Hot Potato

This is another activity which I learned from Emma Vanderpool, a Latin colleague and few CI-user in Massachusetts. It is a collaborative activity which can be used to preview a story, to review a known one, or as a warmup using known vocabulary. Here are her directions:

1. Students should sit in a large circle. All should have a whiteboard/marker/eraser.
2. Project the story/reading on the board.
3. Students have a set amount of time to draw (varying from 20 seconds to 1 minute).
4. After the timer goes off, students then pass the whiteboard clockwise.
5. Students should then pick up from where their peer left off.
6. After the timer goes off again, students again pass their whiteboard, and so on until you judge that the time is up.
7. Return the original whiteboard to students to review what should be illustrated there.

Observations

1. For each round, I gave students 25-30 seconds to read what was on the board and then 15 seconds to draw. The 25 seconds gave students a chance to re-read the story/sentences on the board, to look at what had already been drawn, and what needed to be added. Giving students only 15 seconds meant that they had to be quick in their drawing but essentially, they drew less which allowed for more rounds and for the activity to last longer.
2. There is a lot of critical thinking in this activity, because it causes students to re-read the sentences and to compare it with the whiteboard pictures which they have each time to see what is missing. Lots of close reading required!
3. Instead of a circle, I made it one continuous circuit so that the whiteboards traveled about 8-9 students. When we finished, students got their whiteboards back, and it was fun for them to see what had been added to their original drawing. Plus, since they had illustrated the story over a series of different whiteboards, they knew how they themselves had drawn the various parts of the story, so they liked seeing how others had drawn it.

Story Listening 2.0

This is a twist on regular Story Listening. For the record, I really do like Story Listening. I have experienced it myself as a student, and I know its power in delivering comprehensible input through primarily listening and using drawings to aid in delivering understandable messages. In addition, asking questions and circling do not get in the way of hearing a story being told. However, at the same time, I also know that when doing Story Listening, two issues arise: 

1. Because I am not asking any questions, I do not know if/how much of the story is actually being comprehended in the target language.
2. Students can tune out during a Story Listening, since there is nothing keeping them "accountable" for listening. Yes, students are listening which is active, but they can also be passively listening. - they are presently listening but not really taking it in, regardless of how compelling the story is.

My colleague John Foulk added the following to when he does Story Listening: having students draw along with you and copy what you are drawing as you tell and draw the story. I know that some of you may say that this defeats the purpose of story listening (since learners are not solely listening), but now having done Story Listening a few times this way, I really like it. Here is why:

1. It gives students something active to do while listening to the story and they have to pay attention.
2. It forces me to slow down in telling the story, since I need to give time for students to draw what I am drawing.
3. I can get in LOTS of repetitions of each sentence, because I am saying each sentence many times while I wait for students to finish drawing that sentence.
4. Even though students are copying what I am drawing, they are making a connection with what they are hearing because they themselves are drawing pictures.
5. Because students have their own artifact of the Story Listening, they can use it as a reference for later activities.

Here is an example of a Story Listening which I just recently did with my Latin 3's. We are starting to read Andrew Olympi's novella Perseus et Rex Malus, so I introduced the prologue with a Tier 1 embedded reading using Story Listening:

Latin

Olim erat piscator qui in insula parva habitabat. Quodam die, piscator rete in mare iecit ut capiat pisces. Cum piscator rete in navem traxisset, rete piscatoris erat vacuum. Subito, piscator aliquid in mari vidit. Piscator putavit rem esse navem. Non erat navis, sed erat arca. Quid erat in arca?

Story (English)
Once upon a time there was a fisherman, who was living on a small island. On a certain day, the fisherman threw a net into the sea in order to catch fish. When the fisherman dragged the next into the boat, the fisherman's net was empty. Suddenly, the fisherman saw something in the sea. The fisherman thought that it was a boat. It was not a boat, but it was a box. What was in the box?

