Draw-Your-Own-Picture BINGO

This is a listening activity which I recently learned this summer from Donna Tatum-Johns at the Fluency Matters Conference in Denver. She demonstrated this as a post-reading activity after she had facilitated a Clip Chat (formerly known as "Movie Talk"), and I thought, "What a great communicative way to play BINGO!" It involves students drawing visual representations of vocabulary words from a reading in a 3x3 grid and then reading sentences with a missing word in the target language from a reading which you have been reviewing. Students then have to look at their BINGO grid to see if they have the missing word.

Pre-activity directions

1. Pick 18 words from the reading which students can illustrate. Preferably pick words which you have been targeting and words which are drawable, i.e., do not pick an abstract word like "dignity"
2. Put those words in pairs so that there are nine pairs of words. Try to pair them in similarities.
3. Write a script where you will read each pair as "____________ or ___________." If you want, create slides where you present each pair as " ____________ or _________." 
4. Pick 10-12 sentences from the reading which have one of the 18 words and leave it blank, and write out those sentences. You will be reading them.

Activity directions

1. On a whiteboard or piece of paper, have students draw a 3x3 grid.
2. Tell students that you will say aloud two vocabulary words in the target language. They are to choose one of them and to draw that word anywhere on their grid. If you wish to have a visual of the pair choices, project the slide.
3. Give students one minute at the most to draw. Do not allow too much time, because there are nine words which they will draw.
4. When students are done, tell them that you will now read a sentence from the story but there is a word missing. If they have the visual representation of the word, then they may cross out the picture (but not cross it out enough that it cannot be identified any longer). Say that sentence many times to get in meaningful exposure of that sentence.
5. Continue on with the next sentence until a student gets three in a row.
6. When a student gets three in a row, that student yells BINGO. Have student come up so that you can check their board. Continue to play until you have 5 winners (or how many you want. I allow winners to continue playing and win multiple times). This will allow for continued exposure to sentences from the reading.

Observations

1. Wow, what a great new way to play vocabulary BINGO!
2. I love this way of playing BINGO with a reading, because it addresses so many modalities and components of language:
1. listening comprehension - students having to listen to the sentence to determine what word is missing and to look on their board to find it.
2. vocabulary - students need to know what target language words each of their drawings represent
3. personalization of words - students are drawing their own representations of the vocabulary words
4. communicative nature - the missing words are coming from the original sentences from the reading
5. higher order thinking - students need to make the connection between knowing what target word is missing and if they have that visual representation on their grid
6. student choice - students choose which words of the pair that they want to illustrate, in addition to where they want to place those words on their grid
3. This activity does take quite awhile to facilitate, because students are taking time to illustrate their choice of words and there are 18 possible word choices (in addition to the randomness of where they place 9 of those words) so even though it is a 3x3 grid, it can take some time before someone has BINGO.

Thanks, Donna, for this great activity!

My Professional Learning Goal for the Year - Being Purposefully Communicative

I have been teaching students for over two weeks already, and I feel like I am back in the swing of things, i.e., I have accepted that my summer break is over and that this is my life now for the next ten months (haha). I am back to lesson planning, and honestly, I am very excited about my professional learning goal for this school year: being purposefully communicative.

I have written a few posts on this blog about purposeful communication, but I feel like this past summer, I had the chance to interact with this concept continuously and have gained a whole new and expanded perspective on the topic. Purposeful communication is based on Bill Van Patten's definition of communication (if you have ever heard him talk on this topic, this is the definition which he always gives). In this book, While We're On the Topic: BVP on Language, Acquisition, and Classroom Practice he writes: 

"Communication is the interpretation, expression, and/or negotiation of meaning for a purpose, in a given context." 

Based on that definition, Van Patten continues that our purpose should be that we wish to discover and learn information about each other, ourselves, and the world around us through communication, text, and input. In addition, in his book Van Patten adds that another purpose of communication is to entertain: "When we tell a joke or write a story...our purpose is to entertain in some way."

This summer at Comprehensible Iowa, I gave a presentation on this topic called "Communicating Purposefully," where I demonstrated many ways in which we can be purposefully communicative in our classroom activities. However, earlier in April, a Coaching Summit was held prior to Mitten CI, where the coaching/skills lab model was overhauled to reflect an emphasis on this topic. This summer at Acquisition Academy, Fluency Matters Conference, and CI Summit where I served as a coach/trainer, this new model was implemented in the each of the coaching/skills lab. As a result of facilitating and interacting with this new model in the coaching/skills labs, my understanding of purposeful communication was greatly deepened and expanded.

