My teaching in my Spanish I class has evolved significantly over the past year at least partly because of how much more I can do with smaller classes and also partly because of some great discussions on this board. So I wanted to reflect for all of you some things that have really been working and some thoughts about spiraling concepts.
The biggest change I have done is find time almost every single class period (even for just 5 minutes) to just sit with my class and talk in Spanish. I use this time to ask them personalized questions relating to what we are studying and to tell them little tidbits about myself using the vocabulary we are studying.
Since I have started doing this, the students are picking things up so much faster, are able to produce more, and are so much more motivated because they know that they will get this chance regularly to show off what they have learned and what they can do. It has gotten to the point that in my Spanish I class, I may start the conversation, but my students continue it by asking each other questions as well.
And this carries over into other things we do. My Spanish I students just presented about 10 of their family members and the students listening to the presentation were asked to draw the person presenting's family tree. I told them that after each presentation they would have time to ask questions in Spanish to clarify relationships and such. And I was amazed at the questions and how many questions even went beyond just the assignment of drawing the family tree. These kids wanted to know about each other and they wanted to use their Spanish to do so!
And I also use this discussion to throw in a future concept. For example I have been asking questions using mi and mis for months now and a couple of weeks ago I started adding tu, tus, su, and sus to the mix. Then yesterday, I officially introduced possessive adjectives. And my students looked at me and said, "haven't we learned this already?" And the concept was so simple for them to understand. I've never had a class pick up this concept just like that and I strongly believe it is completely due to the fact that the students had been exposed to it so much already.
So then this brought me to something that has been in the back of my mind for quite some time, the concept of spiraling. So often in the past, I would introduce a grammar concept, drill it to death, and expect mastery of the concept within a fairly short period of time, not always with a lot of success. If we were to take the time to expose them to things before expecting any mastery first and then return to it at a later time, the kids would probably pick it up so much faster because it wouldn't be such a brand new strange concept but one that they are already familiar with.
