It’s Just a Listening Activity

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23 thoughts on “It’s Just a Listening Activity”

  1. Brilliant! I just did Tina’s “Spa week” battery of assessments a couple of weeks ago (Listening, Reading, Writing & a self-assessment/reflection piece), and I feel like that has also really helped students to better understand what my goals are for the class. It’s fairly simple when our activities align with those basic modalities (with space for speaking as well, of course). I also found that when I really, really want them to listen, and they’re having trouble doing so, I can just tell them that we’re going to do a listening quiz where they just need to write down what they understand. They’re certainly all ears then! I also found that it helped me to really gauge the right speed for them because some students would have me slow down, which doesn’t usually happen when it’s not a “quiz”.

    1. So how do you assess it if the student sort-of gets it? That’s where I’m struggling with things now. I have some students who understand some of the message but not all of it.

      1. See the false assumption is that they are supposed to get it bc we taught it. That’s what we as teachers are taught to ascertain in each student. But doing that conflicts w the research and is not how languages are acquired. They all pick up at different speeds, some get a lot and some less. How are we going to quantify that? Bryan’s translation idea is the best we have. Quizzes are ok but kind of stupid. My position is there is no lazy student. Not a one. I think they are blocked. So if a kid translates less, I just keep the CI coming. If a kid starts getting it, fine, but if not, I don’t care. I don’t know what is in that kids’ mind and I won’t take my own inventory if all the kids aren’t getting everything. And I will never ever tell a parent that their child is lazy when I know they are blocked. I am professionally FINE w fudging grades on what I CAN OBSERVE related to the Three Modes. And, indeed, our SSR new rubric does exactly that. The kid who gets it all gets an A and the kid who gets some of it gets a B and the kid who gets none of it gets a phone call or parent meeting to decide if they should be in the class. I won’t lose any sleep over any of it. Here is an image – measuring what our students are getting is like trying to count seeds under the ground. My thumb is preventing me from making my point but there is one in there somewhere.

          1. Dana, Every gets credit for “listening/reading with intent to understand”. Acquisition is like short term memory loss. So even if students do not understand terms, you provide them opportunity to understand with body, gesture, facial expression, writing translation, saying the translation etc… They get credit for attempting to understand. That’s it.

    2. We are just finishing SPA WEEK right now! Spa Week #2! The kids are beside themselves with glee at how much they can write in twenty minutes. And I am sitting here working on my Cycles of Instruction book. 😀

  2. …I can just tell them that we’re going to do a listening quiz where they just need to write down what they understand….

    This detail is gold. Thank you, Bryan. (And so easy to fudge oops I meant assess for a grade).

    1. I think they also have more freedom when you tell them that you’re looking for a summary and that it doesn’t need to be word for word, though you want as many details as possible. I figure that as long as they are getting a good amount of it then they’re doing great. If they’re not getting so much of it then they may just need more time, or as Ben said, they’re blocked in some way (that is probably beyond my power to change..). I tell them straight up that if they’re giving me their best effort then they have nothing to worry about. Everyone acquires at different rates, and we all have good and bad days. It’s overall growth and improvement over the semester/year(s) that I’m really looking for. That’s why I really like the portfolio assessment. It’s not just a one shot, all or nothing sort of deal.

      1. Bryan, does your school do SBG? Or are you on a letter or percentage grade system? Just trying to wrap my head around how to do this and being able to defend this to admin.

        1. We use a percentage/letter grade system. Technically, I tell them that an A= 90-100% comprehension shown through their writing, B= 80-90% comprehension shown, etc. The amount and quality of writing relative to their level is taken into account as well (which gives me some flexibility- I could say that it is relative to the individual level [which is what I normally do] or relative to the class level as a whole).

  3. Alisa Sapiro-Rosenberg

    If this PLC hosted a folder containing exemplars of all the teacher documentation that gets everyone’s underwear in a knot – curriculum guides, unit plans, report card templates with a “bank” of comments, midsemester reports, standards, grading rubrics, Cornerstone assessments, etc it seems to me that we would be providing a tremendous service to so many teachers, who are just sinking under the weight of all of these demands.
    Last weekend we hosted a TCI Chicagoland meeting in my classroom – Sean presided – we had over 40 teachers and many of them were newbies – we saw a real appetite for such documentation. By providing teachers with the samples from which to cut and paste, they can then spend their time and mental energy mailing the actual classroom management and communication skills!

  4. Totally agreed! but I feel like it’s a hoop that many jump through and feel constricted by – like they (new to T/CI) are watching the power of the strategies and appreciating them in real time at demos, but there’s a gnawing anxiety in their minds about accountability, documentation, grading, communicating to adminz and parents, etc…
    This PLC is so much more than all that BS paperwork that most of us (if we’re lucky) never look at after we create it. So just like Tina created the cycles of instruction – so awesome to relax so many – we gather all those docs together (maybe in a Bite-Size-Book with chapters for kinds of documentation? I’d help with that if you like) and then when anyone shares, presents, gets observed by outside teachers, gets emails from newbies asking for help – we direct them to the cache of documentation…
    Which if in Google doc form can be updated and tweaked as the educational tides ebb and flow…

  5. If you help organize that Bite Size Book it would be the best thing ever to happen Alisa. There are so many Bite Size Books planned, like 30 more, and we can’t get out of the gate on them. My thumb isn’t helping bc it’s in a 12 week cast. I TOTALLY agree that Tina’s new book on Cycles of Instruction is the most needed thing right now.

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