[ola] Re: ideas on conversation...
- From: Kate FriendlyJones <kate.friendlyjones@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 12:52:14 -0800
Today in class we talked about car accidents. One of our students hit a
person with their car and drove away so we talked about, what would you do
if that happened, they asked each other in partners, then shared out what
their partner said. We made a list of vocabulary, they wrote down the
words and then explained them in Spanish to each other and in the journals.
Their homework is to write a half page story with the words using details
and description.
It made for fun conversation!!!!
On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 9:38 AM, Caleb Zilmer <caleb_zilmer@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 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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