Top 5 of 2018

With it being final exam week at my school and with 2018 coming to a close, it is time to share my top 5 viewed blog posts of the year: 

1. More Thoughts on Sheltering Vocabulary
2. Brain Breaks
3. Rejecting a Grammar Syllabus
4. More Brain Breaks
5. CI Latin Teacher Database

2018 has been quite a year professionally. After a hectic 2017 conference schedule, I took this year off from conferences and presenting in order to reboot. Over the summer, I led an adult tour of Latin teachers to Italy for the Vergilian Society where I led sessions on Comprehensible Input. I also started the first semester of my Ed.D. study in Instructional Technology after a 1 1/2 year break from graduate school. It was a bit of an adjustment, but I really enjoyed my studies and ended up getting A's in both of my classes!

As I begin a 2-week hiatus from blogging for the winter vacation, I want to thank all of you who read this blog. I am deeply appreciative that you think that I have something of value to say on Comprehensible Input. I am grateful to all of you who post a link to blog posts of mine on your Facebook pages/groups - especially Martina Bex!

I look forward to what 2019 has to offer!

Coloring Book Pages for Final Exams

Final exams are next week for my students, and I am getting everything prepared: creating the exam, printing up answer sheets (I use Zipgrade), and printing up coloring book pages. What? Coloring book pages? Yep, if you are like me, when students finish their final exams, I HATE it if they just sit there with nothing to do, because that gives them a reason to talk or "get into some shenannigans" while others are still taking the exam. I have taken up their phones before the exam, and they cannot retrieve them until the last exam is turned in. As a result, I give students coloring book pages to color when they are done. This is something which I learned from my colleague Ashley Allgood at my last school, and it absolutely works. Keep in mind that these are high school students, who most of the time are too jaded to do anything!

It is very simple to do - simply print free coloring books pages from various websites, and put out the pages with crayons, colored pencils, and markers for students to use after they finish their exam. Below are some sites which I use to print coloring book pages:

Crayola - a treasure trove of pages, including Disney
Hello Kitty
Coloring Pages - LOTS of different categories
Care Bears

Observations

1. This really does keep students quiet after they finish their exams, because it gives them something to do.
2. The first time I did this, I thought for sure only a handful of students would do it, but I found that most students wanted to color!
3. I usually print up 3-4 copies of the same pages so that students have access to the pages. The first time i did this, I only printed one of each page, and students were mad that there was only ONE picture of Belle and that it had been taken already.
4. Students rarely have the chance in school to just color, so this is something which they enjoy doing. I have found that the guys really get into coloring!
5. After students finish coloring their pages, they can put their "work of art" on my board for all to see.

I have already been asked a number of times this week by students if I will have coloring pages available after they finish their exams - they are ready!

Cellphone Ritual

For those of you wanting to know how I deal with cellphones in my classroom, the following is what I do. I learned this from my colleague Bob Patrick, and I have found this to be every effective.

After I take roll, I say the following every day while holding my phone out for them to see:

Salvete! Incipiamus. Ubi sunt telephona? In.....sacculis (students say "sacculis" with me). Telephona non sunt in manibus, non in gremio, non in sinibus, non sub natibus, non sub sellis. Telephona sunt in sacculis. Ponam meum telephonum in meo sacculo. I will give you phone time at the end of class.

Hello. Let's us begin. Where are your telephones? In your bookbags. Telephones are not in your hands, not in your lap, not in your pockets, not under your butts, not under your chairs. Telephones are in your bookbags. I will place my telephone in my bookbag. I will give you phone time at the end of class.

Observations

1. I use gestures when saying this (displaying hands, pointing to lap, putting hands in my pockets, patting my butt, and pointing under the chairs). Students get mad at me if I say this without the gestures. 
2. Because I establish this ritual from Day 1, students know my expectation regarding cellphones during class. Even though this ritual is behaviorist in nature, the way in which this is done is very positive, and students actually do put their cellphones away.
3. Students appreciate that I as the teacher too put my cellphone in my bookbag with them.
4. If students do pull out their cellphones during class, I simply say, "(Student's name), ubi sunt telephona?" and usually the student knows right away to put it away. I have found that many times students themselves will monitor each other and call out students who have their phones out during class by saying "Ubi sunt telephona? Telephona non in manibus!"
5. Last week, i was observed by two different non-world language teachers, and each of them said to me, "I was so surprised that your students knew to put their phones away when you told them to (in Latin) and that they actually did it!"
6. By the 2nd or 3rd week of school, because I say this every day, many students say this along with me. Again, my observers last week found it very interesting that students would actually want to recite that with me when it was not required.
7. I make it a point to tell students each day that at the end of class, I will give them phone time. "Give me time in class, and I will give you time at the end."

