ACTFL Dinner with Authors

At last week's ACTFL Convention in New Orleans, I had the opportunity to have dinner with a few CI novella authors. Erin Almeranti, the President of Teacher's Discovery, was hosting a dinner outing with them and invited me to join them. I know Erin from having worked with her at CI Summit (sponsored by Voces Digital) these past three summers, and the chance to have dinner with some CI authors (as well as to engage in CI fellowship) was not something I was going to miss!

In attendance were Erica Peplinski, Bryan Kandel, Esmerelda Mora, Grace Sotomayor-Mantri, and Andrea Caulfield. Since I was the only one there who had not written a novella (besides Erin), I asked what the catalyst was for each of them to write their first novella and then to continue writing them. Although this question was coming from a place of curiosity, I was also asking from a more personal place: I am thinking of writing a Latin novella but am not sure if I know what/how to do it.

I got a myriad of varied responses:

• "[This event in the novella] actually happened in my life, so I thought I'd write about it."
• "I wanted something for my students to read on X topic."
• "I did not like how X were portrayed in X novella."
• "I had to cover X theme in my school curriculum, so I wrote this novella to cover that topic."

Essentially, each saw a need/hole that needed to be filled. Many of their novellas were originally readings which they had written for their own students which then turned into novellas.

I currently feel the same way now as these authors once felt: I too see a need/hole in current Latin novellas. This is not to say that those novellas which are currently published do not have any value - I do not feel that way at all! Over ten years ago, there were NO Latin novellas out there, and now I see so many out there. However, the hole/gap which I see is that there are very few Latin novellas which are truly written for novice-low/novice mid readers. While many Latin novellas are marketed as being for Latin 1 or 2, the writing resembles textbook readings which tend to be heavy on vocabulary, sentences which are too long, or do not incorporate the repeated sentence patterns which novice low/mid readers so desperately need to gain reading confidence. 

So I do not know where I will go from here. I do have a number of writings which I have written over the past two years which have turned into rough drafts for possible novellas, but I have just never taken the next step. However, it is very encouraging to have heard from these authors that they felt a need to write their first novellas. At least, I am heading in the right direction!

Novellas - Balancing Comprehensibility and Compelling

If you want to get me talking at length about anything, mention the following to me: the Brady Bunch, Star Wars (specifically the recent season 2 of Andor [episodes 7-9 and 10-12] which is the BEST Star Wars I have ever seen) or the podcast Sold a Story. Honestly, I cannot get enough of that podcast - I have found it SO informative about the whole language/balanced literacy/three cueing system taught to beginning readers since the 1980's which essentially taught students to guess words and not to truly employ phonics/decoding when reading. If you are currently concerned about the current state of student literacy, I challenge you to learn all about this, because it will both sadden and anger you!

As I have listened (and re-listened) to this podcast, I am finding so many parallels to reading in the CI/ADI world language classroom. Allow me this excursus to detail the philosophy behind this three-cueing/balanced literacy reading methodology - I think the following video does a good job of summarizing the whole language vs. science of reading approaches to teaching reading (and I hope it does not oversimplify the bases for each):

The primary foundation of the whole language approach rests on the idea that much like learning to speak is natural, so learning to read follows the same premise, i.e., beginning learners do not need explicit instruction on how to read and to sound out words since babies do not need explicit instruction in learning to speak; because we learn to speak subconsciously from hearing/interacting with speakers, so will learners pick up reading by being read to and interacting with reading without explicit instruction. As a result, the idea is to surround students with plenty of books to read and to provide ample opportunities for them to read and to be read to. In these ways, novice readers will then develop their own reading skills. Proponents believe that teaching students to decode/sound out words is too boring and burdensome for beginning readers and will actually impede their enjoyment of what they are reading. 
 
Upon this foundation emerged the balanced literacy/three cueing system. Developed by Marie Clay in the 1960s, this methodology eschewed teaching developing readers to sound out words but rather instead to follow these "three cues" when encountering words:

1. look at the picture on the page to guess the meaning of the words/sentences.
2. look at the first letter of the words, then scan the word for other letters, and to guess a word which best fit that pattern. This is called isolated phonics, so it is incorrect to say that the whole language approach does not ever teach phonics.
3. look at the context of the sentence to guess the meaning of the words.

