Why Theories of Language Acquisition are Important

Let's suppose you're a native English speaker. Now imagine if you were put in a classroom, as a Kindergartener, where you begin your day learning in Chinese...from Day 1. How do you think you would feel? As an adult, I can only imagine feeling the searing nervousness and anxiety running through my mind and body. As a child who is just beginning their formal schooling experience, I can't even imagine.

When I think about this, I put it all into perspective. I remember how important it is to not only think of this as a rigorous dual language education program that will be cognitively challenging (in a positive and developmentally appropriate manner), but is also the first formal schooling experience of many of our children. Therefore, we need to make sure that students are having FUN, are ENGAGED, are EXCITED and are not feeling pressured or anxious throughout the experience.

To put these ideas into theoretical perspectives, which I believe are essential in understanding how we should approach our teaching practices in dual language classrooms, let's take a look at my favorite language acquisition theorist - Stephen Krashen. Krashen's theories of language acquisition are amongst the most notable and referenced in our field because, simply put, they make sense.

Below you'll find Krashen's Five Hypotheses:

1. The Natural Order Hypothesis-- "we acquire the rules of language in a predictable order"
2. The Acquisition/Learning Hypothesis--there are two independent ways in which we develop our linguistic skills - through acquisition and through learning.
3. The Monitor Hypothesis-- "conscious learning...can only be used as a 'monitor' or an 'editor'"
4. The Input Hypothesis-- "humans acquire language in only one way - by understanding messages or by receiving 'comprehensible input'"
5. The Affective Filter Hypothesis-- "a mental block, caused by affective factors...that prevents input from reaching the language acquisition device"

Below I'm also including my favorite video of Krashen speaking (yes, I know the video is from the 80s but in my opinion, timeless!) where he explains the very important idea of "comprehensible input" and demonstrates it in a way where we can actually comprehend (oh, look at that!) how to structure a language lesson so that students get it!

Another important aspect of language learning that Krashen points out is that "language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill". I think that this is very important and something that I take to heart in my own teaching. I believe that if we continuously correct students and their grammar, then we are essentially turning them off to the process of "trying" and being proud of "trying their hardest." Research shows that extensive correction and tedious drills of grammatical practices does not actually result in better/more grammatically correct writing. This in fact can do the very opposite - it can turn students off to the process and disengage them! Therefore, we need to ease into it gradually and while we do need to expose students to to grammatical rules and practices, we should not be tedious, mundane and rote in our teaching practices of these rules.

I felt the need to write this post for several reasons. First, I do think theories are important when they are understood in a framework of actual teaching. When we just read about theories but have no experience applying them, then they are a foreign concept, without any context. However, whether you're a dual language teacher, a specialist who focuses on language learning or a parent in a household that has committed to teaching their child more than one language, it is important to understand how actual research-based theories can inform our own best practices. Secondly, as a teacher myself, I witness the everyday struggles of ALL that encompasses our day and how very often we are anxious ourselves with how many standards and concepts we have to teach by the end of the year. However, when I think about everything that needs to get done and then realize that ordinary, boring measures will most likely not get my students there (and also very likely completely shut them off from wanting to learn the target language), I realize that my kids need to have fun and so DO I! We need to enjoy this tremendously rewarding journey and also realize that if we are utilizing engaging, interactive, fun activities and practices, the concepts and standards WILL stick! 

There is a lot of really positive and helpful research out there available to us through the click of a button, so, why not use it to our advantage and ultimately, our students' advantage?!

Here are some of the books that I utilize in my own teaching practice:

 

Staying Organized!

So, ideally, every teacher is uber organized and enjoys the satisfaction of seeing their organization come to fruition and aid in their sanity! I would personally say that this holds even truer for teachers in two-way 50/50 dual language immersion programs! Being that I am a Kindergarten teacher in such a program where I work super (and I mean SUPER) closely with the English side teacher, we pride ourselves in how we have organized our program - including a two-day schedule, math unit charts and thematic unit charts!

In this post, I'll share samples of our charts and how we utilize them to inform our teaching and to make sure that we are not repeating information and that our groups of students are not receiving the material twice in both languages (what a waste of time that would be!).

