Thanks to my brilliant mentor teacher, who, might I add is our school's Teacher of the Year nominee, I had this scathingly brilliant idea to actually speak the foreign language IN the foreign language classroom!
I know, crazy idea, right? But as a foreign language teacher, it is a lot easier to operate on lower level thinking skills and just get the students to take wee bites of language rather than immerse themselves in it.
So, at our last late start with students in order for teachers to have professional development time, Senora brought up speaking the target language in the classroom 90% as recommended by ACTFL. She shared this great article with us and we discussed using it in the French and Spanish classrooms.
Students did not enjoy being immersed in the language two months into school. Next year, I think I will try it this way from the beginning.
The heart of a language is communication. If they can't express themselves, they will shut down. As a foreign language teacher, my instruction reflects my desire for students to communicate in the target language. Immersion helps with that.
I know, crazy idea, right? But as a foreign language teacher, it is a lot easier to operate on lower level thinking skills and just get the students to take wee bites of language rather than immerse themselves in it.
So, at our last late start with students in order for teachers to have professional development time, Senora brought up speaking the target language in the classroom 90% as recommended by ACTFL. She shared this great article with us and we discussed using it in the French and Spanish classrooms.
Students did not enjoy being immersed in the language two months into school. Next year, I think I will try it this way from the beginning.
The heart of a language is communication. If they can't express themselves, they will shut down. As a foreign language teacher, my instruction reflects my desire for students to communicate in the target language. Immersion helps with that.