As language teachers, our goals should be to deliver and to engage in purposeful communication with our students. We need to be incredibly mindful though that purposeful communication does not necessarily equate to full immersion, because while I can create a full immersive environment in the target language, if it is not understandable, no matter how purposeful our intentions are, that communication is a waste of time and just noise to students. And in addition while I can be 100% comprehensible to students in the target language, I could be completely missing the mark if that communication is not purposeful in nature. Van Patten states, "Language use without purpose is not communication."

So based on the above definition of purposeful communication, here are ways in which I plan to address its various components in Latin (both spoken and in readings). In many ways, I was already implementing many of these, but they were random and never intentional in purpose. This will be my guide and lens in lesson planning for this school year:

• to learn about each other and ourselves: 

1. Personalized Questions and Answers (PQAs) 
2. polling students in the target language
3. connecting with students and their interests through questioning in the target language
4. completion of communicative tasks 
5. SEL partner reading (although this activity is not really done in the target language, it can still lead to learning about each other).

• to learn about the world around us: 

1. teaching cultural topics and other content in understandable target language through readings and presentations
2. purposefully embedding cultural topics and facts into circling.

• to entertain/create with language in fun, engaging ways: 

1. TPRS/StoryAsking
2. One Word Image
3. the use of rejoinders in class.

Now not every activity which I will implement in class is going to incorporate purposeful communication primarily due to the nature of the activity, but I can strive to "communicatify" existing activities:

• GimKit/Blooket - when using these for vocabulary review, instead of showing isolated words, put those words in their original context from a reading.
• Grudgeball/Word Chunk Game/Trashketball - before a student shoots a basket, ask class in the target language for their opinion if they think that the student will make the basket; teach students to use rejoinders as cheers during the game,
• BINGO - instead of playing the traditional vocabulary BINGO, facilitate a game of Quick Grid BINGO.
• Sex Game - instead of the traditional Sex Game, instead play Sex Game 2.0.

I am actually looking forward to lesson planning now that I have this goal in mind! What are some ways in which you plan to be deliver purposeful communication in your classroom?

PQA - Is This a Good or Bad Pizza Topping?

I am now in my 2nd week of school with students. Things are definitely moving along, and like it or not, I am back in work mode. With my Latin 2 students, we have been doing review with PQA-based story about a character who plays baseball well, but there is another character who is better than he is and is the best baseball player (this is based on a demo which I have seen Eric Richards conduct in German several times - really good stuff!). These readings have been used to preview a cultural lesson on the sport vitilla (a sport similar to baseball played primarily in the Dominican Republic). I saw Skip Crosby present this lesson in a middle school Spanish language lab class at CI Summit this year, and I thought, "This is a great cultural topic. I do not want to only teach about the ancient world using Latin - I want to teach about modern culture in other parts of the world too in the Latin language!" (What is vitilla? How is it similar to/differ from baseball? Is there a correlation between vitilla and the fact that the Dominican Republic has the 2nd highest national representation among MLB players?).

Anyhow, my colleague John Foulk, as we were reviewing the words good, bad, better than, and best in Latin 2 as part of the baseball reading, created a PQA bellringer using these words regarding various pizza toppings. Since I am also teaching Latin 1, today I decided to try it out for the words good and bad as a bellringer. Here is the Latin 1 bellringer slide which I projected and the directions:

Observations

1. What a great PQA! Everyone has an opinion about pizza toppings!
2. After students finished writing down their responses for this bellringer, I asked them to raise their hand to answer "estne X bonus in pitta?" and then counted aloud in Latin how many agreed. This is how I expose students to numbers - I count in a context, instead of having them memorize how to count from 1-10 in the target language. I learned this from Haiyun Le.
3. After writing down the number of people who said X is a good topping, I recast it by saying in Latin, "(Number) aestimant (corn) esse bonum in pitta!"
4. I suppose that I could have listed the Latin words for the food items and not the English, but primarily, this was the 2nd week of Latin 1 - no need to overwhelm them with food words and secondly, those food words are NOT high frequency! My focus was on the high frequency, necessary words bonus and malus.
5. I liked that students wanted to say if they thought a pizza topping was bad! I could ask a student, "Aestimasne (you think) X is malus in pitta?" Again, lots of opinions stated!
6. I can see using this idea for ice cream toppings (believe me, do a internet search and you will find many odd toppings), soft drinks (Pepsi vs. Coke, Dr. Pepper vs. Mr. Pibb), things you can put on hamburgers, etc. 
7. This is definitely an example of purposeful communication, because students are learning about each other, and the target language is solely serving as the means for that communication.

