Alexis Blum, OWLA Professional Development Chair
Spanish Teacher, Wapakoneta High School
Welcome back, OWLA! I hope your school year is off to a great start. Over the summer, I spent some time reflecting on my classroom activities and things that I wanted to improve for this school year. Every May, I find myself looking back on the year and thinking, “Next year I will do XYZ differently.” Like many teachers, I feel that I am constantly adapting my curriculum to meet the needs of my students and making changes that benefit the learning environment for everyone.
For context, I teach Spanish 1 and a mixed-level class of Spanish 3 and 4 students. Every class period brings a wide variety of learning needs and proficiency levels. Over the last few years, I have found it increasingly difficult to engage students in activities that require extended focus or concentration. I love to play games and incorporate highly engaging activities in my classroom, but over the course of last year I found that my students really struggled to engage with content that wasn’t presented in a game. I was constantly being asked, “Are we doing something fun today?” or “Are we playing any games today?” I was mildly offended because I think my class is fun every day! And why was there an expectation that if we weren’t playing a game, we were wasting our time?
Unfortunately, our students are surrounded by environments that are highly engaging and, frankly, overstimulating. The constant stimulation can make sustained language activities, such as listening to a story or reading an article, feel less immediately rewarding. This presents difficult challenges for teachers and learning environments that ask students to slow down, process, and consider the information before them. We as educators know that learning cannot be rushed! Learning a language takes time and stamina. We have to build that stamina with our classes to encourage extended listening and comprehension skills. But the big question remains: How?
For me, engagement does not mean entertainment every single day. Engagement looks like many things in my classroom! Sometimes it is movement and lots of laughter. Sometimes it is a compelling story that captivates students’ attention. Other times, it is sticking with a challenge that brings a sense of accomplishment.
This year, I am shifting my focus. I have been thinking about how I feel about the activities I do in class. They are fun and entertaining! We laugh! We make connections! But behind it all, I am carefully planning activities that follow the goal: learn Spanish. Yes, there are a lot of fun games, but sometimes the learning or review value is low. I still plan to use some review activities just for the sake of fun — but perhaps a little bit less often. This year, I am focusing on activities that check one (or all) of the boxes below:
- Engage students in a meaningful message
- Give students confidence and feelings of success in using the language
- Encourage community building or emotional connection
For me, this comes down to three areas: meaningful connections, meaningful communication, and embracing the productive struggle.
This year, I am choosing to focus on activities that build connections between students within the classroom. I love activities that require students to work together as a team, such as Pass It Up by Señor Wooly or Running Dictation. While both are high-energy games, they also require students to work together and build a strong classroom community.
I struggle in my classroom to have meaningful conversations in the target language with my students. It’s not for lack of effort, but I often find myself needing to use language my students don’t understand yet. This year, I am challenging myself to use more intentional language to have these good conversations and to ask questions that matter.
Sometimes we as language teachers find ourselves asking questions simply because we need to ask questions. To better engage my students, I am going to ask more meaningful questions, and also questions with “appropriate stakes.” Justin Slocum Bailey talks about meaningful questions in this podcast episode, and it really had me thinking about how I approach conversations in my classroom. Justin explains that low-stakes questions don’t encourage students to answer because they are shallow or don’t seem important to others. He also describes high-stakes questions as ones that could potentially cause students intense emotional reactions, like sadness, humiliation, or fear. Essentially, am I asking questions that actually engage students? Am I asking questions that have an obvious answer (that therefore aren’t worth answering)?
Another way I want to challenge my students is to encourage them to embrace the productive struggle. Instead of immediately offering up a word or phrase that they have forgotten, I am challenging myself to prompt them and encourage them to retrieve the information on their own. I’m not only challenging them to give themselves a chance, but I am also embracing the discomfort of not having the answer immediately. There is so much value in students correcting themselves! We have to make space for that, too.
As Carol Gaab has said, “The brain craves novelty!” What if that novelty doesn’t have to come in loud with shiny bells and whistles? Don’t get me wrong — we’ll definitely keep doing the games. But I’ll keep this focus in mind: How can I engage students and keep them engaged with the message? My goal is to make sure that entertainment isn’t the only piece that keeps students engaged.