Personalized Questions and Answers (PQAs)

Often times I get asked what is the purpose of circling and asking students questions in class, especially when it starts to become really monotonous and repetitive for students. Essentially, asking questions is a great way to assess comprehension in the moment among students, since it can be very easy for students to "fake" understanding. If I ask a target language question, and students mis-answer, then I know right away there has been a breakdown somewhere in the comprehensibility of my messages. As a result, I can re-adjust in the moment. Also, asking questions is another way to continue the current dialogue in the class. I have heard Ben Slavic compare the process to a balloon which we are trying to keep in the air. The more we can dialogue with students using comprehensible language about a sentence/topic, the longer the "balloon can stay in the air." Personalized Questions and Answers (PQAs) are a great way to do this. But honestly, I feel like I am horrible at PQAs.

I do have Ben Slavic's PQA in a Wink (a great resource), but when it comes to questioning, I feel like my questioning just peters out after awhile because I do not know where to go with it or students begin to tire of it. However, as I look over what kinds of questions I ask students, I realize that I actually do ask a lot of PQAs and that PQAs can take a lot of different forms:

• Do you like/have/want? - In many ways, this is a natural personal question to ask students such as do you like to eat pizza, do you have a dog, do you want a lion? But again, these questions can get really old with students even if you add details to them such as do you like to eat pizza at night or in the morning, do you have a big dog or a small dog, do you want a big lion or a small lion? So as extension questions, consider asking...
• Would you... - In the summer of 2021, I was serving as a cohort coach for the virtual IFLT Conference. I was coaching teachers on circling, and a teacher had volunteered to do be coached on circling using the structure "eats". She did the basic, "Maria eats insects. Does Maria eat insects? Does Maria eat insects or Takis? Does Maria eat Takis?" However, then immediately she turned the structure into a PQA, directing it to a "student," asking "Do you eat insects? Would you eat insects? Would you eat insects for $100?" Now the questioning became interesting! I wanted to know how the student would respond! Moreover, this teacher was demonstrating how to shelter vocabulary, not grammar by keeping the vocabulary word "eat" but now changing it to a subjunctive form for the purpose of communication. This teacher did a great job of keeping the "balloon" in the air!
• Asking for examples - Very often, I like to ask students to give me examples of something based on a vocabulary word for which I want to get in lots of repetitions or where I think we can get in some good discussion. For example, for a movie talk where the word "witch" was being introduced, I asked students to give me an example of a witch in a book, TV show, or movie. Wow, students were volunteering answers left and right (I did not realize that there were so many), because for many, this was a personal question of interest. I could extend the questioning to be "What witch did Carson suggest?" "Who suggested Glinda as a witch?" A student suggested Mary Poppins as a witch, and suddenly that became a question for discussion - "Who of you thinks that Mary Poppins is a witch? Or is she just magical?"
• Predictions - In a Movie Talk or a reading which we are doing at sight, I like to ask students to predict what they think will happen next, "What will happen next?" "Do you think that X will be happy?" "How will X respond?" Once I get a response from a student, I can then ask the class, "Who else thinks this?" or "Who here does not think this?"  Again, this can be a personal question of interest for many. 

So consider using many of these different types of PQAs with your students!

Four Word Vocabulary Picture

I've always said that students love any activity involving whiteboards and dry-erase markers. Here is a fun vocabulary activity:

1. Write four known random vocabulary words on the board.
2. Students have one minute to draw a picture on their whiteboards which incorporates/depicts all of the words (not four separate pictures, but one)
3. Tell students if they do not know a word, then they should focus on what words they do know.
4. When the minute is up, students show their whiteboards to each other, pointing out each word in Latin.
5. Ask students to show their whiteboards to you, while you walk around and check them.
6. Pick 2-3 boards to show the class, and using a document camera, project student pictures onto the screen
7. Describe these pictures in Latin to the class, using the vocabulary words
8. You can also circle questions about words in the picture
9. Added variation - if you have time, draw a picture yourself beforehand involving the four words and show your version to students.
10. If you are able, try now to Ask a Story from one of the pictures projected. Ask the student who did the drawing for details. He/she will usually be able to come up with a great story since it is his/her picture.