It is a very simple daily "ritual," which I have found to be very effective!

Semper Maximas Gratias Vobis

Last week my blog passed over 400,000 page views. Granted I will chalk up the majority of those page views to spambots, but after five years, I still cannot believe that there are folks out there who read this blog on a regular basis or even check it out. Two years ago, I wrote a post similar to this when I reached over 150,000 page views. I was blown away by that! I thought for sure by now people would tire out with what i had to say and move on. 

Honestly, I really do not think that I have much to say about CI. Nor am I putting on false humility when I write that. There are so many others out there who know CI theory much better than I do, can discuss it better than I can, and actually like getting into long academic pedagogical discussions about it - that is not me at all. Look at those blogs which are listed on the sidebar - THOSE folks are the ones who understand Comprehensible Input and can talk about it with a degree of confidence. THOSE are the ones whose blogs you should be consulting. THOSE are the ones whose presentations I attend to learn about CI. But yet, I will continue to blog. 

I do not blog with the intent that tons of folks will ever read what I have to say. I blog, because it gives me a place to put down and to share what I am learning about CI in the Latin classroom. I am always amazed when I meet people at conferences (especially non-Latin teachers) who say that they read my blog and use many of the ideas about which I have written, because in my mind, I still think only about five people are reading my blog. But yet, what I write here in this blog appears to resonate with CI-users and CI-seekers. I am not interested in writing about CI theory only per se (occasionally I will muse on some aspect of CI theory) but my interest rather is about how to apply it practically in the classroom (because quite honestly, I am a practical kind of guy. I do not think that anyone ever would call me an academic!).

I am excited about the CI movement in the Latin community. When I first began blogging back in 2013, there were only about 3-4 blogs out there dedicated to CI in the Latin classroom. Now five years later, there are SO MANY more out there. More importantly, the CI community at large is seeing Latin as a viable language for CI implementation. I love that there are Latin teachers presenting non-specific Latin presentations at CI conferences and that non-Latin teachers are learning from them!

So as we enter this Thanksgiving week, I just want to say maximas gratias vobis - thanks to you all very much. Thanks for thinking that I have something of value to say in this blog and for taking it to heart. Thanks to all of you who have contributed to my CI journey. I am so thankful for those of who are joining me as a result of this blog.

Movie Talk - Joy and Heron

Here is a Movie Talk which I presented this week in my Latin 2 classes. I was looking for a short animated movie short for which I could introduce the words boat, board a ship, river, and fishing. Unfortunately, the National Movie Talk database did not have anything related to these words, but after a Google search, I came across this movie short (I have now added it to the database). I really like this Movie Talk, because it is a cute story involving a dog, its master, a big bird, and a can of worms with LOTS of repetitions and a very nice ending.

Movie Talk script - Latin

Movie Talk script - English


Consider using this!

Kahoot vs. Quizizz vs. Quizlet Live vs.GimKit

Allow me an excursus here to put on my ITEC hat and to address four popular digital review/assessment tools which teachers are using in class: Kahoot, Quizizz, Quizlet Live, and GimKit.

Kahoot

• Delivery: Synchronous. The entire class participates in answering a set of questions simultaneously against a countdown clock. The timer and teacher determine when the next question is asked. Students receive points for correct answers. The more quickly students answer correctly, the more points which they will receive. After each round, a leaderboard is updated.
• Student feedback: After each individual question, the teacher can review as a class communally what the correct answer is and why students may have missed that question.
• Teacher feedback: After each question, teachers can see how students "performed" and also receive a report at the end.
• Price: Free.
• Pros
• Very engaging for students.
• You can use the Name Generator setting so that students cannot create "naughty nicknames." As a teacher, this saves so much time - no more having to remove student names from the game!
• Ghost round - students can play a 2nd game against "themselves" from a previous round.
• Jumble - this activity asks students to put answers in an order (such as chronology, spelling, etc.)
• You can randomize questions and answers.
• You got to love the Kahoot soundtrack! 
• Cons
• Because this is a game of speed, Kahoot tends to appeal to the fast processors. Slower processors can get very frustrated, because although they may answer questions correctly, their point value will never be as high as the faster processors.
• Very competitive students tend to stop playing after they get a questions wrong, because they feel like they cannot win the game on account of missing a question.