Thanks, John, for this great idea!

My Summer is Over

Tomorrow is the first day of school with students. My summer vacation is officially over - I will return back to the real world of teaching after a two month hiatus. I am certain that tomorrow morning before school begins, I will be an emotional and nervous mess on the inside. But 27 years of teaching has taught me that once the school bell rings for first period and I take attendance for the first time, my internal teacher "switch" will flip on, and I will be fine and back in teacher mode.

However, although I had this summer off, I had many opportunities both to train others and to learn at numerous CI/ADI Conferences: CI Iowa, Acquisition Academy in Denver, Fluency Matters Conference, and CI Summit. Yes, it was actually a very full summer, but when I take a step back and reflect on it all - wow, I learned SO much! For three of the conferences, I was serving as either a language teacher or as a coach/trainer; when one is serving in those capacities, one cannot help but relearn and gain a much deeper sense of CI/ADI, since one is teaching others about it. Throughout this summer, I was surrounded by so many CI/ADI folks over whom I still fanboy and hold up with such reverence; I know well enough that I must pay attention whenever I see them present and interact with them, because I am always going to glean some new piece of CI/ADI wisdom from them. I am now taking so much of what I learned this summer and am now turning them in my first few weeks of lesson plans.

Shout outs to:

• Eric Richards - For this opening week, I am Latinizing your PQA lessons on playing sports that I observed you do both in Iowa this summer and last year at CI Summit, because they are that good!
• Skip Crosby - I always have the pleasure of observing you teach a Spanish language lab to middle school students at CI Summit. I am planning on teaching about the Dominican Republic sport vitilla like you did but in Latin! It is a natural springboard from Eric's PQAs about sports (plus the Olympics are starting its second week now, so it is timely) - who says that Latin must be stuck to teaching only cultural topics from ancient Rome?!!).
• Eric Herman - I am still faithfully reading your Research Bites book (I know that it is called Research Talks, but I like the phonetics of Research Bites lol). I am now on Week 8 and reading one quote a day - much like Goldilocks, that is exactly the right size for me!

Thank you to all who played a role in my summer - my CI cup has now been refilled!

Using Diffit - Creating Differentiated, Tiered Readings

Earlier, I wrote up a blog post about learning about AI and how it can be used in the classroom, especially for creating readings in the target language. Here is another web app resource which Stefanie Gigante demonstrated: Diffit.

According to its website: What does Diffit Do?

• Adapt any reading, excerpt, article or video for any reading level - to help all students access the content you’re teaching. 
• Generate short informational or narrative texts on any topic, for any reading level.
• Cherry on top? Diffit creates an automatically generated summary, comprehension checks, vocabulary words, and more to go with whatever text you’re working with! 

Then export to our ready to use Google Slide, Google Doc, and Google Form Templates.

Essentially, Diffit can take any text and create a differentiated reading of it based on the level parameters which you set.

In her presentation, Stefanie gave an example of creating a differentiated text using a Cambridge Latin Course reading. I decided to do the same with a stage 27 reading, where Modestus and Strythio hide out beneath the granary. I entered the text with the following parameters to create the following readings (the unique word count is my own):

Original (202 words/152 unique words)

Modestus et Strythio, e carcere egressī, ad horreum fugerunt. per aditum angustum repserunt et sub horreō celati manebant. centurio Valerius, cum portās cellārum apertās carcerem desertam vidisset, iratissimuserat.

imperavit militibus ut Modestum Strythionemque caperent. militēs tamen, quamquam per tota castra quaerebant, eōs invenīre non poterant.

illī duōs dies manebant celati. tertiō die Modestus erat tam miser ut rem diutius ferre non posset.

Modestus: “quam infelix sum! malim in illō carcere esse potius quam sub hoc horreō latēre! qualis est haec vita? Adest Strythio, comes exiliī, sed me non adiuvat. nam Strythio est vir maximī silentiī, minimī ioci! eheu! me taedet huius vitae!”

