December 3, 2024 • 37 mins
Gaslight
“Do you understand?”
Nobody Wants to Tell You They Don’t Get It
Adapting/Preparing Questions
Cold Calling
Ask Lots of Questions!
Creating a Classroom Culture of Error and Learning
Gatekeep - Checking for Understanding by Peps McCrea (at Evidence Snacks)
Validity and Efficiency
Loaded assumptions, skewed sampling, whole class questioning
Girlboss
Nearpod / Peardeck
Four Corners
Plickers
Choral Responses
Hand Signals for Question Types
Challenge Questions
Considerations for CFUs in Language Classes
References
Novels and Resources by AC Quintero
Text us about how you’ve Gaslit, or Girlbossed your language classroom.
Email us at info@slayyypod.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Room Recording (00:01):
Welcome back to another episode of SLAY, S L A,
Second Language Acquisition forEveryone.
And this is actually going to beour last episode of the year
while we take a little bit of aholiday break.
So, we really hope that you willbe able to take some time to
recharge that we know is verynecessary at this time of year.
we will come back with our nextepisode in January 2025.
(00:23):
So be looking forward to that.
And Bill, I understand there'ssomething you wanted to mention.
Yeah.
So in one of our previousepisodes, we talked about
language play and I got a nicelittle message from Diane
Neubauer, and she had someclarifying words about what
(00:45):
exactly is language play.
So she wanted to just kind ofhelp us understand that it's
specifically when you're usinglanguage to create something for
entertainment Purposes or anenjoyable experience.
So like story asking picturetalk.
(01:06):
Those are things that likestudents use their imagination
and play around with thelanguage, asking for words that
they wouldn't usually ask formaybe using structures that they
wouldn't usually.
Use or for purposes of like, onthe comprehension side, like
watching movies andunderstanding them that could
(01:26):
be, do you think it like, thatwould then like fit into like
the world of language play then?
If it's using that, like toconstruct, enter like a positive
experience in, in your brainthrough language as in contrast
to playing with language as a,an ab.
(01:48):
Track concept.
So, you know, putting on akahoot and being like What does
this word mean?
It's like, yes, they are playingwith communicative exchange or
imagination going on.
It's, you know, just matchingmeanings to forms and stuff,
which, you know, all right.
And really just you've got tostill got to have some purpose
(02:08):
that requires language to meetthat purpose, right?
Like you can play a kahoot aboutanything, but you can't like
tell a story without usinglanguage.
So anyway this week's episode,we will be talking about
checking for understanding andthe different ways that you can
go about doing that ways thatmight be more effective, less
effective, our experiences withthat.
So just starting out with thegas lighting section, where
(02:32):
we'll be talking a little bitabout maybe, Some strategies
we've used that have not slayed,as you know.
And then maybe what we'velearned from them.
So when we say checking forunderstanding, basically that
means asking your studentsquestions to See if they know
what you're talking about.
That's really important for alanguage class, for any classes,
but especially for languageclasses where students are
(02:54):
experiencing new language, and,you know, you've really just got
to keep your finger on the pulseof, like, whether they are
understanding you as you'regiving them input in the
language.
It's really important.
So some methods of checking forunderstanding might involve
asking students to raise handsyou could have students write
their answers somewhere, youcould even use some kind of
(03:16):
electronic device to collecttheir responses, there's lots of
different things you can do butin terms of some strategies that
have not necessarily panned outthe way that we wanted, or maybe
we've learned a bit about Whyother methods are more
effective.
Is there something that jumps tothe front of your mind when you
think about that?
I'm thinking about just like thebasic, like just asking, like,
(03:39):
do you understand?
and then either someone, likethe one sympathetic child friend
in your class who, you know,nods along to everything goes,
yes.
And then you go, wonderful.
And then you move on.
That is just asking, do youunderstand?
Understanding is such a acontinuum of understanding.
Like, do you understand thewords?
Do you understand the sense?
(04:00):
Do you understand what's goingon generally in the class?
Do you understand that we're atschool?
You know, like, what the contextof what's happening?
There's, that's kind of just,that's what our article for
today calls a loaded assumptionis that somebody is going to
answer and then, It'll just kindof, I don't know that that does
anything.
It doesn't really do anythingbecause kids are not exactly
jumping to reveal when theydon't know something.
(04:23):
And I think that's a basic humanimpulse is essentially to
protect your pride in some waysby being like, yep, I got it all
the time and it's fine.
I've seen this with adults aswell as kids.
Just, you know, the notunderstanding, but just
silently, absorbing that andjust moving on in the hopes of
not sticking out.
So we need to use techniquesthat are a little bit more
(04:45):
consequential and a little bitmore illustrative if we want to
actually understand what ourlearners are understanding, to
what degree and who in theclassroom.
Because sometimes it can bevariable from student to
student.
Yeah, I think kids are really,really, really good at
pretending they understand.
(05:06):
they're really good atpretending that they understand
and playing school and likesometimes in other classes.
That's okay.
They can just go back and rereada textbook chapter or review
notes to see what they missed.
(05:28):
But that's a little bit harder.
Language class where it's in themoment and you need that
interaction piece so that I canunderstand what you understand
and I can help you fix what youdon't understand.
And even if a student goes homeand reads the story that we read
(05:51):
in class, like, yeah, they'regetting the input that maybe
they missed, but they're stillnot getting the interaction.
And I mean, our learners arenovices in ways that they are
not in other classes, like theymight be learning new content in
history, but they've studiedhistory before they've studied
math before.
A lot of times, this is thefirst time they're learning a
(06:12):
new language, so they are notused to, gaps in understanding
that might exist.
Especially adolescence.
They're still building theirself image and socially
constructing themselves.
And so they really don't want tobe embarrassed and have anyone
think that they don't knowwhat's going on.
So they do almost anything tohide their lack of
(06:33):
understanding.
So it's our job to both make ourclassrooms a safe place where
it's okay to say that they don'tknow or ask for help, but also
make sure that we are actuallyusing formative assessment as a
way to Check in on what everyoneis able to grasp.
So I guess when I think about aslightly less effective strategy
(06:53):
or maybe very much lesseffective strategy for checking
for understanding, it would bewhen I first started teaching
and I would just ask forvolunteers for every question,
I'd ask the question and put myhand up in the air and just wait
for that one kid who justabsolutely loves languages or
just super, super motivated andreally a faster processor than
(07:14):
everyone else to answer thequestion.
And I'm like, well, one kid gotit.
So that means that I did a goodjob as teaching.
actually that is not arepresentative sample.
I mean, of the entire classesunderstanding, it's just that
one kid.
And so I mean, I would say thatit's not like I never ask for
volunteers, but I do it very,very rarely these days because
(07:36):
I've understood that, you know,it's just not really that
helpful to me as their teacherto be able to shift my
instruction based on whetherthey're getting it or not.
First, before I make anothercomment on pitfalls and checking
for understanding I do want tohighlight something that you
said, Brian, about kids nothaving taken language class
(07:57):
before, so they don't know whatthey're supposed to do in class
yet.
I think I've thought thatbefore, but You have better
words.
So now I'm like understandingthat a little bit more.
I've got a differentperspective.
So thanks for that.
I think that a pitfall that I'veseen and or heard of before is
(08:23):
using popsicle sticks to call onstudents or whatever name
randomizer and not adapting thequestion for the student that
gets called.
if you ask the question, soeveryone hears it, and then you
pull a stick or spin a wheel orwhatever, and that person has to
answer, but that doesn't ensurethat that is an appropriate
(08:45):
question for that student.
I've got a wide variety oflevels in my class.
So, if I ask an open endedquestion.
then call on a student thatmight really need the support of
an either or question that I'mjust setting them up in front of
the entire class.
(09:06):
a couple different ways I goabout it, like if maybe I do ask
the question and then picksomeone, then I need to make
sure that I'm reassuring themthat whatever their answer is
however well they can answer isas well as they can answer.
