Full Transcript for 🎙️ Episode 2: “First Wins, Weird Fails, and What I’d Do Again”

00:04:52.170 --> 00:04:53.970 check all the clothes. And that was the funniest 00:04:53.970 --> 00:04:57.069 thing. I didn't check. I should have. There was 00:04:57.069 --> 00:05:01.579 these tighty whities in there. and some kid took 00:05:01.579 --> 00:05:05.379 chocolate and rubbed them on the tighty -whities 00:05:05.379 --> 00:05:08.399 so it looked like someone had skid marks. It 00:05:08.399 --> 00:05:12.360 was hilarious. So this kid, I called underwear 00:05:12.360 --> 00:05:17.000 and we had two pairs of underwear in there and 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:19.519 the kid put the underwear with the chocolate 00:05:19.519 --> 00:05:23.139 on his head and the skid mark was right here 00:05:23.139 --> 00:05:25.660 and he couldn't see that it was there and we 00:05:25.660 --> 00:05:30.339 are all cracking. up laughing and he's like what 00:05:30.339 --> 00:05:39.319 and he had this tidy whitey with chocolate it 00:05:39.319 --> 00:05:41.600 was funny i just remember that to this day that's 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:53.339 hilarious okay jackie your turn okay so i switched 00:05:53.339 --> 00:05:58.350 to using ci my second semester teaching My first 00:05:58.350 --> 00:06:02.870 semester I had a bunch of kids and I had this 00:06:02.870 --> 00:06:06.509 one in particular who stuck out and he failed 00:06:06.509 --> 00:06:08.910 hard like and he was one where I could tell like 00:06:08.910 --> 00:06:12.149 there was a lot going on outside of school and 00:06:12.149 --> 00:06:17.209 so I remember the next year I had him again after 00:06:17.209 --> 00:06:21.649 I started doing CI and at that point I had been 00:06:21.649 --> 00:06:25.319 to NTPRS for the first time. And so I actually 00:06:25.319 --> 00:06:27.600 kind of knew what I was doing instead of just 00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:32.720 like trying things and, you know, seeing what 00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:35.740 happened in the spring semester. And I had him 00:06:35.740 --> 00:06:42.120 again in the fall and he succeeded. And he not 00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:43.939 a lot changed in the way that he was acting. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:46.240 He would still refuse to talk. He would still 00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:49.579 have his head down a lot. But every time we did 00:06:49.579 --> 00:06:51.459 a free write, he would write about an hour or 00:06:51.459 --> 00:06:57.560 two in Spanish. And he passed the class. And 00:06:57.560 --> 00:06:59.680 that was kind of when I knew I was like, OK, 00:06:59.920 --> 00:07:05.490 this. This works because kids who aren't succeeding 00:07:05.490 --> 00:07:07.990 otherwise are succeeding. And that's something 00:07:07.990 --> 00:07:12.009 I still stand by because I have had a lot of 00:07:12.009 --> 00:07:13.829 students with IEPs through the years and a lot 00:07:13.829 --> 00:07:16.430 of kids who are convinced that they can't learn 00:07:16.430 --> 00:07:20.930 anything, let alone a language. And as long as 00:07:20.930 --> 00:07:24.490 they don't refuse to do anything, they pass my 00:07:24.490 --> 00:07:27.620 class. and they are able to do what I'm asking 00:07:27.620 --> 00:07:31.660 them to do. I agree, Jackie. That was a huge 00:07:31.660 --> 00:07:37.079 win when my kids who would normally fail at least 00:07:37.079 --> 00:07:42.540 passed, but knew more than they realized they 00:07:42.540 --> 00:07:45.699 knew, knew more than they should have known for 00:07:45.699 --> 00:07:48.939 the amount of effort they put in. That's a huge, 00:07:48.939 --> 00:07:53.980 huge win from CI. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. 00:07:54.959 --> 00:07:58.720 And then I'll say for me, it's when I started 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:03.120 doing quick writes. That was a big thing for 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:06.639 me, because I was doing them. I really didn't 00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:09.500 do them until my second year. I, like you, Jackie, 00:08:09.699 --> 00:08:12.660 did started CI my second semester of teaching. 00:08:13.899 --> 00:08:16.800 So I don't have a lot of that grammar, the textbook 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:20.439 kind of instruction going on. But I did that 00:08:20.439 --> 00:08:25.480 first set of Quick Writes, and my kids were writing, 00:08:25.899 --> 00:08:29.259 you know, not in the first one, but by the third 00:08:29.259 --> 00:08:33.080 or fourth one, they were writing 100, 150 words 00:08:33.080 --> 00:08:36.500 in 10 minutes, easily. Now, were they perfect 00:08:36.500 --> 00:08:40.700 words? Absolutely not. But they were giving me 00:08:40.700 --> 00:08:45.480 in 10 minutes more than my kids the previous 00:08:45.480 --> 00:08:48.220 year did during the final exam writing when they 00:08:48.220 --> 00:08:51.529 had two hours. You know, then there was getting 00:08:51.529 --> 00:08:56.009 the stupid essays, hello, my name is, and I'm 00:08:56.009 --> 00:08:58.690 so many years old, and I lit, I'm like, if I 00:08:58.690 --> 00:09:01.049 read one more of those essays, I was gonna have 00:09:01.049 --> 00:09:03.409 it, I just couldn't do it anymore. And now I'm 00:09:03.409 --> 00:09:06.809 getting funny stories about, cause we had... 00:09:08.039 --> 00:09:10.159 What's like Paso a Paso? I've been trying to 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:12.179 remember what the name of my textbook was at 00:09:12.179 --> 00:09:14.779 the time was Paso a Paso and they had Karen Rowan 00:09:14.779 --> 00:09:17.519 had a TPR supplement that went with it and there 00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:21.580 was peanuts in it and There were all these different 00:09:21.580 --> 00:09:23.480 things and all those things were coming in this 00:09:23.480 --> 00:09:27.159 in the right written stories And on top of that 00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:30.860 when my kids would talk I had At the time, I 00:09:30.860 --> 00:09:32.759 still hadn't put a time limit on how to talk. 00:09:33.059 --> 00:09:34.639 I'm just like, I have to get through everybody. 00:09:34.919 --> 00:09:36.679 Go ahead and tell me the story on, you know, 00:09:36.679 --> 00:09:40.580 I used the old

AP picture sequences. And they 00:09:40.580 --> 00:09:42.779 would not shut up. They were going seven, eight 00:09:42.779 --> 00:09:44.840 minutes. I'm like, OK, we got to cut this off. 00:09:45.059 --> 00:09:47.100 You've already got your A. Can we please move 00:09:47.100 --> 00:09:49.100 on? And that's when I started putting a timer 00:09:49.100 --> 00:09:51.159 down because I was not getting through every 00:09:51.159 --> 00:09:54.120 kid, not because they were hesitating and humming 00:09:54.120 --> 00:09:56.580 and we're honing around. It's because they wouldn't 00:09:56.580 --> 00:09:58.899 shut up. They kept just talking and telling the 00:09:58.899 --> 00:10:02.590 story. So those were my CA wins. And I knew that 00:10:02.590 --> 00:10:04.330 this was what I was going to do because I told 00:10:04.330 --> 00:10:07.730 you first semester I was bored. They were bored. 00:10:07.750 --> 00:10:09.649 And I'm like, I cannot do this for 30 years. 00:10:09.690 --> 00:10:11.070 There was just no way that I was going to be 00:10:11.070 --> 00:10:14.090 able to do that for 30 years. And so if I didn't 00:10:14.090 --> 00:10:16.929 find Blaine Ray and there was no CI, it was not 00:10:16.929 --> 00:10:19.710 called CI back then. It was called TPRS. And 00:10:19.710 --> 00:10:23.769 now TPRS is just a subset of CI. But if I hadn't 00:10:23.769 --> 00:10:26.210 found Blaine Ray and TPRS, I would not be here 00:10:26.210 --> 00:10:28.879 today because that I really would not be teaching. 00:10:29.019 --> 00:10:32.259 I could not have done that over and over again, 00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:34.600 teaching from a textbook, going through all those 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:37.240 grammar drills, all that stuff. It is extremely 00:10:37.240 --> 00:10:39.899 boring for me. And it was showed because my students 00:10:39.899 --> 00:10:43.500 were just as bored. I was super happy to stop 00:10:43.500 --> 00:10:46.539 teaching after six years or seven years when 00:10:46.539 --> 00:10:50.279 I had my first baby because I was bored to tears. 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:56.340 I was absolutely bored to tears. Yeah, I. That 00:10:56.340 --> 00:10:59.039 first semester I tried to teach with a textbook 00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:02.659 and I Will not name the textbook because I hate 00:11:02.659 --> 00:11:05.559 it so much and I don't want to like hurt anybody's 00:11:05.559 --> 00:11:11.860 feelings if they love that textbook But I The 00:11:11.860 --> 00:11:13.539 kids just didn't get it and I don't know if it's 00:11:13.539 --> 00:11:15.539 because I didn't know how to explain it But I 00:11:15.539 --> 00:11:17.120 explained it the way it was explained to me. 00:11:17.159 --> 00:11:20.940 I was like guys It's not hard to cast a plate 00:11:20.940 --> 00:11:24.620 of earth. You just do the pattern done. There's 00:11:24.620 --> 00:11:27.480 the chart You've conjugated the verb. Yee -haw. 00:11:27.720 --> 00:11:30.379 You know, like, it just, it would not click with 00:11:30.379