Strythio: “mi Modeste, difficile est nobīs hic diutius manēre. Nunc advesperascit. visne me, ex horreō egressum, cibum quaerere?

Modestus: id est consilium optimum! i primum ad coquum! eum iube cenam splendidam coquere et huc portāre! deinde quaere Aulum et Publicum, amicōs nostrōs! invitā eōs ad cenam! iube Aulum amphoram vinī ferre, Publicum lucernam. tum curre ad vicum; quaere Nigrinam! optima est saltatrix! saltatricēs mihi solacium afferunt.”

Strythio, ut mandata efficeret, invitus discessit. persuasit coquō ut cenam splendidam parāret. persuasit Aulō et Publicō ut vinum et lucernam et aleas ferrent; oravit Nigrinam ut ad horreum venīret, sed ei persuadēre non poterat.

4th grade  (144 words/105 unique words)

Modestus et Strythio, duo homines qui ex carcere evaserunt, ad horreum fugerunt. Ibi se celaverunt. Valerius, qui erat centurio, erat iratus cum vidit portas cellae apertas et carcerem desertum. Ille imperavit militibus ut Modestum et Strythionem caperent, sed milites eos non poterant invenire per tota castra.

Illis duobus diebus, Modestus et Strythio manebant celati sub horreo. Sed Modestus erat tristis et miser. Vita sub horreo non erat bona. Strythio, amicus Modesti, non iuvabat eum. Modestus dixit, "Vita haec qualis est? Me taedet huius vitae!" Strythio respondit, "Difficile est nobis manere hic diutius. Nunc sol occidit. Visne me ex horreo egredi et cibum quaerere?"

Modestus acceptavit consilium Strythionis. Strythio discessit ut mandata efficeret. Ille rogavit coquum ut pararet cenam splendidam. Ille rogavit Aulum et Publicum ut ferrent vinum, lucernam, et aleas. Ille quaesivit Nigrinam, saltatricem optima, ut veniret ad horreum, sed ei persuadere non potuit.

2^nd grade  (106 words/77 unique words)

Modestus et Strythio erant duo amici qui evaserunt ex carcere. Ibi erat periculosum, itaque fugerunt ad horreum. Sub horreo se celaverunt et ibi manebant. Centurio Valerius, miles iratus, eos non poterat invenire. Modestus tamen erat tristis et misellus. Strythio dicit, "Nobis hic diu manere difficile est." Modestus respondet, "Vade ad coquum et iube eum cenam splendidam parare. Postea quaere Aulum et Publicum, amicos nostrum, et invita eos ad cenam. Iube Aulum amphoram vini ferre et Publicum lucernam. Tum curre ad vicum et quaere Nigrinam, saltatricem." Strythio discessit ut mandata efficeret. Coquo persuasit ut cenam splendidam pararet. Aulo et Publico persuasit ut vinum, lucernam, et aleas ferrent.

Observations

1. While it did create differentiated readings of the original passage, the various versions were still very vocabulary driven. I do wish there were a way to explain to AI how to create a reading which "sheltered vocabulary, not grammar." In other words, while the length of the passage was shortened, for a differentiated reading, being an "easier" read for some students is debatable.
2. I am still impressed at the grammatically-correct Latin (for the most part) which AI can produce!
3. Diffit can also produce assessment questions - this is a tool which I wish to explore further!

What is Behind the Door?

Here is a great 5-10 minute activity to use in class to reinforce vocabulary and structures (and even to preview vocabulary). It is a simple but very engaging prediction activity. I have seen Haiyun Lu demo this many times as part of her live online Mandarin session for ABC Camp, and then I saw Elicia Cardenas do this in-person at this summer/s Acquisition Academy in Dallas. Last week at the Fluency Matters Conference in Denver, I saw Haiyun demo this live again in one of her presentations. Although I had never done this activity before as a teacher in my own classroom, I decided to implement it in the adult participant Beginning Latin language class which I was teaching there, and it went really well! When I told Haiyun that I was using her activity, she told me that she had gotten it from Laurie Clarcq!

The activity is called "What is Behind the Door?" 

1. It does involve creating a slide presentation with images of vocabulary and animation, of which one of the images must be a door. There is an image "behind" the door. You need to layer it so that the vocabulary image is set as "back" behind the door.
   
2. Ask students to predict one of two choices behind the door by holding up a number using their fingers- either #1 or #2.
3. Using the slide animation to make the door disappear, you reveal what is "behind" the door.
4. Proceed to the next slide, and repeat.

