Rave Review

I don't know if all teachers are like this, but test review days stress me out.  Because my unit exams cover reading, writing, listening, as well as cloze passages, I feel like I have to really "get it right" during test reviews in order to cover everything. And, I feel like students are always less engaged on these days because I am doing so much talking.

 Before Spring Break we were taking our unit test, and due to losing so much class time to snow days, I felt like my students weren't as prepared as they could be for our test. In order to cover a lot of missed practice and to keep students engaged.  I combined two of my favorite activities that I have blogged about before.  I created a Review Stations Day AND I combined it with my Superlative/Comparative practice (the "Food, Fun and Foolishness" that I posted about previously).

For this review, I created seven stations (because I have seven groups of four in each of my level 2 classes), and the students had 6 minutes in each class.  I had the stations set up before they came in.  It looked so fun!

Here is how I broke down the stations:

Listening Review:  Using a CD player, students listened to a short listening passage from the textbook and answered questions.  The questions were a. or b. and they scored their answers on a bubblesheet and scanned it with a computer that I had set up to scan on Mastery Connect.  Some students used their "BubbleSheet" app.  This way students knew right away how many they got correct. I encouraged them to stop the recording and talk about what they heard.  The conversations were awesome.

Reading Review:  I am working with my students to prepare them for AP style reading assessment.  For this station, students read a passage then answered six questions that were modeled after the AP type reading questions.  Again, they bubbled their answers from the six multiple-choice questions onto a bubblesheet and scanned on a different computer or used their app, in order to immediately see their results. Again, it was great to hear them talking about the passages and pointing out sentences that supported their opinions to why a certain question was a certain answer.

Writing Practice:  This was my favorite!!  Our grammar topic for this unit is passé composé v. imparfait.  For this station, I had an Ipad cued up and students watched a hilarious video that a dad had taken of students slipping on ice.  (This video went viral, you may have seen it.)  Then, they filled out a chart to write down as much as they could about the video in either the passé composé or the imparfait.  The chart had two columns (one for each tense) and reviewed with them the circumstances when each tense would be used, and gave them space to write sentences.

Vocabulary Practice:  I call this the Vocab-Match game, and we play it each chapter.  I gave students puzzle pieces with vocab in either French or English on each of the four sides of a rectangle.  The task is to match the French word with the English word to complete the puzzle.  For the stations, I had the pieces already cut out, they had to match them and glue them.

Superlative/Comparative Practice:  Sort of like a "Word Wall", I had a bunch of little words in boxes. The students had to use the words available to create superlative or comparative sentences and glue them down on paper.  They had fun with it because they could create silly sentences like "Mme B is smarter than a cat", but it really helped them with sentence word order.

Superlative Practice:  (This is taken from my previous blog) I had student bring in snacks: crackers, chips, cookies, etc)  On a paper, they had to write superlative sentences about the snacks that were there.  I started them with the formula for a superlative sentence, then they had to write as many as they could.

Comparative Practice:  This was exactly like the Superlative Practice however, it was with drinks. I had them bring in lots of drinks: different types of soda, milk, fruit punch, etc.  Again, I started them with the formula and had them write as many comparative sentences as they could.

The goal at each station is to get as many things correctly completed as possible.  I did take an in-class grade for this.  In order to grade them, I added up the number of correct items for each group.  I averaged the class.  Each group got a 5-point grade based on the average.  Groups that got more than the average got more than 5 points, groups that got less than the average got less than 5 points.

The kids loved this day.  It kept them moving and they really enjoyed themselves.  What I always love are the meaningful conversations that take place during cooperative learning activities.  It really helped them to feel more confidant with what I would be assessing them on.

And the winner is....

The effectiveness of games in the classroom is a topic that I wish I had more time to study.  I love playing games with my students, but the challenge is always how to keep every student engaged, while providing for effective learning experiences.  I feel as if a well-designed game is much more beneficial to most students than a worksheet. I have been in this teaching game for a while now, and one thing that has really changed, in my experience, is the willingness for the average student to do homework.  Most of my Level 1 kids just don't do work at home.  With that being said, in order for my students to practice the material, I need to be creative in the classroom.  There are some awesome classroom games that help with this issue.

