What Does She Do?Well.....Señora Marsh is a tad bit unconventional, at least according to normal school of thought. However, if you think about how you learned English, then it all makes sense. I teach my classes by optimizing immersion using the TPRS® method. Our class activities are designed to provide students with many opportunities to be involved in the Spanish language at or just above their level of understanding. Each language-building activity is designed to introduce or strengthen the understanding of high frequency words and phrases in Spanish.
1. What is TPRS? TPRS® stands for Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling. It is based on the idea that the brain needs an enormous amount of “comprehensible input” in the Spanish language. We choose the most commonly used words and phrases and use them in stories, conversations and other activities. Everything we talk about in the target language, or Spanish, is understood by the students. 2. What does a TPRS class look like? It sounds like a lot of Spanish! I typically describe it as excited, organized, chaos. We have fun! Some typical activities are: Storytelling I start with the outline of a story and then ask the class large numbers of questions that 1) ensure that the class understands the language and 2) add personalized, interesting (and sometimes very funny!) details to the story. Story writing Students will write retells and original stories from outlines, templates, songs or partially-written stories. This may be a class, group, pair, or individual activity. Reading We read stories created in class, stories created by other classes, summaries and stories written by the teacher, stories written by individual students, ads and articles from magazines/newspapers, children’s books, and short novels written for TPRS® classrooms. Play Acting We LOVE to act our stories out. Many times, we will read a story and then reenact it from scratch. We will change the ending, write a prequel, sequel....the possibilities are as endless as our imaginations. Afterall, all of the world is our stage. Songs The students will be learning between 10 and 20 new songs in Spanish this year. Games We have a number of games based on comprehensible input that help students to acquire language and create strong, positive relationships within the classroom environment. Projects There are opportunities each marking period for students to use art and technology to learn and share information about language and culture. Video viewing We will be watching several video clips, along with video series this year. Some will be in Spanish, others in an English/Spanish combination. There are always activities in Spanish for each movie. |