Teaching Spanish II is always a test of endurance, patience, and satisfaction watching students grow from novice levels of Spanish to intermediate levels for most. This year I taught three sections of Spanish II, which have a mix of students with most 9th graders having had Spanish since elementary school and then daily in 6th, 7th and 8th grades and the others who have only had a Spanish I class in high school. The proficiency levels and abilities of students in this level are drastically different. All of this on top of the reality that I do believe students today have really changed over the past 5 years (this is my 20th year teaching). 

Knowing this, I survey my students mid year and at the end to get a pulse of what has gone well for them and what they have disliked during class. I also always ask students “What were 2 (or more) of your least favorite activities or parts of class that you DID NOT ENJOY BUT IT HELPED your Spanish grow? WHY?” Of course, when surveying 60+ students, there is often a portion of students who prefer something one way and others who react in a different way, which boils down to preferred learning styles. This year’s surveys were filled with mostly positive comments without me saying “Keep It Positive” (musical theater reference anyone?). I also ask students to tell me “If you could design a perfect 50 minute Spanish class with 20 students in it, what would it look like and what would you want to learn?” 

The question about the class design really helps me see what they’d prefer. Overall, I must say that many students used the word FUN, which is not always the goal of my classes, yet I do want to make it enjoyable. I always did try to include new and novel ways to engage with students while still focusing on teaching using target language that is comprehended for acquisition and my core values: Respect, Listening to Acquire Language, Communication & Conversation in Spanish, Cultural Comparisons, and Creative Thinking.

So I was happy to read comments like this from students: 

-This class was always something new when I would walk in the door. It was fun having a class where it was colorful and fun. Although I don’t love Spanish, this class was a lot of fun. Your ways of teaching were fun. The stories, games, songs. They all were fun to have. Thank you for being so great! 

-I’d design it similar to yours! I felt the experience was unique – different from any class I’ve taken and probably will ever take – and made really well!

-I think this year’s Spanish class was one of the best organized and effective classes I’ve taken. I really liked the huge variety in what we did; videos, the cultural object hunts, stories, games, and others. Participating was fun and easy in this class. The little details, such as the intro to every class with the daily discussion and passwords, gestures, and words on the walls made it much easier to remember specifics. The longer stories on block days made focusing a little harder, but shorter stories in general were a great way to expose us to new vocabulary and more speech. The class was fairly assessed, and I think all the topics we discussed are relevant and useful to know in any foreign language. I overall enjoyed this class and improved my Spanish significantly this year because of it.

But even with comments like those, I still have students who felt this way (and I am happy they let me know): 

-I think a little bit more different stuff would be fun, because I felt that the class was very repetitive after a while.

-As much as I disliked the class because of how bored I was most of the time, I truly believe that I learnt a ton. I was very disruptive at times, those times being when you read us random stories that were boring and didn’t help at all. However, certain things that you do that other teachers don’t do, such as [acronyms likes] DIOR ONCE DID, or IERON y ARON, made me learn a ton of Spanish and I could honestly say that if I were to wake up in a Mexican food market, I could be able to conversate and exist while understanding everyone.

So what were student’s best experiences reported: actively engaging them in storytelling and story-asking and games like Gimkit, Quizlet Live, and Blooket (not my favorite for acquiring language but certainly my favorite for catching my breath for 10 minutes). With regard to the question: “What were 2 (or more) of your least favorite activities or parts of class that you DID NOT ENJOY BUT IT HELPED your Spanish grow? WHY?” 

The most reported activities were reading and timed-writings. Most stated that they just do not like to read but it really did make them see how the language worked, flowed, and helped them remember. With regard to timed-writing, most students did not like writing against a clock or they did not always know what to write. But they all felt that the experience showed them how much they could write, it motivated many, and by the end of each semester they were able to write a lot in each time-frame (first semester’s focus is narrating in the present tense and second semester’s focus is narrative in the past tenses with many, many errors). I do feel that these experiences were real and authentic for them as writers in Spanish and I would always grade them according to the amount of time I provided and the general number of words that were written by the class. This year, during a story-ask or storytelling experience, it was my goal to write less on the board than I had the year prior, when I feel I over scaffolded the writing process, but this year I feel there was a really nice balance. The whole time-writing process does take time to get adjusted to and it is a skill that must be developed in students and, for this reason, they continued to improve all year. Again most students reported they did learn a lot from this process even if they didn’t like doing it. 