From this developed the "leveled readers". Replacing the decodable books, which focused on students sounding out words and had sentences which followed predictable sound patterns, leveled readers allowed for the plot to dictate which words these readers encountered, regardless of whether these words were level-appropriate. These leveled readers had plenty of pictures to aid readers in determining meaning of the sentences. Lower-level readers focused on predictable word patterns, instead of sound patterns, and had plenty of pictures from which readers could deduce meaning. The concept posited that these leveled readers were viewed as compelling for beginning learners, since they were "word-driven" instead of the boring, "sound-driven" decodable books; because these readers had compelling plots, this would cause beginning readers to want to continue reading. However, the reality was that these beginning readers were not actually reading but guessing based on pictures or context and were never truly reading the individual words - thus it gave the appearance that these students were reading. Therefore, when the readings became longer and more complex and the pictures began to disappear, many students began to flounder, because they never truly had possessed the necessary foundation needed for reading. 
 
For roughly 40 years, this is how students were taught to read. Meanwhile, scientific studies began to reveal that students actually need explicit instruction in how to read and that decoding words is an essential skill for reading development in the brain and for orthographic mapping, a key part of reading. I will end my excursus here, since I could continue. The three cueing system may be a strategy which can be implemented MUCH MUCH LATER following YEARS of reading but should not be used as the sole substitute for teaching students to read. Because of the popularity of the Sold a Story podcast and tons of parents becoming informed about this, states have begun to ban the balanced literacy/three cueing approach from schools in favor of the science of reading (which is so much more than just phonics).

 
Side note - In a communication with Martina Bex about the Sold a Story podcast, of which she is a fan, she wisely noted to me:

So interesting how it’s the SAME THING we have in world languages, with language acquisition but reversed—kids don’t need explicit instruction to acquire language but that’s the wrong idea that has been perpetuated by publishers forever.

So with all of the above in mind (I appreciate you continuing to read this), while balanced literacy and world language instruction is not a 1:1 comparison, I do see some of the same principles applied to so many novellas today: we sacrifice comprehensibility for compelling, especially at the novice-level. Because we want our students to read the target language (Krashen himself says that reading plays a key role in language acquisition), we often rush into creating plots which we think will be compelling but as a result, we overload our readings with vocabulary or structures which we think that they should know (again, we have been influenced too much by what textbooks say). It becomes an overload of language and structures for novice-level readers. These novellas should rather be marketed as intermediate level readers (notice that the terms "Spanish 1" or "German 2" are not used but rather ACTFL proficiency levels).
 
While we teachers (the experts in the room who can read the target language very quickly) may think that true novice-level readings are too boring and predictable for beginning language learners due to a focus on sheltering vocabulary, in reality we need to realize that for these students, it probably is not boring at all! Do we ever extol and laud our students by telling them that they are reading another language?! It is very possible and doable to have level-appropriate comprehensible novellas which have compelling plots, especially at the novice level. I will point to the Confidence Readers and Pablo Paloma by Adam Giedd and the Mosca series by Margarita Perez Garcia. 
 
But at the same time, I do worry that students are applying the cueing system when reading novellas:

1. if there are pictures to help guide students, do they rely solely on the pictures for meaning and not on the words in the target language?
2. if sentences are predictable in nature at the novice level, do students rely on the pattern for meaning and not ever really look at the words per se, i.e., they know the pattern in their L1 so they do not find it necessary to focus on the L2 words? Could they just be memorizing the L2 pattern of words for L1 meaning but never really knowing which specific L2 word means what in L1?

Enough of my grumpy old man tirade (I turn 55 next month!). If you have not been made aware of the balanced literacy approach taught in schools, I hope that this has enlightened you some, and I would love to hear your comments on this.

What Does Latin 2 Look Like?

