Most importantly!
I forgot to say that after the students lobbied (quite persuasively, I might add) for a "cheat sheet," I gave in. For this exam, they are allowed to have a large index card (roughly equivalent to a half sheet of paper) of notes or formulas or the odd word that they might forget. This was something that Carlos had allowed for the quiz and it seemed to have worked well. The students didn't overwhelmingly score A's or anything, and it seemed to take the edge off of some of their trouble spots.
Is this ok with everyone else? I had to make a decision on the fly, so I'm very sorry I didn't consult with other instructors. They asked me in class about this yesterday, and there weren't going to be any more classes until the exam so I had to decide so that they could prepare. Hope this is ok with everyone!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday March 30th
Hello all-
So I wanted to start off by thanking Krista for making the exam (and a key!) Glorious and much appreciated. The key is wonderful and I think will make for more consistent grading, which was a bit of a problem on the last exam.
Additionally, I wanted to take the time here to talk about grading briefly. Is everyone willing/able to grade or are there some teachers that are unable to? I was wondering if we could figure out somewhat of a system so that we can get work back to students in a timely manner. I'm happy to take on a bunch of grading but recently I've been taking home so much grading (both from students and the instructors' box) that I haven't been able to get through it all in order to get it back to the guys when the material is still useful to them. Anyway, just been thinking about that and wanted to bring it up. I think the grading key Krista created for the exam is great and can apply to quizzes/exams etc in the future as well. I'm happy to do a bunch of grading this weekend so we can return the exams to the students next Tuesday or Wednesday and use the class time to go over any problem areas. I think the sooner we get it back the better, so we can resolve any lingering confusion/ issues...
As for class, yesterday's class went well, albeit a bit rushed. I think they are ready for the exam, but it was a lot of material to review in a short time. I gave them an outline of the ten major things they should study for the exam, and stressed that it had many parts with each section counting for a (relatively) small number of points. I encouraged the students to hone in on their strengths and not get discouraged if there was one concept or another that was difficult for them to master, as they could demonstrate their strengths in other sections of the test. The guys seem to like structure and predictability, so I think the more we as teachers can be concrete about our expectations, timelines, etc, the better.
I handed out an extra combined Lesson 5&6 workbook packet to the students who hadn't received one so they could use it as a practice exam, and picked out the exercises in the textbook's self-test that would be most useful for them as practice for the exam. I also handed back the quizzes from Lesson 5 (sections 1 and 2), but was missing MANY of the guys' section 1 quizzes. Does anyone else have these? A handful of students did exceptionally well, but the majority of students received C's (and a few D's) on this quiz, all of whom lost major points when trying to construct comparative and superlative sentences. I told them that they could correct their sentences and re-submit the quizzes no later than next Tuesday and they could earn those points back. I will record the quiz grades in the shared document once I receive them back.
Beyond class stuff, there seem to be a lot of shifts going on at the prison. There is no class today because of Cesar Chavez day, and no classes in the foreseeable future on Thursdays due to guard reassignment. The past few Tuesdays I've gone in, it has taken the count a while to clear and I've been stuck there late. Has this been happening to anyone else?
Hope all is well with everyone. Happy belated spring!
Cheers,
Kara
So I wanted to start off by thanking Krista for making the exam (and a key!) Glorious and much appreciated. The key is wonderful and I think will make for more consistent grading, which was a bit of a problem on the last exam.
Additionally, I wanted to take the time here to talk about grading briefly. Is everyone willing/able to grade or are there some teachers that are unable to? I was wondering if we could figure out somewhat of a system so that we can get work back to students in a timely manner. I'm happy to take on a bunch of grading but recently I've been taking home so much grading (both from students and the instructors' box) that I haven't been able to get through it all in order to get it back to the guys when the material is still useful to them. Anyway, just been thinking about that and wanted to bring it up. I think the grading key Krista created for the exam is great and can apply to quizzes/exams etc in the future as well. I'm happy to do a bunch of grading this weekend so we can return the exams to the students next Tuesday or Wednesday and use the class time to go over any problem areas. I think the sooner we get it back the better, so we can resolve any lingering confusion/ issues...
As for class, yesterday's class went well, albeit a bit rushed. I think they are ready for the exam, but it was a lot of material to review in a short time. I gave them an outline of the ten major things they should study for the exam, and stressed that it had many parts with each section counting for a (relatively) small number of points. I encouraged the students to hone in on their strengths and not get discouraged if there was one concept or another that was difficult for them to master, as they could demonstrate their strengths in other sections of the test. The guys seem to like structure and predictability, so I think the more we as teachers can be concrete about our expectations, timelines, etc, the better.