First, here is a look at our rough copy of our daily two-day schedule rotation. As you will notice, we are both doing the "same thing" but just with a different group of kids. Basically, let's say DAY 1 is on Monday, then both myself and Mrs. Looky (my super awesome partner!) would be doing Calendar/Poetry/Shared Reading, and our Reading Groups/Learning Centers at the same time, just with our own respective group of students. THEN, that same day, we would switch groups of students after lunch and we would both then doing Math Centers, Writing/Literacy Workshops and our Science or SS lesson with our afternoon group of kids! Then, on Tuesday, we would both follow the DAY 2 schedule (which is basically Day 1, flipped!).

So that is our basic two-day schedule chart to its bare bones! It has made our planning for each week and month much easier and it has allowed for us to make sure we are getting all the standards, content and activities in but without repeating it with each group of students!

In addition, for our math curriculum, we teach our GoMath chapters utilizing Math Centers, so we have a whole separate chart for that. At the beginning of the unit, we rip the chapters out and send them home so students can work/practice at home with their parents and that way, the parents know the vocabulary we are using in class and they can also see what their child is learning in school!

Basically, we decided that we will teach 5 centers at a time for the math skill we are working on, meaning, that we will both have the same exact math centers happening in each of our rooms, but we have students go to ONE center per day in one language and then the next day they go to the next center in the other language, and so forth. Basically, each group will get, out of those 5 centers, 2 in Spanish and 3 in English OR 3 in Spanish and 2 in English. Here is a sample of one of our math charts:

As you can see, the children move to the next center the next day, just in the OTHER language. For example, imagine Group 1... This will be Group 1's rotation through the math centers for that skill/chapter:

Monday: CENTER 1 - English

Tuesday: CENTER 2 - Spanish

Wednesday: CENTER 3 - English

Thursday: CENTER 4 - Spanish

Friday: CENTER 5 - English

This way, they are all receiving all of the math skills, just half of the time they are receiving them in Spanish and the other half in English. We also run our classrooms this way to ensure that we are being as efficient as possible with the time that we have with each group (we really only have about 2 hours with each group!!)AND to ensure that we aren't repeating any content!

Finally, we have our VERY important thematic unit charts! So we teach our standards through thematic units and for each thematic unit we created a Unit Chart where we specify what graphic organizers, writing activities, collaborative group activities, technology (videos, songs) and poetry we will be doing with which group of students and in which language! For all intents and purposes, we call our morning group of kids our AM group and our afternoon group of kids our PM group and I am "Pantin" (the Spanish side) and my partner is "Looky" (the English side). Here is a sample of one of our unit charts:

As you can see, by using a chart like this we stay organized throughout our unit and we are able to tell what we need to cover with which group, making our lives SO much easier! Of course, we communicate daily and let each other know if perhaps we didn't get to cover something that day or if something came up, but overall, these thematic unit charts have been amazing at helping us stay focused on what we need to get done with each group!

Here are some other Unit Chart examples:

I just finished putting together our last three charts for this school year!...AND I must admit, they look MUCH cuter with a bright colored paper!

Finally, my partner and I do all 40 conferences together, since we are both teachers to all 40 of our kids! Therefore, when conference time comes around, we create this chart designating the time slots for our parents to sign in and then our Room Parent puts these dates and times on the class Sign-Up Genius. Once all the parents have signed up, we write in each parent's/student's name on the box next to the time and we have this handy throughout our conferences so we are on-task with which parent is next and the order of our conferences! This is another great and simple tool we've employed to help us stay super organized!

There is nothing more satisfying than staying organized and it is especially essential for teachers in two-way dual language programs to stay on top of it and to stay organized! I hope you will find this post helpful! Please let me know if you have any questions about our schedules or the way we run our program! :)

Sight Word Games

An important part of reading foundational skills to to build students' fluency with sight words/high frequency words (palabras de uso frecuente!). This year, I am trying various different methods to get students more involved with the sight words - especially by playing weekly games to practice, practice and practice those sight words! I am also finding that by introducing the words early on students are already building their practice with reading Spanish syllables/practicing how to recognize and read Spanish letters/words with their correct sounds! I introduced these games first in my small guided reading group so that I could explain how to play. Now that they have played these three games, I can place the same type of games (but with different sight words) at their independent centers throughout the year!

