This is my set up to story listening. This powerful method to deliver CI, has been developed and tested out extensively by Beniko Mason. I first saw her demonstrate what she does in Agen, France last summer. I was really intrigued, but also confused about where to start and nervous about being able to make sure it's comprehensible AND enjoyable to my students. And then, I just leaped, searching and prepping stories to my students' level. 

But before I talk about all the things I like about it, here is a simple description of what it is that I recently posted on Ben Slavic's PLC:

After going to Agen, France this summer to participate in the week long TPRS workshop (can we rename this to thinkshop or something like that, because it certainly made me think, but it never felt like work) my head was buzzing for weeks, it still has not stopped. The post “I don’t hate French anymore” was the immediate result of this. Now, a few weeks later, I am back in school and once again, I find myself reflecting on what I have learned.

I have always taught using TPRS (asides from about 2 frustrated weeks in my first year and another couple weeks in my first ES year). The methodology spoke to me like nothing else did, simply because it created a classroom environment that I would have loved as a student. My mentor, Eva Kaufmann, who introduced me to TPRS during my student observations had such engaged kids, it amazed me. I mean, these German threes came into class, immediately switching to German and reading Harry Potter in German in their spare time. Whaaat? That’s how I improved my English AFTER school (Disney movies in English and YA books is where it’s at!) and here these 15/16 year olds have it all figured out. She also had a student, who was in the lifeskill program, who loved her class and had learned, excuse me, ACQUIRED so much! So yes, I knew right away, this was for me and I just jumped in. I never had any training asides from observing Eva and reading the “green bible.” I bought Michael Miller’s Sabine und Michael curriculum and off I was.

I don’t hate French anymore

If anyone would have asked me a week ago if I would like to learn French, I would have said: “Thank you, but no thank you.” Why? Because I was a self-proclaimed French language hater. I didn’t enjoy the way the language sounded and had no interest in learning it. Spanish, Swedish, yes, but French? No, thank you. Then I came to Agen, France for the CI/TPRS conference. I was set on observing Spanish lessons all week, because just as much as I had no interest in learning French, I really wanted to learn Spanish. I love the sound of it and I liked my Spanish class in College. I had Spanish for about 4 months and I felt successful in those 4 months. I had French for two years in grade 7 & 8 and I absolutely hated it. I barely passed the class and was thrilled to abandon it when I could. I don’t remember much from my French class. I remember long vocabulary list, flashcards, that are still somewhere in my mom’s house catching dust and freaking out over the accents that accompanied some of the French letters. What I felt when I thought of French is a certain level of anxiety that I couldn’t really explain, but that made me say for the past 20 years: I hate French.

When you start at a new school and you're teaching a whole bunch of new classes, you can get easily overwhelmed with making new lessons, units and all the material that accompanies them. While I don't shy away from making my own materials from scratch (that Graphic Design degree does come in handy!), I am also a firm believer that you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. So when I started to think about what to do for my next 6th grade unit and I saw that one of the topics, we should cover is puberty/ parent-child relationship, I decided that we could use the movie Inside Out (Pixar/Disney) as a basis for this topic. Most students are familiar with it in English, which is a plus in a language class, it's fun and engaging and it leaves so much room for connecting it to the kids' lives and creativity. I was hoping to find a starting point somewhere in a lesson some other teacher might have already started to develop. I was thrilled to find a health lesson, developed by Project Wellness in my search on Teachers pay teachers. But, of course, the unit was meant for Health and P.E. lessons, not German. So instead of downloading the PDFs and then having to change everything to German whilst destroying the incredible design of the original file, I took a shot and contacted Janelle from Project Wellness, to ask if I could have the original files instead. Of course, I ensured her that those files would be for editing purposes only and that I would neither sell nor give them to anyone else. We all know that we work hard on our material and that just ain't right! Instead I offered that I could send them back to her after I change everything to German and that way she could offer them in German from thereon after.

This was probably my favorite unit I have worked on with my 6th graders this year. They were engaged, had heated discussions, shared a little or a lot about themselves and produced beautiful end projects: Islands of Personality, which you can find here.


Some activities that we did were:

• Prior to watching the movie: Discussion about what is health/ well being
• During the movie: Journal entries for discussion questions, a writing journal was kept all throughout the unit and the students received a new question every class that I would stick in their journals after looking at the last entry.
• Group work: Posters "Your Emotions" and "Dimensions of Health"
• Individual Project: Sketch, plan and build at least three of your "Islands of personality" and the headquarters (iPad) that shows us the core memory and how it connects to your island

Below you can find the rubric that was used to grade these.

Schneit es im Sommer? Nein, es schneit nicht im Sommer. Schneit es im Winter? Ja, es schneit im Winter. Schneit es in Deutschland? Ja, manchmal. Schneit es im Sommer in Deutschland? Ja, es schneit in Deutschland im Winter. Schneit es in Alaska? Ja, es schneit in Alaska. Schneit es auf Hawaii? Nein, es schneit nicht auf Hawaii. Ich nehme Salz und werfe es in die Luft, schneit es jetzt? Vielleicht schneit es jetzt. Es schneit aber keinen Schnee. Es schneit Salz......

So much of what we do in class is based on repetition. We ask questions about the same chunk of language over and over again. We ask, we answer, we talk, we listen. Why? Because repetition is the key to language acquisition. If we can put a melody to it, all the better. How many times have you caught yourself singing a song you hate? You hate it, but you know EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. Watch this Ted Talk about why repetition works so well.

Since moving back to Germany I have been looking for TPRS and CI communities in Europe and now I have finally found what I was looking for. From 25.-30.07 there will be a TPRS workshop in Agen, France. Not only will this undoubtedly lead me to the community I am seeking, but Stephen Krashen himself will be there to speak and THAT is pretty much unbeatable. 

Sign up for the workshop can be foud here: TPRS witch

Es ist wieder soweit. Halloween! Da muss man natürlich noch mal Nosferatu raussuchen und den schönen deutschen Klassiker gucken. 

Ich bin Frau Walters kleine Tochter und mein Geburtstag ist am 21.02.2014. Ich war bei der Geburt 48cm klein und 3305g leicht. Ich habe viele dunkel braune Haare, wie meine Mama und blaue Augen, wie mein Papa.

Ich schlafe viel, aber ich schlafe nicht gern in der Nacht. In der Nacht will ich spielen und essen, aber nicht schlafen. Meine Mama denkt, dass ist nicht so gut. Sie ist müde!
Meine Mama spricht deutsch mit mir und mein Papa und seine Familie sprechen englisch mit mir. Ich habe viele Bilderbücher und schaue mir gern die Bilder an. Ich habe eine große Schaukel in meinem Zimmer und ich schaukel sehr gern! Ich gehe auch gern mit meiner Mama spazieren. Das machen wir jeden Tag. Es ist schön!

Gruß von mir und natürlich auch von meiner Mama,

Milia

As their final project the German Junior Honor Society created their own children's books in German. To get a chance to share them with others, we had a Read-athon with our current 6th graders. The Spanish and French classes joined in as eleven Honor Society students presented their books to about 120 6th graders.
The books were on a variety of topics, from the first day in school to a version of the three little pigs. The students read in German and made sure to help the 6th graders understand the German. Below are some captured impressions from our 2-day event.