--> 00:11:33.120 everything. Why is this? Why are they not getting 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:37.159 this? Like, this is not hard. Because it's really 00:11:37.159 --> 00:11:41.080 not. Until you, you know, get into all 14 verb 00:11:41.080 --> 00:11:43.419 tenses in Spanish. You know, but like present 00:11:43.419 --> 00:11:46.679 tense verb conjugation is, I don't know, it's 00:11:46.679 --> 00:11:49.480 like almost, I'll do it as a meditation. I'll 00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:58.960 do a verb chart to meditate on. Did you ever 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:01.820 have to conjugate sentences or not conjugate, 00:12:01.820 --> 00:12:04.940 but diagram sentences in English class? I was 00:12:04.940 --> 00:12:09.279 like, ooh, puzzle time. I wanted to like that. 00:12:09.659 --> 00:12:14.539 It never made sense. I can't, if you give me 00:12:14.539 --> 00:12:16.320 a sentence that's been diagrammed, I can't make 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:22.299 it a real sentence. And that bothers me. It's 00:12:22.299 --> 00:12:25.759 funny because I didn't learn all the parts of 00:12:25.759 --> 00:12:28.720 the English sentence until German class. I did 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:31.039 not understand the difference between direct 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:34.480 and indirect object, between who and whom. I 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:38.700 could not figure any of that out and German clarified 00:12:38.700 --> 00:12:41.500 all of that for me. But we tell kids all the 00:12:41.500 --> 00:12:45.360 time, Spanish. Adjectives go after the nouns. 00:12:45.519 --> 00:12:48.259 We say it over and over again, yet they continue 00:12:48.259 --> 00:12:51.139 to put them before them. Even if it's right after 00:12:51.139 --> 00:12:54.600 explicit teaching, it's not like we're expecting 00:12:54.600 --> 00:12:57.379 them to remember the pattern, but after the noun, 00:12:57.539 --> 00:13:00.440 after the noun, after the noun. But it's so funny 00:13:00.440 --> 00:13:03.299 because textbooks, I think it was Bill Van Patten 00:13:03.299 --> 00:13:07.879 who said, textbooks always put the grammar in 00:13:07.879 --> 00:13:13.639 the order that it's easiest to teach. Not easiest 00:13:13.639 --> 00:13:15.799 to acquire because where do they start right 00:13:15.799 --> 00:13:19.480 away in a first level book? gender and agreement 00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:24.679 well gender is Better in Spanish than it is in 00:13:24.679 --> 00:13:26.139 German because Germany have to memorize with 00:13:26.139 --> 00:13:29.240 every verb and there's three genders Spanish 00:13:29.240 --> 00:13:32.840 you can predict 90 % of them you can predict 00:13:32.840 --> 00:13:35.559 off the top But still it's something that's late 00:13:35.559 --> 00:13:38.179 acquired even in native speakers. They don't 00:13:38.179 --> 00:13:41.269 they make mistakes in gender all the time But 00:13:41.269 --> 00:13:44.029 it's easy to teach, especially in Spanish. It 00:13:44.029 --> 00:13:46.169 ends in an O, it's masculine, ends in an A, it's 00:13:46.169 --> 00:13:49.269 feminine. And then I always tell the kids, the 00:13:49.269 --> 00:13:52.070 adjectives have to rhyme after that. So that 00:13:52.070 --> 00:13:56.049 you get, they go, chicos, guapos, they rhyme. 00:13:56.330 --> 00:13:59.029 So that helps them along the way. But they do 00:13:59.029 --> 00:14:01.629 it that way. But actually, things that are easy 00:14:01.629 --> 00:14:05.929 to acquire, they put really late. Like in Spanish, 00:14:07.090 --> 00:14:09.730 explaining the subjunctive is extremely hard. 00:14:10.649 --> 00:14:14.470 But using this subjunctive is not that hard once 00:14:14.470 --> 00:14:17.210 you get the idea once you hear it and use it 00:14:17.210 --> 00:14:19.370 And but that doesn't show up to level three. 00:14:19.690 --> 00:14:22.789 In fact, there's no ever hint they they specifically 00:14:22.789 --> 00:14:25.529 avoid it all the way through the textbooks So 00:14:25.529 --> 00:14:28.250 because they don't want to you know address it 00:14:28.250 --> 00:14:31.690 in any way shape or form So I find that really 00:14:31.690 --> 00:14:34.429 funny, but it's you know, the grant I always 00:14:34.429 --> 00:14:38.169 say grammar is the thing that is It's a way to 00:14:38.169 --> 00:14:40.669 explain something that's not explainable that 00:14:40.669 --> 00:14:43.590 came hundreds, if not thousands of years after 00:14:43.590 --> 00:14:45.669 the language was fully developed. And that's 00:14:45.669 --> 00:14:47.529 why there's so many exceptions, because it's 00:14:47.529 --> 00:14:50.090 not something we can easily explain. We're trying 00:14:50.090 --> 00:14:52.289 to simplify something that can't be simplified. 00:14:55.750 --> 00:14:57.570 And that's going to be our next week's conversation 00:14:57.570 --> 00:15:00.789 is all about grammar. That was one of the big 00:15:00.789 --> 00:15:05.009 reasons I knew I needed to do something different 00:15:05.009 --> 00:15:08.330 was when my German students would come back to 00:15:08.330 --> 00:15:10.809 me and say, well, I don't remember any German, 00:15:10.990 --> 00:15:15.470 but I sure do know English better. But I'm not 00:15:15.470 --> 00:15:18.389 an English teacher. I don't want to teach you 00:15:18.389 --> 00:15:21.370 English. And that's like that that resonated 00:15:21.370 --> 00:15:25.509 so loud in my head. I was like, I've got to do 00:15:25.509 --> 00:15:28.929 something to change that because I shouldn't 00:15:28.929 --> 00:15:33.580 be responsible. for these students learning more 00:15:33.580 --> 00:15:36.200 English. And I think there's a lot of language 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:39.500 teachers that feel that that's part of their 00:15:39.500 --> 00:15:43.000 job. Part of their job is helping kids learn 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:47.139 English through the vehicle of a second language. 00:15:47.340 --> 00:15:50.879 And it's not our job. And it shouldn't be on 00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:54.389 our plate and it shouldn't stress us out.

It 00:15:54.389 --> 00:15:56.669 should stress us out when they are learning more 00:15:56.669 --> 00:15:59.590 English in our room than not, because then we're 00:15:59.590 --> 00:16:03.190 not doing our job. Right. You know, it's funny, 00:16:03.730 --> 00:16:05.549 another aha moment, and I'll get you just a second, 00:16:05.830 --> 00:16:10.009 Jackie. My German is very rusty. I majored in 00:16:10.009 --> 00:16:14.049 German, but I graduated 30 years ago and haven't 00:16:14.049 --> 00:16:15.909 really used it since, because I've never been 00:16:15.909 --> 00:16:18.149 able to teach it. So it's kind of fallen by the 00:16:18.149 --> 00:16:23.939 wayside. And I used to always panic doing TPRS 00:16:23.939 --> 00:16:26.620 demonstrations when I'm at a workshop and I do 00:16:26.620 --> 00:16:28.879 it in German I'd have my story all memorized 00:16:28.879 --> 00:16:31.659 and that was always dry and I would go I don't 00:16:31.659 --> 00:16:33.360 do this in my classroom So why am I doing this 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:35.779 in a workshop? I would just freeform it and that 00:16:35.779 --> 00:16:38.899 would terrify me and I was at one an upper new 00:16:38.899 --> 00:16:42.259 It was upper upper state New York I was doing 00:16:42.259 --> 00:16:44.120 one and I had a German teacher Which I always 00:16:44.120 --> 00:16:46.440 hate having a German teacher in there for two 00:16:46.440 --> 00:16:49.259 reasons one Because they never are that you know, 00:16:49.259 --> 00:16:51.179 they don't get the feeling of what it's like 00:16:51.179 --> 00:16:54.110 because they hear it and nine times out of ten, 00:16:54.409 --> 00:16:56.750 I never have a German teacher and so, and German's 00:16:56.750 --> 00:16:58.950 far enough away from Latin -based languages and 00:16:58.950 --> 00:17:01.230 Asian -based languages that everybody gets a 00:17:01.230 --> 00:17:03.929 good feel for learning the language. So that's 00:17:03.929 --> 00:17:05.130 number one. And number two, they're going to 00:17:05.130 --> 00:17:06.450 correct my German because I'm going to make mistakes 00:17:06.450 --> 00:17:10.569 all over the place. So I was going through this 00:17:10.569 --> 00:17:15.390 thing, the demo, and I always teach numbers. 00:17:15.450 --> 00:17:18.490 I always get with big numbers because what small 00:17:18.490 --> 00:17:22.200 numbers have, what small numbers don't have is 00:17:22.200 --> 00:17:24.920 big numbers in them. But big numbers have small 00:17:24.920 --> 00:17:28.480 numbers. So if I can teach a big number, all 00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:30.940 the small numbers are there. And so I get a bigger 00:17:30.940 --> 00:17:33.099 bang for my buck. So, you know, my numbers are 00:17:33.099 --> 00:17:35.700 always in the thousands. How many boyfriends 00:17:35.700 --> 00:17:38.140 or girlfriends does this character have? Seventeen 00:17:38.140 --> 00:17:40.359 hundred forty -four. You know, we always get 00:17:40.359 --> 00:17:44.220 these big numbers in

there. And I was doing this 00:17:44.220 --> 00:17:47.039 story and The teachers were retelling parts of 00:17:47.039 --> 00:17:50.700 the story. And afterwards, the German teacher 00:17:50.700 --> 00:17:55.960 came to me and said, Oh my gosh, this was mind 00:17:55.960 --> 00:17:57.420 blowing. And I'm like, how is it mind blowing 00:17:57.420 --> 00:18:00.119 for you, you hearing German? He goes, I wasn't 00:18:00.119 --> 00:18:03.759 paying attention to the German. I was paying 00:18:03.759 --> 00:18:06.500 attention to what you were doing, what you were 00:18:06.500 --> 00:18:09.680 teaching and what they were learning. And she 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:12.720 goes, you didn't talk about grammar at all, but 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:16.490 they picked up the adjective endings. You used 00:18:16.490 --> 00:18:19.289 a subordinate clause, which, Jackie, the subordinate 00:18:19.289 --> 00:18:21.289 clause kick is the verb to the end. So it sounds 00:18:21.289 --> 00:18:24.170 like Shakespeare in there. And they were picking 00:18:24.170 --> 00:18:27.809 that up. You were teaching these huge numbers 00:18:27.809 --> 00:18:29.190 and they could remember the numbers because I 00:18:29.190 --> 00:18:30.970 always had to repeat the numbers after me. You 00:18:30.970 --> 00:18:32.910 know, when we said numbers, how many was that? 00:18:32.970 --> 00:18:35.269 And I would do all that stuff. She goes, you 00:18:35.269 --> 00:18:38.089 taught what I would teach in three years of German 00:18:38.089 --> 00:18:42.869 and you did it in a 30 minute demo and It'd be 00:18:42.869 --> 00:18:44.710 different if they were completely lost, but they 00:18:44.710 --> 00:18:48.089 were right there with you answering questions. 00:18:48.390 --> 00:18:50.750 She goes, not all of them were correct, but she 00:18:50.750 --> 00:18:53.329 goes, some of them got the subordinate clause 00:18:53.329 --> 00:18:55.769 right, some of them got the adjective endings 00:18:55.769 --> 00:18:59.140 right, and they all got the number right. So 00:18:59.140 --> 00:19:01.960 she goes that was just amazing and that was kind 00:19:01.960 --> 00:19:04.779 of a really good epiphany as well and so now 00:19:04.779 --> 00:19:06.539 when I have German teachers when during a demo 00:19:06.539 --> 00:19:09.099 I tell them just don't listen to the language 00:19:09.099 --> 00:19:13.940 watch what I do and what the the Students do 00:19:13.940 --> 00:19:16.640 so you can kind of see what is going on because 00:19:16.640 --> 00:19:19.930 that was powerful because We can explain grammar 00:19:19.930 --> 00:19:23.109 all we want. And they know it, what I call it, 00:19:23.190 --> 00:19:25.750 on the surface of the brain. But we need it to 00:19:25.750 --> 00:19:29.750 permeate inside so it becomes instinct. And that 00:19:29.750 --> 00:19:32.670 only happens through CI. You can't do that through 00:19:32.670 --> 00:19:36.769 explicit instruction. Yeah. I'm going to respond 00:19:36.769 --> 00:19:40.269 to