I handed out an extra combined Lesson 5&6 workbook packet to the students who hadn't received one so they could use it as a practice exam, and picked out the exercises in the textbook's self-test that would be most useful for them as practice for the exam. I also handed back the quizzes from Lesson 5 (sections 1 and 2), but was missing MANY of the guys' section 1 quizzes. Does anyone else have these? A handful of students did exceptionally well, but the majority of students received C's (and a few D's) on this quiz, all of whom lost major points when trying to construct comparative and superlative sentences. I told them that they could correct their sentences and re-submit the quizzes no later than next Tuesday and they could earn those points back. I will record the quiz grades in the shared document once I receive them back.
Beyond class stuff, there seem to be a lot of shifts going on at the prison. There is no class today because of Cesar Chavez day, and no classes in the foreseeable future on Thursdays due to guard reassignment. The past few Tuesdays I've gone in, it has taken the count a while to clear and I've been stuck there late. Has this been happening to anyone else?
Hope all is well with everyone. Happy belated spring!
Cheers,
Kara
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Wednesday, March 24
We started today with a dictation (the first sentence from Borges' "Funes el memorioso") - more to get a feel for the language and to show the words and structures they've learned rather than to stress understanding. We went over the present progressive hw in the L6 handout and reviewed how to form present progressive. Then, I taught the remaining section of lesson 5 (comparisons of equality - tan + adj + como, tant@(s) + noun + como). They practiced in groups by doing p. 122-23, exercises A and D. Some students already had a good grasp on this, while others needed this grammatical clarification.
After a brief break, we reviewed the prepositional pronouns that Kara had introduced yesterday. They did p. 140 exercises A and B in pairs, and then we shared answers and questions with the class. Class ended with a (quick) grammar lesson on affirmative and negative expressions, reading a series of sentences that used affirmatives and negatives. We practiced changing affirmative sentences into negative ones and the other way around as a group.
In terms of lesson 6, the direct object pronouns and the stem changers remain (I didn't go over them, Kara, because I thought you'd already taught all the stem changing verbs). Students are continuing to work on L6 handout.
I told them there would not be a quiz this week, but rather a test early next week (probably Tuesday?) over lessons 4 to 6. I let them know the material that would be on it (tener expressions, stem-changing verbs e-> ie, o-> ue, e->i, ir+a+inf., ser v. estar, saber v. conocer, comparisons and superlatives, affirmative and negative expressions, present progressive, prepositional pronouns, and direct object pronouns), and encouraged students to start reviewing (consulting the self-test on p. 152-157).I'm working on a draft of the exam and will send it to all of you soon for feedback.
Thanks, and have a good class on Friday. Thursday is canceled this week, and it looks like that is the way it'll be staying unless we hear something else.
After a brief break, we reviewed the prepositional pronouns that Kara had introduced yesterday. They did p. 140 exercises A and B in pairs, and then we shared answers and questions with the class. Class ended with a (quick) grammar lesson on affirmative and negative expressions, reading a series of sentences that used affirmatives and negatives. We practiced changing affirmative sentences into negative ones and the other way around as a group.
In terms of lesson 6, the direct object pronouns and the stem changers remain (I didn't go over them, Kara, because I thought you'd already taught all the stem changing verbs). Students are continuing to work on L6 handout.
I told them there would not be a quiz this week, but rather a test early next week (probably Tuesday?) over lessons 4 to 6. I let them know the material that would be on it (tener expressions, stem-changing verbs e-> ie, o-> ue, e->i, ir+a+inf., ser v. estar, saber v. conocer, comparisons and superlatives, affirmative and negative expressions, present progressive, prepositional pronouns, and direct object pronouns), and encouraged students to start reviewing (consulting the self-test on p. 152-157).I'm working on a draft of the exam and will send it to all of you soon for feedback.
Thanks, and have a good class on Friday. Thursday is canceled this week, and it looks like that is the way it'll be staying unless we hear something else.
Tuesday, March 23
Here's an update from Kara about yesterday's class:
I went a bit rogue yesterday and deviated from the book. I figured it'd gotten to be a bit too late in the semester for the guys not to know certain basic vocab like body parts etc. So I made a worksheet that we filled out as a class of all the vocab for the face and body. We also talked about several verbs and other words that might be associated with the body (such as 'dolor de' and 'quebrar'). I then used this new vocab to have them practice comparative and superlative sentences, so they talked about whose hair was longer than whose, whose hair was longest etc. Some guys did really well at this and some guys could use some practice. They pretty universally write this stuff well because they have memorized the formula, but I think they could use some practice using these phrases in conversation.
