How teaching Spanish is like Dancing with the Stars.
I have had this theory for awhile. It helps now that there is a wildly popular TV show to help make the point. (American Idol is so yesterday’s news) Teaching Spanish for communication is my game. There are no verb charts on the wall in my room- and no one is afraid of forgetting an accent mark on my quizzes. A typical task to complete in my class is for example: I am your friend. You are having a huge party at your house this weekend. You need my help to get ready for it. Start the conversation and we will talk about the arrangements. Sound easy? Not really, but fun-certainly. Students in my school study 40 weeks of Spanish in grade 7, and then the same in grade 8. We administer the New York State Second Language Proficiency in June to earn a HS credit for scoring at least a 65. My students learn to speak the language-guided by me. Vocabulary is taught, expressions provided and then we practice until we are task performance ready. I teach them useful all purpose sentences like Can you help me? I need…..(Puedes ayudarme. Necesito….) I have told them this is like a dance, I am the trained professional here to make sure they look good. I will not let them flounder-but I will guide them through it or follow their lead if need be…… Some students are exceptional at taking the control and letting me just follow and respond. That is the coolest feeling-when they are totally functional in the language and can take the lead. Then I can sit back and smile knowing we just performed our own little verbal samba. And it was great!
April 26th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Personally, I LOVE DWS. I find it not only entertaining but I also am amazed at the total physical and emotional transformations that take place in a few weeks on that show. I love the analogy you make of how you do that with your students and they are able to look amazing! They simply have to trust you and that is sometimes the hardest thing to accomplish as a teacher, isn’t it? You SHOULD be proud, Girlfriend!
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:57 pm
What a coincidence, Linda. I’m dusting of my old ESL shoes to give the teaching English language dance another go next year.
I don’t know the show you mention (TV in Korea, you know), but that makes this post more delicious to me.
Because learning to express should, as you say, be like learning to dance.
And what better star to dance with than a language?
Clay
PS. I love the unschooliness of the approach, and can’t help but suspect your students prefer it over the verb charts on the wall.
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:24 am
“On with dance, let joy be unconfined, is my motto; whether there’s any dance to dance or any joy to unconfined.” -Mark Twain
In a conga line or twirling in solitary ecstasy…dance on, friend. We may not hear the same music, but we share a common rhythm. Isn’t life and learning grand!
diane
P.S.
Clay - while you’ve got those dancing shoes on, remember that you owe us all a dollar dance from your wedding. Our web is so wide and inter-connected that this little activity might provide quite a profitable little income!
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:31 am
@Lee @Clay and @Diane
I wrote this last November and it languished unread by anyone but me! Thank you all for taking the time to share your comments and make a lonely post appreciated.
I value each and every one of you.