that first. My favorite thing to do during 00:19:40.269 --> 00:19:44.230 demos is sit back and watch the teacher moves, 00:19:44.569 --> 00:19:49.980 because that's so important. is to see what the 00:19:49.980 --> 00:19:51.980 teacher moves are, because if you know what the 00:19:51.980 --> 00:19:53.799 teacher moves are, then you can use the teacher 00:19:53.799 --> 00:19:59.140 moves. So when I was just in a Russian demo the 00:19:59.140 --> 00:20:03.480 week before last, it got to a point where I was 00:20:03.480 --> 00:20:06.240 like, okay, I know all of this stuff. I am ready 00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:09.759 to move on. So I am now going to sit back and 00:20:09.759 --> 00:20:13.519 watch what he's actually doing more than trying 00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:15.259 to learn some Russian, which I was very excited 00:20:15.259 --> 00:20:18.720 about. And that's one of the big things that 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:22.599 a lot of people need to do when they're in these 00:20:22.599 --> 00:20:25.460 kind of training situations is watch teacher 00:20:25.460 --> 00:20:30.859 moves because that's what you really learn. But 00:20:30.859 --> 00:20:33.200 the other thing is, you know, when Lynn was talking 00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:36.200 about how kids were learning more about English 00:20:36.200 --> 00:20:39.000 by studying German, I've heard that time and 00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:41.200 time again. And I did learn some things about 00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:43.359 English that I didn't know. when I was learning 00:20:43.359 --> 00:20:45.559 Spanish, because I was taught in a traditional 00:20:45.559 --> 00:20:50.779 grammar -based format. But it makes me think 00:20:50.779 --> 00:20:54.079 about how there's data that says that taking 00:20:54.079 --> 00:20:58.140 world language classes is correlated with higher 00:20:58.140 --> 00:21:01.960 ASAP scores. And I wonder if, as more and more 00:21:01.960 --> 00:21:09.420 teachers switch to CI and ADI instruction, if 00:21:09.420 --> 00:21:14.819 that correlation will remain. because which I 00:21:14.819 --> 00:21:16.720 mean it's correlated with higher math scores 00:21:16.720 --> 00:21:20.279 so theoretically it wouldn't but I do wonder 00:21:20.279 --> 00:21:22.500 if it would still correlate with higher English 00:21:22.500 --> 00:21:27.720 and reading scores. That's interesting and I 00:21:27.720 --> 00:21:33.400 like is the higher score because we were teaching 00:21:33.400 --> 00:21:36.619 the English through the grammar or is the higher 00:21:36.619 --> 00:21:40.480 score because we're challenging their minds to 00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:43.160 think about language in a different way, that 00:21:43.160 --> 00:21:46.099 will be very interesting to see what happens. 00:21:46.220 --> 00:21:50.400 Because I would argue that maybe the correlation 00:21:50.400 --> 00:21:54.519 remains and we discover that it's more about 00:21:54.519 --> 00:22:03.019 widening their capacity for language versus building 00:22:03.019 --> 00:22:05.339 their English skills. I don't know, though. That's 00:22:05.339 --> 00:22:07.799 an interesting question. And I would imagine 00:22:07.799 --> 00:22:12.339 some of it also previously might be is correlated 00:22:12.339 --> 00:22:15.359 with like background knowledge because that is 00:22:15.359 --> 00:22:17.779 often a predictor of higher scores as well as 00:22:17.779 --> 00:22:21.240 if you have more background knowledge. I remember 00:22:21.240 --> 00:22:24.059 when I was reading The Knowledge Gap by Natalie 00:22:24.059 --> 00:22:26.599 Wexler. I think her first name's Matt. I know 00:22:26.599 --> 00:22:30.000 the last name's Wexler. Anyway, one of the things 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:31.839 that they talked about was they did a study where 00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:34.799 they were giving students a reading passage on 00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:37.990 Facebook. and they kind of had four different 00:22:37.990 --> 00:22:40.430 groups. There were kids with low background knowledge 00:22:40.430 --> 00:22:43.789 on baseball, but high reading skills. There was 00:22:43.789 --> 00:22:46.789 a group with low background knowledge on baseball 00:22:46.789 --> 00:22:50.150 and low reading skills. There were high background 00:22:50.150 --> 00:22:53.690 knowledge, high reading skills, and high background 00:22:53.690 --> 00:22:57.789 knowledge, low reading skills. And the kids with 00:22:57.789 --> 00:23:04.089 high background knowledge did... like really 00:23:04.089 --> 00:23:06.869 well. The only group that didn't do very well 00:23:06.869 --> 00:23:08.549 at all were the kids with low background knowledge 00:23:08.549 --> 00:23:11.470 and low reading skills. So the background knowledge 00:23:11.470 --> 00:23:14.849 counterbalanced the reading skills when it was 00:23:14.849 --> 00:23:20.450 present. So possibly because a CI classroom has 00:23:20.450 --> 00:23:25.190 more of a content focus will maintain the higher 00:23:25.190 --> 00:23:27.549 correlated scores, but maybe not. It's an interesting 00:23:27.549 --> 00:23:32.420 research question, nonetheless. Absolutely. I 00:23:32.420 --> 00:23:34.819 will say that the high background knowledge helping 00:23:34.819 --> 00:23:37.799 your reading skills is very valid. When I took 00:23:37.799 --> 00:23:43.960 my praxis way back in 1995, the biggest of the 00:23:43.960 --> 00:23:47.440 readings on my German praxis was on motorcycle 00:23:47.440 --> 00:23:53.400 maintenance. Yep, by the end of that section 00:23:53.400 --> 00:23:59.339 of the exam, I was crying. I was absolutely crying 00:23:59.339 --> 00:24:02.619 because I was thinking in my head, The brakes 00:24:02.619 --> 00:24:06.640 make it stop. The engine makes it go. That little 00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:10.519 steering handle thing makes it turn. I don't 00:24:10.519 --> 00:24:13.500 know anything else. And what the hell is a carburetor? 00:24:13.940 --> 00:24:16.200 I don't know what that is in English. I don't 00:24:16.200 -->

00:24:18.859 know what it is in German. Please don't ask me 00:24:18.859 --> 00:24:24.200 about it. And why do I need to know this to be 00:24:24.200 --> 00:24:29.220 a good German teacher? Yeah. That's funny. I 00:24:29.220 --> 00:24:32.119 remember my kids were taking my one when I taught 00:24:32.119 --> 00:24:34.839 in Vegas They always made the kids take the national 00:24:34.839 --> 00:24:37.599 Spanish exams and German exams all the exams 00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:41.720 and I hated those exams because it was 50 percent 00:24:41.720 --> 00:24:46.519 Grammar and then 50 percent Proficiency, but 00:24:46.519 --> 00:24:48.940 they were asking kids in level our level 3 was 00:24:48.940 --> 00:24:51.339 taking it and they were asking the kids about 00:24:51.339 --> 00:24:56.220 the renal system I'm like In what textbook, in 00:24:56.220 --> 00:25:00.180 what world do they teach the renal system? I 00:25:00.180 --> 00:25:02.700 didn't even know what the words for kidney and 00:25:02.700 --> 00:25:05.079 stuff were in Spanish, and the only reason I 00:25:05.079 --> 00:25:07.900 knew I could figure it out from context clues 00:25:07.900 --> 00:25:10.859 was because I knew what the renal system was. 00:25:11.420 --> 00:25:13.480 You know, I knew, I go, oh, that's what they're 00:25:13.480 --> 00:25:16.140 talking about here. But why would you expect 00:25:16.140 --> 00:25:18.599 a Spanish 3 student to know that? They're not 00:25:18.599 --> 00:25:22.130 going into pre -med. And now, you know, they 00:25:22.130 --> 00:25:24.630 get, the national Spanish exam would give you 00:25:24.630 --> 00:25:26.490 trophies for getting certain grades and stuff 00:25:26.490 --> 00:25:29.730 like that. I am like, that is just not fair because 00:25:29.730 --> 00:25:32.210 I have been, I have seen, I haven't taught for 00:25:32.210 --> 00:25:34.329 many textbooks, but I have seen and I've never 00:25:34.329 --> 00:25:38.150 seen one that goes that deep into body parts. 00:25:38.589 --> 00:25:43.230 You know, arm, leg, eye, nose, maybe, but kidneys 00:25:43.230 --> 00:25:47.880 and all arena and the... the ducks that go from 00:25:47.880 --> 00:25:51.480 them and then talking about urine. I mean, the 00:25:51.480 --> 00:25:53.680 fancy word for urine, you know, the medical term 00:25:53.680 --> 00:25:56.799 for it. I'm like, we don't talk about this stuff 00:25:56.799 --> 00:26:01.160 at school. Can you imagine? Ooh, you drink your 00:26:01.160 --> 00:26:03.039 water and it goes through the system and it ends 00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:05.980 up in your kidneys and out comes pee. Urine, 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:07.779 sorry, you have to use urine as the official 00:26:07.779 --> 00:26:14.940 word. I'm like, this is very low frequency vocabulary. 00:26:15.970 --> 00:26:18.109 Unless you're having to have a kidney transplant, 00:26:18.289 --> 00:26:20.769 I don't think you need to know it. And if you're 00:26:20.769 --> 00:26:22.190 going to have a kidney transplant, you're going 00:26:22.190 --> 00:26:26.029 to research it. And it proves how far removed 00:26:26.029 --> 00:26:30.569 these test writers are from the testing. Yeah. 00:26:31.549 --> 00:26:34.069 Oh, that's just so funny. That is just so funny. 00:26:34.190 --> 00:26:36.609 I had the same panic taking the AP test in Spanish 00:26:36.609 --> 00:26:38.769 back in high school because they talked about 00:26:38.769 --> 00:26:41.759 whales. And I had no idea what the word for whale 00:26:41.759 --> 00:26:44.680 was because we didn't learn that either But I 00:26:44.680 --> 00:26:47.359 got I circumlocuted I just called it a big fish 00:26:47.359 --> 00:26:50.480 And I got credit for that even though I know 00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:53.079 before all the biology people tell me that a 00:26:53.079 --> 00:26:56.400 whale is not a fish I know that but when my little 00:26:56.400 --> 00:26:59.339 17 year old brain was going through I had no 00:26:59.339 --> 00:27:02.140 other way to describe it other than a big fish 00:27:02.140 --> 00:27:05.740 So it worked better than a big cow. So at least 00:27:05.740 --> 00:27:08.779 cows a mammal, but you know, cows don't go swimming 00:27:08.779 --> 00:27:11.259 in the ocean. So a big fish worked and I got 00:27:11.259 --> 00:27:14.700 my credit for that, that point of using circumlocution. 00:27:14.720 --> 00:27:16.700 I think they put that actually in there probably 00:27:16.700 --> 00:27:20.039 for that to see how we'd handle that word. But 00:27:20.039 --> 00:27:22.339 now I know what whale is, but I'd had no idea 00:27:22.339 --> 00:27:25.480 back, back then in 17 years old, because it was 00:27:25.480 --> 00:27:29.660 never in our vocabulary lists that we had. Wasn't 00:27:29.660 --> 00:27:34.079 part of the farmyard. Yeah, exactly. Or the zoo 00:27:34.079 --> 00:27:39.809 animals. Okay, let's go let's go ahead and talk 00:27:39.809 --> 00:27:43.569 about what was one thing that you tried that 00:27:43.569 --> 00:27:52.390 was a complete disaster Who would like to go 00:27:52.390 --> 00:28:02.029 first on that For me at first it was story asking 00:28:02.029 --> 00:28:06.269 because when I first switched over to CI I was 00:28:06.299 --> 00:28:10.180 not using a curriculum, I was doing untargeted 00:28:10.180 --> 00:28:18.339 CI basically, which is a terrible idea. It didn't 00:28:18.339 --> 00:28:20.960 work for me, we'll put it that way. So I was 00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:23.980 like trying to come up with these stories and 00:28:23.980 --> 00:28:25.980 I would write them on the whiteboard and by the 00:28:25.980 --> 00:28:27.920 time we got to the bottom of the whiteboard and 00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:30.400 started over, the kids had forgotten what was 00:28:30.400 --> 00:28:32.480 on the first part of the whiteboard and like, 00:28:32.940 --> 00:28:37.470 it was just, it was kind of a nightmare. I've 00:28:37.470 --> 00:28:40.529 gotten better at story asking, but that was definitely 00:28:40.529 --> 00:28:43.349 a flop

at first for me. And like a lot of the 00:28:43.349 --> 00:28:45.230 other stuff, like using actors and stuff like 00:28:45.230 --> 00:28:48.109 that was not, did not work for me for a long 00:28:48.109 --> 00:28:53.390 time. It's gotten better. But yeah, definitely 00:28:53.390 --> 00:28:56.089 story asking first and just untargeted CI in 00:28:56.089 --> 00:29:01.150 general. So I feel like what I learned from it, 00:29:01.150 --> 00:29:04.509 especially if you don't really know what you're 00:29:04.509 --> 00:29:10.430 doing, finding some kind of curriculum is gonna 00:29:10.430 --> 00:29:13.609 help you. And nowadays with Teachers Pay Teachers, 00:29:14.690 --> 00:29:19.549 there's a lot of very popular world language 00:29:19.549 --> 00:29:22.029 teachers who are in the CIS sphere and a lot 00:29:22.029 --> 00:29:27.119 of them sell stuff, you're one of them. There 00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:29.880 you don't have to start from zero and you shouldn't 00:29:29.880 --> 00:29:34.579 start. I would always recommend it. Even if I 00:29:34.579 --> 00:29:36.980 wouldn't necessarily say go by a whole curriculum. 00:29:37.559 --> 00:29:40.299 But there's a lot of people with free samples, 00:29:40.660 --> 00:29:44.440 so you can find what works for you and what clicks 00:29:44.440 --> 00:29:48.500 with your brain and start with start with a good 00:29:48.500 --> 00:29:55.390 feeling. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and I was like 00:29:55.390 --> 00:29:57.190 back in the day when we started with stories 00:29:57.190 --> 00:29:59.930 a lot of us scripted them out I even know donna 00:29:59.930 --> 00:30:02.450 tatum johns. She did it even more than I did 00:30:02.450 --> 00:30:05.069 She scripted out everything and had like a textbook 00:30:05.069 --> 00:30:07.650 herself that she would read from and I did something 00:30:07.650 --> 00:30:09.829 similar I did it the Oprah style though. I made 00:30:09.829 --> 00:30:13.400 these giant flat and that leaves I took card 00:30:13.400 --> 00:30:15.920 stock, I made them, it was a half a sheet of 00:30:15.920 --> 00:30:18.880 paper, and I put it on 14 -point font so I could 00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:21.940 read it from a distance, and it had my first 00:30:21.940 --> 00:30:24.920 sentence and then all my questions underneath 00:30:24.920 --> 00:30:27.599 that I typed out and put them on there. And I 00:30:27.599 --> 00:30:29.779 had underlined the areas I allowed to change, 00:30:29.819 --> 00:30:32.160 but I only allowed them to change the name and 00:30:32.160 --> 00:30:34.539 the color of the hair, but it was gonna be a 00:30:34.539 --> 00:30:36.339 boy, because if I said it was a boy, it was going 00:30:36.339 --> 00:30:38.079 to be a boy, and if I said it was going to Walmart, 00:30:38.500 --> 00:30:41.079 gosh darn it, it was going to Walmart. I couldn't, 00:30:41.160 --> 00:30:43.200 I didn't have enough freedom in my brain to be 00:30:43.200 --> 00:30:46.819 able to switch on the fly. Now I don't go in 00:30:46.819

