We are in our fifth week of classes, and I am now reading a new story everyday with my level 1’s. I spent several years writing with weekly writing groups of enthusiastic, like-minded teachers. In those groups we wrote many stories. I focused on writing mini stories that can be digested within a single class period.
We now have a handful of comic books designed for language learners, as well as collections of illustrated stories. In class, we have read all of the stories in Un gato puede ser un gorro. We have also finished the first Esme graphic novel and, next week, we will start the second Esme graphic novel (which is outrageous, by the way).
There is an Australian researcher named Paul Nation that I often reference when I am thinking about second language vocabulary development. Overall, his work emphasizes the importance of extensive reading. Beginning language learners need to encounter the highest-frequency words frequently, in a wide variety of contexts. Encountering words in many contexts is key to developing an instinctive grasp of how the words are used in the target language.
However, I keep returning to a related point that Nation makes. Although his work emphasizes that the many contexts provided by extensive reading is ideal, he does recognize that multiple readings of the same text, spread out appropriately, can also be extremely impactful. Students’ retention of vocabulary is better on the 2nd and 3rd time exposed to a text.
On Friday I started class asking students to do a quick-write in their notebooks about a story that we had read together on Wednesday. After five minutes of independent “brain dump”, we wrote what we remembered on the board through a “Write and Discuss” community-writing activity. Most of the information was offered by students in Spanish. Nice! Afterwards, students opened the book and reread the story on their own before taking an unannounced, 10 question comprehension quiz that I had prepared.
All of the stories in Un gato puede ser un gorro have bilingual language support in the margins so that the text is extremely transparent. There is no guessing on the part of students. Our conversations about the text were mostly in Spanish.
The Write & Discuss activity and especially the final (unannounced) assessment did not have bilingual support which, for me, is the ultimate proof that providing English margin notes in the text does not “allow lazy students to resist processing the text in Spanish”. It allows them to understand. The subsequent conversations and activities in the target language is what leads to phenomenal acquisition without constantly having to toggle between Spanish and English.
But what does this all have to do with the title of this week’s essay, “Students: Front and Center” ?
Educators who follow The Two Conversations Classroom recognize that what we are doing is not a firm set of packaged lesson plans. Central to every class session is the student voice. Once students have a voice in class to express their experiences, they can derail our lesson plans and cause all sorts of anarchy, especially if we are not open to hearing their voices. (I have an example of hearing / not hearing their voices at the end of this essay). Students are fundamental to the curriculum, even when my plans include reading a story written years ago.
I used to introduce themes and vocabulary by simply asking pre-reading questions to the entire class. They would just stare at me until someone mercifully answered. This week I started classes with student interviews, also designed to prepare us for the readings.
I invite two students to sit on stools in opposite corners of the front of the classroom. I interview both students before occasionally turning to the rest of the class. I ask the question to the student on the right and I receive a response. No awkward silences. Then I turn and ask the same question to the student on the left. And again, I receive a response! I can compare and contrast their responses, or I can then turn to the rest of the class. And here is the surprising piece: the other students, who have been deprived of an opportunity to share, are now eager to share!! The student interview is a pretty genius way to get higher-quality engagement.
Before reading the comic about the French snails who move to Wyoming, I had a few prepared questions that were projected on our big screen in both Spanish and English. What strange things have you eaten before? Have you ever eaten snails? Do you want to visit France? If you could go anywhere, which country would you visit? This is a Spanish class, but I can ask any questions to get to know them. I ask in Spanish and at this point, only a couple of weeks into Spanish 1, the students usually respond in English. I cheerfully rephrase in Spanish, writing on the board so all can see the Spanish. And I ask follow-up questions.
A native Spanish speaker tells me that she has eaten tacos de cabeza and tacos de ojo. I ask: Is there a place you can buy those tacos in our town? “No Mr Peto”, she responds in English, “I woke up one morning and found a whole cow’s head in our sink”. Me, speaking in Spanish: “oh, so who makes the tacos in your house?” She still responds in English: “My dad”. I’m not exactly sure how tacos de cabeza are made, how that meat from the head is cooked, or how the eyes are prepared to make tacos de ojo, but the conversation has taken a fascinating detour for students who did not know that Mexicans use all of the meat from a butchered cow. “Entonces, tu padre hace (I point at the hace=makes sign) tacos de cabeza. Tu padre hace tacos de cabeza… ¿mucho?” Then, for the benefit of the class, I wrote mucho on the board with the translation: a lot.
Most students have never tried snails, but when I turn to the entire class, I find one student in every class who has. In the first class I made the mistake of quickly interjecting: “they are kind of like boogers”. It was a cheap laugh that killed the conversation and, worse, feeds into a trope that ethnic foods are disgusting. Snails are actually more like morsels of very tender meat marinated in garlic butter. I realized immediately that my comment was counterproductive.
I make mistakes. I try to learn from them.
During the next class period I followed my initial question, “Who has eaten snails?” by simply changing the question word to “Where?”.
During the first class, when I made the booger comment, I thought that I’d be an entertainer. I was worried about entertaining the audience, looking for a laugh, and I failed. Students didn’t notice. We just went on with the class. But I knew that I had sacrificed a genuine moment of communication in exchange for a lame joke.
In the second class, I asked in Spanish: “Where?”
The student responded with a smile that her mother once brought her to a French restaurant in Washington D.C.
Being “open to hearing her voice” means asking a question that prompts my student to respond with information about her life. To share something about her life with us. As a teacher I have to remind myself that I am not a comedian, and my students are not hecklers to be managed. I am more like a conversationalist like Terry Gross, getting my students to share something about themselves. When I ask questions that funnel us towards an expected punchline, I am surely undermining the student voice.
That delightful smile reminded me that, even when I am intent on pushing forward to read a story in the target language, a detour is not derailing a lesson. A detour is always welcome. Students, front and center.
The books that have full margin notes in English are A Cat can be a Hat (Spanish, French & German), Esme and Beto (Spanish, French & German), Normal hamburgers (French; the Spanish version has limited words defined in the footnotes with a full glossary), and volumes 3 & 4 of the comic books A Strange World in German (Spanish & French have low-frequency words defined with full glossaries). Other books published by My Generation of Polyglots all have full glossaries with low-frequency words defined in the margins.
Recent posts in this series about my return to the classroom: Child Psychology (Feb 23rd), Reading & Writing (Feb 15th), Imagination Work (Feb 8th), 120 hours (Feb 1st).
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