Not too long ago, I was speaking with a Latin teacher about novellas, and he asked, "So what does a Latin 2 novella look like?" While a simple question, it is actually MUCH bigger than a simple answer for a number of reasons - the bigger question is what does Latin 2 look like?:

• There is what textbooks say. Textbooks are not written with second language acquisition theory in mind, because namely, they further the misinformed concept that language learning is linear in nature. Textbooks will introduce a chapter on a particular grammar concept, with the "introduced on Monday and mastered by Friday, and ready to move on to the next concept" model. Because of this, there are particular grammar concepts which we tend to think of as "higher level," because textbook have "told us" that they are, e.g., subjunctives, gerunds, gerundive, sequence of tenses, etc. Big picture, however, novice learners can use these concepts quite early - we just tend to think that they cannot and are not ready for them!
• There is what the National Latin Exam syllabus says a Latin 2 class should cover (which is basically a rehash of what grammar-translation textbooks say).
• There is what traditional grammar-translation Latin expectations say, namely that by the end of Latin 2, students should be able to translate Caesar. As a result, teachers should have covered ALL necessary grammatical concepts

HOWEVER, regardless of what textbooks and tradition may say, language levels are NOT determined by grammatical constructions, vocabulary, or cultural topics. ACTFL defines language levels by proficiency, where the primary difference between profiency levels lies in the complexity of tasks and the amount of language in which an individual can perform them. 

Most CI/ADI teachers who use ACTFL standards-based grading define the anticipated target proficiency levels for language levels as follows - ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines - 2024 :

• Level 1 - Novice Mid
• Level 2 - Novice High
• Level 3 - Intermediate Low
• Level 4 - Intermediate Low (note that level 4 is still considered Intermediate Low, since the Intermediate level is considered a much wider range of proficiency compared to the Novice levels)

Nowhere in the ACTFL proficiency descriptions is grammatical acuracy mentioned as an exemplar of a Novice or Intermediate learner. In fact, the expectation is that these learners will make LOTS of grammatical errors when communicating! ACTFL guidelines state that communicators at these levels can be understood by sympathetic receptors who are accustomed to non-native communicators.

So to return to the original question of "What does a Latin 2 novella look like?", here is what ACTFL says regarding reading proficiency at the Novice High level:

At the Novice High sublevel, readers can understand, fully and with relative ease, key words and cognates, as well as formulaic phrases across a range of highly contextualized texts. Where vocabulary has been rehearsed, they can understand predictable language and messages...

Based on this, a Latin 2 novella would continue to employ formulaic sentences and predictable language and messages (as found in previous Novice Mid readings), but the assumption is that now there is a greater foundation of vocabulary and of grammatical constructions from which to draw. Again, let me say: TOO MANY LATIN NOVELLAS ARE WRITTEN WITH A TEXTBOOK MODEL IN MIND! Latin textbook readings are not written based on ACTFL proficiency guidelines and are overly complex in terms of sentence length and too much vocabulary for the specific levels. Keep in mind that "complex" grammar structures can indeed be introduced in the novice levels - just be sure to use them over and over again so that they are formulaic and predictable in nature! This is not "dumbing down" or removing "rigor" from reading Latin - rather, this is aligning L2 reading with realistic expectations and second langauge acquisition! I love introducing "cum clauses + pluperfect subjunctive" very early in Latin 2 readings and using them over and over again so that students become very familiar with them. 

Spanish Confidence Readers by Adam Giedd

(This blog post is a continuation of a series on literacy in the language classroom)

Last semester, in my search for comprehensible novellas for my department, I came across Adam Giedd's Spanish Confidence Readers. For these readers, he describes, 

For someone learning a new language, reading their first book in that language is a huge milestone — one that inspires immense confidence. That confidence is like rocket fuel propelling towards fluency...Traditionally, students had to wait months until they could independently read most “level 1” graded readers for language learners. Confidence Readers change that. Now, learners can start reading on day one.

Since I am novice-low level reader of Spanish, I immediately thought, "I need to check these out myself!"

