[ola] Re: Sentence Frames
- From: Nanosh Lucas <nanoshlucas@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2013 23:40:53 -0800
Thanks so much for this, Ruth.
I share your curiosity as well as your skepticism. My curiosity is: where do
sentence frames fit into students learning Spanish? My skepticism is the same:
do they add value to the learning without taking away the authentic nature of
our conversations, which is what would really drive them.
I started this sentence frame thing in response to students asking for the
“glue” that sticks sentences together. I have Spanish 1 & 2 students; my 2’s
are the students asking for this. They respond in the typical novice-mid
learning to be novice-high - anywhere from grunts and shrugs to complete
sentences, but when attempting to tackle the kinds of questions you put forth
below, will always answer verbally at the level they are at. Typically what I
will do in that case is give them a way of responding that is just beyond
wherever they are. For example:
Ex: 1
Teacher: ¿Cómo estás?
Student: Bien.
Teacher: ¡Yo estoy bien! (Maybe I model this a bunch of times until I start to
hear it - then it might go up on the board: “Yo estoy ______ fill-in-the-blank”
Results: Students simply stay at whatever level they are at when re-queried .
Typically more practice speaking brings them to complete sentences, and when I
ask them to use them.
Ex: 2
Teacher: ¿Prefieres Mac o PC?
Student: PC!!!
Teacher: ¿Por qué?
Student: Me gusta. PC es bueno. Mac es malo.
Teacher: ¿Por qué es bueno el PC?
Student: …
Teacher puts up T chart and starts soliciting input on pros & cons.
Teacher: Ahora, ¿por qué es mejor el PC?
Student: Apps, muy útil, menos dinero, superior, me gusta, mejores juegos
At this point, I try to stretch their language with a quick frame:
Yo prefiero _______ porque son _______.
I then might look for a way to organize the general items that would come up:
Cuesta más/menos, Tiene mejores juegos., etc.
Ex: 3
Teacher: ¿Quién es Mandela?
Student: Es famoso. Muy importante. Africano. ¿Cómo se dice “peace”?
Teacher: “Peace”? No entiendo.
Student holds up symbol for peace.
Teacher: Ah. ¡La PAZ!
Rinse, lather, repeat.
So far, I’ve found there is little direct correlation between creating with the
language and sentence frames, though at the level I’m at (Spanish 2 -
novice-mid level seeking novice high) I might not expect that. That said, I
haven’t really noticed any increase in text type by using sentence frames when
applied to different contexts, but I feel that I haven’t had enough time to
measure it. I tend to agree with you, though - less authentic sounding, and
students have trouble applying to other contexts.
Sentence/paragraph frames seemed to me logical because they have made so much
headway in ELL classes and are a large part of SIOP/Constructing meaning
strategies that have a good deal of research backing them. That said, I do find
that they can sound stilted in the same way when you are running a group
meeting, and you notice students acting without respect, so you give them a
frame in order to help them be more polite to one another ("I want to thank
_____ for his powerful/interesting comments; however, I would add that
_________." … instead of: ("You’re dumb!”).
I think at least for a written exercise it is helpful for students to see a
model or produce one with a measure of accuracy. I’m curious if it helps push
them, at least on paper, to be able to do more. Does the knowledge sit there
and someday come to fruition? I was using this idea mainly for a presentational
piece - practiced, edited, prepared.
Something I tried today was a simple number game in Spanish 1 - Yo pienso de un
número entre ______ y _______. We went around the circle and counted up to 100,
with folks who messed up moving to a second circle and starting over again.
Then, I modeled the game for them, and we played several rounds. Because of our
short periods, only one of my Spanish 1 classes had a chance to practice using
the frame in partners/small groups. I’ll come back tomorrow to see if they
where able to use it.To make sure they understood the game, I acted out pensar,
and I did a bunch of checks with numbers and people to make sure they
understood “entre.” (¿Quién está entre Bob y Rita? ¿Cuál número está entre 7 y
9?) In the future, if NO students are able to apply ANYTHING they learned to a
new context:
Example: ¿Cuál es una parte del cuerpo que está entre la mano y el hombro?
Do I then say the frame was a waste of time?
I am definitely going to be checking out Arnold Bleicher’s webinar on moving
students from the novice to intermediate level; it was advertised on ACTFL’s
webinar page yesterday. I’m sure looking at that would have shortened this
sprawling email.
I’m interested in the idea you have below - it does allow for the teacher to
simply hold the space for students to create. Are you thinking about a question
bank, a template for asking questions, or both? Combined with the question box
idea, you could have a number of tiered questions ready to go for students and
use them in a ton of different ways.
