Dominoes - Putting the Story in Order #2

This is a great collaborative, tactile post-reading activity for students to apply their learning and knowledge of a particular reading using the target language. I learned this years ago at a Cambridge Latin Course workshop, and it was used in English as a culture review. However, I like doing this with a reading, since it is a twist on the "put the story in order" activity and is similar to dominoes. It requires students to recreate the story in the target language in word-for-word "chunks. NOTE - there is some prep involved prior to the activity.

Pre-Activity

1. On a MS Word or Google Docs document, create a table in which the cells are long in height and resemble domino tiles. I usually do a table of 3x6 (18 cells) or 4x6 (24 cells).
2. Print up the document.
3. On the top left hand cell, on the side, handwrite "Start Here" 
4. Now in that cell handwrite the first sentence of your reading but leave the last word blank. This may require you editing your sentence to fit the cell. NOTE - you do not always have to leave the last word blank, but I have found that visually it is easier for students to see than if a word in the middle is left blank.
5. On the cell below it, at the TOP of that cell, write that missing word.
6. Then below that word, write the next sentence from the story but leave the last word blank. Again, this may require you editing the sentence to fit the cell.
7. On the cell below it, at the TOP of that cell, write that missing word.
8. Continue this pattern.
9. When you get to the last cell/sentence of the reading, the missing word will be written on the top of the "Start Here" cell.
10. Make 10 copies of this table for a class of 30 - I usually use colored card stock, because card stock is firm and not flimsy like regular paper.
11. Cut the cells into "domino tiles," and put each set in a separate plastic Ziploc bag (the snack-sized bags are good).

Activity

1. Group students into 3's (a class of 30 would have 10 groups).
2. Have students take the cards out of the bag and lay them out on a flat surface.
3. Have them find the card which says "Start Here." 
4. Tell them that their job is to recreate the reading by finding the missing word of that sentence. That word is found at the top of another card. 
5. Like dominoes, students will line up that card underneath the "Start Here" card.
6. Now students have a new sentence with a missing word, and their job is find that missing word.
7. Tell students that the final card's missing word will be the one at the top of the "Start Here" card.
8. As students begin to have less cards remaining, the activity should become easier.
9. Optional competition - I have a bell at the front of my class that students ring when they think that they are done. I then will check that group's cards to make sure that the cards are correct.
10. When the activity is done, have students scramble the cards before they return them so that they are out of order for the next class.

Observations

1. I suppose one could create this digitally instead of handwriting the sentences. It would require you creating a fillable, set template where the parameters of the table do not change when typing in the sentences. If you can figure out how to do this, go for it.  
2. This activity usually lasts around 5-10 minutes.
3. 18-24 "cards" are a good amount - anything less than that is too quick and anything more can get long for students.
4. You cannot have duplicate words on the tops of cards, because that would mess up groups' domino orders. Every word on the top of the cards must be distinct.
5. Students can self-monitor their progress when they do this activity because if they "finish" but there are cards still remaining, then they have made a mistake somewhere.
6. I have seen this activity adapted on Textivate. Since that is a pay-site, I have not used it.
7. I have a deskless classroom, so this activity does not really lend itself well to playing on the floor since the cards are small. However, when I did have desks, I did this activity a lot!
8. I found that students liked the tactile nature of the activity. Plus, it helped students see the story arranged visually.
9. I like the collaborative nature of the activity, because students really do communicate with each other to find the next "domino" which completes the sentence.
   
10. I do not understand why students like ringing the bell when they are finished but they do! Therefore, I have to ensure that even the last group to finish gets the chance to ring the bell.
11. I would scaffold this activity for later in a reading's lesson plans, because students really need to know the reading well (and vocabulary) to be able to complete the sentence with the missing word.
12. I do like how this requires students to re-read the story again in a completely different way (and to receive repetitions of understandable messages in their re-reading) but the focus isn't on comprehension anymore but on completing the sentence with the missing words.

Cartoon Olympics

Here is a great pre-reading activity which I just recently learned from my colleague Bob Patrick, who created this. I added some tweaks to it, so below are our collaborative directions for this activity:

Pre-Activity

1. Create a list of new vocabulary words which you wish to pre-teach
2. Create drawable sentences using these words - in many cases, the more random the sentence the better! I have found that 8 sentences are a good number. Be sure to get in repetitions!
3. Create PowerPoint/Google slides of these sentences - 1 sentence per slide.