So like I'll accept that and Iwill support that and help lift
(09:28):
you up.
But my preferred method is topull the stick first, Then ask
the question so everyone hearsit, then call on the student.
So I see who I'm going to beasking.
I adapt the question for themand then ask the question to
everyone because they don't knowif they're getting called on or
(09:49):
not.
So then I've set them up forsuccess in front of everyone and
everyone still had to payattention to the question.
I've heard that if you call onthe student before asking the
question, that just giveseveryone else an opportunity to
shut off and not listen, becauseknow that they're not having to
answer.
And so that's why I don't dothat.
But it's really interesting whenyou say that you have in mind
(10:11):
who you're going to call inbefore you kind of, you know,
reveal it.
Even though you're still, Iguess, are you physically using
popsicle sticks?
I haven't seen those in a fewyears, but most teachers in my
school, use some kind ofrandomized wheel picker or
something like that.
I have a mix If I want to dolike a public call on someone
like if we've got time to playgame kit or book it or
(10:31):
something, I'll do a publicwheel to show.
And then that kid gets to pickthe game that we play.
something like that.
So I use flippity to make thoseBut if it's just questions in
class discussion to encourageparticipation, then I use a set
(10:52):
of numbered sticks.
the numbers correspond with.
the number of the pocket thattheir phone goes in and it's
also alphabetical order andwhatnot.
So I use that.
So then I just have the one setof sticks.
that is like in the neighborhoodof Anne Marie Chase's magic
cards that she uses forformative assessment as well.
(11:15):
Which is just having kids writetheir names on index cards and
then recording the quality oftheir responses on.
The index card as a way to takedata.
And also helps with therandomization bit, right?
You can pull a card, look at whoit is.
pitch the question at anappropriate level so that
everyone has to think.
The Teach Like a Championuniverse, calls that ratio
because it increases the ratioof students who are thinking
(11:35):
actively instead of tuning out,like you said.
And then, you know, pose thequestion to the kid, kind of
record the quality of theirresponse.
So Joe, cause I find it a littlebit easier for me to just carry
my little iPad around, even ifthat does make my kids call me a
sticky iPad, baby to my big baldhead.
But I use that cause for me,it's just easier to manage that
technology.
But yeah, the randomizationhelps totally.
(11:56):
And that also the, another way,you know, if you have the wheel
in front of everybody, they'regoing to see who's going to get
called on ahead of time.
And my tune out.
I like the, either the sticks orthe.
Okay.
The magic cards or the classdojo just because it's my little
secret until I reveal it.
So that, you know, it increasesthe, the tension of thinking
ahead of time.
(12:17):
And I guess too, as well for mepersonally, it's kind of like, I
do expect all of my students tobe able to answer any level of
question that I ask.
So I'm not going to like thinkin advance, Oh, Johnny needs a
simpler question because I kindof feel like students might
start to feel called, not calledout, but like, They might notice
that kind of trend that you'realways asking simpler questions
(12:39):
to certain students.
And if Johnny doesn't know howto answer my question, it's my
job to help him do it.
Like not just allow him tocontinue to not be able to
answer it.
If that makes sense.
I don't know.
So that's just something I needto think about more.
That's perspective that I needto add into my thinking on that
too.
So, yeah, giving them softballquestions and then also giving
them the next level up ofquestion that they are just
(13:02):
barely hanging on, but they getthrough and then, you know,
giving them more of those untilthey're at that level.
Right.
And then that's, I think but youonly know that if you're asking
lots of questions, I guess youcould like go with if you do
start with maybe a softballquestion.
Yeah.
And they get it and then just,you could level up right then
and there.
Or if you overestimated and thequestion is too complex, like
(13:26):
just reword it.
Oh, yeah.
I see that, that blink look ontheir face.
Yeah.
Gearshift down, you know, backdown, down to an either or
question.
If you start a bit open endedfrom an either or to a yes or
no, that sort of thing.
Yeah.
I think, but that also makes methink of.
Something else.
And like I said, you, youultimately only know this if
you're asking lots of questionsto your students all the time
(13:47):
and have a really good feel forwhere the general class level
is, but then also for, you know,individual students as you kind
of starts to see their Languageproficiency emerge in class over
time and across the differentthings that you've done and
context and that sort of thing.
So I think that we kind of weretalking in preparation about
this of sometimes you worryabout students getting bored or
(14:11):
you feel like you've alreadyasked so many questions that
it's bogging down the pace.
So you just get into like headdown, bold charging mode with
the content, whatever thecontent is, you know, a story
content based instruction,whatever it is.
And you just kind of startpowering through and then you
stop checking for understandingbecause you're worried it's
making things boring.
But I think that the checks forunderstanding can actually add
(14:32):
momentum because it just buildsa natural repetitions for
everybody.
To kind of solidify new contentlearning anyways, as well as
giving more exposure to thelanguage structures that
students are acquiring and thatsort of thing.
So I think, you know, gettingover that fear of doing too much
and that's getting so boring.
It's like, also, it's fine ifyou're not entertaining 100
(14:53):
percent of the time.
Yeah.
And I just think, too, like, forme, that's why it's so important
to focus on community buildingin the beginning and making sure
that everyone understands, like,that we're a respectful
classroom community and, like,we aren't going to make fun of
anyone for not knowing somethingor saying something wrong.
And so I really think that,although I do use cold calling a
(15:16):
lot, my students generally arenot put off by it or embarrassed
because they know that I willsupport them if they can't
answer it and It's okay to makemistakes So yeah, okay Any other
thoughts on that?
I think it boils down topreparation too And I've been
thinking about this based onwhat bill was talking about
about having question ready fora student at their level
(15:36):
Sometimes we'll get to the endof a lesson and ask students to
do something with theinformation But we haven't been
checking the understanding alongthe way and that's where we kind
of find out that everything fellapart one of my previous
pitfalls was knowing that wewere going into content and
doing some content withstudents, but not planning the
questions.
It's okay to plan the questions.
It's okay to plan your questionsahead of time.
Totally.
(15:57):
Sweet.
All right, before we gatekeeplet's, let's take a quick break.
Today what we're ungatekeepingis actually not kept in the
traditional sense it is freelyavailable out on ye olde
internet, so we encourage you togo check it out.
I'm subscribed to an email listthat is called Evidence Snacks
by an education writer andteacher trainer named Peps
(16:20):
McCray.
In it, he distills evidencebased education research, into
essentially five minute littlearticles about one specific
topic.
And what does the evidence sayhelps us be the most responsive,
best teachers out there.
These little evidence snacks arevery snack like.
They're truly a five minute reador less but he also links to
(16:42):
research papers that arerelevant.
I think, actually, one of theresearch papers that we did for
observations came from evidencesnacks, actually He links to
research articles and furtherreads if you want to go deeper
into the topic at hand or intoother topics that have articles
related to them and it's justoverall a great resource for
teaching, with again the caveatthat when you're reading general
education research Content areainstruction is necessarily
(17:06):
different from languageinstruction that we do.
So take with grains of salt inthe principles that you know of
language acquisition and whatyou know about language teaching
and learning before you, youknow, read any of these things
and just be like, Oh, he says Ihave to do this, and then
immediately adapt to your worldlanguage class.
So we read an article, and itwas so short, and it was about
(17:27):
checking for understanding.
In the article, it talks abouthow responsive teaching, which
is the sort of teaching thatgets us the best results with
students is being able to makecourse corrections based on
student understanding.
So if they get it, and they'regood, and they've processed the
information, then you're able tomove on and teach them more.
If they haven't got it, thatyou're able to double back and
(17:50):
make adjustments such that theyunderstand.
In order to make these coursecorrections or confirmations
that you're on the right course,you need to be checking for
understanding along the way.
