[ola] Re: Kahoot...
- From: Calysta Phillips <cphillips@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2014 10:38:36 -0700
Hi Patti,
Great questions! First of all, I acknowledge you for teaching the
population you do.... that right there is an act of courage every day. I
had the privilege of going to Medford Oregon and seeing 12 public school
classes in action... not quite as extreme as yours, but in many cases,
close...30-40 was the class size.... If you have a chance to go observe
them there, they are MASTERS! Ask Darcy if she is still doing OLA days....
it was incredible!!! I cried I was so inspired.
As for advice, your questions are many... I think concrete assessments are
the hardest.... You can hold them to account for vocabulary that comes up
if you need a "right/wrong" assessment....
As for engagement, I find the key is FUN! If there's laughter, there's
usually bonding or learning. From the laughter always come words. Start
with pan tostado.... there must be an explanation somewhere.... I started
with 3 themes and my class invented a 4th... They have to make
shapes/things in groups of three--- In a circle, you point to person in
middle. Then name the thing... ie, pan tostado. Person in middle crouches a
little, person on each side makes a toaster by joining arms around them.
The two people then lower arms and say "ding" as the pan tostado jumps. I
did "Surfeador"-= person in middle is surfer, people on sides are hula
dancers. I did rabbit-- middle person holds up ears, outside two people
stomp outside foot on ground quickly. Then my kids made up "hippie"--
person in middle holds out peace sign, side peope make rainbow over him....
possibiliities are endless.
How to play: one person in middle, points to a person in circle and says
one of the words "Hippie" and counts to 5 in Spanish as fast as they can.
If the group of three hasn't made the hippie by 5, the center person (the
hippy, or if you want, whoever messed up in the group of three) goes to the
outside.... Laughter, hysterics if you sell it to them and they start
playing because they really get into the actions....
From that, vocabulary always comes... from that, you have somewhere, if
only somewhere small, to go....
That's all for now. But my advice: Start with a game.
Good luck!!! Calysta
On Thu, Jan 9, 2014 at 10:00 PM, P Cooke <pcooke2003@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hola a todos --
>
> I am a beginner with OWL.
>
> My big questions have to do with class size & diversity, class level (as
> in very beginning), maturity level, accommodation of diverse learning
> styles, motivation as well as the difficulty of preparing kids for the next
> level, where a very traditional approach is used. The first challenge for
> me is involving everyone and keeping them involved in an inner city setting
> where kids are all over the spectrum on any criteria you can think of
> except age. Some are definite introverts, some have general trust issues or
> conflicts with certain classmates, some learn best deductively &
> systematically, some have suffered trauma as kids and have mistaken ideas
> about how to 'belong' in the group [aka "they misbehave"], some are just
> plain hungry and tired, and since electives at my school, including
> language classes, can sometimes be a 'dumping ground', there are kids who
> never wanted to learn a second language to begin with.
> The second challenge is that we are DATA-obsessed so I need to have
> specific goals with specific ways of measuring them at the end of the
> year...
> My questions concern:
> How to begin discussing things in a meaningful and apparently (to the
> kids) spontaneous way without much at all in the way of vocab.
> How to hold kids accountable for their learning and have a (measurable)
> record of this for the administration.
> How to prepare kids for a traditional program with this type of
> spontaneous ('hit & miss'?) approach to vocab and grammar.
> How to involve 30+ kids many of whom would rather be sitting (perhaps with
> heads down) or speaking only English or who don't have a clue what's
> happening or who want to goof off... and keep them involved and speaking
> the target language.
> BTW, I want to thank all of you for your ideas, activities, etc --- I very
> much appreciate all the sharing. I am only using the OWL approach about 20%
> of the time, but I find your ideas very helpful both on OWL and non-OWL
> days. GRACIAS :-)
>
> Small questions: How would you say 'creepy' in Spanish?? How do you
> come up with different gestures for each vocab word?? (Wish I knew and
> could incorporate ASL!)
>
> Thanks again. Happy 2014, everybody!
>
> อย่างจริงใจ
> * patti*
>
>
>
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