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I think it’s important that we touch upon history, science, math, and all the other curricula in our Spanish class to show that these things are done in this language. In different countries that are Spanish-speaking countries, they do study science. They do study history. They study math. So do we. But when you put it in that kind of a context, the emphasis is not anymore on trying to acquire the language.
– John Pedini
YEAR AT A GLANCE
Review of seventh-grade themes and grammar
El Ecuador: Talking on the Phone
El Ecuador: Meals and Food
Texas: Shopping
Puerto Rico: Health
Puerto Rico: Vacations
Final assessments and final projects for the full two-year course
John Pedini teaches seventh- and eighth-grade French and Spanish at the Michael Driscoll School in Brookline, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. The school’s 400 students in grades K-8 are largely from the Washington Square community, a culturally diverse neighborhood with a large immigrant population. The school hosts Brookline’s Russian bilingual program, and all students in grades 1-6 study Mandarin Chinese. In the seventh grade, students can begin the two-year Spanish program — an equivalent of one year of high school Spanish. In the videotaped classroom, students had been speaking solely in Spanish during class since October of the eighth grade.
The Driscoll foreign languages department determines their curricula using the Brookline Learning Expectations and the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks (see Resources). The Learning Expectations describes the topics and performance levels that students are expected to master at each grade level. For the Spanish program, the department also chose a textbook that addressed all of the themes they had selected and that supported their proficiency-based curriculum. When designing his lessons, Mr. Pedini customizes the curriculum to meet his students’ needs, and uses the book and ancillary materials to reinforce student learning.
The videotaped lesson was a culminating activity that got students actively involved with food and numbers vocabulary. One of the teaching methods that Mr. Pedini used was Total Physical Response Storytelling, in which he wrote an original, engaging, and age-appropriate story that built on his students’ previous vocabulary knowledge while introducing new words. To strengthen the activity, he used key elements of the TPRS formula in his story: an exaggerated narrative, a short list of new words, a repetition of key words, and three different scenarios. He also included opportunities for students to retell the story and to answer questions to demonstrate their comprehension.
Mr. Pedini began using TPRS after attending a workshop by Blaine Ray in September 2001. “I said, ‘Wow, this makes a lot of sense,'” recalls Mr. Pedini. “So, of course, I immediately went back and used it.” At another conference he attended, Mr. Pedini got the idea of using points to help motivate his students. He awards points to students based on their participation during activities, and takes away points if students speak in English. Students can then trade in their points at the end of the term to improve their grades.