25 minute read
Session 4 : SLA Lesson
Objective
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By the end of class, you will be able to…
All Levels: state six facts about SLA (Second Language Acquisition) in a creative way.
Notes/Prep: The project that I use in the example lesson is the brochures project; you might also simply have students make a collection of memes, and not the complete brochures, if you want to shorten/simplify the product they create, in the interest of time. You can also have them make posters instead of brochures, perhaps having them work with a partner or in a small group of three students.
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.)
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 and listen because that is the best way to help yourself and everyone else be successful in this class. Tell them that today is a special day. Note: you will not be following the usual daily instructional framework today, as it is a special lesson, which is why this lesson is scheduled for the third or fourth session, so that you can use the first lessons to establish the “flow” of the daily instructional framework before briefly deviating from the “standard operating procedure” in this session.
Tell your students that they will first read in the language (French in the example lesson), then do a quick calendar check-in, and then you will teach them a lesson on SLA (Second Language Acquisition) in English (or the class’s other shared stronger language, if you teach advanced students who can handle this), after which they will make a mini-project to show what they learned and share with others. 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.
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 re-read a Shared Writing text from the first lesson(s) of the year. Then, share the lesson objective, if you have not already done so, 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, and then take a nice deep calming breath and begin speaking in the language.
Reading Workshop
Find That Cognate
These Reading Workshop example texts use the cognate-heavy topic of languages, with varying degrees of difficulty for various levels of classes. You might here in the fourth lesson (or the third lesson for block classes) use more challenging texts with your upper-level classes, if they can handle the additional challenge.
See the notes in Session One for more recommendations on choosing leveled texts.
German Beginner Cognate Reading
German Intermediate Reading
German 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 the students have a paper copy, you might say “mark the text”)
(you can say them in English.”
(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, affaires internationales est international business. eeeeey - ennn - tayyy - uhhhh - errr - ennn - ahhh - tayyy - eeeey - ohhh - ennnn - ahhhh - ellll - espace - bayyy - euuuu- etc. (saying letters in French). Affaires internationales.”)
(Repeat with another cognate, or move on to open-ended questions as explained 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. After a few minutes, you move into the Guided Oral Input, which - because today is special - will be a very short, two to five-minute calendar discussion.
Guided Oral Input
Small Talk (Short Calendar and Weather Check-In)
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 “28” somewhere, perhaps on the board)
(jot “29”)
(Some kids call out “28”)
(write 28 on the calendar).
(point)
(point)
(Some kids call out “Monday” )
(point)
(point),
(point)
(point).”
(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)
Note: You will most likely only ask a couple of questions in the short time allotted for Guided Oral Input today, as you will spend most of the lesson on the Second Language Acquisition mini-lecture and projects, as described below.
Special Beginning-the-Year Lessons on Second Language Acquisition and Why Study Languages?
This lesson is designed to be delivered in the class’s stronger shared language, if applicable, which, for me, is English. You can, with more advanced classes, who have had at least a solid year of experience with communication-based language teaching, present some or all of this information in the course language. And in classes where there is not a stronger shared language, such as ESOL classes, you can present this information in the course language, perhaps in a simplified way, especially with beginners.
If you do share a stronger language with the class, even for upper-level students, it is recommended that you preface the lesson in the stronger shared language with a thorough overview of what you will present. Most students, unless they have already been taught this information in previous courses, will not have very extensive background knowledge of these concepts. Thus, it is recommended that you present the information first in the stronger shared language, or even exclusively in the shared language, to ensure that your class understands these important, foundational concepts for why your class operates the way it does.
Investing a day or two in explaining your approach to the students, and having them use that information to create products, such as brochures, posters, or videos, to teach it to others, will help your students to develop a positive attitude towards your approach to teaching languages. Many students and families can be resistant to this way of learning. However, I have found that with Stepping Stones, which provides a framework to use the language to explore content-based topics such as history, environmental challenges, cultural products and practices, then students and families tend to become calmer, because the learning becomes more visible.
