Qualitative Evidence
"Academic gains are the ultimate door opener – they are the foundation of a truly transformational teacher. Students make dramatic levels of academic growth (that is measurable and rigorous). Families know the level of rigor necessary for college and career readiness in the 21st century." (Johns Hopkins, n.d.).
Table of Contents
Introduction
Over the course of the year, I have taught my students through TPRS Storytelling, videos and songs. My goal for my five classes — three Neighborhood Spanish Level One, one Magnet Spanish Level One, and one Spanish Level Two — is to grow in their Spanish abilities with authentic methods. I want them to be able to use what they learn in class outside of the classroom and in the real world. From the beginning of the semester I gave regular formative assessments to check student progress and use it to guide my instruction. These often came in the form of five-to-ten-minute Exit Tickets at the end of class but also in the form of normal classwork. Below I will show how my students progressed over the course of the year to make large gains in their Spanish skills. Throughout this page, I will use samples from the same three students to keep the results consistent.
First Quarter/Semester One
At the beginning of the year, most students came into my class with very limited Spanish. Many of those that demonstrated higher abilities in Spanish were moved up to higher levels. After the first few weeks —where we mostly worked on student investment and creating a positive classroom culture — I began teaching content. I started with teaching the students important and useful phrases and questions for beginners. My goal for the year was to have my students leave the classroom with practical Spanish that they could use outside of the classroom. Often traditional methods point to heavy emphasis on grammar and book work; however, this can lead to a reduced focus on fluency. Some of the beginning phrases that the students learned were how to introduce themselves, ask and respond to where they are from, where they live, and how old they are. I reinforced this with activities that worked speaking, listening, reading and writing. I had students work in pairs and groups and participate in skits. We then moved into talking about families, friends and significant others and how to describe people, things and places. Below are some Exit Tickets that the students completed.
The students practice useful phrases through flashcard games.
The students reinforce the useful phrases in a gallery walk.
In the samples below, the students are responding to the prompt: "Where are you from? How old are you? Where do you live?" This sample was taken a few weeks into the school year. Most of the students did not know any Spanish before this semester. Most of the students picked up the new phrases quickly, while others struggled with them. As Linda Darling-Hammond (2012) states, “ We need to develop a set of scaffolds or assistance components that'll help get us [to our objective], and then provide regular feedback to the learner as he or she is undertaking this task” (Laureate Education). After providing multiple ways to reinforce the material, I made sure to include formative assessments (like the Exit Tickets below to hold the students accountable. The three students are able to answer the questions; however, this is the only Spanish that they know at the moment.
Student #1 Sample
1. I am from Bridgeport. 2. I am 16 years old. 3. I live in Connecticut.
Student #2 Sample
1. I am from Bridgeport. 2. I am 13 years old. 3. I live in Connecticut.
Student #3 Sample
1. I am from New York. 2. I am 14 years old. 3. I live in Bridgeport.
The students participate in a mini whiteboard activity to reinforce the target language.
Below the students demonstrated their knowledge of family members and how to describe people. The prompt was for the students to describe their family members in three sentences. This Exit Ticket came a few weeks after the first sample above. The students participated in many activities to learn the family members and how to describe themselves and others. This included videos in Spanish about families, role plays, speed dates, gallery walks, mini whiteboard activities (such as above), readings, group activities, etc. Here the students began to put sentences together outside of the memorized phrases and sentences we learned at the beginning of the year. The three students were able to write three different sentences about their families. This adds to their previous knowledge answering basic questions. They show growth, as they begin to adjectives and talk about people, animals and objects.
Student #1 Sample
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1. My parents are strict. 2. My parents are loving. 3. My family is nice.
Student #2 Sample
1. My family is big. 2. I (error) have two brothers. 3. My mom is (error) 31 years old.
Student #3 Sample
1. I have a brother. 2. I have a stepsister. 3. I live with my parents.
The two samples from the three students show the students' evolution from being unable to write or understand anything in Spanish to be able to write about themselves, their family, friends, animals and objects. In the future semesters, I planned to build on these beginner writing skills.
