Analysis of Teaching Practice and Student Learning
In World Language methods we studied Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). This method of teaching Spanish emphasizes communicative abilities rather than grammar. Making mistakes is quite alright, as long as students are attempting to communicate in the target language (TL). Error correction is minimal and usually focused on just one grammar or vocabulary point central to the lesson rather than an overwhelming array of errors that equal too much input at once. By concentrating on communication and teaching grammar implicitly, there is more time available for enjoyable activities that require students to actually use the target language rather than just talking about it. Because the target language is being used the majority of the time, student become more comfortable with it. This lowers anxiety in the classroom. For this to work, students must feel comfortable in the classroom. I employed many methods to make my classroom a comfortable place where students felt secure and willing to make mistakes. I employed a variety of methods to achieve this goal, including icebreakers at the beginning of the school year and “check in” activities each week to give students a chance to talk about what was going on in their lives. These exercises helped the students get to know each other better as well as give me more information about them.
In “Principles of Communicative Language Teaching” Brandl (2007) quotes Norris, saying “the best way to learn and teach a language is through social interaction”. These interactions are open-ended and require students to modify language and personalize it to fit the situation and their story. The majority of the Spanish classes at Bellevue focus on verbal communication between students. My students spent about seventy percent of the class period talking with each other. I would introduce a grammar or vocabulary point, usually with a question or topic that incorporated it. Students would then be expected to play with the language and use it to talk about their own experiences. At times the vocabulary terms in the text were limited and did not apply to the majority of students. When this occurred I assigned students homework to expand their vocabulary[1]. When studying the afterschool activities vocabulary in Chapter Two of the Paso a Paso textbook I learned that the majority of students did not participate in any of the activities listed. I asked students to choose one or two activities, such as skiing or American football, that were not in the book and look up how to say them in Spanish. I then asked them to think of five words that related to their activity (for example ski, glove, pole, pads, touchdown, etc…) and look those up as well. We generated a class list for students to keep in their binders as a reference. This resource expanded the responses that students gave in class and personalized the content for them.
The Everyday Science and Technology Group that visited our class during the first quarter of the TEP program said that children spend approximately sixteen hours awake each day. Of those sixteen hours, twenty-one percent of their “awake time” (approximately six hours) is spent in school. They posed the question, “How do teachers connect that twenty-one percent to the other 79%?” I attempted to connect my students’ time in Spanish class to the rest of their day through assignments like the vocabulary assignment where students researched the vocabulary for their favorite activities. When I was in school, Spanish was barely spoken in class and when it was the conversations were not authentic. Rather than talk about our lives, we spoke practiced dialogues from textbooks and took on the roles of other people. I did not really learn to speak about topics that were important to me personally until I lived in Spain and engaged in a variety of conversations with my roommates their. I studied Spanish in college because the functions of language interested me but I didn’t feel comfortable using Spanish until I was forced to. I hope to present Spanish in a functional way from the beginning so that my students see the value of knowing another language. As our world becomes increasingly small, I believe that this is more apparent to today’s students than it was when I was in high school.
One of the biggest challenges of my student teaching experience was incorporating more reading and writing into the Spanish curriculum. I found that students often do not have a lot of confidence in their Spanish reading skills. I believe it is because they have not been taught to read in Spanish as they were in English. I can support my students by preparing them to read before we start. An article by Gallagher (2004) provides a set of questions for teachers to use when evaluating their teaching style, as well as their students’ learning. These include: Have I provided my student with a reading focus? Are my students willing and able to embrace confusion? Can my students monitor their own comprehension? Do my students know any fix-it strategies to assist them when their comprehension begins to falter? Gallagher also references Carol Jago who tells her students “that all readers struggle when they encounter unfamiliar texts and that it is not always essential that they understand every word or concept.” In my Spanish classes we ask students to focus on what they do know how to do and to accept that their Spanish will not be perfect. The hope is that by doing this, students will learn to explain themselves in Spanish, using the vocabulary and grammar that they know, rather than falling back on the crutch of “¿Cómo se dice…en ingles?”[2]
In order for students to take risks in school, they must feel safe and comfortable in the classroom environment. Both LaGuardia and Ryan (date?) and Stefanou, et al (2004) discuss three basic psychological needs of students. Relatedness is the need for belonging, security and support. Competence is the students’ need to understand the work they are given. Autonomy is the need for input in decisions being made at school. Stefanou (2004) writes that teachers who offer high autonomy listen to students and allow them to manipulate the content of the course. They are less likely to tell students the answer and more likely to facilitate the students’ discovery process. According to LaGuardia and Ryan students who have more autonomy are more intrinsically motivated to learn and have greater confidence regarding school. One example of student-driven activities is a Spanish I lesson I observed during my third quarter placement. The students were studying vocabulary to describe height, weight, hair, skin and eye color. The students wanted to play “Guess Who?” using this vocabulary. The teacher devised a way for the entire class to participate and they played the next day. The students were thrilled that their suggestion had been listened to and this normally rambunctious class was well-behaved and engaged the next day. This example stands out because it is the first time I observed a teacher really listening to her students and incorporating the students’ suggestions. Not only was the next class fun, but the students learned and felt a connection with the material, because they had helped create it.