One of my new favorites that I have used lately is great at engaging all students.  I call it "Tuez la Tortue" (Kill the Turtle).  My colleagues all have different names for the game.  It might sound a bit sadistic, but the kids love this game and it provides awesome practice for the material.

Set up:  
Students work in groups (I always have pre-determined groups of about 4 students who work together over the course of a unit. In these groups, each student is assigned a number)  Each student needs a white board, marker, eraser.  Before the game, I create a series of questions/practice sentences with my SMART notebook software.  On the game, I have a dice.

How it is played:
1. I show the students a question/practice sentence.
2. Students have a certain amount of time (15-30 seconds depending on the difficulty of the question) to write their answer on their own white board, without consulting their group-mates.  During this time, I stress that everyone is quiet, so that they can come up with their own individual answer.
3.  After I call time, each person shows what they wrote.  They have 15-20 seconds to consult each other about the correct answer.  --This is when awesome discussions take place because they have to support their answers to the rest of the group.  I love this part!
4.  I give a 5 second warning, and each student should be writing what their group agreed to as the correct answer on his/her board.
5. I have them put down their markers, and I roll the dice.
6. The student with that number (since I only have four member groups: 5 is wild, 6 is a re-roll) holds up his or her board.
7.  This is the fun part!!  The groups with the correct answer get to go to the board to draw a part of a turtle.  Turtles consist of five parts: a head, a body, two legs and a tail.
8.  Once a group completes their turtle, they become "Turtle Killers".  When they get correct answers, they may choose one part from another group's turtle to erase.

They are so engaged in this game! Since everyone must write something, each student is forced to practice.  And, they get so creative with their turtles.  It is a blast to watch!

Three Things to Think About with PBL

Just this week, I was fortunate to attend METC (Missouri's Educational Tech Conference).  It is always so inspiring to learn from other professionals and to see what amazing things that other teachers are doing with their students.  I have such a passion for Project Based Learning, and I was excited to attend a session presented by Josh Stumpenhorst, a middle school Social Studies teacher.  Josh shattered some of my PBL habits, which made me think of some changes that I might make with my PBL project that I do with my level 2 students.  Here are three of my take-aways:

1. Groups - I have typically created my groups based on varying ability, randomness or student choice.  But, what if I created groups by similar abilities?  Put all the kids who "get it" together, and put all the kids who struggle to get it together.  With this grouping, the "get it" kids can take it an go, and in a big way.  The "don't-get-it" kids are all together so that I can spend more time with them to help re-teach and motivate.

2. Choice -  What if I gave them a "menu" of projects that they could choose from.  This would require lots more work on my part, but different students have different strengths and in the end wouldn't I get more impressive projects if the kids got to create in a way that they like to create?

3. Publish - Make the world their audience.  Have them publish to YouTube.  Put their videos on my YouTube channel.  "Likes" are like badges, and are a meaningful feedback for these guys.  We need to quit making the Internet this "bad" place and get examples of good student work out there.

At this conference, I presented my own PBL.  Here is a link to my project outline (almost entirely in French): French 2 Lycée PBL

Would you like to watch my presentation?
Live-Stream of my presentation: April Burton - Planning for PBL

Speed Learning

This winter has been filled with snow days for us, in the mid-west.  With the extra free time on my hands, I have been logging a lot of Pinterest time.  Pinterest is a wonderland for educators; there are so many wonderful ideas and tools ready for use in the classroom.  Currently, in Level 1, we are studying weather, seasons, etc.  I kept coming across awesome ideas for practicing this in the classroom, but with so many missed days, I wasn't sure how I could find the time to implement them into the classroom.  Then....LIGHT BULB!!!  I decided I would do a "Stations Day".  Stations work great in the elementary school, but I had never seen it in the high school.  So, I decided to give it a go.

