Month: March 2022

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Student success can be elusive at times if we don’t understand how to build confidence in the language classroom. Let’s first put ourselves in the shoes of our students and consider for a moment what it is like for them to achieve student success.

Learning to speak another language can be scary and intimidating! There is the challenge of having the right vocabulary words to express oneself as well as the right structures, not to mention the correct pronunciation. This can be overwhelming for any student to consider all at once. 

Measuring student success using the ACTFL Language Standards 

Using rubrics that clearly outline the expectations for student success can alleviate anxiety for language students and give them specific goals to work toward.

In the Wayside EntreCulturas textbook series for French and Spanish, the rubrics for the ACTFL Standards can be found in the indices at the back of the book and adapted for individual use. Teachers really need a MOPI training workshop in order to interpret them best.

Today’s language teacher needs a clear understanding of what it means to be a novice, intermediate, or advanced language student according to these standards in order to create a standards-based classroom where students know what is entailed in reaching success. It is amazing to watch students strive to reach standards when they know specifically how student success is measured. Comparing students to a rubric and not to each other is a formula for student success.  

Creating a cooperative vs. competitive community

From day one in the world language classroom, teachers need to work toward building a supportive community where students feel comfortable taking risks. This comes about through creating many group activities where students have the chance to get to know each other and practice language learning together.

Encouraging students to help each other achieve student success instead of competing with each other to succeed comes in studying group development strategies and instituting them in the classroom on a regular basis.

Teachers can attend annual professional development conferences like ACTFL, NECTL, SWOLT, and SCOLT to learn more about how to promote cooperation in the classroom. My colleague, Elena Giudice, and I will be presenting a whole session called “#ALLin!: Developing an inclusive and motivated community of learners” on April 1st at the Southern Conference on Language Teaching (SCOLT) in Norfolk, Virginia.

There are truly so many creative ways to create a community of mutually supportive learners, all striving for student success and all achieving it at their own pace!

Can-Do Statements help guide student success

Every world language teacher should familiarize themselves with the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements. It is important to use benchmarks to help guide student success.

Teachers can use these national guidelines but can also make up their own Can-Do Statements for every unit. Think of exactly what it is that you want your students to be able to do at the end of a unit and then guide them accordingly. It is amazing for students to realize what they “Can Do” versus the out-moded critical teaching style.

Remember when your language teacher was very quick to correct every grammatical error in front of the whole class? This leads to shame, embarrassment, and the ultimate resignation of “I am really bad at language learning.” Be a teacher who concentrates on what each student CAN DO and learn more about it on the ACTFL website.   

These are just a few basic ways to begin to learn more about teaching for student success! 

Looking to improve your students’ or children’s language skills? Learn how you can get early access to our groundbreaking language program that teaches kids Spanish the fun way! Sign up here.

Reading Time: 5 minutes

In order for students to progress from a novice level of proficiency according to the ACTFL language proficiency standards to an intermediate level, they need to build competence in asking questions.

Once I went through the Modified Oral Proficiency Interview training and certification process, I became more intentional about helping my students learn to ask questions. I’d like to share just a few of the ways that I discovered to motivate my students to practice their Spanish question words.

While I am recently retired from classroom teaching, I still implement the same principles in my private classes. The only way for our students to learn to use the Spanish question words is to provide a lot of opportunities for them to use them. Asking questions in Spanish is not a unit in a book with Spanish question words to be memorized and forgotten. It is a skill that must be practiced daily and is not hard to include in your daily class activities for students.

Post Spanish question words in the classroom

From day one in the language classroom, the Spanish question words should be posted and referred to often! You can buy fancy posters online or make your own. With every creative activity that you do, consider ways to encourage students to use the Spanish question words.

Seek opportunities for your students to be the ones asking the questions daily

Teaching students to ask questions is all part of creating a more student-centered classroom. Take yourself off the center stage as the one asking your students all the questions.

With every student presentation, require the students to ask questions. I keep track of how many questions each student asks to count toward their effort grade. I don’t make a big deal about the percentage of the grade it is worth, but rather I make sure that they understand how crucial the skill is in building language proficiency.

Remember how we teachers used to always ask the questions while the rest of the students just sat in boredom? I learned to require my students to ask questions with every activity that we did in the classroom.

Mystery and Spanish question words in the classroom

Students love mystery! I like to assign students to share a picture with the class on a regular basis as a warm-up or closing activity.

