AIW Piratas

Being new to Authentic Intellectual Work (AIW), I brought instruction to my team for the first time this past week. It has been an great experience getting feedback from colleagues outside of my content area. Their passions are in social studies, special education, family and consumer science, English language arts, and science. Having someone provide feedback that is truly objective, through a lens that may mimic a student's innocent eyes is a fresh perspective.

The lesson I chose to use was a reading lesson in which my Spanish II students were reading Piratas. I condensed a 90-minute lesson to about 5 minutes so these are pieces of the lesson. I tried to help my team by titling the chunked lesson. This also assisted them in understanding better what was happening in the lesson. At the end, one thing a colleague said was, "It has been [cough] a few years since I sat in any language class, and it wasn't Spanish. Just the little bit I heard here, with all the repetition, I was starting to pick up what the words meant." Hallelujah! This is the power of TPRS/CI.

One of my goals is to really push students into higher-order thinking skills (HOTS), going beyond the circling of information using LOTS. I try to pull information not just from the sentence, paragraph, or even current chapter we are discussing; questions come from previous chapters to establish why the characters are doing or saying what they are, and also making predictions of what may come in future chapters, even after the end of the novel.

So, here comes my very vulnerable side. I am posting this to the TPRS/CI world in hopes of getting some content area feedback from my peers. I know this is not a perfect lesson, so please poke holes into this, contact me directly if you prefer or post in comments below. I would love to hear your feedback. A script follows.

Script:

Accessing background knowledge (reviewing previous information)

Kim: OK, number 1, Why did Antonio abandon Raquel?

Student: in the market

Kim: huh? Yeah, in the market, but why? Why did he?

Student: because Raquel doesn’t want to go

Kim: yeah, because Raquel doesn’t want to go with Antonio, yeah and Felipe, Felipe gave to a….

Student: note

Kim: note from Antonio and gave it to …

Student: Raquel

Kim: Raquel, and Raquel responded to him…¿no?...What did she respond to him?

Student:

Kim: No, Raquel didn’t respond to Antonio wrote the note to Raquel and Felipe gave the note to Raquel…and Raquel told him… Nope, I don’t want to go.

Exploring theme in chapter - Secrets

Kim (while writing): Feminine secret

Kim: It’s Raquel, but there are many secrets in this novel, right? One secret is… (writing on board) Raquel is a woman.

Student: Raquel’s boyfriend is Antonio.

Kim: Yeah, Raquel’s boyfriend is Antonio. Excellent! Another secret?

Kim: Yes, Raquel is a pirate. In reality, is Raquel a pirate?

Student: no.

Student: She has pirate clothing.

Kim: Exactly! She has … What does she have?

Student: clothing

Kim: Yeah, right. She has a jacket, …

Student: pants

Kim: Pirate pants; she has…

Student: hat

Kim: Pirate hat; she has…

Student: shoes

Kim: shoes, boots of a pirate

Kim: but, in reality she’s not a pirate; she’s a fake [new word] pirate. Right? She’s a fake pirate.

Reading the chapter with visuals

Student: CARLOS!

Kim: Carlos is there and the pirates capture him. Antonio escapes with…

Student: Felipe

Kim: Yeah, Carlos and Felipe escape. The pirates speak with… The pirates speak with…?

Student: Raquel

Kim: …with Raquel, and now her name isn’t Raquel. What is her name?

Student: Santiago

Kim: Santiago. Exactly! …and all of them…leave to the south. What does south mean, class?

Student: south

Kim: South, yeah. They escape to the south to the pirate boat. Henry (listen up boys), Henry goes to the south. Antonio goes to the north. Look, Antonio’s boat..

Acting out the chapter

Kim: “Antonio thinks a lot… Antonio thinks a lot…”

student: [shows thinking]

Kim: “…about Raquel” [Hola Raquel] very good. “He doesn’t understand why Raquel abandoned him.”

student: [gestures sentence]

Kim: there you go! “He says to Felipe” Who is Felipe? Felipe is…

Students: good-looking, sad, …

Kim: Who is he?

student: No, Carlos is that one.

Student: Pilot

Kim: Ahhh, the pilot! Exactly. Here, you guys are up on deck. Yep yeah, pilot. “He says to Felipe …”

Kody: “I am an attractive and smart man.” 

Kim: Ahhh, good. OK, just a minute. Class, what does “e” mean?

[mini lesson]

Continue reading and translating for comprehensible input

Kim: “Antonio is frustrated.”

Student: Antonio is very frustrated.

Kim Right. Grrrr “With Felipe

[continue translating]

Writing task – summarizing the chapter

 Kim: What is the topic?

Student: How Antonio wants to shoot down Henry’s ship because Henry is a bad person and he takes over the Caribbean