Sing out those words! Choral Reading and a Book Recommendation

I'm back to college after all these years, taking courses towards ESL certification.  I was getting the textbook for my English Grammar class and another book for a different course caught my eye.   It was called Goodbye Round Robin by Michael Opitz and Timothy Rasinski.  I stood in the bookstore browsing the book and then ordered the book for myself.  

Most teachers know that "round-robin reading" is the old tradition of going around the class with the students taking turns reading.  This book explains why this technique is not the best, both in terms of classroom efficiency and student learning and self-concept.  It highlights more than a half-dozen strategies to replace the practice.

One of the strategies is choral reading.  The book recommends poetry as an ideal text.  The teacher reads the text through and then the class reads it in chorus several times.  Students can then pair off and read the text again to each other.  I have used this technique in my German class very successfully.  I usually do a poem at the beginning of class, repeating the same text over two weeks before changing to a new one.  I think that the class benefits in a number of ways:

• Students get to practice pronunciation without the pressure of performing solo.
• Students get familiar with a piece of poetry-- Many students committed the poems to memory just by the daily reading. Some poems I revisit several years in a row. I have seen former students who could still say the poem years after and took pleasure in reciting it for me.
• Students pick up new vocabulary from the poem.  Sometimes I will go to introduce a new word and students will say something like,"No, we had that word in the poem about the baked apples."  Even if they don't remember it, it is preliminary contact with new vocabulary and structures.
• The choral reading brings students mentally into the class. It signals the beginning of class.  I start the reading right when the bell rings.  Students who may be getting out books and sitting down can do it while reciting the poem.  At the end, we swing into class.

The best poems, I find, are pretty short.  Even though I teach high school, we often use children's rhymes to start. Sometimes I will make up some hand-motions to go with the poem-- this injects a tiny bit of TPR as well.  I do sometimes feel like the conductor of an orchestra-- I use a similar motion to get all of the students to start on time.  We do sometimes progress to singing as well-- but that's a post for another time! 

Increasing your Use of the Target Language in Class

I,  like many second language teachers,  am working to increase the amount of target language I use in my classroom.
My colleague, Laura Bartlett, a second language teacher, passed these great tips on to me.  She doesn't remember how they made their way to her, so I can't credit them.  If anyone knows who wrote them, let me know and I'll give due credit to the author.

 Five tips to help you increase your use of the TL in the classroom.
1- Ask, ask, ask.
Get into the habit of asking short questions continually. I don’t ever actually teach question words. It’s in their vocab, but we spend 0 instruction or practice time on it because we just do it so much. Who are you sitting with? Who’s at the door? What’s in your backpack? When’s lunch? Why are you leaving? What color is that? Where’s your sister?
2- offer an immediate (false) answer to your question
Don’t translate yourself and don’t give anyone a chance to translate for someone who didn’t hear or wasn’t listening or never listens because the smart guy next to him always translates. Offering an immediate false answer gives students immediate context to target comprehension and increase concept ties, which are much stronger than L1-L2 ties (see my presentation here and it’s worth your time to read this book chapter).
So, where did your Mom go? Walmart? Disney World? Where? Where did she go? Who’s at the door? Lady Gaga? President Obama? Who? Who’s there?
3- start describing drawings
I incorporate a lot of stories into my teaching and so I draw a lot. I am not an artist by any means, and that just makes it more fun. My students know I draw the worst-looking horses. Instead of just talking about something, try drawing through it. How about for an introductory activity one day, take your recent vocabulary and describe a drawing that your students have to draw. Use colors, sizes, and location words. “The sun is green and it’s far away from the small blue banana.” Take it for a listening comprehension grade. Drawing is my favorite version of vocab quizzing. Beats translation any day.
4- come up with an “I don’t understand” sign
We often switch into English because we think our students may not understand. Another thing I took from TPRS is the “X” symbol for when students don’t understand. That way, I know and can repeat, draw, act, rework my phrases to help them understand, and all the while I’m feeding them more TL. Timid students don’t mind doing a little X with their index fingers. Then I’ve had rambunctious boys do a full-table X (my students sit 4 to a table sideways to me for communicative/scaffolding purposes) where each boy put an arm to the center and this was a “this entire table is completely lost here” X. LOL.
5- offer students a reward for “catching” you saying something in English they know in TL
Sometimes you’ll find the right students motivated by the right things (chocolate) who will help you police yourself. I offered students a bean every time they caught me saying something in English that they knew in Spanish – even a word – and 2 beans earned them a Snickers Mini.
Get talking. Use strategies to continually assess comprehension and TALK TALK TALK!

In praise of a Large Class

Classes for many of us are getting larger.  I have a large freshman class of twenty-four at the end of the day.  Yes, I know—many teachers have classes of almost thirty, but twenty-four can seem pretty big when you’re trying to get students to talk to each other.   Smaller classes have many obvious benefits and I’m a firm believer that more can be taught in smaller classes.  This is not the reality for many of us, though, so I started to try to think of some benefits of a larger class.  Here are some thoughts:

·         Larger classes can change depending on the seating arrangement.  From a practical standpoint, there are a lot of different pair opportunities.  Students can be very different when paired with different partners.  On a very basic behavior management level, there are bound to be nice, quiet students that can be used as positive partners for less behaved kids.  There are sometimes not opportunities in a small class to “dilute” the effect of squirrely kids or the possibility of more motivated kids to infect other students with their enthusiasm.

·         Larger classes need different techniques and often different activities.  I have had activities that didn’t work because the class was too small—some activities work better in a particular sized class.  I am always looking out for ways to get as much student participation in as possible, while keeping the class orderly and manageable.  White boards, for example, allow all students to participate together.  Pair work works well, although I find that larger groups can be more challenging.  Because it’s hard to get around the classroom as easily, there tend to be slackers in the groups that check out and ride on the work of others.