And so these comprehensionchecks need to be a helix out
for them being valid so thatyou're actually getting a
complete picture of yourstudents understanding.
(18:10):
And they need to be efficientbecause if you had to ask each
individual child the extent oftheir understanding, That would
take forever.
So he talks about different waysin which teachers have done this
in the past and kind of what hethinks to be the most valid,
most efficient.
He starts with what I alluded toearlier, the loaded assumption,
the do you understand thatobviously it will not
(18:33):
necessarily give you a validanswer because you will have the
understanding of maybe one bravesoul who says, yep, I get it.
And It is efficient because, youknow, everyone wants to get it
over with quickly and you're alldying inside, but it doesn't
necessarily get you theinformation that you need to
make a good informed decision inyour teaching.
My thinking, and I don't knowwhat Bill and Brian think of
this, is that doing the thingslike fist to five for
(18:55):
comprehension sometimes is alittle bit more illustrative, it
has a bit more of anillustrative effect than just
asking if you understand.
Again, students don't want tolet on that they're not
understanding, but if you havestudents with, most students are
doing fours and fives, like okayyou're probably A pretty good
track, maybe keep an eye on thekids on fours or threes area.
That's when they're starting totry to telegraph that, like,
(19:18):
they're holding in for you todouble back, revisit
information, do morecomprehension checks, cold
calling, whatever it is that welay out here.
Do you understand on its own?
Not great.
Maybe trying Fist of Five sortof stuff is a little bit better,
but that goes into anothercategory of response.
I like Fist of Five also forlike, asking at the end of class
(19:42):
how my speed was.
or maybe zero to ten fingersabout how much of class did you
understand zero being none, tenbeing everything, or even just
like thumbs up, thumbs down.
I do ask students to close theireyes or make sure it doesn't
look like they're watching otherpeople.
(20:03):
because, like, you don't wantanyone feeling uncomfortable But
what's funny, these adaptationswe're talking about actually
move into the thing that PepsMcCray describes as more
efficient and valid anyways,which is a whole class
questioning.
But we'll get there.
So a lot of the assumption isjust asking the whole class.
Do you understand?
Not great.
The things that Bill describedthat I was describing may be a
(20:24):
little bit better.
The next one he describes isskewed sampling, which can also
be very efficient but it's justtaking hands.
So if a student you know, raisestheir hand, it's like, I'm gonna
answer the question.
You're getting a student who isconfident, And so they may not
represent all of the students inthe class level of confidence or
level of comprehension.
So some of the things we weretalking about earlier, cold
calling can be better.
(20:46):
Random sampling can be betteralthough maybe less efficient.
Because you're not getting,again, you're not getting a read
on every kid in the classsimultaneously.
So you might have to ask a fewmore questions.
So yeah, taking hands, you know,raised hands, not the best cold
calling slightly better withcaveat and with fine points of
how to tune that a little bitbetter.
(21:06):
But he describes that the mostvalid, the most efficient way of
Getting checking for studentunderstanding is whole class
questioning.
This increases the ratio.
If everyone has to answer,they'd have to be doing some
thinking and be thinking aboutthem, the topic at hand.
So some of the ways that he laysout in this mini article are
just multiple choice questions.
(21:27):
Students can answer with theirfingers.
One, two, three, four or five.
One, two, three or four, youknow, ABC, whatever it is.
If everyone answers, then youcould look around and get a
quick check and then, you know,everybody's answer, everybody's
level of understanding.
He proposes using miniwhiteboards, which we can talk
and get girl boss about how wemight use those, what sorts of
questions that we might actuallyask for students to respond with
(21:47):
whiteboards.
And he doesn't list coralresponses on there, but that is
such a natural segue for us incomprehension based teaching
world is corals are.
A helpful technique because justbased on the how the class
responds corally, you can kindof get a feel for, oh, students
are understanding quite a lot.
(22:08):
They're responding quickly andwith strength versus if they're
kind of giving a tepid halfresponse that might indicate
that you need to, to reteach toreestablish meaning, whatever it
is What he describes as is mostimportant in this is sharp
execution.
If students are giving aresponse, they should all give
it at the same time so that theydon't.
(22:29):
have time to look around andkind of see how other people are
answering and they should all beanswering at the same time, so
that way you can see that theyare prepared to respond in
general.
And that is, again, a check onhow well they're understanding.
So that was the article.
It's like a very quick read.
All the evidence stacks are veryquick reads.
I recommend them to you andthey're linked in the show notes
if you would like to subscribelike I am and just get some
(22:50):
general education tips, tricks,thoughts that can be very
helpful.
I just subscribed while you weretalking.
I'm going to now ask Bill to askus to repeat the last three
things I said as a show of hisunderstanding.
Just kidding.
Let's maybe we.
All right, and now just to moveinto girlbossing, I do have an
(23:15):
aside on how we've girlbossed.
This past weekend it was Actfulsorry it'll be two weekends ago
when you hear this but it wasgreat, it was a great time, and
I think it might have been Mymost enjoyable actual yet and in
(23:37):
part because I saw thiswonderful presentation by our
very own Brian on studentperception of standard based
grading.
It was just, it was really,really good.
We were trying to bully him intoditching the plans this week and
talking about the, the thesisbut Brian didn't want to yet.
(23:59):
So It's fine.
We still love, appreciate yourpositive feedback and it was
really great.
I don't think you were graspinghow great it was.
You slayed.
And of course, and other thanthat, it was just a really fun
(24:21):
weekend.
Brian and I slayed just hangingout together in Philadelphia and
cried a little bit.
I stayed at home.
Well, there were only two Yspresent of the sleigh.
So, next time we must coordinateto maximize our joint sleigh.
(24:41):
So maybe no more on this nextyear.
But it was a really funconference.
But yeah, on how we Girlbosschecking for understanding I
think one of the ways that I'veenjoyed, especially getting all
student responses is Nearpod orPear Deck.
So if you're unfamiliar withthese tools, I'll allow you to
(25:06):
take a slide presentation andmake it interactive.
It's a lot of fun.
And while I say it's a lot offun, it's valuable feedback for
me as the teacher.
Some of my students haveoverdone PearDuck and Nearpod,
(25:26):
so they don't like it when weuse it, but it's, it's really
valuable.
So students on, all on their owndevices answer questions in a
variety of different ways andyou get responses from everyone.
So, and it shows you as, like,as people are responding.
So, if I see, oh, I need, like,Two more responses before we can
move on.
(25:47):
But yeah, I really like that.
I also have an A, B, C, and Dposter, and those are always in
the four corners of my room.
I also, so I can do multiplechoice and get students moving.
You'll get students that arewatching where everyone else is
going.
So I do try to make questionslike that, more opinion than
(26:10):
just correct or incorrect.
And I have also just made somehalf sheets that on one side it
says A and B, on the other sideit says C and D.
So students just flip the cardand orient it so that their
answer is on the upside.
(26:30):
So I can see what they say.
Have either of you usedclickers?
Have you heard of clickers?
So it's like, okay, I thinkthere's a more low tech version
that I would prefer to use, butbasically you have a card with
like a QR code, right?
And it's like, based on how youhold the card up if you take a
(26:50):
phone and you just kind of scanover the audience, your class
all of their answers, it willgenerate some data on their
website so you can seenumerically how many students
entered A, B, C or D.
And it's really versatilebecause you can have any
questions, like you don't haveto make the questions in
advance, like you might need todo on Nearpod or Pear Deck.
Although I guess you could alsojust put A, B, C, D, like you
(27:11):
don't necessarily need to have aquestion.
Anyway I've seen a teacher useit and it looked really cool and
then I was like, I'm gonna usethis and I just never did.
But I think if you have like acard that just had A, B, C, and
D written on each side like ofthe square and they just, you
know, whatever is up is thecorrect answer.
Like you could do that and justvisually scan.
