18 minute read
Session 3: Small Talk 3
Objective
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By the end of class, you will be able to…
(NOTE: The example objectives and lesson are given in French; they can be used with any language. You can download materials in multiple languages from our Teachers Pay Teachers store (CI Liftoff), or use the examples to make your own materials.
Beginner: answer questions with one or more words in French about the weather and date..
Intermediate: answer questions with sentences in French about the weather and date and compare the weather here with locations in the francophone world
Advanced: answer questions with strings of sentences in French, to describe the weather today and the activities that people in class are doing, and describe the weather yesterday
Notes/Prep:
To prepare for the lesson in Session 5, Card or Slide Talk, you might want to go ahead and tell the students to upload (for Slide Talk) or think about (to sketch on a card for Card Talk) a place they like to go. You can leave this very general (simply “a place you like to go”) or ask for more specific information (in the example in Session 5, I will ask students to upload images of a place they like to go that you can walk to from our school. You could also ask them for places they like to go in summer, or places they would like to go, perhaps a place they would like to go to speak the course language, or places they like to study, or places they like to go to have fun.)
If you have not yet set up your Videographer, you might want to do that before you begin this lesson. If so, please see the HR Manual in the Appendices for the Videographer job description and some guidance on how to interview and hire for the student jobs. It is very highly recommended that you have a Videographer. Why is a Videographer such a useful student job?
(1) You have recordings of the class activities, which can be a lifesaver in spring when you need some less energy-intensive lesson plans. You can conduct a Film Festival or a Festival of Worksheets (explained later in the year) using the best videos from the year. You will also have a ready-made record of what happened in class, perfect for make-up work, or even to use for sub days (so students can re-watch a previous lesson, in case you do not have a sub who speaks your language). (1) You have recordings of the class activities, which can be a lifesaver in spring when you need some less energy-intensive lesson plans. You can conduct a Film Festival or a Festival of Worksheets (explained later in the year) using the best videos from the year. You will also have a ready-made record of what happened in class, perfect for make-up work, or even to use for sub days (so students can re-watch a previous lesson, in case you do not have a sub who speaks your language). You can simply leave extension activities to accompany the recording of the lesson, for absent students or sub plans.
(2) You will have a record of the behavior of the class. Even if you never need to use the recording in a discipline situation, the mere act of recording each class sends a message to students that you take class time so seriously that you keep a record. Often, taking video each day supports classroom management because students feel some pressure to be their best selves when there is a camera going (even if it is not filming them directly).
(3) You will have video to watch your own teaching. It’s not always something that teachers are eager to do - watch themselves teach in a video - but it is so valuable that I will be encouraging you throughout the year to watch your videos. If you start now, you will have the most complete record possible, so that you can see your growth over time. I promise, it gets easier. I was completely terrified to watch myself teaching, until I forced myself to video my class each day, and I learned so much about myself as a teacher, and my skills improved so much, that I just have to recommend it to you, with a very strong sense of urgency. If you just dive in now, you will have a good collection of videos when you do decide to take the plunge. It’s nerveracking…but SO worth it.
Norming the Class
Continue to greet the students in English, review where to put their things, etc., remind them briefly that in this class we will be communicating a good deal in the language and they need to work together to focus ad listen because that is the best way to help yourself and everyone else be successful in this class. Tell them that each day the first activity of class will be reading about a student’s dreams/goals for the school year, and then you will continue the discussion of the calendar and weather that you began yesterday.
Hand out (or project/display) a Reading Workshop text. You might make your own, use the ones in our Teachers Pay Teachers store (CI Liftoff), or read a Shared Writing text from the first lesson(s) of the year. Then, share the lesson objective, check in with your Class Starter (and perhaps Videographer), and have them give the signal (or give it yourself if no one has yet to volunteer for the job), and begin filming if you are starting that today, and then begin speaking in the language.
Reading Workshop
Find That Cognate and Pronunciation Practice
Project or distribute the text. These example texts use the cognate heavy topic of exercise and videos, with varying degrees of difficulty for various levels of classes. You might here in the third lesson (or the second lesson for block classes) begin to use more challenging texts with your upper-level classes. See the notes in Session One for more recommendations on choosing leveled texts.
In the sample lesson, I use the French beginner reading below.
Italian Beginner Cognate Reading
Italian Intermediate Cognate Reading Italian Advanced Cognate Reading
Italian Advanced Cognate Reading
In the sample lesson, I use the French beginner reading below.