   

Observations

1. Oh my gosh, adults can do this activity forever, so I can only imagine how much students would enjoy this! Janet Holzer told me, "People like it, because it is like betting!"
2. Although "What is Behind the Door?" is highly engaging, I would only do it for around 10 minutes at most to preserve the novelty and to keep students wanting to do it in the future.
3. I like that I can use it with single vocabulary words, phrases, and full sentences depending on what I want to target.
4. Extension activities - You can easily extend this into becoming a more communicative activity. In her demo, Haiyun says that it is a good way to get in exposure of numbers, because she can count aloud in Mandarin how many students say "#1" vs "#2. You can also use the images then as a springboard for a Picture Talk.

"Research Talks: Motivating Acquisition-Centered Classrooms" by Eric Herman - Book Review

While I was at CI Iowa, I attended two sessions presented by Eric Herman regarding academic SLA research. I had never met Eric previous to CI Iowa, but I was very familiar with his name due to his reputation for being the "research guy" in the CI/ADI community. In meeting him, I can tell you that although Eric is the "research guy" (a title to which Eric probably does not want to be referred lol), he is so much more than that, is incredibly down to earth, and presents it all in a very relatable, understandable manner. During one of Eric's sessions, Jim Tripp promoted a book written by Eric called "Research Talks: Motivating Acquisition-Centered Classrooms," and I am currently reading it now.

Here on this blog, I have stated numerous times that I absolutely hate reading academic research. Reading academic articles makes me feel stupid, because I have such a difficult time wrapping my head around everything being stated. Latinists will understand this reference: For me, reading academic research is like translating Cicero - while I can translate it into English, I still have NO IDEA what he is trying to communicate due to his complex sentences and structures.

This book is SO different though. For some reason, I want to call this book "Research Bites," much like the mid 90's film "Reality Bites" (sidenote : that is such a Gen X movie. I saw it a month before I was to graduate from UCLA, and I was so depressed for a few weeks after that - much like Winona Ryder and her friends in the movie, I had NO idea what I was going to do with my life post-college outside of graduate school, and that was just delaying the inevitable for a few years!). However, in some ways "Research Bites" could be an apt title, because Eric presents this research in bite-sized chunks. Published in 2019, this book is organized into 30-week chapters, with each chapter divided into 5 "days," with a single SLA research quote and citation for each day related to a theme: input, development, textbook grammar, communication, and beliefs. I believe that this book is based on his Acquisition Memos, which were daily "memos' sent out to his subscribers? In his introduction, Eric writes:

This book can be read straight through or spaced out over time. My recommendation is to read and reflect on your quote per school day, providing you with daily inspiration to align language teaching with language science. The quotes have been organized for this purposes (page vi).

I like the ability to reflect on and to interact with a single academic quote. And while it is only a single citation, that citation packs a punch in what it conveys about SLA research! While I do possess a great deal of second-hand academic knowledge related to CI/ADI which I have learned from others, what I like about Eric's book is that it is both providing and exposing me to the actual academic research sources from where this is coming, thus helping to fill in some gaps. Already, some of my own personal annotated notes for quotes include:

• Even in 1977, researchers were wary of trendy educational reforms!
• Wow, this research predates Krashen!
• This!
• Latinists were questioning this (grammar translation method) back in 1657??!! Preach it, Comenius!
• There were "ADI" advocates in 1973??

Even more so, although for me Eric is preaching to the choir, I do appreciate his attitude towards those who may read his book and experience some objection to some of the quotes and ideas presented. He writes:

There is a significant gap between SLA and mainstream language teaching, so some readers will undoubtedly experience some dissonance...I hope that this book will motivate future learning, including exposure to alternative ways of teaching (page vi).  

That quote typifies Eric so much! He will not try to hit you over the head with academic research, but if you ask Eric (or even disagree with him) about something related to SLA research, he will enter in a friendly dialogue with you but will back it up a wealth of knowledge. I highly recommend this book - it is a definite must-read!

P.S. Remember how I hate reading academic research? Due to the compelling nature of many of these quotes, I have actually gone to Google Scholar/JSTOR to find the original articles to learn more, and I have read a number of them! I will admit that many still feel like a "forced march through Gaul" due to their high-level academic nature, but I am actually enjoying reading that which I am able to understand. Progress!