The Digigals, Jennifer and Theresa, have written a combined 120 novels for world language classes. Listen with us as the Digilangua creators, known as the Digigals in their dynamic duo, answer real community questions from the Practical Proficiency Network teachers about how to better use novels in the target language to promote literacy and acquisition in world language.
Check out Digilangua - an e-reader platform for comprehensible novels: https://www.digilangua.net/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up?
Que lo que Et salut worldlanguage teachers.
Welcome to the PracticalProficiency Podcast, where we
make the transition toproficiency-oriented instruction
in your world language class ina way that works for you, your
unique context and teachingstyle, and doesn't sacrifice
(00:21):
your well-being along the way.
I'm your host, devon Gunning,the teacher author, conference
host, curriculum creator andconsultant behind La Libre
Language Learning.
This podcast is for thecreative world language teacher
like you who's ready to ditchthe overwhelming pressure of
switching to acquisition-driveninstruction and CI overnight.
(00:42):
You're ready to discover howusing more target language in
class can actually bring you andyour students more joy instead
of adding to your plate.
With practical, authentic anddown-to-earth strategies that
don't require reinventing thewheel or more training, we'll
work together towards the magicof a community-based,
(01:04):
target-language-rich classroomrooted in the power of community
and comprehensible input.
Let's go with my guest today onthe Practical Proficiency
(01:27):
Podcast.
If you are watching this, youget to see the wonderful Jen
Dagenhart and Teresa Marama arehere from the DigiGals to talk
all your questions about usingnovels and expanding literacy in
the world language classroom.
So y'all get really excited.
We were just chatting beforethis that, like I put on mascara
for this.
It's a big deal.
We're so excited for you tolearn about this.
(01:47):
This is a really excitingpartnership that I'm starting
with DigiLangua to make surethat it is easier than ever for
you to work with novels in yourclassroom.
I'm so excited for them to talkmore about all the knowledge
that they have.
They actually shared a lot ofthese amazing ideas about
literacy in the world languageclassroom by coming in and
(02:08):
giving an amazing, dazzlingworkshop with the Practical
Proficiency Network, and so theyhad this amazing idea of, after
we did this workshop, let's godo this on the podcast and use
these real questions from realteachers about what it looks
like to be promoting moreliteracy through novels in the
classroom.
So, without further ado, we'regoing to answer some of these
(02:32):
awesome questions from y'all thecommunity.
First, I want to give y'all achance to introduce yourselves
and talk a little bit more abouthow amazing you are, jen start
us off.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Bit more about how amazing you are, jen.
Start us off.
Hi, I'm Jen Degenhardt.
I have been a Spanish teacherfor over 30 years.
Currently I'm teaching at thecollege level and I'm the author
of about 40 stories, buttranslated to other languages.
I've about published 105 booksand I am half of the DigiGal
extravaganza here and thrilledto let you know about our
(03:10):
platform and some ideas to getyou started with reading,
because we need to be doing moreof it in the class and it
really does lessen your load asa teacher.
So, terry, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah, so thanks for having us, devin.
We're excited to be here.
I'm Teresa Orama and I'm aFrench teacher in northern New
York.
I've been teaching for 18 yearsand I also have published some
novels in French that have beenadapted to Spanish, italian,
german and English, so we hopewe can share some fun
information with you aboutreaders today.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, boom, all right .
Well, perfect, let's get intoit.
I mean, y'all they got matchingjackets, they got the books
with them.
This is how you know it's real.
This is how you know.
So here's the first questionthat a member from this program
asked.
That is a great way to start usoff is just thinking about well
, when you want to get startedwith a class novel, what does
(04:09):
that look like?
And somebody was askingspecifically about the novel
Xenics, for, like, how do I getstarted with some pre-reading
activities?
How do you prime the pump forthis?
So walk us through what thislooks like if you want to start
with novels as a whole classtogether.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
I'll jump in.
Okay, you jump in, it's yourbook.
So I happen to teach Zeniquesto my French four students and I
always start pre-reading withjust priming the pump with
questions that are going to getthe students engaged and
connected to the themes in thebook.
But specifically with that book, there's a lot of geography
that can be discussed ahead oftime map chats.
The book is based on art, right, so it's the first female
(04:58):
graffiti artist from Senegal.
Africa is the story, is thestory and just asking you know
what is art, what do you see asart?
So, finding the themes woven inthe novels which there are many
different novels with differentthemes and knowing what's going
to adhere and connect most withyour students, and finding ways
to ask questions that are goingto get your students thinking
(05:19):
about the topics and interestedin what they're about to read, I
second that.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I think getting students interested in what's
going to happen, what's going tocome up in the book, is key.
And for a this is not about ZenInks, because I don't teach
that, I teach Spanish but for anovel that I'm reading this
semester with my students, I hadto pre-teach a lot of the
history, and even in English,just so they would have a basis
for what's going on and you knowwhat takes place in the story
(05:53):
and why.
So you know going into historya little bit of very basic
economics.
Geography is wonderful andthat's a great discussion.
Just reviewing cardinaldirections is getting kids
involved and and they like thefact that they can get the
answers right away, like theyknow that they know geography
and you can review that with amap.
(06:14):
So there's a whole bunch ofthings to get started.
What else do you do Terry with?
With Xenix?
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Well, the map chat.
I have to tell a really funnystory.
It just happened today becauseI'm introducing, I'm doing
pre-reading right now withZenique, so it's kind of cool.
This question came up and wedid geography chat, map chat,
and today one of the students Iasked the question in French,
you know, does Senegal haveaccess to a sea or to an ocean?
(06:42):
Is it on a port right?
And they're like oh yeah, Iknow this, it's the Atlantic
Ocean, it's right next to theAtlantic Ocean.
Of course, it was all in Frenchand they're like I don't think
I would have known thatotherwise unless we talked about
this, like thought about whatocean is near Africa, you know,
on the eastern, yeah, thewestern coast of Africa.
And they're like we justrandomly learned.
(07:04):
I'm like well, this isimportant, it's world geography,
so it is very relevant.
When you say it's relevant,it's relevant.
They need to know this stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
It's important.
That's so cool that you'redoing it right now in real time.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
It's real and it's really cool.
We talk about some of theartwork that's actually
displayed in, like you know, theMetropolitan Art Museum in New
York City and the MoMA, andthey're like wait, are those
both in New York City?
So like there were things thatthey put together for their own
state, that they live in, thatthey didn't even think about.
(07:42):
Oh wait, those are two majorart museums that are located in
New York city.
I didn't never realize theywere in the same city, right?
So it's kind of cool.
Like they didn't know that arttraveled from one place to the
other.
Like they exhibit, yeah, so itwas cool, things that we talked
about.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I think, as teachers, if we go in thinking not in a
negative way, just thinking thatthey first of all they don't
know what they don't know andit's not their fault.
So just make it an exploratorything, invite them to be curious
about things, to make thosekinds of connections, because
curiosity is what's going tolead to more learning and when
(08:23):
they're excited about it itcould be the dullest piece of
reading ever.
I've written a few of those andthey're still interested
because they can find some sortof nugget to latch onto for the
rest of the time.
You're doing the story.
So getting students' interest,piquing their interest is so
important.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
And pictures too.
I'll throw pictures up on myboard of just everyday life in
Senegal today now and I'm likewhat do you notice?
What do you see?
How does this compare to whereyou live?
So, just getting them thinkingabout life in Senegal, life in
Africa and some things they'resurprised about and other things
(09:05):
they're like oh I, you know,that doesn't.
I figured that or I didn't know.
They wore really bright colorsor it was.
You know, wow, their flag isreally different, like even down
to the flag and the colors oftheir flag.
So that was all part of mypre-reading activity stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
And the magic of that , too, really speaks to me as
the teacher who's like oh,that's not going to take a lot
of prep.
Like you could Google search acouple images really quickly.
I don't have to make a bunch ofpre-made questions you get to.
It sounds like what you'redoing with them is you get to
flow with what their owncuriosity is, and so you don't.
There's not a lot of prepinvolved with that, but even
(09:45):
better, you get to fly in themoment with what students are
saying, what they're actuallyinterested in and where the
conversation takes you.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Which is the beauty of teaching with the novels.
It opens up this whole otherdiscussion that may never have
happened if you don't have thosenovels as like a pinpoint.
You know it's really, it's fun,they enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
And organic conversation too, and I think
that that getting studentsinvolved in in conversation and
realizing you know what can comenext, and teaching students
that well, maybe, if you don'thave anything to say, then ask a
question.
And I find sometimes you knowmaybe not with the college
students so much, but withyounger kids that really their
(10:29):
conversation skills are a littlebit lacking.
A little bit lacking right now,even in English, even in, you
know, in their native language.
So, or or whomever you know,whatever native language they
have, and just getting themthinking like okay, well, what's
the next logical question?
If you say that Senegal is inAfrica, you know?
My next logical question iswhere in Africa?
(10:49):
And asking and really you knowlatching on to that word why,
why, why?
That will always generate moreconversation.
I know I've spoken with someteachers who are hesitant to do
this kind of lesson becausethey're not very confident in
their own speaking skills.
This is one way to improve yourspeaking skills.
(11:10):
They don't remember, they don'tknow if you're making a mistake
.
Okay.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
And the beauty, Jen, the beauty of that is like you
said, Devin, you don't have toscript anything out, but if
you're not comfortable enoughwith it yet the topic or it is,
you can script it out you cantake the time script it out.
So you do have that.
I don't know the um supportright.
Your cheat sheet.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Your cheat sheet yes, language chunks of your own
yeah that's a really great wayto get started like, especially
with the, with the pre-readingactivities, with the novels.
And I want to draw back to the,the conversation that we had
last week, like while we were asa group with with my members,
that you said something reallycrucial here, both of y'all that
(11:57):
it's a good idea, before youstart doing something a little
bit more loose like free,voluntary reading, that it's a
good idea to start with a wholeclass novel first, which I've
never heard before.
I was like, oh, I wish I knewthat earlier, because it is
really helpful.
Tell us more about why youthink that's a really important
first step to do.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
You want me to go first?
Sure, I'll go first, okay, Ithink.
Well, students aren't readingas much as they used to anymore,
and I think any time that wehave the opportunity to teach
students how to read, and how toread well, it's beneficial.
And if you're going through thenovel together, you get to the
(12:42):
opportunity to point out whatthey already know.
You know, doing a cognatesearch and making sure, say
really so.
