During the summer, when reading ‘Creating cultures of thinking’ by Ron Ritchart, I came across ‘Individual Feedback Sessions’. In the book the teacher claimed that these sessions really helped him to foster long-term, meaningful relationships with his students that had a hugely positive impact on their achievement outcomes and also meant he never had Year 13 (equivalent to Grade 12 or the students in their final year of High School) work to mark at the weekends. Obviously, I want my students to achieve their potential and I also know that the research is pretty robust about the importance of building strong bonds and relationships in the classroom… but ‘no marking at the weekend?’, now that really made me sit up and listen.
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In their final two years at our school, our Year 12 and 13’s are preparing for the International Baccalaureate final exams as part of the IB Diploma Programme. For Spanish B (language acquisition) this means they have approximately 12-15 different ‘text types’ that they must be familiar with as any can come up in the exam. In total, between the written assignment, and the written exam paper, their ability to write effectively in Spanish counts for 45-50% of their final mark. Whether I agree with that weighting or not, these are the confines, within which I teach. We would all love to just teach for the love of learning and not have final exams to worry about or prepare students for but that is simply not the reality for the vast majority of High School teachers. We have a responsibility to the students to prepare them for these final examinations whether we like it or not. Nonetheless, I am a strong believer in never allowing the ‘exam’ to dictate our classroom. I trust that if we get them motivated and loving the language, then achieving their own unique potential will come naturally and it will not feel like all we do is practice for examinations… but this is another blog post in itself!

Until this year, my Year 12 or 13’s would usually write a different text types every 2 weeks. I would take them home and read them, and then provide them feedback using Geoff Petty’s ‘Medals and Missions’ format. Before they handed in their work, they were required to fill out a ‘proforma’ which is essentially a self-evaluation that includes my two specific goals from the previous task. I always felt this system worked really well, the students said it was very beneficial and I saw a real difference in their writing over time. The proforma with my two goals gave them concrete objectives to work on, the self-evaluation made them accountable for following guidelines and the ‘medals and missions’ clearly highlighted things they did well and areas for improvement. However, the ‘proforma’ was often forgotten or left until last and only done in a rush on the day it was due. In addition, sometimes they clearly hadn’t read my objectives from the previous piece until it was too late, which was, of course, frustrating for me as the teacher given that I felt like I was spending a lot of time marking their work and writing their objectives, medals and missions.
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In step ‘Individual Feedback Sessions’ (IFS) to the rescue. First and foremost, before you ask, yes they do take time and yes it would be a challenge to do in a very big class but after a month of using them, I’m convinced the time investment is worth it. Students still complete a ‘proforma’ but instead of handing this in with their written work, they bring it with them to their IFS along with a printed copy of their text type. The schedule for each student’s IFS is negotiated with the teacher in advance in order to find a time that works for everyone. No longer can there ever be any confusion about deadline dates and submission times for their work as it is always due during their IFS, which is at the same time on the same day every second week. As Spanish B texts are generally 400-600 words, my sessions with students are typically 10-15 minutes in length and take place during free periods if possible, or alternatively during break or after school. 

​The biggest change for me with this system is that I can already see a strong relationship and bond beginning to grow with individual students as you sit with them one-on-one and chat. In addition, it seems having to sit down beside the teacher and discuss their work increases their accountability too. They always have their text printed and proforma in hand as they know if they show up without it, then I have nothing to mark. I’ve also noted that my two specific objectives are being met more frequently, probably because they know I will be beside them reading their text and will immediately know if they haven’t done them.

There are some further, notable, spin-off advantages to this too. First of all, I never have any Year 12 or 13 work home with me in the evening any longer, it is all done there and then with the student beside me. In addition, the students themselves write their Medals and Missions while I sit next to them after we’ve discussed their work. Finally, and for me this is actually a huge benefit, they are getting 15 minutes of chatting in Spanish with the teacher one-on-one, which is also boosting their oral fluency and confidence. By the time those dreaded oral exams roll round they will be very comfortable and used to talking to me in Spanish.
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If you have very big classes, you could do them with pairs of students but if possible I thoroughly recommend the time investment as in the long-term, it will be this strong relationship with the student that makes the difference.   