You might choose to use the Visual Lecture that I provide here, to scaffold this information in the course language or the stronger shared language. But the first part should ABSOLUTELY be provided in the stronger shared language, if possible, so that no one is confused as to what you are yammering on about. (This is a good rule of thumb no matter what, in any lesson; set the context and purpose for learning in the stronger shared language, if you can, so that everyone is comfortable knowing what they are supposed to be learning/doing/accomplishing.)
The convention in this book is to use black font when you are speaking in the course language and in a lighter color when you are speaking in the stronger shared language. However, in the interest of readability, since this lesson is special, and, for most classes, will be conducted in the stronger shared language, the font is black, even though you will most likely be speaking in the class’s stronger shared language. If your advanced students can handle this information in the course language, you will most likely want to simplify/modify the content below, as it was “pitched” at a level that students in grades six and above can generally comprehend in their stronger shared language. If you teach younger people, you will also need to modify the contents, even if you are speaking in the class’s stronger shared language, to adapt to your younger students’ developmental needs.
You can find a graphic version of this lesson in the Appendices. The slides pictured in the following section are from our Teachers Pay Teachers store (CI Liftoff).
Many of us came to French class with ideas of how a language class works, because of classes we have taken in the past, or because of what we have heard from our siblings or parents or friends.
Lots of French classes focus on memorizing vocabulary words and filling out worksheets to practice the language. You might have noticed in the last couple of days that we are not doing much of that kind of learning in this class. The reason why is because I have designed this course to align with the latest research in how we best learn how to communicate in a language.
So many people say that they took language classes in high school or college, and they never learned how to USE the language to do what languages are meant to do — communicate, make friends, learn things, and entertain ourselves. This class is designed to teach you to USE French.
I have spent a lot of time learning how to teach a language so that my students can USE it, because I love French so much that it makes me sad to think that anyone would take years and years of French and not be able to use this beautiful language to communicate with the fascinating people all around the world that speak French. It just makes me so sad to think about that.
I love being able to communicate in French, and in Spanish, and in English, and I want the same for you. It is so fun to speak in another language, and I want you to have that fun. It is so cool to meet people from all over and be able to talk to them in their own language, and I want that for you. It is so fun to be able to watch videos and listen to music and read books and articles from around the world, and I want you to be able to do that.
I am so excited to share the French language with you, and I want you to understand how I have designed this class to support your French language development.
Today I want to teach you about how we acquire languages, and why this class is designed the way it is. I will tell you about some brain science and how it applies to your work in this class.
At the end of class, we will brainstorm some “slogans” and make brochures to teach our families (or, teachers, you might choose to have them make posters to hang in the school, or both) some facts about language acquisition and what we are going to be accomplishing this year in class.
I am so excited to offer you a cutting-edge, modern, twenty-first century language class that will help you to achieve more in the French language than I was able to achieve in high school myself.
Language teaching has changed a lot since I was in high school, and I am just thrilled to be teaching a class designed to give you true success in the language!
(At this point, you might switch into the course language, or continue on in the stronger shared language. You could also do a hybrid approach in which you explain the concept in the stronger shared language, and then re-explain in the course language. The images in the example can be found in the Cycle One Phase One materials. In the example, the images are in English. You can find this presentation on our Teachers Pay Teachers store (CI Liftoff)).
Here is a person. They want to learn French. They want to be able to speak French, and talk to other people. They want to be able to listen to music in French, watch videos in French, and movies in French. And they want to be able to write in French, and read in French. Maybe one day they want to live in a French-speaking culture. Here are some examples of places where French is widely spoken: France, the Hexagon, the mothership, Sénégal, Belgium, Côte d’Ivoire, and many other parts of Africa, Canada, especially Québec, French Polynesia, Martinique, Guadeloupe, etc, etc.
And this person wants to use French naturally, easily, without having to think too much. When they can use a language naturally, sometimes people say they can “speak from the heart.” We can think about WHAT we want to say, and HOW we want to say it, and not the WORDS and RULES to use.
