Unit: Perspectivos de Inmigracion

I've decided to use this unit for a presentational goal in mind for the students.  In looking at all the authentic resources to use, I'm overwhelmed by the songs that fall into this theme and I know that I can't use them all...though I want to.  So I will bring many of them into my lessons and ultimately, students will be given a song that they need to present to their classmates.  I'm going to go a little old-school here and have my students present in a "job-fair" format (thanks for Megan Sulewski for the idea) and use *gasp* posters to present!  They can still use QR codes to incorporate technology (audio, visual, etc) but I want them to put a bit more love into their projects than I see them produce in powerpoint.  Also, I want this to be an opportunity for Q&A (interpersonal speaking) and when the audience can see everything (where a PPT advances and previous pages can be forgotten), they serve as prompts for conversation pieces.

Presentational Mode

Recently, I read some comments on Twitter about speaking in the presentational mode and it got me thinking.  The commentary was that we don't use presentational speaking in real life and I think this is untrue.  I use presentational speaking on a regular basis and I don't mean in my role as teacher.

Presentational communication is the creation of communication prepared for an audience and rehearsed.  There is opportunity for editing and revision before the presentation.  It is one-way communication that requires interpretation by others without negotiation of meaning.

When I need to speak to my principal about an idea that I have, I plan ahead for that conversation which will eventually be interpersonal.  But I know that my introduction is on my terms and I start out in presentational mode.  Before we talk, I get those thoughts together, I think about the vocabulary that I want to include (identifying some of the buzz words that can draw his attention), I think about the structure of my introduction.  I play a couple different scenarios out in my head first.  I muster up my courage and go for it.  This same thing happens when I have to talk to my spouse, my children, my doctor and when I call customer service.  They all turn into interpersonal, but start out in presentational form.  I saw Joshua Cabral (wlclassroom) give a presentation and pointed out a similar idea that stuck with me.  When preparing to walk into a store, it's in our nature to plan our statement ahead.  However, since our presentational mode tends to be higher than our interpersonal mode, we unconsciously send a message to our audience that we can converse at a higher level and they respond at that level.  The interaction may quickly crumble in this case.  But that does support my idea that we do use presentational mode frequently.

So, in the classroom, presentational mode needs to be a skill that we address.  I think we frequently do, but don't give ourselves credit for it.  It doesn't have to be up and in front of the class.  It's simply defined as communicating to an audience that's not up for negotiation.  That can be to a small group or even to a classmate.  Students have to have this opportunity to focus on form.  Examples that I can think of:

• share and pair
• give one to get one
• describe your picture/interpretation to your group
• create a voki

My colleagues and I offer a daily prompt for students to respond to for their "speaking points" and we've discussed which category to put this in now that we've changed our grading practices.  Our students attack this prompt in different forms and we see it play out differently per the student.  It's neat to see it happen.  Some students write down their answers and memorize it (we don't let them read it).  Some write down a couple words that they want to include and they glance at the paper when needed.  Some don't even read the prompt until we are in proximity and just go for it.  We respond differently to the students based on their individual personalities, readiness and the statement.  Sometimes I can ask a follow-up question, turning the conversation to interpersonal.  Sometimes, I give a statement to show I'm listening.  Sometimes I can say something that is connected to make them smile or laugh and provide them with another interpretive opportunity.  So all these scenarios make the grading category be a legitimate conversation.  For the record, we've decided to put it in the presentational category.  

Resources for a proficiency based curriculum

If you are on-board with teaching for proficiency, this may be a shift in your own understanding of what proficiency is and how to teach and assess for it.

My journey spiraled me into a different world and I want to note some helpful resources out there.  Obvi, there are GREAT bloggers, but I felt that I had to do some "research" type digging.  Okay, research is the wrong word, but I needed some formal investigating.

Identifying the different proficiency levels is not as black and white as we'd like it to be.  

http://www.laits.utexas.edu/spt/

Spanish Corpus & Proficiency Level Training (SPT) Website

Here you will find video recordings of Spanish learners of different levels answering several questions, a written transcript of what they say, and exercises that will guide you interactively to notice features about their talk, as well as answers to those exercises. The purpose of the site is to learn to evaluate Spanish proficiency levels.  You can access a Spanish corpus of beginner to advanced learners of Spanish.

I've shared these with my students throughout the year and find them to be helpful in recognizing areas that they can aim for in their proficiency.  When they compare different levels, they recognize the pauses, the pronunciation and the sheer quantity.  That's a big one for me...don't give up but show off as much as you can in order to grown on the proficiency scale.  

Now that you are teaching for proficiency....are you assessing proficiency?  

Changing your units is work.  If you think about how to assess proficiency, you need to create opportunities for that.  The ACTFL IPA (intergrated performance assessment) model is amazing....but again....go see some examples to inspire!

https://www.learner.org/libraries/tfl/assessment/index.html

http://carla.umn.edu/cobaltt/modules/assessment/ipa/example3/index.html

http://carla.umn.edu/assessment/vac/CreateUnit/unit_examples.html

http://flenj.org/caps/149/

Unit: Las Riquezas Naturales en Colombia

 

In my level 5 class, we are aiming for Intermediate High as the goal for the course.  Of course, the individual students vary, but I want Intermediate High to be known as I do my research for what authentic resources and what content I choose.

We teach a chapter entitled "Las Riquezas Naturales" and I was looking for a more focused approach as I designed my IPA and after collecting a lot of authentic resources and trying to determine what cultural aspect would be interesting to the students, I decided to focus on the landmine epidemic in Colombia.

Every unit, I aim to use art and music as authentic resources and cultural insight and I felt that I was getting something in this direction through Juanes.  I watched the movie Living on One Dollar with my 9-year daughters one day and knew I had to us
e it in the classroom. The movie shows the reality of true poverty in a country in Central America and is very inspiring to want to help to make a change.  So I was also aware of the nonprofit organization Kiva where people ask for loans.  Some other bloggers have created a project with it also.  Putting this together with a Colombian focus gave me a true vision for the unit.  I knew that I had to get the students to see the beauty in Colombia and the harsh reality that citizens face.  So my backward design and path of study has settled on the following:
(we meet on block schedule.  80 minutes every other day)

UBD

I am in the process of re-working my units because I want to LEAD with culture.

For many years I polled students regarding what they wanted more in class and they always said more culture.  I struggled with this because I didn't know what culture to give them beyond the "cultural Friday" bits.  It was basic!

Then I started letting #authres take the lead and I realized I was missing out.  So as I continue this journey, let me show you the forms that I've created to hold myself accountable as I plan:

unit template

Unit: El Valor de la Idea

Our textbook, Imagina, has a chapter called El Valor de la Idea
I took this opportunity to show how groups have been able to overcome and work in solidarity.
I was able to get some inspiration from Kristy Placido, Srta Dentlinger and Martina Bex as well as my colleagues as this is a college-credit bearing class and I got to work with a group for planning.

Here's my planning for this this:

Proficiency Wall

I think that being aware of the proficiency levels allows us to guide our students in their growth. It's our job to know what those descriptors are (which in itself can be convoluted when you start analyzing samples of their work) and to know what students should be focusing on to go to the next level.

And....students need to know the jargon also.  They need to hear it, see it, be aware of what they can truly work on in order to improve.  So I have a proficiency wall that I display.  I teach grades 11 and 12 so I want them to see lots of pieces...but maybe your students need to see less.

Either way, I'm sharing my grid (which is kind of like my key...see below) and my blown-up version so you can print out your own or save and modify.