I bought all five and immediately started reading them. Wow, these are SO good! As soon as I finished one, I began reading the next one. What I loved about these readers:

• TONS of repetition of high frequency words.
• Short sentences, with each primarily focusing on one main idea.
• Lots of usage of cognates which allows for readers to focus then on the meaning of the high frequency Spanish vocabulary.
• The text is not written as paragraphs but individual sentences, with only maybe 3-4 sentences at most per page.
• Even though the readers are not very long, the plots are VERY compelling. This indeed proves that one can actually create a very interesting, entertaining story with a limited total word count.
• Lots of humor interjected in the plots - I can tell that these were written with middle school students in mind!
• Predictable, repetitive sentence structures - as a novice reader, I am realizing just how important that is for beginner readers.
• Every page has color illustrations - that definitely leads to the compelling nature of the readers. While allowing for double input, it also makes the readers feel like true books.

But most importantly: I cannot tell you how incredibly successful and confident I felt in reading them as a novice-low level reader of Spanish! The length of each reader was exactly what I needed in terms of input. I think too often we rush into novellas for our novice-low readers and thus overwhelm them with too much input which they cannot handle due to length or not level-appropriate (and then we blame students when the blame actually should be on us as teachers!). As a result, we have to wait months until they are ready. These readers definitely do inspire confidence in reading! These Spanish readers are great material for FVR, since they are incredibly easy to read and do not take long. Check them out!

I wish we had these in Latin and that more Latin novella authors would create readers like these Confidence Readers!

If I were to Write a Latin Novella

(This blog post is a continuation of a series on literacy in the language classroom)

I have been asked a number of times why I have not yet written a Latin novella for students. Prior to April 2024, my response would have been , "I have no idea where to start or what to write about. I do not fully know what truly characterizes a novice reader for beginning L2 learners. While I do understand the concept of sheltering vocabulary, not grammar, and I do implement it with my own students when I create readings for them, the difference is that these readings are for my students, not the Latin student community as a whole." 

However, I have a completely different mindset now after reading several of the novice level Spanish novellas which Margarita Perez Garcia has written. For someone like me with very little knowledge of Spanish, that was such an incredible learning experience for me (see blog post here). Moreover, I am blown away and honored that Margarita left a lengthy comment on that post thanking me for what I had written and then explaining her thought processes in writing her novellas (read her comments at the bottom of the post - they are a goldmine of knowledge!).

In her About the Author section, Margarita notes that she "write(s) fiction and non-fiction in Spanish that beginners and struggling readers can read" and that she is "passionate about supporting beginning Spanish learners in their reading journey." I like that description very much, because it truly shows her heart, and Margarita's novellas definitely reflect that vision. So if I were to write a Latin novella, writing one which "beginners and struggling readers in Latin can read" would be my primary goal - one which would be geared towards Novice Low Latin students.

To achieve this, I would do the following:

1. Keep a low overall head word count, yet facilitate continued exposure of this focused vocabulary, i.e., shelter vocabulary.
2. Use short, simple sentences, which consist of predictable repetitive patterns of word chunks and sentence/grammatical patterns - these are characteristics found in the majority of Novice Low L2 readers, including English.
   
3. Include compelling subject matter and characters which create an emotional connection to readers.
4. Write the text not as paragraphs but as individual sentences which are formatted on the right margin of the page. The Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities suggests "Text should always be aligned on the right hand side of the page, and images should be aligned on the left hand side of the page [to help struggling readers]." Margarita Perez Garcia does this in her novice-level novellas - now I know why!
5. Implement other Easy Read standards (again from Margarita Perez Garcia):
1. No more than 15 words per sentence.
2. One idea per line, one sentence per line and if the sentence must break, then break it at a natural "breathing point" where it makes sense.
6. Include illustrations which can serve as additional input for text.
7. Maybe use Roman culture as its background. While I understand that L2 novellas are a great way to embed and to teach culture, quite often I do get tired that Latin readings are stuck in ancient times. I guess my SALVI, spoken-Latin background is screaming, "You do realize that Latin is still used communicatively to talk about today's modern world and is not bound to the first century!"

Now that I have some parameters, maybe one day I will get around to writing a Novice Low novella!

Experiencing L3 Literacy Myself - My Reading Experiment

(This blog post is a continuation of a series on literacy in the language classroom)

Recently, I purchased some novellas for teachers in my department, and among them, I bought a single copy of many novice-level Spanish novellas written by Margarita Perez Garcia for my teachers to peruse for possible future use. Margarita had presented at the virtual Voces Digital Spring Conference about reading, and she mentioned many of her novellas which were written for novice-level students and aligned with the proficiency levels as outlined by the Extensive Reading Foundation. I was very intrigued by the novice-level Spanish novellas which she mentioned in her presentation, especially due to the low headword count in them.