Thanks,
Nanosh
On Dec 12, 2013, at 6:42 PM, Ruth Whalen Crockett <rwhalen@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I’m really curious about these sentence frames. How do they support creating
> with the language? I’m afraid that they might encourage skipping much needed
> steps in language learning/development. Extending discourse is about adding
> descriptions, explanations and comparisons. If we apply sentences frames are
> we doing this work for our students? Are we forcing false language? I don’t
> want to be a drag here. Might asking provocative questions and holding the
> space for students to fully respond to these questions be at the center of
> encouraging students to describe, explain and compare. Pushing them to
> explain why and how will facilitate creating with the language without doing
> the work for them.
>
> I worked with language frames for a number of years. It was the drill
> exercises of the Rassias Method. It was fun. Students sounded great. Kids
> could say all kinds of things. Unfortunately they often times had no idea
> what they were saying and could not apply the language constructions to
> varying contexts.
>
> Thanks for getting me thinking on this. One activity I think we could
> definitely support this work and is something we could do on the listserveis
> coming up with all kinds of questions that we might ask to spark extended
> discourse. We could level the questions to Novice, Intermediate and Advanced
> levels. The key in many of these questions is to encourage kids to explain
> why, how, because, and, then, etc.
>
> Examples:
> Theme: Nelson Mandela
> Novice: Describe Nelson Mandela
> Intermediate: Why is Nelson Mandela an important person in South Africa and
> the world?
> Advanced: Why was it important that Barack Obama speak at Nelson Mandela’s
> funeral?
>
> Theme: New Year’s
> Novice: What do you do on New Year’s eve?
> Intermediate: Do you make resolutions on January 1st? Why or why not? Have
> you ever kept one?
> Advanced: What is one thing your hope to accomplish in 2014? What patterns
> will you need to change in your life to meet this goal? What help do you need
> from others?
>
> I may need some help in identifying levels. Just a start.
>
> Thanks,
> Ruthie
>
>
> From: ola-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ola-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
> Cathy Bird
> Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2013 7:40 PM
> To: ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [ola] Re: Sentence Frames
>
> I love this idea, especially combined with an earlier post about what each
> level can say/use, as far as text type. I am struggling to build on
> description, explanation, and comparison in my level two (in their first year
> of OWL, however) and am feeling like they want to talk more about the past.
> Are they ready? I feel like we need LOTS more work on telling… and on
> asking…the hallmark of good listeners.
>
> Using a frame like this could be great to get their foot in the door, maybe
> with a frame for Monday’s that says “this past weekend I
> loved/hated/started/finished INFINITIVE” or I didn’t or … crickets … feels
> like forcing, but if it comes naturally, as our discussion about near future
> did today, I want to have something half-ready to build on their momentum.
>
> Just had an idea for an activity: each student says ‘In ten seconds, I am
> going to X’. Everyone counts down and then does that thing. Bravo. In the
> next round, a few students should be ‘tapped’ by the teacher to do the
> opposite or to NOT do what they say they are GONNA do. Countdown again. See
> who can find the one who doesn’t do the near-future action they said they
> would. Kind of the stepchild of two other games: ‘two truths and a lie’ and
> ‘heads up seven up’.
>
> Cathy Bird
> Middle School French
> Colorado Academy
> 303-986-1501, x.2622
> From: ola-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ola-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
> Troy Longstroth
> Sent: Sunday, December 08, 2013 9:12 PM
> To: ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [ola] Sentence Frames
>
> Hi all,
>
> I really liked Nanosh's post last week about the benefits of not wearing
> pants. :)
>
> It got me thinking about creating a list of sentence frames for each level of
> my classes. My thought was that it would be great to have at least one
> specific sentence frame per week per language level for the entire school
> year. Ideally the same basic frame could be used in each level, but with
> more complexity in the more advanced courses. For example, first year kids
> might learn, "In my opinion ___ is better than ___." Second year kids might
> learn, "In my opinion ___ is better than ___ because ___." And third year
> kids might learn, "In my opinion ___ is better than ___ for the following
> reasons: First, second, third, finally, etc."
>
> I feel like I might be able to generate a list of frames for Spanish 1, but I
> get pretty befuddled thinking about coming up with 30 frames or more for each
> of the levels. Therefore, I am asking for all of you to help. Please add
> your favorite sentence frames and ideas to the google doc at the following
> link. I think this could be a great resource for everyone. I've elected to
> use English so that people from all language classes can benefit.
>
> https://docs.google.com/a/rpacademy.org/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Au54I8espCbPdExaNHF0LTBKS2RYTnNQNVZ3akk0bUE#gid=0
>
> If a document like this already exists somewhere and I am being redundant,
> please let me know. My goal is simply to have a resource like this. Once I
> have some frames, I think I can run with lots of different ideas for each one.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Troy
>
>
> Troy Longstroth
> Spanish and Outdoor Recreation Teacher
> Redmond Proficiency Academy
> www.rpacademy.org
> cell: 541-977-3143
>
>
> <image001.jpg>
>
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