Preaching to Acquire

As I sit here preparing my presentation for Mitten CI, I can't help but reflect on how far I've come in my teaching practices in the past few years. Two years ago, I was still using a textbook to guide my instruction.  I was giving my students vocabulary lists to memorize, and while I tried my best to make those activities "fun," it was really pretty miserable for them (and me).  I also would use the grammar activities in the textbook and teach the grammar "rules."  Again, I tried to make it as interesting as possible, but it was also pretty miserable for everyone involved. That's why I'm SO fired up to give my presentation on "Using the Textbook to Develop Proficiency" at Mitten CI .  You guys, if I had known these incredible strategies years ago, I could have made my textbook units SO much more compelling and comprehensible for my students.  It also would have made my transition from textbook to CI much less stressful!  There are so m

I'm going to share a little bit of my heart with you all in this post.  My teacher heart has this crazy passion fire burning in it, and I want to challenge those of you who teach language using comprehensible input. Obviously, this is going to differ from state to state, but I will speak from my experience as a Wisconsin teacher. In my methods classes, we read about Krashen and his research, but we did not spend time discussing or practicing how to use that in our language classrooms.  Therefore, I had graduated college and started teaching using the same methods that I was taught.  I LOVED my Spanish classes and assumed that all students would find success the way I had.  Wrong. So I started looking for more resources on how to teach certain things because my students weren't getting it.  I knew I needed to make a change.  I stumbled upon The Comprehensible Classroom by Martina Bex  and from there started swirling down the rabbit hole of ALL OF THE COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT. 

In case you don't know what a bail out move is... it's an activity that the teacher can do with little to no prep in case they need to "bail out" of their lesson that isn't working well, or it can be used if you have a few minutes of class left and don't know what to do with it. My favorite bail out move is a listening game/circumlocution game that I learned from Luke Worthington (who learned it from one of his professors).  It's super easy, requires little prep, and the kids get ALL OF THE INPUT! 1.  Give the students a small sheet of paper. 2. Have them separate it into categories (place, thing, food, animal, clothing, person, etc).  You could cater these categories to what you're trying to focus on in class if you wanted...or not! 3.  Under the category title, the students should write an example for it in L1 or L2 (animal: tiger, person: Ariana Grande, etc). 4. They should cut or tear their paper into small cards that have one categor

Most days I really try to not get my students too excited, because it usually leads to chaos and headaches for me.  Every once and a while things get wild and work! This lesson is an example of that.  I love making OWIs (one word images) with my classes, but it can be hit or miss if I end up with a headache at the end of the lesson.  We got carried away with a ton of details, but it worked... the kids were engaged, we were using a bunch of Spanish, and we were laughing.  What more can you ask for? The awesome thing about OWIs is that you can do so much with them...if you want.  We eventually named the teeth (Bluetooth, Un-Mellow Yellow, and Snotty Scotty).  We haven't done anything else with them, but they are proudly on display in my classroom at the ready for if I need 'em.  Stories, adventures...who knows! The possibilities are endless. AND on top of that... my student artist who was drawing the OWI is the daughter of two dentists!

I'm sure I'll get asked why I decided to call my blog "Preaching to Acquire," so I figured I'd just make a post about it! Well... I imagine most of the people who decide to read my blog will be language teachers, many of whom already teach for acquisition and proficiency in their classrooms.  It which case, I'm literally preaching to the choir about how I teach. Ha! If that isn't you...welcome! If you are a language teacher, I hope I can help you find some joy in your journey as well.

Dear Kaitlin, I know you are SO excited to finally get out into the real teaching world and teach Spanish.  I  know that you want to teach Spanish to help build connections and community between cultures and languages.  I know that you felt successful in Spanish classes and LOVED all of the games and activities you played to memorize the many vocabulary words and verb conjugations.  I know you still have songs and chants memorized and can’t wait to teach those same things to your students. ...but what if I told you that they way you were taught isn’t equitable for all students.  You don’t even understand what equity is.  I get it.  You grew up in a community of people who looked and lived almost exactly like you - in a privileged community.  What if I told you that many of the students you work with will not grow up in a household that supports their education?  What if I told you that the way you learned Spanish won’t work for many kids and it actually sets them up for failure and

Before I dive in sharing about the roller coaster journey of a language teacher, I wanted to introduce myself! I started my teaching career in Baltimore, MD.  I taught Spanish grades 6-12 for two years.  After those two years, I decided to move back home to Wisconsin.  I've been teaching 5th-8th grade Spanish (and a little spelling, math, and reading along the way) at a public charter school for the past 5 years, and I love my job. Two years ago, I was ready to quit.  "Wait. I thought you JUST said you love your job?!" I do.  Now. Honestly, as each school year came to a close, and I had to sign my contract for the next year, I would seriously consider if I wanted to return to my school or teaching in general.  What changed? ME.  I'll save some of those stories for another post, but it's been quite a journey.  I'm so thankful that I didn't throw in the towel as I firmly believe that I am exactly where God intends for me to be.  The peace that comes wi