Universal Design for Learning

Hi all!  This still isn't the update I want to post (I do appreciate the words of encouragement and support everyone has been giving me this year!), but this provides some insight as to how I have been spending my semester outside my classroom... as a graduate student.  The good news is I'll be done in July.

Anyway, here is a link to a website I created supporting TPRS/CI with the universal design for learning  concept.  If you're not familiar with UDL, that's what the site is supposed to familiarize you with.

I thought it might interest some of you, so here you go!

https://sites.google.com/site/udlbasics/

Processing NTPRS for Success in a New Year

The title makes it sound relatively easy, but as I try to re-read my notes I feel daunted.  I am extremely excited to go into my second year of TPRS and third year of teaching, but I need to focus myself in order to improve my skills for my students.  I feel daunted now because of the copious amounts of knowledge that was shared with me at NTPRS.  It was an invaluable experience because now I know that I am no longer alone.  Last year I clung on to the internet (Laurie's blog, Ben's blog, moreTPRS listserv, etc) in order to feel not alone, but there's something new this year with actually meeting people who are doing this.  I am forever grateful for the TPRS army (credit to mme. Hayles).

My take-aways from NTPRS:

1. SLOW - Thank you Linda Li & Bryce Hedstrom (& Ben Slavic for his recent post on research regarding this)
2. The brain craves novelty - Thank you Carol Gaab & Kristy Placido
1.  Jibjab
2. Stories worth retelling (credit to Bryce Hedstrom)
3. Use news stories and culture stories
4. Use props like my dog uses toys.  Circulate them as the kids loose interest.  Not every story has to have a bunch of props.
3. You don't have to be creative on your feet immediately, write down each sentence of a story on note card with possibilities for each thing (10-15 note cards/story) - Thank you Michelle (not sure of the last name, but she was a French teacher and fantastic coach!)
4. There are other people who are more isolated than me doing this - Thanks roomie Kristin Duncan
5. Organize and Manage the Board - Thank you Carol Gaab & Susan Gross
1. TL and L1 in different colors
2. Don't over-fill the board - have the structures up there and then enrichment vocabulary, not everything needs to be written down
6. Give sts jobs in order to personalize the class - 
1. See Ben Slavic's post (members only)
7. Contrast Grammar in order to fulfill the curriculum - Thank you Susan Gross & Betsy Paskvan! (This was my big break-through in the coaching room too)

My professional goals for August:

1. Check-in with colleagues to see how they are doing (esp. Charlotte, Vicki, Carrie and Laura)
2. Focus on SLOW and personalized input (TPR and Circle with balls)
3. Use Scott Benedict’s textbook to TPRS to help align myself with the curriculum/vocab again and to model to my colleagues that it can be done without abandoning the safety of a textbook.  Focus on having characters DO what the student objectives are for each chapter.
4. Begin using standards-based grading with my sts.
5. Video one class and submit it to Ben.

Lastly, I made slides to print out to help me accomplish my goals in my classroom.  I made them available here.  They're similar to the ones at NTPRS in the coaching rooms. 

Straying...

It's been awhile since I've had the time (ie made the priority) to blog.  We've made it through CSAPs and now we're staring spring break in the face: only 3 more days. 

Today, in the midst of my planning madness, I had an epiphany.  Recently, well very honestly since winter break, I've hit a rough patch.  Especially in first year I've been struggling with personalization.  Today we're (trying) to finish an extended reading.  I know most people have trouble making things last with TPRS, but I have trouble making things end.  I think I stray too much from the story, and don't focus on the structures enough.  I know I've been doing a worse job lately, but it takes time to figure out exactly what the problem is and what to do about it.

But I think I finally did it.  I need to focus on 1) Providing CI, 2) Providing Personalization, 3)Choosing structures that are high frequency.  And that's where I get lost. 

I'm using the LICT series with my year 1's and 3's.  Year 1's, I've been mainly using Blaine's stories and his structures, but I haven't been successful with using his high frequency structures with personalization.  I think this is due to me trying to "force" situations in which vocabulary from the curriculum will come up.  