Fires in the Bathroom by Cushman (2003) discusses teaching and learning from the perspective of high school students. In the book, one student says that when a teacher asking asks his or her students questions about their lives, it eliminates strangeness early on and helps students feel more comfortable if they need to later approach the teacher about an issue with the class. Cushman suggests asking students to fill out a questionnaire at the beginning of the school year. I did this during my student teaching and found the information very helpful.[3]
I believe that this applies not only to students’ comfort with the teacher, but also with their fellow students. Students are more likely to collaborate with each other and ask for help from their peers if they know them. During the first few weeks of school we spent the majority of class time focused on icebreaker-type activities. All of these happened in Spanish and incorporated the curriculum learning targets. The communicative exercises done each day in Spanish class also contributed to community-building throughout the entire semester. Each class began with a question on the board that the students discussed with a partner. Students were then asked to share their or their partners answer. These questions ranged from “What was your favorite movie as a child?” to “What are you going to do after school today?” On Fridays Spanish II students studying the present progressive tense discussed what they were going to do over the weekend. On Mondays, Spanish III talked about what they did over weekend using the past tense. These discussions also helped me learn more about my students’ live outside of my classroom.
The area of student assessment was a huge learning experience during my student teaching. I did not feel prepared to assess student learning going into my student teaching. From my third quarter field experience I knew that my cooperating teacher’s assessment methods would not work for me. While his assessment was almost entirely based on students’ verbal responses during class, I needed written work that I could review outside of class to accurately assess students’ progress. I listened and made notes during class, especially when students were working in pairs. These observations gave me insight into who could play with words and how they made themselves understood using both their Spanish vocabulary and body language. I found that the majority of students could make themselves understood but that their grammar was not necessarily correct. I also collected and read all written work during the week. The written work, along with my classroom observations enabled me to form a more complete picture of each student. I used this information to plan lessons, assign homework and write quizzes.
To discover whether or not students were able to use appropriate grammar and spelling I used a combination of exit slips where students produced a sentence or two to demonstrate their knowledge of grammar or vocabulary from the lesson. I also assigned longer written work to be done in class. These included short essays as well as dialogue scripts that students wrote and then presented. I found that my students’ biggest problem area was spelling.
I had mixed feelings about quizzes and tests. In Taylor and Nolen (2008), the number one rule of performance assessment is “Make certain that your item measures the learning objective targeted” (p. 304). The district tests I was required to give to my students did a poor job of this. The teaching philosophy at each school in the district is quite varied. My school prescribed to the natural method where students are taught in an immersion setting and no English is spoken. Verbal ability is focused on above any other language skill. However, the district tests had no oral component. Spelling and grammar were the primary skills tested. Instructions were in English, as were some responses. These district assessments in no way meshed with the way students were being taught. It was unfair that they should be assessed in this way and they were well aware of it. I worked to prepare students for these exams by providing study guides[4], classroom review time and online exercises to do at home. Students also had to option of coming to after school tutorial sessions for extra help. I also began giving spelling tests and dictation assignments through out the chapter to practice the skills assessed on the exams. I saw an improvement in the students’ work, especially their spelling, over time.
In an article by Alice Omaggio (2001), Paul Simon recounts the story of a Georgia school board member who approached Genelle Morain of the University of Georgia with the question: “Why should a student who will never leave Macon, Georgia study another language?” Her reply was succinct but profound: “That’s why he should study another language.” This is one of my favorite quotes from the thousands of pages I read during my TEP experience. I believe that the study of Spanish, or any World Language, is a vital part of every student’s education. Education in general expands a child’s worldview. Many of my students will never leave the Pacific Northwest but studying the Spanish language and culture will give them insight into experiences outside there own. I believe that that students will be more likely to continue their study of Spanish, or any other language, when expectations for learning are high but anxiety is low. This can be done by making language learning fun, creative and relevant, and by taking students’ interests and needs into account.
[1]See Analysis Artifacts 1
[2]See Curriculum Development Lesson Plan #2 for more information on this topic. The resources for that lesson can be found in the Curriculum Development Artifacts (Lesson 2 Artifact 2).
[3]See Analysis Artifacts 2 for a sample questionnaire.
[4]See Analysis Artifact 3