A unique part of the conference is how it is divided into ‘strands’ based on the presenters and topics being put forward. As I was presenting my research on the motivational pull of teaching languages through storytelling, I was placed in the ‘role of language’ strand. Other strands included, ‘internationalising education’, ‘learning, teaching and pedagogy’, and ‘researching international education’ among others. This set-up allowed for rich and nuanced discussion with ‘like minded’, yet very different, people coming at the theme from various perspectives. Our ‘role of language’ strand included, for example, presentations from primary, secondary and third level, and encompassed issues ranging from ‘home language’ policy and support in schools, to innovative approaches to teaching, to how language can be used as a scapegoat for ability, to the intriguing Dutch bilingual education system. Truly fascinating, insightful and thought-provoking.

I learnt so much in just three days and I am thoroughly looking forward to sharing some of the ideas with our language department and administration at ISL but two things really stood out for me. Firstly, as language teachers we are lucky that we have one of the only subjects in the school where students can literally do inquiry based learning into anything as long as it is in the target language. We have endless freedom and autonomy and we need to tap into this and allow students to lead their learning through inquiry that compels and interests them, inquiry makes them want to speak about it rather than being forced to. ​

Secondly, borrowing from Terry Haywood whose addressed closed the conference, just as we update the systems on our phone so they can cope and work better, we must update the systems in our schools and language departments to meet the needs of the students, as it must be the students’ learning and interests that are always at the heart of our decisions. We are so lucky and fortunate to have multilingual students in our classes who speak a host of diverse languages at home, but are we really doing enough to nurture their home language and help them to maintain that local connection to their culture and language? The research tells us that a rich and deep understanding of the ‘home language’ aids cognitive and emotional development across the subjects but I fear our 'English-first' driven ‘international school world’ may be sadly transforming multilingual mastery into monolingual mediocrity. ​

Learning about Spanish food, tapas, traditions and all of the other amazing culinary aspects of Spanish life is part of most standard Spanish courses around the world, so how can we, as teachers, bring it to life for the students?

​Well to begin with, we need a TPRS story of course! In our 'Foods and Culinary Traditions' unit I first started with a story about a man who wanted to eat 27 different tapas so he could become the 'Best Tapas eater in the World'. We circled the verb 'pedir' in various forms in the past as this can be a tough one, whilst also bringing in lots of new food and drink vocabulary.

​The last day of term was arguably the best though... we had a 'Pinchos Competition'. Pinchos or Pintxos (In Basque) are smaller portions than tapas, and traditionally can be eaten in 2-3 mouthfuls. After a presentation and discussion on the the pinchos tradition, students had to invent their own pinchos and enter them in our 'Españoland Annual Pinchos Extravaganza'! I supplied the bread and the sticks and the students had to bring 3-4 ingredients to make the pinchos. They had 20 minutes to complete them and they also had to write a little sign explaining the ingredients and why they chose them. They were encouraged to link it to their own culture somehow. 

Well actually, 'Less' is more in all teaching across all areas of education if this thought-provoking blog about the Finnish education system is anything to go by. That blog post, which inspired me to finally get back on my own blog writing (apologies for the delay!), possesses a bizarre amount of links to my own professional life. Just this week I presented a Skype seminar to a group of Finnish language teachers in the Lappeenranta district on TPRS and active learning strategies. Then, when I opened our weekly school bulletin today, our principal had given us a link to the aforementioned blog on the education system in Finland that spoke exactly to a theme I was thinking of blogging about... and, ​if that wasn't enough, I also have a big poster in my classroom that says "L.E.S.S. is More" - a kind of classroom mantra I took from Grant Boulanger last year that stands for:

• Listen to understand
• Enjoy the present moment
• Show me that you get it
• Show me when you don't

So with all that in mind, I think the Gods (whoever they are!) were telling me to write a blog again.

