Round 2

I've started out my French IV class with the film Ma Vie en Rose a week ahead of the other class so that i can prepare what the French III students will do.  The parts that the IV students succeed with I will break down into smaller pieces for French III.  The parts that the IV students struggle with I will re-work completely for the III kids.

Today the III kids wrote their identity definition:
Identity is the things and the description that make you unique.  For example, the traits, the adjectives, the actitvities, name, family, tendancies, interests, the sum of the characteristics of one person.

It took the whole class working together.  I think they really liked their mindmaps.  The 60 minutes flew by, the other 30 taken up with the photo du jour, and making sure that they had two objectives for the day.

I have two students who are essentially refusing to speak French, and they are very negative about it.  I have a parent meeting with one, and the other I will have to meet with again.  Fortunately at this level, the honors class is an elective.  The kids choose to be here.  Although I'm surprised that no one dropped once we got started, I'm aware that this translates to me working harder to prevent the semester from crashing into a ball of flames.

Scaffold, scaffold, scaffold. 

Scaffolding!

I copied this down from a fellow teacher's wall one day.

1.  I do, you watch. -Teacher models a strategy or trait.
2.  I do, you help. -Collaborative practice with the trait and strategy.
3.  You do, I help. -Guided practice to learn the trait and strategy.
4.  You do, I watch. -Additional Application to reinforce the trait and strategy.

Today I did a mindmap in front of the kids for myself.  Then they did one and I walked around and monitored.  Their homework is to revise it.  That's 1 and 4.  I skipped a lot of steps here.  Hopefully the mindmap is simple enough to skip the two in between.  I will find out tomorrow.  In the meantime...

Scaffold scaffold scaffold.

L'identité

today the French IV students came up with a class definiton of Identity:

Identity is the explanation of who we are, the aspects that make a person different and unique, for example, favorite things, way of life, the contrasts between people and also the similarities.

Student Submission: Photo du Jour

Changes and Establishing Routines

I changed the participation rubric today.  The kids thanked me for the simpler format.

I've started with an activity that I call "photo du jour".  I started it for my juniors as a way to get their brains going in French at stupid o'clock am, without getting in their face about it.  Here's the photo I used today:

 buddhist-monk-pray-tattoo_12070_600x450.jpg


I ask the kids to identify their objective for the day, then freewrite about a photo.  Some students are working on perfecting a single sentence.  Others are listing word after word.  Everyone is buried in a dictionary.  No one is talking.  I can hear pens and pencils, pages flipping.  

After about five or ten minutes, I ask students to go up to the board and write key words.  I say "volontaires?" and hold out a marker with the top off.  I can see the visible relief in my students' eyes when they are able to understand my simple, one-word directions.  I'm also willing to make a complete arse of myself in front of them via dance moves, pantomime, sound effects, anything to help then comprehend.

Today we came up with:
culture, custom, ceremony, head, tattoo, kneeling, painful, needle, buddhism, chinese, sweatsuit, orange, jewels, ouch, wounded, and were-wolf.  The were-wolf is from my abstract-random thinker, and I'm satisfied that he now has added to his list of favorite words, which also includes "banana".

the kids wrote the words, then ended up drawing little pictures to explain their vocabulary.  Some of it I acted out, such as painful, and others we had to use cultural references to explain, such as "Le film de Michael J. Fox où il change en Loup-Garou."

I think I'm going to start asking students to email me the photos to use for Photo du Jour.  This will save me endless time surfing for a "cool photo that will resonate with teens" and solve that problem altogether.

They really seemed to like this kind of warmup, and it will be an excellent vocabulary builder.  I think I just might keep it for all classes... regardless of what time they actually become conscious.

Je suis frustrée!

I'm trying to set things up.  Going through them once to prepare helps me, but the problem is that I go through them first with 23 juniors (antsy frustrated juniors) and have it perfected for the laid-back, industrious seniors.  After careful reflection I've decided to push my seniors ahead one day of my juniors with the Identity unit.  That way I'll work out bugs in advance with 11 kids, and not be springing them at 7am onto 23.

So far the juniors are being patient, and rolling with me, but I will lose them fast if I don't start scaffolding better.

Here are my worries for the juniors

• I have six students who are from a lower-level class in with the rest of the 23.
• We are doing an intensive review activity that's individual, which they hate, and is dragging out.
• They really need a detailed review.  For some reason I'm reluctant to provide this. 

This last reflection is interesting.  I don't want to have to provide it.  I don't want to *waste time*.  How could it be wasting time if the kids need it?

So I need to use my resources, dig up review, build some games that are played only in French, and get their confidence back up with the language before I throw them into the Identity unit.  Otherwise I will be dragging them by their hair through the course, and they will never forgive me for letting them actually be excited about returning to my room.