 Here students spin the Spinner and then read the sight word out loud and then find it and color it!

Here students throw the dice, find the word that by that dice, read it out loud and then trace it! If they roll the number 6, they skip their turn!

 

Here students throw the dice, read the word out loud and then write it on a dry erase surface! There is also the option of using the worksheet that comes with the game, where students need to find the word and color it in!

You can find these sight word games in my "Sight Word Bundle in Spanish": https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sight-Word-Bundle-in-Spanish-2804366
 

Reflections on Year 1

I cannot believe how quickly time flies by (when you're having fun AND you're super busy!). Since my first year teaching (what!) has come to an end, I am left here reflecting over the last 9 months and pondering about the upcoming months and school year. When everyone said that your first year will fly by, it seemed like such an abstract statement since I had never experienced anything like this year before. But it did fly by and my, what an amazing journey it was, which I feel excited and privileged to have had.

As a first year teacher, who was also helping to launch a new dual language program at our school, I certainly felt an enormous amount of pressure to be successful and to provide my K students the most authentic, immersive language learning (and content learning, of course) experience possible! One of the most important things that I can say and reflect upon is how important it was for me to use the resources available (i.e., the internet & my colleagues!) to search for, find and adapt activities for learning that I could utilize. Using search engines to find Spanish poems (and being selective about which poems I believe would be the most beneficial), along with using sites such as Pinterest, I was able to gather ideas and implement them in the way I felt most appropriate. Reflecting on this I realize the importance of seeing ideas from seasoned educators and finding ways to adapt and implement them!

Although sometimes the pressure and stress felt overwhelming, these tools allowed me to realize (1) I am not alone and (2) there are SO many great ideas out there. I also decided that because I knew my kids best and what their needs were, I would need to take what I had learned as a Kindergarten student in Venezuela meshed with my academic experience in the U.S. and my personal family life experience growing up Latina in the U.S. to create an overview of how to teach literacy in Spanish and integrate it with science, social studies and mathematics. Coming into such an innovative and progressive school helped me in this journey. Our Kindergarten team teaches in thematic units, which I now realize is such a powerful way to teach all the standards and content, while not leaving out important subjects such as science and social studies. By integrating all the subjects to thematic units (which the English side teacher was also doing), the children were able to find fluidity and continuity between the two classes, the content and the learning experiences.

Finally, I've also realized how crucial it is for the English side and the Spanish side teacher to have a close working relationship, because I believe, the majority of the success of our program this year was based on that relationship. The other teacher and I would coordinate before every unit to discuss what we were each doing with what group of student (our morning group or our afternoon group), we would discuss everyday what we were doing/what we did with each group and how it went and we would make sure we didn't repeat any lessons (but rather, added on and provided students with different activities aimed at reaching the standards we were working on). I truly believe that this not only helped our sanity (so we were not repeating lessons and things of that nature), but it also demonstrated a coordination and teamwork model for the students, who undeniably saw how closely we both worked!

Overall, I am so grateful for the incredible first year I have had! I feel privileged to be at a school where our Principal allows (and actually encourages) teachers to be creative, innovative and authentic in their practice, while still adhering to standards and what needs to be covered/taught. I have learned a lot and continue to learn a lot and gather new ideas, and am excited for the road ahead as I enter into my second year of teaching Kindergarten!

Happy Summer Everyone!

Community Helpers Unit in Spanish

The past week we began our community helpers unit, which I was SO excited about because it is such a relatable unit for our kids! Students get to learn about different community members and I've seen them make such amazing connections to their own lives, such as sharing what their parents do for a living, or how they've seen police/firefighter cars/trucks in their town and by sharing what they want to be when they grow up and how they will be community helpers as well! 

Therefore, I was excited to bring together different elements to teach/share with students about our community helpers in Spanish. I utilized Spanish nonfiction texts, videos, a song with a video, bubble maps, Important Words, student booklets, Venn Diagram activities, and a cumulative collaborative activity at the end of the unit. 

