Phase 1
Next Steps:
During Phase 1, I discovered that students are willing and able to orally produce in the language that they are learning. The more that they practice thinking about how to say things and using their new vocabulary, the more comfortable they become in orally producing Spanish. As long as they are consistently practicing utilizing and applying their skills, the will continue to improve. It was important for students to become comfortable with the process of acquiring language and being able to make mistakes and keep going. When learning a language it is not about being perfect but rather about practicing what you do know and then expanding on that knowledge.
I found some success when having students share their thinking out loud with the entire class. As I reflect on this process however, it may have been a lot to ask of students to share with the entire class. I wonder how they would perform when given the opportunity to practice their skills in smaller groups with their classmates. Will they become more comfortable using the language without so much attention on them? Or will they revert to speaking in English and therefore not practice and improve their oral language skills in Spanish? The next step in this process will be for students to work with their peers, instead of in front of their peers to build oral language skills.
I know that the way to gain oral proficiency is through practice. Students need to be given opportunities in which they can speak to other people using the language that they are learning. For this reason I decided to put the students into pairs. I paired students with high abilities in Spanish language production with students who were not able to produce very much using oral Spanish. My rationale for this is that students who are able to speak and produce Spanish will provide those who do not, with a model for language production. This student who can produce oral Spanish will be able to speak and model an explanation for the student who is not producing very much oral Spanish. I believe that by taking away the element of having to speak in front of the entire class, that students will feel more comfortable practicing their oral language skills, which will then in turn allow them to expand their knowledge and be able to produce more Spanish when explaining their rationale as to why they solved a math problem the way that they did.
I will continue to have students complete CGI math problems the way that I did in Phase 1, however instead of explaining their rationale to the class, they will have a discussion with their respective partner. Both partners will be required to speak and respond to the other's rationale using as much Spanish as they can.
I will continue to conduct individual conferences with each child to ask them to solve a CGI math problem and explain their rationale. This will allow me to measure how much oral Spanish language they are able to produce after spending time practicing this skill with a peer.
Phase 2:
May 19- June 20:
During Phase 1, I discovered that students are willing and able to orally produce in the language that they are learning. The more that they practice thinking about how to say things and using their new vocabulary, the more comfortable they become in orally producing Spanish. As long as they are consistently practicing utilizing and applying their skills, the will continue to improve. It was important for students to become comfortable with the process of acquiring language and being able to make mistakes and keep going. When learning a language it is not about being perfect but rather about practicing what you do know and then expanding on that knowledge.
I found some success when having students share their thinking out loud with the entire class. As I reflect on this process however, it may have been a lot to ask of students to share with the entire class. I wonder how they would perform when given the opportunity to practice their skills in smaller groups with their classmates. Will they become more comfortable using the language without so much attention on them? Or will they revert to speaking in English and therefore not practice and improve their oral language skills in Spanish? The next step in this process will be for students to work with their peers, instead of in front of their peers to build oral language skills.
I know that the way to gain oral proficiency is through practice. Students need to be given opportunities in which they can speak to other people using the language that they are learning. For this reason I decided to put the students into pairs. I paired students with high abilities in Spanish language production with students who were not able to produce very much using oral Spanish. My rationale for this is that students who are able to speak and produce Spanish will provide those who do not, with a model for language production. This student who can produce oral Spanish will be able to speak and model an explanation for the student who is not producing very much oral Spanish. I believe that by taking away the element of having to speak in front of the entire class, that students will feel more comfortable practicing their oral language skills, which will then in turn allow them to expand their knowledge and be able to produce more Spanish when explaining their rationale as to why they solved a math problem the way that they did.
I will continue to have students complete CGI math problems the way that I did in Phase 1, however instead of explaining their rationale to the class, they will have a discussion with their respective partner. Both partners will be required to speak and respond to the other's rationale using as much Spanish as they can.
I will continue to conduct individual conferences with each child to ask them to solve a CGI math problem and explain their rationale. This will allow me to measure how much oral Spanish language they are able to produce after spending time practicing this skill with a peer.
Phase 2:
May 19- June 20:
- Phase 2: How will pairing students who have low language production skills with students who have higher language production skills, within the CGI approach to instruction, affect the students with low language production skills?
- May 30, June 6, July 14: After the each week of having students practice their oral language skills with their peers, I will conduct individual conferences with each of the 10 students to see how many Spanish words they are able to produce when explaining their rationale to solving a CGI mathematics problem.