So basically, what's what isthat paragraph saying?
Okay, well, you know the, therat is, or the mouse is afraid
of the cat, or not afraid of thecat, or something like that.
I'm using one of Teresa's novels, or or the.
(13:03):
The main character is writingsome text messages to her friend
and really, that's really allyou need to know, right, that's
going on in the chapter, it'snot, they don't need to know
every single word.
And to lessen that fear, youknow, lower that effective
filter, that, don't worry, youdon't know every single word in
(13:23):
English either.
Just press on, my friend, it'sgoing to be okay.
And um, and choosing a novelfor your first class novel.
That might be a little bitlower than the level that
they're in.
So they're like, yeah, I canread this, right, and getting
really excited to uh building upthat confidence.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
What did I forget?
No, that's great, and youtouched upon everything.
I think too is like with thecomprehensible novels, my
students, we I have the samestudents for five years in a row
and still some of them I'm likethere's a glossary in the back
of the book, that last thing,what a word means.
And I'm like there's theglossary, like Like, you can do
(14:04):
all this on your own, really,once I teach you how to do it.
So here are the tools.
We just have to show them howto use the tools, and I think by
reading the class novel first,together, you're showing them
how to use the tools that theyhave right in their hand, which
is the book that has everythingfootnoted or glossed in the back
of the book.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
So I just think it's important to model that before
we send them off to grab a bookand expect them to know how to
use it properly.
I you know.
Adding on to that, thatfootnote thing.
It came up even in college andthese are not first year college
students coming in and I said Iasked them what the word meant
and they said I don't know.
And I said it's footnoted onthe page.
I said do you see the littlenumber after the?
I mean really this is theconversation we had.
(14:50):
Do you see the little numberafter the word yes?
Okay, well, then move your eyesdown to the bottom of the page.
I mean they just skip over thatstuff.
So I mean these are all skillsthat are cross-curricular.
So that's wonderful to promotethat.
And with these comprehensiblenovels too, the glossaries are
comprehensive.
Every word in the story isglossed in the back of the book,
(15:13):
so there should be no problemwhatsoever in finding what the
meaning of a word is.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Oh, and that's like the brilliance of this being
such a big time saver thing isdoing a novel with your class.
I remember when I was doing anovel with my class, it's the oh
my God, like all the work isdone for me, Like I can do weeks
and weeks of content like this.
It's all here in this one book.
I don't have to make new stuffto talk about every day with
students and all the scaffoldingis a lot of it's already in the
(15:44):
book with the glossary andeverything.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
It really is like a huge time saver it is amazing,
it's amazing and it's and notonly a time saver but it's a
connective tissue from class toclass.
If you're only doing littlemini units every day, you know
some kids don't, um, you know,can't cut back into it, right.
But with the novel, you juststart out the next day like, ok,
(16:07):
remind us what's going on, youknow two to three minutes and
then move on into the lesson.
Right, just like those mathteachers who get to review the
homework I mean, I was alwaysjealous of them who got to
review the homework and thenmove into the new stuff.
But this is a way to keep youknow, keep what's current with
the students and remind them.
Okay, remember, we're readingabout this, these are the
(16:29):
characters, what's going on.
And again, you know, with thecomprehensible input, it's
repetition, repetition,repetition, input, input, input.
So it's okay if you'rerepeating, it's okay, the ones
that need it, we'll get itrepeating.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
It's okay, the ones that need it will get it.
Oh, that's so good and it's anice reminder too.
Is that students like comingback to the same language over
and over again?
And with a novel, it gives thema fun way to do it because
they're reading a story.
That's what we want to doanyways.
All right, we got anotherquestion with this too, and so,
when it comes to, as you'restarting to Like what happens
with the, do you do writingactivities with this?
(17:26):
Like, do you have to doaccountability with novels?
What is what's your stance onlike doing activities as you go
along with the novel?
Speaker 3 (17:40):
I'll start.
So for me, I have five preps soI teach five different classes
every day and every class Iteach a novel every quarter.
So that's four times five is 20books, right?
I, for sanity purposes, I haveaccountability, but it's just in
different ways, based on howmuch my students can do, right?
(18:02):
So, for example, accountabilitywriting might be for my level
fours where we've read a couplechapters.
I put an opinion question on theboard and they walk in my room
and let's say it's a bell ringer, kenyon, does Zenix really love
the art that she does?
(18:23):
And why?
You know, why do you think theart that's happening in the book
is important to the people ofSenegal?
You know something just to getthem thinking.
But stuff, I know that if theyneed the book with them while
they complete the writingaccountability activity, they
can use the book to help them.
(18:43):
So they have the scaffoldingright.
But it's my way of getting themto reread, it's tricking them to
reread.
So I do a bunch of differentthings like that and it might
not be a bell ringer.
We read the chapter and then Iwill put a list of specific
things I want them to pull outof the chapter or the problems
(19:06):
in the chapter and my seventhgraders can do it in French or
they can do it in English, soit's whatever they're
comfortable with, right.
So not not forcing them output,but allowing them to reread, to
be part of the review orwhatever activity is to promote
the discussion.
Jen, do you have certain thingsthat I?
(19:29):
I mean that's a very broadanswer.
There's a ton of things I do,but those are some ideas.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah too.
Well, sometimes we readtogether and then I will just
ask questions about what's goingon, just to check for
understanding.
And I don't do as muchaccountability as I would if I
were teaching high school ormiddle school because you know
the onus really is on thestudent at the college level.
But I have, you know, I havethem work in a workbook, you
(19:59):
know, and answer the questions,but that's just to practice
their writing skills and with nopenalty.
It's practice.
So you do it, do it well, workwith somebody if you don't know
how to do it.
Well, I mean, language is askill rather than something to
be mastered by or some certainamount of content to be mastered
(20:22):
, and I think that you know.
I just asked my students thisweek, you know, what do you
think about second languagelearning?
And they came up with somegreat things.
Like you know, we don't havethe culture in this country that
really values learning languageand it's so important to do.
And for my courses, and I thinkwhen I taught high school too,
(20:44):
I don't want to kill that spirit.
Like, if they're you know theywant to learn.
Like, have at it, pick thewords you want to learn, you
know if you want to talk about.
You know Dungeons and Dragons.
Go ahead, learn those words.
I don't know them.
You know, I know I could make adragon, but I don't know what a
dungeon is.
And you know, I know I couldmake up dragon, but I don't know
what a dungeon is, and you know, and we'll just, we'll just
(21:04):
figure it out, but you know,I'll get interested because the
student is interested.
You know that sort of thing.
I mean, um, I have a lot ofstudents who are business majors
and finance majors, but very,very not so exciting to me,
right, but I'm into becausethey're into it.
They want to learn that vocab.
I'll figure it out, you knowthat kind of thing.
Or help them discuss what theywant to with words that they
(21:26):
know.
Ok, early words that I know.
Let's be honest about that.
So I even forgot the question.
So here we go.
We're just having a middle agemoment.
So the accountability, oh, theaccountability, yeah, I mean I
don't do as much as I wouldbecause I the assumption is that
they're going to come in and doit, and I think if you create
(21:46):
that atmosphere where you lowerthat effective filter and
everything's not so gradeoriented, that they might
actually just do the work.
I'm finding that more thissemester than I have since I
started teaching college andI've just let it be like just
come in, I want you to learnsomething, I want you to learn
something.
I want you to learn something,I want you to be thinkers.
(22:07):
You know we are a veryprivileged group of people here
in this class.
Be thinkers, and I just invitethat, and I've gotten a lot of
success so far.
I mean success.
So far.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I mean, we've only had four classes, so stand by,
yeah, but it's great.
It's great With my lower levelkiddos.
I'm the teacher who has like 50questions either, or right.
So they're hearing a millionrepetitions of like il est grand
, il est petit, il est en garçon.
You know what I mean.
So I come up with tons of thatand then I'll put it on the
board and it's already madebecause I used a novel or taught
(22:50):
it before.
So I do a lot of either orstuff with my younger level
kiddos, or true, false stuff,where you know I'll have them
create a few sentences from eachchapter and then they have to
decide what's true, what's false, or ways to get them up and
moving.
There's so many different ways.
It's just a matter of whatlevel are your students and what
(23:11):
do you expect of them.
Right, what do you know theycan do and not do?
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Right, because, again , to get them to want to be in
the class and learn anotherlanguage, it can't be.
You know a pressure cooker andyou know.
And if some activities work foryour students and some don't
pick the ones that do, okay,like there are people I know
there are people out there tosay you should do this activity
this way, well, listen, if itdoesn't work that way, then then
(23:38):
really, I mean here's this isgoing to be winner.
Winner chicken dinner advicefor me Don't do it.
If it's not working, don't doit.
Okay, I mean yeah, they pay methe big bucks over there.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
So there's so many options that people can do with
novels Like you can even likecheck in with the English
department and see, like, whatare some ways that you check for
understanding at the end of anovel.
But the heart of what I'mhearing from both of you is that
it's so much more fun, so muchmore engaging and so much more
personalized when you givestudents the opportunities to
(24:12):
explore their own language,explore their own interests and
help foster a sense of curiositywith working with the
activities that you know thatthey like and are going to let
them have.
Still working with language ina structured way, like you said,
like with level ones, you'regiving them either or questions,
but you know the questions thatdon't work.
You toss them and you move onto the next one and don't lose
(24:35):
sleep over it.
So it's the same type ofaccountability activities that
you would do with other things,but it seems like novels in
general from what you're sayingtoo.
The beauty of it is that it'ssupposed to ignite an excitement
for learning about somethingnew.
So accountability isn't really afull focus of what you're
trying to do, like literacy isthe focus.
(24:55):
So I have a.
I have a spontaneous question,since we're on it, just thinking
about it.
Like you've talked about howimportant literacy is in the
classroom, especially in worldlanguage, what is it about
literacy that you think reallyhelps with being a language
teacher and helping to fostermore words in people's heads and
(25:17):
with helping them to understandthat whole, like understanding
more language and appreciatinglanguage more?
Like what the focus on literacy?
What?
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Do you have?
I have an answer yes, go ahead,okay, I well, I, I think
students should read and I thinkyou know, the the more words
that you have in your brain, themore thoughts you can come up
with in different ways.
And I mean, yeah, so this again, paying me the big bucks, but
and coming up with connectionsbetween the languages and also
(25:52):
connections you know within,within the target language
itself.
