19 minute read
Instructional Session 31
Objective: By the end of class, you will be able to… Beginner: say sentences in French to give information about regions of France, using topic-specific vocabulary
Intermediate: say a series of connected sentences in French to give information in French about the Grand Est region of France, using content-specific vocabulary, and using transition words to say more
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Advanced: say well-organized paragraphs in French to give information in French about the Grand Est region of France, using content-specific vocabulary, and using transition words to say more
Preparation:
The Guided Oral Input strategy you will be using today is a Process Grid. You have come full circle because you are at the end of the topic study. You started with a Process Grid, which was basically your planning document, and now you are going to end by filling in a Process Grid with the class to synthesize their learning and scaffold the Expert Groups to share facts about their subtopic with the other students who were in other groups and thus have not learned about that topic. The grid will be blank when you begin the Guided Oral Input today, and you will make it with the class.
This is a way for students to really do a lot of synthesis and review. You studied the first subtopic together as a class (the Grand Est region, in the example lessons), and then in their Expert Group, students explored one of the other regions in-depth as well. As you work together to fill in the Process Grid, they will review the Grand Est, offer facts about the region, they studied with their group, and learn about the other two regions, which they have not yet studied. To “warm up” and model the process, I like to start with the first row - the Shape and Concept Categories about the first subtopic (the Grand Est, in the example lessons) before moving on to the other rows, about the other subtopics that students read about in small groups.
Unlike the Expert Group Reading Day(s), the Process Grid discussion can be conducted almost entirely in the course language. Students can respond in the language, and it is very satisfying, for both teacher and students, to set up that expectation and see students able to rise to the challenge. It is in this final lesson that the true power of the Process Grid Process is felt. You have provided such a well thought-out, scaffolded, level-appropriate, backwards-designed learning sequence that your students will most likely have lots of words and facts to talk about. Plus, you are advised to have them keep their readings and notes and Mind Maps handy, so they can refer to all that comprehensible text to help them form responses to the questions you will ask as you fill in the Process Grid together.
The process goes something like this. You are advised to begin by reviewing the Shape and Concept Categories for the first subtopic, which you studied extensively together as a whole class. You might say something like, “The first region that we studied was the Grand Est. Can anybody tell us about the geography Page 487
of the region?” Students will likely call out some different facts. If they speak in English, you can direct them to restate the facts in the course language, by saying something like, “Look at the text” or “Look at the Mind Map,” and then restating the question in the course language. This exchange might sound something like this:
“The first region (holding up one finger) that we studied was the Grand Est (writing “Grand Est” on the Process Grid in the course language). Capital G-R-A-N-D-space-Capital E-S-T. Can anybody tell us about the geography (writing “Geography” on the Process Grid in the course language) G-E-O-G-R-A-P-H-Y of the region?” (students call out facts in their stronger language(s)) “Look (gesture) at the text (point to or indicate the text) and look at the Mind Map (point to or indicate the Mind Map). Can anybody tell us about the geography (point to the word on the Process Grid) of the Grand Est region (point to the word on the Process Grid)?” (students consult the resources and call out facts in the course language)
Take notes on the Process Grid about what they say in the color that corresponds to the Grand Est subtopic (you want to keep the topics color coordinated to previous charts).
Please note that your goal is not to write down every single fact from the reading on the Process Grid. That would be a very tedious process. Your goal is to write two or three of the most interesting or memorable facts in each box. How do you know what facts were interesting or memorable? They will be, quite conveniently, the ones that your students call out to add to the chart. You do not have to worry about the facts that the groups don’t mention. Just fill in two or three facts in each square and move on, so the discussion does not start to drag.
It is worth briefly considering your instructional goals here. Your primary goal is not to have students learn or retain the specific facts about their subtopic, or the first subtopic that you studied as a class (e.g. the Grand Est), or any of the other subtopics. The ACTFL standards, and most state standards, specify that students are to make intercultural comparisons and interact in the language, using the language to explore cultural products and practices, and make inferences about how those products and practices influence cultural perspectives. They do not specify the specific content, so you will not find learning objectives like “name the largest industries in the Normandy region” in the standards documents.