Obervations

1. Drawing a visual depiction of the vocabulary word gives students another way to acquire vocabulary.
2. Since students are drawing the vocabulary words themselves, it personalizes the acquisition process
3. Even though everyone is drawing a picture using the same four words, I am always surprised by how many different interpretations there are. Students are too and enjoy seeing each other's pictures. 
4. I will usually do 2-3 rounds of this activity in a period, lasting a total of 15 minutes (if I do not do an Ask a Story from one of the pictures)

Getting Started with CI

Whenever people ask celebrity environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. how they themselves can begin to have a lesser impact on the environment, he always responds, "Pick the low hanging fruit first. Do those things which are easy to do, such as recycling, buying low-energy lightbulbs, taking cloth bags with you to the market instead of using plastic bags, taking the bus to work, etc. Once you master those activities and they become part of your daily habit, then move onto bigger things."

I think the same can be said about using CI in the Latin classroom. So many times, we do not know where to begin with it all, and it can seem so overwhelming. And yes, considering how much of a “game-changer” CI is compared to the grammar-translation methodology from which we Latin teachers learned the language, the whole undertaking can look rather daunting.

Using CI in the classroom involves you as the teacher speaking Latin with your students, but keep in mind this most basic tenet of CI: deliver understandable and comprehensible messages in the target language, as this is how we acquire language itself. I heard at ACTFL a few weeks ago that parents have a 100% success rate in teaching language to their children, because they speak to them in an understandable manner; parents do not get caught up in teaching grammar to their children but rather speak to them at a level which they can understand. In other words, when speaking Latin to our students, it is not necessary for us to be fluent in the language per se, rather just understandable and comprehensible. What an absolute relief that is!

So if you have never used CI in your classroom or even spoken Latin before, a simple way to begin is to ask basic comprehension questions in the language. Create a simple sentence in Latin or pick one from a reading; if the sentence contains words which students do not know, then write both the Latin word and English meaning on the board in order to establish meaning. Say the sentence aloud in Latin to the class (write the sentence on the board, if needed). Now ask questions in Latin about the sentence (write the Latin interrogatives with the English meaning on the board as a reference), and require a choral response from the class in Latin. Example:

Cerberus est laetus canis et in villa currit.

• quis est laetus? (Cerberus)
• quis est Cerberus? (canis)
• quis est canis? (Cerberus)
• quid Cerberus agit/facit? (currit)
• ubi Cerberus currit? (in villa)

To "spice" things up some, you can throw in some "yes/no" and "choice" questions

• quis est laetus? (Cerberus)
• estne Cerberus laetus? (ita/sic/certe)
• estne Cerberus laetus an tristis? (laetus)
• estne Cerberus tristis? (minime/non)
• estne Cerberus femina? (minime/non)
• estne Cerberus puer? (minime/non)
• estne Cerberus puer an canis? (canis)

Every once in awhile, do a comprehension check in English by simply asking the class, "Now what did I mean when I said __________?" This will help establish meaning and allow you to see if indeed students are understanding what you are saying in Latin.

Once you get the hang of simple questioning, then you can start veering away from the sentence and asking students to think "outside" the sentence.

• estne Cerberus canis? (ita/sic/certe)
• estne Snoopy canis? (ita/sic/certe)
• estne Mufasa canis? (minime/non)
• estne Aslan canis? (minime/non)
• estne Nemo canis? (minime/non)
• estne Marmaduke canis? (ita/sic/certe)

Once you really get the hang of questioning, you can now begin using Personalized Questions and Answers (PQAs). It may require writing more vocabulary on the board in order to establish meaning for students.

• estne Cerberus canis? (ita/sic/certe)
• (pointing to student) O Carol, habesne canem? (ita/sic/certe)
• ah Carol, tu habes canem. Discipuli, Carol canem habet. habetne Carol canem? (ita/sic/certe)
• Discipuli, habetne Carol canem an leonem? (canem)
• Discipuli, habetne Carol leonem? (minime/non)
• Discipuli, quis canem habet? (Carol)

As my friend and fellow Rusticator John Kuhner is accustomed to say, "The goal is to put Latin into the ears of your students, no matter how small." Asking simple questions in the target language with limited vocabulary allows students to interact orally/aurally with the Latin language, which is how they will in turn begin to internalize the language. All of this takes time though - even asking comprehension questions can be overwhelming if you dive in too quickly.

Asking simple comprehension questions in Latin is an example of some CI “low-hanging fruit.” If you have never done it before, go pick it!