But if you, you know, you wantsome more data, numerical data
(27:32):
that you can refer to are in thespreadsheet or something like
that, that's something that youcould consider.
I like that because everyone'sresponding.
And I like it that it is.
teacher tech, but not studenttech, but I also then feel
uncomfortable pointing my phoneat.
Yeah, that's the part I justcan't really.
(27:53):
I think, I feel like that wouldtake me out of, out of the
moment of class, because I'll belike, oh, because I'm gonna
like, Like I'll, of course I'llfumble with my phone and then
I'll look like a silly goofballand then the kids will make fun
of me even more.
Let's make low technology checksfor understanding.
You could do that with no cards.
(28:14):
But I do like, I do like thedata collection that like that
is.
Yes.
Yeah.
I think that the coral responsesare kind of like the go to for
many people in the comprehensionbased communicative language
teaching world.
the trick is.
That sharp execution that PepsMcCray talks about in the
article, which is gettingeveryone to respond at exactly
the same time.
I hold up three fingers if Iwant a coral response as a way
(28:36):
of indicating that you get threeseconds to think.
This gives kids think time toprocess and prepare themselves
to answer and also stops.
And so, you know, I pull up thethree fingers, I say the
question, then I go one, two,three, and then, you know,
indicate to them that theyanswer.
And so think time plus quiz.
And from that you getinformation.
(28:57):
If you're looking around, maybeyou have students in mind that
you think, you know, you reallywant to check their
understanding, see how or ifthey respond.
But you also get a whole classfeel.
for the strength of the responsesometimes tells you the
information you need that oh theclass is really getting this
because they responded soquickly and like right on top of
it or they responded kind oflethargically and that either
(29:18):
indicates that they're having amoment of laziness as we all do
or that they're not getting itand you need to go back and re
explain it and so that is a moreinformed decision that you made
via your check for understandingthat everyone had to do.
A branch off of that.
I love the different like handsignals for different types of
questions, and you cut out alittle bit on my end, but Brian
(29:42):
look like he was agreeing withyou.
So I'm hoping you do, and it'snot out but so you do the three
fingers for counting down solike everyone responds.
Did something that I do isagain, you might have mentioned
this.
So I'll raise my hand if I wanta student, like one volunteers,
(30:03):
or I, when I ask a question, orI'll say classy.
Before if I want everyone tojust answer.
So I think prompting, promptingstudents how you want them to
respond is a behavior managementthing, but it also helps us with
the think time and things likethat.
So, yeah, whole class response.
I give 3 seconds raised hand.
(30:24):
If I want to raise hand, I justgive a, like, Waving towards
myself if I want everyone justshout out answers and stuff like
that, that again is like it'spartially management, but it
also helps with the ratio ofstudent thinking.
And then my branch off that issometimes I'll throw a challenge
question.
So I'll just like note, like,ooh, like I'll come up with a
(30:48):
like a question that wouldrequire like a complex.
structure of an answer.
And I've got a couple, I've gotstudents that like really
respond to when I say like,okay, challenge question.
And they also learned the wordfor challenge, because that's
like a useful word.
(31:08):
They perk up and then I alwaysremind them as well that
remember, this is a challengequestion.
Like this is a question thatyou're going to have, like, push
your language to be able toanswer.
And that would be true foranyone who's trying to answer
the question.
So please feel free to try andwe're here to support you.
(31:31):
Have we mentioned the miniwhiteboards?
I'm not sure.
I mean, if you want somethingbesides How do you use them?
Yes, no, A, B, C, D, like anactual word or sentence as a
response.
You could use a mini whiteboard.
There are many options forgetting them.
You could either buy a set, Orif you have, like, I don't know,
people have gotten like a big,like, slab, kind of, of, like,
(31:54):
markerable paper, I don't evenknow what to call it, but like,
then you cut it up and then youcan distribute those, or you
could even just use sheetprotectors and white paper.
I know there's lots of differentways teachers have gone about
using those.
And they're good.
Because when I, when I use them,I always, you know, first of
all, it takes a while to writeout a full sentence or, you
know, word or like, there's justthink time naturally involved in
(32:16):
it.
And I always say like, you can'traise your board up until I
count down till, you know, fromfive or something like that.
And so that way, like, everyoneraises it up at the same time.
And I can see like, just in thatmoment, like who gets it, who
doesn't, and it's veryefficient.
But I guess the thing aboutwhiteboards that I don't love is
the marker situation and erasingsituation.
(32:37):
Short of like just buying like afull set of markers and erasers
for the whole class, like everyother kind of bring a sock, use
a tissue, like things like that,like they always just get kind
of gross or like students losethem.
And so sometimes just Because Iwant things to not look gross,
like I don't, I kind of avoidit, but I don't know, this
conversation is kind of gettingme to think about ways I can
(32:57):
bring it back.
Any success stories from that?
I did find like a 10 box of 48erasers.
So online, a bunch of minierasers and those come out as
the supplies for whiteboardactivities.
A couple of things on that isthe kids love whiteboards.
They also love to doodle whenthey should be doing other
(33:18):
things.
So something that I do when wepull out the whiteboards to do
something, I have them, I forgetwho I learned this from, but
like, I love it.
I tell them to put thewhiteboard on their head and
with the marker to drawsomething.
So they can get their doodlesout before.
So I'd say like draw a cat.
And then we all compare who's isthe best or looks most like a
(33:39):
cat And then also with not manywhiteboards, but with like my
bell work that I do.
I try to incorporate somethingthat students can go up to the
board to write.
So, maybe we just did food,we're working on like food
stuff.
Spanish four.
So to check their vocabularyahead of time.
(34:00):
I had my pictionary that I'vetalked about before, and then I
just projected that without thewords to see what they could
name to start off.
And there's like 25 of the wordson the page.
So I just say, make sure thateveryone gets a chance to write
one before you write another oneand gets up and moving.
And typically a fun way to startclass but it also might be just
(34:22):
like, finish the sentence, go upand write what you wrote to
finish the sentence.
I have one more considerationfor, for Czech for Understanding
specific to language classrooms.
I've been reading Common Groundby Henshaw and Hawkins
continuously over the course ofthe year.
Reference it all the time.
And they're kind of in their wayof trying to avoid English as a
(34:43):
check for understanding inclasses because I would, you
know, I was taught early on justask what, what did I just say
and then have the students sayin English.
If you want to avoid that to tryto stay even more in the target
language, their kind of numberone guiding principle is
creating activities with clearoutcomes or purposes that compel
students to understand so thatthey can't complete the activity
(35:05):
unless they showedunderstanding.
And having those activities besmaller, right?
So that, you know, they'recompelled to make a choice or to
indicate an opinion or a thoughtor an answer much more
frequently than, you know, somesort of long activity where they
get to the end and then justcan't do it.
And they kind of talk in thebook I've just been reading the
chapter about input and theytalk about how to use them.
(35:27):
It's okay to, you know, ask thisor that questions.
It's okay.
to ask yes or no questions, kindof classic circling questions
but that it might tell studentsto tune out after a while and
stop processing the language formeaning if they know you're only
going to ask questions thatdon't have a purpose other than
to display information youalready know.
And so you have to mix inpersonalized questions with
(35:49):
that.
But even then, there's a pitfallwith personalized questions that
you could ask a personalizedquestion and a student could
just give an answer of a wordthat they heard most recently.
So you have to ask even morefollow up questions about that
personalized question in orderto really see that the student
was understanding, but alsoengage in communication with the
student that provides input tothem as well as the class.
(36:11):
So that's an additionalconsideration for our language
class friendos.
Anything else to girlboss thisweek?
It doesn't look like it.
So Thank you all for, a greatsemester.
I can't believe that, I don'teven know how many episodes this
is.
Is this ten?
This is our 10th episode.
This is our 10th episode.
(36:31):
And that's crazy.
That is wild.
But we are going to take abreak.