--> 00:30:51.160 with anything, but yeah, that was a very, that 00:30:51.160 --> 00:30:53.160 was very scary, but we scripted everything out 00:30:53.160 --> 00:30:58.619 back in the beginning. How about you, Lynn? Well, 00:30:59.019 --> 00:31:03.180 I have index cards. that were on a little, you 00:31:03.180 --> 00:31:06.519 know, ring. And that's where I would put my stories 00:31:06.519 --> 00:31:08.720 because, yeah, the first time I tried a story, 00:31:09.299 --> 00:31:13.579 it just went like the kids went so far out of 00:31:13.579 --> 00:31:17.200 bounds that I got lost and I couldn't figure 00:31:17.200 --> 00:31:20.319 out where we were or what I was. What was the 00:31:20.319 --> 00:31:24.259 purpose of the story? And so those unscripted 00:31:24.259 --> 00:31:26.539 stories were very, very hard in the beginning. 00:31:26.819 --> 00:31:31.710 But the first time I tried a picture talk. the 00:31:31.710 --> 00:31:37.670 kids were so uninterested, completely uninterested 00:31:37.670 --> 00:31:40.490 in what I was doing. And it was a cool picture. 00:31:40.569 --> 00:31:44.390 It was a picture that I had gotten from another 00:31:44.390 --> 00:31:47.150 CI teacher that they had great success with. 00:31:47.150 --> 00:31:51.470 And I watched them model how they used it. And 00:31:51.470 --> 00:31:54.490 my kids just sat there and looked at me like 00:31:54.490 --> 00:32:01.599 I had lost every marble in my head. it just fell 00:32:01.599 --> 00:32:05.940 flat. But now I can do picture talks much better. 00:32:06.500 --> 00:32:09.079 I can do story talks much better, you know, stories 00:32:09.079 --> 00:32:13.799 much better. But I do still have kind of a script 00:32:13.799 --> 00:32:19.259 that I have available to me so that I can go 00:32:19.259 --> 00:32:24.380 back to if things start going off the rails with 00:32:24.380 --> 00:32:29.140 teenage creativity. Just because I need that 00:32:29.140 --> 00:32:33.359 for myself. And because I do have a curriculum 00:32:33.359 --> 00:32:39.259 that I'm... obligated to follow and it is deemed 00:32:39.259 --> 00:32:42.859 and all of that. I need to be able to show my 00:32:42.859 --> 00:32:46.160 administration if they come in my room that I 00:32:46.160 --> 00:32:49.440 am following the curriculum and it might not 00:32:49.440 --> 00:32:54.059 be in the exact order. It might not be separate 00:32:54.059 --> 00:32:58.079 units per se. I might be combining some things, 00:32:58.380 --> 00:33:01.859 but I am. following the curriculum and I am covering 00:33:01.859 --> 00:33:06.400 what needs to be covered and having those stories 00:33:06.400 --> 00:33:12.500 partially scripted that I can show them has covered 00:33:12.500 --> 00:33:20.220 my own yeah absolutely absolutely and I would 00:33:20.220 --> 00:33:27.420 say for me it was PQA and First of all, I hate 00:33:27.420 --> 00:33:29.660 the term personalized questions and answers. 00:33:30.700 --> 00:33:34.279 My only experience with it was

the way the textbook 00:33:34.279 --> 00:33:37.500 does it. So textbook will introduce the vocabulary, 00:33:37.559 --> 00:33:40.019 and let's say it's sports. And the instructions 00:33:40.019 --> 00:33:43.099 to the teacher will say, please ask the same 00:33:43.099 --> 00:33:46.220 question to all 30 of your students. And when 00:33:46.220 --> 00:33:49.119 you're done with that question, move to question 00:33:49.119 --> 00:33:52.079 number two. So it'll say, do you play hockey? 00:33:52.319 --> 00:33:54.579 Do you play hockey? Do you play hockey? Do you 00:33:54.579 --> 00:33:57.000 play hockey? Do you play hockey? 30 times. Now 00:33:57.000 --> 00:33:59.359 you go, oh, do you play basketball? Do you play 00:33:59.359 --> 00:34:01.240 basketball? Do you play basketball? Do you play 00:34:01.240 --> 00:34:04.160 basketball? That's my only experience. And having 00:34:04.160 --> 00:34:08.000 gone to multiple, I mean, I've been to, back 00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:10.619 in the beginning, I was in a TPRS conference, 00:34:10.820 --> 00:34:13.980 not conference, workshop with Karen Rowan, with 00:34:13.980 --> 00:34:18.820 Susie Gross, with Blaine Ray, and with Carmen 00:34:18.820 --> 00:34:24.789 Andrews. I saw them all and nobody ever demonstrated 00:34:24.789 --> 00:34:27.730 PQA. They went right into the freaking, they 00:34:27.730 --> 00:34:31.150 did TPR and then they did the story. So I never 00:34:31.150 --> 00:34:36.269 saw it either. And so I tried it and I sucked 00:34:36.269 --> 00:34:38.889 at it. I skipped it. It was one of the original 00:34:38.889 --> 00:34:44.349 seven steps of TPRS and I'm done. I couldn't 00:34:44.349 --> 00:34:48.929 do it. And then I read in my, was it my? fifth 00:34:48.929 --> 00:34:53.250 year, fifth year of teaching, I read two books 00:34:53.250 --> 00:34:56.929 by Ben Slavik. So let me put that here so people 00:34:56.929 --> 00:35:02.710 want to check him out, benslavik .com. I don't 00:35:02.710 --> 00:35:05.710 know if he still sells these books, but you can 00:35:05.710 --> 00:35:08.409 go to his website and check benslavik .com. It's 00:35:08.409 --> 00:35:12.750 there on the screen. Two was TPRS in a Year and 00:35:12.750 --> 00:35:15.090 PQA in a Week. Those were the two that I read. 00:35:15.570 --> 00:35:19.030 TPRS in a Year was He taught one skill, and the 00:35:19.030 --> 00:35:24.050 idea was you worked on that skill for an X amount 00:35:24.050 --> 00:35:26.969 of time before working on another skill. Don't 00:35:26.969 --> 00:35:30.010 try to do it all at once. Just incorporate one 00:35:30.010 --> 00:35:32.510 thing, work on that one thing, and he had an 00:35:32.510 --> 00:35:35.070 order that he did it in, and by the end of the 00:35:35.070 --> 00:35:37.230 year, you will have converted yourself over to 00:35:37.230 --> 00:35:41.309 TPRS. So that was... informational but not I 00:35:41.309 --> 00:35:44.250 was already doing TPRS so that wasn't as helpful 00:35:44.250 --> 00:35:47.829 but PQA in a wink that's where the circling with 00:35:47.829 --> 00:35:50.429 balls came from that he talked about that's you 00:35:50.429 --> 00:35:55.070 know passed around all the time um and that's 00:35:55.070 --> 00:35:59.769 kind of where I went I go oh now I finally get 00:35:59.769 --> 00:36:03.010 it It's just having a conversation with your 00:36:03.010 --> 00:36:05.510 kids. It's small talk. Why didn't we just say 00:36:05.510 --> 00:36:07.090 that from the beginning? Why do we have to come 00:36:07.090 --> 00:36:09.849 up with some jargon? Personalized questions and 00:36:09.849 --> 00:36:12.289 answers. PQA, we have to come up with jargon 00:36:12.289 --> 00:36:15.010 to describe everything. It's just conversations. 00:36:15.570 --> 00:36:17.889 And what I took from that, because his original 00:36:17.889 --> 00:36:21.849 idea was that... he would get kids talking about 00:36:21.849 --> 00:36:24.570 sports. And so he'd have this ball, like a basketball 00:36:24.570 --> 00:36:27.090 in his classroom. And when he was talking about 00:36:27.090 --> 00:36:29.010 basketball, he'd let the kid hold the basketball 00:36:29.010 --> 00:36:31.530 and stuff like that. Well, I didn't have enough 00:36:31.530 --> 00:36:36.050 props to cover everything that my kids liked 00:36:36.050 --> 00:36:39.949 to do. I had one girl like to cut hair. I don't 00:36:39.949 --> 00:36:42.489 have hair cutting scissors. I had paper cutting 00:36:42.489 --> 00:36:44.429 scissors and they were big and I wasn't letting 00:36:44.429 --> 00:36:47.250 a kid have one of those. Who knows what would 00:36:47.250 --> 00:36:50.329 happen with giant big old teacher shears that 00:36:50.329 --> 00:36:53.630 go through. So that's where I came up with the 00:36:53.630 --> 00:36:56.989 idea of drawing what they like to do, which now 00:36:56.989 --> 00:36:59.289 came out with card talk is what people call it 00:36:59.289 --> 00:37:03.869 now. They to draw pictures of things that they 00:37:03.869 --> 00:37:07.329 liked and so that's where I I got into that and 00:37:07.329 --> 00:37:10.929 finally learned How to do that technique, but 00:37:10.929 --> 00:37:14.610 it wasn't until year five That I was starting 00:37:14.610 --> 00:37:19.630 to do That PQA and that's because I also had 00:37:19.630 --> 00:37:22.210 to teach thematic vocabulary at the time and 00:37:22.210 --> 00:37:25.860 that's how I handled thematic vocabulary. So 00:37:25.860 --> 00:37:28.099 I'd have them draw a picture of a family. It 00:37:28.099 --> 00:37:30.539 didn't have to be their family, but it had to 00:37:30.539 --> 00:37:34.280 be a family. And I like doing it this way because 00:37:34.280 --> 00:37:36.920 I wouldn't talk about any character that wasn't 00:37:36.920 --> 00:37:40.179 on the page. So if they didn't put a mom on the 00:37:40.179 --> 00:37:42.519 picture, I didn't talk about a mom. So I didn't 00:37:42.519 --> 00:37:45.019 have that embarrassing moment where I said, oh, 00:37:45.019 -->

