dealing with oposition in tprs

Ben Slavic posted a question from Grant on his site today that really strikes a chord with me.

Grant said:

I need reminders that the best way to lead others to the light is through making my own teaching better and my own students outstanding rather than being evangelical, boisterous or confrontational. I battle with this on the inside. I know I can’t force boring teachers to change, but we can’t just keep being forced out of districts by thick-headed status quo mongers. A lot of TPRSers I know have this lonewolf facade that they’ve developed to counter the criticism and that seems to detract from TPRS’ credibility somehow. I think we need more Pams to help show beginning teachers the possibilities. Do you have any good anecdotes that will help me dissipate my frustrations during department meetings?

What Grant has written is so important because somewhere along the way we are going to have to work or visit with people that have: never heard of tprs, worked with tprs and don’t like it, may be open to tprs and need more information, have heard of tprs but don’t really know what it is, or any other combination of experiences that I haven’t mentioned. What do we do with people like this?

Well, how we work with these people may be a factor in the future and success of tprs. I was thinking today while I was I asking a story with my 7th graders that this is such a cool way to teach. I mean, how many teachers can successfully do what we do and have fun at the same time? Wouldn’t it be great if this was the way that languages were taught in our country? Could you imagine what the developments would be? That is why it is so important that we deal with our colleagues in a possitive way. Below is the response that I sent to Grant. It’s not the total answer, but it’s a start.

I commented:

This is such a great question! People in the past have mentioned the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie as a good way to learn how to relate to the students. I know that this has worked for me in tremendous ways. But I think that the book can also be used to work with our colleagues, especially when they may be less than excited to hear about tprs. We don’t have to be a lone wolf and if we ever expect people to change, we definitely can’t afford to be a lone wolf. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Remember that it is impossible to defeat an ignorant person by an argument, so it is simply just best to avoid an argument.
2. Show respect for the other person’s opinions and never tell them that they are wrong.
3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Get the other person saying, “Yes.” immediately.
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking and simply ask them questions.
7. Let the other person feel that the idea is theirs.
8. Try to honestly see things from the other person’s point of view.
9. Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
10. Appeal to the nobler motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas.
12. Throw down a challenge to people who have spirit and desire to excel.

Some of this may seem kind of corny, but we are not going to win people over by constantly criticizing and picking at the flaws of them or the system they use. It doesn’t matter how right we are, we are not preparing them and making them want to search for other alternatives. If they feel that you respect them and are in working with them for increased acquisition, they will probably be a whole lot more likely to consider CI based teaching.

Some of the items from the list above will help with the smaller battles of tprs and others will be good things to keep in mind with the larger issues of tprs [ex. CI based teaching].

We need to become people that are respected in our schools for the amount of language that our excited/motivated students acquire, rather than teachers that just use weird stories to teach a language. This will help us to establish more credibility and once the ball starts rolling, we may be surprised what happens in our districts.

playing the game 3

Here is a tip that Ben Slavic posted on his blog today that really relates to playing the game and storytelling.

Don’t forget this crucial part … – when the circling saturates on one idea, bring in a new event or character and see where that goes. It works. Try it.

A simple, yet effective way to keep the game afloat and the class engaged in the CI.

playing the game 2

Another aspect to keep in mind when playing the game with our classes is that the students need to directly know that they are playing the game. If at any point the students are getting a little lame in the suggestions, you just need to remind them about how the game is played. I did this with one of my classes today and the class  really turned around. Here’s what I said:

Class, I want to remind you that we are playing a game in here. Here’s how it works. From time to time I will provide opportunities for you to supply details for our story. When I do this, you are competing against each other to see who can come up with the most creative answer. Now if I happen to not choose your answer it is because I have an overview of the story and I know which answers will work the best and which ones will not. So, if I don’t choose your answer, just think of a different one and don’t take it personal. If I happen to pick an answer that you don’t agree with, trust my decision and just go with it. Remember that I have an overview that you may not see and also that I have the best interests of the class in mind.