We were just talking todayabout pensamientos and
sentimientos, so thoughts andfeelings, and we, it was on, it
was on a vocabulary quiz.
A vocabulary quiz I gave onlyto get them there on time, not
(26:13):
because I really care if theygot a good grade, okay.
So, yeah, I gotta, I gotta workwith what I got here and they
were all on time, on time.
And so in thinking like, okay,well, pensamiento, where does it
?
What verb does that come from?
Oh, pensar, and then you canbring up I like this stuff, like
oh, and the word pensive inEnglish, three for one.
(26:44):
Right there, you got two wordsin Spanish, one in English and
you're heading on to your SATsif you're going that route.
Sentimiento and the questionsthat were generated in class
today were good, like, well,sentir, you know that means to
feel right and I said, yeah,sentimiento here, you know,
pensamiento here and just makingthose connections for students.
And it's not about checking abox.
(27:04):
You know, we've just gotten sorubric and so pyramided and so
box checked.
Okay, I made up all that stuffall by myself.
Right now, that it's not.
We're not allowing students tothink and they like it, they
love it when they can put somestuff together like, oh yeah,
(27:26):
that's great.
I mean so and I think also myother, my other comment about
reading in in a target languageis it's more of a game, right,
for students.
I mean English reading isdrudgery because we've made
reading, you know, something notto be enjoyed.
(27:47):
I don't know why, because it'sso wonderful, but reading in
English is drudgery.
And well, don't get me startedabout why they teach the Odyssey
in the ninth grade, becausethat's a whole other thing
altogether right, give themsomething that's accessible to
them where they're going to divein.
You can do the hero's journeyand a whole bunch of other
(28:07):
novels, just saying folks, butalso, like you know, trying to
put stuff together, becauseanother language is kind of like
a puzzle and I don't know.
It sort of removes the.
I think it removes the stressif the teacher allows for that
stress removal.
Just make sure that you keeprepeating it's okay if you don't
know all the words, it's okayif you don't get anything, it
(28:31):
will come because it will.
It will because you've alreadyproven, you've done it once, you
already speak one language, youalready communicate in one
language.
And allowing them to just relaxBecause a lot of them also said
to me in their responses to thequestion this week was I had
some really bad experiences inhigh school and I said I get it,
(28:51):
my friend, I get it.
You know, don't grammar them todeath.
I just made that a verb, See.
I mean, we know what I'mtalking about when I say don't
grammar them to death.
It's not a verb.
I don't think it's a verb, butdon't do it.
Ok, don't do it.
And, but you know, allow forthat communication.
You'll be surprised what theycome up with.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
In the sense of success and the way the students
feel when they complete areader as opposed to completing
reader, as opposed to completinga vocabulary quiz.
Right Like, where's the win?
Where's the win in that?
Like?
The students were all like Icannot believe we read four
books this year, like, and wecan talk about them freely in
(29:33):
the target language.
I mean, my seventh graders canby the end of the year and it's
like now isn't that something tobe like?
Pat yourself on the back for it.
That's a huge accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Especially, I think, for for those kids who come in,
like your seventh graders, Terry, who come in not knowing
anything and then they're ableto read a book by the end of the
year.
I mean that's fascinating.
It always fascinates me.
Level one is my favorite.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
And it's so cool to see their, their gains right,
their progress yeah, absolutely,and not everybody progresses at
the same time.
But just to see that they canput a word on the paper that
makes sense to what we read inthe last five chapters, like
that's a win it is.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
It's a total win it's a win and I think you know
that's where we get into, whereyou as the teacher and you as
the expert in the languagedelivery process, whatever that
is.
Clearly I don't know all theright words, but you get to make
those calls Right.
I mean I tell the students,don't worry, you know, because
(30:35):
I've got kids who are nativespeakers in the same class as
somebody who just popped out ofhigh school not having taken
language before because theywent to a technical high school.
Well, obviously I can'tevaluate them on the same scale,
because you know what I mean.
I'd be out of a job, they'd becrying in their, in their soup
and that'd be, that'd be the endof the story.
So you know, be be malleable asyou would want people to be
(31:03):
malleable with you.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Well said, I knew that y'all would sell it for
sure, because it's not just likethe average activity.
There's so much power in usinga book in class with any kind of
literacy that you're doing Tomake this more accessible to
both students and teachers.
We had some questions that werereally valuable about when
(31:29):
you're working with new language, especially maybe something
that students haven't seenbefore, or you're like in the
middle of a book.
What are some ways that you canmake language more accessible
to them?
We talked about glossaries andI know that you mentioned
modeling before in the workshopthat we did previously.
So what are some strategies youuse to make sure that students
(31:52):
have access to the language asthey're reading?
Speaker 3 (31:57):
I have posters everywhere in my classroom for,
like the super seven verbs.
You know things like that.
We always create anchor charts.
So, like my kiddos and I will,after we read a chapter we'll be
like, okay, what words do youfeel were the hardest to figure
out through context clues?
Or you know, we just talk aboutit, talk about the chapter,
like, well, I had no idea whatthis word meant.
I definitely had to look it upin the glossary.
(32:19):
So as a class, I'll be like,does anyone else feel the same?
Who else had difficulty?
And I just make an anchor chart, and especially with the words
I know get repeated through thewhole book.
So it's not like they'll onlysee that word in chapter two.
They need the anchor chartbecause they're going to see it
in chapter three, they're goingto see it in chapter four.
But that's work on my part,where I kind of have a list
ahead of time and a lot of timesthe questions, the words that
(32:41):
they provide are words on thelist and if they aren't, I put
them up there anyway becauseit's a new word and some of them
will never forget it, some ofthem will never remember it
again.
But I'm big with anchor charts,my big sticky notes.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
And with regard to making the language accessible,
we're doing we started a storywhich is a little bit above
their level for reading, andit's there's a lot of, there's a
lot of grammar structures inthere that they've never seen
before.
So I'm just making it a pointto point it out.
Said you know, we read, we'rereading the chapters together to
start with, but they aresupposed to pre-read.
(33:22):
I don't know if they do.
You know, come in, but this iswhat it is and this is what you
should be looking for, and justpoint it out.
You don't need to use it, butjust know what it is, know what
you're looking at, know whatyou're reading.
You know, making it just sortof like oh all right, it's
something that I can, you know,keep putting in my back pocket,
for, you know, maybe chapter 10,maybe by chapter 10, I'll
(33:44):
figure it out, maybe I'll we'llever figure it out, but I'm I'm
big on use the language that youthink you're going to need to
express yourself.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
That's really good advice and it seems like it's
going to be as you work withstudents, like the words that
they need will become clear themore that you do this, the more
that you work with them on this.
All right, the last question Ihave for you from the workshop
that we did together is therewere a couple of questions.
We're going to bundle them alltogether with this one, which is
what are your advice,suggestions, tips for different
(34:19):
age groups, working with text inthe classroom, literacy in the
classroom.
So we had questions about, like, what about high school?
What about middle school?
You work with college students.
Any ideas for what do yousuggest for working with
different age groups?
Speaker 2 (34:38):
You want to start, Terry?
You want to start with?
Well, I just happen to have ournew book, Okay.
Well, how am I doing here?
Not very well, you can't reallysee it.
I don't know how to work thistechnology.
I'm sorry you guys.
It's called Vernes et Ses Amisin French and it's very
(34:59):
repetitive and you can use this.
It's not really coming in, isit?
Speaker 1 (35:06):
You see a little bit coming towards you A little bit.
Well, anyway, I see a tomato.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
It's a picture book and it has a lot of repetition
and I think that for usingnovels, you know this isn't
really a novel but this is astorybook and it has a beginning
, a middle and an end and aproblem and something to talk
about and using using a book.
As a language arts teacherwould use a book with the
(35:33):
younger level kids, you're justdoing the same thing but just in
the target language.
Okay, and you know, and I don'tknow any um, you know the FLETS
program very well at all butyou know it's a lot of
repetition and it's a lot aboutanimals and food and colors and
days of the week and and justkeep repeating, you know, and
making it fun for them.
(35:54):
So I think you know you can dothat all the way up to, you know
, upper elementary and justchoose books that are at their
level and their interest level.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
And it's okay to choose books that are even a
little bit below their level,because the conversation that
comes out of, like, my Frenchfours are reading Zeniques right
now and that is not a Frenchfour level book, it's a novice,
it's a novice reader, butthey're obviously intermediate
students.
But the conversation that comesout of that reader is just
amazing because at that levelthey can provide full sentences,
(36:29):
they can provide opinions, butthe book is just giving it's
just the avenue for discussion,right.
So I just think it's keeping inmind your students, what
interests them.
Make sure you figure out whatinterests them, because if you
don't care enough to find outtheir interests, it can flop.
Your readers can flop, yeah,your class novels especially.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
And also, you know, right now is that there's so
much culture background in thereand allowing that novel, like
Terry said, to be the jumpingoff point for so many other
discussions and at students'level, because they do want to
discuss these things, they wantit to be important.
(37:22):
They don't necessarily alwayswant it to be about, you know, I
don't know the dog who runsaway from home because he didn't
get the right food or something.
They don't always want that.
You know, that's nice for aquick read sometimes.
But students, I don't think wegive them enough credit.
Sometimes they're veryinterested in things.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
And they want to learn about different ways and
cultures and people.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Yes, and honestly, that will make them much better.
It will make them much bettercollege students, so send them
on up folks but also make thembetter world citizens, and I
think we can do our part asworld language teachers in that
sense.
And I think we can do our partas world language teachers in
that sense.
So, middle school, same thingwith middle school.
(38:08):
It's key about using any kindof books with your students that
is at, or a little bit belowtheir level.
That's really important becauseyou want to create the feeling
of success with them.
They need to feel that success,just like trying anything else
that's new.
I mean, if you start with making, you know you want to cook and
you want to make cocoa vent, Imean, listen, I'm not, I'm not,
(38:31):
I don't pick anything to make inmy kitchen if it has more than
six ingredients, because I'm not.
You know, I'm not really greatat that, right.
So you know, think about itthat way.
Think about you know the waystudents learn music these days
too.
I mean they get to play arounda little bit.
You know you get a little bitof structure.
You play around.
You know, giving them a song tolearn, this is the same, the
(38:53):
same sort of thing.
You know, give them something.
You know, I don't want to startsinging Bonnie Raitt here, but
give them something to talkabout singing Bonnie.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Raitt here, but give them something to talk about.