We also worked on pronunciation of j/g/h which is in L6. I read them some news in Spanish about the healthcare bill and we translated it as a class as opposed to doing a dictation, so they could work on listening to these sounds and trying to derive meaning on the spot. We went over the gerundio and present progressive which they could practice today (I just got to put it up on the board for the most part). A couple of guys ended up leaving at 4:45 for chow and showers, but there was an overwhelming desire from 2/3 of the class to learn about the mi/ti/conmigo (etc.) pronouns, so a bunch of guys stayed late to learn about that. I hadn't prepared that lesson so I kind of rushed through it, but I did at least present it to a majority of the class. I think the fact that ella/el mean him and her in this context vs. she and he could be reviewed...
So now we are officially in L6, though I realized the guys never officially learned one last thing from L5, if you want to go over that- the tan...como and tanto etc. part. As for L6, there's a lot left, such as new stem-changing verbs and nadie/alguien etc. We are short a few L6 hw packets if you want to ask Jennifer to copy a few more. A lot of the hw they can't do yet because we haven't covered the material, but I assigned Exercise D on pp. 89-90 for today which goes over the present progressive if you want to go over them with that today
I went a bit rogue yesterday and deviated from the book. I figured it'd gotten to be a bit too late in the semester for the guys not to know certain basic vocab like body parts etc. So I made a worksheet that we filled out as a class of all the vocab for the face and body. We also talked about several verbs and other words that might be associated with the body (such as 'dolor de' and 'quebrar'). I then used this new vocab to have them practice comparative and superlative sentences, so they talked about whose hair was longer than whose, whose hair was longest etc. Some guys did really well at this and some guys could use some practice. They pretty universally write this stuff well because they have memorized the formula, but I think they could use some practice using these phrases in conversation.
We also worked on pronunciation of j/g/h which is in L6. I read them some news in Spanish about the healthcare bill and we translated it as a class as opposed to doing a dictation, so they could work on listening to these sounds and trying to derive meaning on the spot. We went over the gerundio and present progressive which they could practice today (I just got to put it up on the board for the most part). A couple of guys ended up leaving at 4:45 for chow and showers, but there was an overwhelming desire from 2/3 of the class to learn about the mi/ti/conmigo (etc.) pronouns, so a bunch of guys stayed late to learn about that. I hadn't prepared that lesson so I kind of rushed through it, but I did at least present it to a majority of the class. I think the fact that ella/el mean him and her in this context vs. she and he could be reviewed...
So now we are officially in L6, though I realized the guys never officially learned one last thing from L5, if you want to go over that- the tan...como and tanto etc. part. As for L6, there's a lot left, such as new stem-changing verbs and nadie/alguien etc. We are short a few L6 hw packets if you want to ask Jennifer to copy a few more. A lot of the hw they can't do yet because we haven't covered the material, but I assigned Exercise D on pp. 89-90 for today which goes over the present progressive if you want to go over them with that today
Monday, March 22, 2010
March 19,2010
Happy Monday to all of you. OnFriday, the 19th, Kara and I held "study hall" for then first hour and a half or so. We went around and did one on one, two on one etc. tutoring as needed. Afterwards, I passed out the L5 quiz (segunda parte) for the students to review and prepare for with their books. They took notes as to their "problem spots" for the quiz. We collected the blank quizes and gave them another 20 minutes or so to study these notes. The quiz was then given. My hope was to use it as a learning tool for "what to look for" "pick important parts of the chapter" "identify a pattern". With these, the students (especially the struggling ones can improve their learning and testing ability skills). The quizes were collected after 45 minutes.
The work sheets for L6 were given out as collectively planned.
IMPORTANT: The "comparison of equality" (p121) was not included in the quiz. This needs to be gone over with the class.
No trabajen muy duro.
Happy Monday to all of you. OnFriday, the 19th, Kara and I held "study hall" for then first hour and a half or so. We went around and did one on one, two on one etc. tutoring as needed. Afterwards, I passed out the L5 quiz (segunda parte) for the students to review and prepare for with their books. They took notes as to their "problem spots" for the quiz. We collected the blank quizes and gave them another 20 minutes or so to study these notes. The quiz was then given. My hope was to use it as a learning tool for "what to look for" "pick important parts of the chapter" "identify a pattern". With these, the students (especially the struggling ones can improve their learning and testing ability skills). The quizes were collected after 45 minutes.