Of course if the class continues to disagree with your choice you can always pull the line, It’s my story. Though I must confess that I have always had trouble with pulling this off because I always felt like it was our story. Also, the students have adverse reactions when I give them this line because they like the idea that they have a say in the co-creation and to deny them of this by saying it’s my story really puts them off.

I really feel that from time to time the students need to be reminded that they are playing a game. This helps to re-focus my expectations and remind them that I do expect them to contribute. I had another hour today that had a case of the Monday’s and was not really contributing. So I simply said, Hey, you are not allowed to just sit here and do nothing. You need to contribute otherwise your grade will be lowered. Although I wish there were no grades in our classes, I still have to realize that I am in this system and most of them care about their grades. They really snapped to attention and did a lot better after that. I think there comes a point where we demand our expectations and they either rise to the challenge or not. But I am already starting to get into another topic.

If your class is not playing the game try this tactic of reminding them and see if it works.

other tprs blogs

I started a new page that you can find at the top. It is a list of other tprs blogs. So if you would like to be added to the list, please let me know where your blog can be found and I will add it to the list.

Thanks!

Thomas

playing the game 1

I have gotten several responses from teachers on playing the game, so I will post little segments of what I have found out. It is important that you establish how to play the game very early, but even if you haven’t it is still okay — the students quickly learn. While you are teaching them to play the game, they are learning: how the rules work, the most creative answer wins, which answers are appropriate, they have to participate, and how to respond to peoples suggestions. It is also important that we are encouraging and affirming as we go because they are taking little steps toward buying to our class. If we don’t choose their answer, it still needs to be a positive experience. Eventually, you can joke with them a little more about denying their answers, but in the beginning it’s good to keep it positive.

Here is a strategy that I received from Joe Neilson:

1. You ask the class for a detail.
2. The class is quiet because they don’t know how to play the game.
3. You offer two or three boring suggestions and one that is really funny or bizarre.
4. They learn how to play the game.

Ex. Class, why did she trip? [The class is silent, so the teacher says]

1. Uhh, She tripped because there was a dog on the floor? [because they are learning the game the class will say, "Yes!" The teacher abruptly says, "No."
2. She tripped because her shoe was untied? [The class says, "Yes!" The teacher abruptly says, "No." Then answers with an unexpected answer]
3. She tripped because there was a bag on the ground. [The class may say, "Yes!" or laugh or they may say nothing because they are caught off guard. This causes curiosity because it was unexpected and then you can talk about why it was on the floor or what was in it or what color it was or where she got it etc. It is an element that leads to another open door and keeps the students on their toes]

I tried this today and it was magic. The students were way more engaged and started to offer up more exciting details. Many of them were better than the one I had reserved. I am going to keep inserting this technique anytime I need to establish the game or get more interesting answers from the class.

2nd period bombed today

Today, my 2nd period class bombed today. Here is the break down of why.

1. I didn’t keep the action moving. This made the interaction between the students and me stagnate. How did it get this way? I think that I asked too many review questions and did not keep the storyline moving. Eventually the students become tired of concentrating and you lose them.
2. Poor casting. I really feel that this is the main reason why the story died so quickly. I had a kid who wanted to act, but didn’t want to be a ham in the hammy role and I had the kid who is really good at being a ham in a more passive role. If the story would have been casted better, it would have been way more successful. Live and learn I guess.

The nice thing is that I talked with a student from that class a few periods later and she said that it was fine. I feel the students are very forgiving and will come back tomorrow ready for class. Good thing!

reverse charades

This last Friday I tried a new PAT game called Reverse Charades. Here’s how it works:

1. Two large teams
2. I have my list of words that I have been working on in front of me
3. One member from each team comes to the front and covers their eyes
4. I write a word on the board, the teams look at it, and then I quickly erase it
5. I yell “Go!” and the the two teams act out the word for the members up front. Each member looks at their team in order to guess the word.
6. The first member up front that guesses the word wins.

