FLANC 2009 Session #36

Project based learning for the Spanish classroom

Thomas Soth, Northwest High School [email protected]

, spanishisfun.org Are your student projects bad? Do they seem to just not get it? Well, come to this project based learning session and experience how project based learning units can be built around final products so that students understand the what, why, and how behind project based assessments.

What do we want our students to be able to do and how does that connect to how we teach?

Let’s look at a little multiple-choice true/false questions with the ever present “student will be able to” statement to really get down to the goals of our profession.

Student will be able to

• • • • • Conjugate verbs in the perfect tenses Use reflexives Understand when to use the preterit and the imperfect Know when to use the subjunctive and the imperative Obtain information from or give information to a Spanish Speaker

SWBAT:

• • Conjugate verbs in the perfect tenses to be able to apply for jobs within the Spanish speaking world and be able to sit for an interview in Spanish

SWABT

• • Know when to use the subjunctive Communicate their emotional attitudes to other speakers of Spanish

SWABT

• • Understand the difference between the preterit and the imperfect To report, in Spanish, about what has happened in the Spanish speaking world

SWABT

• • Use reflexives Describe the process they and others go through in order to get ready for the day or for a formal dance

SWABT

• • Use the imperative in Spanish to get directions from a Spanish speaker if they need help and for them to be able give directions to speakers of Spanish.

• How do task based learning goals differ from traditional goals????

Projects are decidedly different from

conventional activities that are designed to help students learn information in the absence of a driving question. Such conventional activities might relate to each other and help students learn curricular content, but without the presence of a driving question or task, they do not hold the same promise that learning will occur as do activities orchestrated in the service of overreaching task. Project-based learning also places students in realistic, contextualized environments.

What then should our class activities and assessments look like? • • • • • Verb conjugation practice?

Verb conjugation games?

Spelling drills?

Subjunctive/indicative verb fill-in sheets?

Students creating and performing, in Spanish, a soap opera in which they ask and answer about what they think and how the feel about others?

It is clear to me that if learners are to develop the confidence they need to use a second language easily and effectively in the kind of situations they meet outside the classroom they need to experience how language is used as a tool for communicating inside it. –Rod Ellis, in his preface to Task Based Learning and Teaching

Thus…

• • If the tasks that Spanish speakers do are what we want our students to do then those tasks are what our students should be experiencing in class.

Students experience these tasks through project based instruction.

So what are we talking about again?

Project or Task-based language teaching is an approach to the design of language course in which the point of departure is not an ordered list of linguistic items but a collection of tasks. Tasks provide the basis for an entire language curriculum. Task-based language teaching provides learners with opportunities to experiment with and explore both spoken and written language through tasks designed to engage learners in authentic, practical and functional use of language for meaningful purposes.

Projects can

• • • •

respond to diverse needs of students increase motivation prepare children for the workplace improve academic performance

So why don’t we do more?

Many of us do projects but we may feel that projects… 1. Are a complete waste of time.

2. Are just fluff and a way to save student grades.

3. Are done last minute and thus do not represent a learning experience over time which is a key factor for retention. 4. Past experiences have brought what seem to be low effort and low quality products to our already massive pile of work to be graded.

• •

But we shouldn’t be deterred

The what and why’s of project based learning should deter anyone from thinking that projects are just fluff. However, I think that even the best of teachers may come to that conclusion over time when experience teaches them that many projects are done last minute and are of subpar quality. But the reasons for doing projects still exist and thus instead of tossing out the project we must look at the process in new and different ways in order to engage our students.

And what about the grammar?

• • • Isn’t grammar the framework without which language cannot be structured and a message cannot be conveyed smoothly and fluently?

It may be necessary then to combine the task based teaching approach with grammar teaching in order to make grammar teaching more effective.

Grammar than becomes included in the process but never separated from the project or task goals.

Project based learning is…

• • •

“a systematic teaching method that engages students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process structured around carefully designed authentic products and tasks a comprehensive instructional approach to engage students in sustained, cooperative investigation an individual or group activity that goes on over a period of time, resulting in a product, presentation, or performance. It typically has a time line and milestones, and other aspects of formative evaluation as the project proceeds

• • • •

It’s a process

The task or project will serve to organize and drive activities, which taken as a whole amount to a meaningful project.

You then create step by step assignments that engage the students in the project over time.