That's such a good point, too,is that I think we don't.
We get really focused on like Ineed to make sure that they
know these words, or at leasthow this whole structure works
so that they can use it.
So that they can use it.
And then it's like well, whenare you going to give them a
chance to use it?
When are you going to give thema chance to play around with it
?
And this because it's it'sreally hard to do that in a
(39:22):
world language classroom, Likethere's a lot of constraints.
So this is a nice, easy,playful way for students to
experiment with language and todo it in a safe environment
where they don't have to come upwith the language.
They're exploring it, they'relearning about new things.
It's, yeah, very freeing inthat way.
Where they do they get to learnsome songs by going chapter by
chapter with that?
That's very cool, Awesome.
(39:46):
Well, I'm sure that people arelike me and are just dying to
see, like, what are some of thebooks that you have out there on
your platform?
Can you tell us a little bitmore about DigiLingua and what
it offers?
And for the folks at home whoare listening.
We will, Don't worry, we'llnarrate along for you so that
you can see.
But if you're watching, I wouldlove to see what some of the
(40:07):
things are that you have in theDigiLangua library.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
And while Teresa's getting set up there, digilangua
is a platform it's kind of likea world language LMS, and we've
put our books on this platformwith audio.
So it's a digital book andaudio for most of the books and
all of our books are on thereand teachers can access the
(40:34):
entire library.
But you can also choose whichbooks that your students have
access to.
So you don't want them to havethe access in English and in the
target language because they'regoing to read the English one.
So you can toggle your waythrough and eliminate the books
that you don't want yourstudents have access to.
(40:54):
Same thing, if you're doingfree, voluntary reading and you
want to have your students onlyhave access to the level one
books, right, because you don'twant them jumping into.
Oh, I really want to read.
You know, I want to read LePetit Coup de man Amicale, but
it's too hard for me.
(41:15):
Yeah, don't give them a bookthat's too hard.
They'll be frustrated.
So you know, sort of tailoringit a little bit to what they can
do.
What else should we tell them?
Terry, teachers have options toput in their own questions to
you know, multiple choicequestions to verify student
(41:35):
comprehension, and they're autograded.
Isn't that the cool thing.
Oh yeah, and you can also put inan assessment, for example.
You know if it's a snow day orsomething or whatever, and you
say, okay, well, check, there'san assignment there on the LMS,
(41:56):
on the DigiLongo LMS.
You know, do that assignmentand submit it into your own LMS.
You know your school's LMS, orsomething like that.
What else did I students on onthis platform, we have no access
to any student information none.
So it's COPA compliant and ED2.
(42:18):
Is that what it's called 2d law?
Yeah, 2d law, yeah, and um,it's.
It's really a game changer.
Oh, and if we access a book, asingle book right now, the this
is my absolute favorite featureof this um, um, pick one that
has some audio yeah, I, I'mgoing to go to.
Speaker 3 (42:41):
Spanish, I'll go to La Chica.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Nueva.
Oh, okay, la Chica Nueva.
So if we go to La Chica Nuevaand we're looking there at the
chapters you can play, at thebottom left-hand corner of the
screen is how you play thechapter and this is the best
thing ever.
On the bottom right-hand cornerthere is a velocity, I don't
(43:05):
know what you call it, so aspeed.
You can slow it down or speedit up and for some students who
need that extra, you know, joltin their ear and a little bit
slower for pronunciationpurposes, it is perfect.
Um, I recommend that very highly, especially for um, spanish, if
(43:27):
you have some kids who havesome speech language issues, for
them to listen to it while theyare reading.
You know Spanish being phonetic, it's, it's um, it's easy to
grasp onto and um, actually itwas a way that I determined.
You know I are diagnosed inmyself, one of my students now
who might have a little bit oftrouble with with reading, who
(43:50):
is a heritage speaker.
So you know, just, it justhelps them out, you know, gives
them a fighting chance to get itright.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
And on the online.
The books also have theglossaries as well, so you can
go to the glossary still andlook up the words if you have
questions about any vocabularyin the text.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Right.
My students say that it helpsthem a lot, and a lot of the
audio on this is professionallyproduced by Submarino Amarillo
Studios in Venezuela.
It's a friend of ours who'sdoing the background and helps
(44:33):
with the sound effects and stufflike that, so it helps tell the
story a little bit for thosestudents who need that extra
hook or who need that extraboost with oh okay, so the door
is going to open.
That's what that must be, whatthat means, or something like
that.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
Oh yeah, did you mention the themes, Jen, that
they can toggle.
I didn't get there, no, goahead.
So also on the site you cantoggle by language level and the
cool part is is if you'reteaching you know a unit on
identity or travel or socialjustice and human rights, we put
all of our readers into theircorresponding themes so you can
(45:14):
find them really easily that way, which is really cool.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
And to provide a recommendation to all the
teachers listening, you can finda novel that will complement
what's going on and help keepthe conversation going.
(45:45):
Instead of that list of 75vocabulary words on technology,
you know only three of them thatyou use yourself, even though
you've been speaking the targetlanguage for years.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
We all know it, though, so those of you who are
listening is that these come inmultiple languages.
So what are the languages thaty'all offer currently that
people can get books in foranybody who's listening only?
Speaker 3 (46:14):
Yep, so we have readers in French, Spanish,
German, Italian as well asEnglish.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
And the books.
Sometimes I have suggested thisto a couple of my students who
are really struggling.
I said, okay, well, listen, I'mgonna give you access to the
English book.
Blow through that first, andjust so you have an idea of
what's supposed to be happening,right, I mean, is it a cheat?
Sure, but you know what I'm allabout making them feel like
(46:45):
they can do it, and so you know,making that connection as they
go along.
And I think you know as a, youknow as a teacher, you can, you
can make that those choices anduse your discretion.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Yeah, that's great and well and honestly, I have a
surprising amount of people whoactually teach English abroad
and listen to this podcast, sodon't be surprised if you have
people who are like Ooh, I havesome English readers that I can
use in my classroom.
This is awesome.
Speaker 2 (47:15):
That's wonderful, yeah, cause we are really.
We think the books are reallysuited, well-suited for English
language learners, and we'reslowly getting the audio for the
English books.
And oh, I just wanted tomention, just so you know, that
we're not running off to Tahition all of y'all's subscriptions.
(47:39):
So you can do a monthlysubscription for $29.
Is that what it is, teresa?
Mm-hmm?
Okay, and then, or a yearlysubscription starts whenever you
know.
You sign on on March 3rd, it'sgood till the following March
2nd, right?
So for $199 and up to 180students.
(47:59):
So if you only need it for amonth, just get a month.
You want to try it out?
We've got a free trial, yeah,but I use it with my students
and they like it too, because itwas less costly for them this
semester to get books for myclass, because they're going to
be able to use this online fortheir literature circles instead
(48:23):
of having to buy a book.
So I think it does a service toa lot of students in different
ways.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
For sure, and y'all have on the bottom of your of
the I think it's on the mainpage somewhere, what we were
looking at earlier that there'sall kinds of access and help for
people who are using schoolfunding.
There's a, there's a lettertemplate that we saw here like a
bunch of forms that anybodyneeds to download.
Purchase orders like this.
This is easy for you to gothrough school funding with this
(48:56):
yes, yep, it's all downloaded.
Speaker 3 (48:59):
Downloadable on the bottom of the website RW9.
Is there?
Approval request letter?
Everything that you need todownload and submit to your
department is there for you.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
And if you don't have , you would like to start FBR in
your classroom and you don'thave the funds to buy you know a
good chunk of books that willbe available to different levels
that you teach.
I mean this might be a good wayto start, you know, just ease
into it and then you can findout from your students which
books they really like and justmake the purchase of those books
(49:34):
.
And we're always coming outwith new ones Every day.
Yeah, we're, we don't doanything else.
Speaker 1 (49:44):
We teach Amazing.
This is so exciting.
I'm really stoked for people tojump onto this and see all the
powerful things that you have onyour on your ebook platform
here and the over a hundredbooks that you have for them to
check out.
With all this, all thedifferent features, too, that
work well in tandem withteaching the novel, as well with
(50:07):
all the ready-made questionsthat's so awesome.
So thank you so much forsharing this with teachers.
It's such a great resource.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
Our pleasure.
Thanks for having us today,Devin.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
Oh my gosh, yeah, so much knowledge with us.
This is so exciting.
I think it's going to be somuch easier for people to not
only be be they got the fire.
Now they know that, likeliteracy has got to happen, like
this is.
This is really something that'sgoing to help you spark all the
things that you want fromstudents.
You want to talk.
You want to expand curiosity.
You want to talk more in thetarget language with them.
(50:40):
You want to expand curiosity.
You want to talk more in thetarget language with them.
You want to prep less.
Like this is a really fun, easyway to do it.
So let's land on this.
Here is what would you hopewould be like a good, what's the
most important final takeawaythat you have for teachers with
working with books in the worldlanguage classroom in general?
What do you hope for them thatthey get out of this session
(51:01):
that we've done here together?
Speaker 3 (51:05):
I think, from my perspective, if you're not doing
any type of reading like youneed to start today, like that
reading, whether it's startingwith you know one pager, a story
, then going to the novels, likewhatever it is that's going to
spark your students reading.
That habit has to startsomewhere.
(51:26):
And if it's not happening nowin your classrooms, like find a
way to slowly get it started,because once it starts it'll
just keep growing.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Yeah, it will expand and blow up in the best way
possible.
And you stole my answer, terry.
But also I think that, oh, Ilost my train of thought again.
I'm so sorry.
Yeah, just start.
The only wrong way to doreading is just to hand students
the book.
(51:57):
You know, be interactive withit, you know, make it come alive
and you're going to have,you're going to have so much fun
and it lessens your planning somuch, so so much.
You will.
You think that it's hard.
It's not hard, you know.
And once you get into a flow,you're like oh yeah, this is
what the English teacher doesEasy, peasy, right, and it is.
Speaker 1 (52:21):
and the words are easier teacher does Easy peasy
right, and it is, and the wordsare easier too.
So there's that.
Yeah, so true.
Yes, yes to all of that.
Thank you so much for sharingthis with us.
This is amazing.
I wish that I knew these thingswhen I was trying out my first
novel, and thank you so much forbringing this to people.
I cannot wait to share it withy'all.
(52:42):
So you're going to hear this inthe future and be like Devin's
freaking out it's because I am.
This is really really greatstuff.