When I sit back and think about the overall storytelling and story-asking process which includes reading and oftentimes a timed-writing component, I feel I am not still working with the story for enough time. In fact, in thinking about my students’ responses I usually pre-teach some language structures, do some gestures, ask some questions, and then use those structures using a story-script in which I actively engage the students and then I make them write. On another day, I follow up with a reading that uses the same structures but in a different story. What I realize is I am not milking or stretching the story enough that I want them to retell in writing or speaking. I certainly do let the parameters of my week schedule affect my lesson design and again I must do a better job of forcing students to interact with one of those stories more before I expect output.   

Since I know most of my students do like games,I went to a session by Anne-Marie Chase called Stretching the Story at this summer’s Fluency Matters Conference; her blog is a gem of resources and reflections in 21st century language teaching and so many ideas and games for students to interact with language, listening, and reading (which I know they need to do more of but of course they don’t love). During Anne Marie’s presentation at the conference we acted as students and were able to play these three games, and I am so excited to use them with my students this school year. 

1. Quick Draw 
2. Details, Details, Details 
3. Scrambled Sentences using Flippity Manipulatives 

Along those same lines, I know Amy Marshall has amazing story stretching activities as well as Keith Toda; their blogs are all filled with so many ideas that will continue to help my classes change and engage. My “2023 AHA moment” is that my expectations for output through a timed-writing after a story-asking experience causes great anxiety in my students because they have not interacted with the story enough. So I must include a few interactive reading activities or even a group write and discuss before moving on to the timed-writing assignment. In thinking about this, my brain as a teacher trainer is telling me of course, students will not be as prepared for the writing task without the needed exposure, but my teacher brain when having to make lesson planning decisions so often took the approach of linking my story-asking with the quick follow-up writing task because it fit nicely within the time allotted during a 90 minute block. For me as a teacher, this “AHA Moment” may have a great impact on my future students and their experience with timed-writing. All of this proves that we as teachers can continue to evolve and learn. 

Another aspect that I added this school year was an idea taken from Dr. Liam Printer, whose Podcast: The Motivated Classroom is really a master class in world language teaching. Dr. Printer’s work revolves around using motivational theory in the world language classroom to help students’ proficiency grow. He is a self-proclaimed user of CI, ADI, and TPRS in Europe, and his podcast Episode 6 about Retrieval Practice – has really struck a chord with me as a missing element to my classes, and has me again reflecting on my lesson design. I have always thought about a lesson which includes: 

1. pre-teaching language structures 

2. engaging with the language in a comprehended way either with personal questions, stories or other situational contexts

3. Reading something that incorporates seeing the language structures multiple times

4. An output activity (writing or speaking) only if and when my students are ready

This process can usually take me about a week or sometimes two. Knowing this, Dr. Printer’s podcast about Retrieval Practice, which are pretty much quick activities that require students to use their brains to tell you the words that they remember in the target language. These types of activities could be done at the beginning of a class period or at any point to continue to check their memory and/or engage with the language again and again while actively participating in the activity. Dr. Printer’s podcast episode 6 provides 11 Retrieval Activities. Here is a quick description of one that I have used with students successfully this year: 

RETRIEVAL PRACTICE “BINGO” – 

STUDENTS WRITE 3 WORDS ON THE MINI-WHITEBOARD FROM THE LAST LESSON/PREVIOUS STORY/UNIT/THEME (LIKE FOOD) IN 10 SECONDS. THEN STUDENTS STAND UP. THE TEACHER STARTS LISTING OFF WORDS. IF THE TEACHER SAYS ONE WORD ON A STUDENT’S BOARD, THE STUDENT MUST SIT DOWN. THE LAST STANDING STUDENT(S) WIN [OR THE FIRST TO HAVE CROSSED OFF ALL THREE COULD WIN].  

THIS IDEA WAS TAKEN FROM DR. LIAM PRINTER’S PODCAST EPISODE 6. 

So even though I did a better job of using formative daily quiz grades this year in Spanish II, oftentimes I was just testing comprehension using the format: what does ____ mean in English? I do think that with the inclusion of more Retrieval Activities and more games that “milk” or stretch the input like Anne Marie Chase’s ideas will benefit all learners.