What I'm Looking For in an Elementary Spanish Course Content Guides (Textbooks)

I regularly get emails / calls from textbook reps that want to help me find the best possible resources for my classes, which is great!

Unfortunately, I am very picky. Largely, this is due to the fact that my area of expertise is Second Language Acquisition (SLA), and specifically technology-enhanced SLA. Additionally, I have invested significant amounts of time and effort into the creation of my own online resources for the classes I teach, and I'm reluctant to switch over to a new Course Content Guide for minor reasons. I am going to use the term Course Content Guide (CCG) as synonymous with the term "textbook". I do so because I am quite open to the idea of not using an actual book. I'd be quite happy to have an online resource that provided me with the needed structure.

The truth is, I barely use the resources provided in the textbook we currently use. I base my classes on the content from the textbook, but I usually just use my own activities. And this blog post is my attempt to explain why. In other words, here is my wish list for a CCG for my elementary Spanish courses.

But first, here is a list of my theoretical leanings:

1. Flipped-Classroom - I like to use a Flipped-Classroom approach. This is where students are introduced to the material at home before class, and then practice the material in class.

2. Small Group Work - In class, I predominantly have the students working in small groups of 3 - 4 students. (See my blog post about my gamified approach to group work.)

3. Replay Value - I like to provide my students with browser-based tools that provide them with randomly generated content for rote practice (drills). Yes, I know that "drills" is a buzz word. But students desire this type of practice. So, if they're going to do it, I want to give them the option to do it in the most effective way possible, and the option to do it with my content, rather than the content from some random website. And with an unlimited supply of new content. (See my game Español Al Azar for an example of what I mean.)

4. Task-Based Language Teaching - In class, I like to have students engaged in communicative tasks with easily measurable, non-linguistic objectives that they accomplish by using the target content in the target language. For example, I want them to summarize the plot of a movie so that their peers can guess what movie it is. I do not want them just writing a list of sentences with a specific verb conjugation.

5. The Four Skills - In every class, I want students to engage in at least one reading/writing task and one speaking/listening task. The tasks need to be as natural as possible (i.e. "repeat after me" does not count.)

6. Communicative Language Teaching - I want the tasks done in class to be communicative. Really communicative, not pretend communicative. I want the students to be involved in the transmission of messages in Spanish. And the messages need to have a point! And the point needs to be important to the students.

7. Hierarchy of Tasks - I would very much prefer a course set up with a hierarchical structure for the lessons. This means that in a unit, you have a big task to complete. Something the students know that they are working towards, and know when they have completed it (e.g. preparing a presentation to the class on their family.) Each unit will have several lessons. Each lesson should involve the students performing smaller tasks that will help them develop the skills they need for the unit task. In our example, one lesson could be describing a famous person so the rest of the class can guess who it is, one could be listing the biggest occupations in a city of their choice, one could be giving a presentation to the class on healthy vs. unhealthy pastimes, one could be completing a family tree, etc. Each of these is a measurable, communicative task that students know when they have finished it. And each task helps them acquire the skills needed for the unit task. Each of these lesson tasks could in turn be supported by simpler, input-based, activities. For example, for the family tree lesson task, students could play a game where they are given sentences such as (my brother's daughter is my _____) which they complete with the correct term.

8. Gameful L2TL - I am a firm believer that games and gamification can be used to improve almost every teaching/learning situation.

9. Take Advantage of Technology - "Any teacher who can be replaced by a machine should be" - Arthur C. Clarke. We have computers that can help with drills and many other things. Anything that a computer can do better than a human should be done by a computer, that way the human teachers can do stuff the computers can't. Such as directing small group conversations. Not everything can be done by a computer, but a lot can. And often they can do it better! For example, computers can be programmed to have fun, engaging communicative drills that provide students with feedback 100% of the time. Whereas this would be logistically impossible for an educator to do for each student / group.

So, what do I want?

I want a CCG that provides me with:

1. Several units per semester. Each unit having a culminating task the students complete. Preferably with editable, easy-to-use rubrics.
2. Several lessons per unit. Each lesson having a culminating task the students complete. Each lesson should also prepare the students for the unit task. Ideally, each lesson should be set up to take around 40 - 50 minutes.
3. An editable small slideshow for each lesson that quickly provides enhanced input for the learners to refresh on what they read for that lesson.
4. At least one good reading/writing and one good speaking/listening task per lesson. (Preferably a couple of each, and preferably the prompts are provided in the slideshow.)
5. Online communicative drills in the form of engaging digital games. Ideally, there would be a way for students to click a button in order for the game to report student participation to the instructor.
6. Simple examples and explanations for the students to read / watch / play at home before class so that they can have a basic understanding of the content they will be covering in class. Additionally, there should be some simple comprehension checks that they can complete, which can be reported to the instructor.

Finally, if you really want to impress me, provide me with a platform that can also do the following:

1. Allow me to integrate my Unity WebGL games into your website so that they can played in the browser and have the data recorded to your site.
2. Provide me with a gradecenter with the type of functionality described here.
3. Make it all reasonably priced (read: dirt cheap / free.)

4. I am really interested in a user-friendly API for Google Sheets.

So, if you think you have a CCG that I would be interested in, I'm all ears! Please comment below and/or send me an email! I would love to stop working on the one I'm developing and use yours!

Best,

Grade Masters

Do you ever get tired of your students asking you where they stand in your class? Or whether they can still pass your class?

