Episode 21: They’re Not Listening… Or Are They?
Teaching with Comprehensible Input and wondering if students are listening when they look disengaged is a universal language teacher experience.
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In this episode of Comprehend THIS!, we talk about blank stares, sneaky signs of comprehension, and why students don’t need to look engaged to be acquiring language — with real classroom stories, humor, and teacher honesty.
Looking for ready-to-use CI resources that actually work? Check out the CI Survival Kit: https://imim.us/kit.
comprehensible input, language teaching podcast, CI teaching strategies, student engagement myths, world language teaching, CI classroom, language teacher podcast, trust the process teaching, comprehension based instruction, teacher humor
Hosts:
- Scott Benedict - https://www.instagram.com/immediateimmersion
- Darcy Chase - https://www.instagram.com/@darcychase207
- Pamela Parks - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXHEK-1ra4IyzO5avtqEkmQ
Resources & Links:
- Assessment Academy - https://imim.us/academy
- CI Survival Kit - https://imim.us/kit
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Got thoughts or your own story? Share it in the comments or tag us @ImmediateImmersion!
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Host: Scott Benedict — Immediate Immersion
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Transcript
Hello everybody and welcome to season 3!
Speaker:Glad to have you all
Speaker:here with us this morning!
Speaker:Okay, let's be honest.
Speaker:Have you ever looked out at your class
Speaker:and thought, "Wow, I am
Speaker:speaking fluent Spanish
Speaker:or French or German or Mandarin to a room
Speaker:full of mashed potatoes."
Speaker:Today's episode is called "They're Not
Speaker:Listening, Or Are They?"
Speaker:Because if you teach with comprehensible
Speaker:input long enough, you
Speaker:eventually learn that blank
Speaker:stares don't actually mean blank brains.
Speaker:I'm hanging out with Darcy Chase and
Speaker:Pamela Sparks, and
Speaker:together we're unpacking the
Speaker:sneaky signs of real comprehension, the
Speaker:lies our teacher brains
Speaker:tell us mid-lesson, and
Speaker:how to tell the difference between their
Speaker:lost and their processing life champs.
Speaker:Darcy brings 20 plus years of classroom
Speaker:experience, a deep CI lens shaped by
Speaker:conferences, institutes
Speaker:and mentorship, and the perspective of
Speaker:teaching high school French in rural
Speaker:Maine, after working
Speaker:with learners from preschool to adults.
Speaker:And Pamela comes in hot with a background
Speaker:as a professional
Speaker:translator on over 150 film
Speaker:and TV projects, now channeling that real
Speaker:world language
Speaker:expertise into teaching Spanish
Speaker:and French and Japanese
Speaker:at the high school level.
Speaker:So if you've ever slowed down, repeated
Speaker:yourself, or re-explained
Speaker:something that absolutely
Speaker:did not need re-explaining because the
Speaker:vibes fell off, yeah, this one's for you.
Speaker:Spoiler alert, sometimes the best move is
Speaker:to stop panicking and just keep talking.
Speaker:And we'll be right back
Speaker:after these short messages.
Speaker:And if my buttons will work.
Speaker:Ever feel like you're clinging to the
Speaker:edge of your teacher
Speaker:planner, just hoping today's
Speaker:lesson magically appears?
Speaker:Enter the CI Survival Kit, a monthly
Speaker:membership made for
Speaker:teachers who love comprehensible
Speaker:input, but also love not reinventing the
Speaker:wheel every Sunday night.
Speaker:Each month you get fresh, ready to use
Speaker:lessons, time saving
Speaker:tools, and just enough structure
Speaker:to keep your teaching life together.
Speaker:No stress, no guilt, just monthly help
Speaker:from someone who gets it.
Speaker:Sign up at mm.us.us.
Speaker:Let the Survival Kit do
Speaker:the heavy lifting for once.
Speaker:Welcome to Comprehend This, Real Talk for
Speaker:Real Language Teachers.
Speaker:No drills, no dry theory, just honest
Speaker:stories, practical ideas,
Speaker:and a reminder you're not
Speaker:alone in the CI trenches.
Speaker:Let's dive in.
Speaker:And we're live.
Speaker:Welcome everybody.
Speaker:How's everybody doing?
Speaker:Hello.
Speaker:Thank you so much for
Speaker:having us here today.
Speaker:Very excited to be here.
Speaker:We're so welcome.
Speaker:Glad to have you both.
Speaker:Darcy, let's start with you for a second.
Speaker:Is there anything you'd like to know us,
Speaker:like us to know about
Speaker:you that I didn't mention
Speaker:in the intro?
Speaker:I think just one thing that I've learned
Speaker:over the years is
Speaker:that you don't have to be
Speaker:a native speaker in order
Speaker:to be an effective teacher.
Speaker:And that's something I didn't really know
Speaker:as a young woman just choosing my career.
Speaker:I didn't start out as a French teacher
Speaker:because when I was really
Speaker:young, I thought, "Well,
Speaker:I'm not a native speaker.
Speaker:How could I possibly be a
Speaker:good teacher of French?"
Speaker:And I've learned over the years that
Speaker:native speakers are not
Speaker:necessarily good teachers.
Speaker:Often they're not very good.
Speaker:So I sort of came at teaching French a
Speaker:little bit sideways.
Speaker:I started as a regular ed teacher and
Speaker:then moved into ESL and
Speaker:then finally came back
Speaker:to my first love, which was French.
Speaker:So I've been a teacher for over 20 years,
Speaker:but just teaching
Speaker:French, I think I'm about
Speaker:seven years in and probably six of those
Speaker:I've been focusing on CI.
Speaker:Sorry, what did you teach before EL?
Speaker:You were a gen ed teacher.
Speaker:What were you teaching first?
Speaker:I taught English, I taught in language
Speaker:arts, social studies, math.
Speaker:Even though my major in college was
Speaker:linguistics, I sort of, I
Speaker:don't know, I had a little side
Speaker:side gig there for a while.
Speaker:And then I came back to language
Speaker:teaching, which I really, that was what I
Speaker:really wanted to do.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:You brought up a couple of point I'll
Speaker:talk about in a minute because you talk
Speaker:about native speakers
Speaker:and I have my little
Speaker:perspective on that as well.
Speaker:What about you, Pamela?
Speaker:Well, I'm going to dive right into the
Speaker:native speaker thing
Speaker:because that I think is such a
Speaker:common misconception.
Speaker:I work with a few international
Speaker:professional learning communities like
Speaker:the Duolingo Educators
Speaker:Network and a couple of others like that.
Speaker:And I'm always coaching people who kind
Speaker:of fall into the job
Speaker:because, oh, I'm a native speaker
Speaker:and so I got hired and I
Speaker:don't know how to teach.
Speaker:There is a lot of puzzle solving that
Speaker:goes on with teaching.
Speaker:You have to know how am I going to
Speaker:present this information?
Speaker:How am I going to
Speaker:present it in a different way?
Speaker:This student's missing something.
Speaker:What am I going to do for this student?
Speaker:This student's ready to move on.
Speaker:What am I going to do for this student?
Speaker:There are so many moving
Speaker:pieces that fit together.
Speaker:And you think about the
Speaker:students who come to you.
Speaker:A lot of people always come to us and
Speaker:they have never thought
Speaker:about speaking English.
Speaker:They're a native
Speaker:English speaker in our class.
Speaker:They haven't thought about speaking
Speaker:English since they were
Speaker:two years old and they said,
Speaker:"I got two feet and
Speaker:everybody laughed at them."
Speaker:And now they don't
Speaker:think about it anymore.
Speaker:And so if you're someone who hasn't
Speaker:thought about the
Speaker:language acquisition process,
Speaker:how are you going to convey that to 35
Speaker:little faces in front of you?
Speaker:So I am 100 million
Speaker:percent on board with you.
Speaker:Just because you're a native speaker does
Speaker:not mean you have the qualifications.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Even something as simple as going slow
Speaker:and repeating things.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And I'll kind of add on to that.
Speaker:That here's my thing
Speaker:with native speakers.
Speaker:I never liked, no offense to native
Speaker:speakers, but I never liked having a
Speaker:native speaker as a teacher.
Speaker:And it wasn't because of their skills.
Speaker:Obviously they had much better skills
Speaker:than I could ever hope to have.
Speaker:But the problem was I'm a Y kid.
Speaker:And I would always ask,
Speaker:"Why? Why does it do this?
Speaker:And the answer that they would give me
Speaker:was the same answer that I
Speaker:would give an English speaker.
Speaker:That's just the way it is.
Speaker:I don't know why it does it.
Speaker:Why does go go to went?
Speaker:Who the hell knows?
Speaker:It's just, I can't explain it.
Speaker:But as a learned
Speaker:person, we learn these things.
Speaker:We learn why the things happen.
Speaker:And so if when a kid asks
Speaker:me, "Why does this do that?"
Speaker:I can explain.
Speaker:Like I can explain, what's coming up in
Speaker:my classrooms now is the change the Z to
Speaker:a C before when you're making a plural.
Speaker:Well, I tell them it's a spelling rule.
Speaker:Has nothing to do with plurals because
Speaker:the textbook always teaches it in pieces.
Speaker:It says, "Here it is and how it does it
Speaker:in verbs when the verbs come up.
Speaker:Here's how it comes when
Speaker:it does it with plurals."
Speaker:But it's a spelling rule in Spanish.
Speaker:You cannot have a Z before an I or an E.
Speaker:It must change to C.
Speaker:Always, always, always.
Speaker:And in Spanish, there are spelling rules.
Speaker:There are no exceptions.
Speaker:Once you have a spelling
Speaker:rule, it's a spelling rule.
Speaker:So any word where a Z would come before
Speaker:an I or an E, like, why do we spell Zebra
Speaker:with a C in Spanish?
Speaker:Because you can't have a Z before an E or
Speaker:an I, it must be a C.
Speaker:So I could explain that where a native
Speaker:speaker would say to me, "I don't know.
Speaker:That's just the way it is."
Speaker:Like, I can't explain why our Y goes to
Speaker:an I E before S when
Speaker:we pluralize in English.
Speaker:So that's my one beef.
Speaker:My second one is, like you said, they
Speaker:don't know how to teach it.
Speaker:I remember when I first started teaching,
Speaker:my neighbor was a Chilean.