And you manipulate textbook tasks to engage the students in learning new material as they continuing building their product or products (you are not reinventing the wheel).

Keep in mind that both the product and the process are the goals of task based learning with learning over time generally being the teacher goal and the product generally being the motivating factor for the students.

SWBAT:

• • to be able to apply for jobs within the Spanish speaking world and be able to sit for an interview in Spanish Conjugate verbs in the perfect tenses

The process

• • • What do are the tasks we want students to do.

Rubric development Class activities that develop communicative competence (vocabulary and grammar integration)

Tasks

• • • • Create a classified add for a job Send a letter soliciting employment.

Go through a job interview.

Write a follow up thank you letter.

Where to begin?

• • • • Explain the task.

Summarize the task as new vocabulary is introduced (Sigamos a Paco mientras que busca un trabajo… lee un anuncio, escribe una carta de presentación, tiene una entrevista, y escribe una carta de agradecimiento).

Build vocabulary and language structures through activities that mimic the job search project.

Tweak book activities so the become part of the project process.

•

Tweaking the text: Examples

Vocabulary: (conocimientos, habilidades, trabajos) – Túrnate con otro estudiante para hacer y contestar preguntas sobre cómo Uds. son. Usa las siguientes expresiones (Sé …., Soy …, Me gusta …, Para mi es importante…) –

Túrnate con otro estudiante para hacer y contestar preguntas sobre cómo deben ser las personas que quieren hacer los trabajos de estos anuncios (cocinero, arquitecto, niñero, etc. )

•

¿Cómo debe ser la persona que quiere el puesto de _________?

•

¿Qué debe saber hacer?

Tweaking vocabulary building

• • Escribe cinco palabras del vocabulario de las páginas 206-09 en una hoja de papel, y en otra, escribe una definición para cada una. Túrnate con otro estudiante para leer las definiciones y digan de que palabra se trata.

Usando por lo menos 10 palabras del vocabulario nuevo, escribe la descripción de dos trabajos, cómo debe ser la persona que quiere ese puesto, y que se necesita hacer en ese trabajo. Túrnate con otro estudiante para leer las definiciones y digan de qué trabajo se trata.

• • •

Tweaking vocabulary building

Escribe cinco palabras del vocabulario de las páginas 206-09 en una hoja de papel, y en otra, escribe una definición para cada una. Túrnate con otro estudiante para leer las definiciones y digan de que palabra se trata.

Usando por lo menos 10 palabras del vocabulario nuevo, escribe la descripción de dos trabajos, cómo debe ser la persona que quiere ese puesto, y que se necesita hacer en ese trabajo. Túrnate con otro estudiante para leer las definiciones y digan de qué trabajo se trata.

Tarea/TASK: Escribe el anuncio clasificado para un trabajo que te gustaría hacer. Sigue la rúbrica.

Tweaking Grammar

• • Present perfect.

Escribe siete preguntas para saber lo que han hecho o lo que no han hecho otros. Para hacer tus preguntas, usa el presente perfecto de los verbos. Con otro estudiante, haz y contesta las preguntas. Después, la clase va a formar dos círculos concéntricos con los estudiantes cara a cara. Al oír música, los estudiantes se mueven a la derecha. Al para la música, deben parar y hacerle una pregunta al estudiante que tienen enfrente usando el presente perfecto.

• •

Prepara diez preguntas para preguntar al candidato para el trabajo de tu anuncio. Usa el presente perfecto en por lo menos seis preguntas. Después, hace el papel del entrevistador y da una entrevista a unos de tus compañeros de clase anotando sus respuestas o hace el papel del candidato con otro compañero. Luego debes escribir si quieres dar el trabajo al candidato según sus respuestas.

Later present an example of a cover letter for a job and the assign them to write a cover letter in response to their own classified advertisement. (Rubric)

Estimado Señor, Me llamo Juan Antón Fernández y soy recepcionista . Yo sé que usted está buscando un recepcionista y quiero decirle a usted por qué tengo los

requisitos

para este trabajo.

Ahora soy un estudiante en la universidad. Tengo muchas clases de relaciones públicas y esta es mi especialización. Soy muy

organizado y dedicado

a mis trabajos. Según mis profesores, soy simpático,

determinado

, trabajador, e inteligente.

He trabajado

en la oficina de “Idiomas Romances” en la universidad.