Second Quarter/Semester One
As the first semester came to an end, the students demonstrated growth in their Spanish abilities. This is when we began to really use the TPRS Storytelling, video and song teaching method. I noticed a shift in the students' ability to use the language. They began to think more flexibly in the target language as opposed to the first few months of school. As Green (2017) mentions, all students “have the skills, truly, both academically and emotionally to engage on an equal playing field” (p. 3). By implementing this method of teaching, I was giving all the students an opportunity to learn in a more-authentic way, including stories, videos and songs. Below I will show the same three students' continued growth in their Spanish acquisition.
The students watch a Spanish-language show called Extra.
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The Exit Ticket below took place after a video lesson. The students watched Extra (above) and spent a few lessons participating in activities related to the video. After one of the lessons, the students responded to the following prompt: "Describe three things that happened in the episode." The students began to explore their Spanish abilities more compared to the first quarter, where they were limited to memorized phrases and family descriptions. As Ray and Seely (2015) mention, “We must teach to achieve long-term memory” (p. 31). I see the use of authentic materials to teach Spanish as a way to increase long-term retention, since the students are learning the language in an applicable manner. Here they started using the language to describe what happened in the episode. All three students were able to write three different events in the episode. While in the first semester the students were focused on answering simple questions about themselves and describing people, animals and things, the students here started to use verbs in their sentences (as seen in the samples below). They experimented more and took risks with the language. Being able to risk making mistakes is important in learning another language. Here are the same three students' samples from this lesson.
Student #1 Sample
1. Ana and Lola are sick. 2. Sam bought food through the internet. 3. Sam wanted new clothes.
Student #2 Sample
1. Sam talks with Ana and Lola. 2. Ana and Lola are sick. 3. Sam bought food through the internet.
Student #3 Sample
1. Lola and Ana have a cold. 2. Ana and Lola want to go buy. 3. The seller works in a store.
PowerPoint for The Story of the Cat TPRS Story Unit
Above is a story that we spent a mini unit learning — The Story of the Cat. The story uses many repetitive, beginner words and phrases as a foundation. From there, it introduces new words and gives the students flexibility to describe the story using the words that they already know, as well as the new vocabulary words. The students started by learning the new vocabulary, then listening to the story for the first time. I asked them many comprehension questions to test their understanding. The students then participated in scaffolded activities, such as multiple choice questions, a gap-fill, a gallery walk, reading the story in pairs and groups, retelling the story (both written and spoken), as well as activities describing people and animals. In the Exit Ticket below, the students completed a five-minute Speed Write. They had five minutes at the end of the first lesson to write down as many words as they could remember from the story. This was a little difficult for the students, since it was one of our first speed writes. My goal was for the students to be able to write as much as they could recall off the top of their heads. These exit tickets build on the students comprehension and ability to reproduce what they learned. This is a difficult task for beginning learners, but the students attempted to write everything they remembered from the story lesson. Here are the same three students from the previous samples.
Student #1 Sample
Coqui, cat, happy, sad, Monica, bad
Student #2 Sample
1. Monica 2. Coqui 3. Pedro 4. Cat 5. girl 6. boy 7. bad 8. good 9. happy 10. has 11.have 12. I have
Student #3 Sample
1. Pedro 2. cat 3. has 4. Monica 5. a/one 6. the 7. Coqui 8. boy
The two samples from the three students above show the students' evolution from just being able to answer a few questions and add adjectives by their family members, animals and objects at the beginning of the second semester to being able to use verbs and more-complex sentences, as well as being able to write down all the words that learned in a lesson. As we moved into the second semester, I planned to continue teaching using TPRS Storytelling, songs, and videos to build immersion in the classroom. This also meant that I would continue using Speed Writes and other writing activities to measure student growth.