I started writing this blog today because I was overwhelmed and needed a strategy. 
So I will begin with the categories of review that we need to work on, taking chunks of vocabulary from one place, and actually teaching them to use the vocabulary dictionary that I gave them.  (novel idea, Mademoiselle)
I think that about sums it up.  Now if only there were 48 hours in the day.


Well it is now 9pm and I've since managed to get some things done and planned for tomorrow: 

1. I broke down each day this week with a major verb to review, and the section of the book that it is from.  We will focus on verb conjugations, and major vocabulary.  All other grammar at this point is overwhelming for me to think about, so I won't even make the kids go there.
2. I have decided that the participation rubric I made for the juniors and seniors is rendered inappropriate by the fact that I am asking them to pick a daily objective to focus on.  Such as "speak five times in class" or "ask for Mlle to repeat at least three times  when I don't understand."  Filling in an overall participation rubric is something that doesn't seem plausible if we're focusing on such a minute piece at the beginning.  maybe we will graduate to the big bag wolf rubric.  For now, we'll go with the simple basic one I made along the lines of "I speak French, not English."  and they choose, yes, sometimes, or no.  Way easier.  I am anticipating a sigh of relief.
3. I am forcing myself to recycle powerpoints and games that I've already invented, but never used in an immersion setting.  I will be inventing soon enough.  No need to reinvent what I already have.
4. Once I realized that I was prejudice against reviewing, I realized that I was really prejudiced against the old games I used that involve English.  Now I'm looking forward to review.
5. My personal objective this week: Enable the students to use what they know in order to reduce fear.  Fear of failure, fear of judgement, fear of rejection.  

Assessment

Working on the assessment piece for the Identity and Acceptance unit.  There are four main concepts involved, Identity, Acceptance, Tolerance, and Rejection. 

Thanks to the help of a colleague, I was able to hatch an idea for final assessment that isn't campy or inappropriate.  The last thing I want to start out my semester with is dragging a bunch of junior boys through an emotional ditch with something like "describe a time when you were rejected" or "merely tolerated".

I've invented a new style of theater for this: Théâtre du Remonter.  Rewind Theater.

The kids will be asked to write a skit that branches off into three different directions at the same point.  They will act out the given scenario (A new neighbor moving in and introducing him or herself) and the freezepoint comes when they explain a bit more about who they are. 

Hello my name is John Smith, and I'm a ____________.

the kids will have to fill in the blank with three different identities that provoke each reaction: acceptance, tolerance, and rejection.  They will play each reaction all the way through, then "rewind", then re-enact again with a different identity. 

For example:

Hello my name is John Smith and I'm a gardener.
I'm a muslim.
I'm recently released from prison.
I'm actually a woman.
I'm pagan.
I'm a trumpet player who plays only between the hours of two am and five am.


Whatever they decide... and where-ever they take it, they will have to demonstrate their understanding of the role identity plays in society, what happens when people are "tolerated", "rejected", and why these things happen. 

Part of their score will be based upon the class figuring out who is which reaction.

I have a lot more work to do, I have to go back over all the validity of the assessment, especialyl in light of my essential questions. 

The moral of my story today: teamwork helps.  Brainstorming with that other teacher really led me away from emotional wreckage towards an application of their understanding in a safe and appropriate way.

Wish me luck.

Metacognition

I have asked the junior and senior French classes to bring a journal to class that stays in the room.  During the day they will use this journal to

beginning of class:
*propose daily and weekly objectives
*free-write in French about a proposed topic.  juniors: a picture, seniors: a writing prompt.

end of class:
*reflect on their objectives
*evaluate their class participation for the day

This will happen every day. 

I've designed a chart to help them identify objectives.  I am trying to focus my ... focus... as small as possible.  Beaucoup de zoom. 

I'm trying to use the SMART method for goal setting. 

Specific: speaking
Measurable: three times in class
Attainable: challenging, quality over quantity
Relevant: part of immersion
Time Bound: one week or one day

For example, the objective "Talk more in class" becomes

I will speak French at least three times during the class conversation.

"Listen better"' becomes
I will listen when the teacher speaks and write down three words that she uses that I didn't know, but can figure out.

I hope they feel that this is within their grasp.  by the third week of class we'll add daily objectives.  For the moment, their objectives will only be weekly. 

Everyone essentially will have the same objective: Getting over FEAR of speaking French.

I remind myself to slow down, pull back the pace, and break things way way way down into little tiny pieces.  I don't want to lose anyone.  Not during the first week.

Good luck, Mademoiselle.  Good luck.