Speaker:She was from Chile and she
Speaker:was going, the book says,
Speaker:"I have to teach an AR
Speaker:and an ER and an IR verb.
Speaker:I don't know what those are
Speaker:and I'm a native speaker."
Speaker:I'm like, "Well, have you noticed that
Speaker:like 75% of all verbs end in AR and
Speaker:another like 15 to 20%
Speaker:are in ER and then the
Speaker:last five to 10% are IR?"
Speaker:Well, I never thought
Speaker:of that, but I guess.
Speaker:And so we have these constructs that we
Speaker:do as a non-native
Speaker:speaker to make it easier to
Speaker:comprehend or sometimes complicate things
Speaker:that shouldn't be complicated.
Speaker:And we can work with those kinds of
Speaker:things where native speakers
Speaker:haven't had to deal with that.
Speaker:So I think they have an advantage in the
Speaker:language fluency part,
Speaker:but in the explaining the grammar and the
Speaker:whys and the where tos of things,
Speaker:they lack behind us.
Speaker:So we compliment each other really well.
Speaker:Because I know when I started speaking
Speaker:Spanish, my major was German.
Speaker:And so my Spanish was not as
Speaker:fluent as it is now speaking.
Speaker:I could read it, I
Speaker:could write it, no problem.
Speaker:But using it orally, but teaching with CI
Speaker:made my oral
Speaker:proficiency skyrocket for doing it
Speaker:for 25 years.
Speaker:You get that proficiency
Speaker:that you didn't have before.
Speaker:So I agree with everything
Speaker:you both have said about that.
Speaker:But it's a key idea because a lot of
Speaker:people think that I can't do this
Speaker:because my language
Speaker:ability isn't this high.
Speaker:It might only be intermediate low or
Speaker:sometimes in the middle school sectors,
Speaker:they say, oh, you've
Speaker:got a minor in French.
Speaker:We need you to teach our French program.
Speaker:And you're like, what?
Speaker:And then you might only be
Speaker:at the novice high level,
Speaker:but you can still do it and you can
Speaker:develop your skills.
Speaker:So I think, as you said, there's the
Speaker:accidentalness of it.
Speaker:And the worryness of not being a native
Speaker:speaker should not be a hindrance to it.
Speaker:I do want to say, first of all, hashtag
Speaker:not all native speakers
Speaker:because there are plenty
Speaker:of really good native speaker teachers.
Speaker:I mean, I taught English, you know, and
Speaker:so I can pick English
Speaker:apart, you know, but
Speaker:you bring up a really good point here
Speaker:because I don't know if
Speaker:you guys remember taking
Speaker:the AC TFL test to
Speaker:get your certification.
Speaker:That is a really high bar.
Speaker:And I am coaching a lot of people.
Speaker:I mean, I remember my class of cohorts,
Speaker:half of them did not pass the test.
Speaker:And in a world where we're short on
Speaker:teachers and we're
Speaker:short on good teachers,
Speaker:that AC TFL test is often a career killer
Speaker:I have seen because they're
Speaker:looking for native speaker
Speaker:fluency, not can you explain the concept?
Speaker:Can you slow down like Darcy was saying?
Speaker:Can you say it a different way?
Speaker:Can you circumlocate?
Speaker:Can you teach the students to
Speaker:circumlocate and communicate?
Speaker:They're not looking for that.
Speaker:They're looking for I remember when I
Speaker:took it in Japanese,
Speaker:I memorized all the I was
Speaker:like, this is gonna be hard.
Speaker:So I memorized a bunch of terminology for
Speaker:the theory of relativity.
Speaker:I can't explain the theory of relativity
Speaker:in English, but they
Speaker:thought that I could in Japanese.
Speaker:So that's the only way I got through it
Speaker:in my 20s, you know?
Speaker:But I think this is a real problem that
Speaker:the world doesn't recognize the skills
Speaker:involved in teaching.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:It's an art and it doesn't matter if
Speaker:we're teaching language,
Speaker:if we're teaching math,
Speaker:if we're teaching history, there is
Speaker:classroom management
Speaker:that you have to learn.
Speaker:There is a bunch of logistical stuff.
Speaker:How are you going to
Speaker:arrange your classroom?
Speaker:There's so much involved
Speaker:in the art of teaching.
Speaker:And this is so I have to go ahead Darcy.
Speaker:I was just gonna say I had a professor in
Speaker:my education program once said,
Speaker:remember, you don't actually teach the
Speaker:content area, you teach students.
Speaker:Always remember that.
Speaker:And so I do have to remind myself like,
Speaker:okay, I'm all about this French stuff,
Speaker:but I need to look at this kid in front
Speaker:of me and change what I'm
Speaker:doing based on what they need.
Speaker:That is such a true statement.
Speaker:And you brought up the college.
Speaker:So I was gonna say not having teaching
Speaker:skills is so apparent in
Speaker:college because they don't
Speaker:require them to learn how to
Speaker:teach or go through education.
Speaker:So there are some, like you said, there
Speaker:are some excellent
Speaker:college professors out there,
Speaker:but there are some who just know how to
Speaker:talk and that's all they know how to do.
Speaker:And absolutely.
Speaker:And they're professors.
Speaker:And I love this.
Speaker:We don't teach content.
Speaker:We teach students.
Speaker:It is so true.
Speaker:And I'll give you an example from a math
Speaker:teacher's perspective.
Speaker:I'm not a math teacher.
Speaker:I'm allergic to math,
Speaker:desperately allergic to math.
Speaker:But he was like, I'm supposed to start
Speaker:here for ninth grade algebra.
Speaker:This is where I'm supposed to start.
Speaker:But I have kids from like six different
Speaker:feeder schools coming in and they're all
Speaker:at different skills.
Speaker:If I started here where my page one is
Speaker:where I'm supposed to start,
Speaker:I'm going to lose half my kids in the
Speaker:first month and they're
Speaker:never going to catch back up.
Speaker:So he goes, I've got
Speaker:to start where they are.
Speaker:I've got to teach the
Speaker:kids in front of me.
Speaker:And that's why I'm not
Speaker:a fan of pacing guides.
Speaker:And you know, where teachers go at the
Speaker:copy room, what page are you on?
Speaker:What chapter are you on in the book?
Speaker:Because that's not important.
Speaker:It's not important.
Speaker:I'm on chapter six.
Speaker:If I've left half my class behind,
Speaker:they're still in chapter two and they
Speaker:don't know anything beyond
Speaker:that at this point.
Speaker:So we got to teach
Speaker:the kids in front of us.
Speaker:And I think that's so important.
Speaker:Yes, we have a curriculum.
Speaker:But it doesn't matter if we cover the
Speaker:curriculum, if none of our
Speaker:kids acquire it or learn it.
Speaker:So we have to teach
Speaker:the kids in front of us.
Speaker:And that's why I'm always on
Speaker:the advocate of less is more.
Speaker:I base my curriculum off verbs.
Speaker:Yes, do I need nouns and adjectives and
Speaker:adverbs and
Speaker:prepositions to be able to do that?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:But I say if I focus on the verbs, I get
Speaker:all the rest of that for free.
Speaker:It has to come in because I can't teach
Speaker:without a subject and a verb.
Speaker:You got to have, you know,
Speaker:so it all comes in for free.
Speaker:If I target on verbs, then everything
Speaker:else comes in instead of
Speaker:piling my curriculum with
Speaker:a hundred useless nouns like pushpin and
Speaker:paperclip that the kids aren't really
Speaker:going to have a need for.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And it's like,
Speaker:Yeah, that's what I'm going to say.
Speaker:And it's like, you know, the idea of, you
Speaker:know, how they used
Speaker:to tell you, you know,
Speaker:try to be 90% in the target language or
Speaker:100% in the target language.
Speaker:You're doing, you know, you're a very
Speaker:virtuous language
Speaker:teacher if you're doing that.
Speaker:But what if the kids have
Speaker:no idea what you're saying?
Speaker:You are in the target
Speaker:language, they're somewhere else.
Speaker:So it's all about the kids,
Speaker:what the kids need in the moment.
Speaker:And that brings us to our topic today.
Speaker:How do we know that they are actually
Speaker:understanding and paying attention?
Speaker:Because I always introduce my classes.
Speaker:I'm like, you guys, it's so important
Speaker:that you let me know
Speaker:when I'm going too fast,
Speaker:especially because right now,
Speaker:me fighter 1304 just says hi.
Speaker:Hello, me fighter 1304.
Speaker:My way we teach now I
Speaker:teach on a semester system.
Speaker:So we teach a whole school year in a
Speaker:semester and I get
Speaker:new kids every semester.
Speaker:So it's not really good
Speaker:for language teaching.
Speaker:I don't recommend it.
Speaker:But because of that, when I come back
Speaker:after winter break, my
Speaker:brain is still at the end of
Speaker:last semester.
Speaker:So I'm at that speed of where my kids
Speaker:ended up after 20 weeks of language.
Speaker:So slowing back down, it's easier in
Speaker:August when I haven't spoken
Speaker:the language with students in
Speaker:two months.
Speaker:But right after the semester, after two
Speaker:weeks, I'm still in that brain.
Speaker:So I tell them, you have to let me know
Speaker:and I have my kids stomp on the floor.
Speaker:Because if my back is turned to that
Speaker:section of kids, and they've got their
Speaker:hand up, I don't see
Speaker:that.
Speaker:Or if they've got the
Speaker:timeout symbol, I don't see that.
Speaker:So I like them to stomp.
Speaker:But I'm like, it's so important that you
Speaker:have to stomp and let me
Speaker:know I'm going too fast
Speaker:or too slow.
Speaker:Because if I'm looking at you, this is
Speaker:what you look like when you understand.
Speaker:And this is what you look
Speaker:like when you don't understand.
Speaker:And for those of you listening on the
Speaker:podcast, my face did not
Speaker:change from one to the other.
Speaker:Because that's what they look like.
Speaker:They're just staring ahead.
Speaker:And how do we know if
Speaker:they really understand?
Speaker:I do trick them.
Speaker:I will deliberately say something they
Speaker:know they won't
Speaker:understand to see if they're
Speaker:stomping or not.
Speaker:And I've even gone into a completely
Speaker:different language before to
Speaker:really know that they really
Speaker:couldn't see it.