Day 1
I told the story as a Story Listening activity and had students copy what I drew. Even though this was just a 7-sentence story, it took a period to complete. No circling/questioning took place. Students turned in their drawings when they were done. As the teacher, either take a picture of the drawing or draw your own copy of it.

Day 2
I projected my Story Listening picture from the day before and then told the story again, pointing and pausing at particular parts of the picture as I retold it. Again, no questioning or circling happened. I then asked students to summarize the story in English so that I could confirm that they understood both the drawings and what I had said in Latin. I then handed back the drawings to students and had them answer some comprehension questions in Latin at the bottom/back of the page related to the story. They could use the drawings as a reference, but they had to write down their answer in Latin.

Observations

1. Although the questions relied heavily on the drawings, most students felt that their drawings were comprehensible enough to use to answer the questions.
2. Many students felt that they did not have to rely on the pictures because they had heard the story repeated so many times.
3. Those questions which students answered incorrectly told me that those were the sentences/vocabulary words which I needed to review more.
4. I used this Story Listening to preview the vocabulary words piscator, rete, and vacuum which are rather specific words. However, because these words appeared many times in the story and I kept repeating them while they were copying my drawings and in my retell, most students acquired the words. i suppose that I could have given them a list and told them to have these words memorized, but the repetition of these words in a meaningful context connected to an illustration which they themselves drew led to subconscious acquisition.
5. Doing a Tier 1 Story Listening of the prologue made it very easy for students to read the Tier 2 level reading.

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.

Story Listening

Today, I ventured into Story Listening with my Latin 2 classes. Story Listening is a pre-reading strategy devised by Beniko Mason, and the title is exactly what it is: students listening to a story being told while the teacher draws pictures as part of the storytelling. No circling takes place, and it is done in the same way as a parent telling children a story, i.e., parents tend not to interrupt a story with questions. I had dabbled before with Story Listening, but I had not added the picture component.

Today, in my Latin 2 classes, I did a Story Listening of the following story - the story of Vulcan and Mars. Below is the story with the pictures which I drew as I narrated the story aloud in Latin.

VULCANUS, PART 1

Iuppiter et Iuno duōs filiōs habebant. Primus filius erat Mars. Mars erat deus bellī. Iuno amabat suum filium Martem, quod Mars erat fortis et pulcher.

Secundus filius erat Vulcanus. Vulcanus erat deus ignis. Iuno non amabat suum secundum filium. Quamquam Vulcanus erat fortis, Iuno non putavit Vulcanum esse pulchrum.

Eheu! Quod Vulcanus erat fortis sed non pulcher, Iuno erat irata. Iuno Vulcanum non amabat, et noluit Vulcanum habitare in Monte Olympō. Iuno Vulcanum ad terram deicit. Vulcanus non iam erat in Monte Olympō sed in terrā. Vulcanus erat vulneratus in terrā.

Vulcanus erat tristis, quod mater Vulcanum non amabat. Vulcanus erat tristis, quod Iuno non putavit Vulcanum esse pulchrum. Vulcanus erat tristis, quod erat vulneratus. Vulcanus noluit habitare in terrā. Vulcanus voluit habitare in Monte Olympō.

TO BE CONTINUED

Observations

1. Because this was my first real foray into Story Listening, I am glad that I had a very basic story with tons of repetitions and lots of vocabulary with which students were familiar. That made it much easier for me to tell.
2. This is a very LOW-prep activity for you as the teacher. All that is required for you is the story and a place to draw pictures.
3. I was surprised at how engaged students were when I told the story. Granted it was a rather comprehensible story to understand when heard aloud, but the fact that I was drawing pictures as I narrated it kept the story compelling.
4. The pictures added another layer of comprehensible input. Essentially, students were receiving double input: hearing the Latin aloud and seeing the pictorial representation of the story as I drew it.
5. I suppose one could draw the pictures ahead of time, but drawing the pictures while telling the story aloud forced me to go slow and to repeat a lot by referring to the pictures. I think that students appreciated this.
6. Because students are just listening to a story and you as the teacher are not asking questions, it can be tricky to see if students are fully comprehending what you are saying. Halfway through the story listening, I did a comprehension check by asking students to tell me in English what was going on in the story. I could have circled or asked comprehension questions in Latin, but since this was the first experience which students had with this story, I wanted to confirm that they understood it.
7. Because this is a pre-reading strategy (I suppose it could be used as a post-reading strategy), it is important that students are familiar with the vocabulary words in the story either as having already acquired them or as icing words written on the board.
8. The whole story listening took about 10-15 minutes.
9. This is definitely something which I going to do more often in the future!