These are the books that I have found in Spanish and utilize for our community helpers unit:

Before beginning the unit I went over our learning scale (based on Marzano) and had students understand and try to verbally say what the learning goal was (which in a concrete sense was difficult for them to say the whole learning goal in Spanish, but they were able to verbalize who we were going to learn about and most of our Important Words for the unit).

We dedicated a day to each community helper and we focused on: Doctor, Firefighter, Teacher, Police, Vet and Chef.

First, each day we would go over our "Important Words":

Then, we would watch the video of "Las Profesiones" and try to sing along! This is a GREAT video because it has really beautiful visuals and words to sing along!

Then, we would read a book about the community helper and possibly watch a video. There were some great videos for firefighter in Spanish ("Sam el Bombero") and for police ("Caillou el oficial de polica") and a very catchy song about a vet ("Tio Mario Veterinario") and a Peppa Pig episode about the vet ("el veterinario volador"). I must warn you - the Tio Mario Veterinario song is SUPER catchy and students have continued to ask me to play it for them everyday after I introduced it to them!!

Then, I would read our community helper poem, which provided a quick definition of what the community helper does:

Next, we would create a bubble map for that specific community helper together. Something crucial for a dual language classroom is VISUALS and so I had cards with each community helper's tools that I would tape up when a student said that tool. If students didn't mention the tool, I would show it to the class and have students recognize that tool. Here are our bubble maps:

 After we filled out the bubble map, I had each student fill out the respective community helper page in their own little booklet about community helpers. You can find this booklet in my Community Helper product!

Throughout the week I also incorporated various learning centers with this community helper theme. Here are some pictures of the students at work at those centers and engaged in activities that have to do with this theme, which they all really seemed to enjoy!!

 Math subtraction center using community helper's tools!

Writing community helper names in alphabetical order!

During guided reading I had students write down 4 things they learned about some of their community helpers and then illustrate the image in their notebooks! Here is one students example:

Students also put two of the poems in their Poetry Notebooks - the doctor and teacher poem! Here is one students notebook, where she illustrated both poems with amazing details!

  

 Also, during literacy workshops several students wanted to draw pictures of community helpers and they know the rule - if they draw they must write or label the picture to practice their writing! Here are some students' examples of their AMAZING drawings:

 Another student decided to go to our pocket chart and categorize the tools under the community helpers. I LOVE his concentration!

 I really enjoyed teaching this unit and working with students to learn more about our awesome community helpers! The kids really enjoyed it, especially because they were able to talk about what community helper they want to be when they grown up!

If you're interested in this unit, check out my Community Helper Unit product on my tpt store! The product is all in Spanish, with some parts in English as well!

States of Matter Mini-Unit

So we recently finished our states of matter mini-unit and had a really great time learning about solids, liquids and gases! Luckily, the three words (solids, liquids and gases) are cognates with Spanish (solidos, liquidos and gases) and therefore, the vocabulary for this mini-unit was much more accessible and easier to grasp for the students! Other words in this mini-unit are also cognates in English/Spanish (atoms--atomos, molecules--moleculas), which was great to capitalize on and utilize as a way of showing great similarities in the two langauges! I loved being able to utilize such a great strategy with my dual language kinders - that of cognate words! When words are similar in both languages, it eases children into being more confident in orally speaking the words and in engaging with the material - especially the children who are not dominant in the target language (in this case, Spanish!).

The states of matter mini-unit was also really fun because it incorporated non-fiction informational reading, science demonstrations, bubble maps, vocabulary, art project for each state of matter and a culminating mini-research project! The mini-unit was broken up into 5 days:

Day 1: Introduction to matter/word splash, what is matter? SQA chart (KWL in Spanish)
Day 2: Solids
Day 3: Liquids
Day 4: Gases
Day 5: Review of matter; culminating project/presentation

For each state of matter, I read a book in Spanish, we did a bubble map whole group and then the students did an art project to visually show the way the molecules are spread in each of the three states of matter. For solids, the art craft was in the shape of an ice cube and as you can see above, the students used Bingo Dotters to dot molecules very closely together. For liquids, the art craft was in the shape of a raindrop and as you can see from above, the students used Bingo Dotters to dot molecules a bit more spread apart. For gases, the art craft was a cloud and as you can see from above, the students used Bingo Dotters to dot the molecules very spread apart.