Your goals here - and in most every lesson in this book - are to provide well-scaffolded, sequenced language interactions that allow students to use the language to explore cultural products and practices, and the perspectives that they influence, as well as to develop deeper understandings of themselves and their classmates, as a target-language-using learning community. So, your main objective in this session is to use the Process Grid to facilitate a high-level discussion in the course language to compare, contrast, and draw connections between and inferences from, the topics you studied in the lesson sequence.
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You might choose to focus the discussion on one row of the Process Grid (i.e. one subtopic, for example the Normandy region, in the example) at a time, and discuss/write facts about each of the Shape and Concept Categories for that subtopic before moving on to the next row to discuss the next subtopic. You could also choose to process the entire first row, about the shared subtopic you studied in depth as a class (e.g. the Grand Est region), and then “open up the floor” to a less-structured discussion in which you “bounce around” from square to square on the Process Grid in more of a free-form jam, until you have two or three facts in each square.
This “free-form jam” approach is usually more engaging to students because of the element of randomness. It also has the potential to lead to more comparing and contrasting, and thus more high-level thinking, as the facts from one square tend to spark other groups’ memories, and they offer similar or contrasting information about another square in the grid. However, this less structured approach is more challenging to manage, so you will, as always, want to consider your students’ need for structure and your own level of tolerance for a more free-form delivery style before choosing this approach.
Whatever approach you choose to structure the discussion, you will want to draw some sketches/pictures beside the information as you add it to the Process Grid chart, because the facts about other groups’ subtopics are not going to be as familiar, naturally, as those that we studied as a class (about, in this example, the Grand Est) or the subtopic they worked with in their Expert Group.
Well, the Process Grid is the last lesson in the process grid process. So, you have arrived at the end! It’s pretty cool, amirite? It's one of my favorite things that I’ve ever done as a teacher, and I hope that you enjoy it, too.
If you want to stretch the learning on this topic further, you could plan follow-up lessons with more input about the topic. Or you could plan an additional Process Grid Process, using another topic. You could easily spend another three weeks working with another Informational topic, and reusing or adding to the anchor charts you set up during this Process Grid Process (organizing information and incorporating topic-specific vocabulary). At the end of the second round, students would have a well-developed repertoire of strategies and language for writing well-organized information passages.
Another option for extending the learning is to check out the appendix on Learning Logs, and have them do a learning log. You could spend a whole two or three extra days having them work on a learning log that could be turned into an artifact that goes into your class library. Or they could work on a magazine together as a class about their various topics, with each group contributing a page and/or an infographic or images with captions or callout boxes, or a comic book, or a page for the class yearbook or an aspect of their topic.
Now, on to the lesson procedures for this final step-by-step session!
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Continue to greet the students in English, review expectations, etc. Distribute or project the Reading Workshop text. You might make your own Reading Workshop text, use the ones in our Teachers Pay Teachers store, such as the example below, or work with a Shared Writing text from a previous lesson. Then, share the lesson objective if you have not already done so, check in with your Class Starter and Videographer, and any other student workers with whom you need to touch base, and begin the lesson.
In Other Words
Please refer back to Session 28 on page CheckXX for a detailed explanation and sample lesson using this strategy. You might want to add an additional phrase to your anchor chart that students can use to restate content-specific vocabulary. It’s also completely OK if you don’t, and you just recycle the term(s) that you have already added to the chart. You might use a page from the Expert Group reading, the E-Lit text that was used in the first lessons of this phase, a text from Shared Writing, or any other comprehensible informational text.
After a few minutes, move into the Guided Oral Input, with a short calendar check-in and then begin the class Mind Map.
Quick Calendar Check-In
Move to the calendar for a brief calendar check-in to transition to the Guided Oral Input. It is suggested that you continue to do a brief calendar check-in throughout the year to transition to the Guided Oral Input, as an opening routine. Examples of calendar check-in are found in the previous instructional sessions, and there is no example here. Refer to Sessions 1-8 for more details on Small Talk (calendar and weather).
