In episode 117 of Growing with Proficiency The Podcast, I’m sharing five valuable insights from the recent Florida Foreign Language Association (FFLA) conference in Orlando that can transform your language classroom. You’ll discover practical strategies and fresh ideas to engage your students and elevate your teaching.
In this post, I’ll highlight the five strategies I share with you in episode 117, but listen above for all of the details.
Reading Strategies
As language teachers, we know that reading at an accessible level for students is important for them to have higher-level conversations in the target language. At the conference, I went to a reading session presented by Bryce Hedstrom. His session emphasized the use of the question ladder to ask more complex questions after reading.
I took so many notes! When we are reading, it’s all about the reading. But, it’s also about the questions that we ask after we read. We really need to be careful to use the question ladder. You also want to be mindful of the type of questions that we ask our students.
Additionally, with the questions, we want to start with maybe, yes. or no questions, then we can go with either/or questions. Next, we use questions like, who, when, where, what. Then, we move up to why and how. Finally, we compare.
Bryce also shared a great game that is the ‘last word game’. This game was originally shared by Sarah Berkeley, and you can learn more about it here.
Content-Based Learning Approaches
Next, Heather Sweetser’s session was on using content to teach language rather than focusing on teaching the language itself. In the concept of content-based learning, the subject matter is the focus, and language is the vehicle.
In episode 117, I share examples from my own units, such as the “Pavochón” and “Pets During Storms” topics, and how these can create meaningful content-based lessons. It’s important to scaffold content to make it accessible for students. Listen here for more details. You can find the links to these below.
Blending Textbooks with Comprehensible Input
It can be a challenge using textbooks in a comprehensible input-based approach, but I gained valuable insights from Dr. Ethiene on using CI techniques within a textbook-based curriculum, leading to happier students and higher achievement.
In this session, Dr. Ethiene shared her successful experience of blending textbooks with personalized questions and pictures to create engaging lessons. Her approach involved listing the necessary topics and creating texts based on student responses. It’s important to change one’s mindset to see how strategies can work despite restrictions. Listen to all of the details here.
Pre-Reading Activities for Prediction
In Lisa Bartels’ session, I learned her approach to helping students predict texts using grids and language chunks, making complex texts more manageable. She introduced us to a pre-reading activity using language chunks to help students predict the content of a text. The activity involves creating a grid of language chunks and having students create sentences and predictions. I explain it in detail here. I really liked the progressive scaffolding from chunks to sentences to predictions, making the task more accessible.
Input-Based Games for Active Learning
Finally, I did a session on using games to engage students and provide more input. I shared a game “What Am I Thinking Of?”, where students guess a character or person based on descriptive sentences. The game can be adapted to various themes, such as famous people or clothing descriptions.
For the game, you will read a description about something, some place, or a person that you’re thinking of. You will read it sentence by sentence to your students. The goal is for your students to guess who or what you are describing. The game is versatile and flexible to keep students engaged and listening in the target language.
Listen to episode 117 above or here to learn how these takeaways can help you create a more dynamic and student-centered language classroom. Don’t forget to check out resources mentioned in this episode at growingwithproficiency.com/mascotas andgrowingwithproficiency.com/leyendas.
