I did a demonstration for teachers this week. The students were from a 7th grade middle school Spanish I class. All of the middle school world language team leaders in the school district observed.
The students were in the middle of a unit that focused on:
Greetings
Classroom expressions
Personal Information
Name
Age
Origin
Birthday
Spelling of name
Telephone number
I did a Persona Especial interview because that would correspond with what they were learning. Read more about Persona Especial interviews here.
By the end of the lesson students could understand the personalized sentences below and most could write and say them. These are the sentences that students around the class produced in the comprehension check at the end of the class (Some details have been altered to protect the identity of students in the demo):
Se llama Emma. She calls herself Emma.
Prefiere el nombre Emma. She prefers the name Emma.
Su mamá no se llama Emma. Her mom is not called Emma.
Su abuela no se llama Emma. Her grandma is not called Emma.
Nadie en su familia se llama Emma. Nobody in her family is called Emma.
Tiene doce años. She is twelve years old.
¡Todos en la clase tienen doce años! All in the class are twelve years old!
Su cumpleaños es el tres de mayo. Her birthday is May 3rd.
Está en el grado siete. She is in seventh grade.
Todos en la clase están en el grado siete. All in the class are are in seventh grade.
Emma vive en Greensburg. Emma lives in Greensburg.
Todos en la clase viven en Greensburg. All in the class live in Greensburg.
Ella vive en Bestway. She lives in Bestway.
Dos otras chicas en la clase también viven en Bestway. Two other girls in the class also live in Bestway.
Lydia y Kaylah viven en Bestway. Lydia y Kaylah live in Bestway.
Lydia y Kaylah viven cerca de Emma. Lydia y Kaylah live near Emma.
Emma no es de Florida. Emma is not from Florida.
Es de Houston originalmente. She is from Houston originally.
El hermano de señor Hedstrom vive en Houston también. ¡Qué casualidad! Mr. Hedstrom’s brother lives in Houston too! What a coincidence!
There was no error correction, just high frequency vocabulary and occasional recasting of answers with casual discussion, which provided plenty of repetitions. The demonstration took about 45 minutes. Learning about their shy classmate was compelling input to the students in the class because it was real. Here’s how it was done:
Here was the progression of the lesson:
I started with getting their attention and interacting with them using my favorite Call-and-Response:
Teacher: ¿Clase?
Students: Sí, señor?
I taught them this because I knew I would be asking them to say the sentences we had learned to one another in Spanish several times during the lesson, and I needed a way to get their attention while using the target language.
I picked a small girl named Emma because she was so obviously paying attention and reacting as I spoke to the class but was not attention-seeking. She also had a je ne sais quois star quality. It seemed like she would be able to keep her classmates’ attention because she was so emotive.
This was just for the demo. In an actual class every student would be interviewed, one-by-one around the class. Everyone would need to have a part, not just the popular and confident kids. It is also important to let student know that they can pass on being interviewed. Because I work on making the interviewee the most interesting person in the room I have never had a student say “pass” twice once they realize that they will be portrayed in a positive light in the interview.
I had Emma her spell out her name in Spanish. She hesitated at first and made a mistake but got it later.
It didn’t seem like she knew the words mamá, abuela, and hermano at first, but she and the rest of the class picked those up as we went along.
Repetition:
In the discussion afterwards, teachers remarked how repetitive it seemed. And I agree it was repetitive to those that already know the language, but to a student, it was not. They need lots of repetitions to get it. An added repetition was to have students write down the sentences as I said them when I “reported back” to the class. Here are the steps:
- Ask a Question… and then Follow-Up. Following up shows you are interested in the student and not just slogging through your own agenda. If the student shows any enthusiasm in the answer, continue to ask a series of follow-up questions. The student will give you clues. Their body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, even eye pupil dilation will give away their interest or pride in their own answers. And keep asking those follow up questions. I’m convinced that those are what causes acquisition because of the the genuine interest they engender in the observing students.
- “Report Back” to the Class Turn and speak to the class. You are repeating the tidbit you and the interviewee just talked about, but this time in the 3rd person. Repeat steps 1 & 2 as long as the interest lasts. Mojo (energy and interest) is king.
