[ola] Re: ideas on conversation...
- From: Lori Leedy <lori.leedy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 08:23:11 -0800
YEAH NANOSH! Thank you for being so open and honest with us about your
classes.
On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 9:13 PM, Nanosh Lucas <nanoshlucas@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> ¿Cómo estás? is such a great question for Spanish 1.
>
> ¿Qué pasa/Qué honda? is a great question for Spanish 2.
>
> I realized that with these two starter questions, I can push students to
> converse for a long time about almost anything.
>
> Here is what happened today:
>
> 1st per: Spanish 1 - I asked students: ¿Qué pasa/Qué honda? Algo
> interesante? Blank stares. Horrible. Wrestling with the class all period.
> Wrong question for this class, at least for now.
>
> 5th per: Spanish 2 - I asked students: ¿Cómo están/Qué pasa? Algo
> interesante? Some students participated; others didn't. After a few
> minutes, I asked who was speaking Spanish - students raised their hands. I
> told them to make a new circle in the middle - the rest could watch. The
> middle circle went on almost oblivious of the outside observers for a good
> while. Then, pockets of outsiders spontaneously began conversing in Spanish
> when they realized I and everyone else was going to ignore them until they
> participated. I invited those groups to join. After a while, I had almost
> everyone from the outside observers. I kicked out two of the outsiders for
> speaking English and told them to sit in the hall until they were ready to
> observe again. The principal walked in 5min later and let me know that the
> two gentlemen were speaking 100% Spanish in the hallway. I invited them
> back in. After we pulled back to the big circle, I noticed students were
> looking emocionados and others were looking aburridos/miserables. We
> switched spots in the circle and put the tired ones in the office next to
> my room. The emocionado circle kept going, and the bored/miserable ones I
> worked with. One student talked about how his dad was making him angry
> because he was so strict, and how he used to be a drug addict. Another
> student jumped right in with how strict his dad was. Another student was
> doubled over in some kind of physical agony, so I asked her what the matter
> was. She explained (in Spanish) how she didn't have a phone at home and the
> stupid office wouldn't let her go home because nobody answered. I told her
> I appreciated her doing her suffering in Spanish, but that she could lay
> down in the school's office until she felt better.
> I asked them if they could keep going on their own, and they said yes. So,
> I went back into the main room. One of the two or three circles in the main
> room had stalled, so I told them what we were talking about in the other
> room. They went crazy after that; talking about their crazy parents, etc.
> We pulled everyone back into the big circle, and people talked about their
> crazy parents - students had funny crazy stories and not-so-funny crazy
> stories. It was loads of fun.
> As the 1.5 hour class came to an end, I had students divide themselves
> into those who had enjoyed the class and those who hadn't. There was a
> considerable minority of students who sat themselves in the side that
> hadn't enjoyed it. So, I began asking them about why. I queried one
> student, and she said, "Oh.. No! Me gusta!" Once the other students
> realized they were on the wrong side, they moved. I believe there was only
> one person who didn't enjoy himself.
> This was probably one of the most successful conversation classes, with
> almost 100% Spanish in the room for almost 100% of the time.
>
> Per 7: Spanish 1 - I asked ¿Cómo están? I asked people why they were in a
> good mood or why in a bad mood. Smooth class. We had a couple of
> presentations about self, family, friends, food, etc. I couldn't help
> thinking about how differently I view the presentations now - where I honed
> in so meticulously on grammar/verb conjugations/general perfection and
> considered students' creative effort and ability to communicate an idea an
> irritating irrelevancy.
>
> Thanks for your support, everyone. See you on Thursday.
>
> Nanosh
>
--
*Lori Leedy
*English Language Development/Spanish
Crater Renaissance Academy
541-494-6329*
*
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