Third Quarter/Semester Two
As we moved into the second semester, the students had a full semester behind them, having had numerous story, video and song lessons, as well as lessons through other methods in the beginning of the school year. Most of them have become more comfortable listening to material in Spanish that they do not entirely understand and working towards understanding bits of the material to now completely understanding it over the course of a mini unit. Persistence is an important habit to maintain when learning another language, as it will often require hours and hours listening to material that is incomprehensible. As Murray (n.d.) states, “Students exhibiting the attitude of commitment persist in their own learning, and persevere no matter the difficulties.” Students as a whole began to become more-comfortable not understanding everything right away and taking time to work and find meaning. Below I will show the students growth, as wee moved into the second semester of Spanish class.
The students listen to a Spanish song while completing a gap-fill.
Above the students listen to a song in Spanish in one of our mini song units. In the photo, they complete a gap-fill listening to the song and trying to find the missing words on the PowerPoint screen. On top of gap-fills, the students completed many different activities related to the songs, such as gallery walks, reading the lyrics, singing the song, speed dates, related written activities, etc. Below the students completed another speed write. At this point, they had become more comfortable. This can be seen with the students writing more words than in the last speed write in five minutes. I included the same three students' work to demonstrate their growth from their first speed write in the previous semester. They are much better at being able to comprehend words that they hear in Spanish songs and in videos. This also shows growth from the beginning of the school year, as the students went from being unable to understand any spoken Spanish to being able to understand chunks of a song and repeat the words in written form.
Student #1 Sample
heart, you are, fat, skinny, important, neither, I love you, has, face, I promise, feeling, good, perfect, change, end, nothing
Student #2 Sample
1. Neither 2. I am 3. from 4. live 5. cute 6. no 7. cute 8. that 9. you are 10. only 11. I know 12. soul 13. you 14. I love 15. neither 16. with 17. love 18. the 19. without 20. no 21. face 22. heart 23. and 24. has
Student #3 Sample
cute, cute, the love, I am, thanks, skinny, my, the color, live, and , I , sorry, important, all
At the same time that we spent lessons learning through stories, videos and songs, we continued to expand about previously-learnt topics. Below the students completed a writing on their family and friends — similar to the beginning of the year; however, there is a significant difference. The students were much more capable to write longer and more-advanced sentences on their family and friends. This is in comparison to the beginning of the year, where the students were copying from memorized flashcard phrases. Here I show the samples of the same three students from earlier in the page.
Student #1 Sample
I have a new friend that asked for my Instagram. I was in love of her. I think that I like her. She has wavy hair, is short and has a deep voice, brown hair and seems Gothic.
Student #2 Sample
My family is very big. My family's name is the (blank). I like my family. They live in Bridgeport. My family is very good at eating. My family likes to sing. My family likes to write.
Student #3 Sample
My mom's name is (blank). My dad's name is (blank). My brother's name is (blank). My mom is tall. My dad is tall. My brother is small. My brother likes cars. My mom likes food. My dad likes sleeping. My grandma's name is (blank). My grandpa's name is (blank). My grandma is small. My grandpa is tall. My friend is (blank). She is 14 years old. She likes the music group BTS.
The two samples from the three students above show the students' continued growth from beginning to be able to use verbs and more-complex sentences, as well as being able to write down all the words that learned in a lesson to comprehend more words in authentic materials and writing full paragraphs describing others and themselves. As we moved into the third quarter, I planned to keep teaching using TPRS Storytelling, songs, and videos, so that the students could build fluency. This also meant that I would continue using Speed Writes and other writing activities to measure student growth.
Fourth Quarter/Semester Two
Moving into the fourth semester, our school has recently been impacted by the Corona Virus and for the moment switched to online learning. However, before this the students had a few lessons. In one of the lessons, the students spent fifteen minutes writing about different animals. Below I show the same three students from the other quarters to show how much the students grew since September. They made dramatic gains since the beginning of the year — since not knowing any Spanish to filling a page with Spanish in fifteen minutes. I hope to continue the path to dramatic gains in these uncertain times. As the year progresses, I will do my best to ensure the students are completing material that is challenging and practical to the real world — especially since we are not even in a classroom anymore.