The work sheets for L6 were given out as collectively planned.
IMPORTANT: The "comparison of equality" (p121) was not included in the quiz. This needs to be gone over with the class.
No trabajen muy duro.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Monday, March 15th
This past Monday we did a little bit of warm-up conversation about our weeks and weekends, and then we did another dictation: the first sentence of 100 Years of Solitude. The students all seem to be pretty into this subtle bit of culture, and they really seem to be improving on their pronunciation and listening ability. Sharon did a great reading lesson with a flyer on heart health from Puerto Rico, and then we finished up with reading in pairs a conversation from the book about visiting Madrid. Sorry this is a little late!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Wednesday, March 10
Hi everyone,
I taught solo today because Krista had an unforeseen scheduling conflict. We began with a simple review of just one part of ser y estar, which I distinguished through the questions: "¿Cómo está?" and "¿Cómo es?" They seemed to catch on pretty quickly that the difference between the verbs isn't merely permanent vs impermanent, but rather, in this case, the attributes of a person (ser) versus one's sentiments (estar).
We reviewed "ie" stem changing verbs, and they seemed very on top of the work. Then I had them read the short text on page 104, and answer the questions on page 105 in order to practice conversation in groups of two.
As they worked together I assigned each student a name, and after the break they came back in to find two family trees on the board. With their new names in tow, I sent them around the classroom to find their herman@s, abuel@s, padres, sobrin@s, tí@s, etc. This was a wonderful assignment, and the guards had to come by and ask to keep the volume down because students were so happy to find their "long lost" brother, sister, and so on.
We ended with a short review of saber and conocer. A few students handed in straggling Lesson 4 assignments.
Tom
I taught solo today because Krista had an unforeseen scheduling conflict. We began with a simple review of just one part of ser y estar, which I distinguished through the questions: "¿Cómo está?" and "¿Cómo es?" They seemed to catch on pretty quickly that the difference between the verbs isn't merely permanent vs impermanent, but rather, in this case, the attributes of a person (ser) versus one's sentiments (estar).
We reviewed "ie" stem changing verbs, and they seemed very on top of the work. Then I had them read the short text on page 104, and answer the questions on page 105 in order to practice conversation in groups of two.
As they worked together I assigned each student a name, and after the break they came back in to find two family trees on the board. With their new names in tow, I sent them around the classroom to find their herman@s, abuel@s, padres, sobrin@s, tí@s, etc. This was a wonderful assignment, and the guards had to come by and ask to keep the volume down because students were so happy to find their "long lost" brother, sister, and so on.
We ended with a short review of saber and conocer. A few students handed in straggling Lesson 4 assignments.
Tom
Tuesday March 9th
Hey hey... Sorry I'm not getting this up until morning. I went straight to work after class and was there til midnight. Anyway- yesterday's class went well. I decided not to cover any new material yesterday and instead we spent the day reviewing trouble spots where students seemed to still be stuck. We reviewed phrases with tener, went over some more complicated sentences structures, contractions, and the infamous personal a. Though it was all review, I think the guys found it really helpful, and hopefully we cleared up some murky topics. We didn't get to all their questions, and I know several students are counting on a dictation today.
As for new topics, they are expecting to continue with stem changing verbs as the week progresses- we reviewed e --> ie verbs yesterday, and I think they are ready to continue with others. I collected some straggler L4 hw packets and will grade them tonight and I collected Friday's quiz, which we will hand back and go over this coming Friday. Also, there was overwhelming support for the first hour of Friday's class always being a study hall (the students were really positive about Friday's class, Carlos!), so I said we would keep that up.
Hope all is well with you all. Thanks to everyone for helping get the Spanish exam to the students and graded!
Kara
As for new topics, they are expecting to continue with stem changing verbs as the week progresses- we reviewed e --> ie verbs yesterday, and I think they are ready to continue with others. I collected some straggler L4 hw packets and will grade them tonight and I collected Friday's quiz, which we will hand back and go over this coming Friday. Also, there was overwhelming support for the first hour of Friday's class always being a study hall (the students were really positive about Friday's class, Carlos!), so I said we would keep that up.
Hope all is well with you all. Thanks to everyone for helping get the Spanish exam to the students and graded!