Speaker:They really noticed.
Speaker:Because I can speak a little bit of French.
Speaker:A little bit of French.
Speaker:I can speak German.
Speaker:I can speak Spanish.
Speaker:And I can speak English.
Speaker:So I'll do that just to kind of test
Speaker:them, especially the
Speaker:beginning to train them.
Speaker:That I written it how
Speaker:important that it really is.
Speaker:What are your strategies for that?
Speaker:Scott, can I ask you really quick?
Speaker:How long are your
Speaker:classes two hours long then?
Speaker:Hour and a half.
Speaker:How are you squeezing a year?
Speaker:An hour and a half.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:We have an hour and a
Speaker:half and five days a week.
Speaker:So we see them for five days
Speaker:a week for an hour and a half.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:But you really can't.
Speaker:Our level one teaches the
Speaker:first half of the level one book.
Speaker:And our level two
Speaker:teaches the second half.
Speaker:It's not even a half.
Speaker:We only cover four chapters in a year.
Speaker:And it's really three and a half.
Speaker:We don't really get to the
Speaker:fourth one of our textbook.
Speaker:So our level twos don't
Speaker:even touch past tense.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:So don't get past tense into level three.
Speaker:And it's too much language at once.
Speaker:Because although I'm having
Speaker:double the classroom time,
Speaker:I can't teach two lessons because it
Speaker:needs to settle and dry.
Speaker:I call it like paint layers.
Speaker:It's got to dry in between.
Speaker:They need an overnight processing before
Speaker:I can add on another
Speaker:aspect of the language.
Speaker:And so it's really not just an extended
Speaker:one period is really all that it does.
Speaker:I keep telling my students, you cannot
Speaker:stay up all night and cram French
Speaker:and wake up fluent in French tomorrow.
Speaker:That's not the way the brain works.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Go instead and win the race.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I definitely have the...
Speaker:I'm starting to rethink my strategy
Speaker:because I do the timeout symbol.
Speaker:I teach that on the
Speaker:very first day of class.
Speaker:I tell it's one of my rules.
Speaker:It's on my wall.
Speaker:It says you must tell the teacher when
Speaker:she is not being clear.
Speaker:Not when you don't understand because
Speaker:then it kind of makes
Speaker:them have to out themselves.
Speaker:Like, "Oh, I don't understand.
Speaker:I'm not as smart as the kid next to me."
Speaker:Instead, I try to frame it like you're
Speaker:giving me information
Speaker:that I need to do something differently
Speaker:because my job is to
Speaker:make sure you understand.
Speaker:You know, the kids have to meet me
Speaker:halfway, of course, but I
Speaker:really try to frame it like,
Speaker:"Okay, when you do this, that
Speaker:means slow your roll, lady."
Speaker:And then I do the same thing.
Speaker:I'll say something really fast that I
Speaker:know they don't know.
Speaker:And if nobody does
Speaker:the symbol, I go, "What?
Speaker:You all understood?
Speaker:Who's going to translate?"
Speaker:And I kind of joke around with them to
Speaker:train them that they do
Speaker:need to give me this symbol.
Speaker:And they're getting better at it.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:That's a good point.
Speaker:Bryce Headstrom said,
Speaker:"My job is to teach.
Speaker:Your job is to tell me
Speaker:when I'm not doing my job."
Speaker:Oh, I like that.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And I like both those aspects because it
Speaker:puts the onus on us.
Speaker:Because I always tell them, too, when
Speaker:it's a quiz, I go, "I
Speaker:don't give you a quiz,
Speaker:I'm pretty confident that 80% of you will
Speaker:pass it with an 80% or
Speaker:better, not just passing.
Speaker:And if I get it wrong and I see that
Speaker:everybody's screwed up,
Speaker:that's my fault, not your fault."
Speaker:So I'll tell them that way
Speaker:because I do pop quizzes.
Speaker:I don't ever announce my quizzes because
Speaker:I don't want to know
Speaker:what they studied for
Speaker:because that's going to leave their
Speaker:brains within 24 to 48 hours.
Speaker:I want to know it's
Speaker:actually stuck in their brains.
Speaker:So that's why I do it that way.
Speaker:But I say, "I'm not the gotcha teacher.
Speaker:I'm not the teacher ghost.
Speaker:I assigned two
Speaker:chapters last night to read.
Speaker:You guys didn't read it?
Speaker:Fine.
Speaker:We're having a quiz right now.
Speaker:What's the point of that other than to
Speaker:rub their nose in it
Speaker:because the point of a quiz
Speaker:is to let you know what they understood
Speaker:and what they didn't understand.
Speaker:If you already know they didn't do the
Speaker:work, you already know
Speaker:they don't understand.
Speaker:There's no reason to rub
Speaker:their nose in it type of thing."
Speaker:That kind of teacher is a gotcha teacher.
Speaker:That's not me.
Speaker:And so I explain because they always get
Speaker:fear and I say all
Speaker:quizzes are unannounced.
Speaker:They get that little fear in them because
Speaker:they've only
Speaker:experienced pop quizzes in the
Speaker:form of the gotcha teacher when they know
Speaker:you didn't do the work
Speaker:and now they're trying to
Speaker:get you.
Speaker:So I tell them why I do it.
Speaker:But I like that we're putting the onus
Speaker:back on ourselves in that
Speaker:comprehensible part too.
Speaker:Because I know Dr. Terry Waltz, she
Speaker:always says, "It's not a point to be
Speaker:comprehensible because
Speaker:we might be comprehensible, but if we're
Speaker:not comprehended by the students,
Speaker:then how comprehensible
Speaker:doesn't even come into play."
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So she likes to call it, you know, that
Speaker:we're comprehend-- you
Speaker:want to be comprehended
Speaker:because you could be talking really
Speaker:simple, but on the first day,
Speaker:really simple might
Speaker:still be too complicated.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:You could be using all your
Speaker:strategies going really slow,
Speaker:but maybe you aren't pointing to any
Speaker:visuals or maybe you're not using a
Speaker:little bit of English
Speaker:as a bridge and, you know, you're not
Speaker:doing anything to guide
Speaker:them toward understanding.
Speaker:And visuals are also
Speaker:a very cultural thing.
Speaker:I know we've always had this discussion
Speaker:about the culture, about, you know,
Speaker:you have a picture of a
Speaker:guy eating a hamburger.
Speaker:What is that mean?
Speaker:And different people
Speaker:interpret that differently.
Speaker:Is that the verb eating?
Speaker:Is that the noun hamburger?
Speaker:What is it?
Speaker:And I-- this is the experience I had when
Speaker:I tried Rosetta Stone,
Speaker:that, you know, they don't use any
Speaker:English translation at all.
Speaker:And so I'm watching Rosetta on Korean.
Speaker:I wanted to learn Korean, so I wanted to
Speaker:take a language I had no background in,
Speaker:so I really was experienced in it.
Speaker:And they were showing me pictures of a
Speaker:guy on a horse and a plane
Speaker:and a car and all of this.
Speaker:And I thought-- this is the
Speaker:lesson number one, by the way.
Speaker:So I thought, oh, great.
Speaker:I now know how to say horse and man and
Speaker:car, and I'm excited.
Speaker:And then I watched
Speaker:the version in Spanish.
Speaker:It wasn't a horse and car and man.
Speaker:It was the
Speaker:prepositions on top of next to--
Speaker:who's number one starts with the
Speaker:prepositions, number one?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And number two, out of
Speaker:context, I had no idea.
Speaker:So my brain for that whole lesson thought
Speaker:that's what I was learning.
Speaker:And I learned
Speaker:something completely different,
Speaker:because although they were being
Speaker:comprehensible, it was
Speaker:not being comprehended.
Speaker:I could go on and on about Rosetta Stone
Speaker:and what a horrible company they are.
Speaker:And the pictures, although they're
Speaker:photographically gorgeous,
Speaker:they have nothing to do with anything,
Speaker:and they're not cultural.
Speaker:And they're sexist, and I never would
Speaker:have thought I would notice this.
Speaker:But for to run, they always have men
Speaker:running a race, and for women jogging,
Speaker:like talking in the
Speaker:park while they're jogging.
Speaker:So no, Rosetta Stone is just terrible.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I did not find that method to be helpful,
Speaker:because you don't necessarily need
Speaker:English translation or native--
Speaker:the common language translation.
Speaker:But you need some kind of context to be
Speaker:able to understand what's going on.
Speaker:And I do speak 100% target language on
Speaker:day one, even in level one.
Speaker:And I don't orally translate, because I
Speaker:don't want to break the
Speaker:illusion of immersion.
Speaker:But I subtitle myself with a Google--
Speaker:I use a Google Doc because it's much
Speaker:better than my handwriting.
Speaker:And I'll just type the words as I go with
Speaker:the English translation.
Speaker:So they'll see the English
Speaker:translations on the board.
Speaker:But I'm not stopping my speaking.
Speaker:I'm speaking slow.
Speaker:I'm taking time to write them.
Speaker:I'm pointing.
Speaker:But I do do that in the beginning.
Speaker:So I can tell them right away, the
Speaker:language of instruction
Speaker:is going to be Spanish in my classroom.
Speaker:But I will make it comprehended by you.
Speaker:And this is one of the ways that I do it.
Speaker:So it makes it really important.
Speaker:You guys use any other
Speaker:strategies to help to make--
Speaker:not only to make it
Speaker:comprehensible and comprehended,
Speaker:but to know whether or
Speaker:not they actually are.
Speaker:I know Darcy said, like I
Speaker:do, she kind of tricks them.
Speaker:And she'll say things really fast to kind
Speaker:of get them to see if they really are.
Speaker:Letting her know when
Speaker:she's not speaking quickly.
Speaker:I mean, speaking slowly enough or
Speaker:speaking comprehensible enough for them.
Speaker:But what are some other
Speaker:strategies that you guys implement?
Speaker:Well--
Speaker:Go ahead.
Speaker:As a language teacher, we are constantly,
Speaker:constantly, formatively assessing, right?
Speaker:I mean, we're going to have a story for
Speaker:maybe five, 10 minutes.
Speaker:And then we need to make sure the
Speaker:students understand.
Speaker:During the story, we've got our barometer
Speaker:students that we're watching.
