Open Ended Drama

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So I have been a little overwhelmed here at the end of the year and have relied on the textbook more than I care to admit.  Of course I can see the engagement in my classes going down and the students getting that "zombie" look on their faces but I just haven't have the energy or time to create authentic and creative lessons.  Last week I told myself I needed to get out of this rut and try something new. We haven't had a story lately and we didn't do much with the reader that we just finished so I wanted spice up my presenting of new vocabulary with story-telling methods So I decided to bring a little drama into the classroom.   .

I had originally planned on creating an entire play for the students to act out and focus on the new vocabulary in the play.  This seemed like a good idea (and still is) if I had the time to do all that!  After realizing that the play was not going to be finished on time I started thinking of what to do.  I didn't want to waste all my work I had put into the play so far and I enjoyed the idea of having the students act out a play instead of just watching an old movie clip from our text or watching me present the new vocabulary.  Then it hit me!  Why does the play have to ended by me?  Why not have the students write their own ending to the play.

The play consisted of a few friends shopping for new clothes (our unit is on clothing and shopping vocabulary).  2 people hated each other and 1 of these two is a real jerk the entire play.  The other 2 liked each other but hadn't acted upon their feelings  The end of the written play leaves the reader saying "what?!" and leaves the story wide open for possibilities.  I didn't want this to be too overwhelming for the students so I separated the class into two groups (about 6-7 students in each group) and told them they must end the story.  I gave them 3 basic plot questions that they had to answer by the end of the play.  When they finished they were required to act out their play for the rest of the group.

Here are my thoughts on the activity:

PROS:

- Students had more fun reading the play and using the new vocabulary in context rather than just me presenting the new vocabulary and then us doing activities to practice it.
- Students were able to get creative and collaborate on the end of the play
- Culture was easy to introduce into the play as I wrote it.  I was able to get a few extra vocabulary words that the book doesn't teach as well as some common phrases that don't translate well from French to English.
- Students were engaged and enjoyed the play
- It had students speaking and reading in French for the majority of the hour

CONS:

- Next time I think I will use smaller groups for creating the endings.  6-7 was too many and not all students were helping with their group's new ending
- The focus on using the new vocabulary was lost when students started to re-write the ending.  Next time I will need to have a set list of words I expect to be used in the ending so that they focus on the key vocabulary.
- I underestimated how much time the students would need for this activity.  They were very much so engaged but they were only given 15 minutes to complete this activity.  To actually get quality endings I would guess the students need double that time.
- I had only one person write out the ending for the entire group, but I think that when we have iPads next year I will have the students create a googledoc and collaborate on the same document.   This way I can see who contributed what to the play.

Overall this activity turned out really well for a last minute lesson plan idea.  I plan to use it again and hopefully embellish and improve it next time.  The students enjoyed it and they were using the language for a creative writing assignment.

La maison et la mort TPRS Story telling

So last week I had one of those days that I left school unable to stop smiling!  I was just so proud of my FRN 1 students!  We are learning rooms of the house and I was at a loss for how to present the new vocabulary.  My first idea was to show a dream floor plan of my "dream" house and then comment on it with the students, but I really wanted to find a way to get the TPRS technique into this presentation.  We haven't had a story in a few weeks and the students have been asking when we would spin a story again.  So I changed up my plan.  I created a Prezi that focused on a "haunted house" and found creepy pictures of all the rooms I was focusing on.  I then put a small jpeg of a goofy/cute little ghost in all the rooms.  So I started out telling the class that we were going to visit/explore a haunted house.  I showed them a picture of the house and had them describe the house (we just finished adjectives).  From there I showed them the first room and the ghost in the room. Of course I hammed it up and pretended that it was really scary and I had one student go along with my acting.  (of course I rewarded this acting with a euro) and when the class saw that I would reward a gasping and scary look on their faces I had the entire class going along with it (so much fun!!!)  Anyways, it was their job to explain what happened in that room to the person (who is now a ghost).  They loved this!  One of their favorite parts of spinning a story is always the ending (deciding if it is a happy, sad, or weird ending).  Our main characters normally meet weird/funny endings.  So coming up with all endings of characters was right up their alley.  Both classes did a good job with this, but one class rocked it out!  They talked completely in French for the entire 50 minute class and the vocabulary they used during the story was amazing!  We ended up spinning the story for the majority of the class instead of doing the other activities I had planned.  Although it wasn't the TPRS method exactly, the students used so much French and their level of engagement was remarkable!  I really enjoyed the class and didn't want it to end!  The students did not focus completely on the rooms but when I went through the rooms and checked for comprehension, the students knew the rooms and could pronounce them and identify them.  They went home with homework of reading two "petites annonces" and using the new vocabulary to decipher what each house had in them.  I LOVED the ghost stories and so did the students!  Although we didn't get the repetition of the target words that we normally get in spinning a story, the students really connected with the stories and the "ghosts" and remembered the vocabulary!  I hope to have more days like this, as they make it all worth it!

Teacher vs Students and Bingo Homework

So one of my goals recently has been to get the students to speak completely in French and for myself to speak completely in French everyday.  This is hard for me and the students, but I know we can do it!  So, I started a little competition between myself and the students.  We have one "police officer" in each hour that is responsible for the point giving.  The students get one point if I speak in English and I get a point when they speak in English.  It is really helping me stay in the target language (which is great for comprehensible input) but the students are now just not saying anything....  Yesterday (as we don't have school again today...) I told them that if I ask a question and no one in the class responds then I get a point.  This seemed to make an improvement, but I am not sure if I will keep the competition going.  Any ideas or advice would be welcome!

I like that I am speaking in French the entire class period, but I was hoping this would get the students to speak more French in the classroom.  I am getting into the grammar portions of the class now and I feel as if they are speaking less and less... Hmmm... I am getting frustrated.  Some of my students are accomplishing things I didn't believe a first year student could do, but others are really struggling to keep up.  I am trying my best to keep both sets of students involved and working but I am having difficulty with this.


One way I tried to balance out the levels in my students was to do BINGO homework.  (Download a copy here.)  I made a bingo sheet of homework assignments that focused on the content we are covering at this time.  Each column has a different focus
B - vocabulary practice
I - Reading
N - writing
G - speaking
O - random

The students must do one assignment from each column and the must have a bingo line when finished (loss of 1 point for every assignment outside the bingo line).

I LOVE this assignment because it produces some of the best work out of my students and the assignments are (for the most part) real world situations. The problem I am having with it is that my lower students are not doing the work so they fall farther behind...

I have assigned this 2 ways.
1) I have a due date for each column and check off each column as they turn them in (liked it because I knew students were doing homework and keeping up in the class, but I didn't like it because it took time out of class and required fast grading)
2) I have a due date for the entire bingo sheet and they turn every thing in at one time. (Liked this because it was easier to keep track of all the assignments, but I didn't like it because students left it to the last minute and didn't have any other homework for about a week and a half.)

I want to improve on the assignment, but I'm not really sure how.  Maybe make the bingo sheet smaller or do like a tic tac toe board instead....  Hmmm....

Anyways, things are going well in the classroom.  We are really getting behind though due to all these snow days!  We had a total of 2 days this week!  Crazy huh!? I keep trying to improve my methods and delivery but there are just some days that I feel like I am not going down the right road.  Mais c'est la vie d'un professeur non? :)