Tell To Teach

STEP 1. Establish meaning

This step involves several stages:

Define the meaning, as explained above, either with props, drawings, gestures, or translation
Practice meaning, achieving tons of interesting repetitions, both by personalization and by gesturing á la TPRS
Assess, do continuous on-site assessments.
For example:
Do a “comprehension check” by asking them to show you with their fingers if they understood all (five fingers up), half of the story (two or three), or nothing (no fingers up).

There are several ways to achieve this. It is highly advisable to vary the technique used, so that it is always unpredictable and new.

For verbs with a clear motion, the TPR (Total Physical Response) method is recommended. This consists of showing the motion or gesture as one says the word, expecting the students to imitate it. Whenever possible, gestures should be implemented, since we know quite well how movement and language are

related and how it helps the memory and the comprehension of the word itself, without the need of direct translation.

Sometimes the word is an object for which we can bring a real example. This creates great excitement in children. We prefer avoiding plastic and other man-made materials as much as possible, and bring natural materials or real objects, whenever possible. The use of simple disguises is highly recommended; the simpler, the better. Using a disguise truly helps the child to “get into character” and keeps the attention and interest high.

Illustrations, be it paintings or drawings, are another great way to establish meaning. Again, we rely mostly on easy, simple illustrations made by the teacher whenever possible, not using cartoonish drawings, celebrities, or any media-related characters.

When teaching a structure that can be confusing through the use of gesture alone, or for which there might be no pictorial image, such as abstract nouns, or many kinds of verbs, adjectives, etc., we rely on translation. However, translation is not used constantly out loud, but rather written on the blackboard to point at it whenever we are saying the word in L2 (the target language).

According to Carol Gaab, introducing new vocabulary and establishing meaning should include as many of the following strategies as possible:

Attach a specific gesture (TPR) to verbs to make a kinesthetic and a visual connection to the meaning.
For nouns, use props and real objects to convey meaning. Use skits and re-enactments to demonstrate meaning of longer phrases.
Post an illustration or photo that depicts the meaning of the structure.
Verbally tell students what the structure means (for the pre-literate stages) and when appropriate, explain appropriate contexts or settings for use.
Write the meaning (literal and figurative) of the structure in L1 in a different color on the chalkboard.

There are several techniques to practice and help the students acquire the meaning of the structures. Some of my favorite have been developed by Jason Fritze and are described in his book ¡En español!, edited by McDougal Littell.

Once we have established and practiced meaning, we can start developing context for the new structures. This means showing and practicing how they are used in common language. In order to do this in a protected, interesting way, we develop a series of questions, always staying comprehensible, but to make it not just interesting but compelling to the students, we ask questions about them. We start by asking the obvious yes/no questions and then can move on to more difficult ones, until we reach a point of truly having a conversation and maybe making up a little funny story/fact about one of them.

Let’s say we want to practice the structure “he is always hungry.” I will choose my student Cooper as my “volunteer.” He might come to the front of the class.

On the wall I have a poster with the basic question words: what, who, when, why, etc. I go S-L-O-W and point to the question poster every time I use it, so that they know exactly what I am trying to say. We do this entirely in the target language, but here we will share an example in English. This is the technique called Circling.

Teacher: Class, WHO (point) is always hungry?

Teacher: Class, Cooper is always hungry! (a statement, I am pointing to the writing on the blackboard)

Class: O-o-o-oh! (The class has to answer with either admiration or sadness, to show they are participating. This also keeps them involved and their brain active.)

Teacher: Class, is Cooper always hungry? (a yes/no question)

Class: Yes

Teacher: Is Maria always hungry?

Class: No

Teacher: Is Cooper always hungry or is Maria always hungry? (an either/or question)

Class: Cooper

Teacher: Is Cooper always hungry on Sundays?

C: Yes!

Teacher: Is Cooper always hungry at night?

C: Yes!

Teacher: Is Cooper always hungry at lunchtime?

C: Yes!

T: Is Cooper always hungry in Spanish class?

C: Yes! (Notice that I am not asking of them that they give me a complete sentence. At this stage it is all about input, not yet about their output)

Teacher: Class, WHO is always hungry?

(when I ask WHO, I point to the word or poster where I show my question words

with either translation or an image to clearly illustrate what I am saying)

C: Cooper!

Teacher: Is Cooper hungry at 8 in the morning?

C: Yes

Teacher: Is Cooper hungry during Main Lesson?

C: Yes

Teacher: Is Cooper hungry after lunch?

C: Yes

Teacher: Is Cooper hungry at 10 at night?

C: Yes

Teacher: Yes, class, Cooper is always hungry!

C: Oh oh oh oh

Teacher: Is Cooper or Señora Nora always hungry?

C: Cooper!

Teacher: Is Cooper always hungry?

C: Yes

Teacher: Is Cooper always hungry or is he always sleepy?

(I am assuming they know the structure “he is sleepy”, or I can easily gesture it

in situ)

C: He is always hungry!

Teacher: Who is always hungry: Cooper or Señora Nora?

C: Cooper!

Teacher: (to Cooper) Cooper, are YOU always hungry?

(notice how through dialogue I am introducing the first and second person)

Cooper: Yes!

(in a slightly more advanced setting I would spoon-feed him the answer by

saying: Yes, I AM always hungry, to learn the “I” form)

(alternate four group questions and one individual question to students who are

able to answer successfully)

Teacher: Class, why is he always hungry?

(This is a higher level question. We only ask this kind of questions to students

who already have a higher knowledge of the language or when we have a

comprehensible answer for them. We allow them to contribute the details of

the story and move in their direction or we use an answer we have previously

prepared.)

C: Class, it is obvious.... Because he is 15 years old!

(from here, you could go on to see who else is 15 and is always hungry; in

Spanish, telling your age is a structure that needs tons of repetitions anyway!)

In this way, the students listen to the same structure, understanding its

meaning, in many different ways, collecting an amazing number of repetitions

by the end of the class. We keep asking and repeating for each new structure

just enough times so that they get a grip of the meaning. This is called

Personalized Questions and Answers, PQA.

We repeat this procedure of gesturing, moving, asking, etc. with each one of

the three structures. The gestures can be done first for all three, and the PQA

may be done for each one separately or maybe combined, as the case may lend

itself. A whole story might be developed from this.

Once we have done this exercise with all the new structures, we are ready to

start a whole mini-story. It is always advisable to have a plan about what our

mini story will be about, but keeping in mind that the class might take it to a

different place. This allows for the students to own the story and be more

engaged, since their contributions are taken into account to actually make them

part of the class.