When you speak English, or your other stronger language(s), you can speak from the heart. And that is what I want for you in French.
So, when we learn with our brains, we can learn the rules and memorize words. But if all we know is rules, then when we try to speak from the heart, we have to think first, about the words and rules. That slows us down. It makes us feel awkward when we speak.
That’s what happened to me in France when I was 18. Which was SUPERsurprising to me cause I made all As in French in high school. I loved it. I was super-interested in the rules, and super-good at memorizing vocabulary words. Not to brag…we all have our weird talents in school. Mine is languages. Not math…you’ve seen me try to count…
Anyways, I was really into French and it just came easy to me, and I really did well on all the vocabulary and grammar tests, like the verbs test and the plural adjectives test…so of course, I thought I would make a lot of friends in France. cause I was SUCH a little French GENIUS! Makes sense, right?
But then I was so sad - and SHOCKED! - when I was in France, because I could not talk! Everyone was talking so fast, I could not understand them. In my French classes, we had not really TALKED a lot. So, this was all new to me and I was so nervous and awkward and slow when I tried to talk to them. I cried a lot!
I still loved French, though, even though at that time it really wasn’t exactly loving me back…and I still wanted to be a French teacher. First I thought, “Well, I guess I need to figure out how to actually
LEARN to SPEAK FRENCH, huh? And I thought, I want to know how to teach my students so that they can USE French, and make friends, and not be sad and slow and awkward.
So, I learned more about teaching. And now my goal for you is to learn to USE French. And the way I learned is best for that, based on the science of Second Language Acquisition, is to use French all the time - as much as we can, anyway -in class.
So, basically, we are learning not just with our heads, like I did in my high school classes, but with our hearts, too. Now, of course, we are also learning with our brains. But there is actually a special part of the brain that is designed to acquire language. To help us USE the language, to help us communicate.
This part is separate from the part that learns the rules. And these two parts of our brains run on different inputs. And they have different functions.
The “heart” part of the brain, the part that we use when we are thinking about WHAT we want to say and HOW we want to express ourselves, the part that lets us be ourselves in the language, and express our personalities, and feel free and natural and NOT awkward and slow, runs on MESSAGES.
This part is technically called the “language acquisition device” and it is a special part of being human. It is what lets us learn our first language from our families and not have to do worksheets, or take tests, or use flashcards, and we can still just start talking, even when we are little kids like one and two years old.
The “language acquisition device” runs on MESSAGES. Like what people say to us - like when I talk to you in French - and what we read or watch or listen to online. When we understand messages in the language, this special part of our brain takes those messages and — almost like magic — it builds a new language system inside of us.
Then when we want to talk or write, we use that system and language just pops out of us, like it does when we speak English, or whatever languages we are strong in.
Because I want you to be able to USE French, I want to feed that system — your “speaking from the heart” system — your “language acquisition device” — and the way to do that is to give you lots and lots of French. So we will talk in French. We will read in French. We will write together in French. We will watch videos in French, listen to music in French.
It will just be French, French, French, for most of the time in here. Just basically one big old French-a-thon. It’s just the best, most efficient use of the time we have in class.
The awesome thing about this system — the “speaking from the heart” or “language acquisition device” is that we ALL can do it. You do not have to be super-smart; you do not have to even really TRY, and in fact, some people say that you do not even have to WANT to learn the language (even though, of course, as a French
teacher, I want to get you to be interested in learning more and continuing on with languages in general and especially French!). All you have to do is participate in activities in class to hear and read and communicate in French.
And, like magic, by understanding French, your language acquisition device will build the language inside of you.
We can all do it, no matter who we are. No matter how good we are at school…every single person can be an awesome French student and speaker…the proof is that we all speak another language already.
We have all already proven that we can acquire the ability to speak and read a language. So, the good news is that the process of acquiring the ability to communicate in French is just the same.
