything they have been working on and reinforces the importance of speaking. 

 

 

Some thoughts on digital natives in my classroom

Thanks to Ant McNeill for photo via Flicker.com

Many believe Generation Z children seamlessly manage technology for a variety of purposes.  The kids who grew up with the Web, MP3 players and cell phones have been exposed at a much younger age to technological tools that have drastically changed the way we complete tasks.  These same technologies have also added a plethora of entertainment options.  Despite the exposure these children have had to these digital tools, they still compartmentalize entertainment, their social life and “formal learning”.  I believe that students will develop skills that will allow them to navigate more fluidly between each of these compartments, but I have to continually remind myself to be patient about the process. 

As some of you have read before I am fortunate to have a classroom set of netbooks. Many, many things have changed about the way I run my classroom since we have had access to them, but I am surprised every year by the time we spend in class learning or reviewing some very basic digital skills.  These are a few things I took for granted my students knew how to do:

-Email a document to themselves

-Trouble shoot a frozen screen

-Set up a user name and password that they could remember easily the rest of the school year

-Retrieve the password and/or user name if they forgot it

-Find and use a web site’s help center/support

-Embed a link

-Load an image online

-Use a web site’s navigation menu to find specific information if it is not the first thing that pops up on a site

You get the idea... To be fair, many of my students negotiate these tasks and are a huge help in class as they troubleshoot issues with their peers. However many students who successfully use Facebook, do not transfer over the skills they use on that site to similar tasks needed to do work for Spanish class.  This is one example of compartmentalizing.

Here is another example of compartmentalizing outside interests with educational goals. Toward the end of the school year my students had an option to self-select a topic of interest to them and work on it over the course of two weeks.  (I’ll describe the project in more detail in a later post.)  When given the opportunity to select any topic of interest to them and use it Spanish class, many kids really didn’t know what to pick.  Several wanted to do fall back on a traditional report & posterboard.  Not only did they have problems considering their hobbies and outside interests as a viable topic, but some still wanted to print out and paste images to card-stock despite having experience and exposure to several multimedia tools. 

This was not the highlight of my week.  Thankfully I talked to my colleague and Art teacher Rod Vesper (you can read his blog here). He had just visited some students in our district that were part of a 7th grade pilot program that allows students to bring their laptops to school. He was very impressed with the learning and the manner that these kids used digital tools to learn.  Seamlessly.  He also had experienced some of the same issues that I had been working through.  And he reminded me to be patient.  

Our students revert to what is comfortable to them.  They are well acquainted with reports and posterboard visuals.  They are accustomed to teacher-directed activities.  It will take some time to shift this mindset.  Student need to be exposed to digital tools that can be used for learning as well as personal enjoyment.   They need to have the opportunities to develop digital skills to perform tasks for learning.   They need to understand that digital skills and tools are not exclusive to entertainment and chatting with their friends.  These tools can also be used in the classroom effectively. I look forward to having those 7th graders in my classroom in the next couple of years. Until then I will remind myself that I am doing my part to shift that mindset in my classroom. 

If you use digital tools in your classroom, how do you work in the learning curve into your lesson plans? 

 

Flickr for vocabulary practice

I wanted a to write a quick post about Flickr.  I have talked about this Web 2.0 previously, but I wanted to add another usage for what is one of my favorite sites.  One of my homework options is for students to photograph current vocabulary and load it to our class Flickr group.  This year I have 8-10 students who consistently take photos and load them to our class group.  I ask that my students tag the photos with the lesson number, and I can easily create a slide show by selecting the photos with that specific tag.  You can see an example of what this slide show looks like here.  There will be some repetition in the vocabulary words photographed, but I am ok with that. The student photographers enjoy seeing their work as a slide show, and the other students like viewing these photos more than the clip art that comes with the textbook.  This is a great review activity and takes very little preparation on my part, but personalizes the lesson tremendously. 

Voicethread tutorial

Sam, a student reporter for our school newspaper,  asked me to name my favorite Web 2.0 applications for an article on technology last year.  Google Voice, Google Docs and Voicethread were the first tools that came to mind.  In this series of blog posts, I want to show how versatile these tools are for the World Language classroom, and why teaching your students to use them will have a big payoff all year long. 

Voicethread

One of the most versatile tools for a language classroom is Voicethread.  It is very easy to use and you will find some very nice resources on their web page. Since I last visited their resources page I see they have added PDF documents as well as short Voicethreads that explain how to use this tool.

My students will be working on a Voicethread project, and I will be presenting to a group of World Language teachers at an inservice this week.  I thought I'd create a quick presentation to get everyone started, and I wanted to share it on my blog as well.  

Voicethread is easy to use, but sometimes finding what you need takes a little bit of practice.  Hopefully this presentation will cover some of the basic trouble shooting issues you might have as you start working on a project. You can find the presentation at the bottom of this post.

As far as how I use Voicethread in class...

