The Power of "Rewind"

This past summer at IFLT, I served as a Cohort Team member for the Intermediate Low cohort. Gary DiBianca was the our cohort leader and led the daily sessions on CI/ADI strategies and implementation. As one of the Cohort Team members, I demonstrated many of these strategies which I conducted in Latin. Since the majority (if not all) of the participants in the cohort did not know any Latin, it allowed them to experience CI/ADI as language learning students themselves.

On one of the days, I demo'd a Movie Talk in Latin and kept it very basic, sheltering/limiting vocabulary. In the debrief afterwards where I asked participants what did I do to make the Movie Talk understandable and comprehensible for them, one participant remarked, "I liked how you kept going back and reviewing in Latin the previous parts of the Movie Talk before you moved onto the next part." Quite honestly, I was completely unaware that I was doing that - I was just repeating parts solely to make the movie talk last longer! However, aware of that comment, I notice now when teaching that I do go back and repeat previous parts of the story when doing Movie Talks, Story Listening, and Telling a Story aloud - all subconsciously and not intently. 

"Rewinding" or repeating previous statements in stories can be a very powerful tool:

• It allows for repetitions of understandable messages.
• It lends itself to repetitions of language which slower processors may need to comprehend what is being said.
• It keeps already-stated messages still at the forefront of learners' minds.
• It allows for a place to park and to conduct a Personalized Question and Answer (PQA).

You can also ask students to help do the "rewind" with you, starting it off with a sentence, and then asking, "Who can then tell me what happened next (in the target language)?"

While many of you may think that "rewinding" is overkill for students, there are many who actually need it and will benefit from it!

Embedded/Tiered Reading Example

I am finishing up the second week of school - yep, here in Georgia, we start early. In my Latin 2 classes, I wanted to ease them back into reading with a very easy passage in order to make them feel successful, so I felt like doing an embedded/tirered reading would achieve that. Also because I am now doing a daily ritual of a "weather report," I felt like that particular vocabulary needed to go somewhere, so I included some of that in the reading. 

Tier 1

Latin: Sol non lucet, et pluit. Rhonda umbrellam non habet. Rhonda dicit, “Ubi est mea Mickey Mouse umbrella? Quis meam Mickeyem Mousem umbrellam habet?” Rhonda est madida. Rhonda est irata, quod pluit, et umbrellam non habet.

English: The sun is not shining. Rhonda does not have an umbrella. Rhonda says, "Where is my Mickey Mouse umbrella? Who has my Mickey Mouse umbrella? Rhonda is soaking wet. Rhonda is angry, because she does not have an umbrella.

Tier 2

Latin: Rhonda est tristis. Sol non lucet, et pluit. Rhonda est in domo. Rhonda umbrellam non habet. Rhonda dicit, “Ubi est mea Mickey Mouse umbrella? Mea Mickey Mouse umbrella non est in meo sacculo! Quis meam Mickeyem Mousem umbrellam habet?”

Pluit, sed Rhonda umbrellam non habet. Rhonda est madida (soaking wet). Quod Rhonda est madida, est irata!

Rhonda Carolem videt. Carol Mickeyem Mousem umbrellam habet! Rhonda est irata, et dicit, “Carol meam Mickeyem Mousem umbrellam habet! Sol non lucet, et pluit, et madida sum.

Rhonda Carolem pulsat, et umbrellam capit! Rhonda est laeta, quod habet Mickey Mousem umbrellam! Carol est tristis. Rhonda ridet.

English: Rhonda is sad. The sun is not shining, and it is raining. Rhonda is in her home. Rhonda does not have an umbrella. Rhonda says, "Where is my Mickey Mouse umbrella? My Mickey Mouse umbrella in not in my bookbag! Who has my Mickey Mouse umbrella?"

It is raining, but Rhonda does not have an umbrella. Rhonda is soaking wet. Because Rhonda is soaking wet, she is angry.

Rhonda sees Carol. Carol has a Mickey Mouse umbrella! Rhonda is angry and says, "Carol has my Mickey Mouse umbrella! The sun is not shining, and it is raining, and I am soaking wet!"

Rhonda punches Carol and takes the umbrella. Rhonda is happy, because she has her Mickey Mouse umbrella. Carol is sad. Rhonda laughs.

Tier 3

Hodie est primus dies scholae. Rhonda est tristis, quod sol non lucet, et pluit. Rhonda est in domo. Rhonda non vult ire ad scholam, quod sol non lucet, et pluit. Rhonda umbrellam non habet. Rhonda dicit, “Ubi est mea Mickey Mouse umbrella? Mea Mickey Mouse umbrella non est in meo sacculo! Mea Mickey Mouse umbrella semper est in meo sacculo! Quis meam Mickeyem Mousem umbrellam habet? Sol non lucet, et pluit!”