Since I already have my students divided into groups, I knew that I would need seven stations.  I also wanted to use this opportunity to have students practice all skills: listening, reading, writing and reading.  Also, due to lost time, we had run out of time to learn a grammar concept, so I needed to have a station where they could take notes and learn the concept.  Here is what I landed on for stations:

Station #1: Students read a French article (which I had re-written to be level 1 appropriate) which described the weather climate in different regions in France.  Their task was to glue weather icons to the appropriate region onto a map of France.

Station #2: They had to watch a weather video on meteofrance.com and write, in English, a sentence about the weather.  Each person was to write one sentence then pass the paper to the next person.  (It was cool, because most groups actually ended up writing in French)

Station #3: (This was their favorite) Using an Ipad app called AudioBoo, the students had to look at a local 5-day weather forecast that I had pulled up on another Ipad, and each person had to record a statement, in French, about the weather.  We live in St. Louis, a 5-day forecast for us, in January, usually includes rain, snow, cold weather and nice weather, so there is a variety of vocabulary practice available. The groups spent a minute looking at the weather forecast, then each person said a statement, then passed the Ipad.  No one could repeat another person's statement, and the goal was to say as many statements as possible.

Station #4: Students used local weather forecasts from local weather stations that they looked up on an Ipad or their phones, then filled out a survey about the weather.  The survey had a thermometer in Celsius for them to complete, as well as conditions about the highs and lows for today and tomorrow.

Station #5:  Students looked at a screen shot of a 5 day forecast on a phone for the city of Rouen. They had to write sentences about the weather for these days.  Each person had to write a French sentence, then pass the paper to the next person.  The goal was to get as many sentences written as possible without repeating anyone's sentence.

Station #6:  In this unit, we are learning "avoir expressions".  There are a list of 7 expressions that students need to know.  For this station students had a textbook and each student received a copy of Cornell notes. They had to read the textbook, then take notes.  They also were given an activity to practice the idea with images which they had to write sentences using the newly learned expressions. The goal was to get as many of these sentences completed, correctly.

Station #7: For this station, students were practicing the verb "aller" which they had learned in this chapter.  They were given a handout with pictures of activities.  They had to write sentences to tell what activity a person was "going" to do and add the place where they would do this activity.

Set up for the stations took some time and organization.  I had the desks arranged into groups when the students came in.  There was a table tent card at each "quad" with numbers in different colors.  Since, the students had already been arranged in color groups, they were instructed, when they walked in, to sit with their colors.  Also, on each "quad" I had a laminated sheet of instructions for that station, and any other supplies that they might need: glue, handouts for the activity, textbook and Ipads when necessary.  I took the first few minutes of class to do a quick explanation of each station.

Then, I set the time for 6 minutes, instructed someone to read the instructions sheet to the group and they set off to work.  I could walk around to check answers, answer their questions or re-focus less focused students.  Because the timer was counting down on the SmartBoard, a sense of urgency kept everyone (for the most part) on-task.  After six minutes, the time buzzed, a designated member brought me the paper that their group had completed for that station (if they had completed a paper) and they moved to the next number.  I set the time again, instructed someone from each group to read the instructions and they set off to work on a new task.

The goal was for each group to get as much down as possible in each group.  The group with the most completed answers at the end, will when a prize.  Each group will be graded based on the class average of completed tasks overall.  If the average completed sentences is 10, groups above 10 will get extra credit, below ten will lose points.

It took a lot of prep time to get seven stations together, but in the end, it was a great activity.  The constant change and variation of activities kept student engaged and helped them to work together to practice and reinforce the curriculum.  My mind is already racing as I am trying to think of other ways that I could use stations in the classroom.

Who will work with whom?