00:37:47.480 what's your mom's name? I don't have a mom. You 00:37:47.480 --> 00:37:49.659 know, I don't want to get into one of those situations. 00:37:49.679 --> 00:37:52.559 So this really worked well. So we did that. And 00:37:52.559 --> 00:37:55.150 I had creative ones. Some drew Simpsons families 00:37:55.150 --> 00:37:56.409 that they weren't comfortable with their own 00:37:56.409 --> 00:37:58.869 family. They drew other families. I had late 00:37:58.869 --> 00:38:02.090 one girl, she drew a fly family. So she made 00:38:02.090 --> 00:38:05.170 all these characters, these giant flies. And 00:38:05.170 --> 00:38:07.429 then one, the parents would have been embarrassed 00:38:07.429 --> 00:38:10.809 because the guy, he drew his dad, huge, taking 00:38:10.809 --> 00:38:14.059 up Almost the entire paper sitting on the couch 00:38:14.059 --> 00:38:16.840 and then everybody else was tiny around him And 00:38:16.840 --> 00:38:19.039 I'm like what's going on here goes you don't 00:38:19.039 --> 00:38:21.780 understand my dad is fat and not just fat He's 00:38:21.780 --> 00:38:26.510 really fat and so it was just We had so much 00:38:26.510 --> 00:38:28.969 fun with some of these pictures, but we did that, 00:38:28.969 --> 00:38:32.329 and I had, for food, your favorite lunch, breakfast, 00:38:32.429 --> 00:38:34.469 and dinner, and your favorite dessert, and we 00:38:34.469 --> 00:38:36.869 could talk about those. So that's kind of how 00:38:36.869 --> 00:38:39.469 I developed the PQA and how I dealt with thematic 00:38:39.469 --> 00:38:42.230 vocabulary, because it was much more interesting 00:38:42.230 --> 00:38:44.809 to talk about it that way. And this way, they 00:38:44.809 --> 00:38:46.610 weren't talking about things they didn't like. 00:38:46.630 --> 00:38:48.329 Like I didn't have to go through, do you like 00:38:48.329 --> 00:38:52.150 ice cream? No, I'm lactose intolerant. So that 00:38:52.150 --> 00:38:54.650 just put a bummer on the whole thing, where... 00:38:54.590 --> 00:38:56.329 If they put, you know, they didn't put ice cream 00:38:56.329 --> 00:38:58.309 down, I didn't ask them about ice cream. But 00:38:58.309 --> 00:39:01.650 if I talked to 10 kids, because that was my goal 00:39:01.650 --> 00:39:04.670 in each thematic to talk to 10 kids, if I talked 00:39:04.670 --> 00:39:07.630 to 10 kids using that, then I would have enough 00:39:07.630 --> 00:39:11.769 variety where I covered the vocabulary, the food 00:39:11.769 --> 00:39:14.250 vocabulary chapter or the clothing vocabulary 00:39:14.250 --> 00:39:17.889 chapter or the family vocabulary chapter. Not 00:39:17.889 --> 00:39:19.829 every kid was going to talk about every family 00:39:19.829 --> 00:39:23.550 member, but We got enough of it when we talked 00:39:23.550 --> 00:39:26.010 about it that way and so that was a fun way to 00:39:26.010 --> 00:39:28.849 be able to handle that and yeah that PQA was 00:39:28.849 --> 00:39:31.929 a complete disaster going on because I I'm

like 00:39:31.929 --> 00:39:35.650 I could just could not figure like oh Like we 00:39:35.650 --> 00:39:37.690 were talking about sports. Do you play basketball? 00:39:38.050 --> 00:39:40.130 I didn't know what else to ask after that. I'm 00:39:40.130 --> 00:39:43.030 like, okay That's nice move on and then I go 00:39:43.030 --> 00:39:45.429 to the next kid and that really wasn't PQA That's 00:39:45.429 --> 00:39:47.090 what the textbook did and that was extremely 00:39:47.090 --> 00:39:49.550 boring and it didn't delve into any language 00:39:49.550 --> 00:39:54.619 so that Thank you Ben for that That book because 00:39:54.619 --> 00:39:57.460 that really got me thinking about PQA and being 00:39:57.460 --> 00:40:00.420 able to do it and I use it consistently now It's 00:40:00.420 --> 00:40:01.900 one of the things it's what I start my school 00:40:01.900 --> 00:40:05.219 year with so very very what I got really successful 00:40:05.219 --> 00:40:08.860 from it It is still available on his website. 00:40:09.320 --> 00:40:12.639 Oh is he check awesome is the TPS in a year or 00:40:12.639 --> 00:40:16.199 two on there Yeah, they're both on there. They're 00:40:16.199 --> 00:40:19.679 $29 apiece Oh my gosh, because I read those in 00:40:19.679 --> 00:40:24.880 2005, so 20 years ago. 20 years ago, he still 00:40:24.880 --> 00:40:27.519 got them up there. Yeah, so if you guys struggle 00:40:27.519 --> 00:40:29.639 with either of those things, I highly recommend 00:40:29.639 --> 00:40:33.420 those books, benslavik .com. Get a handle of 00:40:33.420 --> 00:40:36.000 those, because you'll learn a lot. I did, and 00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:38.619 it was fun reading, because he's a humorous guy, 00:40:38.659 --> 00:40:41.780 so it was fun reading those books. They were 00:40:41.780 --> 00:40:45.920 easy reads, and I got a lot of value out of them. 00:40:46.110 --> 00:40:50.630 lot of value out of them Okay, let's go and talk 00:40:50.630 --> 00:40:56.690 about what's one trick or Routine or activity 00:40:56.690 --> 00:41:01.869 that you did early on and that you still swear 00:41:01.869 --> 00:41:13.110 by Trying to think I know it's a tough one, isn't 00:41:13.110 --> 00:41:23.460 it? I think for me, it's not quite as CI as affiliated 00:41:23.460 --> 00:41:28.820 as it could be, but my students love GIMKIT. 00:41:29.679 --> 00:41:32.780 And then when Blickit came out, they love that. 00:41:33.199 --> 00:41:38.750 And so... You know, there are kids who need that 00:41:38.750 --> 00:41:43.230 just constant repetition and they respond better 00:41:43.230 --> 00:41:48.389 to a game and to being online at times. And it's 00:41:48.389 --> 00:41:52.849 I don't use computers a lot in my class. They 00:41:52.849 --> 00:41:57.889 just eat. You know, like I can't sit and babysit 00:41:57.889 --> 00:42:02.269 some computer monitoring app while they're working 00:42:02.269 --> 00:42:05.980 because I need to be you know, working with them 00:42:05.980 --> 00:42:10.059 and answering questions. And so we do more on 00:42:10.059 --> 00:42:13.179 paper and pencil than I think they like. So it's 00:42:13.179 --> 00:42:15.420 a way for me to give those kids who like to be 00:42:15.420 --> 00:42:20.619 on their computers that computer time. It's a 00:42:20.619 --> 00:42:23.599 great way when I know we're going to have a fire 00:42:23.599 --> 00:42:27.800 drill 15 minutes into class, I'll just do my, 00:42:27.800 --> 00:42:31.980 you know, opening. little routine that I do and 00:42:31.980 --> 00:42:35.739 then we'll flop into a little game and then the 00:42:35.739 --> 00:42:38.599 fire alarm rings and we go out and we come back 00:42:38.599 --> 00:42:43.019 and we're ready to start class. So I found GIMM 00:42:43.019 --> 00:42:46.139 kit when it like in the when the guy who created 00:42:46.139 --> 00:42:49.639 it in high school first put it out there on the 00:42:49.639 --> 00:42:52.860 market and I've been using it ever since because 00:42:52.860 --> 00:42:57.719 it's not particularly CI related but it gives 00:42:57.719 --> 00:43:02.349 the kid who just likes that rote kind of thing 00:43:02.349 --> 00:43:07.730 and that constant motion and the computer, the 00:43:07.730 --> 00:43:10.869 gamified version of things. It gives them something 00:43:10.869 --> 00:43:15.190 that they really enjoy. Awesome. Games are something 00:43:15.190 --> 00:43:18.730 I want to try and do more of this year. I do 00:43:18.730 --> 00:43:21.869 some every now and again, but I don't normally 00:43:21.869 --> 00:43:25.630 just go, let's play a game. So. We'll see. Craig 00:43:25.630 --> 00:43:28.829 Sheeha has me ready to try party points. So we'll 00:43:28.829 --> 00:43:33.269 see how that goes this year. But one of my strategies 00:43:33.269 --> 00:43:36.190 that I started doing early on and I still do 00:43:36.190 --> 00:43:40.170 is calendar talk. Now, it looks different now 00:43:40.170 --> 00:43:42.949 than it did when I started doing this seven years 00:43:42.949 --> 00:43:50.210 ago. But I still try to take the time every day 00:43:50.210 --> 00:43:53.429 to at the very least ask how everyone's doing. 00:43:54.679 --> 00:43:57.760 and kind of get a pulse for what's going on in 00:43:57.760 --> 00:44:00.679 the school. So, you know, and like we do the 00:44:00.679 --> 00:44:02.719 day, we'll talk about what day it is today, just 00:44:02.719 --> 00:44:04.760 to kind of reinforce that a little bit. And, 00:44:04.880 --> 00:44:10.500 you know, because I forget sometimes too. I do, 00:44:11.019 --> 00:44:15.300 I can be horrible about it sometimes, but now, 00:44:15.480 --> 00:44:18.679 especially when I do calendar talk, it involves 00:44:18.679 --> 00:44:22.110 asking what's going on in the school. you know, 00:44:22.250 --> 00:44:24.070 what classes are you taking classes in? What 00:44:24.070 --> 00:44:27.530 classes are you doing cool projects in? You know, 00:44:27.610 --> 00:44:31.449 stuff like that because it goes a long