Thank you guys so much for thisand for all the years of
partnership that we've had.
It's really great for you toshare everything that you know
about novels with the world.
Thank you for that.
Thanks for having us.
What's up?
Que lo que Et salut worldlanguage teachers.
Welcome to the PracticalProficiency Podcast, where we
make the transition toproficiency-oriented instruction
in your world language class ina way that works for you, your
unique context and teachingstyle, and doesn't sacrifice
(00:21):
your well-being along the way.
I'm your host, devon Gunning,the teacher author, conference
host, curriculum creator andconsultant behind La Libre
Language Learning.
This podcast is for thecreative world language teacher
like you who's ready to ditchthe overwhelming pressure of
switching to acquisition-driveninstruction and CI overnight.
(00:42):
You're ready to discover howusing more target language in
class can actually bring you andyour students more joy instead
of adding to your plate.
With practical, authentic anddown-to-earth strategies that
don't require reinventing thewheel or more training, we'll
work together towards the magicof a community-based,
(01:04):
target-language-rich classroomrooted in the power of community
and comprehensible input.
Let's go with my guest today onthe Practical Proficiency
(01:27):
Podcast.
If you are watching this, youget to see the wonderful Jen
Dagenhart and Teresa Marama arehere from the DigiGals to talk
all your questions about usingnovels and expanding literacy in
the world language classroom.
So y'all get really excited.
We were just chatting beforethis that, like I put on mascara
for this.
It's a big deal.
We're so excited for you tolearn about this.
(01:47):
This is a really excitingpartnership that I'm starting
with DigiLangua to make surethat it is easier than ever for
you to work with novels in yourclassroom.
I'm so excited for them to talkmore about all the knowledge
that they have.
They actually shared a lot ofthese amazing ideas about
literacy in the world languageclassroom by coming in and
(02:08):
giving an amazing, dazzlingworkshop with the Practical
Proficiency Network, and so theyhad this amazing idea of, after
we did this workshop, let's godo this on the podcast and use
these real questions from realteachers about what it looks
like to be promoting moreliteracy through novels in the
classroom.
So, without further ado, we'regoing to answer some of these
(02:32):
awesome questions from y'all thecommunity.
First, I want to give y'all achance to introduce yourselves
and talk a little bit more abouthow amazing you are, jen start
us off.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Bit more about how amazing you are, jen.
Start us off.
Hi, I'm Jen Degenhardt.
I have been a Spanish teacherfor over 30 years.
Currently I'm teaching at thecollege level and I'm the author
of about 40 stories, buttranslated to other languages.
I've about published 105 booksand I am half of the DigiGal
extravaganza here and thrilledto let you know about our
(03:10):
platform and some ideas to getyou started with reading,
because we need to be doing moreof it in the class and it
really does lessen your load asa teacher.
So, terry, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah, so thanks for having us, devin.
We're excited to be here.
I'm Teresa Orama and I'm aFrench teacher in northern New
York.
I've been teaching for 18 yearsand I also have published some
novels in French that have beenadapted to Spanish, italian,
german and English, so we hopewe can share some fun
information with you aboutreaders today.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, boom, all right .
Well, perfect, let's get intoit.
I mean, y'all they got matchingjackets, they got the books
with them.
This is how you know it's real.
This is how you know.
So here's the first questionthat a member from this program
asked.
That is a great way to start usoff is just thinking about well
, when you want to get startedwith a class novel, what does
(04:09):
that look like?
And somebody was askingspecifically about the novel
Xenics, for, like, how do I getstarted with some pre-reading
activities?
How do you prime the pump forthis?
So walk us through what thislooks like if you want to start
with novels as a whole classtogether.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
I'll jump in.
Okay, you jump in, it's yourbook.
So I happen to teach Zeniquesto my French four students and I
always start pre-reading withjust priming the pump with
questions that are going to getthe students engaged and
connected to the themes in thebook.
But specifically with that book, there's a lot of geography
that can be discussed ahead oftime map chats.
The book is based on art, right, so it's the first female
(04:58):
graffiti artist from Senegal.
Africa is the story, is thestory and just asking you know
what is art, what do you see asart?
So, finding the themes woven inthe novels which there are many
different novels with differentthemes and knowing what's going
to adhere and connect most withyour students, and finding ways
to ask questions that are goingto get your students thinking
(05:19):
about the topics and interestedin what they're about to read, I
second that.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I think getting students interested in what's
going to happen, what's going tocome up in the book, is key.
And for a this is not about ZenInks, because I don't teach
that, I teach Spanish but for anovel that I'm reading this
semester with my students, I hadto pre-teach a lot of the
history, and even in English,just so they would have a basis
for what's going on and you knowwhat takes place in the story
(05:53):
and why.
So you know going into historya little bit of very basic
economics.
Geography is wonderful andthat's a great discussion.
Just reviewing cardinaldirections is getting kids
involved and and they like thefact that they can get the
answers right away, like theyknow that they know geography
and you can review that with amap.
(06:14):
So there's a whole bunch ofthings to get started.
What else do you do Terry with?
With Xenix?
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Well, the map chat.
I have to tell a really funnystory.
It just happened today becauseI'm introducing, I'm doing
pre-reading right now withZenique, so it's kind of cool.
This question came up and wedid geography chat, map chat,
and today one of the students Iasked the question in French,
you know, does Senegal haveaccess to a sea or to an ocean?
(06:42):
Is it on a port right?
And they're like oh yeah, Iknow this, it's the Atlantic
Ocean, it's right next to theAtlantic Ocean.
Of course, it was all in Frenchand they're like I don't think
I would have known thatotherwise unless we talked about
this, like thought about whatocean is near Africa, you know,
on the eastern, yeah, thewestern coast of Africa.
And they're like we justrandomly learned.
(07:04):
I'm like well, this isimportant, it's world geography,
so it is very relevant.
When you say it's relevant,it's relevant.
They need to know this stuff.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
It's important.
That's so cool that you'redoing it right now in real time.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
It's real and it's really cool.
We talk about some of theartwork that's actually
displayed in, like you know, theMetropolitan Art Museum in New
York City and the MoMA, andthey're like wait, are those
both in New York City?
So like there were things thatthey put together for their own
state, that they live in, thatthey didn't even think about.
(07:42):
Oh wait, those are two majorart museums that are located in
New York city.
I didn't never realize theywere in the same city, right?
So it's kind of cool.
Like they didn't know that arttraveled from one place to the
other.
Like they exhibit, yeah, so itwas cool, things that we talked
about.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
I think, as teachers, if we go in thinking not in a
negative way, just thinking thatthey first of all they don't
know what they don't know andit's not their fault.
So just make it an exploratorything, invite them to be curious
about things, to make thosekinds of connections, because
curiosity is what's going tolead to more learning and when
(08:23):
they're excited about it itcould be the dullest piece of
reading ever.
I've written a few of those andthey're still interested
because they can find some sortof nugget to latch onto for the
rest of the time.
You're doing the story.
So getting students' interest,piquing their interest is so
important.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
And pictures too.
I'll throw pictures up on myboard of just everyday life in
Senegal today now and I'm likewhat do you notice?
What do you see?
How does this compare to whereyou live?
So, just getting them thinkingabout life in Senegal, life in
Africa and some things they'resurprised about and other things
(09:05):
they're like oh I, you know,that doesn't.
I figured that or I didn't know.
They wore really bright colorsor it was.
You know, wow, their flag isreally different, like even down
to the flag and the colors oftheir flag.
So that was all part of mypre-reading activity stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
And the magic of that , too, really speaks to me as
the teacher who's like oh,that's not going to take a lot
of prep.
Like you could Google search acouple images really quickly.
I don't have to make a bunch ofpre-made questions you get to.
It sounds like what you'redoing with them is you get to
flow with what their owncuriosity is, and so you don't.
There's not a lot of prepinvolved with that, but even
(09:45):
better, you get to fly in themoment with what students are
saying, what they're actuallyinterested in and where the
conversation takes you.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Which is the beauty of teaching with the novels.
It opens up this whole otherdiscussion that may never have
happened if you don't have thosenovels as like a pinpoint.
You know it's really, it's fun,they enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
And organic conversation too, and I think
that that getting studentsinvolved in in conversation and
realizing you know what can comenext, and teaching students
that well, maybe, if you don'thave anything to say, then ask a
question.
And I find sometimes you knowmaybe not with the college
students so much, but withyounger kids that really their
(10:29):
conversation skills are a littlebit lacking.
A little bit lacking right now,even in English, even in, you
know, in their native language.
So, or or whomever you know,whatever native language they
have, and just getting themthinking like okay, well, what's
the next logical question?
If you say that Senegal is inAfrica, you know?
My next logical question iswhere in Africa?
(10:49):
And asking and really you knowlatching on to that word why,
why, why?
That will always generate moreconversation.
I know I've spoken with someteachers who are hesitant to do
this kind of lesson becausethey're not very confident in
their own speaking skills.
This is one way to improve yourspeaking skills.
(11:10):
They don't remember, they don'tknow if you're making a mistake
.
Okay.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
And the beauty, Jen, the beauty of that is like you
said, Devin, you don't have toscript anything out, but if
you're not comfortable enoughwith it yet the topic or it is,
you can script it out you cantake the time script it out.
So you do have that.
I don't know the um supportright.
Your cheat sheet.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Your cheat sheet yes, language chunks of your own
yeah that's a really great wayto get started like, especially
with the, with the pre-readingactivities, with the novels.
And I want to draw back to the,the conversation that we had
last week, like while we were asa group with with my members,
that you said something reallycrucial here, both of y'all that
(11:57):
it's a good idea, before youstart doing something a little
bit more loose like free,voluntary reading, that it's a
good idea to start with a wholeclass novel first, which I've
never heard before.
I was like, oh, I wish I knewthat earlier, because it is
really helpful.
Tell us more about why youthink that's a really important
first step to do.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
You want me to go first?
Sure, I'll go first, okay, Ithink.
Well, students aren't readingas much as they used to anymore,
and I think any time that wehave the opportunity to teach
students how to read, and how toread well, it's beneficial.
And if you're going through thenovel together, you get to the
(12:42):
opportunity to point out whatthey already know.
You know, doing a cognatesearch and making sure, say
really so.
So basically, what's what isthat paragraph saying?
Okay, well, you know the, therat is, or the mouse is afraid
of the cat, or not afraid of thecat, or something like that.