In my classroom, collaboration is key.  If students are going to speak French, they need someone with whom they can speak.  Small groups and partner work is essential in getting students to use the language.  Plus, when working with a small group or with a partner, students have a low-risk environment to speak up and contribute.  In previous posts, I have mentioned the importance of creating activities where everyone in the group has a responsibility and is contributing to the end means in some way.  I want everyone to feel needed and I want everyone to know that they are, in some way, responsible for getting the job done.  I do everything that I can avoid the "bogs and logs" mentality.

But, how to divide the students into those very important groups??  I subscribe to the thought process that the students need to work with the same groups for at least six weeks. I usually keep them together for an entire unit.  New unit = new groups.  At the beginning of the school year, I took great time in sculpting my groups.  I would often put strong students with weak students in order to have students with varying abilities in groups.  As the year has progressed, I wanted to get a little more creative in my grouping.  When we came back for second semester, I decided to randomly choose groups.  But, to make it more exciting (and to get kids up and moving--which is the key to an active class) I had students write a sentence/word on a piece of paper. In level 1, they had to write the French word for one of their favorite gifts or something that they bought over the break.  In level 2, they had to write a sentence about a gift that they gave to someone.  It worked out to be a great review, especially in level 2. As students were writing, I walked around and talked to them about it, so that I knew at least one thing about each student. Then, I had them line themselves up alphabetically by the gift that they received or gave.  I loved this part because they had to get up and, like it or not, talk to their classmates.  Then, I walked through the line and gave each student a crayon, alternating the colors between the number of groups I wanted.  (I used ROY G BIV).  This REALLY helped to review colors with my level 1 students.   Then, the students found their like colors and formed their groups.  Immediately, this gave the group something in common because I could name them the color that they had.  (I like to have a name for each group.) Before the activity started, I have them a few minutes to discuss what they had written on their paper.  Kids love to talk about themselves, and this gave them a chance to get to know each other which helps to create a necessary bond between group members.

It sounds like a very lengthy method to divide kids up, but it works.  It's creative and different, and the students like that.  It gave them a chance to use their individual experiences and to talk about them.  The entire process didn't take more than 8 minutes, and that's because 5 minutes was used to write the sentence.

Partner work is something else that I love to do.  Typically, I assign partners which are seated near each other. But, during those long winter months, I like to mix things up a bit.  For a continuous writing assignment (where students write a little bit of a story based on a picture or goofy photograph as we learn more grammar in the chapter)I wanted random partners.  (And,I wanted them to get up and walk around.)  I had each student write a sentence on a small piece of paper.  We were learning daily routine vocab, so I had them write a sentence to describe what they do to get ready in the morning.  Again, I walked around as they were writing to help with grammar and sentence structure.  Then, I collected each nameless paper in a box and had students choose papers from the box.  They had to then, get up and find the person who either had their paper, or the person who wrote on the paper that they had chosen.  Whoever they found first, was their partner.  They grabbed the activity and sat down and got to work.  As students were pairing up and sitting down, there always happens to be students who can't find their matches, so i just paired them up and they got to work.  Again, a crazy chaotic method, but it got kids up and moving, and speaking French because they had to read the paper aloud to find their match.

Another random way of finding a partner, is to put two corresponding vocabulary words on a card, cut them apart and have students find their match.  For example, I put the action on one side of the card, and a noun that would complete the action on the other side.  I cut them apart (sort of like a puzzle), then the students had to walk around to find the matching pieces. Once they found the other half of their card, they could sit down and get to work.  It's a great way to review!  If time allowed, I could have each group share with the group the words on their cards and have the rest of the class say the English, as if they were flashcards.

There are hundreds of creative ways to get kids up and moving to find a partner or group.  The important element, is to keep them guessing.  I love that my students never know what to expect.  We rarely do the same thing twice which keeps them interested.

Ok, Students, Today we are going to France!