I need to remember: "Shelter vocabulary, not grammar" and also, "TEACH high frequency, COVER the rest." 

Sunday, Fun day

Sundays usually come with some anxiety for me.  The past couple have been exceptionally bad.  I get anxious because I'm worried/doubtful that I've got the very best story/lesson possible for Monday's classes.  Once first and second period on Monday have passed, I'm usually much better.  And by the end of the day, I'm confident that I can make it the rest of the week.  Why is Sunday so stressful? 
This Sunday's remedy came when I finally crafted a story for my third years with the following structures: no digas (don't say/tell), no pongas (don't put), no te pierdas (don't get lost).  It's difficult to come up with a story with all three.  It was probably pretty silly of me to pick these three commands, but alas I have a story.  It involves Bill Gates eating love pills (from another story) and talking with a few of his friends and his mother about his overpowering love of Lady Gaga.  He gets better when Steve Jobs gives him a shot of hate.  There's a lot of dialogue because we're focusing on commands, so I'm banking on the fact that my students will help me out.  I hope they will.  January always makes for a tough crowd. Happy Sunday!

How to create interesting stories with time-limited classes????

Lately, I've realized that I continue to make the same mistake with my third year students - I teach too high for most of them.  Since my students only meet for an hour at a time for only three days a week, they don't have the same level of background/acquisition as other third year students.  This makes it difficult because they haven't acquired as much, but the curriculum we follow seems to disregard the lack of time/acquisition that my students have had. 
I'm struggling with creating interesting, grammar-focused, vocabulary limited stories for them.  But then again, maybe I'm not letting them play the game - I need to personalize more.

An epiphany about being overwhelmed...

The beginning of a new semester seems to bring a certain amount of overwhelming emotion: anxiety, excitement, fear, worry, tiredness, etc.  Now that our first week back is over, I'm feeling much more confident and relaxed. 

We started out just doing PQA, to get students interested and to review. After all, PQA is the best and easiest thing ever.  The students are interested because we're talking about them all the time, but just using different structures.  It's easy to review and introduce using PQA. 

I was really starting to feel overwhelmed though as I was looking at my vocab lists from last year.  Since this is my first year with TPRS, I started paring down my lists into the 2000 most frequent words in the language.  It's really difficult to do because of the fear of my colleagues thinking poorly of me for teaching fewer words.  It's overwhelming to look at a list of 500 words and think "I have to teach all of these". 

But while driving home, I realized that during last semester, and even at the end I felt wonderful for doing this thing.  I know my students knew the "vocab" better than they ever had, and that they had tasted true success in Spanish. I know that it works better for me to teach fewer things, way more in depth than a ton of things not at all.

Rigor

As a second year teacher we have meetings with other teachers new to the building along with our mentors and some other important people from time to time.  Today we discussed "rigor" and what it means.
Personally, I'm not a fan of the term rigor as it is defined by dictionary.com: "strictness, severity, or harshness, as in dealing with people."  When I think of rigor it means always engaging students at K+1 (where as K=students' level of knowledge) with the aim of encouraging and inspiring each student to become an independent learner in order to be a productive global citizen.  We discussed this term in groups and came to some similar conclusions.
A theme that stuck out was the fact that representatives from most departments feel that we try to teach too much, but we don't go into enough depth.  One person from my department commented that she felt it was more important for students to be able to "put it all together" rather than know a bunch of random vocabulary.  I was excited by that comment and with the agreement of others in my department.  
It's disillusioning to have so much curriculum to "cover" but never really feel like the students are getting it.  It's frustrating to get to the end of the semester, just to realize you're standing by yourself and your students have been gone since week 2.  It's comments from colleagues like these that give me hope that the change I'm trying in my classroom, will be validated and will give others the opportunities to try changes they wish to see. 
What is rigor to you in the TPRS/CI/WL classroom?  What small victories have you had lately, since at this time of year, no victory is too small to celebrate?