The student presents/projects a picture of him/herself from summer vacation, a favorite weekend activity, a place they go with friends to hang out, etc, and the rest of the class has 5-10 minutes to find out as much as possible about ¿dónde? (where?); ¿qué? (what?); ¿quién? (who?); ¿cuándo? (when?); ¿por qué? (why?).

I give points to the ones questioning, making sure that everyone asks at least one question.

The student who is presenting can be evaluated, too, based on how spontaneously they can answer classmates’ questions. This can be very motivating if students get into the spirit of it and you make it count as part of their effort grade.

Guessing games and Spanish questions in the classroom

There is no end to guessing games you can create in the classroom.

I know a teacher who always has her students “show and share” once a week as an assigned warmup. It is easy to turn this activity into a guessing game. The student sharing would be the one to spontaneously field all the questions while students try to gather as much information as possible about the object, picture, word. A student could simply write a place or word on the board and students have to try to discover the significance of it.

For larger classes, you could have your students do this in small groups. You could also have students share the title of a good book or movie and have students find out the plot and why the student likes it.

The object is to learn something personal about each class member while at the same time building proficiency in asking and answering questions. In other words, building language proficiency for real-world use.

Twenty questions

Students learn how easy it is to ask questions in Spanish without the Spanish question words by merely making a statement and changing the intonation with a game of Twenty Questions.

If the place a student wants others to guess is “la playa” (the beach), the students might figure it out using the following questions: ¿es un lugar? (it is a place?), ¿hace calor? (Is it hot?), ¿te gusta ir los fines de semana? (Do you like to go on weekends?), ¿puedes nadar allí? (can you swim there?), ¿hay árboles allí? (are there trees there?), ¿está cerca de tu casa? (is near your house?), ¿vas allí con frecuencia? (do you go there often?), etc.

You could put the Súper 7 verbs + ir (tener, querer, hay, gustar, poder, ser, estar, ir) on the board and insist that students formulate questions using them. Cross them off as students use them ensuring that there are a variety of questions asked.

Cultural Information gap

Have students each read a short culture segment pertaining to a country of study.

The object of this activity is for each student to read their segment to themselves and then pair it with a student who read a different segment. Each one has five minutes to ask the other as many questions as they can about what the other one read or to simply share what they learned in their culture segment with a requirement for follow-up questions from a partner.

The partner will then do the same. After they have shared as partners, they can team up with two others and share in the same way.

Finding short cultural segments can be time-consuming! I am part of a teacher team creating short interactive social media-like culture posts tailored for the Gen Z attention span, covering food, nature, lodging, citizens, geography, sites of interest, etc., about 9 Hispanic cultures.

The innovative features of the program include fully customizable real-time commenting and polling as well as cultural comparison questions for discussion, hands-on activities, music, and embedded cultural videos.

Check it out at FL4K.com and request a demo. These culture posts are chock full of dynamic information about Hispanic culture around the world and serve as a springboard for teaching the art of asking questions. 

Current events

Have students present news on a regular basis. Each student briefly presents a headline with only a few facts while students in the class try to find out more about the news event by asking questions.

Students need lots of practice asking questions on a daily basis. Commit to having students master Spanish question words and to making questioning activities a part of every class.

It takes just a little creativity to figure out how to make the use of Spanish question words and the art of asking questions essential in your classroom. Ask your students what ideas they have.

Students could create a question-and-answer game where they invent answers and students have to come up with a question like Jeopardy. This is just one example! You and your students will be able to think of one hundred more ways to practice asking questions once you commit to making this a priority in your classroom!

Remember: You will be helping your students to build language proficiency for real-world use if you STOP asking the questions and get your students to START asking them! Try it tomorrow!

Missed my past Tool Tips? You can read about the Can-Do classroom, the importance of building relationships with your students, the Student-Centered Classroom, and much more on FL4K.com right now!

Looking to improve your students’ language skills? Learn how you can get early access to our groundbreaking language program that teaches kids Spanish the fun way! Sign up for early access here.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

What I learned in more than four decades in the world language classroom is that positive teacher and student relationships trump learning.

As a long-time mentor to new teachers, this was a pearl of wisdom that I always prioritized sharing with my mentees. I had noticed a trend with inexperienced teachers wanting to compensate for their lack of experience by using an authoritarian approach to the classroom.

Many times this leads to power struggles with students and ultimate annihilation. In this blog post, I will share a few insights into building positive teacher and student relationships and the benefits it offers to reach our ultimate goal of facilitating the learning experience for our students.