Well, I kept getting these questions too. And they are a legitimate concern for students. And I realized something. Just grading stuff on time isn't good enough. Students don't just want to know about the past, they want to know about the future!

That's why I created my Grade Masters. (See this folder for all referenced files.) The idea is to make it as easy as possible for students to know exactly where they stand in my classes. I know below it looks complicated. But it really only takes me an hour or so to set up each class each semester, and the students only have to log into their Google Drive and open a single file to see all of this information! Here is how it works:

1. There is one Grade Master per course. This may seem like a simple gradebook, but there is more to it. Note what it does in each indicated column:

D-G: Shows students how many points they've earned and lost, and how many they still have to play with
H: Shows what grade students need to make on all remaining assignments in order to get an A in my class
J: Shows what grade students need to make on all remaining assignments in order to get a C in my class
BM: Shows whether students are exempt from taking the final exam
etc.

Now, here's the real beauty. The Grade Master send out the information for each individual student to their own, personal Grade Spreadsheet! They have to log in with their university email in order to view their spreadsheet, so these are private. Each student can see exactly where they stand all the time! You want to know if you can pass my class? Let's take a look at your Grade Spreadsheet. Looks like you need to make an average of 66.84% on all remaining assignment in order to get a C in this class. Do you think you can swing that? Yes? Good! Then you can pass my class.

Finally, if you open the sample Grade Spreadsheet, you'll also notice that it has a second tab with attendance. Here it shows my entire attendance record. Don't know where you're two absences came from? Let's take a look at tab 2. Looks like I have you as tardy on 9/6 and 9/16 and as absent on 9/11. Just another way to help students know where their numbers are coming from.

And I take attendance using the Attendance Spreadsheet, which automatically feeds the data to the Grade Master, which automatically feeds the data to the individual Grade Spreadsheets, so students know right away what their attendance is. (The Grade Spreadsheet also calculates penalties based on attendance, such as losing 20 points for each absence beyond the 4th.)

All of these resources are created using importrange on Google Spreadsheets. So it is free. I also make sure that the Grade Master and Attendance Spreadsheet are fully password protected and that each Student Spreadsheet is only accessible by each individual student, and that they cannot edit their spreadsheets. If you would like more details, please comment below or send me an email.

To date I have not found any software that provides the kind of functionality I have described above. If it exists, please let me know!

Have fun teaching!

Dr. Agon

How to submit videos on Blackboard

Sometimes you have to record a video of yourself for an assignment, but then you have to submit a link to the video rather than the video itself. So, how do you do that?

There are two main ways to do this:

1. Upload the video to the cloud (such as Google Drive) and then share it.

2. Upload the video to a video sharing site (such as YouTube) and then share it.

Method 1: Uploading to the cloud:

Step 1 - Record the video. You can do this with your phone, webcam, etc. It doesn't really matter. The main thing is that your video needs to be in a common format, such as mp4. If your device has recorded your video in a non-standard format you may need to convert it. To do so, just locate a free online video conversion site.

Step 2 - Upload your video. To do this, simply navigate to your NSU Google Drive. You can do this by opening a web browser and going to drive.google.com and logging in with your GreenMail username and password. Then click on the video file and drag it to your drive. It may take a little while for the video to upload.

Step 3 - Share. Once your video has uploaded, simply right-click on it and choose "Share".

Next, click on "Get shareable link".

Finally, click on "Copy link" and then "Done".

Step 4 - Submit. Now that you have the link to your video, go to the assignment and paste the link you just copied. (There are prettier ways to do this, but this is the simplest way.)

Step 5 - Test! This is the most important step! Copy your link from your entry and paste it in a new browser and see if it works. If it doesn't work for you, it won't work for us.

Method 2: Uploading to YouTube:

Step 1 - Record the video. You can do this with your phone, webcam, etc. It doesn't really matter.

Step 2 - Upload your video to YouTube. To do this, simply log in to YouTube.com (you can use your GreenMail account for this). You may need to set up your account the first time, just follow the steps on the website. Once your account is ready, go to YouTube.com and click on the little camera with a plus sign in it.
 

Next, click on "Upload Video".

Then, click on your video file, and drag and drop it in the indicated area.

Finally, click on "Publish".

Step 3 - Embed the video on Blackboard. First, wait until it finishes publishing your video on YouTube, then click on "Embed"

Copy the link.

Go to your Group Conversation Discussion Board. Go to the appropriate thread and click "Reply".

Click on the "HTML" button.

Paste the embed info you copied, and click "Update".

Finally, click "Submit"!

Step 5 - Test! This is the most important step! Make sure to check your video to make sure it is working properly! If it doesn't work for you, it won't work for us! Also, be sure that the quality is good enough that we can easily understand what you are saying.

If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know!

Coolness Points

In some of my classes I offer what I call "Coolness Points". At the end of each designated period, individuals that have earned a minimum number of points get a reward!

Below is an explanation of how Coolness Points can be earned and lost.

How to Earn Points:
Win games: Points are awarded for certain in-class activities, such as Chaboonary. Often these activities are done as groups. In this case, each member of a group will earn the same number of points for that day.
Find mistakes: Each time you identify an error on Blackboard, a test, etc. you earn 5 points.

How to Lose Points:
Be late / absent: Each absence causes you to lose 10 points. (Two tardies count as an absence.)
Misbehave: Any infringement on the "This class is rated PG" policy, or any other disruptive behavior will result in the loss of points (the amount to be lost will depend on the severity of the infringement.)

*Note: Even though your grades can influence your Coolness Points, your Coolness Points never affect your grades.