Quizizz

• Delivery: Asynchronous. Students answer questions at their own pace but are still competing against a countdown clock for points. Students receive points for correct answers. The more quickly students answer correctly, the more points which they will receive. Students can view their point totals on a leaderboard.
• Student feedback: Students receive immediate feedback if they answer incorrectly, but the feedback is limited to "correct" and "incorrect" and the correct answer.
• Teacher feedback: Because students are answering asynchronously, you can view live which questions students are answering correctly and incorrectly. You can also receive a data report at the end.
• Price: Free.
• Pros
• Because the game is asynchronous and students can proceed at their own pace, slower processors do not feel frustrated like they do in Kahoot.
• You can add memes which students see after answering a question telling them if they answered correctly.
• Cons
• Because students receive more points for quicker correct answers, there still is a a slight edge for faster processors.
• There is no communal review of correct/incorrect answers except at the very end of the game, so students do not receive immediate feedback as to why they answered incorrectly.
• You have to deal with the possibility of "naughty nicknames" unless you pre-enter student names.

Quizlet Live

• Delivery: Asynchronous. Students are in groups and answer questions at their own pace. In teams, every device will have a different list of possible answers, but only one device has the correct answer. Teams move forward in a race course with each correct answer. The more quickly students answer correctly, the more quickly they will move forward. Students can view their progress on a leaderboard.
• Student feedback: Students receive immediate feedback if they answer incorrectly, but the feedback is limited to "correct" and "incorrect," with the correct answer given afterwards. 
• Teacher feedback: Teacher can receive a data report at the end.
• Price: Free.
• Pros
• This game is collaborative in nature as students need to discuss with each other whose device has the correct answer.
• Because the game is asynchronous and students can proceed at their own pace, slower processors do not feel frustrated like they do in Kahoot.
• At the end of the game, the teacher can review all of the questions and answers with the class. Although this is a communal review, it only happens once the game is over.
• Cons
• When teams answer incorrectly, their score goes back to zero. This can frustrate the more competitive students.
• You have to deal with the possibility of "naughty nicknames." 

GimKit 
(see here for my blog post on GimKit)

• Delivery: Asynchronous. Students answer questions at their own pace. Students earn "money" for correctly answering questions. Amount of money is not based on amount of time needed to answer question. Teacher determines amount of time/money earned as the countdown, so students will answer questions more than once.
• Student feedback: Students receive immediate feedback if they answer incorrectly, but the feedback is limited to "correct" and "incorrect," with the correct answer given afterwards.
• Teacher feedback: Teachers can also receive a data report at the end.
• Price: It is a pay site, but a free version does exist with limited access.
• Pros:
• The game is SO engaging for students once they understand how upgrades and powerups work. This is what makes students want to continue playing the game.
• Because questions are on a continuous loop, this allows for lots of repetitions.
• You can easily import questions from an already existing Quizlet Live set or from a CSV form. 

• Cons
• You can enter in student names ahead of time to prevent "naught nicknames"
• Because the game length is based on time or the class combined-totals,and because the questions are on a continuous loop, if you do not have enough questions, it can get boring for students. I have found that 75-100 questions for 10 minutes is a good amount.

Overview

Each of these four digital tools have their benefits and drawbacks. I love the collaborative nature of Quizlet Live, while I like the immediate feedback benefits in Kahoot of reviewing questions and answers communally as a class after each question, instead of delayed at the end of the game. Quizizz and GimKit allow for the slower processor to answer at their own pace and not be penalized for it. Both Kahoot and GimKit are very engaging for students, although Kahoot appeals to the more competitive students. GimKit allows for questions to repeat on a random loop, allowing for more repetitions. Kahoot, Quizizz, and Quizlet Live are free, while GimKit is a pay service (with a very limited free version).

My recommendation: GimKit

Putting Latin in the Ears of your Students

Over the past few weeks, I have had some great conversations with Latin teachers both in person and online regarding using spoken Latin in their classrooms. These teachers considered themselves to be traditional teachers who had never experienced active Latin before or never had Latin come out of their mouths for the purpose of communication. For these teachers, to even consider using spoken Latin with their students was a scary experience and was something which they had opposed for years. Somehow, though, they decided to start reading sentences aloud from their textbooks to students and asking students comprehension questions in Latin about what they had just said. These teachers reactions? Wow, their students were able to respond in Latin and enjoyed it! As a result, these teachers have come to the conclusion that it is important to bring in some degree of active Latin to their classrooms, even if they are not experienced in speaking Latin, because having students hear Latin really helps in the acquisition process.