So we will be off for the monthof December, which probably for
the best, that's typically ahectic time with finals or
whatever you do to end thesemester.
So we hope that everyone has agreat Unenjoyable end of the
(36:53):
year and hope that you can findtime to relax and recharge and
catch up on your favoriteslaying podcast, something.
I don't know.
We can't wait to, we can't waitto come back next year.
See you in 2025.
Bye.
(37:14):
Don't forget to play.
Bye.
Welcome back to another episode of SLAY, S L A,
Second Language Acquisition forEveryone.
And this is actually going to beour last episode of the year
while we take a little bit of aholiday break.
So, we really hope that you willbe able to take some time to
recharge that we know is verynecessary at this time of year.
we will come back with our nextepisode in January 2025.
(00:23):
So be looking forward to that.
And Bill, I understand there'ssomething you wanted to mention.
Yeah.
So in one of our previousepisodes, we talked about
language play and I got a nicelittle message from Diane
Neubauer, and she had someclarifying words about what
(00:45):
exactly is language play.
So she wanted to just kind ofhelp us understand that it's
specifically when you're usinglanguage to create something for
entertainment Purposes or anenjoyable experience.
So like story asking picturetalk.
(01:06):
Those are things that likestudents use their imagination
and play around with thelanguage, asking for words that
they wouldn't usually ask formaybe using structures that they
wouldn't usually.
Use or for purposes of like, onthe comprehension side, like
watching movies andunderstanding them that could
(01:26):
be, do you think it like, thatwould then like fit into like
the world of language play then?
If it's using that, like toconstruct, enter like a positive
experience in, in your brainthrough language as in contrast
to playing with language as a,an ab.
(01:48):
Track concept.
So, you know, putting on akahoot and being like What does
this word mean?
It's like, yes, they are playingwith communicative exchange or
imagination going on.
It's, you know, just matchingmeanings to forms and stuff,
which, you know, all right.
And really just you've got tostill got to have some purpose
(02:08):
that requires language to meetthat purpose, right?
Like you can play a kahoot aboutanything, but you can't like
tell a story without usinglanguage.
So anyway this week's episode,we will be talking about
checking for understanding andthe different ways that you can
go about doing that ways thatmight be more effective, less
effective, our experiences withthat.
So just starting out with thegas lighting section, where
(02:32):
we'll be talking a little bitabout maybe, Some strategies
we've used that have not slayed,as you know.
And then maybe what we'velearned from them.
So when we say checking forunderstanding, basically that
means asking your studentsquestions to See if they know
what you're talking about.
That's really important for alanguage class, for any classes,
but especially for languageclasses where students are
(02:54):
experiencing new language, and,you know, you've really just got
to keep your finger on the pulseof, like, whether they are
understanding you as you'regiving them input in the
language.
It's really important.
So some methods of checking forunderstanding might involve
asking students to raise handsyou could have students write
their answers somewhere, youcould even use some kind of
(03:16):
electronic device to collecttheir responses, there's lots of
different things you can do butin terms of some strategies that
have not necessarily panned outthe way that we wanted, or maybe
we've learned a bit about Whyother methods are more
effective.
Is there something that jumps tothe front of your mind when you
think about that?
I'm thinking about just like thebasic, like just asking, like,
(03:39):
do you understand?
and then either someone, likethe one sympathetic child friend
in your class who, you know,nods along to everything goes,
yes.
And then you go, wonderful.
And then you move on.
That is just asking, do youunderstand?
Understanding is such a acontinuum of understanding.
Like, do you understand thewords?
Do you understand the sense?
(04:00):
Do you understand what's goingon generally in the class?
Do you understand that we're atschool?
You know, like, what the contextof what's happening?
There's, that's kind of just,that's what our article for
today calls a loaded assumptionis that somebody is going to
answer and then, It'll just kindof, I don't know that that does
anything.
It doesn't really do anythingbecause kids are not exactly
jumping to reveal when theydon't know something.
(04:23):
And I think that's a basic humanimpulse is essentially to
protect your pride in some waysby being like, yep, I got it all
the time and it's fine.
I've seen this with adults aswell as kids.
Just, you know, the notunderstanding, but just
silently, absorbing that andjust moving on in the hopes of
not sticking out.
So we need to use techniquesthat are a little bit more
(04:45):
consequential and a little bitmore illustrative if we want to
actually understand what ourlearners are understanding, to
what degree and who in theclassroom.
Because sometimes it can bevariable from student to
student.
Yeah, I think kids are really,really, really good at
pretending they understand.
(05:06):
they're really good atpretending that they understand
and playing school and likesometimes in other classes.
That's okay.
They can just go back and rereada textbook chapter or review
notes to see what they missed.
(05:28):
But that's a little bit harder.
Language class where it's in themoment and you need that
interaction piece so that I canunderstand what you understand
and I can help you fix what youdon't understand.
And even if a student goes homeand reads the story that we read
(05:51):
in class, like, yeah, they'regetting the input that maybe
they missed, but they're stillnot getting the interaction.
And I mean, our learners arenovices in ways that they are
not in other classes, like theymight be learning new content in
history, but they've studiedhistory before they've studied
math before.
A lot of times, this is thefirst time they're learning a
(06:12):
new language, so they are notused to, gaps in understanding
that might exist.
Especially adolescence.
They're still building theirself image and socially
constructing themselves.
And so they really don't want tobe embarrassed and have anyone
think that they don't knowwhat's going on.
So they do almost anything tohide their lack of
(06:33):
understanding.
So it's our job to both make ourclassrooms a safe place where
it's okay to say that they don'tknow or ask for help, but also
make sure that we are actuallyusing formative assessment as a
way to Check in on what everyoneis able to grasp.
So I guess when I think about aslightly less effective strategy
(06:53):
or maybe very much lesseffective strategy for checking
for understanding, it would bewhen I first started teaching
and I would just ask forvolunteers for every question,
I'd ask the question and put myhand up in the air and just wait
for that one kid who justabsolutely loves languages or
just super, super motivated andreally a faster processor than
(07:14):
everyone else to answer thequestion.
And I'm like, well, one kid gotit.
So that means that I did a goodjob as teaching.
actually that is not arepresentative sample.
I mean, of the entire classesunderstanding, it's just that
one kid.
And so I mean, I would say thatit's not like I never ask for
volunteers, but I do it very,very rarely these days because
(07:36):
I've understood that, you know,it's just not really that
helpful to me as their teacherto be able to shift my
instruction based on whetherthey're getting it or not.
First, before I make anothercomment on pitfalls and checking
for understanding I do want tohighlight something that you
said, Brian, about kids nothaving taken language class
(07:57):
before, so they don't know whatthey're supposed to do in class
yet.
I think I've thought thatbefore, but You have better
words.
So now I'm like understandingthat a little bit more.
I've got a differentperspective.
So thanks for that.
I think that a pitfall that I'veseen and or heard of before is
(08:23):
using popsicle sticks to call onstudents or whatever name
randomizer and not adapting thequestion for the student that
gets called.
if you ask the question, soeveryone hears it, and then you
pull a stick or spin a wheel orwhatever, and that person has to
answer, but that doesn't ensurethat that is an appropriate
(08:45):
question for that student.
I've got a wide variety oflevels in my class.
So, if I ask an open endedquestion.
then call on a student thatmight really need the support of
an either or question that I'mjust setting them up in front of
the entire class.
(09:06):
a couple different ways I goabout it, like if maybe I do ask
the question and then picksomeone, then I need to make
sure that I'm reassuring themthat whatever their answer is
however well they can answer isas well as they can answer.
So like I'll accept that and Iwill support that and help lift
(09:28):
you up.
But my preferred method is topull the stick first, Then ask
the question so everyone hearsit, then call on the student.
So I see who I'm going to beasking.
I adapt the question for themand then ask the question to
everyone because they don't knowif they're getting called on or
(09:49):
not.
