Learning Styles and Languages T2P Module 6

 The first time I heard the term “Learning Style” was at the FLANC conference in 1996.  Different ways people learn can be grouped into seven categories.  If you aren’t familiar with learning styles, you can read about it here.

In my opinion, language instruction should incorporate all of it.  Instructional delivery needs to match content.  When it comes to teaching Spanish, I’m teaching reading, writing, listening, and speaking.  I refuse to be a “notes, notes, quiz, more notes” kind of teacher.  For this post, I’m going to take each style or intelligence and give examples of how I would use it in my classroom.

Visual- Now that I am a mother of three, I pull a lot of pictures of my children into the PowerPoint slides I use in class.  In addition to my own children, several of my students upload pictures to our shared presentations for class.  For reflexive verbs, we were all brushing our teeth!

Aural- I use authentic pop songs as much as I can.  Our favorite this semester has been “Un día a la vez” by Debi Nova.  They still sing it all the time and one of them told me he would remember that “vez” meant “time” for the rest of his life.

Verbal- With my upper level students, we speak Spanish.  All of the simple classroom expressions, directions, and class activities are in the target language.  I also give them structured writing prompts to help them get their conversations going.  Will you have some students panic?  Yes.  But that is where the visual and aural techniques come in handy.

Physical- This is my least favorite style. Every kid that can’t sit still claims to be a kinesthetic learner.  Yuck.   Even though it is not my favorite, we play a lot of charades and act out a lot of scenes in the lower level classes.  Having them pantomime “I’m cold” does get the concept stuck in their head.  Also, if you have your hands around your body shaking like you are cold, 1) The teacher can see who is with her and 2) Their hands aren’t touching anybody else.

Logical- Some teachers may disagree with me, but I always have one section on my tests of straight verb conjugations.  I do this for my logic kids.  The ones that would rather be in algebra. They appreciate it.

Social- Once or twice a week I give them group work.  They write skits, sentences, read a paragraph, or flashcard drill each other. 

Solitary- I record very direct English explanations of the Spanish grammar they can view on their own.  I also link practice games and practice exercises that they can do alone.

When I plan a unit, I use all seven styles.  I'm sure all students have a preference over my content delivery.  What I care about is having the maximum amount of students as engaged as possible. If I pull from all of the styles, then I manage to keep the maximum with me.  I say maximum instead of all because there will be some students that no matter what I do, they do not want to learn.  When they are ready, I'm ready to teach them with my armory of instructional delivery. 

Piaget y Vygotsky hablan español T2P Module 4

Every new mommy that ever took a psychology class loves Jean Piaget and his stages of cognitive development.  When you have your baby, you get to see the textbook come to life.   Look!  My baby is sensorimotor! Wow! My son just  developed object permanence and knows his toys haven't gone anywhere.  For me, it was a little depressing as the mother of a child on the autism spectrum when she didn’t hit the milestones the way other children did. 

During my high school classroom hiatus being a mom to two toddlers, I taught 2 year olds Spanish.  Talk about cognitive development in action! That drove me nuts- you think they aren’t listening because they can’t sit still and you ask them a question and they smile or ask for juice.  Later during free choice time you hear them singing a song you taught them that morning or labeling objects in colors in Spanish.  Never think that they aren’t listening, they are.

While the mommy in me loves Piaget, the teacher of teenagers in me is a Vygotsky woman. Pouring the liquid from glass to glass is cute.  I am sure my students have concrete operations.  I want to hear them work out together how to ask for more water in Spanish. 

Lev Vygotsky believed that people in a child's world supported their cognitive development-it wasn't just happening to the child, the culture and social life were involved. He also believed in the "zone of proximal development" -this is the area where children can't solve a problem alone.  Children need to work together to find an answer.  As a teacher, I need to make them struggle a little to find that answer. This is what Vygotsky called "Scaffolding."  Once they have an answer, I give them another question, and scaffold them again.  

Whether you prefer Piaget or Vygotsky or a combination of both, it is all about experience and working together.  How can you work together if you are sitting in nice little rows copying notes off a board?   The only thing that is good for is laughing about at the 20^th reunion.  Twenty years later I want my students to speak Spanish, not laugh at my mood swings…Ok, maybe they can do both.

I prefer Vygotsky.

I like noisy teenagers.

Some Spanish teachers give a participation grade, I give a collaboration grade.  Collaboration to me means everyone at the table is playing their strengths.  It does not mean one person does all the work while another one copies.

I have found that as they sit in groups and say the words to each other or work on the projects together, they remember more.  Sometimes this could be a dialogue-where they act out a scene with a partner. This could also be grammar based- when they help each other learn the difference between ser and estar.  These can be simple flashcard drills or more advanced conversational questions.  The point is, they are working together to find the answers.

Anything they can do to interact with each other improves the Spanish content internalization and application.  This was the best thing about my online course.  My students had their coursework- a calendar of activities that they technically could have done alone, but twice a week we met to work together.  The majority of them preferred to speak and practice together.  It changed the dynamic of the course when they had classmates to interact with in the online live classroom.  The best part was no bathroom pass writing for me.