way to 00:44:31.449 --> 00:44:34.650 building the relationship with the kids. And 00:44:34.650 --> 00:44:38.789 I have had so many kids over the years be willing 00:44:38.789 --> 00:44:42.190 to tell me stuff because they're like, Rofe, 00:44:42.230 --> 00:44:44.949 I know you care. And, you know, like I had one 00:44:44.949 --> 00:44:48.210 kid who, she was not super enthused with my class, 00:44:48.610 --> 00:44:50.769 but every now and again she would go. I just 00:44:50.769 --> 00:44:52.610 need to yap about this." And I'm like, okay, 00:44:52.710 --> 00:44:56.670 go ahead. And I'm like, I let the kids complain 00:44:56.670 --> 00:45:00.889 about other teachers too. And it provides an 00:45:00.889 --> 00:45:04.769 opportunity for me to be the older, wiser, more 00:45:04.769 --> 00:45:07.809 regulated human being and say, okay, how can 00:45:07.809 --> 00:45:13.550 we address this in a way that is positive and 00:45:13.550 --> 00:45:16.789 expresses your concern and gets you some resolution? 00:45:17.510 --> 00:45:20.550 And kind of gets them to think in a more Okay, 00:45:20.590 --> 00:45:23.070 I could be a mature human being about this instead 00:45:23.070 --> 00:45:27.429 of just, you know, giving up on this class entirely 00:45:27.429 --> 00:45:29.070 because they're not going to be able to get out 00:45:29.070 --> 00:45:31.489 of the class. And they're probably not going 00:45:31.489 --> 00:45:33.510 to be able to change that teacher's personality, 00:45:34.250 --> 00:45:36.190 but they can learn how to deal with it. And that's 00:45:36.190 --> 00:45:40.170 an important life skill that I feel like a lot 00:45:40.170 --> 00:45:46.070 of kids aren't learning at home. Very true. Very 00:45:46.070 --> 00:45:49.730 true. One of the things that I've added to my 00:45:49.730 --> 00:45:53.929 calendar talk that I really like is a fact of 00:45:53.929 --> 00:45:57.489 the day. And sometimes it's something silly like 00:45:57.489 --> 00:46:01.730 today is frog jumping day. Um, and if I've got 00:46:01.730 --> 00:46:05.070 a playful class, we will frog jump in the room, 00:46:05.070 --> 00:46:08.730 right? Um, sometimes it's national cheesecake 00:46:08.730 --> 00:46:12.309 day, but then like with that one, we can, we 00:46:12.309 --> 00:46:14.690 can talk about some of that thematic vocabulary. 00:46:14.750 --> 00:46:17.050 What, you know, do you like chocolate cheesecake 00:46:17.050 --> 00:46:19.210 or vanilla cheesecake? Do you like it with fruit? 00:46:19.309 --> 00:46:21.469 Do you like, you know, so I use it that way, 00:46:21.489 --> 00:46:26.849 but then other times, um, I use it in a much 00:46:26.849 --> 00:46:31.460 more direct way. where we do talk about historical 00:46:31.460 --> 00:46:36.039 facts. I found this amazing website for German 00:46:36.039 --> 00:46:41.460 children that's like politics and culture and 00:46:41.460 --> 00:46:43.800 things of that nature and they do a lot with 00:46:43.800 --> 00:46:50.780 the world heritage days and they do a lot with 00:46:50.780 --> 00:46:56.570 the different UN days. But then during African 00:46:56.570 --> 00:46:59.889 American History Month, my district supervisor 00:46:59.889 --> 00:47:03.789 will send out a different African American every 00:47:03.789 --> 00:47:07.389 day that is related somehow to another culture. 00:47:08.329 --> 00:47:11.090 And I don't care if it's related to France or 00:47:11.090 --> 00:47:14.190 Spain or Cuba or wherever, we'll talk about that 00:47:14.190 --> 00:47:17.170 person. If it's an artist, I'll find their artwork 00:47:17.170 --> 00:47:19.070 and we'll look at their artwork and we'll talk 00:47:19.070 --> 00:47:23.170 about that. you know, it's really opened up a 00:47:23.170 --> 00:47:26.570 lot of things of that nature that I can talk 00:47:26.570 --> 00:47:29.269 about. We talk about Holocaust Remembrance Day. 00:47:29.389 --> 00:47:32.949 We talk about the end of World War I. So when 00:47:32.949 --> 00:47:35.050 everybody in the school is telling me I need 00:47:35.050 --> 00:47:37.110 to be cross -curricular, well, there you have 00:47:37.110 --> 00:47:41.309 it. The fact of the day makes it cross -curricular. 00:47:41.429 --> 00:47:44.429 And it's a very easy thing to add into that calendar 00:47:44.429 --> 00:47:49.420 talk. And it's easy to use the same fact of the 00:47:49.420 --> 00:47:53.340 day across all my levels of German. If I'm talking 00:47:53.340 --> 00:47:59.460 about Hitler's attempt to take over the government 00:47:59.460 --> 00:48:05.480 of Bavaria in Germany, I can talk about fighting 00:48:05.480 --> 00:48:09.579 and keep it very simplified for my German ones, 00:48:09.599 --> 00:48:13.230 but then I can really elevate it for... my German 00:48:13.230 --> 00:48:17.469 threes and my German fours. And I've really had 00:48:17.469 --> 00:48:19.030 a good time with that. And somebody is like, 00:48:19.030 --> 00:48:20.969 oh, do you have a slide deck for that? And I'm 00:48:20.969 --> 00:48:24.369 like, you know, I honestly don't like in the 00:48:24.369 --> 00:48:26.190 morning I come in and that's the first thing 00:48:26.190 --> 00:48:29.590 I do is I sit down and I look at, you know, these 00:48:29.590 --> 00:48:32.230 two different websites and what fact of the day 00:48:32.230 --> 00:48:34.449 am I going to do? And I find, you know, because 00:48:34.449 --> 00:48:37.269 I'm only talking about it for two to five minutes. 00:48:37.719 --> 00:48:40.239 Um, but other times we've talked about it a lot 00:48:40.239 --> 00:48:42.320 more because it was something that really interested 00:48:42.320 --> 00:48:44.940 the kids. And like you said, Jackie makes them 00:48:44.940 --> 00:48:49.679 better human beings because they realize that 00:48:49.679 --> 00:48:53.159 history is important because you can see how 00:48:53.159 --> 00:48:56.880 it arcs across the entire world and all of that. 00:48:57.019 --> 00:49:00.619 Um, you know, and It's it's something simple,

00:49:00.619 --> 00:49:03.900 but it's really effective. And my I'll get feedback 00:49:03.900 --> 00:49:08.139 from kids that say it's like a little mini, you 00:49:08.139 --> 00:49:11.079 know, whatever lesson like culture lesson or 00:49:11.079 --> 00:49:13.920 just lesson in being a good person every day. 00:49:13.940 --> 00:49:17.440 I really like it. Keep doing it. So that's a 00:49:17.440 --> 00:49:19.320 it's a neat little thing to add into calendar 00:49:19.320 --> 00:49:22.079 talk, just to kind of make it your own to. Yeah, 00:49:22.079 --> 00:49:25.840 that's a great idea. Because calendar can get 00:49:25.840 --> 00:49:29.420 stale as the year goes on. um and that's something 00:49:29.420 --> 00:49:31.480 that i've been trying to work on is like keeping 00:49:31.480 --> 00:49:36.019 it a little bit more fresh um so i really love 00:49:36.019 --> 00:49:39.920 that idea yeah yeah that's my problem um it gets 00:49:39.920 --> 00:49:42.639 stale for me and i get bored with it um i'm like 00:49:42.639 --> 00:49:44.260 how do you not know the days of the week by now 00:49:44.260 --> 00:49:45.739 you know we've gone through all this stuff you 00:49:45.739 --> 00:49:48.860 know um so yes you both have given me some great 00:49:48.860 --> 00:49:51.960 ideas now i'm gonna jump off and when i talk 00:49:51.960 --> 00:49:58.440 about mine um They're not really CI based things 00:49:58.440 --> 00:50:01.400 One is something I started way back in the beginning 00:50:01.400 --> 00:50:04.829 from day one So I did this from day one is giving 00:50:04.829 --> 00:50:06.829 out participation points because I don't believe 00:50:06.829 --> 00:50:10.670 in grading on participation But that first year 00:50:10.670 --> 00:50:12.670 I just copied everybody else's grading chart 00:50:12.670 --> 00:50:14.849 However, they did and participation was on there 00:50:14.849 --> 00:50:17.929 and I had no I didn't know how to evaluate participation, 00:50:18.110 --> 00:50:20.969 you know because there are kids who always raise 00:50:20.969 --> 00:50:24.150 their hand and you call them and they have nothing 00:50:24.150 --> 00:50:26.670 of substance to offer and then the kids who never 00:50:26.670 --> 00:50:29.349 raised their hand had always the substance to 00:50:29.349 --> 00:50:33.210 offer so I couldn't go by that, so I gave out 00:50:33.210 --> 00:50:35.130 participation points, and I've changed how I've 00:50:35.130 --> 00:50:37.789 used them over the years. I used to give out 00:50:37.789 --> 00:50:42.510 actual little points. I used to make Spanish 00:50:42.510 --> 00:50:44.869 flags, and I'd cut them out of a paper. I got 00:50:44.869 --> 00:50:48.289 30 on a page, and I would cut them out, and I'd 00:50:48.289 --> 00:50:50.510 spend days at the paper cutter cutting these 00:50:50.510 --> 00:50:53.110 dang things out, and I'd hand them out like candy. 00:50:53.510 --> 00:50:57.289 And then I had an idea probably in my second 00:50:57.289 --> 00:51:01.190 or

third year of teaching. I used currency. So 00:51:01.190 --> 00:51:05.349 I took Hispanic currency and each quarter I would 00:51:05.349 --> 00:51:09.610 change the currency around so that they learned, 00:51:09.630 --> 00:51:12.679 you know We taught year -long, so four currencies 00:51:12.679 --> 00:51:15.699 a year, and every year I would do a different 00:51:15.699 --> 00:51:17.960 four set. So after they've had me for three years, 00:51:18.179 --> 00:51:20.340 they would have gotten 12 different currencies. 00:51:20.559 --> 00:51:22.659 And I never picked pesos because everybody knows 00:51:22.659 --> 00:51:25.719 Mexico's got pesos. So I always pick the ones, 00:51:25.860 --> 00:51:29.059 the Guarani's and, you know, the Quetzales and 00:51:29.059 --> 00:51:31.159 stuff like that. And they learned because I always 00:51:31.159 --> 00:51:34.280 talk about that, you know, what this country, 00:51:34.460 --> 00:51:36.099 this is their currency, where is the country 00:51:36.099 --> 00:51:39.190 located? So I got a little bit of that out. Now 00:51:39.190 --> 00:51:43.429 I I have done it with class dojo, so that's I 00:51:43.429 --> 00:51:46.309 do them now electronically So that's really worked 00:51:46.309 --> 00:51:50.429 for me And then kids use these points not for 00:51:50.429 --> 00:51:53.510 a grade but to buy privileges and prizes and 00:51:53.510 --> 00:51:57.489 there's only one prize That cost me money and 00:51:57.489 --> 00:51:59.969 that's a snack And they have to earn a lot of 00:51:59.969 --> 00:52:02.829 points to get there. And my snack limit is $3. 00:52:03.510 --> 00:52:05.550 So if you want a can of soda or something, but 00:52:05.550 --> 00:52:07.409 whatever you want, it's got to be $3 or less. 00:52:07.489 --> 00:52:10.570 I will not spend more than $3. And I don't get 00:52:10.570 --> 00:52:12.849 a lot of kids who use those and spend them on 00:52:12.849 --> 00:52:14.889 those. A lot of them want to use for, you know, 00:52:14.949 --> 00:52:17.550 they get to choose their seat for a month, or 00:52:17.550 --> 00:52:20.670 they get a yoga ball for a month, or whatever 00:52:20.670 --> 00:52:25.409 that case may be. So, um... That's really worked 00:52:25.409 --> 00:52:28.409 well for me, and it's kept my kids engaged, because 00:52:28.409 --> 00:52:31.809 when I taught some remedial kids, kids who have 00:52:31.809 --> 00:52:34.530 failed level one a couple of times, and we put 00:52:34.530 --> 00:52:37.849 them all in one class, which is both genius and 00:52:37.849 --> 00:52:40.829 a disaster at the same time, because it got those 00:52:40.829 --> 00:52:43.489 kids out from distracting the kids who wanted 00:52:43.489 --> 00:52:46.289 to learn, but at the same time, now you've got 00:52:46.289 --> 00:52:48.929 all those kids in one class, and nine times out 00:52:48.929 --> 00:52:51.730 of ten, they were troublemakers in the other 00:52:51.730 --> 00:52:55.269 class, that's why they didn't pass. And so having 00:52:55.269 --> 00:52:58.750 10 or 15, 20 troublemakers in one class could 00:52:58.750 --> 00:53:01.750 be a challenge. But this is one thing that my 00:53:01.750 --> 00:53:06.050 kids really wanted. So I'm like, OK, we're going 00:53:06.050 --> 00:53:08.340 to earn some points now. And they're like, they 00:53:08.340 --> 00:53:10.719 all come move their chairs right up to my where 00:53:10.719 --> 00:53:12.739 I was standing so they can be right there so 00:53:12.739 --> 00:53:14.860 they go so you can see that I'm the one who's 00:53:14.860 --> 00:53:16.280 getting the point because I'm the one talking 00:53:16.280 --> 00:53:19.699 and so they really it really inspired them so 00:53:19.699 --> 00:53:22.480 it's worked pretty well for me and the second 00:53:22.480 --> 00:53:24.579 thing that I did and this didn't come from when 00:53:24.579 --> 00:53:26.639 I started teaching it came from when we were 00:53:26.639 --> 00:53:31.519 um on um distance learning during COVID we were 00:53:31.519 --> 00:53:35.099 supposed to start class with some kind of inspiration 00:53:35.469 --> 00:53:38.250 some kind of inspirational quote or something 00:53:38.250 --> 00:53:41.030 like that in every class just to kind of lift 00:53:41.030 --> 00:53:42.809 them up because they weren't you know being they 00:53:42.809 --> 00:53:45.110 were being you know they're stuck in their rooms 00:53:45.110 --> 00:53:47.170 they're stuck on their computers they weren't 00:53:47.170 --> 00:53:52.590 interacting so I started a slide deck and I have 00:53:52.590 --> 00:53:57.329 a hundred and eighty slides with different quotes 00:53:57.329 --> 00:53:59.909 on them from different people and I made sure 00:53:59.909 --> 00:54:05.159 that I tried to equally represent as much of 00:54:05.159 --> 00:54:10.679 the subgroups that we have. So they weren't all 00:54:10.679 --> 00:54:13.539 white people quotes. We have African -American 00:54:13.539 --> 00:54:16.679 quotes. We have Asian quotes. We have Jewish 00:54:16.679 --> 00:54:21.480 quotes. We have Muslim quotes. We have LGBTQ. 00:54:21.739 --> 00:54:26.880 I can't do this. LGBTQ plus. Quotes we had women 00:54:26.880 --> 00:54:29.440 quotes. So I have and I mixed them all up So 00:54:29.440 --> 00:54:31.300 we weren't getting all the african -american 00:54:31.300 --> 00:54:33.880 ones during february, which they always joke. 00:54:33.880 --> 00:54:35.420 That's the shortest month of the year. Thank 00:54:35.420 --> 00:54:39.139 you um, so we had these in there so people were 00:54:39.139 --> 00:54:44.460 getting viewpoints and ideas and quotes and inspiration 00:54:44.460 --> 00:54:49.039 from a variety of people with my hope being that 00:54:49.039 --> 00:54:52.320 they everybody could see themselves in one of 00:54:52.320 --> 00:54:54.519 those. So if they were Asian, there was enough 00:54:54.519 --> 00:54:56.780 Asian ones, and they go, oh, so you've got the 00:54:56.780 --> 00:55:00.800 Asians represented, or you've got