One of the most basic uses is for vocabulary practice.  A student will write sentences using their new vocabulary, and pair the oral work with an image.  They usually email me the link.  I will then post them to our class Ning for other students to view.

As I mentioned before, my students will be working on their first in class Voicethread project this week. They will be putting together vocabulary and the imperfect tense when they narrate a series of photos about their childhood.  They will tell me what toys they used to play with, who they would play with, what they use to eat and any special traditions their family had as they were growing up.  

Once the individual student puts together this project and publishes it, her classmates will be able to comment on her presentation and compare & contrast their childhood with hers.  This will be the follow up activity.  This also gives each student an authentic audience for their work. 

Voicethread is a great collaborative tool, so I will assign group work with this tool.  My favorite one so far was the collaborative project that Leigh Murrell's classes in California and my own classes in Ohio worked on.  You can read about that project here. 

These are just three uses for Voicethread.  Project for this tool are unlimited.  I would love to hear how you use Voicethread in your classrooms.  Please don't hesitate to share your plans for Voicethread with me.

 

Google Voice Redux

Sam, a student reporter for our school newspaper,  asked me to name my favorite Web 2.0 applications for an article on technology last year.  Google Voice, Google Docs and Voicethread were the first tools that came to mind.  In this series of blog posts, I want to show how versatile these tools are for the World Language classroom, and why teaching your students to use them will have a big payoff all year long. 

Google Voice

Google Voice doesn’t have a learning curve for your students.  You simply explain your assignment, give your students your Google Voice phone number, and have the students call in.  In January, I mentioned how I used Google Voice for individual assessments and partner work.  I have added some variations on these activities since that post. 

My students practice pronouncing vocabulary terms for homework.  They will call in and repeat the vocabulary.  Although this is a very basic assignment, it helps me figure out what words I need to emphasis and practice from a pronunciation perspective.  

Another homework assignment my students can chose to do is to call Google Voice and re-define a vocabulary term in Spanish.  I will then download the call and use it as a listening activity in class to practice or to review for a quiz.  Please listen to Ali’s example to hear how this works.

Download 1af5b8702b57969f24f8884e4a353e875363165c

My students take partner activities a lot more seriously when they have to record the activity on Google Voice.  Skits and dialogues are done on Google Voice on a regular basis, because I save so much class time by having all partners perform at once. I will then grade the assignment during my planning bell, when I can fully concentrate on assessing my students’ oral work, and not be distracted by classroom management issues.  

From time to time, I also have students call in some of the textbook’s pair work.   They are much more concerned about doing the activity well when it will be recorded than when I am informally walking around the room listening to them. 

My student’s enjoy hearing each other more than the book’s listening activities, so when I have a very strong oral activity, I will also download it, and create listening comprehension questions about what the student said in their recording.  

This year I am using the “add contact name” to their phone number.  When I log in to my Google Voice account I can  tell exactly who called and at what time.  I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner.  If you haven’t set this up yet, it is quite simple.  Right by the phone number that called in is a blue “Add”.  Click on it and enter your student’s name.  Every time that student calls you from that phone, you will see his name by his message. 

Another reason why I am such a Google Voice fan, is that I can give my students direct feedback by texting them (if they call from their cell phones).  If the activity is done in front of class, I tend to give my students positive feedback, because speaking in front of peers in a Spanish can be intimidating.  However, it a student is repeating the same mistake over and over on a Google Voice message, I can simply send a quick text from my computer, and give the student constructive feedback without embarrassing her in front of her peers.

This year I want to finding ways to use Google Voice for informal and unscripted conversation practice.  There is a 2:30 minute limit on each call, so I haven’t successfully come up with an activity that gives my students the think time they need at this level to record a spontaneous exchange.  If you have any suggestions, please share!  I’m always looking for creative and efficient ways to assess speaking skills. 

Vocabulary practice in action

Every year I have at least one good idea.  Sometimes it is a lesson, sometimes it is a way of doing things more effectively.  My good idea has come kind of late this year, but I am very excited about it :)

A few week ago I blogged about a brainstorming session my department had on what kind of vocabulary homework to give our students. I was having problems with my Tic-Tac-Toe idea, so I opted for this assignment.  It allows students to select from a variety of activities.  I think there is a balance between the kind of work they do and the points they earn from it, and I believe that the point value also reflects the time each activity will take to complete.  My students will also have some flexibility with what is due when. If a student has a lot of homework in other classes on Tuesday, maybe she does an activity that is not as time consuming Tuesday night, and does the activity that requires more time Thursday. The important thing is that she is at least doing something with the vocabulary outside of class for at least 3 nights out of the week.  

Anyway... I rolled out the homework plan this week, and I am very pleased with the results.  Here is a link to our class wiki where I put some of the digital products.  Everything under 8B is student produced... and those are just the digital products.  I'm going to try and post or figure out a way to showcase some of the non-digital work.  I have had 3 rap songs created, numerous drawings and crossword puzzles, 5 short stories, and tons of kids practicing pronunciation and spelling with traditional vocabulary activities. 