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See the images below for some topic on setting up your Process Grid prior to class, followed by images of how the lesson might go.
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See the images above for a demonstration of how the Guided Oral Input might go when using the Process Grid.
For most classes, you will not have time in the typical 12 to 15 minutes of Guided Oral Input - or even in the 20 minutes or so in a block class - to complete the entire chart. So, you will need to think through some options for how you want to structure the lesson, explained below.
You might want to move on to Scaffolded Oral Review and the rest of the daily instructional framework in the usual fashion. That means that, as you have done in most lessons, after about 12 to 15 minutes of Guided Oral Input, regardless of how much of the Process Grid you completed, you will move on to Scaffolded Oral Review and the rest of the lesson. You may want to schedule the lessons this way, so you can get back into the routine - which you broke with for a few days during the Expert Group Reading Day(s) - of moving on to the rest of the daily instructional framework components.
If you choose this option, you will probably want to come back to the Process Grid in the next lesson, to add more facts to the chart, and then review and use the new facts you added that day in the rest of the framework (Scaffolded Oral Review, Shared Writing, Shared Reading, and Student Application and Assessment), spending as many days as you need to in order to make it through every square on the chart.
Another option is to delay getting back into the normal routine of following the daily instructional framework, and make this another special day, in which you spend the entire lesson — the remainder of the period — working towards the goal of filling in two or three facts or details in each of the squares on the Process Grid. This means that you will most likely not have time to go on to the remaining components of the daily instructional framework in that lesson.
If that is the case, you could plan on a second lesson in which you get back into the routine of the daily framework, and use the “Review Our Charts” strategy as the Guided Oral Input for that day, followed by any Scaffolded Oral Review, Shared Writing, Shared Reading, and Student Application and Assessment strategies that are a good fit for your students.
Again, Stepping Stones is designed for the maximum flexibility, and it is my sincere hope that by this time, as you are arriving at the final “hand-holding” lesson of this book, you feel confident that you can actually plan quickly, using the frameworks and organizing principles in the Stepping Stones curricular framework, to adapt and modify on the fly as described above.
I hope that this book has been a boon to you this year, and has provided strong, friendly guidance and plenty of details and ideas to make your job easier. If it has, or even if it hasn’t, you can feel free to drop me a line at tina@curriculumclub.com. I would love to hear how it has gone for you!
If you do plan to continue on to the rest of the daily instructional framework, you will find suggestions for how that might go below.
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Review Our Charts (or any other Scaffolded Oral Review strategy)
Move to your Review Spot. This strategy, explained in more detail in Session 27, on page CheckXX, you will return to charts from the topic study. You can compare the information on the charts with what the class has added to the Process Grid, and perhaps add more details, or any insights that emerge for students, to the Process Grid.
You might, as always, modify or switch out the specific strategy you use here. Some options that would fit well at this point in the topic study are the Word Card Review, Finish My Sentence, or even just a Quick Quiz or a True-False Quiz. Review as many facts from your previous charts as time permits.
You might want to get back to “normal” Shared Writing after your foray into the world of Sentence Patterning Charts in Session 30. Or, you might want to add to your Sentence Patterning Chart or make a new one.
If you want to get back into the Write and Discuss routine, you may want to continue using the anchor chart that you set up in Session 27 (Incorporating Content-Specific Vocabulary), and perhaps also the anchor chart that you set up in Cycle Four Phase One (Organizing Information Writing). You might add a new term or phrase to one or both of the charts today.
If you want to keep using the Sentence Patterning Chart strategy, you might want to quickly refresh your memory by taking a look at the explanation and images in Session 30.
After about eight to ten minutes of Shared Writing, move on to Shared Reading.
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The “Go-To” Daily Strategies
If you returned to Write and Discuss, then you might also want to return to the “Go-To” strategies, to reestablish the normal routine. Many classes benefit from a nice “reset” by strictly adhering to the established routine after a break in continuity such as you just experienced during the Expert Group Reading Day(s). If so, you may want to review any Shared Reading section in any of the preceding sessions, to review the “GoTo” strategies.