Always remember this as the teacher....

NO matter how perfect your lesson, exciting your activity, or innovative the technology, kids will be kids.  You have to teach the artist and the athlete.  You are working against the latest fight in the cafeteria.  Some of them can’t sit still to save their lives.  What is a brilliant idea to you is just work to them, and they would rather be gaming, playing ball, or making out with their girlfriend of boyfriend.

Sometimes I think getting them to stick with me is my zone of proximal development....

Keep scaffolding me, Lev.....

Making it stick......T2P Module 3

I have one hour a day, five days a week to get as much Spanish into my students  as possible.  I have to really work that working memory.

 What is working memory?

"In essence, working memory is the component of memory in which active thinking occurs (Ormrod, p167)."  In an article for the National Center for Learning Disabilities, Dr. Tracy Alloway refers to working memory as "The Brain's Post-it note." 

We have a lot to put on one post-it note.

I found this video on what happens if a teacher isn't clear in her directions and how a student could get lost. 

I could see this happening in my room. It has happened in my room.  I can gauge it by one of my all-time favorite students.  When I lost him, he'd take a bathroom break. How do I keep from losing them?

While world language learning involves grammar, culture, conversation, and reading,  I'm going to use vocabulary as my example.  How would I get a class of 25 students with all their quirks and personalities to learn a Spanish vocabulary list?

 First I type it up on paper or a website.  There are always twenty words and they go together.  This week we are talking about reflexive verbs, so all the vocabulary is part of a morning routine/personal care.  (I'm shuddering at where it could go, but oh well....)

 I keep the directions and activities SIMPLE. I may ask all of them, what color is you toothbrush?

Until I feel they all understand the word.

 Instead of repeating the list over and over, my students work in groups.  They use visuals and manipulatives to say the words to each other.  One group will brush a doll’s hair while another will pretend to brush teeth.  One group will be playing bingo and another group will describe pictures.  After five to ten minutes, they switch groups.   Working together, changing activities, and movement helps the vocabulary stay in working memory.  Silly props help too.  A class will always remember the word for "head" if you hold up a decapitated Barbie (true story).


When I first started teaching, my principal told me to always end a lesson by reviewing exactly what I wanted the student's to remember. After a session of group activities, I'll ask review questions and the majority of them will be able to answer me. I keep the vocabulary parameters.  The questions and conversations can all relate back to the list.  If I were to ask a student, "what do you do in the morning?" I've left it too open ended.  If I say, "Do you take your shower in the morning or at night?" I've given them a choice and an opportunity to succeed without being overwhelmed.

Teaching within a framework, keeping the unit organized, and changing the activities have all contributed to my students remembering not only for a test, but also for using the words and phrases during classroom conversations.  For language to enter long-term memory, I have to be really active in the working one.

Weather is in the family

It's time for the weather unit!  How appropriate-since this Southern Belle just experienced her first full blown New England blizzard. 

 In the brick and mortar world, I had always done the weather with a lot of TPR- Total Physical Response.  If you use your body, your brain will remember the words.  So if you shake like a leaf, you will remember the words for "I'm cold."  I you pretend to wave a fan in front of you, you will remember, "It's hot."

 I had my students fill their language basket with lots of weather objects:

I had a lot of fun pantomiming the weather myself.  I even got to open an umbrella in the house in the name of langauge learning!  We dressed up and plotted the weather across the state.  We described different pictures of the weather.  We got off on a hurricane tangent once-but that happens to the best of teachers.


One family makes Spanish a group activity.  I have a parent I love to work with because she is always on the ball with whatever project I assign them. 

She has her children crowd around the camera and show us the weather- even her baby participates:

Hace frío

 

Hace sol.

 

Está lloviendo.

So when you are learning at home, make a group activity out of it and more fun is had by all. 
 

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I love the movie Gattaca.  If you aren't a sci-fi person, you should watch it anyway.  I believe the science in that movie is completely possible.  In the not-so distant future, everyone is genetically engineered to perfection.  Nothing is left to "God."

This system appears to be working until Ethan Hawke's character shows us that the human spirit makes anything possible...la la la ...Happy Hollywood ending.  I get it. Hold on to your dreams. Set goals, work hard, cheat the system a little if you have to do so, and don't let anyone tell you something isn't possible.

Everyone needs a Gattaca moment.  I had one in 7th grade. I made 100s on Spanish tests other kids who had been pulled for AG (academically gifted) since first grade were failing.  As Ethan's character  put it in Gattaca when he won a swimming game against his genetically created perfect younger brother:

"It was the moment when my brother was not as strong as he believed, and I was not as weak as I believed. It was the moment that changed everything.”

Those kids in Spanish class were not so smart and I was not so dumb.  Thank God that AG pull-out program does not exist in the north.  That is just one more reason to stay here forever.

Since anything was possible, what did I want to be when I grew up? I decided on Spanish teacher that day in 7th grade and never changed my mind. I added another language, but I didn't change the plan.