Why is this year's class not getting it? Why am I going so much slower than last year?
These were two questions swimming around my head for the past few weeks relating to my new Year 8 class (total beginners of Spanish, aged 11-12). Yes, maybe I had been comparing them to last year's class of high flyers... Yes, perhaps they were slightly more 'high maintenance' than last year's class... but really the difference was more down to me, my teaching and my desire, like many other teachers, to always do more! I was trying to go too fast. I was attempting to do more when I should've been doing L.E.S.S!

A key mantra for Comprehensible Input (CI) and TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) teachers, like myself, is slow down and repeat it again. I realised I had forgotten this. I was putting too many new vocabulary into my stories, I was over complicating them, I wasn't repeating the core structures enough and I was doing the unthinkable for us TPRS teachers... I was concentrating on their minor grammar errors rather than their communication, I was thinking "I need to do some verb tables" rather than I need to 'turn the tables' or remove the tables completely and just get them enjoying a story at their level that they understand, not a bit, but 100%. Really all I needed to do was slow down. Less is more. 

We should be concentrating on ensuring the students are completely confident with those basic structures of the language before we go on and flood them with new vocabulary. If they can't say 'I have, it is, there are, he went' yet with total fluency and automation, why are we hellbent on pushing more and more lists of low frequency words like 'flowerpot' or 'wardrobe' on them? If you find yourself thinking the way I was, remember to just slow down and repeat again. Students at this level need complete mastery of those basic structures in the language to communicate, they need repetitions over and over again so it is automatic, they need a fun, engaging, compelling, simple, story to keep them excited. They can learn the word for lampshade or picture frame or disillusionment from the internet.

The TPRS novels have completely revolutionized my teaching. In the past 3 years I have used a wide variety of these readers with diverse student groups, levels and ages. While of course, the actual story line, plot and themes appeal differently to each individual student depending on their own personal interests, the idea of reading a whole novel entirely in Spanish and actually understanding what is going on, is hugely motivational across the board. 

My students are all very familiar with my mantra "Leer es poder" (reading is 'power' or​ reading is 'being able', a play on words and sounds), so much so that when I say "Leer es..." the whole class will shout "PODER" back at me.

Personally I believe that part of our role as language teachers is to instill a love for reading. Teaching skills as well as content is widely recognised as part of our profession and reading is a skill. A skill that moves our students so far forward with their language learning, and with the TPRS books making this skill 'compelling', it motivates students to keep turning pages and keep acquiring more language.

In terms of reviewing a novel, I am not a big fan of the standard content testing so I have tried a few activities like 'the yellow brick road' and 'freeze frame' from Martina Bex among others. This time round I decided to make it more student-centered hopefully meaning higher engagement and less work for me! Win win!

The students really enjoyed all aspects of this and I am very happy that they know this novel inside out now. I prefer to always have the students do the work wherever possible and these fit nicely into that approach. One possible nice extension activity would be to ask the students to make up a completely new scene in a totally different context with the phrase they have on their card. Give them some time to prepare it and either act it out or record it.

As always I would welcome your comments and shares. Please let me know if you have done anything different as I am always keen to learn and try new ideas.

Being new to a school generally means that there is going to be some kind of performance appraisal and observations within the first few months and this school, I'm glad to say, is no different. It can, of course, be an intimidating experience both for the teacher being observed and, at times, the observer. What I like about the initial performance appraisal at my current school, ISL, is that it is all led by the teacher themselves. Every member of faculty had to complete quite a long self evaluation appraisal form on various aspects of our professional lives. From this we were asked to pick some focus points that we would like to work on and this would be used in our observations. Next was a meeting with the allocated member of the leadership team to discuss these professional goals, refine them further and let the observer know what you would like them to look for in your professional practice. ​Once specific goals had been set out, the observer did a series of unannounced drop-ins with a variety of my classes to see my teaching in action in short stints with various age groups. Finally there was an announced full class observation. ​

Now, as far as I am aware I am the only "TPRS" teacher in my school and I've actually already led a short language department meeting on its benefits after attending Grant Boulanger's workshop in Leysin American School in 2015. However, I am pretty certain most of my colleagues are indeed "CI" teachers as I know they deliver interactive, energetic lessons with lots of comprehensible input (I've already observed some of them in action!). Nonetheless, I was a little more than apprehensive about my first official observation in a new school taking place in my now deskless classroom with a crazy story about 'Kim-Jung Il' receiving a package from his scary auntie who was looking for someone to open it on planet Mars!!