Speaker:If we're having them corally repeat,
Speaker:we're listening for that.
Speaker:We're walking around
Speaker:the room and everything.
Speaker:But then because we're
Speaker:memory experts, right?
Speaker:We need to get this
Speaker:foreign word into your brain.
Speaker:And we need it into
Speaker:your long-term memory.
Speaker:For me, a lot of my
Speaker:formative assessments are also
Speaker:doing double time as I'm moving something
Speaker:from your working memory
Speaker:into hopefully your long-term memory.
Speaker:Like, chunk and chew, we'll do a little
Speaker:story or a little activity or something.
Speaker:And then maybe I'll do a Harvard Project
Speaker:Zero thinking routine where I'm like,
Speaker:OK, grab a sheet of paper, write down
Speaker:everything you remember from the story.
Speaker:Now pass it one person to the right.
Speaker:What did they leave off?
Speaker:OK, pass it one person to the right.
Speaker:Look at any of those words you like and
Speaker:draw a little doodle next to it.
Speaker:Pass it one person to the right.
Speaker:So they're getting more contact with all
Speaker:the vocabulary that we have just used,
Speaker:all the grammatical
Speaker:structures that we have just used.
Speaker:They're getting more contact with it and
Speaker:they get to use it in a
Speaker:slightly different way.
Speaker:So my hope is it gets
Speaker:deeper into their head.
Speaker:But I've got at the front of my
Speaker:classroom, I've got a lot of puppets.
Speaker:I've got my smart board
Speaker:that I draw on constantly.
Speaker:I've got props next to me.
Speaker:I'm very hammy.
Speaker:Aren't we all like really?
Speaker:We're thespians, right?
Speaker:It's not just about talking.
Speaker:It's about kind of over enunciating and
Speaker:you were gesticulating wildly.
Speaker:I didn't gesture until I
Speaker:started learning languages.
Speaker:You got the gestures and everything and
Speaker:walking around the classroom
Speaker:and getting in the face
Speaker:of the kids and everything.
Speaker:So you were constantly formatively
Speaker:assessing and making sure that the
Speaker:students are with us
Speaker:each step of the way.
Speaker:Sometimes that's harder
Speaker:than other times, right?
Speaker:But yeah, we've got giant bag of tricks.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:What about you, Darcy?
Speaker:So on my rule display, one of my rules is
Speaker:you must answer all of
Speaker:the teacher's questions.
Speaker:And when I tell them that rule in the
Speaker:beginning of the
Speaker:year, they look terrified
Speaker:because they're like, "Oh my God, she's
Speaker:going to ask us something in French
Speaker:and we're not going to know how to say
Speaker:the answer in French."
Speaker:And I try to tell them, "I'm going to be
Speaker:asking you all kinds of
Speaker:really dumb questions,
Speaker:really obvious questions."
Speaker:Like, "Does so-and-so
Speaker:have one dog or two dogs?
Speaker:Did so-and-so say
Speaker:they were happy or sad?"
Speaker:Really, really obvious questions.
Speaker:And you're going to know
Speaker:the answer to my questions.
Speaker:And I use questions in
Speaker:both French and English.
Speaker:So sometimes I'm asking
Speaker:them a question in French
Speaker:and I'm asking them to show that they
Speaker:understand by maybe a gesture.
Speaker:If I'm asking how many of something and
Speaker:they don't have the number words yet,
Speaker:they could show me with their fingers.
Speaker:Sometimes I just stop really quick and
Speaker:say, "What did I just say in English?"
Speaker:And then somebody answers and then I
Speaker:know, "Okay, they're with me."
Speaker:And then I get back into the French of
Speaker:the story or whatever we're doing.
Speaker:So I just use a lot of little questions.
Speaker:And I don't mind sticking in a few
Speaker:seconds of English here and there
Speaker:if it's going to be a bridge to 10
Speaker:minutes of comprehension.
Speaker:That's my philosophy.
Speaker:If I can ask a quick question in English,
Speaker:get a quick assessment,
Speaker:and then move on and get back into
Speaker:French, I still feel like I'm winning.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:And I do a lot of what you say.
Speaker:And one of my big things is if there's
Speaker:hesitation in the answer,
Speaker:because I tell them like you, they've got
Speaker:to answer all my questions.
Speaker:I go, "This is what's telling me.
Speaker:I need to know whether you're
Speaker:understanding and this is important."
Speaker:So you've got to
Speaker:answer every question I ask,
Speaker:because if not, one of two things happen.
Speaker:You didn't understand or
Speaker:you weren't paying attention.
Speaker:And I'm going to assume
Speaker:that you didn't understand.
Speaker:I'm going to assume that
Speaker:you're all paying attention
Speaker:because I am the most fascinating thing
Speaker:on this planet right now.
Speaker:So I'm not going to assume that you're
Speaker:not paying attention.
Speaker:But I'll ask if I get any hesitation,
Speaker:even a fraction of a second,
Speaker:where I'm like, "Okay."
Speaker:So I go, "What did I just
Speaker:ask to take the pressure off?"
Speaker:Because obviously, at
Speaker:least one kid didn't understand
Speaker:if I'm not getting a good response back.
Speaker:And so then I can go right there and then
Speaker:somebody will say what I said.
Speaker:And if not, then I go, "What?
Speaker:Nobody stomped their feet? How the heck?
Speaker:What? If you didn't understand what I was
Speaker:going on, I'm going to keep going.
Speaker:And if I lost you in minute
Speaker:10, and we're now in minute 40,
Speaker:you guys have lost 30
Speaker:minutes of instruction.
Speaker:And that's, you know, we've got to...
Speaker:I'm not doing my job right."
Speaker:So we go back and do that.
Speaker:Now, you said something about the...
Speaker:I love the stomping feet thing.
Speaker:I like that too.
Speaker:I like it just because, as I said,
Speaker:sometimes my back is turned to one
Speaker:section of the classroom or another.
Speaker:And so I can't see it.
Speaker:I don't want that poor kid sitting there,
Speaker:having their hand up desperate.
Speaker:And I don't see them
Speaker:for two or three minutes.
Speaker:And I also tell them if
Speaker:one kid stomps their feet,
Speaker:everybody stomps their feet.
Speaker:So no one gets singled out that they're
Speaker:the only one stomping.
Speaker:Right. That's smart.
Speaker:That's what I was thinking.
Speaker:I was thinking that
Speaker:for the effective filter,
Speaker:this is probably really good because your
Speaker:legs are under the table
Speaker:and maybe you think nobody else is going
Speaker:to see you stomping your feet.
Speaker:That I think that's really going to lower
Speaker:the effective filter.
Speaker:The student isn't
Speaker:going to feel singled out.
Speaker:Yeah. Darcy, I absolutely love
Speaker:what you're saying about that.
Speaker:Your first rule is you
Speaker:have to answer the teacher.
Speaker:Because again, I think this goes back to
Speaker:what we were saying about
Speaker:just because you're a
Speaker:native speaker doesn't,
Speaker:just because you can play piano doesn't
Speaker:mean you can teach how
Speaker:to play piano, right?
Speaker:There is an art to it.
Speaker:And of course there's Doug
Speaker:LeMoff, teach like a champion.
Speaker:And he talks an awful
Speaker:lot about no opt out.
Speaker:And by golly, we are no opt out.
Speaker:You cannot sit there.
Speaker:We're going to drag you with us learning.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We're going to make sure we're going to
Speaker:keep circling back to you.
Speaker:We're going to, I mean, this is what
Speaker:circling is all about, right?
Speaker:We're going to keep circling back to it
Speaker:until you know the answer.
Speaker:And then you're going to feel this real
Speaker:sense of accomplishment
Speaker:because now you know the answer.
Speaker:And I mean, that's the
Speaker:whole point of learning, right?
Speaker:Is to get you to that
Speaker:position where you know the answer.
Speaker:So yeah, I really love that, Darcy.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And I was going to touch on when you said
Speaker:about the English
Speaker:translations that you use.
Speaker:And this is something that I was not part
Speaker:of this conversation.
Speaker:I got a preface.
Speaker:This happened at a
Speaker:national TPRS conference.
Speaker:And if you've never been, one of the key
Speaker:cornerstones that they do
Speaker:is one evening during the week,
Speaker:they have immersion dinners.
Speaker:So all the French speakers go to one
Speaker:place and the rule is only French.
Speaker:German teachers, French, Spanish
Speaker:teachers, just like,
Speaker:or if you're learning the language and
Speaker:you want to practice it,
Speaker:you go with that group.
Speaker:So I always went with the German ones
Speaker:because I don't get as much practice
Speaker:speaking my German anymore
Speaker:since I don't teach German.
Speaker:But my friend and
Speaker:colleague went to the Spanish one.
Speaker:Blaine was there and
Speaker:Dr. Krashen was there.
Speaker:And Blaine and Dr. Krashen
Speaker:agree on 99.9% of everything,
Speaker:except for one thing where
Speaker:Krashen was absolutely not.
Speaker:There should never be
Speaker:English used in the classroom.
Speaker:No English translation.
Speaker:No, do not do it.
Speaker:Do not ever.
Speaker:Well, of course not.
Speaker:He was of the natural approach.
Speaker:He was one of the
Speaker:co-founders of the natural approach.
Speaker:And they don't use translations for that.
Speaker:Again, that's like Rosetta Stone.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:When someone goes like this,
Speaker:what that is, is that hair?
Speaker:Is that long?
Speaker:I don't know what that
Speaker:gesture is supposed to mean.
Speaker:And if there's not a correlation between
Speaker:the gesture and what that means,
Speaker:and everybody agrees that that gesture
Speaker:now means that, there's a problem.
Speaker:So here they are.
Speaker:They're speaking in Spanish
Speaker:the entire lunch, the dinner.
Speaker:And 45 minutes in, everybody's speaking
Speaker:Spanish, no problem.
Speaker:But then I don't even
Speaker:know what context it came in.
Speaker:But the word spark came
Speaker:in, chispa, in Spanish.
Speaker:And Dr. Krashen was lost.
Speaker:He didn't know what a chispa was.
Speaker:So they tried circumlocuting it.
Speaker:They tried describing it.
Speaker:They tried doing everything they could
Speaker:and drew pictures on napkins even,
Speaker:trying to get him to
Speaker:understand what this was.