Rhonda ad scholam ambulat. Pluit, sed Rhonda umbrellam non habet. Rhonda est madida. Quod Rhonda est madida, est irata! Rhonda dicit, “Hodie est primus dies scholae, et madida sum. Sol non lucet, et pluit. Quis meam Mickey Mousem umbrellam habet?!”

Rhonda Carolem videt. Carol meam Mickeyem Mousem umbrellam habet! Rhonda est irata, et dicit, “Carol meam Mickeyem Mousem umbrellam habet! Sol non lucet, et pluit, et madida sum!”

Rhonda Carolem pulsat, et umbrellam capit! Rhonda est laeta, quod habet Mickey Mousem umbrellam! Carol est tristis, et quod pluit, Carol est madida. Rhonda ridet, quod pluit, et Carol est madida.

Subito, Bob Rhondam videt, et dicit, “O Rhonda, habeo tuam Mickeyem Mousem umbrellam! Quod sol non lucet et pluit, cepi tuam umbrellam!” Rhonda est laeta, quod habet DUAS Mickeyes Mouses umbrellas, sed Carol est irata, quod Rhonda cepit eius Mickey Mousem umbrellam. Carol displodit.

English: Today is the first day of school. Rhonda is sad, because the sun is not shining, and it is raining. Rhonda is in her home. Rhonda does not want to go to school today, because the sun is not shining, and it is raining Rhonda does not have an umbrella. Rhonda says, "Where is my Mickey Mouse umbrella? My Mickey Mouse umbrella in not in my bookbag! My umbrella is always in my bookbag. Who has my Mickey Mouse umbrella? The sun is not shining, and it is raining."

Rhonda walks to school. It is raining, but Rhonda does not have an umbrella. Rhonda is soaking wet. Because Rhonda is soaking wet, she is angry. Rhonda says, "Today is the first day of school, and I am soaking wet. The sun is not shining, and it is raining. Who has my Micky Mouse umbrella?!" 

Rhonda sees Carol. Carol has a Mickey Mouse umbrella! Rhonda is angry and says, "Carol has my Mickey Mouse umbrella! The sun is not shining, and it is raining, and I am soaking wet!"

Rhonda punches Carol and takes the umbrella. Rhonda is happy, because she has her Mickey Mouse umbrella. Carol is sad, and because it is raining, Carol is soaking wet. Rhonda laughs, because it is raining, and Carol is soaking wet.

Suddenly, Bob sees Rhonda, and says, "O Rhonda, I have your Mickey Mouse umbrella. Because the sun is not shining and it is raining, I took your umbrella!" Rhonda is happy, because she has TWO Mickey Mouse umbrellas, but Carol is angry, because Rhonda took her Mickey Mouse umbrella. Carol explodes.

Observations

1. Yes, the reading passage may seem very basic for the second week of Latin 2, but as I stated earlier, I wanted to give them a passage where students would feel successful right away reading it. I also wanted to get in lots of repetitions, especially of the weather words.
2.  Reading the passage as embedded readings, where new facts and details are added for each tier, keeps the passage novel and compelling.
3. For more information about embedded readings, check out the official Embedded Reading website.

Read, Write, Draw, Pass

This is another awesome post-reading activity which I learned from Linda Li this past summer (Martina Bex also has a great post about this activity). It is loosely based on a party game called Paper Telephone/Telephone Pictionary, and it works great as a way to get students to review a known reading.

Directions

1. Every student needs paper, pen/pencil, and the reading passage which you want to review.
2. Divide students into groups of six. There may be groups of seven or as little as four, but try to avoid groups of three. Arrange students in a circle.
3. Have students fold paper vertically/hot-dog style. Tell students that they will only be drawing on one side of the paper.
4. Tell students to pick ONE sentence from the story and to write it at the top of their paper. Write it as it appears in the story, i.e. students are NOT to translate the sentence.
5. Have students PASS their paper to the person on their left. 
6. Now have students draw a visual representation of that sentence underneath it. Leave some space between the sentence and picture.
7. Stop students after 45 seconds, and have students FOLD the sentence over the back of the paper so that it cannot be seen. Only the picture should be showing.
8. Have students PASS their paper to the person to their left. It is important that students do NOT pass until you say so.
9. Now have students find the ONE sentence from the reading that matches the drawing. Students are to write the sentence underneath the picture. Leave some space between the picture and the sentence.
10. Stop students after 45 seconds, and have students FOLD the picture over to the back so that only the sentence is showing.
11. Have students PASS their paper to the person on their left. It is important that students do not pass until you say so.
12. Continue this pattern of drawing, passing, writing, and passing until students in a group of six have their original paper - it should be a total of six passes. For groups smaller than six, then they will continue to pass until the sixth pass. For groups larger than six, they will not get their original paper back so they will have to find theirs.
13. Tell students to unfold their papers to see how accurate others were with drawing pictures/writing sentences for their original sentence.