Activitity

1. Have the words above listed on the board, and call attention to them establishing the meaning of each.
2. Students work in groups of 4.
3. 4 students from the class are the identified judges.  Each has a whiteboard, marker and eraser rag, and are seated together at one end of the room. Have those four chairs marked “iudex”.
4. In each group, every student has a whiteboard, marker, and rag
5. Number every student in a group as 1, 2, 3 or 4. If there are groups of three, one student will be both numbers 1 and 4. If there is a group of 5, two students will be number 4.
6. Using the vocab above, project the first sentence on the screen - every student draws the best picture possible. Give students 1-2 minutes to establish meaning among the group and then around 2 minutes for each to draw a picture.
7. After this, in their groups, students have 1 minute to help each other out with their pictures by suggesting addition to the pictures for clarification or suggesting changes
8. Roll a die, and whatever number rolled is the student numbers who will submit their pictures to be judged. If I rolled a 5 or 6, then re-reroll die.
9. At the front of the class on the board ledge or on chairs, groups will place their pictures for the class to see.
10. Teacher clarifies the meaning of the sentence with the whole class.
11. The four judges score on a scale of 1-5. Teacher gives paper to the judges to write down their score. Teacher keeps up with totals.
12. Have the judges declare a "best in show" for the sentence, and show the picture to the class.
13. Have students erase their whiteboards, and begin again.
14. When all sentences have been done and scored, team with highest, next highest and third highest are declared the gold, silver and bronze medal winners of Cartoon Olympics. Have gold, silver and orange (or three different colors) stars to award to each member of the winning teams.
15. If all sentences are not finished, this may extend to a second day.

Observations

1. I was surprised at how engaged students were in this activity. The fact that students do not know if they will be selected to represent their team keeps students accountable to the activity.
2. I have found that this is usually a 2-day activity, since around four sentences is how many can be done in a 50-minute period.
3. The random roll of the die keeps the activity novel.
4. I like how the groups collaborate among themselves to establish meaning of the sentence.
5. The group consultation after students draw their picture is very important, because nobody in the group knows whose picture will be selected. This way, students will ensure that all aspects of the sentence are represented in each other's pictures.
6. Students really do enjoy seeing each other's pictures as they are displayed at the front before the judging.

Why Professional Development Fails

If you are like me, I dread teacher in-service days. Although these days are devoted to teacher training, in many ways, these in-services present overarching topics which have no application to me and to my classroom, or they are poorly implemented. Let me make it clear up front that I am a firm believer that teachers continuously need to better themselves in their craft and that ongoing professional development needs to play an important part of a teacher's career. The problem lies in forcing teachers to attend professional in-services which do not treat or view teachers as "professionals." As a result, most teachers find professional development insulting.

In my educational leadership courses in my Ed.S program, I learned much about proper professional development facilitation. One of the primary reasons why professional development courses fail (outside of no teacher input in what is being offered, hence there is no buy-in) is that there is absolutely no proper follow up afterwards. Most in-services cast out a net of general information, but unfortunately, the net is never retrieved to see who is interested. Those who wish to learn more are left empty-handed and are forced to pursue further information on their own, or they end up leaving it behind, because it is just too much work to pursue on their own; most often, the latter occurs. 

I feel like the same can be said about CI training. Teachers attend CI sessions at conferences or even a weeklong conference like NTPRS or IFLT, and as a result, they walk away with a desire to implement what they have learned. However, when these teachers have questions or their CI buzz starts to wear off and need that extra bit of motivation from a mentor, they have nowhere to turn really for continuous professional CI development. While blogs, professional learning networks (PLN), and social media can help, they can only go so far - there is nothing like personal interaction and mentoring from those in a CI community.