Speaker:And he kept thinking, fireworks.
Speaker:He just couldn't,
Speaker:everything that he couldn't do.
Speaker:And one teacher finally said, a native
Speaker:Spanish teacher says,
Speaker:chispa.
Speaker:It means spark.
Speaker:Can we possibly please move on?
Speaker:Because he spent like 15
Speaker:minutes trying to make this clear.
Speaker:It's not efficient.
Speaker:It's right.
Speaker:Let's extrapolate now
Speaker:to a kid in a class.
Speaker:Like you got your top kid
Speaker:and your slower processing kid.
Speaker:And the top kid is frustrated because
Speaker:we've been on this stupid word
Speaker:for like 20 minutes and they don't know,
Speaker:can we just please move on?
Speaker:And so then crashing, the ding went and
Speaker:crashed in his head.
Speaker:Ah, sometimes English translation is the
Speaker:quickest, fastest way to comprehension
Speaker:with no confusion whatsoever.
Speaker:And I love the idea of, and I forgot, now
Speaker:I forgot what the term is.
Speaker:But when they tell a story and they use
Speaker:pictures, they draw on the board.
Speaker:I forgot what they call that.
Speaker:That's note or smash doodle.
Speaker:Yeah, no, no, not that one.
Speaker:Instead of doing comprehension checks and
Speaker:all of that and all the circling,
Speaker:they just tell like a fairy
Speaker:tale in the target language.
Speaker:Story, story, listening.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:Story, listening.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I brain lose it.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And you're using images, visuals to help.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And that's my all
Speaker:thing with that one too.
Speaker:If you don't understand
Speaker:what the picture is saying,
Speaker:then how do you know that they're
Speaker:understanding in there?
Speaker:So that was always my
Speaker:quirk with story listening.
Speaker:And it's the same quirk I have with total
Speaker:immersion where in schools,
Speaker:like where they have
Speaker:dual immersion schools,
Speaker:where they're not allowed to use
Speaker:translation to make it clear the concept.
Speaker:And then they come into regular classes
Speaker:in high school, let's say,
Speaker:and they don't have as much fluency as
Speaker:you think they would
Speaker:because they've always
Speaker:lived in this gray area.
Speaker:I think I know what
Speaker:they're talking about,
Speaker:but I don't have any confirmation.
Speaker:And so I think that sometimes English
Speaker:translation or common,
Speaker:let's use the word
Speaker:common language translation,
Speaker:because English might
Speaker:not be the common language.
Speaker:That sometimes is the
Speaker:quickest, easiest, dirtiest way
Speaker:to get them to understand, get everybody
Speaker:clear on the same page without confusion.
Speaker:And as I said, I prefer to do it written
Speaker:on the board in some way.
Speaker:Number one, it's lasting.
Speaker:I like that.
Speaker:They can go back and refer to it.
Speaker:And I'm not breaking that illusion of
Speaker:immersion that we have in the classroom.
Speaker:And I think it just like, go ahead.
Speaker:I was just going to say every, every
Speaker:decision we make as teachers,
Speaker:like we just need to remember the most
Speaker:important question is
Speaker:what am I doing to make sure
Speaker:that they understand, right?
Speaker:So like every single thing I
Speaker:decide to do is about that.
Speaker:It can't just be because I like the sound
Speaker:of my voice or like it has to be,
Speaker:you know, when I do choose to use
Speaker:English, I'm doing it because
Speaker:I want a very quick way to make sure they
Speaker:understand a particular word or phrase.
Speaker:And then I just move on.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:What were you going to say, Pamela?
Speaker:Oh, no. Well, I don't even remember what
Speaker:I was going to say,
Speaker:but that's precisely why
Speaker:we can't work out of a textbook is
Speaker:because every decision we make
Speaker:is so that the students understand and a
Speaker:textbook doesn't have a
Speaker:student in front of it.
Speaker:A textbook is just right.
Speaker:Right. So I don't even remember the other
Speaker:thing I was going to say.
Speaker:Oh, I know what I was going to say.
Speaker:I was going to say that whenever I'm
Speaker:introducing a new
Speaker:game, I'm very game based.
Speaker:Whenever I'm introducing a new game, the
Speaker:first time I give the
Speaker:instructions in English,
Speaker:because my very, very first year teaching
Speaker:this was Japanese, a Japanese for class.
Speaker:They should have known,
Speaker:but we're playing a game.
Speaker:And I suddenly noticed that one of my
Speaker:students is in the corner trying not to
Speaker:show that she's crying
Speaker:because she didn't
Speaker:understand the instructions.
Speaker:And I was like, oh, my gosh, I just
Speaker:raised her effective filter accidentally.
Speaker:And so I'm always
Speaker:like balancing that now.
Speaker:When am I going to use English so that
Speaker:the students understand
Speaker:what it is that they're
Speaker:supposed to do and understand like the
Speaker:key things going on?
Speaker:And is it worth it to stress out my
Speaker:students and now they're
Speaker:shut down and they won't learn
Speaker:versus the quick and dirty.
Speaker:Okay, I'm just going to say
Speaker:this in English right now.
Speaker:Yeah, so you're absolutely right.
Speaker:And my rule always is and for two
Speaker:different reasons,
Speaker:discipline and instructions always
Speaker:need to be in English.
Speaker:I don't do the target
Speaker:language for that for two reasons.
Speaker:One, I don't want the
Speaker:parents to come back.
Speaker:Well, my kid didn't
Speaker:understand what you were saying.
Speaker:So now you failed him because he didn't
Speaker:follow the directions or
Speaker:you punished him because
Speaker:you told him to be quiet, but he didn't
Speaker:understand that that even
Speaker:though you know 100% that they did,
Speaker:they're just using it as an excuse.
Speaker:So yeah, I have my instructions are
Speaker:always in English and my
Speaker:discipline is always in English.
Speaker:And here's a good example for native
Speaker:English speakers in an
Speaker:upper level Spanish class.
Speaker:I put the instructions in
Speaker:English and here's the problem.
Speaker:They didn't understand them.
Speaker:I said, I need you to
Speaker:write this essay double spaced.
Speaker:And these kids were 10th graders and had
Speaker:no idea what double spaced means.
Speaker:I didn't know they didn't know that.
Speaker:So this is what they did.
Speaker:They typed in a word,
Speaker:put two spaces after it.
Speaker:Another word, two spaces after it.
Speaker:Another word, two spaces after it.
Speaker:Because they didn't
Speaker:understand the instructions.
Speaker:They never heard the
Speaker:word double spaced before.
Speaker:And so it was like, oh my gosh.
Speaker:And then my supervisor
Speaker:used to be an English teacher.
Speaker:She goes, oh, no, no, no.
Speaker:When you give instructions like that, you
Speaker:have to be so explicit.
Speaker:So you write an example essay and you go,
Speaker:this is how you write it.
Speaker:You go up in the upper left hand corner.
Speaker:This is where your name goes.
Speaker:Spell it correctly, capital letters.
Speaker:Date goes here.
Speaker:This is your title.
Speaker:Notice how it's
Speaker:centered and it's bold faced.
Speaker:Skip a line.
Speaker:This is your first paragraph.
Speaker:This is where you tell us the general,
Speaker:what you're going to talk about
Speaker:and give us your three points in
Speaker:supporting evidence.
Speaker:And all the instructions
Speaker:are written as an essay.
Speaker:So they know exactly what
Speaker:to do in every paragraph.
Speaker:And it's explicit.
Speaker:And then you don't get the errors.
Speaker:She goes, you assume too
Speaker:much that they understood it.
Speaker:Double spacing words and inch margins and
Speaker:all that kind of stuff.
Speaker:So it was just, I always go back to that.
Speaker:That even in English, for
Speaker:native English speakers,
Speaker:if you're using language they don't
Speaker:understand like double spaced,
Speaker:I thought, how did you, you've had to
Speaker:write in at least an
Speaker:essay in eighth grade,
Speaker:in at least one essay in ninth grade.
Speaker:And is your teacher never asked you to
Speaker:double space before?
Speaker:How are you supposed to
Speaker:write the comments in between
Speaker:if there's not double spaced?
Speaker:I am so glad I wasn't
Speaker:drinking water at that point
Speaker:because I would have had a spit drink.
Speaker:Oh, you know, that just reminded me.
Speaker:There's a guy on YouTube.
Speaker:He doesn't teach, he teaches English, but
Speaker:he's a really cool teacher.
Speaker:And I forgot his real talk with Reynolds,
Speaker:I think is what it's called.
Speaker:I forgot he changed the name recently.
Speaker:So I forgot, but he's been out for years.
Speaker:He's written a book, teacher class off is
Speaker:his book he's got out there.
Speaker:But he just did something with kids.
Speaker:They're all sitting in a
Speaker:circle around the desk.
Speaker:And the goal was you have to say
Speaker:something so strange and so out of place,
Speaker:you're trying to get the kids to spit
Speaker:water out of their mouth.
Speaker:So everybody had water in their mouths.
Speaker:And then it was in English and they had
Speaker:to say something that just was
Speaker:so off the cuff to try to
Speaker:get them to spit the water out.
Speaker:And it was kind of a fun activity.
Speaker:I thought, can you imagine doing that in
Speaker:language had no funny sentences,
Speaker:or even just some of the sentences they
Speaker:say with their mistakes that I love,
Speaker:I cherish when they make mistakes,
Speaker:because then they turn into stories.
Speaker:But that could just make us laugh that
Speaker:out there because I know
Speaker:one kid had told me he said,
Speaker:yeah, are you afraid of big hairy spiders
Speaker:or small hairy spiders?
Speaker:He said small because he
Speaker:thought he was saying big,
Speaker:but he really said small.
Speaker:And so we were all kind of like, really,
Speaker:you're afraid of the small ones,
Speaker:but not the big ones.
Speaker:And it was just kind of a funny little
Speaker:thing that comes out of it.
Speaker:But I thought when you
Speaker:said the drinking the water,
Speaker:they just remind me that little activity
Speaker:that he did that was kind of fun.
Speaker:So, um,
Speaker:not necessarily because we're still
Speaker:working with comprehension,
Speaker:because we know if they
Speaker:spit water, they comprehend it.
Speaker:They got the joke.