All you have to do is relax, and listen, and participate in the activities we do in class, and you will make lots of progress. It’s just what your brain is designed to do.
But, the brainy part of us, the part that learns the rules, it also has a role to play. One thing that the brainy part of us can do is help us edit our work. Another thing that we use our brains for in language is planning how to write better.
We will be learning things like how to organize paragraphs, and how to write better stories, and how to spell things and make our language sound as good as we can. Another thing that it can do is look for patterns in the language that we hear and read, and some people find this super-interesting.
In fact, there is a whole science called linguistics, that studies how languages are put together and how they work — the spelling, the forms of the language, all that. It’s a really interesting field, and maybe some of you will get interested in linguistics and study more later.
So, we will also be using our brains, the thinking part that runs on rules and thinking about the language, in class every day, to look at what we write, and to notice and learn things about French spelling and how the language is put together, and how it is different from English, and how it is similar to English. This is actually super-fascinating to me, and I really love thinking about languages.
But this is not the main focus of this class. The MAIN focus of this class is to use the language, so that we can develop the ability to speak from the heart, and not have to think about it so much, and be able to express ourselves. You will find that your abilities to express yourself in French grow rapidly, and they will grow faster the more you listen and read the language.
We will not be having tests and quizzes on vocabulary words and facts about the language. We will have assessments that grade you on your ability to understand French, and to start writing and speaking. At first you will not be able to write or say much.
But the more you listen to French and read French, the more fuel you will be giving to the “speak from the heart” system, the “language acquisition device”, and the faster you will be able to say more, write more, and use more French.
Of course, I want you to listen and read attentively in class. But you might find that you are motivated to seek out more French in your out-of-school life, too.
The good news is that anything you do to entertain yourself in English, you can also do to entertain yourself in French — and get more fuel, those messages in the language, that your language acquisition device uses to build the French language in your heads!
There are many ways to get more listening and reading in French — listening to French-language music, YouTube videos with the subtitles on, books like the ones in our class library, reading French articles online about things you are interested in.
We will be using as much French as we can in class, but you will develop faster the more you listen and read French. So, if you want to know more ways to find things to watch, listen to, or read in French, just ask me and I will be happy to hook you up.
The Mini-Project
Now, if you want to do the mini-project, you will have the class brainstorm slogans that they can use in their brochures or posters. I usually have my students brainstorm six to eight slogans together, and then ask them to use one slogan per section in their brochure, or - if I do a poster option - two or three slogans on their poster.
I also ask them to include two or more additional facts per slogan, so that they are processing the information in their own words, which helps them to internalize and understand the information. The rubric that I use, and a sample project, are below.
My goals in giving a lesson on SLA are to teach my students why this class operates the way it does, so that they can relax into the French communication in class without wondering why we are not doing more traditional vocabulary and grammar work, which is what they might have envisioned in a language class.
I also want them to experience the excitement that I feel, when I teach others about how wonderful it is that we now have tools and strategies that can catapult them into high levels of proficiency in the language, when they share their posters or brochures with others and teach them about this fascinating (at least to me) information on how our brains acquire the language.
Communicating with Families
I have had great success with having the students, after the research and rationale for the course is presented to them, work together as a class to make a class list on the board or overhead projector of the facts they learned.
Then I like to lead a class brainstorm to list six to ten “slogans” on SLA (to summarize their learning) and then use those slogans to design flyers, posters, or brochures to take home and share with their families.
I ask the students to choose a slogan as the title of their brochure, flyer, or poster, and to add four to six facts that they learned from the talk, to share with their families. Some of my favorite past slogans have been, “Babies Don’t Take Tests” and “Working Hard is Hardly Working” and, my personal all-time favorite,
" Spanish is LIT! "
Man, you just gotta love seventh graders!
A sample letter home is included in the Appendix “Home-School Connections.” I make sure to get the lettersigned so that if anyone challenges my grading system later in the year, I will have their signature to provethat I communicated the expectations at the start of the year.
