One of those 'A-ha!' moments

Over the years I have been stymied by the learning process of some of my students- two of my current students have provided me with an epiphany...now I am working out how to address the issue.
What I have noticed
Like any other teacher, I have a wide mix of abilities in my classes- all kids come to Spanish, regardless of whether they are learning disabled, autistic, have speech impediments, etc. Making these kids feel successful is extremely important to me yet it is a continual challenge, particularly as they go through the grades to find those successes. As I mentioned above, two of my current students have provided some insight. Both of these girls are learning disabled...both of them have a great accent in Spanish and both are able to easily and creatively use a wide variety of phrases such as please, thank you, you're welcome, bless you, "how do you say ___ in spanish?", hello, goodbye, etc, yet when faced with a question like "How are you?" or "What color is the ___?" they struggle to come up with an answer. One moment it seems like they are extending and another moment they have great difficulties accessing class. This has puzzled me to no end. I know they both have memory retrieval issues and have challenges recalling information, yet they were using lots of phrases and words appropriately. What was the mystery I was missing?
What I suspect
I believe the solution is in fact simple- situations where only one possibility exists are learnt and recalled better than situations which are open ended and have multiple possibilities. In other words, there is only one word to express "please", but there are many answers to the question "How are you?" (my students have a choice between 12 possibilities by the end of 2nd grade). I suspect these girls' brains are able to pull up and use the vocabulary that falls into the first category- 1 word/phrase for a situation- but can not sift through a set of multiple possibilities in order to choose a specific word/phrase to use. Perhaps their brains are unable to store this information in a manner which allows them to access it later, or the process breaks down before it even gets to the part of the brain where this information is housed, or they can not pick out from what is stored the particular word/phrase they want to use. Certainly amount of usage of vocabulary plays a part- however, we use expressions of courtesy and the question 'how are you' every class, so they are used in equal parts.
Going forward
The challenge for me now is to figure out how I can present vocab for these types of kids (because I have many like this, not just these two girls) in a way which mimics the '1 word/phrase for a situation' phenomonen while at the same time integrating it into a 'multiple possibilities' framework. I shall ponder this further....

A clever mistake

Today in one of my first grade classes we were reviewing the names of some farm animals that we had learnt in kindergarten. We came to 'sheep' and in the picture I was showing was also a lamb. One of my students said, "Well, that must be lambo, which would be a boy, and if it was a girl it would be lamba." I asked him to explain his statement, whereupon he said 'O's are for boys and 'a's are for girls....my students have lots of experience with gender endings, starting with 'niño' and 'niña' in kindergarten. Though the o's and a's won't forever suffice (wait for mapa and mano and problema and so on!) the concept is well accepted with my students and as in this case, is well understood, even if the words he made up are incorrect. So smart!

Arpilleras, Part 3

And so, the people and animals are made. Though the kids will eventually get to take them home, first I safety pin them to a large arpillera background I made several years ago. When it's full, it's really a sight!
This is the kind of project to call the local newspaper about...great PR for your program!

Arpilleras, Part 2

The backgrounds finished, it is time to make little people and animals to populate it. I found head beads in Oriental Trading Company several years ago and they work really well for this part of the project. (You will need to go to their website; the head beads never show up in their catalog) I make the bodies out of pipe cleaners, put the head on the bodies, and use sheep wool and alpaca fur for the hair. I would have the kids make the bodies, but it would take too much time and frankly, many of them don't have the fine motor to be able to do it without loads of assistance. Needless to say, it is a lot of prep for me, but well worth it.


We use pieces of fabric to dress the people and half a pipe cleaner for the belt.
The animals are wrapped with yarn to give them some 'fur' - super easy and super cute!

Arpilleras, Part 1

Every March my first graders learn about Peruvian arpilleras- I like how concrete an example they are of cultural perspective. Though I do not go into the origins of the arpilleras (orginally from Chile, made to preserve and record life in rural areas as a political statement), they are so powerful visually in their representations of ordinary life that I think they convey a lot of information all on their own.
One of my standards is to have my kids participate in cultural activities- often this takes the form of authentic games and songs. I have had to modify the making of arpilleras to make them more accessible and practical for my classroom. Part one is the creation of the background.Using construction paper and a collage technique, kids made scenes inspired by the arpilleras I have and pictures I showed them of rural life in the Andes Mountains of Perú. In addition, I cut out tree shapes from fabric which kids used to make trees and shrubs. We brainstormed ideas before we started- what did we see in the arpilleras I showed them- houses, mountains, trees, gardens, streams, fruits, grass, etc. I specifically told them not to include people and animals, as that will be Part 2. Stay tuned!

An easy piñata

I love bringing piñatas into class, but frankly, I just can't afford to buy piñatas for all of my classes- it isn't in my budget. So, I go the less expensive route- I make paper bag piñatas. Besides, in a twenty minute class, there is no way (unless there is a very lucky hit) that we can break a piñata in that time. Sometimes we barely get the paper bag broken before I have to return my kiddos to their gen ed classrooms.
Paper bag piñatas are easy to make:
-buy a gift bag at your local store (Walmart sells them for a dollar)
-decorate with streamers, pictures, stickers, whatever
-stuff with candy

Tip: Instead of just putting a bunch of candy in the bag, use snack bags to create one for each student. I put their names on the bags and make sure each bag has the same amount of candy. When the piñata is broken, there are no hogs and no kiddos with nothing. (Thanks to Stephanie, one of our 2nd grade teachers for this idea!)

Play a little fiesta music (Dále, dále, dále) and you are good to go! ¡Viva la piñata!

¡Feliz cumpleaños Pepita!

Yes, we celebrate Pepita's (our puppet friend) birthday! It's an authentic, real reason to use birthday greetings and vocabulary while at the same time having fun and using our imagination. One of the activities we do is make birthday cards for her. We brainstorm possibilities for greetings, messages, and leavetakings that can be used in the cards prior to starting on the cards themselves. The key for me is to get the students to use vocabulary they know (we do a lot of activities with greetings, leavetakings, etc as well as common expressions for writing letters and notecards). Here are some examples from my second grade classes:

This little girl added a speech bubble saying 'gracias' for the mouse who is receiving the gift. Love the good manners and creativity! (I do correct spelling but hadn't gotten to this one prior to taking the picture).
This is the inside of a card. The message is simple, basic, and yet effective and meaningful!

I use word banks for my second graders when they are doing writing activities. Each child gets a word bank to work with. As students become accustomed to using word banks they develop dictionary skills and the ability to access resources at their disposal, instead of constantly relying on me. As well, it ensures good spelling habits and reinforces literacy skills.

We are always trying to bring the real world into our foreign language classroom- writing cards and having celebrations are great ways to do so!