the Muslims 00:55:00.800 --> 00:55:03.460 represented, and you've got the Jews represented. 00:55:03.760 --> 00:55:07.719 So it wasn't all from the white, Anglo, Christian. 00:55:08.519 --> 00:55:11.440 Ideas coming back and so it was a really good 00:55:11.440 --> 00:55:13.780 way and I've continued doing it to this day I 00:55:13.780 --> 00:55:16.800 still do it. I have a slide every for every day 00:55:16.800 --> 00:55:19.699 That's a different one and we talk about that 00:55:19.699 --> 00:55:22.059 that quote in there. Sometimes it leads to a 00:55:22.059 --> 00:55:24.599 discussion Sometimes it doesn't but it's just 00:55:24.599 --> 00:55:27.719 a way that we start our class Every day and I 00:55:27.719 --> 00:55:30.400 found it pretty effective and now that I work 00:55:30.400 --> 00:55:35.489 in a very diverse very pro diverse district. 00:55:35.650 --> 00:55:38.150 I mean, it's in our logo, the diversity and such. 00:55:38.710 --> 00:55:40.949 It works really well. And we're supposed to, 00:55:41.090 --> 00:55:43.889 it's social. This counts under my social -emotional 00:55:43.889 --> 00:55:46.869 learning that I'm supposed to do. And I do it 00:55:46.869 --> 00:55:48.289 automatically. So I don't even have to think 00:55:48.289 --> 00:55:50.530 about it's already incorporated in what I do. 00:55:50.889 --> 00:55:53.610 And it builds community as well, because we're 00:55:53.610 --> 00:55:57.389 seeing that it's not just the white perspective 00:55:57.389 --> 00:56:01.260 that we can have. Other groups of people also 00:56:01.260 --> 00:56:03.780 have intelligent things to say and to bring things 00:56:03.780 --> 00:56:06.619 in there and so I really enjoy that and a lot 00:56:06.619 --> 00:56:10.780 of my especially. You know when that when the 00:56:10.780 --> 00:56:14.920 the rift goes with the non Muslim versus Muslim 00:56:14.920 --> 00:56:17.619 which has been happening a lot lately so you 00:56:17.619 --> 00:56:20.000 know they they appreciate seeing a lot of the. 00:56:20.239 --> 00:56:22.820 Arabic quotes in there and stuff like that in 00:56:22.820 --> 00:56:24.739 there to have that representative feel themselves 00:56:24.739 --> 00:56:27.460 represented because we have a large population 00:56:27.460 --> 00:56:30.840 of Muslims and Traditional Muslims so they are 00:56:30.840 --> 00:56:32.679 wearing, you know the different coverings and 00:56:32.679 --> 00:56:35.260 such like that So to see themselves represented 00:56:35.260 --> 00:56:38.159 I think is really a strong thing. So these aren't 00:56:38.159 --> 00:56:41.699 CI things They're just community building things 00:56:41.699 --> 00:56:44.440 and I think that's just as important as Jackie 00:56:44.440 --> 00:56:46.420 you said, you know, we're trying to build, you 00:56:46.420 --> 00:56:49.250 know good community members, good human beings 00:56:49.250 --> 00:56:52.250 out there, and this is just one way to be able 00:56:52.250 --> 00:56:57.969 to do that. Kind of piggybacking on that, when 00:56:57.969 --> 00:57:00.909 my kids start complaining about things that they 00:57:00.909 --> 00:57:04.409 don't like, like the Virginia governor last year 00:57:04.409 --> 00:57:08.090 said that all public schools in the state of 00:57:08.090 --> 00:57:11.769 Virginia would be prohibiting cell phone use 00:57:11.769 --> 00:57:15.179 from bell to bell. and there would be no cell 00:57:15.179 --> 00:57:17.519 phone use in the school buildings at all, not 00:57:17.519 --> 00:57:22.719 even during lunches, just done. And they did 00:57:22.719 --> 00:57:25.699 not like that. I was like, well, you know, you 00:57:25.699 --> 00:57:30.980 can complain to me. But you can also use this 00:57:30.980 --> 00:57:34.900 helpline that the governor set up so people could 00:57:34.900 --> 00:57:37.179 tattletale in teachers and you could tell him 00:57:37.179 --> 00:57:40.420 what you think about his cell phone policy. Because 00:57:40.420 --> 00:57:44.940 that is what citizens do. We give our politicians 00:57:44.940 --> 00:57:48.159 feedback and when they get real upset about a 00:57:48.159 --> 00:57:50.480 school district policy, I'm like, well, that's 00:57:50.480 --> 00:57:53.780 not in my hands. I'm asked to follow the rules 00:57:53.780 --> 00:57:56.889 whether I like the rules or not. I do like my 00:57:56.889 --> 00:58:00.090 job, so I'm going to follow the rules. You could 00:58:00.090 --> 00:58:02.610 complain to the principal, but she has to follow 00:58:02.610 --> 00:58:06.010 the rules, too. I said, but you have every right 00:58:06.010 --> 00:58:08.909 to go to the school board meeting and put in 00:58:08.909 --> 00:58:11.590 a request to speak and tell the school board 00:58:11.590 --> 00:58:14.530 members from a student perspective what you understand 00:58:14.530 --> 00:58:18.230 this policy be doing in your building. And I've 00:58:18.230 --> 00:58:20.429 had a couple of kids who have done it. So, you 00:58:20.429 --> 00:58:23.329 know, like I'm proud of them. But, you know. 00:58:23.719 --> 00:58:27.260 Too few people tell kids how they can actually 00:58:27.260 --> 00:58:33.280 address problems and all of that stuff, and to 00:58:33.280 --> 00:58:36.659 have a space in your classroom where they feel 00:58:36.659 --> 00:58:41.420 free enough to talk about things and to voice 00:58:41.420 --> 00:58:45.019 their concerns and then receive feedback back 00:58:45.019 --> 00:58:47.039 that's not just like, oh, you're just being a 00:58:47.039 --> 00:58:50.099 dumb teenager to be quiet is really valuable. 00:58:51.300 --> 00:58:55.780 Not necessarily language teaching, but it's really 00:58:55.780 --> 00:59:00.460 valuable time and effort. Absolutely. I do think 00:59:00.460 --> 00:59:06.219 that if you're going to go a CI route, building 00:59:06.219 --> 00:59:08.539 community in your classroom is going to be so 00:59:08.539 --> 00:59:10.860 important, because if you don't have that community, 00:59:11.159 -->

00:59:13.400 you won't have the buy -in. And if you don't 00:59:13.400 --> 00:59:19.460 have the buy -in, the CI does not work. come 00:59:19.460 --> 00:59:23.599 up with a fun story with kids who don't trust 00:59:23.599 --> 00:59:28.659 you. And so that is one of the things that is 00:59:28.659 --> 00:59:30.719 so important. And there are some teachers that 00:59:30.719 --> 00:59:35.199 I know who, as much as I would love to see them 00:59:35.199 --> 00:59:38.500 switch to CI, I have the concern about them being 00:59:38.500 --> 00:59:41.760 able to build community in their classroom. And 00:59:41.760 --> 00:59:44.519 they are not going to have success with CI if 00:59:44.519 --> 00:59:47.199 they don't work on building community in their 00:59:47.199 --> 00:59:51.559 classroom. because a kid has to feel safe and 00:59:51.559 --> 00:59:54.900 supported and seen if they're going to suggest 00:59:54.900 --> 00:59:59.159 that the main character is a giant raccoon who 00:59:59.159 --> 01:00:02.119 can do magic and goes to a magic school in Mexico 01:00:02.119 --> 01:00:06.420 City. Or, you know, doesn't care about Bill Clinton 01:00:06.420 --> 01:00:09.679 and stuff like that. Like, they gotta feel seen 01:00:09.679 --> 01:00:11.519 and supported if they're gonna come up with the 01:00:11.519 --> 01:00:16.159 fun, silly stuff like that. Absolutely. And it 01:00:16.159 --> 01:00:18.840 doesn't take away from your authority as a teacher 01:00:18.840 --> 01:00:23.500 to have a healthy relationship with your students. 01:00:23.780 --> 01:00:27.539 You don't have to give up authority. You don't 01:00:27.539 --> 01:00:30.800 have to give up structure in your classroom in 01:00:30.800 --> 01:00:34.480 order to build that community. No, absolutely. 01:00:35.820 --> 01:00:37.820 Well, we're coming to the end. So let's end with 01:00:37.820 --> 01:00:41.739 this one thing. What would you say to a teacher 01:00:41.739 --> 01:00:47.079 who's hovering at the edge of trying CI but scared 01:00:47.079 --> 01:00:55.139 they'll fail? Just try one thing pick one thing 01:00:55.139 --> 01:01:00.500 that you feel you understand well that you feel 01:01:00.500 --> 01:01:04.579 comfortable using in your classroom and just 01:01:04.579 --> 01:01:15.650 try that one thing and do it often. Yeah, I would 01:01:15.650 --> 01:01:23.050 agree with that and I would say find some like 01:01:23.050 --> 01:01:25.570 and I have said before to find a curriculum but 01:01:25.570 --> 01:01:29.389 definitely if you're really unsure read about 01:01:29.389 --> 01:01:32.590 different activities and pick something that 01:01:32.590 --> 01:01:37.269 isn't going to take a lot of time. So do not 01:01:37.269 --> 01:01:42.050 start with story asking. If you really like the 01:01:42.050 --> 01:01:47.110 idea of stories, start with storytelling and 01:01:47.110 --> 01:01:50.409 tell a really short story or start with a picture 01:01:50.409 --> 01:01:54.010 talk or do a clip chat or a movie talk, something 01:01:54.010 --> 01:01:58.949 like that. Something where you have something 01:01:58.949 --> 01:02:04.690 concrete to work with that will allow you to 01:02:05.079 --> 01:02:08.219 have some support for yourself and something 01:02:08.219 --> 01:02:10.340 to kind of limit your language down because that's 01:02:10.340 --> 01:02:12.159 going to be the hardest thing first is limiting 01:02:12.159 --> 01:02:16.420 down what language you're using. Like the breadth 01:02:16.420 --> 01:02:19.119 of your vocabulary is going to be the hardest 01:02:19.119 --> 01:02:23.500 part. And so picking one thing and picking something 01:02:23.500 --> 01:02:26.079 that's small and structured is going to be the 01:02:26.079 --> 01:02:29.789 best way probably to go. And I'll second that. 01:02:30.489 --> 01:02:33.590 I always call movie talk is story asking on training 01:02:33.590 --> 01:02:37.510 wheels. So you have the picture there, and I 01:02:37.510 --> 01:02:39.909 recommend taking screenshots of the key scenes 01:02:39.909 --> 01:02:43.300 before you show the video. that way you can just 01:02:43.300 --> 01:02:46.760 focus on that one scene and you've got the story 01:02:46.760 --> 01:02:49.059 plot already there so you're not having to think 01:02:49.059 --> 01:02:51.780 or or relying on kids to come up with the ideas 01:02:51.780 --> 01:02:54.880 but you can still practice that asking those 01:02:54.880 --> 01:02:57.480 scaffolded differentiated questions the yes no 01:02:57.480 --> 01:03:00.599 either or who what where when how questions you 01:03:00.599 --> 01:03:03.340 can get kids to expand upon that make predictions 01:03:03.340 --> 01:03:05.659 to get more language out of there but you can 01:03:05.659 --> 01:03:08.460 use a lot of that to get off the bat And then 01:03:08.460 --> 01:03:11.719 I would also say, find a mentor. It's much easier 01:03:11.719 --> 01:03:15.119 now than it was when I started. When I started, 01:03:15.539 --> 01:03:17.639 there was no YouTube. YouTube did not come out 01:03:17.639 --> 01:03:21.860 until 2005, and I started this in 2001. We had 01:03:21.860 --> 01:03:26.199 the more TPRS list, which has been now replaced 01:03:26.199 --> 01:03:29.760 by the Facebook group. So find a mentor there. 01:03:30.119 --> 01:03:33.460 Look on YouTube. There's so many teachers who 01:03:33.460 --> 01:03:38.000 put their classroom videos online. Excuse me 01:03:38.000 --> 01:03:43.159 on YouTube for you to watch Alina Filipescu Hayun 01:03:43.159 --> 01:03:47.210 Liu We've got so many. Michelle Whaley, there's 01:03:47.210 --> 01:03:49.650 so many of them that are out there that you can 01:03:49.650 --> 01:03:52.949 find. Blaine Rae's got tons of them out there. 01:03:52.949 --> 01:03:56.090 So you can get some ideas and find that mentor, 01:03:56.230 --> 01:03:57.989 make that connection. If you don't have someone 01:03:57.989 --> 01:04:01.309 in your school or in your district, look for 01:04:01.309 --> 01:04:04.210