To see how it works, see below for a Story Listening Demo by Beniko Mason

Also, check out this post on the Fluency Matters blog about Story Listening - New or Time-Tested. This is a very good write-up by Carol Gaab. 

Picture Talk - World's Worst Album Covers

Yesterday, I was cleaning out files on my computer and came across a number of folders related to Picture Talk, an activity which I had done years ago but had completely forgotten about it these past two years. I do not know why Picture Talk had slipped my mind, because it is a great way to dialogue with students in the target language and to get students to interact with it.

Picture Talk is part Movie Talk (without the movie), One Word Picture, and part story-asking. The basic idea is to project a picture and to narrate what is happening in it in the target language, to ask questions about it, and maybe to create a story based upon it. Primarily, I have used it to preview new vocabulary. Like Movie Talks, in order for this activity to be effective, it needs to be compelling for students to want to take part in it. Since movie shorts have a built-in plot, pictures can be difficult, because it can be hit-or-miss with students depending on how they engaged they are with what it is presented. I have heard Katya Paukova often say that the best movie talks are those which emotionally engage students, so with pictures, I try to do the same using the "World's Worst Album Covers"!

If you do an online search of "World's Worst Album Covers," you will see that there are TONS of websites dedicated to this topic. In addition, if you take a look at these album covers, you will find that there are TONS which are definitely INAPPROPRIATE to show in a classroom (let alone wanting to discuss them in the target language with native speakers!). However, there are some which are absolute gems for use in a Picture Talk - here is one of my favorites with possible questions to ask. For those of you Latin teachers who use the Cambridge Latin Course, I was previewing vocabulary in Stage 9 related to Quintus' birthday celebration:

1. What objects/people do you see in the picture?
2. Is this a girl or woman?
3. Is this girl Julie?
4. How old is Julie?
5. Do you think that Julie is having a birthday party in the picture?
6. Is Julie celebrating her birthday at Chuck E. Cheese? at Build-A-Bear?
7. Why do you think that Julie in this place?
8. Is Julie happy or sad?
9. Why do you think is Julie sad?
10. Why do you think that is Julie alone on her birthday - did she not invite anyone?
11. Did no one show up to Julie's birthday party?
12. Why do you think that no one came to Julie's birthday party?
13. Is this a boy or man?
14. Do you think that this man is Julie's father?
15. What do you think is happening in this picture?
16. What do you think happens next?

As you begin to ask questions about things in the picture, you can start creating a story in the target language. For the above picture, I recall a class creating a story about Julie running away from home on her 16th birthday. She was fighting with her parents, because they wanted to have a Hello-Kitty themed party, but Julie wanted to go to the movies with her friends. As a a result, she ran away to a bar to celebrate, but immediately Julie was sorry when she was approached by an older man who wanted her to run away with him. Julie ran home and happily celebrated her 16th birthday with her parents and Hello Kitty. Julie learned a valuable lesson (I like for my stories to have a moral at the end if possible).

Here are some other world's worst album covers which I have used:

So consider giving Picture Talk a try with some of these pictures!

PreReading for a Classical Text

A few weeks ago at ACL, I was asked a number of times, "So how do you use CI to prepare students for a classical text?" Maybe a better question should be "What pre-reading activities/strateges do you use to prepare students for a classical text?" 

Under the traditional method, when it came to classical readings, we would give students a text, a dictionary, and say, "Go translate (and good luck, because you will need it)." We would do this, because we were under the impression that students already knew ALL of the necessary grammar and if they did not know a word, they could just look it up. Unfortunately, students would end up looking up probably 80% of the words, and heaven forbid, if it were an idiomatic expression or a phrase needing a note of some kind. The 4%ers could complete the task, but the remaining were floundering. 