Observations

1. Having taken part in this activity myself when learning Mandarin from Linda Li, I can tell you that it is great activity for post-reading on so many different levels: re-reading of a known text (thus getting in more repetitions of language), comprehension of what is being read demonstrated non-verbally through a picture, comprehension of what is being communicated in a picture and writing that in the target language via the story/passage.
2. Depending on students' interpretation of the pictures/sentences given to them, this activity mimics the game Telephone, because the sentences and pictures can begin to change. It is always fun to hear some students at the end talk about how their original sentence changed. 

The Marker Partner Game

Today, I played the Marker Partner Game with my students. This is an activity which Cynthia Hitz, a CI/TPRS Spanish teacher, mentioned in her ACTFL presentation last November. The game is a lot like Spoons, and yes, it is just as competitive and high-action! It is a great way to review a reading in the target language and to get in comprehensible repetitions of the language in a very fun way. If your class is in need of some much needed energy, this is a very dynamic activity.

The directions can be found on Cynthia's blog -http://palmyraspanish1.blogspot.com/2014/05/active-reading-review.html

Cynthia has SO MUCH good stuff on her blog. She's a wonderful woman whom I only really know through Twitter; follow her @sonrisadelcampo. I have met Cynthia a few times in person at ACTFL, and I have learned a great deal from her blog and presentations. I recommend that you bookmark Cynthia's blog, because it is definitely worth reading.  

Same Coversation, part 3 - Morning Routine

This is the last post of a series.

I have found that students very much want routine in their lives. To a degree, routine brings comfort, and to deviate from it can bring stress. In between class periods, I can usually be found standing outside of my classroom, greeting students as they enter - heaven forbid, if I am not there! A few times, I have been neglectful of being out in front of my classroom, and i have had students "panic," thinking that I was sick and that they had a substitute instead!

Establishing a short 5-minute morning routine of target language activities can be a very easy way to enact Same Conversation. Something as simple as greeting the class in the target language on a daily basis can go a long way. Examples of activities which you can do as part of a morning routine:

1. greeting/salutation
2. the day of the week/date - this can be kind of tricky depending on how your target language handles dates. I tend to stick with just the day of the week.
3. weather report - this can be something as simple as hodie nubilosum est, hodie sol lucet, hodie pluit, hodie ventilosum est. One day, i am going to add props for this!
4. "word of the day" - my school has a "word of the day" which we are supposed to go over with students. Why not tell them in Latin? "vocabulum hodiernum est (English word), et significat (English meaning)."

As long as you establish meaning early and are delivering understandable messages in the target language, then students will have no problem understanding what you are saying. Because this is all a daily morning routine, you have a natural built-in way to get in repetitions needed for subconscious acquisition. 

A morning routine is also a great way to introduce those topics which may not appear in your textbook. Or if your textbook spends an entire chapter on weather (this seems rather unnecessary), this is a way to "cover" that topic so that you can devote time to other topics. 

Variation: After a few months of doing this, assign students to do some of these tasks. Due to the sheer daily repetitions, it really is not that difficult for them to do. I stumbled upon this, as one day I forgot to say salvete to the class as soon as the bell rang. A student called me out on it, and immediately, I said, "You know, I am not the only one who can do the greeting. Why don't you greet the class for me today?" At once, she did, and soon, other students began to ask if they could do the greeting the next day.   

Same Conversation, Part 2 - Movie Director

This is part 2 of a series of three posts.

My last post dealt with the technique Same Conversation and TPR - how to have the same conversation in a novel yet meaningful way when using TPR. What are some other ways outside of TPR?