I can completely relate to this, because for the first twelve years of my teaching career I was vehemently opposed to the use of any type of active Latin. My primary defense was "What is the point in speaking Latin if our goal is for our students to read Cicero" (and I hear this defense A LOT). However, my opposition to active Latin was mainly because I had not learned Latin with a spoken element, had never spoken Latin before, and had never experienced Latin as a living language. In other words, my opposition was actually based on my own fears and inabilities, rather than on actual research. However, after attending my first Rusticatio in 2010, I realized that we traditional Latin teachers were leaving out such a HUGE component in the acquisition of Latin by not speaking the language.

But why speak Latin in the classroom? According to Nancy Llewellyn from her article "Why Speak Latin?":

All those of us who teach have known or have taught a few outstanding students who could read extremely well and yet do not speak. But for every one of these, how many others have we lost? How many talented kids have we seen quitting after only a few weeks, or getting bored after a year or two and moving on to something they can internalize and really make their own, such as Arabic, French or Spanish? What we call the traditional method can work tolerably well for the 50% of our class which is composed of visual learners (indeed, extremely well for the top 2% of these), but what about the rest? What about the auditory and kinesthetic learners, whose primary learning modes are so rarely and scantily addressed? 

Let me also say that just speaking Latin in class in and of itself does not lead to language acquisition. If done incorrectly, it can impede student learning and just leave learners frustrated. For spoken Latin to be effective, it needs to be comprehensible. This is achieved by:

• establishing meaning in L1. Write the Latin word with its definition in English on the board, and point and pause. Do not make the assumption that meaning is obvious through the use of gestures, pictures, etc. Gestures and picture can help create visual cues for learners, but establish meaning in L1 in order to ensure that everyone is on the same page. I can speak from personal experience where Latin speakers have tried to establish meaning of unknown words for me in L2, and all it did was result in frustration for me and not wanting to speak to that person. Just tell me the #%@$ meaning in L1 so that I can move on! I can only imagine what my own students would feel like if I were to do that to them.
• speaking slowly. Annabelle Allen, whom I absolutely ADORE and RESPECT, says, "If you (as the teacher) are not bored by how slowly you are speaking (to students), then you are not speaking slowly enough." I can tell you that my affective filter SKYROCKETS whenever I hear advanced Latin speakers speaking so fast that their Latin sounds like just one long word to me. Although you may be a fast processor when hearing the language, remember that most learners are not.
• remembering the level of your listeners. If we are being realistic, we will remember that although we may have Latin 3 students, they are actually only 3-year olds in the language. Do you personally speak to 3-year olds like Cicero?

So if you are new to speaking Latin and are a bit hesitant, here are some ways in which you can put some Latin in the ears of your students:

• Circling with sentences from a passage
• TPRS
• TPR
• Three-Ring Circus
• Dictatio
• Drawing Dictatio
• Freeze Frame
• Movie Talk
• Translation - read comprehensible sentences to students based on known vocabulary or from a familiar passage and ask students to write out a translation in English as they hear it.
• Who is This?
• Who is This? #2
• Story Listening
• Partner Crossword
• Word Chunk Game
• Optical Illusions
• On This Day
• Nugas
• Readers Theater
• Same Conversation - Movie Director
• Daily rituals (to be discussed in a further post)

Let me end with this: you do not have to be a master Latin speaker to use active Latin in your classroom; you just need to be better than your students. Yep, you are probably going to make mistakes, but that is okay. Most likely, your students will not catch the errors, and you can always correct yourself - I correct myself all the time. it is perfectly okay to have a script! If someone tells you that you must speak Latin perfectly (and that includes pronunciation) before you begin to do it in the classroom, then I will tell you that you will NEVER get around to speaking it, because you will never be at that level of perfection. I do not always speak perfect English, and English is my mother tongue!

Years ago, I told Rose Williams, a veteran Latin teacher in Texas, "I need to apologize to that first group of Latin students whom I taught, because I had no clue what I was doing." Her reassuring reply to me was, "But even though you were probably just a few pages ahead of your students in the textbook, they still loved you anyway." To those of you who are hesitant to speak Latin in your classroom because you do not think that you are good enough, let Rose's message be my message to you.