Category Archives: Comprehensible Input

Criterion Number two is:  Demonstrating effective teaching practices.  

The teacher uses research-based instructional practices to meet the needs of all students. Build higher level thinking questions and metacognition into your lessons.  Or better yet, teach students to ask higher level questions and to initiate and extend discussions with classmates.  Here are links to documents I created for my students with Bloom’s verbs in French La Taxonomie and Spanish La Taxonomía.

Using essential questions can help promote higher level thinking. Some possible essential questions could include. How does water make our lives different?  How can we conserve water? Why can’t all young people go to school?  How will you help an exchange student prepare for school here? How does where we live influence what we eat, do, and wear?  How can we avoid wasting food?  Use the ACTFL themes and essential questions as a context for language learning from the novice level and build on them each year.

The state documents states ‘‘Teachers use a variety or series of questions or prompts to challenge students cognitively and advance high level thinking and discourse and promote metacognition.”  To practice metacognition include Thinks Alouds, QARs, KWL’s, mind maps, webs, sentence frames, and prompts. On the rubric to get a 4 it states “Students formulate many questions, initiate topics, and make unsolicited contributions”. Have students create their own higher level questions.  Research suggests that students who use self-developed test questions perform better on exams.  Question Starters

A good strategy to teach students is question answer relationships.  Basically there are four types of questions. Two are directly from the book Right there and Think and Search and two are from the reader’s head, Author and Me and On My Own. With Right there questions, the answer is in the text. With think and search, the answer is in the text but you might need to look in multiple places to put the answer together. With author and me, the answer is not in the text, you have to think about what you know and what the author is saying and put them together, with on my own questions the answer is also not in the text. The reader could have answered the question without reading the text but is related to the topic.

Students can apply this strategy to pictures or works of art to develop good questions.  Practice image, question, response following the same process.

Check out the chart on this page Image_Questions_Responses_Chart .

Some HOT (Higher Order Thinking) ideas from Carol Gaab at TPRSpublishing.com.

1. Either or Questions- Students are provided sentences and asked to decide if the sentence is possible or not possible.  Other choices are probable or not probable.  You could also use logical or not logical  or likely to or not likely to.  The point is that students are hearing vocabulary in context and are thinking at a little higher level, but are able to respond with very little forced language. Read sentences from the text that are logical and illogical or probable or not probable and have students react with choral responses, white boards, or thumbs up or down.

2.  Who would say…? this is a fun activity that encourages higher order thinking and is based on statements that a character in a novel might make.  Students must deduce WHO would say something based on context, content and/or verb form. An example from Carol, from the cast of Gilligan’s Island, who would say, “I’m tired of taking orders!” or “That Ginger thinks she’s so beautiful– bla! She’s not THAT pretty!”

Who said…? is a similar game, which does not require a great deal of higher order processing. It is great for young learners and/or slow processors. Students simply recall the story and determine which character made which statements. An example from one of Carol’s novels, in ‘Houdini’, who said, “Disconnect the cable!” or “Can I drive your car?”

3. There are a variety of ways to implement sequencing or logic activities.  Sentences are written on strips of paper and students need to arrange them in order from first to last. This can be done as a whole class activity with sentences written on tag board and one sentence per class member. It could also be done as an individual, pair, or group activity as well.

Project sentences and have students number written statements in order.

Provide a list of 3 choices and ask which happened first?

Type up sentences from a chapter of a novel and have students cut them apart, mix them up, and put them in a envelope.  When a signal is given, have students race to see who can put the sentences in order first.  

Then use the sentences is another activity from Carol Gaab the action chain.  Embed the target language structures in a logical sequence of events, then mix them up, number, and write or project the sentences so everyone can see them. Choose students to act out the sentences, handing them a number corresponding to a sentence they will act out without showing the other students. The other students must match the sentence to the scene that each student acts out. Continue to get more repetition to the language structures by having students determine a logical order for the events. Have actors act out the scene as you ask for details for each event.

4. To get at main idea start by asking which of the following 3 statements best describes the situation?  Promote critical thinking by providing students with three choices and asking which one best describes the situation and why?

Marzano in his book states that summarizing, note making, and comparing and contrasting are high leverage strategies.  Compare and contrast holidays, houses and possessions. Students make Venn diagrams to compare and contrast their room and possessions with another student, or a student from the target culture. I like to show the photos taken by Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti.  His project called Toy Stories compiles photos of children from around the world with their prized possessions—their toys.  For food comparisons go to Youtube and check out What The World Eats. To make country comparisons go to www.ifitweremyhome.com/.  Use two overlapping hula hoops on floor for a twist instead of a paper venn diagram.  Give students index cards with statements to scaffold comparing and contrasting.

To get kids to summarize and synthesize try the Two Word Strategy created by Linda Hoyt. Students stop at the end of a reading selection and reflect on everything they know.  They must think of just two words that reflect their understanding.  Choosing two words is not threatening to most readers. It takes their comprehension beyond recall to a higher level of understanding of the text. click here for form Two_Word_Strategy.

According to William Glaser we learn 95% of what we teach. Incorporate reciprocal teaching into your plans. Train students to perform roles such as predictor, questioner, summarizer, and clarifier.  Teach protocals or use structures like Team Windows to provide opportunities so  “Students themselves ensure that all voices are heard in the discussion”.

To score a four on this criterion the teacher must assess the effectiveness of the lesson.  The document states that the “teacher makes a thoughtful and accurate assessment of a lesson’s effectiveness and includes specific indicators of effectiveness.”  If the lesson is not effective the teacher offers specific alternative actions with the probable success of different courses of action.  How do you demonstrate effective teaching practices?  Share your comments and ideas below.