These “AHA” Moments and Teaching Tips from my Portuguese classes this summer are helping get me mentally prepared for this school year. Check out my other posts for this series and the series about this book: Mike Peto’s Guidebook: The Two Conversations Classroom.

“AHA” Moment ~ Day 16: The “Use All Challenge”

I really loved this tactic that Mike Peto used on a few occasions in our classes. During any all-class writing experience (like a Write and Discuss) we had a challenge. The class challenge was to use all of the Sweet 16 / Top 25 verbs that were on our screen in sentences to write the summary of the Input that was delivered during the class. He also implemented a similar approach when we were asked to develop questions as a follow-up to an activity – the challenge was to use all of the question words as we as a class wrote follow-up questions to what we had read or discussed.  Putting this into a more pedagogical lens, these are both great ways of incorporating critical thinking into any of our classes.  

“AHA” Moment ~ Day 17: Conjugating Verbs

I certainly have learned that I do not need to be able to conjugate verbs to comprehend all that I hear and read in Portuguese nor do I need it to communicate. 

But since I love the linguistic feat of figuring out patterns of language, enjoy the structure of conjugation, and like making comparisons to Spanish, when I was provided the chance to “study” the verb forms in the Present, Preterite Past, and Imperfect tenses using a game like activity via Textivate – I was ready to go. Different from how I learned Spanish, the activity did not provide me with set rules for the formation of certain types of verbs. Honesty, I think the Present Tense was going well after having had so much Input in our past 15 hours of class. This being said, the Preterite Past Tense was a nightmare with so many irregularities that I could not even wrap my mind around it; it is so interesting to see that its cousin the Preterite Past Tense in Spanish is equally irregular and mind-boggling. After dealing with the Present and Preterite activities on that day, I could not even try the Imperfect Tense.  

I must also mention that Mike does NOT do these types of activities for other novice level students (high school or middle school). For us fellow language educators, who almost all speak Spanish or French, the parallels are easier for us to see. For me, after the course, I will check out some verb charts and make some mental patterns based on ones that others have mapped out for learners. Until then, I will just keep going with the awesome Input I am receiving, and again remember, I CAN still communicate without all of those conjugation rules. 

“AHA” Moment ~ Day 18: Reading a Novel 

What a great way to engage in an on-going course: reading a novel. We had the pleasure of reading Mike’s graphic novel Normal Hamburgers, which is a prequel to SuperHamburgers. My first “AHA” moment during this time was that I am a slow reader! I have always known this about myself, and I know that I have students who are the same way. Since I was taking the course on-demand, I was just able to pause the video and take 20 minutes reading instead of the 10 minutes provided. 

My second “AHA” moment was how Mike used a Write and Discuss to  summarize the chapter with students. This was a good strategy to use because it was even effective for the students who had not finished reading the chapter in class; they could still participate and learn about the reading, and then they could just finish reading the chapter after class. 

“AHA” Moment ~ Day 19: Reading while Pronouncing in my Head

Perhaps one of the reasons it takes me so long to read is because I pronounce words in my head. In Portuguese this was no different and at times it was frustrating for me because I did not know how to pronounce the Portuguese words I was reading. As I have stated in prior posts, as a Spanish speaker the pronunciation for me is the most challenging element. 

So to alleviate some of my concerns, I would at times use Google Translate to pronounce the words for me, which I enjoyed. Well fast forward to “returning” to Mike’s class, and he talked about how he too has read in the past listening to unknown words via Google Translate and/or looking up words in a dictionary but it ruins the flow of reading for acquisition’s sake. I am glad that I had this experience because I have to think about my students and the ones that are like me and others who are just able to read for direct comprehension. This is giving me a lot of food for thought. 

“AHA” Moment ~ Day 20: Cultural Connection

I enjoyed how Mike would continue to introduce us to aspects of Brazilian culture throughout the course. On this day, we watched a video and had an accompanying reading about the same aspect. This “AHA” moment is what I think I was supposed to get from the cultural connection. I am going to liken it to us as Language Educators. The topic was how Brazilians historically have taken on great elements from other cultures and embraced it so much that it became a new part of the Brazilian identity and culture. 

As I stated, I can make a connection to us as World Language Educators or even more specifically to World Language educators who teach their 2nd language because many of us adopt many aspects from our target cultures into our own identities and/or our identities in the classroom. Also in terms of one’s growth as a teacher, I know that I am constantly evolving as an educator and hopefully this is evident by the many posts I have shared on this blog. 

Until the next post with my last three “AHA” moments. ~ Gary

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