So then I've set them up forsuccess in front of everyone and
everyone still had to payattention to the question.
I've heard that if you call onthe student before asking the
question, that just giveseveryone else an opportunity to
shut off and not listen, becauseknow that they're not having to
answer.
And so that's why I don't dothat.
But it's really interesting whenyou say that you have in mind
(10:11):
who you're going to call inbefore you kind of, you know,
reveal it.
Even though you're still, Iguess, are you physically using
popsicle sticks?
I haven't seen those in a fewyears, but most teachers in my
school, use some kind ofrandomized wheel picker or
something like that.
I have a mix If I want to dolike a public call on someone
like if we've got time to playgame kit or book it or
(10:31):
something, I'll do a publicwheel to show.
And then that kid gets to pickthe game that we play.
something like that.
So I use flippity to make thoseBut if it's just questions in
class discussion to encourageparticipation, then I use a set
(10:52):
of numbered sticks.
the numbers correspond with.
the number of the pocket thattheir phone goes in and it's
also alphabetical order andwhatnot.
So I use that.
So then I just have the one setof sticks.
that is like in the neighborhoodof Anne Marie Chase's magic
cards that she uses forformative assessment as well.
(11:15):
Which is just having kids writetheir names on index cards and
then recording the quality oftheir responses on.
The index card as a way to takedata.
And also helps with therandomization bit, right?
You can pull a card, look at whoit is.
pitch the question at anappropriate level so that
everyone has to think.
The Teach Like a Championuniverse, calls that ratio
because it increases the ratioof students who are thinking
(11:35):
actively instead of tuning out,like you said.
And then, you know, pose thequestion to the kid, kind of
record the quality of theirresponse.
So Joe, cause I find it a littlebit easier for me to just carry
my little iPad around, even ifthat does make my kids call me a
sticky iPad, baby to my big baldhead.
But I use that cause for me,it's just easier to manage that
technology.
But yeah, the randomizationhelps totally.
(11:56):
And that also the, another way,you know, if you have the wheel
in front of everybody, they'regoing to see who's going to get
called on ahead of time.
And my tune out.
I like the, either the sticks orthe.
Okay.
The magic cards or the classdojo just because it's my little
secret until I reveal it.
So that, you know, it increasesthe, the tension of thinking
ahead of time.
(12:17):
And I guess too, as well for mepersonally, it's kind of like, I
do expect all of my students tobe able to answer any level of
question that I ask.
So I'm not going to like thinkin advance, Oh, Johnny needs a
simpler question because I kindof feel like students might
start to feel called, not calledout, but like, They might notice
that kind of trend that you'realways asking simpler questions
(12:39):
to certain students.
And if Johnny doesn't know howto answer my question, it's my
job to help him do it.
Like not just allow him tocontinue to not be able to
answer it.
If that makes sense.
I don't know.
So that's just something I needto think about more.
That's perspective that I needto add into my thinking on that
too.
So, yeah, giving them softballquestions and then also giving
them the next level up ofquestion that they are just
(13:02):
barely hanging on, but they getthrough and then, you know,
giving them more of those untilthey're at that level.
Right.
And then that's, I think but youonly know that if you're asking
lots of questions, I guess youcould like go with if you do
start with maybe a softballquestion.
Yeah.
And they get it and then just,you could level up right then
and there.
Or if you overestimated and thequestion is too complex, like
(13:26):
just reword it.
Oh, yeah.
I see that, that blink look ontheir face.
Yeah.
Gearshift down, you know, backdown, down to an either or
question.
If you start a bit open endedfrom an either or to a yes or
no, that sort of thing.
Yeah.
I think, but that also makes methink of.
Something else.
And like I said, you, youultimately only know this if
you're asking lots of questionsto your students all the time
(13:47):
and have a really good feel forwhere the general class level
is, but then also for, you know,individual students as you kind
of starts to see their Languageproficiency emerge in class over
time and across the differentthings that you've done and
context and that sort of thing.
So I think that we kind of weretalking in preparation about
this of sometimes you worryabout students getting bored or
(14:11):
you feel like you've alreadyasked so many questions that
it's bogging down the pace.
So you just get into like headdown, bold charging mode with
the content, whatever thecontent is, you know, a story
content based instruction,whatever it is.
And you just kind of startpowering through and then you
stop checking for understandingbecause you're worried it's
making things boring.
But I think that the checks forunderstanding can actually add
(14:32):
momentum because it just buildsa natural repetitions for
everybody.
To kind of solidify new contentlearning anyways, as well as
giving more exposure to thelanguage structures that
students are acquiring and thatsort of thing.
So I think, you know, gettingover that fear of doing too much
and that's getting so boring.
It's like, also, it's fine ifyou're not entertaining 100
(14:53):
percent of the time.
Yeah.
And I just think, too, like, forme, that's why it's so important
to focus on community buildingin the beginning and making sure
that everyone understands, like,that we're a respectful
classroom community and, like,we aren't going to make fun of
anyone for not knowing somethingor saying something wrong.
And so I really think that,although I do use cold calling a
(15:16):
lot, my students generally arenot put off by it or embarrassed
because they know that I willsupport them if they can't
answer it and It's okay to makemistakes So yeah, okay Any other
thoughts on that?
I think it boils down topreparation too And I've been
thinking about this based onwhat bill was talking about
about having question ready fora student at their level
(15:36):
Sometimes we'll get to the endof a lesson and ask students to
do something with theinformation But we haven't been
checking the understanding alongthe way and that's where we kind
of find out that everything fellapart one of my previous
pitfalls was knowing that wewere going into content and
doing some content withstudents, but not planning the
questions.
It's okay to plan the questions.
It's okay to plan your questionsahead of time.
Totally.
(15:57):
Sweet.
All right, before we gatekeeplet's, let's take a quick break.
Today what we're ungatekeepingis actually not kept in the
traditional sense it is freelyavailable out on ye olde
internet, so we encourage you togo check it out.
I'm subscribed to an email listthat is called Evidence Snacks
by an education writer andteacher trainer named Peps
(16:20):
McCray.
In it, he distills evidencebased education research, into
essentially five minute littlearticles about one specific
topic.
And what does the evidence sayhelps us be the most responsive,
best teachers out there.
These little evidence snacks arevery snack like.
They're truly a five minute reador less but he also links to
(16:42):
research papers that arerelevant.
I think, actually, one of theresearch papers that we did for
observations came from evidencesnacks, actually He links to
research articles and furtherreads if you want to go deeper
into the topic at hand or intoother topics that have articles
related to them and it's justoverall a great resource for
teaching, with again the caveatthat when you're reading general
education research Content areainstruction is necessarily
(17:06):
different from languageinstruction that we do.
So take with grains of salt inthe principles that you know of
language acquisition and whatyou know about language teaching
and learning before you, youknow, read any of these things
and just be like, Oh, he says Ihave to do this, and then
immediately adapt to your worldlanguage class.
So we read an article, and itwas so short, and it was about
(17:27):
checking for understanding.
In the article, it talks abouthow responsive teaching, which
is the sort of teaching thatgets us the best results with
students is being able to makecourse corrections based on
student understanding.
So if they get it, and they'regood, and they've processed the
information, then you're able tomove on and teach them more.
If they haven't got it, thatyou're able to double back and
(17:50):
make adjustments such that theyunderstand.
In order to make these coursecorrections or confirmations
that you're on the right course,you need to be checking for
understanding along the way.
And so these comprehensionchecks need to be a helix out
for them being valid so thatyou're actually getting a
complete picture of yourstudents understanding.
(18:10):
And they need to be efficientbecause if you had to ask each
individual child the extent oftheir understanding, That would
take forever.
So he talks about different waysin which teachers have done this
in the past and kind of what hethinks to be the most valid,
most efficient.