In the end I thought "what the heck, this TPRS stuff was good enough for them to hire me so it better be good enough now that I am actually here!" - as part of my hiring process I had to teach a lesson and, 'surprise, surprise', I did a TPRS mini story (which they obviously must have liked!)! As the lesson and story developed I could see that the observation was going well as the observer himself was laughing away, repeating the story, copying the gestures and clearly learning a little Spanish. 

​So why am I sharing this? Because TPRS works!! For everyone! All ages, genders, personalities and levels. As you can see from the Assistant Principal's comments below (that he has given me permission to post), it is clear that after coming by my class a few times, Mr. Anderson is also sold on the benefits of TPRS. If you are worried what your school or colleagues might think, or if you are simply toying with trying that first story but keep find reasons not do it, then stop. Just go for it. You will laugh, the students will laugh and they will learn. A lot. They will learn so much in one class and will be dying to come back to your class the next day. Now if that sounds like a good day at work then ask yourself again "what am I waiting for?".

I am exhausted but I am happy. I love TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) and see huge benefits from it but it does take its toll when you make the (probably incorrect) decision to do a whole week of it in every one of your 6 classes which are almost all at different levels! It was likely even more taxing this time too as I actively tried to put all the wonderful strategies and tips I received from Grant Boulanger at his 2 day workshop in Leysin American School last week.
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Grant was fantastic and I learned a great deal from him in just two days. Here are some of his strategies that I implemented and will definitely keep as they worked so well:

There were many others too and lots of this comes down to your own personal style as a teacher. I also grabbed the ‘toro’ by the horns and threw all my desks out… just chairs with mini whiteboards to lean on - ‘a la Grant’ style. I am not 100% convinced on this yet, the students did seem to be more focused and concentrated but as the week went on and this became the norm and was no longer a novelty they managed to find things to distract their attention from the story. The jury is still out on this one.
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One thing I wholeheartedly and 100% concur with Grant on is… TPRS is really REALLY fun for both the students and the teacher! You have the most amazing hysterical moments and personal connections with your students that quite simply make teaching a pure joy. Kids are great. They make us laugh all the time and when you give them creative license to invent parts of stories they will make your sides split. On numerous occasions this week I had tears rolling down my face from laughter and they were all in hysterics at me not being to speak because I was laughing so hard… tell me that is not a class you would want to come back to! 

Mini whiteboards doing their magic again! This time we are using them to re-tell our latest TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) story and again they provide a great conversation scaffold for students whilst also ensuring they are active, speaking the target language with various classmates and hopefully engaged in the task!

Here is how it works:
Having already spent a few classes developing our latest story together this task is used as a way to review the key structures from the story.
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1. I start by telling the students that because I am really REALLY old I have a terrible memory and they have to help me remember our story. I then proceed to consistenyl tell the story with incorrect details. For example "Brad Pitt estaba en Elefante-land?" to which all the students almost always respond enthusiastically with big smiles saying "No!!!! Es ridiculo! Brad Pitt estaba en Canguro-land" or whatever it may be.

​2. Once we have revised the whole story this way as a class I ask each student to divide their mini whiteboard into four quadrants and to draw any four scenes from the story. Only one word is allowed on the entire whiteboard if they choose to use a sign or something in their drawing. I give them 2 minutes to do this, otherwise some people get carried away a turn into mini 'Picassos'!
3. Next we all get up out of our seats (this is key... it keeps them awake!) and go into pairs. If it is an odd number I too will have a whiteboard and have done my world famous matchstick men works of art on it!
4. In their pairs each person has to explain what is happening in their scenes. After about 60 seconds the listener is encouraged to ask questions for clarification or to make incorrect statements that the teller must correct. They then switch over and go through the process again.
5. Here is the key part - once both students have explained their scenes they exchange whiteboards, put the new whiteboard high in the air and have to go and find a new partner. Now they have a new whiteboard to work with. Some students (the first time you do this) might query the strange drawings they have been handed but this is why the listening part of the exercise is so key. In fact, bad drawings are almost better as the lack of detail or clarity forces the new whiteboard proprietor to recall even more details from the story.
6. The whole process now repeats itself with whiteboards swapping various hands throughout the activity.

