Responsibility for learning

We are working on verbs like gustar right now in my Spanish II class.  This is a tough concept.  We do not have a structure quite like this in English.  So I get that this is tough for my students.

 

However, many of them in one of my classes are not even attempting to grasp this concept.  They do not study at home.  They come to school with the homework incomplete.  They lay with their heads on their desk when we have some in class practice.  They do not come in and ask questions.  They rarely ask questions in class even though they clearly don’t get it.  So I am quizzing them tomorrow and we are moving on.  I can’t do the work for them.  And since I’m clearly not seeing any progress from many of them there is no point continuing down this path.  Those that have been working hard on this are getting it and will do well tomorrow on the quiz.  Unfortunately they will be a minority.

 

This is the same group of kids who still cannot accurately conjugate regular present tense verbs, commonly used irregular ones like ser, nor use subject pronouns correctly.  These are things we spent many weeks on this year already (and that they should have learned last year).  Again, those that have been working all along get these things and are doing well.  Those that won’t try, sit and chat all hour or put their head down are drowning.   

 

But what can I do?  I have given them ample practice.  I am always available before school, during homeroom, during lunch, during several hours during the day, and afterschool almost every day.  I have provided extra resources online.  I spend each class period circulating and answering specific questions and working one on one with those students willing to try and ask for my help.  At some point there is nothing more that I can do.  At some point the students have to take responsibility for what they are learning.

Mastery learning

4 years ago, my cooperating teacher planted a seed in my head about mastery learning. My first three years I experimented a little with it in regard to just a few very important concepts each level. I created competency tests (idea stolen from my CT) on some of the concepts I felt were very critical (present tense verbs, subject pronouns, and preterit verbs) and expected students to show their mastery by achieving a certain score. Students could retake these tests as many times as they needed but had to reach the target score to get any credit for the assessment. So students couldn't be satisfied with a C or a D on those critical concepts like I see way too often.

So this year, in a new school I decided to take the idea beyond just a few competency tests. I have developed a series of competency assessments (including oral assessments) and I have decided to allow students to retake vocabulary quizzes (with a one week deadline). What I have found so far is that students are now taking the time to go back and learn what they missed knowing that they can get credit for it. This should then help them be more successful in the future as they are expected to be able to use the vocabulary.

If you had asked me 4 years ago about whether I would allow retakes, I would have told you "No way!" but I am really seeing some positives come from allowing them.

Dallas School District has just created a new grading policy that requires teachers to allow retakes (I linked the article above). Someone posted it on Livejournal which really sparked this post. I really believe in their reasons behind it but I really don't believe we do any good by forcing when philosophy of grading (or whatever) on a whole district with teachers who have different teaching styles, different beliefs, and different grading systems. Retakes so far is working really well for me and my students but that does not mean it is best for all classrooms and all teachers and students.

Just pour the information in my brain Señora

I got so frustrated with a few of my Spanish II students this morning. I handed back tests and told students to look through them and ask questions. I like being able to go around individually and talk with students who have questions. Two students sat their staring into space not even looking at their tests. Then after about ten minutes there were no longer any questions so I told them we were going to move on and that I was going to be collecting the tests. These two students then got all upset asking me why I wasn't going to go over the whole test as a class. I explained that we had just spent time for them to look through them and ask questions. And I said to them both that they were welcome to come in outside of class and I would go through it with them. Their response was they can't do that. And that they expected me to go over it with the whole class.

When I go over homework, tests, etc. with the whole class a few carefully look through theirs, others half-heartedly correct theirs, and the rest just sit there and stare into space. So those few carefully going through theirs get a lot out of it and the rest really don't get much. If I circulate and answer specific questions, it forces students to look at their mistakes and first try and figure out what went wrong and then second enter in a dialogue with me. So much more learning goes on. Unfortunately though, those that would have just stared off into space while we went over it together still stare off into space and still get nothing out of it.

And then as we were going over some pronunciation exercises and dividing syllables to find stress, they made me question how an English word was spelled (which I was right on when I looked it up later) and some kid says quietly "Go back to English class." It was just an awful class today. I'm not sure where to go with this tomorrow.

Class expectations and rigor

I am really struggling with my Spanish II class. They claim they learned nothing last year and when we are reviewing conjugating verbs they don't even recognize the forms of ser. The pre-test isn't even worth wasting my time to grade because it is that bad. And then on top of it the kids are asking when we are going to have fiestas and that they had a Salina fiesta last year and a this fiesta and a that fiesta. It sounds like all they did was have fiestas.

So, I want to step up the rigor significantly but I also don't want to lose my program. It is a small school and my class sizes are already quite small. So I am really struggling to find a happy medium (enough rigor so that I'm not wasting my time but not too tough on the kids so they lose interest completely). And I understand that it is hardest with the groups of kids who are used to an easy A; once I've been around a while, things will get better.

First Day of School

I just typed a whole long post and it disappeared when I hit Publish. This is so frustrating. So anyway, to summarize what I wrote.

My advanced Spanish kids seem very motivated and all of them mentioned wanting to work on their speaking ability. They also mentioned that they are weakest in writing. So I think my goals for the class are right in line with what they are thinking. Once the year gets rolling I plan to assign a monologue Gcast (www.gcast.com) assignment weekly as well as a writing assignment weekly. This will allow me to give them feedback on a regular basis. With only 7 kids in the class, I can realistically be getting good feedback to them that often. Isn't that amazing?? We also need to read some literature this year and will do quite a few projects related to that.

My Spanish II kids were quite confused when I said "Bienvenido" to each of them as they entered the room. They have either all forgotten everything they learned last year or didn't learn much. We spent just a little time reviewing present tense verbs and they couldn't conjugate regular verbs even as a whole class. We have a lot of work to do.

My Spanish I kids did not hesitate to express their opinions about how since we live in America everyone should learn English. It will be a challenge to change that very Anglocentric mentality into a more global perspective.

The staff here has been so very welcoming and helpful. It almost feels like one big family. We all had lunch together in the FACS room. But despite all that I still feel quite alone. I miss the camaradrie of being part of a department, sharing ideas, and just knowing that someone else in the school knows exactly what you are dealing with. I'm sure it will get easier as I get to know more people and as I make more connections outside of school but right now it is kind of hard. I have been connecting with people online through livejournal communities and through www.teachers.net which really helps. And I was so excited this morning to see the WAFLT conference brochure waiting for me in my mailbox and the previous Spanish teacher did put in the budget for the conference. I have always looked forward to that conference but this year of all years I'm looking forward to it even more.

Anyway, I hope all of you had great first days and that we all have a great year to come.