someone in your state that you can at least communicate 01:04:04.210 --> 01:04:07.289 with, ask questions, bounce ideas off of. If 01:04:07.289 --> 01:04:09.389 you can't even find one of those, if you go to 01:04:09.389 --> 01:04:12.349 a conference or a workshop, network with those 01:04:12.349 --> 01:04:17.809 people. last resort, find someone on the IFLT 01:04:17.809 --> 01:04:22.150 and TPRS page on the Facebook group. Even if 01:04:22.150 --> 01:04:26.929 you don't like Facebook, I'm a reactionary Facebook 01:04:26.929 --> 01:04:31.219 person. Don't go to Facebook as a social media. 01:04:31.260 --> 01:04:34.300 I just react to questions and things like that 01:04:34.300 --> 01:04:37.280 And so I'm not on there all the time and it doesn't 01:04:37.280 --> 01:04:40.059 distract me But at least connect with someone 01:04:40.059 --> 01:04:42.039 then you can quit it when you're done get someone 01:04:42.039 --> 01:04:43.639 you can connect that you get their number You 01:04:43.639 --> 01:04:46.119 can talk to them because I really think that 01:04:46.119 --> 01:04:49.159 will help so you don't feel alone Especially 01:04:49.159 --> 01:04:52.619 if you are a singleton teacher like German and 01:04:52.619 --> 01:04:54.900 French often be Mandarin You know, you're the 01:04:54.900 --> 01:04:57.019 only one doing it. You've got no other fellow 01:04:57.019 --> 01:04:59.860 support or you're the the only one doing it in 01:04:59.860 --> 01:05:07.019 your, what do you say, in your school, even though 01:05:07.019 --> 01:05:08.559 you've got other teachers who teach the same 01:05:08.559 --> 01:05:10.320 thing, you're the only one, I'm the only one 01:05:10.320 --> 01:05:13.039 at my school who does it, so you get some more 01:05:13.039 --> 01:05:15.619 support, because I think without the support, 01:05:16.219 --> 01:05:20.260 you're gonna quit it, because it's a lot of hard 01:05:20.260 --> 01:05:25.719 work during class, but the payoff is it's not 01:05:25.719 --> 01:05:29.820 a lot of work. outside of class. So I don't have 01:05:29.820 --> 01:05:32.019 to grade all those grammar worksheets. I don't 01:05:32.019 --> 01:05:35.900 have to read a ton of essays. I don't have to, 01:05:35.900 --> 01:05:38.860 you know, plan an engaging grammar lesson if 01:05:38.860 --> 01:05:42.539 there's ever such a thing. So I don't have to 01:05:42.539 --> 01:05:46.659 do those kinds of things. I give 90 % of what 01:05:46.659 --> 01:05:49.900 I need to do as a teacher in my classroom, 10 01:05:49.900 --> 01:05:52.739 % during my prep period. and now I've got my 01:05:52.739 --> 01:05:55.679 100%, where I think if you teach traditionally, 01:05:56.059 --> 01:06:00.210 it's more like 30 or 40%. in the classroom because 01:06:00.210 --> 01:06:03.309 you're relying on that textbook and then 60 to 01:06:03.309 --> 01:06:05.309 70 percent you're doing outside because you've 01:06:05.309 --> 01:06:08.170 now got to grade all that work that you had those 01:06:08.170 --> 01:06:10.989 kids do during the day. I can't imagine when 01:06:10.989 --> 01:06:13.710 my teachers, when I was a kid, you know, they 01:06:13.710 --> 01:06:17.150 had us do all the textbook exercises plus the 01:06:17.150 --> 01:06:19.889 workbook exercises plus you went to the language 01:06:19.889 --> 01:06:22.690 lab and did all those listening exercises. All 01:06:22.690 --> 01:06:25.650 those things. We turned all that stuff in. That 01:06:25.650 --> 01:06:28.230 would be a nightmare to grade and how many hours 01:06:28.039 --> 01:06:31.179 they spent doing it. I tried my first year, I 01:06:31.179 --> 01:06:33.460 just couldn't do it. I could not keep up with 01:06:33.460 --> 01:06:36.059 the amount of work. I took it home, I had giant 01:06:36.059 --> 01:06:38.900 stacks of papers, and I only had two classes. 01:06:39.900 --> 01:06:43.260 So I had like 70 papers I had to do, but grading 01:06:43.260 --> 01:06:47.679 four or five grammar pages a day times 70 every 01:06:47.679 --> 01:06:51.780 day was just overwhelming. So find that mentor 01:06:51.780 --> 01:06:57.070 that will help you. Just to change out one thing 01:06:57.070 --> 01:07:00.949 at a time out there and you know just do what 01:07:00.949 --> 01:07:04.510 you can to make the switch because as Blaine 01:07:04.510 --> 01:07:12.010 Ray always says Bad TPRS or CI is better than 01:07:12.010 --> 01:07:15.320 really good textbook Because your kids you'll 01:07:15.320 --> 01:07:18.000 find, if you've only taught textbook, only one 01:07:18.000 --> 01:07:20.320 to three kids, if you go on a foreign exchange 01:07:20.320 --> 01:07:22.699 trip, are going to be able to actually communicate. 01:07:23.219 --> 01:07:26.400 Whereas with CI, even your lowest student is 01:07:26.400 --> 01:07:28.219 going to be able to communicate in some way. 01:07:28.440 --> 01:07:31.000 He might only be able to say banyo, but at least 01:07:31.000 --> 01:07:32.900 he communicated something and now he knows where 01:07:32.900 --> 01:07:35.960 the bathroom is. So, really, really important. 01:07:36.269 --> 01:07:39.829 Okay, before we finish up got one quick little 01:07:39.829 --> 01:07:42.250 promotional ad here So bear with me just one 01:07:42.250 --> 01:07:44.190 moment because I want to talk to you about what's 01:07:44.190 --> 01:07:46.670 coming up the back -to -school boot camp So give 01:07:46.670 --> 01:07:48.449 us a moment and we'll be right back to finish 01:07:48.449 --> 01:07:54.650 up And I hit the wrong button again Is it already 01:07:54.650 --> 01:07:58.489 August again and you're supposed to have a fresh 01:07:58.489 --> 01:08:01.809 engaging life -changing plan for the first week 01:08:01.809 --> 01:08:05.610 cute Here's the deal Back to school boot camp 01:08:05.610 --> 01:08:09.070 is your secret weapon. Ten short, pre -recorded 01:08:09.070 --> 01:08:11.550 lessons you can watch in pajamas while hiding 01:08:11.550 --> 01:08:14.869 from your admin or during that mysterious planning 01:08:14.869 --> 01:08:17.989 period we keep hearing about. You walk away with 01:08:17.989 --> 01:08:21.289 strategies, plans, and actual confidence, not 01:08:21.289 --> 01:08:24.189 just a Pinterest board full of guilt. Access 01:08:24.189 --> 01:08:28.369 it all for a full year. Go to www .mm .us slash 01:08:28.369 --> 01:08:31.050 boot camp and get yourself together before the 01:08:31.050 --> 01:08:38.220 kids show up. Okay. So is there anything final 01:08:38.220 --> 01:08:41.680 words we want to say before we say goodbye for 01:08:41.680 --> 01:08:47.060 today? I think the one thing I would add is that 01:08:47.060 --> 01:08:52.619 I have never regretted spending money on training 01:08:52.619 --> 01:08:58.180 for CI. That is absolutely true. Yep. I agree. 01:08:58.720 --> 01:09:04.529 Yeah. I definitely, I agree. And I have. met 01:09:04.529 --> 01:09:07.590 a lot of really awesome people through adopting 01:09:07.590 --> 01:09:14.130 this. I have zero regrets about switching to 01:09:14.130 --> 01:09:22.210 this style of teaching. If I hadn't, I would 01:09:22.210 --> 01:09:24.149 not probably still be teaching. I would have 01:09:24.149 --> 01:09:30.229 given up a long time ago. So it keeps me sane. 01:09:31.130 --> 01:09:35.489 and helps me have a life outside of teaching. 01:09:36.069 --> 01:09:38.649 And I think too in the classroom, it really cuts 01:09:38.649 --> 01:09:40.989 down on a lot of behavior problems that other 01:09:40.989 --> 01:09:45.449 teachers have. So I'm very grateful and I don't 01:09:45.449 --> 01:09:49.050 regret switching either and it's exciting and 01:09:49.050 --> 01:09:59.659 joyful. Awesome. So, thanks for hanging out with 01:09:59.659 --> 01:10:03.140 us today. Seriously, we know your teacher brain 01:10:03.140 --> 01:10:06.159 is juggling 87 tabs right now, so we appreciate 01:10:06.159 --> 01:10:09.039 you hitting play. Big thanks to our awesome guests 01:10:09.039 --> 01:10:12.180 Jackie and Lynn for keeping it real with their 01:10:12.180 --> 01:10:15.399 wins, their flops, and yep, still do this advice. 01:10:15.899 --> 01:10:17.899 Hopefully if you're walking away with at least 01:10:17.899 --> 01:10:21.159 one new idea, or at the very least, the comforting 01:10:21.159 --> 01:10:23.800 thought that none of us knew what we were doing 01:10:23.800 --> 01:10:26.850 at first, Don't forget to subscribe, leave a 01:10:26.850 --> 01:10:29.970 review if you laughed or cringed, and share this 01:10:29.970 --> 01:10:32.630 episode with that one teacher who really needs 01:10:32.630 --> 01:10:35.210 to hear it. You can catch us live on YouTube 01:10:35.210 --> 01:10:37.729 or find the replay on your favorite podcast app. 01:10:38.109 --> 01:10:41.050 Until next time, ditch the drills, trust the 01:10:41.050 --> 01:10:43.789 process, and I'll see you next time on Comprehend 01:10:43.789 --> 01:10:47.210 This. Goodbye, everybody. Bye.