I'd love to be a comedienne and some day write a screenplay for Youtube.  That would happen just for fun.   I'll let Tina Fey, Sarah Silverman, and Maya Rudolph handle it as a profession.

A couple of months ago, my Intermediate Spanish and French classes (4th, 5th, and 6th grade) were tackling a unit on professions and how the endings change according to gender. "Soy profesor, soy profesora."  We use Live Mocha  as their learning tool, and it's wonderful.  But how do I take this grammar point that college students struggle with and make it meaningful to younger learners?

Re-posted with permission from Live Mocha

Eureka!  I asked them the big question- what do you want to be when you grow up?  Why stop there?  Why not have them dress up as what they want to be when they grow up and give an oral presentation for the webcam? 

To keep it simple, we brainstormed possible choices and how to say them in both masculine and feminine forms.  If you don't limit the choices you get thirty children wanting to be lion tamers.

After they had choosen  what they want to be, I gave them a template for their report.

 For example in Spanish:

Me llamo ______ (my name is)
Soy_____ ( the profession with the correct gender ending and NO article)
Trabajo en ________ (where they work-hospital, school, etc.)
Me gusta________ (what a person in this profession would like)
Soy _____ (two adjectives that describe that profession)


They sent me rough drafts and we had office hours to practice pronouncing the vocabulary before they did it for the recording in class.

Here is a nurse practitioner:

What creative kids! Yes, we had to sit through about forty presentations, but they were fun!  What a great way to teach gender endings.   I hope they all grow up to be what they want to be and relish those Gattaca  moments.

Other ways to use your own children

You don't just have to hoard their old toys.

Sometimes, when you need an example, you take your sons outside.


Color Hop!



Sometimes, if you are going to sing "Frere Jacques" with a French class, you can sing along with a visual aide:

Blessed be the Disney Princess-for she shall teach adjectives!

The very fist lesson I ever taught a group of 6th graders was on "ser" and adjectives. It's funny when you student teach and get up for the first time in front of a real group of kids and you say "Hola" and they say "Hola" back to you.  It really works.

Adjective agreement is one of the biggest pains in the neck to teach because it either makes perfect sense or none at all.  The bottom line is the adjective will change from standard form depending on the gender and number of the noun. 

Here are some of my favorites:

• You get boys that say they are boys so all their nouns are masculine.
• You get the straight A student who will fight you over the gender of a noun for a 100 instead of a 98.
•  Somebody in the workbook sees- "Yo soy alto/a/os/as" and writes, "Yo soy altoaosas"....doesn't pick one,  just writes all four. No kidding.  Just like that-no matter how many times they are told otherwise. I really don't know what goes on in someone else's head.
• You can date yourself by who they describe in a five sentence paragraph.  My first year teaching The Titanic was in theaters. Leonardo es guapo. Leonardo Di Caprio es rubio.  Now it's Twilight time: Taylor Lautner es guapo, Taylor es muy fuerte....Who was teaching when it was Kevin Bacon and Footlose?

So, how do I teach this online?  Because even if they don't get it, it's still my job to teach it and if you aren't having fun why bother?

Time to back up:

I had a colleague with a classroom filled with  "stuff."  This was before Hoarders was cool, but her room didn't really look like one of those episodes because everything was used and organized and accounted for.  She didn't hold on to things she didn't really need ever.  No 1972 tax code books, but plenty of  dried sea horses.

When I asked her about it she said as her kids grew up, she didn't give away anything that would help her teach languages.

"Kids?  I'll never have kids...."

Ha!  The silly things we tell ourselves.

My daughter is a Disney Princess freak. She is every mother of the sexual revolution's worst nightmare.  We have every doll ever made from every movie.

I have posted previously on how the Disney girls helped me with geography:
.

Princess Geography


Here is how they help me online!

Frances!!!! 

Yes mommy?

"Go get me some blondes...."

El es rubio.

Ella es rubia.

Ellas son rubias.

"Now a couple of brunettes..."

Ellas son morenas.



"Princes!!!! Mommy needs PRINCES! (well, not really....)"

The princes are mostly tall and dark...huh...you don't notice that until you have to teach adjectives.

Ellos son morenos.

"Where are the redheads?"

Ella es pelirroja.

Now an example of the ellos/ellas pronoun problem.  I don't care if there are 100 girls in the room one boy walks in and you make it ELLOS. Then some high and mighty 8th grade girl goes off on the wrongness of this, wasting your ACTFL guideline time.....  God bless taking mics away...

Ellas

Ellos

This is my favorite 7th/8th grade threat:

If you guys don't participate, I'm bringing out the Justin Beiber doll!!!!!  (I can't find Justin right now. I don't know where Frances hid him, but he worked wonders on getting kids to raise their hands....)

No Sra. P...not the Justin Beiber doll....

Justin es tonto, pero muy rico. 

Don't you just wish all you had to do was say...Bibity, Bobbity...Boo! Learn your adjective rules!

No fairy godmothers in the language teaching world...but plenty of dolls....