- Verify Information with the interviewee. Say something like “So you’re saying that…” or “Let me get this straight…” and repeat the interview information back to the student, also known as the Columbo technique.
- Check for Understanding with the class: “What do we know about this person, class?” Students raise their hands and say one sentence at a time. Then students get in pairs and tell each other what they know. This is all in the target language.
- Students Write Notes about the interview for themselves. Pairing with another student helps. In rowdy classes or with younger students, have them write what you “report” in step #2 rather than in step #5.
- Assess: Students write sentences in the target language about the interview (no notes). Usually the next day.
Follow-up Questions:
Going straight down the list of questions can become boring. It is too predictable. But when we ask follow-up questions everything opens up into a personalized interviews and memorable information. We are also teaching students how to have conversations. When we ask follow-up questions we show we are engaging and paying attention. Follow-up questions show we care. Students need to see this modeled before them many times in order to begin to acquire meaningful conversations.
Helping All Students:
Teachers asked why I would leave up the questions and answers. It is to help all students. Those that acquire language quickly will get all of it with a couple of days. They will not even look at the poster any more. Students in the middle of the bell curve will get everything after a couple of weeks. But slower students may need the help for most of the semester. I want all students to be able to understand and participate, so I print out poster #1 and poster #2 and put them up for students to see and use if they need them.
The reason this works is because students are learning much more than the guiding questions and the accompanying sentences starters. The follow-up questions make everything more personalized and memorable, and that is what we are going for. Students pick up the phrases , grammar and vocabulary from the follow-up questions because those kinds of questions make so much sense, and they focus on what we are talking about. They begin to forget we are communicating in another language.
How Long Does an Interview Last?
Between 1 minute and the entire class period. It depends on how willing and interesting the interviewee is. There is nothing worse than trying to interview a student that doesn’t want to talk, so cut it off and tell them we will come back to you later.
How Often Do You Do This?
Techers asked how often they might do Persona Especial interviews. Under a traditional 5-days-a-week schedule, I like to interview students twice a week and assess them twice a week. Under a block schedule, it could be twice one week and once on the alternate week.
But you can use it more often. I know a University French teacher that has had such success with student interviews that she has taught semester-long courses using only this technique because students become so fluent. Once you get your questioning down and students understand what is happening with Personal Especial they begin to ask why we can’t do interviews every day.
What about Students that Mock Classmates?
I mentioned that part of making the classroom a safe space (Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis) was not to tolerate sneering, guffaws, or rude comments. If we do, that puts a damper of everyone’s acquisition. A way to handle these minor classroom disruptions is to use a Think Sheet. Gently and firmly ask the offending student to get up and go get a Think Sheet. Ask them to stand there in the back of the classroom until you can get with them. You are just checking to see if they recognize and own their behavior. Talk with them briefly and then let them return to the class. Keep the filled out Think Sheet. That way you have a record of their behavior written in their own hand to show to administrators and parents should the need arise (CYA).
Miscellaneous:
After I asked Emma how old she was and she said 12, I asked who else was 12? All of the students raised their hands. At first I didn’t think they understood the question, but it turned out that all of them were 12 years old! Every single one. No 11, no 13? Wow!
Talk about yourself some—but not too much. Students generally enjoy learning a bit about their teachers, so I threw in a detail about my brother. But keep the focus on the student, not yourself. Your objective is to make the interviewee the most interesting person in the room, not you.
Assessment:
The assessment for this lesson would be for students to write at least 10 of these sentences in comprehensible Spanish. The requirement is that the information be correct. For example, if they write that Emma is thirteen, that sentence is wrong on the assessment, even if it is written in flawless Spanish. This is because we are focusing on the student. The student is the star, not the curriculum, and not the teacher’s agenda. We are learning about the student, and we just happen to be doing that in Spanish. When we focus on the student actual acquisition occurs.
Some students will be able to write many more sentences. Tell those students to write as many sentences as they can and not to stop at ten. I tell them, “There is no extra credit, but impress me. Show me how much you can do.” This gets them working for something more than a grade. It is harder to impress me than it is to get a good grade.
Share your expertise:
How do you do special person interviews or interact personally with your students?
What tips and techniques would you add?
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