D and Z ch. 3 and 4

I have been really intrigued by all this conversation on the topic of the effectiveness of textbooks. I enjoyed the points brought up in the D and Z chapters 3 and 4.

In chapter 3, I especially agreed with the fact that textbooks are badly designed. I have found this to be the case with the Spanish textbooks that we use at the school that I'm interning in. The text will introduce a certain grammatical tense, but only the regular form of the tense, then 5 chapters later return to the same tense to then introduce the irregular forms. It doesn't make sense to me, or to other teachers I have talked to. For this reason, I think one of the wise decisions in using a text could sometimes be to use it as a tool, but as a tool that one can "jump around" in, as the teacher sees fit. I think the point on page 40 that talks about textbooks being exceedingly hard to read could be changed to say that they are boring to read. The graphic organization of information on a textbook page can actually be quite helpful and easy to read, but simply not interesting. Both can be true.

I too have experimented with my Mentor Teacher with not having a text for a portion of our class. Instead, we have used supplemental materials that she has collected, as well as a simple novel to drive the grammar review (in a story context) for Spanish II. I've really enjoyed this. I think it's refreshing to have a break from the textbook. I personally find it quite boring. Some of my students have voiced a similar opinion, while others, like one particular young man yesterday, ask "When are we going to go back to the textbook in this class? I learn better from the textbook". Thus, I think it really varies according to learning style and preference.

Putting together all these extra materials and resources takes lots and lots of TIME and ENERGY. Sometimes I think it works out really well, and sometimes it doesn't. As long as there is balance and accountability. I personally believe most teachers are qualified enough (better qualified, in fact) than textbook publishers to tailor and design a curriculum for their students, whom they know well.

The nice thing about putting these things together, is that it leaves room for a wide variety of genres, as discussed in chapter 4. I love the variations that are recommended in this chapter. Scanning the internet for sources is a wonderful idea. I have really enjoyed using some more modern "authentic texts" that students read everyday in the context of my Spanish class, such as Tweets in Spanish or Facebook status updates. One of the greatest challenges that come with this is time constraints in finding all these amazing resources, and fitting them into the curriculum without losing time with what we really need to "get done" before the EOC.

D and Z ch. 5 and 6

In this week's reading, I was encouraged as I read the many different instructional strategies, because I realized that I have used some of them in my Spanish II class just this week! We have used Think-Alouds and Reading Aloud as we read the final chapter in a short Spanish novel. Some of these strategies need to be slightly adapted for students who are learning a language and trying to read really basic texts in that language, but most of it really works.

On the other hand, some of these strategies, in fact most of them, are totally new to me. Before this class, I had never heard of a Double-Entry Journal. I was intriguied by the illustration of the Vocabulary Tree as well, which was another concept that was new to me. I really like that some of these strategies incorporate different learning styles, such as more tactile and visual learning.
"Sketching my way through the text" was also one of these that I thought would be really interesting to try. Dialogue or Partner journals are also an interesting concept, and I wonder if high school students would let them get too goofy or inappropriate.

I thought the suggestions in Ch. 6 for how to use textbooks more effectively were really helpful. I particularly like the point that textbooks should be supplemented heavily. Some textbooks are great, but to be honest, most of the ones I have seen and used are not. There are also SO many neat resources available in the field that are being shared amongst teachers, that it would be a shame to look over them or not dedicate a tiny bit of extra time to sift through them. Also, I identified with Jeff Janes who was mentioned on page 158 as not really using the textbook as his primary teaching material any more. My mentor teacher and I have been doing that, and it has made a bit more work for us to put together materials, but once we create them, we can use them again and I've really enjoyed it. 

Web Resource Review

I chose to review this website: Chile.travel

I have used this one before in my Spanish II class this semester. I had a research assignment on Chile in which students had to plan their own trip to Chile, and research flights, hostels, climate, geography, and activities that they would do while they were there. This website is PERFECT because it has amazing graphics, interesting videos, and a lot of very accessible and well-labeled information. It also obviously connects to my content perfectly, as it portrays a particular hispanic culture that I would love for students to one day have a spark of interest to visit. I would love to use it for research with upper-level students as well, and they could switch the language of the site over to Spanish. That would make it more complicated for their level.

I would let some middle school and high school students use this website. I think all of the content is appropriate for young people, although it does talk about the wine on the website a bit. This site could be used in school. Ideally, I could take students to the computer lab and use our class time to let them do research and explore the site. Unfortunately, our computers at our school are very very slow, and one of the best things about this site is the amazing graphics and videos, which took FOREVER to load, so it was discouraging and I almost wish I had navigated the site on my faster computer in class and projected it on the smart board for us to look at it as a group.