Student #1 Sample
I am going to describe my dog. She is small, black and likes to play outside. Birds are small and black and yellow. I am going to describe the cat. It is yellow and orange, small and has green eyes. I am going to describe the seal. It is very fat, black and has some blue. It has black eyes with white. I am going to describe the fish. The fish is blue with yellow, has black eyes and is very small. I am going to describe the pig. It is pink, very fat, has black and white eyes. and is very big. The horse is brown, is very tall and big and is skinny.
Student #2 Sample
The fish is blue, small, and lives in the ocean. The (unreadable) is white and black and grey and lives on the farm. The dolphin is blue and grey and lives in the ocean. The seal is grey and black and lives in the ocean and farm. The horse lives on the farm. The cat is orange and small and lives on the farm. The duck is small and green and grey and brown and lives on the farm. The crab is red and small and lives in the ocean. The shark is blue and grey and big and lives in the ocean. The pig is pink and big and lives in the ocean.
Student #3 Sample
The animals are many colors. This includes green, red, yellow, blue, orange, purple, black and white. The rooster is small and lives on the farm. The bird is blue and yellow and lives on the farm. The cow is black and white and lives on the farm. The dog is brown, whit and grey. The horse lives on the farm. The dog can run very fast. The dog is brown. The cat is yellow and lives on the farm. The whale is grey and lives in the ocean. The seal is grey and lives in the ocean. The fish is blue, black and yellow. The fish lives in the ocean. The shark is blue and lives in the ocean. The dolphin lives in the ocean. the dolphin is grey and blue. The crab is red and lives in the ocean. The lobster is red and black. It is small and lives in the ocean. The octopus is big and red and lives in the ocean. The starfish is orange and small and lives in the ocean.
The student samples above demonstrate the amount of the Spanish language the students were able to produce. Looking back at the beginning of the year, the students were unable to understand or write anything in Spanish. They soon began to write simple sentences and answer basic questions about themselves. Moving into the second semester, they started to use verbs and understand what they heard in authentic resources, such as stories, videos and songs. In the third semester, they continued to improve their comprehension and started to write paragraphs of the target language. In the fourth quarter, they were able to fill out a page using the target language. This is impressive, as in my previous years of teaching, I was unable to get students in my Spanish Level One class to produce so much of the language before the end of the year. Now I have been able to get a large number of my students to produce a page-worth of the language.
Conclusion
In teaching my students through storytelling, videos and songs, I am working to push my students' comprehension in an authentic and practical manner that will benefit them outside of the classroom. It started out difficult, as many of the students were overwhelmed with the amount of the class that they did not understand. However, as the year progressed, the students became more confident. I am "teaching away from a focus on worksheets, drill-and-memorize activities, and elaborate test-coaching programs, and toward an engaging, challenging curriculum that supports content acquisition through a range of instructional modes and techniques, including many that develop student cognitive strategies" (Conley, 2011, p. 17). I hope to continue the dramatic academic gains that my students have shown throughout the year as we switch to online learning as a result of the Coronavirus Pandemic. I am very proud of my students and believe that they will succeed in the new online format, as well as using their Spanish in the outside world — whether that is for traveling, socializing, college, career or just as a hobby. I hope that they share my passion in learning different languages throughout the rest of their lives.
References:
ACTFL. (2012). ACTFL PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES 2012. Retrieved October 5, 2019, from https://www.actfl.org/publications/guidelines-and-manuals/actfl-proficiency-guidelines-2012.
Conley, D. T. (2011). Building on the Common Core. Educational Leadership, 68(6), 16–20.
Heritage, M. (2010). Formative assessment: Making it happen in the classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Murray, J. (n.d.). Teaching strategies: The 16 habits of mind. Retrieved from http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-16-habits-mind
Ray, B., & Seely, C. (2015). Fluency through TPR storytelling: Achieving real language acquisition in school (7th ed.). Berkeley, CA: Command Performance Language Institute.
Sandrock, P. (2008). Integrated performance assessment [Handout]. Retrieved from http://depts.washington.edu/mellwa/Events/20081105/sandrock_ipa_handout.pdf