He starts with what I alluded toearlier, the loaded assumption,
the do you understand thatobviously it will not
(18:33):
necessarily give you a validanswer because you will have the
understanding of maybe one bravesoul who says, yep, I get it.
And It is efficient because, youknow, everyone wants to get it
over with quickly and you're alldying inside, but it doesn't
necessarily get you theinformation that you need to
make a good informed decision inyour teaching.
My thinking, and I don't knowwhat Bill and Brian think of
this, is that doing the thingslike fist to five for
(18:55):
comprehension sometimes is alittle bit more illustrative, it
has a bit more of anillustrative effect than just
asking if you understand.
Again, students don't want tolet on that they're not
understanding, but if you havestudents with, most students are
doing fours and fives, like okayyou're probably A pretty good
track, maybe keep an eye on thekids on fours or threes area.
That's when they're starting totry to telegraph that, like,
(19:18):
they're holding in for you todouble back, revisit
information, do morecomprehension checks, cold
calling, whatever it is that welay out here.
Do you understand on its own?
Not great.
Maybe trying Fist of Five sortof stuff is a little bit better,
but that goes into anothercategory of response.
I like Fist of Five also forlike, asking at the end of class
(19:42):
how my speed was.
or maybe zero to ten fingersabout how much of class did you
understand zero being none, tenbeing everything, or even just
like thumbs up, thumbs down.
I do ask students to close theireyes or make sure it doesn't
look like they're watching otherpeople.
(20:03):
because, like, you don't wantanyone feeling uncomfortable But
what's funny, these adaptationswe're talking about actually
move into the thing that PepsMcCray describes as more
efficient and valid anyways,which is a whole class
questioning.
But we'll get there.
So a lot of the assumption isjust asking the whole class.
Do you understand?
Not great.
The things that Bill describedthat I was describing may be a
(20:24):
little bit better.
The next one he describes isskewed sampling, which can also
be very efficient but it's justtaking hands.
So if a student you know, raisestheir hand, it's like, I'm gonna
answer the question.
You're getting a student who isconfident, And so they may not
represent all of the students inthe class level of confidence or
level of comprehension.
So some of the things we weretalking about earlier, cold
calling can be better.
(20:46):
Random sampling can be betteralthough maybe less efficient.
Because you're not getting,again, you're not getting a read
on every kid in the classsimultaneously.
So you might have to ask a fewmore questions.
So yeah, taking hands, you know,raised hands, not the best cold
calling slightly better withcaveat and with fine points of
how to tune that a little bitbetter.
(21:06):
But he describes that the mostvalid, the most efficient way of
Getting checking for studentunderstanding is whole class
questioning.
This increases the ratio.
If everyone has to answer,they'd have to be doing some
thinking and be thinking aboutthem, the topic at hand.
So some of the ways that he laysout in this mini article are
just multiple choice questions.
(21:27):
Students can answer with theirfingers.
One, two, three, four or five.
One, two, three or four, youknow, ABC, whatever it is.
If everyone answers, then youcould look around and get a
quick check and then, you know,everybody's answer, everybody's
level of understanding.
He proposes using miniwhiteboards, which we can talk
and get girl boss about how wemight use those, what sorts of
questions that we might actuallyask for students to respond with
(21:47):
whiteboards.
And he doesn't list coralresponses on there, but that is
such a natural segue for us incomprehension based teaching
world is corals are.
A helpful technique because justbased on the how the class
responds corally, you can kindof get a feel for, oh, students
are understanding quite a lot.
(22:08):
They're responding quickly andwith strength versus if they're
kind of giving a tepid halfresponse that might indicate
that you need to, to reteach toreestablish meaning, whatever it
is What he describes as is mostimportant in this is sharp
execution.
If students are giving aresponse, they should all give
it at the same time so that theydon't.
(22:29):
have time to look around andkind of see how other people are
answering and they should all beanswering at the same time, so
that way you can see that theyare prepared to respond in
general.
And that is, again, a check onhow well they're understanding.
So that was the article.
It's like a very quick read.
All the evidence stacks are veryquick reads.
I recommend them to you andthey're linked in the show notes
if you would like to subscribelike I am and just get some
(22:50):
general education tips, tricks,thoughts that can be very
helpful.
I just subscribed while you weretalking.
I'm going to now ask Bill to askus to repeat the last three
things I said as a show of hisunderstanding.
Just kidding.
Let's maybe we.
All right, and now just to moveinto girlbossing, I do have an
(23:15):
aside on how we've girlbossed.
This past weekend it was Actfulsorry it'll be two weekends ago
when you hear this but it wasgreat, it was a great time, and
I think it might have been Mymost enjoyable actual yet and in
(23:37):
part because I saw thiswonderful presentation by our
very own Brian on studentperception of standard based
grading.
It was just, it was really,really good.
We were trying to bully him intoditching the plans this week and
talking about the, the thesisbut Brian didn't want to yet.
(23:59):
So It's fine.
We still love, appreciate yourpositive feedback and it was
really great.
I don't think you were graspinghow great it was.
You slayed.
And of course, and other thanthat, it was just a really fun
(24:21):
weekend.
Brian and I slayed just hangingout together in Philadelphia and
cried a little bit.
I stayed at home.
Well, there were only two Yspresent of the sleigh.
So, next time we must coordinateto maximize our joint sleigh.
(24:41):
So maybe no more on this nextyear.
But it was a really funconference.
But yeah, on how we Girlbosschecking for understanding I
think one of the ways that I'veenjoyed, especially getting all
student responses is Nearpod orPear Deck.
So if you're unfamiliar withthese tools, I'll allow you to
(25:06):
take a slide presentation andmake it interactive.
It's a lot of fun.
And while I say it's a lot offun, it's valuable feedback for
me as the teacher.
Some of my students haveoverdone PearDuck and Nearpod,
(25:26):
so they don't like it when weuse it, but it's, it's really
valuable.
So students on, all on their owndevices answer questions in a
variety of different ways andyou get responses from everyone.
So, and it shows you as, like,as people are responding.
So, if I see, oh, I need, like,Two more responses before we can
move on.
(25:47):
But yeah, I really like that.
I also have an A, B, C, and Dposter, and those are always in
the four corners of my room.
I also, so I can do multiplechoice and get students moving.
You'll get students that arewatching where everyone else is
going.
So I do try to make questionslike that, more opinion than
(26:10):
just correct or incorrect.
And I have also just made somehalf sheets that on one side it
says A and B, on the other sideit says C and D.
So students just flip the cardand orient it so that their
answer is on the upside.
(26:30):
So I can see what they say.
Have either of you usedclickers?
Have you heard of clickers?
So it's like, okay, I thinkthere's a more low tech version
that I would prefer to use, butbasically you have a card with
like a QR code, right?
And it's like, based on how youhold the card up if you take a
(26:50):
phone and you just kind of scanover the audience, your class
all of their answers, it willgenerate some data on their
website so you can seenumerically how many students
entered A, B, C or D.
And it's really versatilebecause you can have any
questions, like you don't haveto make the questions in
advance, like you might need todo on Nearpod or Pear Deck.
Although I guess you could alsojust put A, B, C, D, like you
(27:11):
don't necessarily need to have aquestion.
Anyway I've seen a teacher useit and it looked really cool and
then I was like, I'm gonna usethis and I just never did.
But I think if you have like acard that just had A, B, C, and
D written on each side like ofthe square and they just, you
know, whatever is up is thecorrect answer.
Like you could do that and justvisually scan.
But if you, you know, you wantsome more data, numerical data
(27:32):
that you can refer to are in thespreadsheet or something like
that, that's something that youcould consider.
I like that because everyone'sresponding.
And I like it that it is.
teacher tech, but not studenttech, but I also then feel
uncomfortable pointing my phoneat.
Yeah, that's the part I justcan't really.