I have positive feedback so far from the students.  I'm going to have them take a survey after we have done a couple of vocabulary units to get "official" feedback.  As far as grading goes... I am working on a system to make it more efficient.  Looking over the work is no more time consuming than traditional paper/pencil homework.  What I find myself doing is trying to incorporate the outstanding products into my class as a warm up or for those last 5 minutes of class, and that is taking some additional planning time. 

OFLA presentation

Thanks to all of you who came to see my session.  I hope you picked up some new information.  Here is the link to the Wiki used in the presentation. Please let me know if I can answer any questions.

 I also wanted to post my presentation.  I hope all the links work on it.  

Netbook Journal: California Dreaming Pt 3

California Dreaming Pt 3

Leigh Murrell and I have organized a cross-country collaborative project between two of our Spanish 3 classes.  You can read more about this project here and here.

Our students finished working on their collaborative Voicethread a couple weeks ago, and all classes have taken a survey on the project so we have some very specific feedback for future collaborative efforts.  

My thoughts

I really enjoyed working with another teacher, and Leigh was the icing on the cake.  She is very organized, creative and willing to explore all possibilities.  I appreciated hearing and seeing student work from California mirror what I see in my classes in Ohio.  Most projects tuned out very well, but some were exceptional.  You can tell so much about a student’s interest and motivation from something like this, even if they are not in your class.  Although the project was time consuming,  our students used language in context with a purpose, and picked up some information about the culture on the way.  I believe that was well worth the time and energy spent. 

Next time we do something like this, I would liked to monitor the collaborative efforts better.  Some groups did a very nice job working together throughout the project, however other students interacted with each other, but they really didn’t work cohesively as a group.  These are skills that need to be practiced, and don’t come naturally even when the kids are sitting next to each other.  Next year, we will set up smaller exchanges between the kids leading up to a collaborative project.  I also want to encourage more peer editing between the students, so we will put an activity in place that will require the students to look at each other’s work and give/get feedback before a final copy is produced. 

Student feedback

Most students used Google Docs to communicate despite having a Ning forum.  This surprised me because this is the “Facebook generation”.  I thought that type of communication would come naturally to them. Many wanted to text with each other, but based on the survey it doesn’t seem like any did. Only one kid used email. 

Although most students rated their work as excellent or good, and most thought they should get an A, 64 % of the students spent “just enough time/effort” to get the assignment done as was necessary.  37% did not go back and listen the group Voicethread when the project was finished.   I find discordance in these results. Why would a student think they deserve a ‘A” if all they did was the minimum work possible?

My students’ favorite part of the assignment was working and talking to the California students.  Several enjoyed learning about new music.  Rachel said “I thought it was really cool that we were working on a project with kids on the other side of the country that we've never met, especially on the Googledoc when we were all 3 editing it. I also really enjoyed reading about Spanish music.”

The most challenging part according to my students was communicating with the California students.  Ian said “Dealing with expectations of homework, especially at night with the time change, because a good time for them to start their homework is time for me to go to bed.”  I think the best work came from the students who got a chance to work together in real time.  I assumed my students would use the Ning when they couldn’t work in real time.  Next time, we will provide an activity that allows the students to feel comfortable using the forum to communicate with each other. 

Here are some of my favorite Voicethreads: 

Flamenco, Pop en Español, Bachata, Merengue. 

Thanks again to Leigh & her Spanish 3 classes! 

Netbook Journal: Tic-Tac-Toe Choice

Earlier this year our school district offered high school teachers an opportunity to submit a proposal to “Re-imagine the 21st Century Classroom” . I, along with two English teachers - Tricia Buck and David Lunn - were awarded 30 netbooks and an opportunity to introduce technology driven activities to our curriculum. We are being supported by our district’s Instructional Technology Specialist, Cary Harrod.  I am thrilled to discover what my Spanish students can achieve when they augment their studies with technology on a daily basis.

I have been trying to figure out a way to give those students who finish their work quickly and well some challenges that will also meet our curricular goals, and I think I figured out how the netbooks will allow me to give my high achieving students enrichment opportunities. 

I modified an alternative assessment tool, based on a Tic-Tac-Toe gird, to fit my class.  My students will be challenged to complete three out of nine web based activities in a row.  Since I want to make sure that my students practice listening, speaking and writing skills, I made sure that with the exception of one row, all rows will include a listening/speaking/written activity.  I want the specific topic within each activity to be open ended, so that the individual student can self- select the theme and apply the language skills/practice in that manner. 

I still haven’t rolled this out with my classes, but I hope to do so soon. I am curious to see how it is received by my students, and I’m interested to see the quality of work that is produced.  I have rubrics in mind for the activities, but I would like to have the student co-write the rubric if possible. We’ll see how this all comes together.