[ola] Re: Student pushback and English use
- From: Colin Oriard <coriard@xxxxxxx>
- To: "ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 18:23:57 +0000
?Thanks Jonathan. We also recite that poem very class and then go around
thanking each other for being here...
What do you do when you hear English in the class? How do you address it?
Colin Oriard
Profesor de español 1/2 & 3/4
Grant High School
Room 112
Phone extension - 75612
________________________________
From: ola-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <ola-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of Jonathan
Irish <isolicious@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, November 14, 2014 9:52 AM
To: ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ola] Re: Student pushback and English use
I teach a group of sophomores that at times can break into English. I was
worried about it yesterday because I gave them a good chunk of time to practice
their Spanish plays. I was thinking that 30 minutes of "alone" time would mean
English, especially for one group. At the start of class I tried to be as up
front as possible. Why do we speak in Spanish, why are we here? We recited
la ke'ch:
Tú eres mi otro yo.
You are my other me.
Si te hago daño a ti,
If I do harm to you,
Me hago daño a mi mismo.
I do harm to myself.
Si te amo y respeto,
If I love and respect you,
Me amo y respeto yo.
I love and respect myself.
We do this a lot but it is important to review. So class went well and they
maintained pretty good focus during the practice. Students can handle high
standards, they just need to be reminded of it from time to time.
Suerte, El Jota
2014-11-14 6:33 GMT-08:00 Colin Oriard
<coriard@xxxxxxx<mailto:coriard@xxxxxxx>>:
Hi all,
Thank you to so many for writing me back with words of encouragement and ideas
around my struggles. I really appreciate it!
To further my reflective inquiry, I was wondering if more people would be
willing to weigh in how they handle English use in the classroom? Do you have
consequences for English use? Is there a progression of consequences if it
continues? Discipline is definitely not one of my strengths, and I had hoped
that expressing the importance of the immersion environment and then giving
reminders and call-outs when students use English would be enough, but it is
not. I need to tweak something.
I teach first and second year (NL-NH/IL) at a high school that is predominantly
white (about 70%). There is 33% poverty, internet access for about 90% of my
students.
My tentative plan to implement starting next week is that when a student uses
English, I will ask them to do 5 vocabulary words with the class to get them
refocused on using Spanish, and then some class applause to appreciate their
efforts. Then I'm thinking that on a second offense, they will need to sit on
the sidelines and answer 5 essay questions in English about our language
learning environment to get them to reflect deeper on their choices in our
class and hopefully get them to regulate themselves better. Once they finish
the 5 questions they can rejoin the group. If they still can't participate
according to the rules of the class I will give them a written activity to work
on.
I'm very open to suggestions and improvements on all of this. Absolutely every
student has the right to learn, but I'm finding I need to draw the line when a
student is taking away other student's rights to learn.
Any feedback on this, and how you handle English use would be greatly
appreciated. Thanks
Colin Oriard
Profesor de español 1/2 & 3/4
Grant High School
Room 112
Phone extension - 75612
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