·         The students in a class are “resources” for the second language teacher.  They bring personalities and experiences to the class that can be used in teaching.  I’ve had small classes that were so low-key that I had to spend a lot of energy keeping the class energetic and fun.

In a big class, there is rarely an aggregate lack of energy—when it’s harnessed in the service of learning, the class can be enormous fun.

Ticket Exchange - an Activity to Introduce New Vocabulary

When I first started teaching, I would introduce new vocabulary words by passing out a list, reading down the list and perhaps having students repeat the words.  I'll admit that I do occasionally do this-- after all, research says that students who read through a vocabulary list at the beginning of the unit do retain vocabulary better.  But I do notice that student attention flags after five to ten words. 

I asked myself what I want out of this initial contact with the new vocabulary.  I want students to:

• learn to pronounce and recognize the words
• link each word if possible to some way to remember it.  Is it related to a word we've studied before? Can we think of a funny mnemonic device?
• Are there prefixes and suffixes in the word?  English and German are alike in both having a lot of prefixes and suffixes which help you know the meaning of a word.  This is a good time to unpack and reenforce the meanings of these. 

 One activity that I've found very successful in introducing vocabulary is the ticket exchange.  I know I got this from another teacher, but I'm afraid I can't remember who (and perhaps it was passed down to that teacher from another one - "oral-tradition.edu" )  Anyway, I make up a small piece of paper (actually, I recycle quilt-raffle tickets.  I have hundreds from a raffle a few years ago at my husband's school)  On each one, I write the German on the front and the English on the back.  If I were teaching English, I might write the English on the front and put a picture on the back, or a simple definition.  Each student gets a ticket.  I write on the board the German way to ask, "What does this mean?" and also the phrase for "I don't know"-- just in case students don't remember these phrases.  Students are asked to get out of their seats and show a classmate the ticket.  Person A will ask "What does _____ mean?"  At first, because these are new words, Person B will not know and Person A will have to tell him/her.  Then the Person  B will ask Person A his/her word and they will exchange tickets and go on to new partners.  After a while, they will start to become familier with the new vocabulary.  They will have a chance to say and hear the words.

Having done this over time, I have a few additional tips for its successful use.

• I model the activity before the start.  As a partner, I frequently pick a kid I think is most likely to have trouble understanding or paying attention to directions.  I model asking, having him/her say he doesn't know and asking me and then exchanging tickets and going on to a new partner.
• I stress with larger or less responsible classes the importance of participating.  I tell that they should always be either doing a ticket exchange or finding a partner as quickly as possible-- no floating around the room to locate the ideal partner.  The nearest free person should be the next partner.
• Especially in smaller classes (under 15 or so), I often participate.  I can then take out easier vocabulary and be the means of introducing a few new ones.  After a few minutes, I'll hear students comment that they've had a word a few times before.  I find that putting a few new words in lengthens the amount of time students are interested.
• Especially in classes that may tend to be a bit less responsible (OK, you know what I mean!), this is generally a pretty short activity.  Better to do this on two days for 5 minutes each than to let it go on too long.

Expanding the Information Gap

Many language teachers use information gap activities to get students talking in their classrooms.  These are activities in which one partner knows something that the other partner does not.  The job of each partner is to ask for information they don’t know and communicate the information that they do.  Here is a typical information gap activity that I used yesterday in my German class.  I’ll give it to you in English:

What presents did Matthias get his family?

Partner A gets this chart:                                             

recipient	gift
mother	A wallet
father
sister
brother	A Steven King novel
grandma
grandpa	A tie

Partner B gets this chart:       

recipient	gift
mother
father	A watch
sister	A Justin Bieber poster
brother
grandma	slippers
grandpa

So partner B doesn’t know what the mother got and has to ask Partner A.  Partner A needs to fill in the father’s gift and has to ask Partner B.

In thinking about this, though, I think it’s kind of boring.  The kids did it, but they didn’t really care about Matthias and his stupid gift list.  How could I spice it up?

I started to think of more interesting information gap activities. How could  I expand on this type and up students’ interest?

•  Make it more personal.  Use names of class members and plug them in to the chart with humorous gifts.Why can’t the grandma get the Justin Bieber poster, for example?  I think there are ways to mix this up and still use vocabulary that I want to reinforce.
• Have the students generate the chart content.  Students could ask and fill in what students got for Christmas/Hanukah and what they gave family members.  This would take more preparation because students would have to ask for unknown vocabulary.  A good pre-activity could be to brainstorm gift ideas.
•   Extend the activity in some way.  The chart made me think about that puzzle book favorite, the logic puzzle.  This has the added bonus of asking students to do communication and higher-ordered thinking.  Here’s an example that I made for my other class, which is studying occupations.  I made a simple one which we did together as a class, since most kids weren’t familiar with the form.

Each person got the same introduction and table, but different information :

These five friends went to high school together.  They all have different professions and nobody has two jobs.  Share the information you know and ask your partner what he knows that you do not.  Then discuss and arrive at a solution.

Josef
Gerda
Ludwig
Hannes
Barbara
	fireman	Pilot	author	postman	retiree

 A.      Josef has a dangerous job.  His job has nothing to do with airlines or airplanes  Gerda went to college and now isn’t working.  Barbara didn’t go to college, but likes her job, because she gets to work outside. 

 B.      Barbara’s job doesn’t have a lot of stress because it’s not dangerous.After school, Ludwig went into the military.  He doesn’t like to write and doesn’t do it well. Hannes likes to read and is afraid of flying and fire.

There are a lot of other information gap activities which go beyond the chart-fill-in model.  In future posts, I plan to explore them.  Stay tuned!