Teacher and Student Relationships in the Classroom

Taking a personal interest in your students goes a long way toward motivating them to put forth their best effort in building language proficiency. While it is difficult to balance the need to focus on last-minute lesson preparations as students are entering the class with greeting them in a personal way, never forget that positive student and teacher relationships are necessary for optimal learning. I had to remind myself of this every day! No matter how amazing and creative my lesson plans were, my personal connection with the students would always be the most important factor in their progress and ultimate success.

This tends to be an especially tricky conundrum in the world language classroom! Do we chat with the students in English or the target language at the beginning of class? Depending on the proficiency level of the student, I usually opted for a combination chat just to check in with my students before diving into my carefully crafted lesson.

Sometimes, standing just outside the classroom in the hall as students are entering is a great way to accomplish the same connection without disrupting the integrity of the commitment to using the target language in the classroom.

I remember early in my teaching career hearing a veteran history teacher often asking students about their athletic games, chess meets, music, and drama performances, in the hall. He teased, cajoled, and connected with students personally. I wanted to develop this habit because I could tell it meant a lot to the students but I was a little envious from always feeling like I needed to use the target language to communicate.

Just outside my classroom in the halls became a serious place to connect with students in an up-close and personal way. Not only is building positive teacher and student relationships essential inside the classroom, striving to connect outside the classroom can be just as important!

Teacher and Student Relationships Outside the classroom

Let me share a few incredibly meaningful ways to build teacher and student relationships outside the classroom.

While we certainly appreciate our students understanding the passion we have for our subject matter, they, in turn, appreciate the interest we take in their passions. Commenting on their performance in a play, concert, athletic event, or their artwork on the walls can make them beam with pride. I even liked to tease some of my challenged language students by saying things like, “I love seeing you in your element!”

This lets them know that I did not only see them in a one-dimensional light, “a struggling language student.” Believe it or not, many students think we only see them as a letter grade!

Even better than commenting on a performance, consider taking time to attend their events! This is extremely impactful for a young student and the parents, too! They can’t believe that you took the time to focus on them personally.

The next time they enter your classroom, they feel connected in a very satisfying way and often will go the extra mile to give you their best effort.

Teacher and Student Relationships Outside the World Language Classroom

You probably can already guess what I am going to suggest. Travel with your students! This creates lasting memories and serves as a springboard for motivation to further language studies.

Students appreciate getting to know you outside the classroom and get excited to put their skills to use! Opening their eyes to the world is something they never forget. Their gratitude comes through in the classroom as they find themselves motivated to continue improving their skills.

While travel is not always possible, finding cultural events in your own community or nearby city that you and your students can explore from concerts, plays, movies, restaurants, to embarking on a service project can serve as a bonding experience.

Think back on your own educational experiences. Weren’t the hands-on experiences the most memorable?

My Spanish teacher in high school asked my family to host an AFS student from Bolivia. This was pivotal in my decision to become a Spanish major in college.

Think of how you can further involve your students in the culture of the language you teach. Start an exchange program in your school or find a company that can provide a structure for you. Seek ways to build teacher and student relationships outside the classroom.

Build Teacher and Student Relationships Through Understanding How To Motivate Students

Gen Z is a particular breed of student. They need digital platforms, games, interactive activities, short segments of relevant information, and a variety of activities in every single class.

Understanding who they are and what they need to be engaged in learning can be paramount not only in best practices for language learning, but in building positive student and teacher relationships.

Many teachers fail to build meaningful relationships with their students because they have not explored how to make learning fun and relevant!

Yes, fun!

When students love learning in your class they tend to feel positive about being there with you! Why not make an effort to connect with students you teach? Both you and your students will look forward to the precious time you have together to learn and build skills in language proficiency.

A Single Platform

Looking for a single platform that interweaves interculturality and language proficiency and provides the fun factor for Gen Z?

As a recently retired Spanish teacher trained and certified in AP and the modified oral proficiency interview, an opportunity to be a consultant presented itself.

I could not resist joining a talented team of teachers and Stanford developers and designers to help create a state-of-the-art language program that interweaves interculturality and language proficiency all in a single platform.

It features customizable dialogue practice with built-in language lab capabilities, a 9-country interculturality program that includes cultural comparisons, discussion questions with commenting and polling in real time, and games uniquely designed to build language proficiency, all leveled for novice, intermediate, and heritage language learners. Check it out! FL4K.com

Looking to improve your students’ language skills with FL4K? Learn how you can get early access to our groundbreaking language program that teaches kids Spanish the fun way! Sign up for early access here.