If you are new to CI and are wanting to use CI methodology, here is an example of how I introduced students to a classical text. A few years ago, I was teaching Latin 3, and I was wanting to expose students to some passages from the AP syllabus, so I chose the scene in Book 1 where Aeneas and Achates first see the city of Carthage being built. I felt that there was enough plot to keep students interested, and that there was a degree of repetition happening to keep it comprehensible.

Because I was still kind of new to CI at that time, I decided to preview vocabulary/structures using a dictation. By this point, my students were very familiar with dictations.

Prior to the dication, though, I had to select which vocabulary/structures which I was going to preview. I decided on the following words:

1) quondam

2) sulcus

3) arx

4) mirari

5) magalium

6) subvolvere

7) collis

8) moenia

9) concludere

Day 1
I gave a dictation of the following. See here for directions about how to do a dictatio. The dictation was about three students: Colleen, Ray and Sahil.

1) Colleen ira affecta est, quod quondam Ray eam in sulco deiecerat.

2) in sulco a Raye deiecta, Colleen ultionem voluit et arcem in colle aedificavit.

3) arce in colle aedificata, Colleen invitavit ut arcem videat.

4) arce a Rayo viso, non miratus est, sed risit, dicens “ille non est arx, sed magalium!

5) arce vocato “magalium,” Colleen Rayem humi deiecit, et Ray de colle subvolvit.

6) Ray subvolvit in sulco, quem Colleen quondam effoderat.

7) Ray non ascendere e sulco poterat, quod Colleen sulcum moenis conclusit.

8) conclusus in sulco moenis, Ray tristitia affectus est et lacrimavit.

9) Sahil ad sulcum festinavit, et arcem miratus est.

10) mirans arcem, Sahil clamavit, “O fortunatus est vir qui arcem aedificavit!”

11) Sahilo audito, Colleen ira affecta est et in sulco Sahilem deiecit.

Following the dictation, we did a choral reading of the passage to establish meaning.

Day 2

1) I did a review of the dictation with a powerpoint, calling attention to particular vocabulary words. This was done was a choral reading.

2) I then introduced an embedded reading of the passage written in prose (as Nancy Llewellyn likes to call it, an enodatio):

Aeneas miratur molem (aedificia) in Karthagō - molēs erant quondam magalia, sed nunc sunt moles. Aeneas quoque miratur portās, strepitum urbis et strata viārum (paved roads). Tyriī (the Tyrians) sunt ardentēs (ablaze), et instant (they press on): pars Tyriī ducunt (extend) murōs, pars Tyriī aedificant arcem, et pars Tyriī subvolvunt saxa manibus; pars Tyriī quaerunt locum domō (for a home), et concludunt locum sulcō.

Tyriī legunt (choose) iura (leges), magistratūs et sanctum senatum. Hic (here), aliī (pars Tyrii) effodiunt portus. hic, aliī (pars Tyrii) locant alta fundamenta (foundations) theatrīs. Tyriī excidunt (carve out) immanēs (magnas) columnās e rupibus (cliffs). columnae sunt alta decora (ornamenta) scaenīs futurīs (for future stages). Aeneas dicit, “O fortunatī sunt homines quorum moenia iam (nunc) surgunt!”

3) I then had the class do a choral reading of this, since this was the first time for them to see it. I asked some comprehension questions and circled in Latin about the passage.

Day 3

1) Students did a 20-minute Read and Draw of the embedded prose passage. See here for a description. 

2) Following this, students did a 8-minute timed write of the passage, using the Read and Draw as a guide. When they finished writing the passage, they continued writing what happened next. 