This site is pretty interactive, as there are lots of videos and graphics to click on, but doesn't include activities or games, per se. I easily created a handout with guided questions to go along with it. The site is also fairly commercial because it's trying to get people to come visit Chile, but that is what makes it an authentic text, so I really like that about it.

Other than that, this website is great! There is no adult supervision required, and there is lots of authentic and applicable information in easy-to-access categories. No sign-up is required. I ended up having students complete the research "Travel to Chile" packet at home (all my students have internet access that I figured would be much faster than the computer lab computers) for extra credit. A lot of them mentioned how much they enjoyed it! Success!

Tovani Ch. 3 and 4

I really enjoyed this reading! Tovani's writing really resonated with me!

It was new for me to consider the different content-specific types of reading skills that teachers ought to teach to their students. I know, for example, that I would not be a very skilled math reader or science reader. Numbers that are mixed in with words intimidate me, and charts and graphs make me want to skip to the end! However, it made me think specifically of how I read a Spanish-related text and the skills that I can model mentally for my students as they learn a new language. As I reflected on this, I realized a lot of this has to do with (especially in the first years of Spanish) breaking down the grammar in a sentence to understand the different types of words and what they mean. I was encouraged to think of ways that I'm already trying to do this as I teach my students grammar and as we diagram sentences and have quizzes with scaffolded and increasingly complicated grammar and translations. I think this has genuinely helped my students in their learning.

I was really impacted by the analogy of fitness and as compared to keeping all students at the same level of "rigor". It makes so much sense that some need different things than others, but, alas, (and it seriously feels like this is the conclusion of every discussion or reading I've done so far!) it is SO DIFFICULT to meet students "where they're at" and provide such a a wide variety of texts for students at different reading and comprehension levels. Again, (and I'll probably say it again and again!) differentiation is HARD! I want to continue to try to grow in it, though.

I also really enjoyed reading "Di Tri Berres" and even made my boyfriend try to read it out loud! I love this "simulation" of sorts, and that it helps me to know the frustration that some of my lower-level students probably feel when I ask them to read a text or even a sentence in Spanish! They immediately struggle for context and feel rising panic, probably, when they don't understand it at first. (Like I did!) This helps me know how to better break down the text to help them know how to take it slowly and read it.

I like the idea of text sets, but it sounds very time-consuming. I really want to experiment more to know how to do this well!

"Reading Supports for All" Fitzgerald & Graves

First of all, this topic applies to my subject a lot! This article makes me instantly think of things we are doing in the classroom with texts in the target language. All of my students are like the ELLs in a regular classroom, because I'm stretching them out of their comfort zone and asking them to read and inspect a text that will initially intimidate them. They are always using skills that, as the authors put it, "have not fully matured but that are in the process of maturing". That is just how learning a language works, perhaps in a more explicit way than applies to learning in other subjects.

I'd never heard that metaphor that describes scaffolding as training wheels on a bike. Very helpful!

When the article mentioned preteaching difficult vocabulary I was reminded that I learned a lot from implementing this strategy this very week! My Spanish II class is reading a simple novel written completely in the present tense. We started the 5th (out of 8) chapters this past week. In the past, I have had students work with critical and new vocabulary AFTER listening to the chapter while reading silently, and translating it orally in groups. However, this time I decided to introduce them to the vocabulary list (through a fun game, por supuesto) to familiarize them with some of the words I knew they would encounter in the chapter and would not know. I think this really served their learning and helped to even give a hint of curiosity in anticipating what would happen in the chapter and how that vocabulary would appear.

It's encouraging for me to read about these strategies of scaffolding using prereading, during reading, and postreading activities, because that is exactly what I've been doing lately in my class.

As the article discussed using SREs to slice lessons for ELLs, the one countering question in my mind was that of "how do you differentiate skillfully like that and also keep your students up with the pacing guide that you know you have to follow?" I think I am learning that while pacing is important and it is OH SO EASY to get off-track and spend FAR too much time on a concept that you thought would take only a measly week (and therefore pacing is necessary and helpful), understanding is the most important goal. I would rather spend more time on concepts and make some compromises on the pacing guide than speed along without my students understanding the concepts. The tricky part is to differentiate and still make sure you all teaching lower-acheiving students (the ELLs in the article scenario) the same content. But... maybe that's not important??? I need to process this more.

The main struggle in applying these very helpful concepts is how to differentiate in a way that keeps students accountable to all their learning and that is realistic for a hard-working teacher. Still working on this one... :)