In earlier posts, I posted about my Project Based Learning unit that I did with my French 2 students.  I decided to do it again last year. But, as most teachers do, I took the things that I learned from last year and improved the unit.  We started the unit yesterday with an activity where students "went to France."  I gave the students the web site of the school that we have partnered with on this unit.  We have a school in Lille, France who has agreed to help out, and a school in Versailles, France. Each group was given an IPad and I pretty much just let them go.  I required them to do three things: 1.  Figure out the name of the high school (this is level 2 and they were looking at website that is entirely in French, that task is a little more challenging than you might think)  2. Find it on Google Maps or Google Earth and look around, then pinpoint the location the city in which the high school is found on a map of France.  3.  They had to complete a Venn Diagram comparing our high school to the one in France.

Let me just say, using IPads in the classroom is so cool.  I have a little jealousy for those teachers who get to teach in a school where all students come the class with an IPad.  I use my IPad daily for the management of the classroom, but using it for instruction is beyond anything that a textbook can offer. The ease of using a tablet so that all the students in the group could see the terrain of the city where their partner school is located makes the learning experience so exciting and engaging.  Of course, many of the students had the website pulled up on their phone, as well, in order to compare their findings.  They were engrossed in looking around the community where the school is located.  The used Google Eartth to look at the windows of the buildings, the cars that were parked near by, and even the graffiti that they found on buildings that were near the high school.  Each group found different and unique things and it was fun to watch them so enthusiastically involved in learning.

Oh Where, Oh Where Should my Projects Go?

This week consisted of one of my most monstrous of projects.  I use a Microsoft program called Photo Story where students narrate pictures of their family members in order to practice their vocabulary and grammar.  We spend several days in front of computers in the computer lab.  Students spend days lining up their photos and recording their voice as they describe the ages, likes and dislikes and give descriptions of their family members.  Then, render them into videos.

However, when students participate in a project such as this, the conundrum occurs when it is time to submit their work.  In the past, our school had a large amount of space tied to their student ID. While it was a bit tedious, in order to grade the projects, I would find their folder on our shared drive and find their project. This meant that I had to be at school on the network.  This school year, in order to save server space, the district did away with the "Student  Docs".  At first, it sent me into a panic, how in the world am I going to grade 70 projects if they can't save them on our shared drive?  No way was I going to accept a flash drive from each student.  Can you imagine the mess? This problem ended up being a blessing in disguise.  It forced me to investigate the many different ways of submitting to the cloud.

Our school does not have a Classroom Management System for each teacher.  Something like Blackboard or Moodle offer very easy ways for students to submit electronic assignments, but I don't have those at my fingertips and I can't afford to buy them.  Two other free options are Schoology or Edmodo.  My students use Edmodo on a regular basis.  Edmodo offers up to 100MB in size for each student submission.  That was plenty of space for these projects.  But, in order for the students to turn it in, there is a "process" that they had to follow.  I wanted to avoid the issue of "I can't remember my log in" or "How do I submit to an assignment".  While Edmodo offers what I needed, it was too labor intensive.  I wanted something easier.

At last, after a weekend of searching, my husband came across "Drop It To Me".  This ended up being the answer to this frustrating problem.  With Drop It To Me, I set up an account so that when students submit their assignment to me, it goes into a Dropbox folder on my Dropbox account.  Teachers, if you don't have a Dropbox account, you need one.  My account has 14 GB of space because I send students invites in order to expand my available space. (Smart, huh!)  I put a link unto my website,  (Which isn't even necessary because the URL for Drop It To Me is very simple.) and my students uploaded their projects.  Important Note:  I had my students save as "classperiod_lastname"  For example, my file, if I were in 5th hour, would be 5_Burton.wmv--for a Photo Story movie. Since I had students save this way, their files appeared in class order alphabetically.  Awesome!! I could walk around with my IPad, open the Dropbox app and show students immediately that I had received their project. Double Awesome!!  It is important to note that there is a file size limit of 75MB, but for these projects that was plenty of space.

Here is a link to the instructions that I gave my students:
Submission Instructions with Screen Shoots

Now, I need to sit down and grade some projects!  Which I can do with my Ipad on my couch, thanks to Dropbox!