Day 4
1) I gave students another version of the reading, this time as an outline - they read this silently:

molem = aedificia quondam = olim pars = alii moliri = aedificant subvolvere = subvolvunt pars = alii optare = quaerunt iura = leges

I. Aeneas miratur

A. molem (quondam magalia) et
B. portas et

C. strepitum(que)

D. et strata viarum[1].

II. ardentes Tyrii instant[2].

III. pars (Tyrii)

A. ducere[3] muros
B. et moliri arcem et

C. subvolvere saxa manibus

IV. pars optare locum tecto[4] et concludere sulco.            

V. (Tyrii) legunt[5]

A. iura et

B. magistratus et

C. sanctum senatum

VI. hic[6], alii (Tyrii) effodiunt portus

VII. hic, (alii Tyrii) locant alta fundamenta[7] theatris

VIII. (alii Tyrii) excidunt[8] immanis columnas (e) rupibus[9] scaenis decora alta futuris[10].

IX. Aeneas ait, “O fortunati (homines), quorum moenia iam surgunt!”

---

[1] strata viarum = paved roads

[2] ardentes Tyrii instant = the blazing Tyrians press on

[3] ducere = are extending

[4] tecto = for a house (tecto = roof – what poetic device is this?

[5] legunt = choose

[6] hic - here

[7] fundamenta - foundations

[8] excidunt = dig out

[9] rupibus = cliffs

[10] scaenis decora alta futuris – lofty decorations for future stages

2) Finally, they saw the original text:

miratur molem Aeneas, magalia quondam,
miratur portas strepitumque et strata viarum.
Instant ardentes Tyrii: pars ducere muros,
molirique arcem et manibus subvolvere saxa,
pars optare locum tecto et concludere sulco.               5

iura magistratusque legunt sanctumque senatum;       
hic portus alii effodiunt; hic alta theatris
fundamenta locant alii, immanisque columnas
rupibus excidunt, scaenis decora alta futuris.

'O fortunati, quorum iam moenia surgunt!'               10

3) As an assessment, I gave them the following two pictures and they had to label them using the text. In many ways, it was easy for them to do since they had already done a Read and Draw of the prose version.

Observations

1) Yes, it took four days to get students to read the original text, but at the same time, they were able TO READ the original Latin by then without really translating.

2) Most students told me how easy it was to read the original, even with the funky dactyllic hexameter word order. My response, "Well, it should have been! You read it multiple times, different ways and you knew most of the vocabulary by the time you got to how Vergil wrote it."

Reading Strategies

I have organized all of my posts on reading strategies and have put them onto a separate page. They are arranged by the following: prereading (anything which prepares students for the reading in terms of vocabulary and language structures); reading (the actual act of reading); and post-reading (anything which consolidates the reading for students).

Reading Strategies

Hope this can be of help to you!

Wordle Word Cloud

This is a pre-reading activity which I learned from a language arts teacher at my school and then saw Carol Gaab demonstrate at NTPRS last summer.  For this, you will need the Wordle website and a reading which you plan to introduce .

If you are not familiar with Wordle, it is a website which will take a reading passage and then based on word frequency,  it will create a word cloud, showing which words are used more often than others - the bigger the size of the word, the more frequently the word is used. 

This particular activity is something which you will want to do just prior to reading a story for the first time, because students will be predicting what they think the story will be about based on the words which they see. As a result, you as the teacher will have needed to preview any new vocabulary/language structures through other prereading activities.

Instructions

1. Cut/paste a 5-6 sentences from the reading onto the Wordle website.
2. Create a word cloud using Wordle.
3. Save the image and paste onto a document
4. Project the word cloud onto the board and based on the words in the word cloud, ask students to predict what they think the story is going to be about. I ask students to create sentences in Latin. This is why students need to know already the vocabulary/language structures in the story.

An example:

Observations

1. Students really do like to predict what they think they the story will be about.
2. Because students have predicted the plot of the story, they have a more vested interest in what they are reading, as they are mentally comparing their version with the actual story
3. After reading the story, I have actually had students say, "I like my version so much better than the real one." Many times, I will make a mental note of what they thought the plot to be and will write an alternate version of the story which incorporates their plot for them to read later.