If you worked with the Sentence Patterning Chart for Shared Writing, you might want to process it using the world-famous “Farmer in the Dell” Song-stravaganza. To review the procedures for this strategy, please see Session 30.
Sentence Patterning Chart
This Student Application and Assessment strategy was introduced and explained in more detail in Session 30. You may want to review that section at this point.
Learning Logs
Learning Logs are a place to collect their learning through a topic study. When I learned how to make learning logs at the Be GLAD training I attended, they told us that the ideal format is plain copy paper stapled or three-hole-punched and put into a folder or report cover. This is to allow students the most possibilities for flexible, creative, and critical thinking.
Each day, you would give students options on a choice board or menu (see the Appendices for a sample choice board that works well for World Language students). I do recommend giving students at least three options so that they have more of a voice in how they express and collect their learning.
The GLAD way to teach is grounded, above all, in student choice and supporting them in developing agency, and a sense of control and internal motivation in their education. This is also, as mentioned in the very first Page 494
parts of this book, a foundational value of the TCRWP (Teachers College Reading and Writing Project) reading and writing workshop approach to literacy, as well as a big factor in why I fell on Ben Slavic’s pioneering work and creative inventions like a starving woman on a ham sandwich.
All of these approaches to teaching language and literacy center students’ voices and identities, to one extent or another, and develop their sense of agency or self-motivation and self-awareness as a learner. So, options are recommended for Learning Logs, and, really, student options are recommended any time you can offer choices in a pedagogically-sound and developmentally-appropriate way.
If you are familiar with the Love and Logic school of thought, you will recall that part of the “love” is making sure that your toddler brushes their teeth. But part of the “logic” is that any rational adult human who has ever attempted to order a headstrong three-year-old around will almost certainly have deduced that it is pretty much impossible.
So, “logically,” we give the toddler a choice. But, since we are “lovingly” making sure that they actually hold onto the little teethies in their little mouthies because they don’t neglect to brush them, we offer them choices that lead to the same outcome, ultimately.
So, you might say, “You can brush your teeth with the kid toothpaste or the adult toothpaste,” or “You can brush your teeth with the egg timer or I can sing ‘Happy Birthday’ three times to let you know when time’s up. What do you want to do?” That last “What do you want to do?” is the most powerful part of the whole setup. It conveys to the child that they are in control, even as they make healthy choices that we have structured for them.
Of course, as an educator, you may be familiar with the “OMG Mom Stop the Teacher Tricks” like I began to get from my daughter. She was the guinea pig for so many “communication strategies” and “behavior management strategies” that I wanted to learn for my work as a teacher that eventually she became immune and would roll her little 7-year-old eyes and say stuff like, “Mom, you can just tell me to brush. It’s OK.” So, just be warned.
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My daughter will be 24 years old in 2021, and she turned out really well. But the poor thing did suffer a lot of Teacher’s Child Problems, growing up. Máire, if you are reading this, thanks sweetie, for your patience. I love you! Now, you can either call me to tell me you love me too, or just shoot me a text. Honey, it’s your choice.
So, with the overarching goal of students are “lightly guided” to choose an option for recording their learning in L2 (and perhaps also L1, if they feel they need it) that appeals to them, given their own learning preferences and the nature of the information learned and discussed that day.
Students might select and use a graphic organizer, or copy a chart from the walls, make their own Cognitive Content Dictionary to record new facts or words from the day’s lesson, sketch and label a picture or chart that the class discussed, make their own Sentence Patterning Chart, copy the class’s text and translate it or illustrate it, or “Write Inside the Story” with it, or write an alternate ending for it, write their own notes or paragraph, or draw their own representation of the day’s learning.
It is recommended that before you add a strategy to the choices, you first model that strategy by using it in class. For example, after you have done a Sentence Patterning Chart, perhaps once or twice, you can then add that strategy as an option for learning logs. As you introduce more instructional strategies in class, the “menu” of options for work in their learning logs will grow.
See the Appendices for more details and a sample choice menu.
At the end of the period, as always, you might want to debrief with students, congratulating them on what went well, and setting goals for future improvements.
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