Language Educators

I am wondering how others deal with the transition from the language program of younger learners (K-6) to the upper grades in middle school classes. In 7th grade we currently combine students who have had language classes a few times/week in K-5th with students entering the school new in 7th grade. We are not really large enough to have 2 tracks in 7th grade. Many students come to us with a range of lower school language learning to no exposure at all and we currently combine them all in one 7th grade class. Any feedback about how you handle this or ideas for this scenario would be appreciated!
Thanks,
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Anne Wentling
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Hola, Anne!

Another colleague and I have had a similar concern.  We had students coming into Spanish 3 classes from various teachers from different schools.  Some of the teachers stressed proficiency and their students were "speakers," and could handle improvisational tasks.  Other students were used to doing "worksheets," and not speaking. Those kids could conjugate a verb in a fill-in blank, but could not utter a sentence or form a question with the same verb.  The speakers also handled writing and reading tasks better than the "worksheet kids" as they were "speakers."

What did we do?  As in the past, we changed our seating charts monthly and paired one strong proficiency student with the weaker one. The proficiency student informally helped the weaker student build his skill set and clued him in on how to do the activities.   

We used a class set of index cards, too.  Every student's name was on a separate index card.  

As I mentioned above, we did a high/low pairing of students ....  i.e. that was your assigned seat partner for the month.  For variety, we did lots of pair work during a class period.  Using the index cards, we would pair students high/low for various pair work activities during the period.  So... all the students had an opportunity to get up, move around to a different temporary partner for pair work.  Using your set of index cards, you can easily pair the high/low kids ....  like a match up game with your cards.  (You're "rigging or fixing" the pairs.)

Of course, several of the non-proficiency students were linguistically bright, quickly improved, and caught on; so, our class sections improved.  Those bright ones quickly realized what they had been missing in their "worksheet" classes, and wanted to get themselves up to speed with the "speakers."  Oftentimes, you will notice that some of your best speakers are not always your top A students.... those proficiency kids are risk takers and enjoy "doing something real--like interpersonal communication" with their classmates than doing endless worksheets.

So... try a lot of heterogeneous pair work within the class period.  Get the kids up and working with different individuals.  Use a monthly seating chart with monthly assigned partners.  I think this low-tech, student-centered approach will help you "homogenize" the process.

Best wishes!  Buena suerte!
Sincerely,
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Robert Oliver
Williamsburg, VA
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Show Original Message -------------------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 01-30-2013 08:16
From: Anne Wentling
Subject: transition from lower school to middle school language


I am wondering how others deal with the transition from the language program of younger learners (K-6) to the upper grades in middle school classes. In 7th grade we currently combine students who have had language classes a few times/week in K-5th with students entering the school new in 7th grade. We are not really large enough to have 2 tracks in 7th grade. Many students come to us with a range of lower school language learning to no exposure at all and we currently combine them all in one 7th grade class. Any feedback about how you handle this or ideas for this scenario would be appreciated!
Thanks,
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Anne Wentling
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[Laura Anaya de Zuchovicki
Conversa
Founder
laura.zuchovicki@conversaspanish.com
http://www.conversabooks.com/
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Dear Anne,

It is really nice that the scheduling in your school allows such transition, that way you can work in Spanish 1A in 7th grade, and Spanish 1B for 8th grade, right? The only problem that I see is the 7th graders that have had some Spanish or a lot, they won't get as much benefit of your program as if they were in an advance level class; and then placing those "advanced students" in an 8th grade class will cause a hole in your curriculum due to those "7th grade advanced students" getting ahead of the "next year 8th grade class" because you cannot have a separate class for advance students and one for regular students in 8th grade, right?
I would suggest that you start working with a technique called "embedded readings" which will allow you to work with multilevel students. The secret of this reading strategy is that it has basic phrases that will be understood completely by your "very new students", but it will add enough details for the ones advanced. This is the way we deal with multilevel classes since we don't have the luxury of changing the schedules and students switching classes.
The creators of this technique are Laurie Clarcq and Michelle Whaley. Visit their blog and find all kinds of activities that you can apply to your program. http://embeddedreading.com/

Happy Teaching!

Show Original Message -------------------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 01-30-2013 08:16
From: Anne Wentling
Subject: transition from lower school to middle school language


I am wondering how others deal with the transition from the language program of younger learners (K-6) to the upper grades in middle school classes. In 7th grade we currently combine students who have had language classes a few times/week in K-5th with students entering the school new in 7th grade. We are not really large enough to have 2 tracks in 7th grade. Many students come to us with a range of lower school language learning to no exposure at all and we currently combine them all in one 7th grade class. Any feedback about how you handle this or ideas for this scenario would be appreciated!
Thanks,
-------------------------------------------
Anne Wentling
-------------------------------------------

I teach in a K-8 district where the students begin a language in 5th grade.  The middle school is grades 6-8.  We also have a similar situation with how to place students when there is only one language class per grade level.  My colleagues and I developed a World Language Placement Guidelines document.  If you are interested in this, email me at :  tdoering@d181.org

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Theresa Doering
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Show Original Message -------------------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 01-30-2013 08:16
From: Anne Wentling
Subject: transition from lower school to middle school language


I am wondering how others deal with the transition from the language program of younger learners (K-6) to the upper grades in middle school classes. In 7th grade we currently combine students who have had language classes a few times/week in K-5th with students entering the school new in 7th grade. We are not really large enough to have 2 tracks in 7th grade. Many students come to us with a range of lower school language learning to no exposure at all and we currently combine them all in one 7th grade class. Any feedback about how you handle this or ideas for this scenario would be appreciated!
Thanks,
-------------------------------------------
Anne Wentling
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