I will admit that I am 100% guilty of perpetuating this problem. For the past few summers, along with a number of CI teachers in my district, I have helped create and facilitate a district-wide 20-hour, 4-day CI workshop for interested world language teachers; over 40 teachers have attend each of these workshops. This past summer, Bob Patrick, Rachel Ash, and I delivered a 6-hour PreInstitute CI workshop at the American Classical League Summer Institute, and over 50 Latin teachers attended! In each of these cases, I wanted to have some type of follow-up training (either face-to-face or online) for those who attended, but unfortunately, life and work got in the way. I wonder how many of these teachers who were so gung-ho about CI following these workshops have fallen by the wayside and have returned to their former ways of teaching, because there was no one there to aid in their CI development. Even as I write this, I am trying to create a TCI Atlanta/GA group for CI teachers in my area, but I am finding it difficult to carve out time for it. O that CI professional development and follow-up could be my full-time job!

I am so grateful though that all over the country, pockets of CI communities have been developing which have served as support and a place for continued CI development. Local groups such as TriStates TCI and TCI Ohio offer ongoing professional CI training opportunities and community (this is why I would like to form a TCI Atlanta/GA group), and 1-2 day CI regional conferences like TCI Maine, CI Iowa, and CI Midwest are gaining momentum and popularity among CI users. 

Are you looking for some local CI support and community? Here are some suggestions:

• On her blog, Martina Bex has compiled a list of CI teachers from all over the country who have volunteered to be a support for interested CI users.
• Consider forming a local TCI group in your area. It only takes a few interested teachers to do this. Years ago, Alaska CI teachers Martina Bex, Michele Whaley, Betsy Paskvan and others began meeting on a Friday evening to share ideas - what a group that must have been! I still say that one day I need to go to Alaska so that I can learn Spanish from Martina, Japanese from Betsy, and Russian from Michele.
• Network like crazy when attending CI workshops! 

For those teachers wanting support, I wish you the best in finding local CI support. I am not much of a CI expert, but you can always drop me an email (kttoda@hotmail.com) or leave a comment on my blog if you need some community. For those of you in the Atlanta/GA, I am in the process of crafting an email which will announce the formation of a TCI Atlanta/GA group. Now if I can remember to finish it and to push "send"...

The Power of Online Professional Learning Communities/Networks (PLC/PLN)

As the 2015 ACTFL Convention is going on at the moment and as I am not attending this year, I am definitely finding myself longing to be there. I have been to the past two ACTFL Conventions, and I can definitely say that attending one is worth it. Aside from the great presentations and outstanding professional development, what I love most about the ACTFL Convention is that I always realize there that I am a part of something so much bigger than just my department at school - I am indeed a world language teacher and am proud of that.

Luckily, however, due to Twitter, I am able to follow this year's happenings at ACTFL, and I am so grateful, because I am able to follow many of the presentations from afar. Apparently, my blog and I have already gotten a shout out at a presentation!

As much as I hate educationese buzzwords like Professional Learning Communities (PLC) and Professional Learning Networks (PLN), these groups have been such a lifeline for me, especially for my development of CI/TPRS implementation in the classroom. As CI/TPRS world language teachers, many times we are isolated from any type of physical face-to-face community, so having an online community is vitally important both for our professional growth and communal needs.

I cannot tell you how many conferences i have attended where I have finally gotten the chance to meet folks in person whom I only know online through PLC/PLNs. It is always fun to see what these people look like in person - apparently, online in my posts to listservs and in my blog, I come across as a tall white man with a beard. I hope that folks are not disappointed to see instead a 5'5, Asian man with a partial goatee and slight southern accent...

Here are some different types of online PLC/PLNs in which I take part, along with some suggestions:

Blogs
Since you are reading this blog, you are already part of this professional learning community! Blogs have played such an important part in my professional CI/TPRS development. If you look at the sidebar, I have a list of blogs which I follow. These are all wonderful, and I have used many ideas from them in my classroom. More than anything though, these blogs have encouraged me to keep pursuing implementing CI/TPRS when at times I feel like I have hit a brick wall.

Listservs

• Latin Best Practices - this is a Yahoo group dedicated to breaking away from the traditional practices found in grammar-translation Latin classes. Begun by fellow CI/TPRS Latin colleagues Bob Patrick and John Piazza, this list has over 1,300 members. I was a member of this listserv LONG before I actually began to implement CI/TPRS in my Latin classroom. 
• MoreTPRS - this is the primary listserv for CI/TPRS users. I used a member of this group, but as there are over 7,000 members, it became too much for me to read all of the postings coming in, so I unsubscribed. That does not mean that this group does not have value - based on the number of postings, it just was not for me.  
• Ben Slavic's Blog Community - this is a pay site, but it is full of ideas and resources, as well of supportive teachers. 