It is reverse charades because the team is acting instead of the person up front. Why does this work? Because teens are way more likely to act as a group rather than singled out in front of their peers. Give it a shot!

my next tprs endeavor– playing the game

I am always thinking about where I can go next in my tprs journey. It has been quite the wild ride and slowly I feel more confident and less like I am surviving all the time. I am still nowhere even close to where I want to be and that is why I am thinking about my next step.

For me, I want to get really good at getting my students to “play the game.” What does this mean? Well, it’s hard to describe, but basically the tprs game is a competition between the students to come up with the most clever details. This is another tool that leads to engagement. Also if the students are playing the game well, they almost forget that they are in class, learning a language. This leads to acquisition because they are not consciously learning the language, it is sort of just happening. As always, the teacher plays too. However, the most creative answers usually come from the students.

If a story is dying or falling flat, usually it is because the students have decided that they do not want to play the game. If playing the game can lead to increased acquisition, well I would have to say that the opposite is also true. Lack of playing the game will not only make the story dull, but also not lead to acquisition and decrease the amount of buy in that the students have for your class. Trust me, it’s in our best interests to get the students to play the game.

Some may say, “Thomas, this is one of the first things that you learn in tprs!” Well, that may be true, but here I am. I still feel that I need to grow in it.

We’ll see where this leads. So if anyone out there has any suggestions, I am all ears. I am sure a book could be written on all the ideas that people have. I’ll post what I find out.

Lomb Kató

One of the greatest DVD’s I ever saw on second language acquisition was the Krashen Seminar. It was produced by Blaine Ray in the late 90’s and on the DVD Krashen, in a very light and informative manner, outlines how we learn languages. If you want a copy of the DVD let me know and I’ll get one to you.

Anyway, on the DVD Krashen mentions a woman from Hungary by the name of Lomb Kató. [In English her name would be Katherine Lomb] She was a woman that learned 16 languages, mostly by self effort. I find myself asking the question, “What can I learn from Lomb Kató?”

Well, here are a few things that I gathered. She mentions that she drove three autos in World Languages: autolexia [reading for myself], autographia [writing for myself], and autologia [speaking with myself]. When thinking about my own language learning , it makes me feel better to know that she mentioned these three tools because I wasn’t sure if I was normal.

I also think about whether I am providing this for my students. Do we have a time where they can read what they want? This is basically FVR. I wish I did it more often and I think it would be good for the students. I am still getting my act together for a grant for some money.

Do we also have a time where the students have a time where they write for themselves? The closest I come to this is freewrites. I wish that they could do more free journaling in L2 and I wonder if my students are at a level where they can express themselves this way. It is a good thing to think about.

While I am not sure that autologia leads to acquisition, I do think that it leads to feeling like you are part of a club of language learners, which is very important. This is especially important for teenagers who are so locked into social approval. This happens in my room when I give a brain break and have them do mini-retells with each other. To be honest, it could happen more. I also think that this is something that can be encouraged to do on their own.

Other comments that she made was that when learning a language, we focus on the essence of the grammar and the important words. How true this is! I don’t know why so many programs use grammar to teach the language. Grammar will not win over the majority and will deprive the learner of the joy of natural language.

She also mentions that we need to cling to the enjoyable side of language study. Am I really providing this for my students? I really think so because we have stories that are all about their life and we are reading things that bring up real life situations. Reading can be a very enjoyable side of language study if we get kids into good stories and books!

These are just a few things that I learned from Lomb Kató. I find myself asking the question, “What good does all the Spanish I am teaching the students do if they never take charge of their own language learning?” I think that we need to help our students to acquire the language, but also to know how to acquire a language so that when they leave they can continue this language acquisition journey.

Email subscription

Hello! I added an email subscription if you want to be updated when I make a post. You can find it on the right side. Thanks go to Maria for suggesting this!

Thomas