Storytelling

I had a different student teaching experience than most people for two reasons. First, I student taught not only Spanish, but also math (both at the secondary level). My minor is in mathematics and when searching last year, I always found that there were more math jobs available than Spanish jobs. However, teaching math allowed me to fully realize my passion for teaching Spanish. I discovered that while I enjoy doing math on my own and love the challenge of solving a difficult problem, I do not enjoy as much teaching other people how to find that joy in solving a difficult problem. My passion does not lie with mathematics... my true passion lies with the teaching of world languages and making the world smaller by helping people to communicate with each other.


The second reason my student teaching experience was different is because I did not teach the "traditional" method... i.e. out of a textbook. Instead, I learned how to teach using Blaine Ray's TPRS: Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling method. I love this method! I taught the first semester of Spanish 1 and was amazed by how much my students grew in such a small amount of time. By the end of the first week, the students had created a short story, retold the short story, and written a different short story entirely in Spanish! Now, by short story, I do mean SHORT story. It was a small paragraph with no more than a few sentences. However by the end of the semester, my students could easily write over 100 word stories in under 8 minutes. The first rule of TPRS according to my cooperating teacher is that normal is boring. So, my students could never create a story about a brown dog that is thirsty and searches for water. Instead, they came up with ideas to make stories more interesting (ie a short, fat, purple dog searches for chocolate milk); they added twists to the stories to have something unexpected occur (the dog drives a car in his desperate attempt to find said milk); and always, ALWAYS, something exploded at the end of the story (possibly the car... but luckily the dog was in the school getting his chocolate milk from a fifth grader so he was safe). That last bit was my cooperating teacher's touch to TPRS: teach the kids how to say something explodes and before you know it, at the end of every story their rival school gets blown up. That, I must say, was very entertaining to me.


Now, there are a few things that I dislike about TPRS (for example, the books that go along with the curriculum are repetitive with a plot that leaves much to be desired and the movies are very clearly independent films that were not very enjoyed by my high schoolers) but overall I think that it is a fantastic method of teaching. I've really missed it this year with teaching elementary students, so I am actually trying it out with my 5th graders this week! It's going to look very different though for a couple a reasons. My class time is bumped from 70 minutes/day to 27 minutes/3x a week. So last year while I was able to complete a whole cuento in one class from start to finish, I think it will take me a week with my schedule this year. I have been doing some research in a book I found called ¡Hola niños! by Carol Gaab. (Her blog is here.) This book is very comprehensive and specific and gives units, vocabulary, and actual day-to-day lesson plans easy enough for anyone to follow. In order to use these exact materials, I think it is necessary to start from the beginning so that the students have the same vocabulary as the curriculum and can follow the curriculum the way it is laid out. Since this is the first time my students have been taught using the TPRS method I am instead looking at her general lesson plans and adapting those activities to the vocabulary that I am currently teaching (tener expressions). However, her lesson plans are for 5 day weeks and I only have a 3 day week so I am adjusting the activities there as well. I'll write again at the end of the week and let you know how it went! If anyone has any tips or advice for using TPRS with a younger audience, please let me know!