Frequent Feedback #1

I'm in mid-summer....but other teachers are posting about their back-to-school plans and I can't help but read them and think about next school year.  I'm really interested in focusing on being a coach to my students and providing feedback to them.  Feedback can take sooo many forms.  I'm going to do a few posts about giving them feedback in order to help students move forward in their path to proficiency!

 I want my class to feel relaxed but fun! So I'm going deskless this year!  I think the set-up sets a certain tone that this class is different.  And I can change the arrangement easily....circle talk, rows, teams!

 I also want students to feel success but I want it to be low stress as acquisition is just naturally happening while they're enjoying and participating.  It doesn't look like rigor, but it certainly is.

Plus, I teach intermediate level and they produce language.  Of course production is rigorous and intimidating and stressful and scary!  So I want to lessen all of those and give them training wheels and bouts of encouragement to do more!  So that's where my feedback and coaching come into play.

Feedback opportunity:  Soft Starts

I just recently learned about this and it came at a time when I was stressing myself out with ending a unit, knowing they reached the goal we'd been aiming for and I had a bunch of evaluating to do and then there we were diving right into a new unit.  So I wanted to make it feel calmer and I realized I was missing out on finding out background knowledge my students had as I tried to jam it all in.  So in order to invite and entice students into a new unit, I've been rethinking day one.  So this is the day that I'd like to tell them our new unit topic / theme (not revealing the next unit goal / end assessment) and get them thinking about that.  Ideas I have for soft starts:

• vocabulary brainstorming:  think about the feedback here...just acknowledging the students' memories, creativity and/or connections in L2
• topic brainstorming:  you can use a graphic organizer, vocab map or just the space in your room.  I can imagine papers hanging around rooms...adding those topics you brainstorm and then adding vocabulary or associations on the paper....even cultural insights!
• calligrams:  I can give them a vocab list and/or they can use their own ideas that connect.  I think this is low stress, gets creative juices going, creates a word wall for us to reference and for students to take pride in
  

i-1:  ha....just joking (opposed to i+1):  but find something catchy and super easy that they can connect to.  I've listened to songs and had students write on whiteboard all the words they could hear and then after we filled the front with everything we could, we discussed the meaning a bit more.  (also...repetition of the music.  round 1: write your words and then compare with partner. round 2: add more before teacher calls on EVERYONE, round 3 (after creating a master list on front): check / cross off when you hear it) Keep in mind the feedback opportunity here!  Let's say your theme is personal description (it's my 1st unit in level 5).  A student gives you an idea for a vocabulary word and you (in L2) proceed:

S: hair

T: but what exactly can you describe about hair?

S: the color

T: of course...what are typical colors or hair?

S: black, blond, red

T: are there other characteristics that we can describe about hair?

S: short or long

T: that is true.  What about texture?

S: ummm....how do you say curly?

T: great question...does anyone know curly?  what about straight?

Isn't there underlying feedback there????  The student held a conversation and the teacher kept moving forward.  The feedback being that I understand...you are understood!  We're doing this...it's a conversation!  

• This coincides with the routine that I won't give up that I call frases as well as my plan to do more socratic seminar type activities.