I never thought of Vocabulary as a problem, honestly. In fact, if anything, I probably taught too much of it before. I wanted my students to know all of the words on their list, plus add cultural terms, etc. As we transitioned from textbooks, we played with a lot of different vocabulary strategies (some of which my colleagues are still using!
For example, I began by having my students bring in vocabulary as part of their homework assignment. We would work together to create a collaborative list that they thought was valuable and I would add on the words that I thought they needed to know. These lists generally ended up in the 40-50 word range, and we sometimes made two or three lists per unit, depending on the unit.
The next step was to allow the students to create their own lists in a Google Doc. There is some danger to this, obviously. I had to stay in the Doc with them and monitor their chats and the appropriateness of the words they were choosing. But, it did give them more agency and make the activity less teacher-centered.
I still maintain some of these lists in our student portal as resources for my students today. They can't possibly reflect everything that we've covered in class, but they can be a good jump-start for my students who need that support system to begin their studying.
I went to an ACTFL session a few years ago about ditching the vocab list (thanks Amy Lenord!!) and became super convicted about this idea. Mostly, when she asked "If you want your students to stop translating everything into English, why are you giving them a list of words translated into English?" Oh. Yeah. About that. Also, she pointed out that my control of the list did not necessarily serve the best interest of my students or their engagement with how the language could benefit their own life.
SO, here's what I do now. We cover a LOT of vocabulary in class. I allow students to be on WordReference constantly in those first days, looking up any word they want to say to complete our activities and express themselves on our topic. Occasionally, I'll create a more interactive activity with some recommended vocabulary (ex: Animals http://bit.ly/2vMlFor / Food http://bit.ly/2HWgVit) but sometimes I will just let them decide. See the photos below for days when we were learning adjectives and houses, for example:
The most important aspect of this was changing how I assess vocabulary. If there wasn't a specific list, and if I truly wanted students to internalize the vocabulary that mattered most to them, I had to assess in more creative ways. Particularly on quizzes and tests! I started to just tell students to use a certain number of new words in each activity, rather than ask for specific words. So, here's an example of what the first page of most of my tests looks like now (this is from a class at the university level, but the format is the same for my high school classes): http://bit.ly/2Hsiesw
Sometimes I will even mimic the format you see above and give them a picture and ask them to describe it using whatever words they know.
In my upper level courses this year, I also experimented with having students keep individualized lists. Both in my French 3 course (which was project-based, so each student needed different vocabulary) and in my AP course (where my students were at different levels), I had students keep a running Google Doc of vocabulary that they learned throughout the unit. Because my courses were small, I could then create individualized assessments for each student. Not sure I would recommend that with big classes, though! You would have to create one very general assessment to allow them to use those words.
So, that's where I am! Let me know what you think!
Hi guys! I am Rachel, a French teacher in Georgia. Over the last few years, I have started to experiment with more and more things in my classroom, from flexible seating to choice boards to eliminating vocabulary lists. I want to start posting some of my crazy things here, to get feedback but also just to document what worked and what didn't work, from long projects to daily activities.
How I got to "PBL"
This year, I have a French 3 class that is a weird composition - everything from sophomores to seniors, some just fulfilling their requirement, others pursuing a passion for language. I decided that my traditional curriculum wouldn't cut it, so I needed to try something new. Because I'm never one for moving slowly, I jumped in with my first attempt at Project Based Learning. Now please, if you're a PBL expert, don't criticize my lack of terminology or expertise here! I had been to some sessions at ACTFL and SCOLT, and consulted with my friend who works in gamification educational technology, but I was not (and AM NOT) an expert. This is me experimenting as I go!
So, I spent the summer designing driving questions for each unit. These were basically the only guidelines that I gave, except for requiring a certain number of homework assignments throughout the unit. Here are my driving questions for my three units:
1) How can I tell a life story without simply relating the facts?
2) How does the way that people get their news influence their opinion about it or relationship to it?
3) How can I educate my peers about an environmental problem?
Project #1: How can I tell a life story without simply relating the facts?
For the first project, most students still chose to write a biography, but from a specific perspective (with a personal connection to them, etc.) It was the first project, so I wasn't surprised that it was the least innovative. Here are photos of the best project I received:
She did all the stitching work herself!