Social Media
I am not one who utilizes social media. My life is Facebook free and am more than okay with that. I rarely text, and I have no idea how Instagram or Snapchat works and personally have no desire to learn, since I never use the camera on my phone anyway.Truthfully, I thought that "taking selfies" was a reference to drug usage. 

• Twitter - I do use Twitter though for professional purposes, and I absolutely love it! I love being able to "follow" CI/TPRS folks and to learn from them in this manner. As i said earlier, I have been reading the many Twitter posts from this ACTFL convention; following #ACTFL15 has given me the next best thing to being there. You can follow me @silvius_toda on Twitter - Silvius is my Latin name! My name Keith means "from the woods" in Welsh, so I picked the Latin equivalent.
• IFLT/NTPRS/CI Teaching Facebook group - I suppose if I had a Facebook page, then I would be a member of this group. 

So I challenge you to increase your PLC/PLN beyond what you currently have and to check out many of these resources. Also, feel free to suggest any blogs or online resources which you have found helpful so that i can add them to my list!

The Power of Sharing Ideas

I'm currently at ACTFL in San Antonio as I write this. I have been attending some really good Comprehensible Input sessions so far. I have found myself starstruck at times, as I see so many of these CI presenters whom I greatly admire/respect (and follow on Twitter and read their blogs - gosh, I feel like a stalker!), but yet they present with such humility and are SO willing to share their ideas with others.

At my school, in my department there are many teachers who are wanting to use CI but still are unsure about it or are experimenting with it; the others are still stuck in the grammar-translation way because that is all they know, or they are holding tightly to the textbook. This is much better than a year ago, however, where I was the SOLE one using CI in the classroom and whenever I would mention anything about CI/TPRS, my department would look at me like I was from Mars

A couple months ago, on Cynthia Hitz's blog "Teaching Spanish with Comprehensible Input" (which by the way, if you do not follow it, please do - LOTS of good stuff there), she posted "15 Ways to Increase Awareness of Your Language Program and Share Your Students' Success."

At the top of the list: Willingly share materials and activitives with other language teachers at your school.

I accepted the challenge and the day after I read that post, I emailed a CI technique/strategy to my department. I did not know what to expect in terms of response - would folks appreciate it? would they think it another attempt by me to convert my department to CI? would they even read it? The response was ovewhelmingly positive, with many asking for more! I now send out something every two weeks or so to them, and I have found my department to be incredibly appreciative, especially those whom I have viewed as anti-CI teachers.

Sharing ideas is powerful. I think we forget how much of a lone-ranger mentality we can get as teachers. Sharing ideas develops community, especially in a world language department where we tend to group (and to isolate) ourselves according to language. Who would have ever thought that modern language teachers in my department would be asking me, a LATIN teacher, for CI ideas?

This confirms my view that we CI teachers cannot beat CI into folks who do not want it to use it. All I can do is use CI in my classroom, share ideas with folks (whether they accept it or not), let my results speak for me and simply leave it at that. Now that does not mean that I should not be prepared to defend my usage of CI if people ask - much like the apostle Paul says, "(i need to) be prepared in season and out of season" (I am VERY CERTAIN that Paul was not referring to CI when he wrote that!) - but I need to give permission for my non-CI colleagues to be the teachers they are at this moment. I need to follow the words of St. Francis of Assisi, "Preach [CI], and if necessary, use words.' (Again, I know that he was NOT referring to CI), and to let them come to the decision on their own, if they choose.

So much like Cynthia, I challenge you to share with your department a CI idea which has worked for you, even if they are not open to the idea of CI. Become the CI expert in your department; even if you do not feel like one or know much about Ci, at least you know of some resources where to look. You'll be surprised at the reaction. I have a Latin teacher friend in Baltimore who, after I posted Lauren Watson's Scrambled Eggs activity, immediately shared the idea with her department, and many of them used it with much success! 

Thanks to all here at ACTFL who have shared their CI knowledge with me this weekend. I plan to "pay it forward"!