I'm using one of Teresa's novels, or or the.
(13:03):
The main character is writingsome text messages to her friend
and really, that's really allyou need to know, right, that's
going on in the chapter, it'snot, they don't need to know
every single word.
And to lessen that fear, youknow, lower that effective
filter, that, don't worry, youdon't know every single word in
(13:23):
English either.
Just press on, my friend, it'sgoing to be okay.
And um, and choosing a novelfor your first class novel.
That might be a little bitlower than the level that
they're in.
So they're like, yeah, I canread this, right, and getting
really excited to uh building upthat confidence.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
What did I forget?
No, that's great, and youtouched upon everything.
I think too is like with thecomprehensible novels, my
students, we I have the samestudents for five years in a row
and still some of them I'm likethere's a glossary in the back
of the book, that last thing,what a word means.
And I'm like there's theglossary, like Like, you can do
(14:04):
all this on your own, really,once I teach you how to do it.
So here are the tools.
We just have to show them howto use the tools, and I think by
reading the class novel first,together, you're showing them
how to use the tools that theyhave right in their hand, which
is the book that has everythingfootnoted or glossed in the back
of the book.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
So I just think it's important to model that before
we send them off to grab a bookand expect them to know how to
use it properly.
I you know.
Adding on to that, thatfootnote thing.
It came up even in college andthese are not first year college
students coming in and I said Iasked them what the word meant
and they said I don't know.
And I said it's footnoted onthe page.
I said do you see the littlenumber after the?
I mean really this is theconversation we had.
(14:50):
Do you see the little numberafter the word yes?
Okay, well, then move your eyesdown to the bottom of the page.
I mean they just skip over thatstuff.
So I mean these are all skillsthat are cross-curricular.
So that's wonderful to promotethat.
And with these comprehensiblenovels too, the glossaries are
comprehensive.
Every word in the story isglossed in the back of the book,
(15:13):
so there should be no problemwhatsoever in finding what the
meaning of a word is.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Oh, and that's like the brilliance of this being
such a big time saver thing isdoing a novel with your class.
I remember when I was doing anovel with my class, it's the oh
my God, like all the work isdone for me, Like I can do weeks
and weeks of content like this.
It's all here in this one book.
I don't have to make new stuffto talk about every day with
students and all the scaffoldingis a lot of it's already in the
(15:44):
book with the glossary andeverything.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
It really is like a huge time saver it is amazing,
it's amazing and it's and notonly a time saver but it's a
connective tissue from class toclass.
If you're only doing littlemini units every day, you know
some kids don't, um, you know,can't cut back into it, right.
But with the novel, you juststart out the next day like, ok,
(16:07):
remind us what's going on, youknow two to three minutes and
then move on into the lesson.
Right, just like those mathteachers who get to review the
homework I mean, I was alwaysjealous of them who got to
review the homework and thenmove into the new stuff.
But this is a way to keep youknow, keep what's current with
the students and remind them.
Okay, remember, we're readingabout this, these are the
(16:29):
characters, what's going on.
And again, you know, with thecomprehensible input, it's
repetition, repetition,repetition, input, input, input.
So it's okay if you'rerepeating, it's okay, the ones
that need it, we'll get itrepeating.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
It's okay, the ones that need it will get it.
Oh, that's so good and it's anice reminder too.
Is that students like comingback to the same language over
and over again?
And with a novel, it gives thema fun way to do it because
they're reading a story.
That's what we want to doanyways.
All right, we got anotherquestion with this too, and so,
when it comes to, as you'restarting to Like what happens
with the, do you do writingactivities with this?
(17:26):
Like, do you have to doaccountability with novels?
What is what's your stance onlike doing activities as you go
along with the novel?
Speaker 3 (17:40):
I'll start.
So for me, I have five preps soI teach five different classes
every day and every class Iteach a novel every quarter.
So that's four times five is 20books, right?
I, for sanity purposes, I haveaccountability, but it's just in
different ways, based on howmuch my students can do, right?
(18:02):
So, for example, accountabilitywriting might be for my level
fours where we've read a couplechapters.
I put an opinion question on theboard and they walk in my room
and let's say it's a bell ringer, kenyon, does Zenix really love
the art that she does?
(18:23):
And why?
You know, why do you think theart that's happening in the book
is important to the people ofSenegal?
You know something just to getthem thinking.
But stuff, I know that if theyneed the book with them while
they complete the writingaccountability activity, they
can use the book to help them.
(18:43):
So they have the scaffoldingright.
But it's my way of getting themto reread, it's tricking them to
reread.
So I do a bunch of differentthings like that and it might
not be a bell ringer.
We read the chapter and then Iwill put a list of specific
things I want them to pull outof the chapter or the problems
(19:06):
in the chapter and my seventhgraders can do it in French or
they can do it in English, soit's whatever they're
comfortable with, right.
So not not forcing them output,but allowing them to reread, to
be part of the review orwhatever activity is to promote
the discussion.
Jen, do you have certain thingsthat I?
(19:29):
I mean that's a very broadanswer.
There's a ton of things I do,but those are some ideas.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah too.
Well, sometimes we readtogether and then I will just
ask questions about what's goingon, just to check for
understanding.
And I don't do as muchaccountability as I would if I
were teaching high school ormiddle school because you know
the onus really is on thestudent at the college level.
But I have, you know, I havethem work in a workbook, you
(19:59):
know, and answer the questions,but that's just to practice
their writing skills and with nopenalty.
It's practice.
So you do it, do it well, workwith somebody if you don't know
how to do it.
Well, I mean, language is askill rather than something to
be mastered by or some certainamount of content to be mastered
(20:22):
, and I think that you know.
I just asked my students thisweek, you know, what do you
think about second languagelearning?
And they came up with somegreat things.
Like you know, we don't havethe culture in this country that
really values learning languageand it's so important to do.
And for my courses, and I thinkwhen I taught high school too,
(20:44):
I don't want to kill that spirit.
Like, if they're you know theywant to learn.
Like, have at it, pick thewords you want to learn, you
know if you want to talk about.
You know Dungeons and Dragons.
Go ahead, learn those words.
I don't know them.
You know, I know I could make adragon, but I don't know what a
dungeon is.
And you know, I know I couldmake up dragon, but I don't know
what a dungeon is, and you know, and we'll just, we'll just
(21:04):
figure it out, but you know,I'll get interested because the
student is interested.
You know that sort of thing.
I mean, um, I have a lot ofstudents who are business majors
and finance majors, but very,very not so exciting to me,
right, but I'm into becausethey're into it.
They want to learn that vocab.
I'll figure it out, you knowthat kind of thing.
Or help them discuss what theywant to with words that they
(21:26):
know.
Ok, early words that I know.
Let's be honest about that.
So I even forgot the question.
So here we go.
We're just having a middle agemoment.
So the accountability, oh, theaccountability, yeah, I mean I
don't do as much as I wouldbecause I the assumption is that
they're going to come in and doit, and I think if you create
(21:46):
that atmosphere where you lowerthat effective filter and
everything's not so gradeoriented, that they might
actually just do the work.
I'm finding that more thissemester than I have since I
started teaching college andI've just let it be like just
come in, I want you to learnsomething, I want you to learn
something.
I want you to learn something,I want you to be thinkers.
(22:07):
You know we are a veryprivileged group of people here
in this class.
Be thinkers, and I just invitethat, and I've gotten a lot of
success so far.
I mean success.
So far.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
I mean, we've only had four classes, so stand by,
yeah, but it's great.
It's great With my lower levelkiddos.
I'm the teacher who has like 50questions either, or right.
So they're hearing a millionrepetitions of like il est grand
, il est petit, il est en garçon.
You know what I mean.
So I come up with tons of thatand then I'll put it on the
board and it's already madebecause I used a novel or taught
(22:50):
it before.
So I do a lot of either orstuff with my younger level
kiddos, or true, false stuff,where you know I'll have them
create a few sentences from eachchapter and then they have to
decide what's true, what's false, or ways to get them up and
moving.
There's so many different ways.
It's just a matter of whatlevel are your students and what
(23:11):
do you expect of them.
Right, what do you know theycan do and not do?
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Right, because, again , to get them to want to be in
the class and learn anotherlanguage, it can't be.
You know a pressure cooker andyou know.
And if some activities work foryour students and some don't
pick the ones that do, okay,like there are people I know
there are people out there tosay you should do this activity
this way, well, listen, if itdoesn't work that way, then then
(23:38):
really, I mean here's this isgoing to be winner.
Winner chicken dinner advicefor me Don't do it.
If it's not working, don't doit.
Okay, I mean yeah, they pay methe big bucks over there.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
So there's so many options that people can do with
novels Like you can even likecheck in with the English
department and see, like, whatare some ways that you check for
understanding at the end of anovel.
But the heart of what I'mhearing from both of you is that
it's so much more fun, so muchmore engaging and so much more
personalized when you givestudents the opportunities to
(24:12):
explore their own language,explore their own interests and
help foster a sense of curiositywith working with the
activities that you know thatthey like and are going to let
them have.
Still working with language ina structured way, like you said,
like with level ones, you'regiving them either or questions,
but you know the questions thatdon't work.
You toss them and you move onto the next one and don't lose
(24:35):
sleep over it.
So it's the same type ofaccountability activities that
you would do with other things,but it seems like novels in
general from what you're sayingtoo.
The beauty of it is that it'ssupposed to ignite an excitement
for learning about somethingnew.
So accountability isn't really afull focus of what you're
trying to do, like literacy isthe focus.
(24:55):
So I have a.
I have a spontaneous question,since we're on it, just thinking
about it.
Like you've talked about howimportant literacy is in the
classroom, especially in worldlanguage, what is it about
literacy that you think reallyhelps with being a language
teacher and helping to fostermore words in people's heads and
(25:17):
with helping them to understandthat whole, like understanding
more language and appreciatinglanguage more?
Like what the focus on literacy?
What?
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Do you have?
I have an answer yes, go ahead,okay, I well, I, I think
students should read and I thinkyou know, the the more words
that you have in your brain, themore thoughts you can come up
with in different ways.
And I mean, yeah, so this again, paying me the big bucks, but
and coming up with connectionsbetween the languages and also
(25:52):
connections you know within,within the target language
itself.
We were just talking todayabout pensamientos and
sentimientos, so thoughts andfeelings, and we, it was on, it
was on a vocabulary quiz.