For the culminating project students were put into groups and each group had to choose a state of matter from a bag. Then, the groups went around the room and brainstormed how they would describe that state of matter. Then, after they brainstormed, they came back together and then I gave each group their sheet of paper and one pencil and they went again around the room to work collaboratively on their project. The idea is that each group would describe their state of matter (without stating it in the description) and then illustrate various examples of that state of matter in the box above. I had all the states of matter books out on a table while the students were working and they were encouraged to use that to help them formulate their descriptions as well as to use our bubble maps to help them! In that way, the project become a mini-research project as well to synthesize the information they had learned! After they wrote their description in pencil, I checked their work and then gave each group a sharpie to trace their description. Finally, each group came up to the front of the room and presented their poster by just reading the description and not showing the picture. Their peers had to guess what state of matter they were describing! This culminating project was able to all around assess how well the students had understood the mini-unit! Below are the posters each group created:

On one of our classroom pocket charts, I put up the three labels "Solidos, Liquidos (and) Gases" and then a plethora of pictures in the little orange basket. I encouraged the students to go to this area and pick up a card and categorize it under the correct state of matter! This quick pocket chart activity acts as a review for our states of matter unit and a great visual! The activity is not highly language-dependent; it's 3 vocabulary words and the rest are pictures so it's great for enticing all learners, even those who still lack a bit of confidence in the target language!

If you're interested in checking out this mini-unit and implementing it in your own classroom, check it out in my tpt store:

States of Matter Unit

My One Word for 2016... "Experiment"

Recently my principal wrote a blog post about his "one word" for 2016 and this inspired our latest twitter chat (Thursday nights--> #sofledchat) about each of our own "one word" for 2016. After reflecting back on the first half of the school year (still cannot believe we are halfway through the year!) and on a word that could embody how I want my students to push themselves and try new things... I came up with the word "experiment." Experiment is just a fancy word for "TRY" and while "trying" is SO essential in every single classroom, I also see it as a key feature of my Kindergarten Dual Language (Spanish) classroom. 

I don't have to try too hard to put myself in my students shoes (especially my Native English speaking students) because when I first immigrated to the United States, all I spoke was Spanish and I was placed in an all English first grade classroom where I felt intimidated and nervous at first when all I heard was English being spoken to me all day. This is how many of my English speaking students must have felt at the beginning of the year (and even at some points still must feel) hearing me speak Spanish all day. Thus, TRYING or EXPERIMENTING is a key part in being a successful language learner (even when we are babies and learning our native tongue!). When I see my students jump in and EXPERIMENT or TRY it leaves me inspired, excited and motivated to try more and to push myself more, so it can help them as well. An example: one of my native English speaking students started saying full sentences to me in Spanish towards the end of December and she has continuously been jumping in and experimenting with her language and her learning! If a 5 year old can experiment so freely and free from judgment, can't we all?

So as I have been reflecting over what my amazing students have accomplished and how they are growing as learners and language learners, I wanted to think of a word that could embody how I want my students to experience learning (through experimentation... through trying, through failing & getting back up again!) and how I want to be as a teacher - always trying hard and pushing myself!

I have said this repeatedly to people who know me - I never want to be 'complacent' with anything in my life because I think complacency leads to stagnation, standing still and lack of progression... One way that I will not become complacent is by experimenting - trying new things everyday both personally and in my career! I am constantly amazed at how much I can learn from my 5 and 6 year olds - how much experimenting is required of them (mainly because so much of this "school" thing is so new to them!) that I find myself motivated and excited to try new things too!

So as we start off 2016 I will vow to "EXPERIMENT," to try new things, to jump into all experiences that are coming with excitement, motivation and inspiration and in turn, provide opportunities for my students to EXPERIMENT, to TRY new things and ways of learning so that they too are excited, motivated and inspired! What is your One Word for 2016?