Speaker:I wanted to say too, that sometimes
Speaker:evidence of comprehension
Speaker:doesn't happen in that moment.
Speaker:I love it when a few days later, a kid
Speaker:just a phrase falls out of
Speaker:a kid's mouth that I said,
Speaker:you know, a couple of days ago, and I
Speaker:didn't realize that they had it yet.
Speaker:You know, like,
Speaker:uh, it's like sometimes later you find
Speaker:out like, oh, okay, that did go in.
Speaker:That's in their brain.
Speaker:That's in they own
Speaker:that, that word or phrase.
Speaker:I didn't realize they owned it yet.
Speaker:I thought we were still working on it,
Speaker:but that kid has it.
Speaker:And it just comes out in
Speaker:some other random situation.
Speaker:So sometimes you don't know
Speaker:immediately or unintentional.
Speaker:I didn't realize how much I use Tom Poco
Speaker:a lot in my classes,
Speaker:which means either or neither for
Speaker:non-spanish speakers.
Speaker:And I was asking a question and one of my
Speaker:kids answered Tom Poco.
Speaker:And I'm like, where
Speaker:did you learn that word?
Speaker:And they're like, you
Speaker:use it all the time.
Speaker:And I'm like, I didn't realize I used it,
Speaker:but he picked it up.
Speaker:And you know, it's so, you know, they're
Speaker:comprehending when they do that.
Speaker:Or I love it when I see
Speaker:especially a slow processor,
Speaker:because those are the kids I'm really
Speaker:teaching to, because no matter what I do,
Speaker:my middle and top
Speaker:kids will get it somehow.
Speaker:But my, my, my slow
Speaker:processors, that's what I'm targeting.
Speaker:Because if they get it, the odds are
Speaker:everybody else above them got it.
Speaker:But when all of a sudden I
Speaker:see the light bulb go on,
Speaker:when they go from a very neutral
Speaker:expression to a eyebrows up and like,
Speaker:they got it type of expression, and you
Speaker:can see that they're
Speaker:proud of what they did
Speaker:or what they said or that
Speaker:they understood something.
Speaker:It doesn't matter how small.
Speaker:That's a really good
Speaker:moment for me as well.
Speaker:And it lets me know
Speaker:they do the comprehension.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:And I like to celebrate those.
Speaker:Susie Grosz used to say, always do like
Speaker:the one minute little party.
Speaker:And you celebrate, you make a big deal,
Speaker:you clap, you, you make a big deal,
Speaker:you make them a star for just a moment.
Speaker:And you make them feel really good.
Speaker:And that encourages other kids also they
Speaker:go, I want to feel like that.
Speaker:I want that little one minute party.
Speaker:So then they'll push
Speaker:themselves out there.
Speaker:And I celebrate no matter what.
Speaker:Garbage could be coming out of their
Speaker:mouth, but they're talking.
Speaker:I am so happy about it.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:To let them know that I'm just so proud
Speaker:because I rather have
Speaker:garbage than silence.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And sometimes you accidentally.
Speaker:Well, you are a congregation.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Sorry, Darcy.
Speaker:Oh, no, I was just going to say sometimes
Speaker:I've realized that I've
Speaker:accidentally taught them
Speaker:certain phrases, like that wasn't part of
Speaker:my lesson, but because
Speaker:like every day after they do
Speaker:their Quasimodo, which is what I call the
Speaker:bell ringer, because
Speaker:that's Quasimodo's job.
Speaker:So that's a great, I love that.
Speaker:I absolutely love that.
Speaker:I just referred, they know what it is.
Speaker:I say, you know, take five
Speaker:minutes, do your Quasimodo.
Speaker:And then I always go over to the board
Speaker:and stand in the same
Speaker:place and point to the agenda.
Speaker:And I say, you know, what have we done
Speaker:and what we're going to do?
Speaker:And I always say, "Kom dabi tuud," like
Speaker:usual, we're going to do our calendar,
Speaker:we're going to do this.
Speaker:And then I realized kids started saying
Speaker:like, "Kom dabi tuud," all the time.
Speaker:And, you know, it wasn't
Speaker:even part of my lesson.
Speaker:It was just something I said when I was
Speaker:explaining the agenda for the day, but
Speaker:they got it, you know.
Speaker:So, yeah, I love it when that happens.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I'll tell you something else I do to
Speaker:help, to kind of, you know,
Speaker:Pamela's talking about we're always
Speaker:formative assessing and we are.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it doesn't always
Speaker:have to be pencil and paper.
Speaker:It could just be observational.
Speaker:But one of the things that I like to do,
Speaker:and it's so easy to break
Speaker:out and do this at any moment.
Speaker:So if I'm kind of seeing, well, I'm not
Speaker:sure where, if they're
Speaker:getting where we are in the story,
Speaker:then I'm going to pull out
Speaker:what I call the pencil game.
Speaker:And I learned this from Carmen Andrews,
Speaker:and I don't know if it
Speaker:was her original idea or
Speaker:she got it from someone else.
Speaker:But the idea is you have a pencil or an
Speaker:object between two students,
Speaker:and then you ask them
Speaker:true and false questions.
Speaker:And then this is the trick part.
Speaker:This is where the higher
Speaker:order thinking comes in.
Speaker:They're only supposed to grab the object
Speaker:if the answer is false.
Speaker:The instinct is to
Speaker:grab it when it's true.
Speaker:But I want to train them
Speaker:to think when it's false.
Speaker:And it works like this.
Speaker:If the answer is true and you grab the
Speaker:pencil, that's negative one point.
Speaker:If the answer is false and you grab the
Speaker:pencil, it's plus one point.
Speaker:If nobody grabs the pencil, it's neutral.
Speaker:Nobody gets a point one way or the other.
Speaker:Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Speaker:And I like this game for two reasons.
Speaker:The top kids usually
Speaker:are always pencil grabby.
Speaker:And so they lose a lot of points because
Speaker:they grab it when it's true.
Speaker:And they think, and so my slower
Speaker:processors often win
Speaker:because either they have zero points
Speaker:because they never grabbed the pencil
Speaker:because they have no clue.
Speaker:Or they have less negative
Speaker:points than the other kids.
Speaker:So it's a confidence builder for them.
Speaker:But I'm watching them play the game.
Speaker:And so I can see who's
Speaker:understanding and who's not.
Speaker:Because you'll see some who hesitant and
Speaker:they're not sure to pull it in there.
Speaker:Or they grab it before
Speaker:you finish the question.
Speaker:So I like that one because it's no prep.
Speaker:I don't have to do any prep whatsoever.
Speaker:I'm just like, we're
Speaker:going to play a lot with this.
Speaker:Let's go get the pencils out.
Speaker:And they put a pencil between two pairs.
Speaker:They know how to play the game.
Speaker:And we go and I can do
Speaker:two or three questions.
Speaker:And then we can go back into what we were
Speaker:doing and work that way.
Speaker:So it's a great, quick, easy way and fun
Speaker:way for me to check
Speaker:for that comprehension
Speaker:to make sure they're actually getting it.
Speaker:Because in middle school is much easier
Speaker:to see if they were going to
Speaker:be able to understand or not.
Speaker:Their facial
Speaker:expressions would let me know.
Speaker:Because I taught
Speaker:middle school for 11 years.
Speaker:But now I'm in what my 12th year of
Speaker:teaching high school,
Speaker:13th year of teaching high school,
Speaker:something around there.
Speaker:And the high school
Speaker:schools are too cool for school.
Speaker:So they don't always
Speaker:show it in their faces.
Speaker:So this is a fun way that I can do it
Speaker:really quickly, really
Speaker:easily without having to
Speaker:prepare anything or have anything
Speaker:prepared to assess that.
Speaker:A formal comprehension question quiz or
Speaker:something like that.
Speaker:So I really like that as
Speaker:a way to be able to tell.
Speaker:Keeps the kids on their toes.
Speaker:And it's a fun way.
Speaker:They don't think I'm watching.
Speaker:They don't and you know, and I give out
Speaker:candy for the winners.
Speaker:But it's just a fun way to
Speaker:be able to assess right away.
Speaker:Did they get it or did they not?
Speaker:And you're not only assessing, but
Speaker:chances are at by the end
Speaker:of that little activity,
Speaker:some kid has moved further in their
Speaker:understanding just by virtue of doing
Speaker:this assessment that you've created.
Speaker:Because they're also hearing at the same
Speaker:time, their language is
Speaker:being repeated over and over.
Speaker:And I'd like to do this with readings,
Speaker:too, like I have a
Speaker:reading up on the board.
Speaker:So I'll be the pair.
Speaker:I do when I do readings on the board, I
Speaker:have it at a PowerPoint
Speaker:and I have each paragraph
Speaker:is on a different slide.
Speaker:So they know that when I'm asking
Speaker:questions, this paragraph,
Speaker:the answer is somewhere in
Speaker:that paragraph.
Speaker:They don't have to
Speaker:think about the whole story.
Speaker:They have to just think about the
Speaker:paragraph and I can slide
Speaker:through the paragraphs and
Speaker:ask questions, which allows me to repeat
Speaker:the kids are rereading.
Speaker:So they're getting it over again.
Speaker:And it's also reducing the amount of
Speaker:knowledge they have to
Speaker:keep in their head at one time
Speaker:for those slower processors.
Speaker:They know they don't have to think about,
Speaker:well, what happened before this point?
Speaker:What happened after this point?
Speaker:Or are we talking about this point?
Speaker:It's right there at
Speaker:that section of the story.
Speaker:It's kind of like what Blaine always used
Speaker:to do with his stories where he says when
Speaker:you're asking questions about the
Speaker:beginning of the story,
Speaker:you need to stand where you
Speaker:were at the beginning because there's
Speaker:always three places.
Speaker:So your first place, you ask questions
Speaker:about that place, you're
Speaker:standing in that place.
Speaker:So that helps those slower
Speaker:processors with visual cues.
Speaker:It goes, oh, he's talking about the house
Speaker:because that's where
Speaker:he started right there
Speaker:in that spot.
Speaker:And it really helps those all those
Speaker:little things that we do as teachers.
Speaker:And, you know, Darcy, you said all the
Speaker:little decisions we have
Speaker:to make live at the moment,
Speaker:we're making thousands and thousands of
Speaker:micro decisions at every
Speaker:moment to move the class
Speaker:forward or stay where we are
Speaker:because kids need more practice.