A vocabulary quiz I gave onlyto get them there on time, not
(26:13):
because I really care if theygot a good grade, okay.
So, yeah, I gotta, I gotta workwith what I got here and they
were all on time, on time.
And so in thinking like, okay,well, pensamiento, where does it
?
What verb does that come from?
Oh, pensar, and then you canbring up I like this stuff, like
oh, and the word pensive inEnglish, three for one.
(26:44):
Right there, you got two wordsin Spanish, one in English and
you're heading on to your SATsif you're going that route.
Sentimiento and the questionsthat were generated in class
today were good, like, well,sentir, you know that means to
feel right and I said, yeah,sentimiento here, you know,
pensamiento here and just makingthose connections for students.
And it's not about checking abox.
(27:04):
You know, we've just gotten sorubric and so pyramided and so
box checked.
Okay, I made up all that stuffall by myself.
Right now, that it's not.
We're not allowing students tothink and they like it, they
love it when they can put somestuff together like, oh yeah,
(27:26):
that's great.
I mean so and I think also myother, my other comment about
reading in in a target languageis it's more of a game, right,
for students.
I mean English reading isdrudgery because we've made
reading, you know, something notto be enjoyed.
(27:47):
I don't know why, because it'sso wonderful, but reading in
English is drudgery.
And well, don't get me startedabout why they teach the Odyssey
in the ninth grade, becausethat's a whole other thing
altogether right, give themsomething that's accessible to
them where they're going to divein.
You can do the hero's journeyand a whole bunch of other
(28:07):
novels, just saying folks, butalso, like you know, trying to
put stuff together, becauseanother language is kind of like
a puzzle and I don't know.
It sort of removes the.
I think it removes the stressif the teacher allows for that
stress removal.
Just make sure that you keeprepeating it's okay if you don't
know all the words, it's okayif you don't get anything, it
(28:31):
will come because it will.
It will because you've alreadyproven, you've done it once, you
already speak one language, youalready communicate in one
language.
And allowing them to just relaxBecause a lot of them also said
to me in their responses to thequestion this week was I had
some really bad experiences inhigh school and I said I get it,
(28:51):
my friend, I get it.
You know, don't grammar them todeath.
I just made that a verb, See.
I mean, we know what I'mtalking about when I say don't
grammar them to death.
It's not a verb.
I don't think it's a verb, butdon't do it.
Ok, don't do it.
And, but you know, allow forthat communication.
You'll be surprised what theycome up with.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
In the sense of success and the way the students
feel when they complete areader as opposed to completing
reader, as opposed to completinga vocabulary quiz.
Right Like, where's the win?
Where's the win in that?
Like?
The students were all like Icannot believe we read four
books this year, like, and wecan talk about them freely in
(29:33):
the target language.
I mean, my seventh graders canby the end of the year and it's
like now isn't that something tobe like?
Pat yourself on the back for it.
That's a huge accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Especially, I think, for for those kids who come in,
like your seventh graders, Terry, who come in not knowing
anything and then they're ableto read a book by the end of the
year.
I mean that's fascinating.
It always fascinates me.
Level one is my favorite.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
And it's so cool to see their, their gains right,
their progress yeah, absolutely,and not everybody progresses at
the same time.
But just to see that they canput a word on the paper that
makes sense to what we read inthe last five chapters, like
that's a win it is.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
It's a total win it's a win and I think you know
that's where we get into, whereyou as the teacher and you as
the expert in the languagedelivery process, whatever that
is.
Clearly I don't know all theright words, but you get to make
those calls Right.
I mean I tell the students,don't worry, you know, because
(30:35):
I've got kids who are nativespeakers in the same class as
somebody who just popped out ofhigh school not having taken
language before because theywent to a technical high school.
Well, obviously I can'tevaluate them on the same scale,
because you know what I mean.
I'd be out of a job, they'd becrying in their, in their soup
and that'd be, that'd be the endof the story.
So you know, be be malleable asyou would want people to be
(31:03):
malleable with you.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Well said, I knew that y'all would sell it for
sure, because it's not just likethe average activity.
There's so much power in usinga book in class with any kind of
literacy that you're doing Tomake this more accessible to
both students and teachers.
We had some questions that werereally valuable about when
(31:29):
you're working with new language, especially maybe something
that students haven't seenbefore, or you're like in the
middle of a book.
What are some ways that you canmake language more accessible
to them?
We talked about glossaries andI know that you mentioned
modeling before in the workshopthat we did previously.
So what are some strategies youuse to make sure that students
(31:52):
have access to the language asthey're reading?
Speaker 3 (31:57):
I have posters everywhere in my classroom for,
like the super seven verbs.
You know things like that.
We always create anchor charts.
So, like my kiddos and I will,after we read a chapter we'll be
like, okay, what words do youfeel were the hardest to figure
out through context clues?
Or you know, we just talk aboutit, talk about the chapter,
like, well, I had no idea whatthis word meant.
I definitely had to look it upin the glossary.
(32:19):
So as a class, I'll be like,does anyone else feel the same?
Who else had difficulty?
And I just make an anchor chart, and especially with the words
I know get repeated through thewhole book.
So it's not like they'll onlysee that word in chapter two.
They need the anchor chartbecause they're going to see it
in chapter three, they're goingto see it in chapter four.
But that's work on my part,where I kind of have a list
ahead of time and a lot of timesthe questions, the words that
(32:41):
they provide are words on thelist and if they aren't, I put
them up there anyway becauseit's a new word and some of them
will never forget it, some ofthem will never remember it
again.
But I'm big with anchor charts,my big sticky notes.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
And with regard to making the language accessible,
we're doing we started a storywhich is a little bit above
their level for reading, andit's there's a lot of, there's a
lot of grammar structures inthere that they've never seen
before.
So I'm just making it a pointto point it out.
Said you know, we read, we'rereading the chapters together to
start with, but they aresupposed to pre-read.
(33:22):
I don't know if they do.
You know, come in, but this iswhat it is and this is what you
should be looking for, and justpoint it out.
You don't need to use it, butjust know what it is, know what
you're looking at, know whatyou're reading.
You know, making it just sortof like oh all right, it's
something that I can, you know,keep putting in my back pocket,
for, you know, maybe chapter 10,maybe by chapter 10, I'll
(33:44):
figure it out, maybe I'll we'llever figure it out, but I'm I'm
big on use the language that youthink you're going to need to
express yourself.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
That's really good advice and it seems like it's
going to be as you work withstudents, like the words that
they need will become clear themore that you do this, the more
that you work with them on this.
All right, the last question Ihave for you from the workshop
that we did together is therewere a couple of questions.
We're going to bundle them alltogether with this one, which is
what are your advice,suggestions, tips for different
(34:19):
age groups, working with text inthe classroom, literacy in the
classroom.
So we had questions about, like, what about high school?
What about middle school?
You work with college students.
Any ideas for what do yousuggest for working with
different age groups?
Speaker 2 (34:38):
You want to start, Terry?
You want to start with?
Well, I just happen to have ournew book, Okay.
Well, how am I doing here?
Not very well, you can't reallysee it.
I don't know how to work thistechnology.
I'm sorry you guys.
It's called Vernes et Ses Amisin French and it's very
(34:59):
repetitive and you can use this.
It's not really coming in, isit?
Speaker 1 (35:06):
You see a little bit coming towards you A little bit.
Well, anyway, I see a tomato.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
It's a picture book and it has a lot of repetition
and I think that for usingnovels, you know this isn't
really a novel but this is astorybook and it has a beginning
, a middle and an end and aproblem and something to talk
about and using using a book.
As a language arts teacherwould use a book with the
(35:33):
younger level kids, you're justdoing the same thing but just in
the target language.
Okay, and you know, and I don'tknow any um, you know the FLETS
program very well at all butyou know it's a lot of
repetition and it's a lot aboutanimals and food and colors and
days of the week and and justkeep repeating, you know, and
making it fun for them.
(35:54):
So I think you know you can dothat all the way up to, you know
, upper elementary and justchoose books that are at their
level and their interest level.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
And it's okay to choose books that are even a
little bit below their level,because the conversation that
comes out of, like, my Frenchfours are reading Zeniques right
now and that is not a Frenchfour level book, it's a novice,
it's a novice reader, butthey're obviously intermediate
students.
But the conversation that comesout of that reader is just
amazing because at that levelthey can provide full sentences,
(36:29):
they can provide opinions, butthe book is just giving it's
just the avenue for discussion,right.
So I just think it's keeping inmind your students, what
interests them.
Make sure you figure out whatinterests them, because if you
don't care enough to find outtheir interests, it can flop.
Your readers can flop, yeah,your class novels especially.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
And also, you know, right now is that there's so
much culture background in thereand allowing that novel, like
Terry said, to be the jumpingoff point for so many other
discussions and at students'level, because they do want to
discuss these things, they wantit to be important.
(37:22):
They don't necessarily alwayswant it to be about, you know, I
don't know the dog who runsaway from home because he didn't
get the right food or something.
They don't always want that.
You know, that's nice for aquick read sometimes.
But students, I don't think wegive them enough credit.
Sometimes they're veryinterested in things.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
And they want to learn about different ways and
cultures and people.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Yes, and honestly, that will make them much better.
It will make them much bettercollege students, so send them
on up folks but also make thembetter world citizens, and I
think we can do our part asworld language teachers in that
sense.
And I think we can do our partas world language teachers in
that sense.
So, middle school, same thingwith middle school.
(38:08):
It's key about using any kindof books with your students that
is at, or a little bit belowtheir level.
That's really important becauseyou want to create the feeling
of success with them.
They need to feel that success,just like trying anything else
that's new.
I mean, if you start with making, you know you want to cook and
you want to make cocoa vent, Imean, listen, I'm not, I'm not,
(38:31):
I don't pick anything to make inmy kitchen if it has more than
six ingredients, because I'm not.
You know, I'm not really greatat that, right.
So you know, think about itthat way.
Think about you know the waystudents learn music these days
too.
I mean they get to play arounda little bit.
You know you get a little bitof structure.
You play around.
You know, giving them a song tolearn, this is the same, the
(38:53):
same sort of thing.
You know, give them something.
You know, I don't want to startsinging Bonnie Raitt here, but
give them something to talkabout singing Bonnie.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Raitt here, but give them something to talk about.
That's such a good point, too,is that I think we don't.
We get really focused on like Ineed to make sure that they
know these words, or at leasthow this whole structure works
so that they can use it.
So that they can use it.