(27:53):
I think, I feel like that wouldtake me out of, out of the
moment of class, because I'll belike, oh, because I'm gonna
like, Like I'll, of course I'llfumble with my phone and then
I'll look like a silly goofballand then the kids will make fun
of me even more.
Let's make low technology checksfor understanding.
You could do that with no cards.
(28:14):
But I do like, I do like thedata collection that like that
is.
Yes.
Yeah.
I think that the coral responsesare kind of like the go to for
many people in the comprehensionbased communicative language
teaching world.
the trick is.
That sharp execution that PepsMcCray talks about in the
article, which is gettingeveryone to respond at exactly
the same time.
I hold up three fingers if Iwant a coral response as a way
(28:36):
of indicating that you get threeseconds to think.
This gives kids think time toprocess and prepare themselves
to answer and also stops.
And so, you know, I pull up thethree fingers, I say the
question, then I go one, two,three, and then, you know,
indicate to them that theyanswer.
And so think time plus quiz.
And from that you getinformation.
(28:57):
If you're looking around, maybeyou have students in mind that
you think, you know, you reallywant to check their
understanding, see how or ifthey respond.
But you also get a whole classfeel.
for the strength of the responsesometimes tells you the
information you need that oh theclass is really getting this
because they responded soquickly and like right on top of
it or they responded kind oflethargically and that either
(29:18):
indicates that they're having amoment of laziness as we all do
or that they're not getting itand you need to go back and re
explain it and so that is a moreinformed decision that you made
via your check for understandingthat everyone had to do.
A branch off of that.
I love the different like handsignals for different types of
questions, and you cut out alittle bit on my end, but Brian
(29:42):
look like he was agreeing withyou.
So I'm hoping you do, and it'snot out but so you do the three
fingers for counting down solike everyone responds.
Did something that I do isagain, you might have mentioned
this.
So I'll raise my hand if I wanta student, like one volunteers,
(30:03):
or I, when I ask a question, orI'll say classy.
Before if I want everyone tojust answer.
So I think prompting, promptingstudents how you want them to
respond is a behavior managementthing, but it also helps us with
the think time and things likethat.
So, yeah, whole class response.
I give 3 seconds raised hand.
(30:24):
If I want to raise hand, I justgive a, like, Waving towards
myself if I want everyone justshout out answers and stuff like
that, that again is like it'spartially management, but it
also helps with the ratio ofstudent thinking.
And then my branch off that issometimes I'll throw a challenge
question.
So I'll just like note, like,ooh, like I'll come up with a
(30:48):
like a question that wouldrequire like a complex.
structure of an answer.
And I've got a couple, I've gotstudents that like really
respond to when I say like,okay, challenge question.
And they also learned the wordfor challenge, because that's
like a useful word.
(31:08):
They perk up and then I alwaysremind them as well that
remember, this is a challengequestion.
Like this is a question thatyou're going to have, like, push
your language to be able toanswer.
And that would be true foranyone who's trying to answer
the question.
So please feel free to try andwe're here to support you.
(31:31):
Have we mentioned the miniwhiteboards?
I'm not sure.
I mean, if you want somethingbesides How do you use them?
Yes, no, A, B, C, D, like anactual word or sentence as a
response.
You could use a mini whiteboard.
There are many options forgetting them.
You could either buy a set, Orif you have, like, I don't know,
people have gotten like a big,like, slab, kind of, of, like,
(31:54):
markerable paper, I don't evenknow what to call it, but like,
then you cut it up and then youcan distribute those, or you
could even just use sheetprotectors and white paper.
I know there's lots of differentways teachers have gone about
using those.
And they're good.
Because when I, when I use them,I always, you know, first of
all, it takes a while to writeout a full sentence or, you
know, word or like, there's justthink time naturally involved in
(32:16):
it.
And I always say like, you can'traise your board up until I
count down till, you know, fromfive or something like that.
And so that way, like, everyoneraises it up at the same time.
And I can see like, just in thatmoment, like who gets it, who
doesn't, and it's veryefficient.
But I guess the thing aboutwhiteboards that I don't love is
the marker situation and erasingsituation.
(32:37):
Short of like just buying like afull set of markers and erasers
for the whole class, like everyother kind of bring a sock, use
a tissue, like things like that,like they always just get kind
of gross or like students losethem.
And so sometimes just Because Iwant things to not look gross,
like I don't, I kind of avoidit, but I don't know, this
conversation is kind of gettingme to think about ways I can
(32:57):
bring it back.
Any success stories from that?
I did find like a 10 box of 48erasers.
So online, a bunch of minierasers and those come out as
the supplies for whiteboardactivities.
A couple of things on that isthe kids love whiteboards.
They also love to doodle whenthey should be doing other
(33:18):
things.
So something that I do when wepull out the whiteboards to do
something, I have them, I forgetwho I learned this from, but
like, I love it.
I tell them to put thewhiteboard on their head and
with the marker to drawsomething.
So they can get their doodlesout before.
So I'd say like draw a cat.
And then we all compare who's isthe best or looks most like a
(33:39):
cat And then also with not manywhiteboards, but with like my
bell work that I do.
I try to incorporate somethingthat students can go up to the
board to write.
So, maybe we just did food,we're working on like food
stuff.
Spanish four.
So to check their vocabularyahead of time.
(34:00):
I had my pictionary that I'vetalked about before, and then I
just projected that without thewords to see what they could
name to start off.
And there's like 25 of the wordson the page.
So I just say, make sure thateveryone gets a chance to write
one before you write another oneand gets up and moving.
And typically a fun way to startclass but it also might be just
(34:22):
like, finish the sentence, go upand write what you wrote to
finish the sentence.
I have one more considerationfor, for Czech for Understanding
specific to language classrooms.
I've been reading Common Groundby Henshaw and Hawkins
continuously over the course ofthe year.
Reference it all the time.
And they're kind of in their wayof trying to avoid English as a
(34:43):
check for understanding inclasses because I would, you
know, I was taught early on justask what, what did I just say
and then have the students sayin English.
If you want to avoid that to tryto stay even more in the target
language, their kind of numberone guiding principle is
creating activities with clearoutcomes or purposes that compel
students to understand so thatthey can't complete the activity
(35:05):
unless they showedunderstanding.
And having those activities besmaller, right?
So that, you know, they'recompelled to make a choice or to
indicate an opinion or a thoughtor an answer much more
frequently than, you know, somesort of long activity where they
get to the end and then justcan't do it.
And they kind of talk in thebook I've just been reading the
chapter about input and theytalk about how to use them.
(35:27):
It's okay to, you know, ask thisor that questions.
It's okay.
to ask yes or no questions, kindof classic circling questions
but that it might tell studentsto tune out after a while and
stop processing the language formeaning if they know you're only
going to ask questions thatdon't have a purpose other than
to display information youalready know.
And so you have to mix inpersonalized questions with
(35:49):
that.
But even then, there's a pitfallwith personalized questions that
you could ask a personalizedquestion and a student could
just give an answer of a wordthat they heard most recently.
So you have to ask even morefollow up questions about that
personalized question in orderto really see that the student
was understanding, but alsoengage in communication with the
student that provides input tothem as well as the class.
(36:11):
So that's an additionalconsideration for our language
class friendos.
Anything else to girlboss thisweek?
It doesn't look like it.
So Thank you all for, a greatsemester.
I can't believe that, I don'teven know how many episodes this
is.
Is this ten?
This is our 10th episode.
This is our 10th episode.
(36:31):
And that's crazy.
That is wild.
But we are going to take abreak.
So we will be off for the monthof December, which probably for
the best, that's typically ahectic time with finals or
whatever you do to end thesemester.
So we hope that everyone has agreat Unenjoyable end of the
(36:53):
year and hope that you can findtime to relax and recharge and
catch up on your favoriteslaying podcast, something.
I don't know.
We can't wait to, we can't waitto come back next year.
See you in 2025.
Bye.
(37:14):
Don't forget to play.
Bye.
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