This is my student (in her own drawing!) being told fairy tales by her father at a young age, and wanting to explore their origins.
Here she's lamenting the amount of information She did also add in some non-original
that she could find on Perrault. His stories are more artwork to show important places in
famous than he is, she concludes. Perrault's life.
Project #2: How does the way that people get their news affect the reaction to it?
This project was more interesting because it was so wide open. There was no right answer and no clear-cut sort of project. We worked through politics and media vocabularies as the students explored their opinions and the opinions of those around them. In the end, one student chose to survey his peers, his parents, and his teachers and to write an essay (4 pages in French!) about his findings. Another student chose to create an animated video mocking the various stereotypes of news sources. The increased freedom led to increased variety, which was awesome. Here are some examples:
Here's her video (newscaster, Twitter star, university intellectual, and TV news person)
This is the beginning of the surveyed research paper
Project #3: How can I educate my peers about an environmental issue?
This project had the added component that it had to be able to be shared with their peers. This meant that they had to create an English version and a French version. I had everything from a traditional tri-fold poster board to be displayed, to a seven page cartoon that will be published on our school newspaper's website, to a video game programmed by a student to help students learn what they can and cannot recycle. So cool! These are a little harder to share, so I will work on ways to share pictures or video with you. I was really pleased to see the increase in variety and creativity over the course of the three projects, as students took more risks and tried more things. In this last project, even though students had the most time to complete the project, they ran into more hurdles and had more trouble meeting deadlines. BUT, it was because they had tackled riskier projects and so more unexpected complications arose. I was happy to accommodate in the interest of more exciting work.
Day to day in the classroom
This is what I was most nervous about, starting in PBL. I did not know what the day to day would look like or how I would organize my class. I am the sort of OCD teacher who usually has every day planned out for the entire year in August, so this was a serious adventure. Here is the rhythm that I have more or less established now:
- Mondays are saved as "teaching" days. I plan out in advance the vocabulary or structures that I think the students might need to complete that project and we focus on one a week. Monday is my day to introduce it via a variety of activities.
- Tuesday is usually a practice day. We'll continue with what we did on Monday if it wasn't totally clear, or finish up any practice we were doing with the vocabulary and or structure. Sometimes I will complicate it just a little more.
- Many weeks, I turned Wednesday and Thursday into "mini-project" days. I would assign a mini-project (create a 30 second campaign video / design an environmental superhero / etc.) and give the students these two class days to create it. There was always a focus on using whatever our weekly concentration was, as well as often requiring the students to record their voice as an oral component.
- On weeks when we did not do "mini-projects", I would have a check-in meeting with the students. I tried to do three of these per project (although in the first project I only got two done). These were not long conversations, usually under 5 minutes per student. They did allow me to check up on progress, however, as well as assess an interpersonal speaking component.
- Friday was quiz day! Because I gave no tests, obviously, these little quizzes gave me a chance to check up on their mastery of the new concepts before the final project came in. Often later in the unit, the students submitted their own personal vocabulary lists or grammar focus for the week and I would make them a more personalized quiz.
That was my overall structure!
Takeaways
I feel like I will do this process even better into next year. Originally, my homework assignments were too specific and students were not interested in them - they also did not permit students to explore the interests related to their project! Now, I give a more generic choice board that allows them to find their own articles and videos with which to interact (see below). They have to complete a certain number from each category by the end of the unit, but they control the when and the how. They submit a calendar to me in the first week of the project.
I also think my weekly structure will allow for more creativity next year. This year, I needed to design a clear rhythm to help me survive and make sure I was best helping my students progress. It took me several months to get the hang of the "mini-project" idea and best implement it. Next year, I feel like I will be able to be freer, as I am more confident in what I am doing.
Finally, I have had to be very intentional about creating speaking opportunities because so many days are spent working on projects. There are many speaking homework options, as well as the mini-projects. This year, I had a very small class, so it made this even more of a challenge. My hope next year is to incorporate more interpersonal speaking into the day-to-day class with a larger group.
Ok, that was SUPER long as a first post! I'm sorry if I bored you, but I hope you saw something that interests you. I would love your feedback and any ideas you might have about how I can grow and improve this system! Thanks for reading!