When the novellas arrived, I decided to read them myself. I know very little Spanish, and if you have ever been in a CI/ADI coaching session which I have led, I am ALWAYS the "barometer student" in a Spanish demo. Since these were novice-level Spanish novellas, would I be able to read and to understand them with my limited knowledge of Spanish? The answer is a resounding YES!

Observations

1. I began with El Ultimo Arbol and then read Mosca, Mosca, Itipuru, Arroz con Cosas, Mosca en Leche, and Juliana in that order due to the headword count. That was very important, because I was able to build up slowly to longer sentences and more vocabulary.
2. Immediately I could tell that my brain was trying to make some type of sense and meaning of this L3 (Latin is my L2!) into my L1 (English) - what L1 meaning my brain was able to latch onto, it kept; that which it was not able to, it tossed aside. Luckily, due to the frequent repetition of words/phrases and predictable nature of the sentence structures (a key component in any novice readings!), I found that my brain was able to create meaning after awhile.  
3. In the beginning, there was some degree of decoding happening (i.e., stopping at individual words to look up the L1 meaning in the glossary), since there were many Spanish words which I did not know. However, as I progressed in the novellas, I found that this occurred less and less due to the repetitive nature of sentence structures and vocabulary. 
4. When reading sentences in Mosca, Mosca like Mosca no tiene talento. Tiene problemas, my first instinct was to translate it as "The fly has no talent. Has problems." In other words, because the first use of tiene had a specific word serving as a subject, I knew to translate tiene as "has" but not specifically as he/she/it has when used the second time without a stated subject. This is exactly what I see my own students do with Latin verbs when there is an understood repeated subject - they will not add in the subject implied with the verb ending. In other words, this is normal in the language acquisition process!
5. I loved that even though these novellas were novice-level, culture was definitely embedded in them, nor did I feel like the culture was forced into the plot; it seemed very natural.
6. The plots in these novellas are definitely compelling and engaging! I felt some type of emotional connection to the characters in each of the novellas and truly wanted to know, "Will they succeed in their endeavors?" 
7. Formatting of the text played a HUGE role in my being able to read the novellas. As a novice-level reader of Spanish, I definitely appreciated in Margarita's early novellas that instead of writing paragraphs, she wrote each sentence as an individual line. This made it so much easier for me to read and kept my affective filter low. This is something which I need to remember with my novice-level students when I create readings. 
8. When I began reading Juliana, I noticed that the font was now smaller and that the story was written in paragraphs. I will admit that my affective filter rose quite a bit! Now I know how my students feel!
9. HOWEVER, Margarita has a very specific style of writing which carries through each of her novellas, so while Juliana is formatted in paragraphs and smaller font, the sentences continue to follow her style and the choice of vocabulary from previous novellas. That made the paragraphs very easy to read, Krashen refers to this as narrow reading and states that narrow reading actually is a great way to deliver comprehensible input: "Since each writer has favorite expressions and a distinctive style, and each topic has its own vocabulary and discourse, narrow reading provides built-in review."
10. I cannot tell you HOW SUCCESSFUL I felt in reading these novellas! Even though they were novice-level readings, I was actually reading Spanish and not translating/decoding but READING!!
11. I can honestly say that as soon as I finished one of the novellas, I grabbed the next one to read!

Now, I can no way by any means say that I know Spanish as a result of reading these novellas. Nor based on the reading can I say that I acquired any grammar rules. BUT I CAN READ some novice level Spanish with success, and I want to read more! In fact, I had some of the novellas on my classroom desk, and in the last 10 minutes of my 6th period when I had finished teaching, often I would pick up the current novella and read. My Latin students who were heritage Spanish speakers were shocked that I was reading a Spanish book (since they cannot read Spanish even though they speak it at home) - one of them said, "Every day you've been reading a new Spanish book!" What else could I say but that these Spanish novellas were comprehensible and compelling!  

Maximas gratias, Margarita - I look forward to reading more of your novellas!