[ola] Re: ideas on conversation...
- From: Caleb Zilmer <caleb_zilmer@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 09:38:52 -0800 (PST)
Ditto. I really like how you adapt to need and make changes as necessary, and
individualized too! Awesome.
Caleb Zilmer
________________________________
From: Lori Leedy <lori.leedy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 8:23 AM
Subject: [ola] Re: ideas on conversation...
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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