Kara
Monday, March 8, 2010
Monday, March 8th Recap
This afternoon we started with a little warm up talking about what the guys do on weekends. Seems a lot of girlfriends visit on Sundays. Then we did a dictation (the first sentence from Don Quijote: En lugar de la Mancha...), focusing on rules of pronunciation and accents. Sharon led a reading comprehension exercise using some car rental material in Spanish, and then we finished up the class with a conversation about our favorite holidays and parties. July 4th and Spring Break took the cake. We left their Friday homework in the box, Carlos, and Jennifer said she'd pick it up and work out logistics with you for a hand off. Also, how are the test corrections coming? Lindsey and I didn't manage to work out a hand-off last Thursday, but I am still willing to correct a few of them. The students are starting to ask about them.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Friday 03/05/10
Friday's class went well. We began with an impromptu study hall which I think we will be incorporating into the class during the first hour. Consequently, what I had planned we did not totally complete which is O.K. because of the benefits from the study hall.
We worked on the L4 worksheet/homework for the first hour. The class worked together helping each other out. Next, I gave out the first 2 pages of the L4 quiz. There was a lot of sentence construction in this one so I made it an open book quiz. The third page of the quiz was handed out as students completed the first two pages. Some did not finish. Those students were instructed to take the quizes with them and return them completed on Monday. Can Monday's teacher leave them in the box please as I am going to ask Jennifer to take them to the PUP office for me to pick up. Thanks everyone.
We worked on the L4 worksheet/homework for the first hour. The class worked together helping each other out. Next, I gave out the first 2 pages of the L4 quiz. There was a lot of sentence construction in this one so I made it an open book quiz. The third page of the quiz was handed out as students completed the first two pages. Some did not finish. Those students were instructed to take the quizes with them and return them completed on Monday. Can Monday's teacher leave them in the box please as I am going to ask Jennifer to take them to the PUP office for me to pick up. Thanks everyone.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Thursday, March 4
Kara and I went in today. First, we went over the assigned homework (Sections C and D on pages 93-94) covering uses of tener. After a break, we covered the uses of ser and estar and how they (and tener) map out in English from "to be". I think this is finally clicking for many of the students. Finally, we briefly covered the "e" to "ie" stem-changing verbs. So, this basically covers Chapter 4. We also handed out the photocopy of the Chapter 4 workbook for homework.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Wednesday, March 3rd
We started today's class reviewing the conjugation of tener and the construction "tener que" before teaching the idiomatic expressions with tener listed on pg. 92 (as well as "tener sentido" and "tener ganas de"). Students then worked in pairs doing the exercises A and B on 92-93 and creating their own conversations using tener expressions. Some groups presented their work to the class.
After the break, we went over the conjugations of ir, dar and estar. While going over the verb conjugations, we discussed the immediate future construction of "ir + a + infinitive" and reviewed the differences between ser and estar.
We told the students to do exercises C and D on p. 93-94 for homework. We went over a lot of grammar today but didn't do a lot of practice in the second half of the class, so I'd suggest additional review. I'll email Jennifer to make sure there are copies of the Chapter 4 workbook for tomorrow. Students turned in their Chapter 3 HW, which I have and will record.
Have a good class tomorrow.
After the break, we went over the conjugations of ir, dar and estar. While going over the verb conjugations, we discussed the immediate future construction of "ir + a + infinitive" and reviewed the differences between ser and estar.
We told the students to do exercises C and D on p. 93-94 for homework. We went over a lot of grammar today but didn't do a lot of practice in the second half of the class, so I'd suggest additional review. I'll email Jennifer to make sure there are copies of the Chapter 4 workbook for tomorrow. Students turned in their Chapter 3 HW, which I have and will record.
Have a good class tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Hi everyone,
Today we started Chapter 4. We went over the dialogue on page 87 in pairs, and answered the questions on page 90 as a class.
We went over the vocabulary on page 88 in some detail, and reviewed gender agreement in adjectives briefly.
We talked about the pronunciation issues on p. 91, (b,d,g) and also about the pronunciation of single /r/.
At the end of the class, we did a short dictation related to the party theme.
I brought the tests home, and I need help grading them!
yours,
Lindsey
Today we started Chapter 4. We went over the dialogue on page 87 in pairs, and answered the questions on page 90 as a class.
We went over the vocabulary on page 88 in some detail, and reviewed gender agreement in adjectives briefly.
We talked about the pronunciation issues on p. 91, (b,d,g) and also about the pronunciation of single /r/.
At the end of the class, we did a short dictation related to the party theme.
I brought the tests home, and I need help grading them!
yours,
Lindsey
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