Many textbooks have dialogue practice in them, but in most cases, the dialogues themselves are rather stilted. Here is another VERY easy and fun strategy of doing Same Conversation with textbook dialogues: 

I call this activity Movie Director. Carol Gaab demonstrated this at NTPRS last summer (I do not think that she called it "Movie Director"), but I remember doing skits like this (in English) at summer camp when I was growing up:

1. Pick two students whom you think are good actors. (or as many are needed for the dialogue). Many times I will ask the class, "Whom in this class do you think will do a good job of acting?" 
2. Project the dialogue or part of it - eight sentences is about right. 
3. Have those students come up to the front of the room and simply read it aloud without any type of emotion. You may have to translate it into English first in order to establish meaning for the class.
4. Now you as the Movie Director say in the target language, "Okay, that was good, but can you do it now loudly"?
5. The actors read the dialogue aloud and act it out loudly
6. Now you as the Movie Director say in the target language, "Okay, that was better, but this time do it happily?"
7. The actors now act out the dialogue happily.

The idea is that after each time, you tell them to do it differently, such as sadly, angrily, romantically, slowly, quickly, etc.

Observations

•  It is absolutely hilarious watching students act out the same dialogue differently each time, and it makes reading through a dialogue less "painful." 
• The class is engaged in watching the dialogue acted out differently each time, when in reality, it is hearing the same dialogue over and over again, thus getting in the necessary repetitions of language needed for subconscious acquisition. This is also a great way to work with adverbs. 
• Sometimes I ask students for different ways the dialogue can be acted out - you will be surprised at how many times you can have the same dialogue acted out differently. Suggesions have included: Valley Girl accents, Darth Vader/Yoda voices.

Same Conversation, part 1 - TPR

This is a first of a series of three posts.

One of the main tenets of CI is that language learners need constant repetition of vocabulary/structures in a meaningful context in order for them to acquire the language subconsciously. The problem is how to do this without making it boring for students, because in the words of Carol Gaab, we know that "the brain CRAVES novelty!"

One way of accomplishing this is Same Conversation, a technique which I learned from Evan Gardner, founder of "Where Are Your Keys?". Same Conversation is exactly how it sounds - have the same comprehensible conversation in the target language multiple times in order to get in the necessary repetitions. Due to the "sameness" aspect, language learners become familiar with what they are hearing and can anticipate what will be said next.

There are a number of ways in which one can accomplish this and still keep it novel. Total Physical Response (TPR) itself is full of repetitions, as the teacher is the one telling students what to do in a Simon Says kind of fashion, and students demonstrate their comprehension by completing the action. Commands are constantly repeated in various ways. After awhile, however, TPR can get really old, really fast for students. At NTPRS last summer, Carol Gaab demonstrated a great way of doing Same Conversation with TPR which really resonates with students. Based on her example involving the word "pick up," here is how I accomplished it in Latin 1 on the 3rd day of class - it simply involved a baby doll. The target word was sume (pick up) - because it was only day 3 of Latin 1, I spoke in a mix of Latin/English:

Me: Joe, sume infantem! (Joe picks up the baby doll by its neck)

Me: Really, Joe? That is how you sume infantem?! This is an infans! Let me show you how to sumere infantem! (I overdramatically pick up the baby doll gently, cradling its neck and put it back down)
Me: Katy, veni huc (come here)and show Joe how it's done. Sume infantem! (Katy picks up the baby doll somewhat gently)
Me: Really, Katy? That is how you sume infantem? Again, this is an infans! Melissa, veni huc and show Katy and Joe how it's done. Sume infantem! (Melissa picks up the baby doll very gently and does a better job)
Me: Ok, better, but gosh, Ben, veni huc and show Joe, Katy and Melissa how to do it. Sume infantem! (Ben overdramatically picks up the baby doll as if it were a real baby)
Me: Optime, Ben! Now Melissa, sume infantem! (Melissa overdramatically picks up the baby doll as if it were a real baby).
Me: Optime, Melissa! Katy, sume infantem! (Katy overdramatically picks up the baby doll as if it were a real baby)
Me: Optime, Katy. Joe, sume infantem! (Joe overdramatically picks up the baby as if it were a real baby).
Me: Optime, Joe! Now you know how to sumere infantem!

Observations

1. During that whole interchange, I had repeated the phrase sume infantem (or some variation of it) ELEVEN times in the span of a couple minutes, but students did not realize it or tire of hearing the phrase due to the "problematic scenario" which I had created.
2. The class was entirely engaged and laughing during the whole interchange, watching their fellow students pick up a baby doll, being chastised for doing it incorrectly and only being praised when it was done overdramatically. Little did they realize that it was all a ploy in order to get them to hear the phrase sume infantem over and over again in a meaningful and novel way. They simply thought it was just about learning how to pick up a baby properly. Haha, I am so devious..
3. Even though I used the infinitive form sumere at times, it did not impede comprehension.