French Beginner Cognate Reading
As always, the lesson notes are written in English. To indicate the words that are said in the course language (French, in this example), I will use this standard black text. The words that are said in the class’s stronger shared language (English, for me and many teachers in the US) are written in this color.
Now we will move on to the lesson procedures:
Once the students can see the projected text, or they have it on their desks, you can proceed:
(If you have a Videographer, have them begin the video.)
(Shawn gives the signal. You take a deep, calming breath and center yourself to lead the class through a simple, very comprehensible task.)
(Place your hand or pointer on the title of the text and begin reading in a slow yet fluid way, moving your hand or pointer through the text as you go. Resist the temptation to stop and establish meaning. The goal is for students to actually read through the text in its entirety with you, looking for cognates.)
(Read the text aloud in the language.)
(Once you have read the entire text, point to or circle a very obvious cognate and ask for its meaning in the class’s stronger shared language.)
(Students answer. Then you write the English on the text, and spell it, saying the letters in the course language, as demonstrated below.)
(Note: This sounds like: “Oui, fruit de la passion en anglais est passionfruit. effff - arrr - ewwww - eeey - tayyyy - - espace - dayyyy - uhhhh - espace - ehlll - ahhhh - espace - payyy - ahhhh - essss - esss- eeeh - ohhh - ehnnnn
(saying letters in French).
(Repeat with another cognate, or move on to open-ended questions as explained below, or move on to the pronunciation practice, as explained further below.)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(point to the word cognate in the readings or write it on the board with translation)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(point)
(Students answer, probably in English.)
Take a few more cognates, either by asking what a word is in English or by taking what volunteers noticed. If there are not many volunteers, or if no one wants to speak up, you can just ask the questions yourself.
Pronunciation Practice
(Read a sentence from the reading aloud in the course language, really emphasizing the pronunciation so students will stretch their speech articulation muscles when they repeat the sentence in the same fashion.)
(Read with the class, modeling very clear and almost overly-articulated pronunciation in the course language.)
(Read the same sentence aloud in the course language, really emphasizing the pronunciation, perhaps even more than the first time.)
(Read with the class, modeling very clear and almost overly-articulated pronunciation in the course language.)
Repeat with a couple of other sentences. After a few minutes, move into the Guided Oral Input, and continue the calendar discussion.
Guided Oral Input
Small Talk (Calendar and Weather)
You will continue writing on the calendar today. This is the last “straight up” calendar lesson. After today, we will be working with more content, and the calendar will be a shorter part of the opening routine for the rest of the year.
Move to the calendar to transition to the Guided Oral Input.
(gesture and pause to sweep the class with your eyes to check for understanding)
(jot “27” somewhere, perhaps on the board)
(jot “23”)
(Some kids call out “27”)
(write 27 on the calendar)
(point)
(point)
(Some kids call out “Monday” )
(point).
(point)
(point)
(point)
(gesture)
(point)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)…
(gesture)
(gesture)
(Note: This sounds like: “‘Aime’ (gesture) means ‘likes’. (gesture). Show me ‘aime’ (gesture).”)
(Cycling through previously-established gestures)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(Tabulate answers)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(Note: This sounds like: “‘Adore’ (gesture) means ‘loves’. (gesture). Show me
(gesture)
(Cycling through previously-established gestures) “
(gesture).
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(Tabulate answers, and it is usually fun to pretend that you are shocked that no one likes Monday, especially if today is actually Monday.)
(gesture)
(write and spell Tuesday)
(gesture)
(Tabulate answers)
(gesture)
(write and spell Wednesday)
(gesture)
(point to Tuesday)
(gesture)
(point to Wednesday)
(Tabulate answers - usually as the week goes on, the days tend to get more popular!)
(Walk over to the window, or display the weather forecast, if you have no windows.)
(gesture)
(walk to the window and point).
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)?
(Students answer, in English or French, depending on ability/inclination, Hot!/Cold!)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(Students answer)
(write and spell)
If time permits, you might continue on, using the gestures that you have already established, to ask questions like
You can tabulate/record the numbers of students who respond to each option, either by counting and writing tally marks or a numeral, or by writing (and perhaps also spelling) students’ names.
You can ask who is happy/sad (using the faces you drew on the calendar) when it is hot, cold, very hot, etc, or on Mondays, Fridays, the weekend.