Speaker:They need to park right there and stay
Speaker:there for a while to be able to get that
Speaker:comprehension going.
Speaker:So this is one of you hit on one of the
Speaker:problems that we're
Speaker:having as a district right now
Speaker:is that the district has gone whole hog
Speaker:and I'm talking to other
Speaker:people around the country
Speaker:kind of similarly district has gone whole
Speaker:hog into this idea of
Speaker:professional learning teams.
Speaker:I don't know if you guys
Speaker:have heard of this or anything.
Speaker:So the idea is I'm one
Speaker:of four Spanish teachers.
Speaker:Thank goodness.
Speaker:I'm the only French
Speaker:teacher, the only Japanese teacher.
Speaker:I'm beholden to no one.
Speaker:I can do whatever the heck I want, but I
Speaker:want to force yours and
Speaker:we have to march lockstep.
Speaker:We all have to work out of a
Speaker:textbook and we all have to.
Speaker:So there's like, you're going to give a
Speaker:common formative
Speaker:assessment on the same day.
Speaker:And I'm like, wait a minute.
Speaker:If you're doing something deliberately,
Speaker:it's no longer a formative assessment.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:But knowing that that the idea like I've
Speaker:got two Spanish one classes,
Speaker:my two Spanish one classes
Speaker:are not at the same point.
Speaker:Class dynamics are very different.
Speaker:So if my two Spanish one
Speaker:classes can't be at the same point,
Speaker:how can they be at the same point of my
Speaker:other colleagues Spanish one classes?
Speaker:Because it makes no logical sense to make
Speaker:us like you all have to do
Speaker:the same thing at the same time.
Speaker:Oh, that is one of my pet peeves.
Speaker:That's not really a
Speaker:professional learning team.
Speaker:That's a different type of thing that we
Speaker:at least the way we define it.
Speaker:But yeah, it's been a thing that they
Speaker:said that we have been the
Speaker:same page at the same time.
Speaker:Because if the kids ever move from one
Speaker:class to another, I'm like,
Speaker:and how often does that happen?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:How often does it happen?
Speaker:It happens.
Speaker:And it happens.
Speaker:And it normally happens at the beginning
Speaker:of the year when they're
Speaker:trying to figure it out.
Speaker:It doesn't happen in
Speaker:the middle of the year.
Speaker:So my thing is always I like
Speaker:to say, we should have like,
Speaker:where should the kids be at the end of
Speaker:our teaching period?
Speaker:So for me, it's a semester for you.
Speaker:It's a year.
Speaker:That's what we need to get to.
Speaker:It doesn't matter how we get there.
Speaker:Teaching method.
Speaker:It doesn't matter how fast we get there.
Speaker:Because let's say if we're all going to
Speaker:meet at a conference in Florida,
Speaker:some of you can drive
Speaker:because you're close.
Speaker:Some of you don't like to fly.
Speaker:So you take a train or a bus.
Speaker:Some of you have to
Speaker:fly because it's too far.
Speaker:It doesn't matter how we got there.
Speaker:The destination is the same.
Speaker:So I'm right there with you
Speaker:there, number one, number two.
Speaker:Because even my classes where I try to
Speaker:keep lock step aren't in lock step.
Speaker:But I do believe in common assessments.
Speaker:But I don't believe in common assessments
Speaker:that are skill specific.
Speaker:I like proficiency assessments.
Speaker:Because a proficiency assessment doesn't,
Speaker:it's assessing that you're on,
Speaker:you've got through
Speaker:unit two, section four.
Speaker:It's that have they got these general
Speaker:concepts they need by
Speaker:this time of the year.
Speaker:And so those ones I like.
Speaker:Are schools working
Speaker:on common assessments?
Speaker:My previous school, we
Speaker:were way beyond this.
Speaker:This school is really backwards.
Speaker:It takes, if they're taking a long time
Speaker:to get to the same place
Speaker:that I have been, my school
Speaker:has been for like 10 years.
Speaker:But they are like looking at, can they do
Speaker:the adjective agreement?
Speaker:That's what they want to
Speaker:make a common assessment on.
Speaker:If they can match the common.
Speaker:I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker:Let's make an assessment that they can
Speaker:understand the vocabulary
Speaker:we've been working with.
Speaker:Because they're like, well,
Speaker:your listings are way too long.
Speaker:Because my listings are like this, and
Speaker:their listings are like this.
Speaker:And I'm like, but my kids can do it.
Speaker:And they don't think they go when they go
Speaker:to yours, they think it's way too simple.
Speaker:They're not really
Speaker:feeling challenged at all.
Speaker:And it's just because they don't use that
Speaker:much language in the class.
Speaker:And I'm one of the few
Speaker:who aren't a native speaker.
Speaker:And I'm not knocking
Speaker:native speakers at all.
Speaker:But they because they're so it's the
Speaker:textbook that I'm knocking here,
Speaker:because they're so
Speaker:ingrained in the textbook.
Speaker:And the textbook does not teach in the
Speaker:second language, it teaches in English
Speaker:and has sprinkles of language in there.
Speaker:That you're right, if you only use the
Speaker:textbook, your kids are not
Speaker:going to be able to understand
Speaker:more language, even though I
Speaker:know you as a native speaker
Speaker:could speak the entire class in the
Speaker:language without a problem.
Speaker:And the textbook is disconnected.
Speaker:It's here's a sentence, here's a
Speaker:sentence, here's a sentence.
Speaker:They're not connected together.
Speaker:Yeah, I know kids can memorize all the
Speaker:vocabulary and all the grammar rules,
Speaker:but they've never come together.
Speaker:So the kids don't know how to apply the
Speaker:grammar rules with it's the application.
Speaker:Yeah. Yep. Right.
Speaker:It's teaching about
Speaker:language, not language itself.
Speaker:That's my big
Speaker:difference with the textbook.
Speaker:So I have to use a textbook,
Speaker:but I don't teach the textbook.
Speaker:We never open it.
Speaker:In fact, it's sitting on my whiteboard
Speaker:and a little chalk
Speaker:seal just so that knows.
Speaker:So if an administrator comes in, they
Speaker:know that I've it's there.
Speaker:And I teach the content of it.
Speaker:I'm sorry, what?
Speaker:I have a case where we've had a student
Speaker:switch classes at the semester,
Speaker:but I've also had like this year, I have
Speaker:a student who's been sick
Speaker:the entire first semester
Speaker:and just enrolled in school right now.
Speaker:Okay. So all these
Speaker:students are the same to me.
Speaker:I'm a good enough teacher.
Speaker:I hope that.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:You don't know your, your verb endings.
Speaker:I can catch you up in five minutes.
Speaker:Okay. It's not that difficult.
Speaker:You don't know this thing.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That we'll work on that.
Speaker:I'll get you caught up on that.
Speaker:So to me, it's not a real issue that
Speaker:students switch at the semester
Speaker:or a new student moves to town.
Speaker:Or whatever, like we are professionals.
Speaker:I've got students in my class that I've
Speaker:been teaching for a year and a half
Speaker:and they don't know all the things that I
Speaker:think they should know, you know,
Speaker:and I've got students I've been teaching
Speaker:for a year and a half
Speaker:and they're, they're at a
Speaker:third year level, you know?
Speaker:So it's just, it's differentiation and
Speaker:that's just part of good teaching.
Speaker:So anyway, that's, that's.
Speaker:It goes back to being comprehended.
Speaker:It doesn't matter if
Speaker:the kid was absent or not,
Speaker:or if the kid just
Speaker:enrolled or if they're brand new
Speaker:and they came from a textbook class.
Speaker:Doesn't matter if you are
Speaker:making yourself comprehended.
Speaker:It doesn't matter.
Speaker:It doesn't matter
Speaker:because that's the whole goal.
Speaker:Because the only
Speaker:thing the kid cares about
Speaker:and the only thing that I care about is
Speaker:that they understand what I'm saying.
Speaker:Because I could teach the
Speaker:subjunctive on day one in Spanish.
Speaker:Because all the kids care about is what
Speaker:the heck did you say
Speaker:and what does it mean?
Speaker:They don't need to know all the different
Speaker:uses for subjunctive
Speaker:and when it comes up in
Speaker:Spanish and how to form it,
Speaker:they'll pick that up through the
Speaker:comprehension process.
Speaker:Their brain will figure it out.
Speaker:It's much smarter than I could ever be.
Speaker:So they're going to
Speaker:figure all that stuff out.
Speaker:All you have to do is make it
Speaker:comprehended by the students.
Speaker:And so my kids, the favorite
Speaker:activity my kids like to do,
Speaker:they think they're getting me off track.
Speaker:They'll ask me about my proms or they'll
Speaker:ask me about my driving experiences.
Speaker:And I'll tell them in Spanish and it's
Speaker:the best time because number one,
Speaker:they're all paying attention.
Speaker:I don't have to worry
Speaker:because they all want to know
Speaker:about my first date or whatever that is.
Speaker:I'm telling them in the target language,
Speaker:they look at the agenda and say we didn't
Speaker:get to anything that was on there
Speaker:in the whole 90 minutes that we didn't
Speaker:touch a single thing on there.
Speaker:And I'm like, that was the
Speaker:best class I've had in weeks.
Speaker:So they think they got me
Speaker:because they got me off task,
Speaker:but my goal really is no
Speaker:matter what's on my agenda,
Speaker:what my administrator
Speaker:wants, what the textbook wants,
Speaker:my goal is to speak the
Speaker:target language as much as possible
Speaker:and make sure it's
Speaker:comprehended by the kids.
Speaker:That's my only two goals.
Speaker:And so that was a knock
Speaker:out of the park for me.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:You know, because they learn so much
Speaker:because I can't speak when I talk with
Speaker:that without using past tense and present
Speaker:tense and it's a junctive.
Speaker:All those things come
Speaker:into play naturally.
Speaker:Can you imagine if we
Speaker:taught our children,
Speaker:I'm sorry, it's your first year of life.
Speaker:I can only speak to you in present tense.
Speaker:Oh, here's here.
Speaker:You just turned one.
Speaker:Guess what?
Speaker:This is the past tense year.
Speaker:We don't do present tense anymore.