He organizado

papeles, he contestado el teléfono, y

he ayudado

trabajado como un voluntario en una oficina del servicio social. Allí yo trabajé a

tiempo parcial

por dos años, y

he tenido

a la gente. Antes de esto, había mucha experiencia en la

computación

.

los Yo quiero trabajar para esta compañía porque tengo las

habilidades

necesita. Espero que me ayuden mejorar mis habilidades y

cumplir

que usted con excelencia las tareas de la compañía.

Ojalá que usted esté justo

en su

búsqueda

, y que me

recuerde

. Me encantaría trabajar para usted y me interesaría el trabajo a

tiempo completo

, pero a tiempo parcial si no tienen el trabajo a tiempo completo.

Espero que usted me llame para una entrevist

a, y estoy listo para las responsabilidades que usted va a darme.

Atentamente,

Juan Antón Fernández

Interview practice (exam review)

• • • • • Already had a bunch in vocabulary and grammar building.

Create a possible set of questions for the interview that include all forms and grammar. This is your exam review.

Have students go through the process for various jobs.

Do the interview in a formal way (and get help if you can). Follow a rubric.

• • •

Interview day

Students practice while others go through the interviews.

Students receive the follow-up thank you letter rubric after the interview.

Project based learning unit completed.

SWABT

• • Students will create and perform, in Spanish, a soap opera in which they ask and answer about what they think and how the feel about others Students will learn the subjunctive and use it to talk about wants and desires.

Tasks

• • • • TV Guide description for a soap opera Script for a soap opera screen Video project (introduction to the subjunctive)

Building communicative competence • • Introduce the theme with the students acting out a professor made soap opera with the students as characters.

Tweak activities for a chapter on ¿Cómo te llevas con los demás? So they help the students build towards the commulative project.

Tweaking Vocabulary

• • ¿Cuáles son para ti las cinco cualidades más importantes que debe tener un buen profesor?

–

¿Cuáles son tres cualidades que tienen cada personaje de tu telenovela?

Tarea: Completa los párrafos con las palabras del recuadro.

–

Escribe la descripción de tu telenovela usando 20 palabras del vocabulario nuevo.

Tweaking Grammar

• Workbook: Fill in the verb conjugations in the subjunctive in each of the following 20,000 blanks.

–

Escriban lo que piensan y dicen los personajes de las otras personas de tu telenovela. Usa por lo menos 10 expresiones diferentes de emoción.

SWABT

• • To report, in Spanish, about what has happened in the Spanish speaking world Understand the difference between the preterit and the imperfect

Projects

•

Front page of a newspaper from a Spanish speaking country

•

A video news report from a Spanish speaking country

Steps

• • • Introduction of new vocabulary and forms through examples of what the final products should be like. (newspaper/news report) Class activities that buildup to the final products.

Homework that help students take steps towards the final product.

Tweaking the text

• Escoge verbos del recuadro u otros verbos y escribe tres series de acciones en orden lógico, diciendo qué ocurrió primero y que ocurrió después.

–

Escoge verbos del recuadro u otros verbos y escribe un resumen de siete a ochos frases de un evento qué ocurrió en tu país ayer.

• • More tweaking of the text for a chapter entitled “Un acto heroico” Los padres de Isabel planearon una fiesta de sorpresa para su cumpleaños, pero ella llegó tarde. Con otro estudiante, describan la situación usando el imperfecto de las expresiones del recuadro.

–

Describe lo que ocurría en esta foto de la Ciudad de México cuando el terremoto empezó.

–

Tarea: Busca o dibuja una foto de un desastre natural en tu país y explica lo que ocurría cuando el evento comenzó.

Más: describe lo que pasó antes y después de la foto.

SWABT

• • Describe the process they and others go through in order to get ready for the day or for a formal dance Use reflexives

What would you do?

• • • Introduction – TPR?

Projects???

Video?

SWABT

• • to get directions from a Spanish speaker if they need help and for them to be able give directions to speakers of Spanish.

Use the imperative in Spanish

What would you do?

• • • • • • TPR introduction Class activities Classroom drive (culture Map) Homework, Directions Overheads Giving and receiving directions

It is clear to me that if learners are to develop the confidence they need to use a second language easily and effectively in the kind of situations they meet outside the classroom they need to experience how language is used as a tool for communicating inside it. –Rod Ellis, in his preface to Task Based Learning and Teaching