After about 10 to 12 minutes of Guided Oral Input (or longer in block classes), move to Scaffolded Oral Review.
Scaffold Oral Review
True-False Quiz
Today, we will begin using a slight variation on the Quick Quiz, a True-False Quiz.
Move to your Review Spot and ask a series of questions about what was just discussed.
Generally I ask between six and ten questions, or even more. But on the first days, you might ask only two or three, or even just one, depending on your class schedule.
You are advised to stick to literal review questions and not branch out into asking other questions.
You should still be willing to give students the answer as you ask the question, with whatever “hints” students need, in the form of extra-linguistic information such as vocal inflection, gestures, pointing to visuals, and facial expressions.
After moving to the Review Spot, you will say:
(gesture thumbs up)
(gesture thumbs down)
Write the words for “true” and “false” in your language on the board, or have signs or other visual aids ready to use, or simply ask students, “Show me true, show me false” to help them learn and recognize the thumbsup and thumbs-down gesture you are using.
(hold up one finger)
(gesture or use visual aid)
(gesture or use visual aid)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture/visual)
(gesture/visual)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(The class calls out, “FALSE!”)
(gesture or use visual aid)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(Students call out "Fridays!”)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture to the class)
(gesture)
(Students call out “Yes!” etc.)
(gesture).
Repeat with more true-false questions if time permits.
Shared Writing
Write and Discuss
The actual contents of Write and Discuss will, of course, depend upon your class’s discussion from the lesson. You will follow the same procedure as in Session One. Write and Discuss is truly a powerful, low, low-prep strategy that pays off BIG in student literacy, for very little investment on your part. It’s the ultimate win-win.If time permits, you might do a little Write and Discuss move called Writing More Than Originally Existed. See Session One for an example.
Today, you will most likely only write two or three sentences for Shared Writing. That is OK; you are building the foundation in these first lessons. You will probably notice that even in the second lesson of the year, students are already more comfortable and Shared Writing (and the rest of the lesson framework) goes more smoothly, with less need to explain/give directions in English.
Your Shared Writing might sound something like this:
Write:
(gesture)
Students: VERY POPULAR!
Say:
(writing and spelling in French)
Write:
Say:
(writing and spelling)
Reading/Recycling:
Say:
Students: August 27!
Say:
Reading/Recycling:
Write:
(gesture)
(gesture)
Class: NO!
Say:
(gesture to the class)
(gesture)
Students: NOOOOOOO!
Write:
Reading/Recycling:
Continue on to write about the weather, if time permits.
Shared Reading
“Go-To” Daily Strategies The
During Shared Reading, you will work with the text that your class just created together. You will continue to use the three “Go-To” strategies (or, for block classes, perhaps four strategies, if time permits).
Today, Shared Reading might sound something like this:
Read in the Language
(reading with expression, and pointing to the words)
One person likes Mondays. Feng prefers Mondays.
Choral Translation
(class reads: Fridays…are…very…popular…the date…of…today…is…the…27…August…Monday. The class…like/does/not?)
(sensing confusion, you circle “n’”)
(write “not” in English or draw a “no” sign)
(Note that you DID NOT explain the WHOLE ne…pas concept of negation in French. This is POP-UP grammar, which should be fast. There will be many more opportunities to teach all about French negation in other examples and lessons).
(class reads: The class…not…like…?)
(sensing confusion, you circle “pas”)
This word ALSO means ‘not’ in French
(write “not” in English or draw a “no” sign)
(not)
(class reads: The class…not…like…?)
(continue in this fashion.)
Grammar Discussion
(Lead a brief class discussion and circle any students’ noticings on the text, ideally using a second color, and perhaps writing the students’ name/initials by their contribution.)
To continue to Reading from the Back of the Room:
(You have walked to the back of the room)
(the class responds: French!)
(the class responds: August!)
(the class responds: August 22!)
(Continue in this fashion, time permitting.)
Student Application & Assessment
True-False Quiz
Walk to your Quiz Spot.
(hold up one finger)
(gesture or use visual aid)
(gesture or use visual aid)
(gesture)
(gesture)
(gesture/visual)
(gesture/visual)
(gesture)
(gesture)
Continue on if time permits. At the end of the period, you might want to debrief with students, congratulating them on what went well, and setting goals or perhaps telling them that tomorrow they will be able to understand and say even more.