Speaker:It's all about the past
Speaker:tense and then you just hit two.
Speaker:It's your third year.
Speaker:Guess what?
Speaker:The rest of the grammar all
Speaker:comes rushing at you at once.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:But that's how textbooks are like.
Speaker:I had a kid in Spanish too goes, what
Speaker:happened to the present tense?
Speaker:We never use it anymore because the whole
Speaker:Spanish two textbook is all past tense
Speaker:because they teach it so segmented and
Speaker:you can't separate it out.
Speaker:You can't teach.
Speaker:Like I said, focus on verbs
Speaker:because everything else comes into play.
Speaker:Prepositions, adjectives, agreement, word
Speaker:order, all comes into
Speaker:play when you focus on verbs.
Speaker:And when you focus on
Speaker:verbs, I'm speaking in present.
Speaker:I'm speaking in future.
Speaker:I'm speaking in past as naturally and the
Speaker:brain will figure it all out.
Speaker:It's really good at doing that.
Speaker:I also feel like the verbs are a little
Speaker:harder to understand.
Speaker:They're abstract, right?
Speaker:And so once you have the verbs, hey, the
Speaker:noun, I'm holding a pencil right now.
Speaker:So obviously I'm talking about a pencil
Speaker:or, you know, the nouns
Speaker:are easier to figure out.
Speaker:They're concrete, the adjectives, the
Speaker:description for the noun.
Speaker:So when you talk about being
Speaker:comprehended, like
Speaker:once you've got the verbs,
Speaker:pretty much everything else in the
Speaker:sentence you can figure out by context.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And if you can't figure it out right now,
Speaker:wait a couple of sentences
Speaker:and then it'll all click, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I agree totally with verbs.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because observers tell me
Speaker:to go, I've never saw it.
Speaker:How do you know that they know how to say
Speaker:boy and girl and man and woman and book?
Speaker:I'm like, because when we do writing or
Speaker:they're talking, they're using them.
Speaker:Well, how did you teach them?
Speaker:I go, I didn't.
Speaker:We wrote a story the
Speaker:other day about a girl.
Speaker:This time it was about a book.
Speaker:It just, it comes up naturally.
Speaker:But the verbs are what I really need to
Speaker:because when kids are looking
Speaker:for things to be able to say
Speaker:what they usually get
Speaker:hung up on are verbs.
Speaker:They don't have enough
Speaker:verbs to be able to say.
Speaker:And so I use Dr. Terry, Waltz's Super 7,
Speaker:along with Mike Tito's Sweet 16.
Speaker:So my goal is to teach the
Speaker:Sweet 16 in all of my classes.
Speaker:So he does his whole curriculum, levels
Speaker:one through AP off the Sweet 16.
Speaker:They focus on those verbs, but in
Speaker:different tenses each year.
Speaker:And so that's kind of what I do as well.
Speaker:And those Sweet 16, they're not the most,
Speaker:always the most frequent verbs,
Speaker:but they're most the
Speaker:biggest verb for the punch.
Speaker:Meaning you can use
Speaker:them, they're more versatile.
Speaker:So they like go is in there and you might
Speaker:not be able to say fly
Speaker:or walk or run or drive,
Speaker:but you can say go and it
Speaker:gets the same meaning across.
Speaker:And you might not be able to say needs,
Speaker:but you can say wants,
Speaker:which is close enough.
Speaker:So by knowing these Sweet 16 verbs
Speaker:forwards and backwards,
Speaker:then you can really express a good 90% of
Speaker:what you want, albeit
Speaker:at a more simple level.
Speaker:But who cares when you're
Speaker:working in another language,
Speaker:if you can make yourself understood,
Speaker:that's the whole point.
Speaker:And by making yourself understood,
Speaker:you're actually acquiring more language
Speaker:as the communication comes back at you.
Speaker:So you are growing with that.
Speaker:Yeah, those
Speaker:circumlocution skills are so crucial.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:You need to teach.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I have circumlocution posters on my wall.
Speaker:So I have, you know, person, place,
Speaker:animal, idea or thing.
Speaker:And so they'll go and they and the
Speaker:Spanish words are up
Speaker:there along with pictures.
Speaker:They know they'll go.
Speaker:There's an animal.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So then I go, oh, es un ferdo, perfecto.
Speaker:And then we learn a new
Speaker:word together in there.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I had one kid goes, es
Speaker:un perro que ditimiao.
Speaker:Because he didn't know cat.
Speaker:So he said, it's a dog that says meow.
Speaker:We understood.
Speaker:It was either a dog who
Speaker:really spoke a foreign language,
Speaker:which is a good story, or it was a cat.
Speaker:And so you can have some fun.
Speaker:And I had one kid.
Speaker:I want to end with this
Speaker:is a funny little story.
Speaker:And this is why I love when kids make
Speaker:mistakes, because it
Speaker:makes for funny stories.
Speaker:I always write every
Speaker:semester I have news stories,
Speaker:because all my stories are
Speaker:based off the kids in my class.
Speaker:So this is last year, Spanish too.
Speaker:I work at a career in tech academy.
Speaker:So one of the careers is culinary.
Speaker:So this kid was in the culinary program.
Speaker:So I was asking, I said, what do you want
Speaker:to be when you grow up?
Speaker:Because I want to be a chef.
Speaker:And I go, well, what kind of restaurant?
Speaker:You want a fast food restaurant, an
Speaker:elegant restaurant, a casual restaurant?
Speaker:He goes, I want an elegant restaurant.
Speaker:And what do you want to serve?
Speaker:What kind of food?
Speaker:And he was looking for the word steak,
Speaker:but he didn't know the word for steak.
Speaker:But he knew the word for cow.
Speaker:So he said, baka cow.
Speaker:And I interpreted, I knew what he meant.
Speaker:So I knew he wanted a steak restaurant.
Speaker:So I taught him the word for steak.
Speaker:And we went on from there.
Speaker:But in my mind, I'm
Speaker:like, this is a funny story.
Speaker:So I wrote a story about this kid who
Speaker:opened up a restaurant that was elegant.
Speaker:And instead of him serving steak, he
Speaker:served cows as the clients.
Speaker:Oh, he served the cows.
Speaker:The cows.
Speaker:So he had grass pizza, wheat grass juice.
Speaker:This is very very Larson.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it was a really funny story because he
Speaker:made this circumlocution
Speaker:faux pas kind of like thing.
Speaker:And it became a really, really funny
Speaker:story the kids really, really like.
Speaker:And what I like about this is at the end
Speaker:of the year, I will print
Speaker:out all the stories of each
Speaker:kid and hand it to them
Speaker:at the end of the year.
Speaker:So they have the stories that they go,
Speaker:you know, that were about
Speaker:them throughout the year.
Speaker:So they have like a
Speaker:little memory sake of that.
Speaker:And with AI, and I know not everybody's
Speaker:with AI, but I use as
Speaker:a classroom assistant.
Speaker:And one of the things I do for these
Speaker:stories is I'll have I'll
Speaker:upload a picture of the kid
Speaker:without their name or anything on there.
Speaker:And you can do it in a cognito mode.
Speaker:Now in chat, you can do it in cognito.
Speaker:So it doesn't save
Speaker:any of the information.
Speaker:And I upload their picture and I'll say,
Speaker:okay, I need him to be a
Speaker:chef at a cow restaurant.
Speaker:And it makes a little funny
Speaker:picture that goes with it.
Speaker:And the picture looks like my kid.
Speaker:It's a cartoon version of the kid.
Speaker:And so the kids really like those too.
Speaker:When I do those kinds
Speaker:of funny little pictures.
Speaker:And it makes it just a
Speaker:little more personal.
Speaker:And it really gets them to
Speaker:pay attention and have fun.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So do we have anywhere a
Speaker:little bit over that's okay?
Speaker:Does anybody have any final thoughts that
Speaker:they would like to add
Speaker:before we close out for today?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Don't give up.
Speaker:Keep on keeping on.
Speaker:I'd say the only time you're in trouble
Speaker:is when your kids are talking in English.
Speaker:So hush them.
Speaker:That's the only time if they're sitting
Speaker:there silently looking
Speaker:like a deer in headlights.
Speaker:Keep going because you're
Speaker:going to circle back to it.
Speaker:They're probably processing.
Speaker:If they're not processing, they'll be
Speaker:processing soon enough.
Speaker:So just stay the course.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:What about you, Darcy?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What she said.
Speaker:And also just continue having
Speaker:conversations with
Speaker:colleagues like we're doing right now.
Speaker:You come away with ideas.
Speaker:You come away feeling that
Speaker:what you're doing is validated.
Speaker:So just continue talking about these
Speaker:things and talking about your questions
Speaker:and your insecurities
Speaker:with people who know what
Speaker:you do and who do what you do.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:And also have conversations with those
Speaker:who don't do it exactly the way you do.
Speaker:Because I think there's value in
Speaker:everything that all of us do
Speaker:and that we can learn little
Speaker:techniques from everybody.
Speaker:So they can learn from us just as much as
Speaker:we can learn from them as well.
Speaker:I think it's really important.
Speaker:So with that, I want to go ahead and say
Speaker:thank you to our guests.
Speaker:I really appreciate Darcy and Pamela
Speaker:joining today live TV.
Speaker:So thank you so much
Speaker:for joining us today.
Speaker:I'm comprehend this.
Speaker:My huge thanks to Darcy and Pamela for
Speaker:diving into the awkward
Speaker:reality of teaching to blank
Speaker:stairs and reminding us that
Speaker:comprehension doesn't always look pretty
Speaker:or obvious or reassuring in
Speaker:the moment.
Speaker:And if today's episode helped you breathe
Speaker:a little easier the
Speaker:next time your students
Speaker:look emotionally unavailable but
Speaker:linguistically very much
Speaker:present, then we've done our job.
Speaker:And if you haven't yet, make sure to
Speaker:subscribe, leave a review
Speaker:and share this episode with a
Speaker:fellow language teacher who's currently
Speaker:mid-lesson thinking, is this working?
Speaker:And remember, you can watch us live on
Speaker:YouTube or catch the replay on your
Speaker:favorite podcast app.
Speaker:Ditch the drills, trust the process, and
Speaker:I'll see you next
Speaker:time on Comprehend This.
Speaker:Have a good one everybody.