​Students really like this one! They get to move around and talk to different people and are constantly receiving more repetitions of the key structures. At the end you may want to choose one student to explain the scenes on the board they were left with at the end of the task. I have also sometimes taken a whiteboard myself at the end (usually one with particularly good artwork to highlight the creative skills of that student) and again I will explain all scenes with incorrect details to force the students to use those structures again to correct me.

If you have done anything similar or work with TPRS do let me know! I am always keen to hear your feedback.

So teachers, students (and parents!) are all currently back at school and getting used to early starts, homework and school uniforms again. For me this is a big year as I have started work in the International School of Lausanne now, about 1 hour from my previous school, Leysin American School, in Switzerland. Already it feels very different as I have left the hectic schedule of a boarding school for the equally hectic, albeit different, environment of a day school.

Luckily for me, like so many other teachers, I love my job. I know to some people the words 'love' and 'job' should never go together but its true... sorry! The dreaded 'going back to work' is really not that much of an issue for me when the end of August rolls around (in fact I actually look forward to it) but getting used to the pace and energy required does take a few weeks. Now, to be clear, that is not to say that I don't like my summer holidays... that would be 'completamente ridículo' as we might say in class! I knew this year in particular would be tough at the start as I would have to become familiar in the new school's systems and get to know my new students but so far it has been fantastic. My colleagues have been so helpful and nice, the leadership team is genuinely inspirational and the students are nothing short of amazing. 

Leaving the wonderful setting of Leysin and all the amazing friendships I made there was always going to be difficult. Especially having to leave behind some of my students and the great basketball team I was coaching but this is part of the nature of teaching and moving jobs. No matter when or where, you will always be letting some people down when it comes time to move. It was made easier though by the stream of emails and messages I received from both ex and current students wishing me well and talking about things they remembered in class. I've shared just two of them here below (with their permission) which might show you why so many of us love being teachers. Thank you to all my wonderful students for taking the time to write to say thank you. It means so much. If you are reading this and haven't told someone (anyone, not necessarily your teacher) how grateful you are for whatever it might be they did for you, stop what you are doing and write to them now. It will make their day, their year even.

Yes, as teachers, we will never be millionaires. But we will be profoundly rich in so many other ways. 

Doing a book or novel in class is something my classes seem to enjoy a lot but it can be a challenge keeping it interesting and figuring out ways to evaluate their learning. I came across Carrie Toth's excellent website somewheretoshare.com last month and she has some wonderful ideas to do with novels.

I decided to use a version of her "Yellow Brick Road" one to recap and revise over the key points in the book once we had finished. The idea is you have 1-2 key 'triggers' of chunks of words from each chapter and these are used to jog the students memory to aid their discussion. The only difference I had was that I actually got the students to make the yellow 'bricks' and they chose the statements themselves.

I gave each pair of students a chapter (or some important chapters had 3 people working on it) and they had to find a key phrase that would jog our memories as to what happened at that point in the book. The only rule was it could be no more than 5 words. This part seemed to work really well, each student could be seen actively re-reading the chapter to try and pick the most appropriate word chunk for their poster.

Once everyone was finished a few students laid out all the yellow 'bricks' for our road out in the corridor. They did this in order as I felt like otherwise the chunks of words may not make sense to them. Students spoke in groups at each step using the prompt on the floor to help them. After about 60-90 seconds I would stop the music and they'd move on to the next card. To change things up sometimes I'd ask them to move 2 or 3 steps forward. I also mixed up the groups and pairs after about 4 steps so they weren't always talking to the same person.

I think the students really liked it and it worked really well as a student centred review activity. They were receiving lots of comprehensible input from their classmates and it certainly helped them to review and revise for the end of book evaluation. High five and thumbs up to the yellow brink road... I'll be using it again!


I'd love to know your comments and how you evaluate and review books/novels you have done in class! Leave me your comments below or follow me @liamprinter on twitter!