And then it's like well, whenare you going to give them a
chance to use it?
When are you going to give thema chance to play around with it
?
And this because it's it'sreally hard to do that in a
(39:22):
world language classroom, Likethere's a lot of constraints.
So this is a nice, easy,playful way for students to
experiment with language and todo it in a safe environment
where they don't have to come upwith the language.
They're exploring it, they'relearning about new things.
It's, yeah, very freeing inthat way.
Where they do they get to learnsome songs by going chapter by
chapter with that?
That's very cool, Awesome.
(39:46):
Well, I'm sure that people arelike me and are just dying to
see, like, what are some of thebooks that you have out there on
your platform?
Can you tell us a little bitmore about DigiLingua and what
it offers?
And for the folks at home whoare listening.
We will, Don't worry, we'llnarrate along for you so that
you can see.
But if you're watching, I wouldlove to see what some of the
(40:07):
things are that you have in theDigiLangua library.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
And while Teresa's getting set up there, digilangua
is a platform it's kind of likea world language LMS, and we've
put our books on this platformwith audio.
So it's a digital book andaudio for most of the books and
all of our books are on thereand teachers can access the
(40:34):
entire library.
But you can also choose whichbooks that your students have
access to.
So you don't want them to havethe access in English and in the
target language because they'regoing to read the English one.
So you can toggle your waythrough and eliminate the books
that you don't want yourstudents have access to.
(40:54):
Same thing, if you're doingfree, voluntary reading and you
want to have your students onlyhave access to the level one
books, right, because you don'twant them jumping into.
Oh, I really want to read.
You know, I want to read LePetit Coup de man Amicale, but
it's too hard for me.
(41:15):
Yeah, don't give them a bookthat's too hard.
They'll be frustrated.
So you know, sort of tailoringit a little bit to what they can
do.
What else should we tell them?
Terry, teachers have options toput in their own questions to
you know, multiple choicequestions to verify student
(41:35):
comprehension, and they're autograded.
Isn't that the cool thing.
Oh yeah, and you can also put inan assessment, for example.
You know if it's a snow day orsomething or whatever, and you
say, okay, well, check, there'san assignment there on the LMS,
(41:56):
on the DigiLongo LMS.
You know, do that assignmentand submit it into your own LMS.
You know your school's LMS, orsomething like that.
What else did I students on onthis platform, we have no access
to any student information none.
So it's COPA compliant and ED2.
(42:18):
Is that what it's called 2d law?
Yeah, 2d law, yeah, and um,it's.
It's really a game changer.
Oh, and if we access a book, asingle book right now, the this
is my absolute favorite featureof this um, um, pick one that
has some audio yeah, I, I'mgoing to go to.
Speaker 3 (42:41):
Spanish, I'll go to La Chica.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Nueva.
Oh, okay, la Chica Nueva.
So if we go to La Chica Nuevaand we're looking there at the
chapters you can play, at thebottom left-hand corner of the
screen is how you play thechapter and this is the best
thing ever.
On the bottom right-hand cornerthere is a velocity, I don't
(43:05):
know what you call it, so aspeed.
You can slow it down or speedit up and for some students who
need that extra, you know, joltin their ear and a little bit
slower for pronunciationpurposes, it is perfect.
Um, I recommend that very highly, especially for um, spanish, if
(43:27):
you have some kids who havesome speech language issues, for
them to listen to it while theyare reading.
You know Spanish being phonetic, it's, it's um, it's easy to
grasp onto and um, actually itwas a way that I determined.
You know I are diagnosed inmyself, one of my students now
who might have a little bit oftrouble with with reading, who
(43:50):
is a heritage speaker.
So you know, just, it justhelps them out, you know, gives
them a fighting chance to get itright.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
And on the online.
The books also have theglossaries as well, so you can
go to the glossary still andlook up the words if you have
questions about any vocabularyin the text.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Right.
My students say that it helpsthem a lot, and a lot of the
audio on this is professionallyproduced by Submarino Amarillo
Studios in Venezuela.
It's a friend of ours who'sdoing the background and helps
(44:33):
with the sound effects and stufflike that, so it helps tell the
story a little bit for thosestudents who need that extra
hook or who need that extraboost with oh okay, so the door
is going to open.
That's what that must be, whatthat means, or something like
that.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
Oh yeah, did you mention the themes, Jen, that
they can toggle.
I didn't get there, no, goahead.
So also on the site you cantoggle by language level and the
cool part is is if you'reteaching you know a unit on
identity or travel or socialjustice and human rights, we put
all of our readers into theircorresponding themes so you can
(45:14):
find them really easily that way, which is really cool.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
And to provide a recommendation to all the
teachers listening, you can finda novel that will complement
what's going on and help keepthe conversation going.
(45:45):
Instead of that list of 75vocabulary words on technology,
you know only three of them thatyou use yourself, even though
you've been speaking the targetlanguage for years.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
We all know it, though, so those of you who are
listening is that these come inmultiple languages.
So what are the languages thaty'all offer currently that
people can get books in foranybody who's listening only?
Speaker 3 (46:14):
Yep, so we have readers in French, Spanish,
German, Italian as well asEnglish.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
And the books.
Sometimes I have suggested thisto a couple of my students who
are really struggling.
I said, okay, well, listen, I'mgonna give you access to the
English book.
Blow through that first, andjust so you have an idea of
what's supposed to be happening,right, I mean, is it a cheat?
Sure, but you know what I'm allabout making them feel like
(46:45):
they can do it, and so you know,making that connection as they
go along.
And I think you know as a, youknow as a teacher, you can, you
can make that those choices anduse your discretion.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Yeah, that's great and well and honestly, I have a
surprising amount of people whoactually teach English abroad
and listen to this podcast, sodon't be surprised if you have
people who are like Ooh, I havesome English readers that I can
use in my classroom.
This is awesome.
Speaker 2 (47:15):
That's wonderful, yeah, cause we are really.
We think the books are reallysuited, well-suited for English
language learners, and we'reslowly getting the audio for the
English books.
And oh, I just wanted tomention, just so you know, that
we're not running off to Tahition all of y'all's subscriptions.
(47:39):
So you can do a monthlysubscription for $29.
Is that what it is, teresa?
Mm-hmm?
Okay, and then, or a yearlysubscription starts whenever you
know.
You sign on on March 3rd, it'sgood till the following March
2nd, right?
So for $199 and up to 180students.
(47:59):
So if you only need it for amonth, just get a month.
You want to try it out?
We've got a free trial, yeah,but I use it with my students
and they like it too, because itwas less costly for them this
semester to get books for myclass, because they're going to
be able to use this online fortheir literature circles instead
(48:23):
of having to buy a book.
So I think it does a service toa lot of students in different
ways.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
For sure, and y'all have on the bottom of your of
the I think it's on the mainpage somewhere, what we were
looking at earlier that there'sall kinds of access and help for
people who are using schoolfunding.
There's a, there's a lettertemplate that we saw here like a
bunch of forms that anybodyneeds to download.
Purchase orders like this.
This is easy for you to gothrough school funding with this
(48:56):
yes, yep, it's all downloaded.
Speaker 3 (48:59):
Downloadable on the bottom of the website RW9.
Is there?
Approval request letter?
Everything that you need todownload and submit to your
department is there for you.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
And if you don't have , you would like to start FBR in
your classroom and you don'thave the funds to buy you know a
good chunk of books that willbe available to different levels
that you teach.
I mean this might be a good wayto start, you know, just ease
into it and then you can findout from your students which
books they really like and justmake the purchase of those books
(49:34):
.
And we're always coming outwith new ones Every day.
Yeah, we're, we don't doanything else.
Speaker 1 (49:44):
We teach Amazing.
This is so exciting.
I'm really stoked for people tojump onto this and see all the
powerful things that you have onyour on your ebook platform
here and the over a hundredbooks that you have for them to
check out.
With all this, all thedifferent features, too, that
work well in tandem withteaching the novel, as well with
(50:07):
all the ready-made questionsthat's so awesome.
So thank you so much forsharing this with teachers.
It's such a great resource.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
Our pleasure.
Thanks for having us today,Devin.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
Oh my gosh, yeah, so much knowledge with us.
This is so exciting.
I think it's going to be somuch easier for people to not
only be be they got the fire.
Now they know that, likeliteracy has got to happen, like
this is.
This is really something that'sgoing to help you spark all the
things that you want fromstudents.
You want to talk.
You want to expand curiosity.
You want to talk more in thetarget language with them.
(50:40):
You want to expand curiosity.
You want to talk more in thetarget language with them.
You want to prep less.
Like this is a really fun, easyway to do it.
So let's land on this.
Here is what would you hopewould be like a good, what's the
most important final takeawaythat you have for teachers with
working with books in the worldlanguage classroom in general?
What do you hope for them thatthey get out of this session
(51:01):
that we've done here together?
Speaker 3 (51:05):
I think, from my perspective, if you're not doing
any type of reading like youneed to start today, like that
reading, whether it's startingwith you know one pager, a story
, then going to the novels, likewhatever it is that's going to
spark your students reading.
That habit has to startsomewhere.
(51:26):
And if it's not happening nowin your classrooms, like find a
way to slowly get it started,because once it starts it'll
just keep growing.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Yeah, it will expand and blow up in the best way
possible.
And you stole my answer, terry.
But also I think that, oh, Ilost my train of thought again.
I'm so sorry.
Yeah, just start.
The only wrong way to doreading is just to hand students
the book.
(51:57):
You know, be interactive withit, you know, make it come alive
and you're going to have,you're going to have so much fun
and it lessens your planning somuch, so so much.
You will.
You think that it's hard.
It's not hard, you know.
And once you get into a flow,you're like oh yeah, this is
what the English teacher doesEasy, peasy, right, and it is.
Speaker 1 (52:21):
and the words are easier teacher does Easy peasy
right, and it is, and the wordsare easier too.
So there's that.
Yeah, so true.
Yes, yes to all of that.
Thank you so much for sharingthis with us.
This is amazing.
I wish that I knew these thingswhen I was trying out my first
novel, and thank you so much forbringing this to people.
I cannot wait to share it withy'all.
(52:42):
So you're going to hear this inthe future and be like Devin's
freaking out it's because I am.
This is really really greatstuff.
Thank you guys so much for thisand for all the years of
partnership that we've had.
It's really great for you toshare everything that you know
about novels with the world.
Thank you for that.
Thanks for having us.
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