keeping students in target language

Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 18:14:38 EST
From: Beth Damascus Pjlp26bj@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: Keeping students in the target language
I made up a chart to keep track of class progress. (This is for upper levels, but it could probably work for first and second year students too.) The chart is in ladder form. I have it labeled "Dia 1" "Dia 2", etc. Next to each day there is a blank space. Next to that is a phrase of encouragement such as "Buen trabajo como clase" "Sigue tratando", etc. The first day of class, I explain to my students that the class is a small "community" and everyone's cooperation in a community is important. Our "community's" purpose is to improve our language skills, in particular - the oral/aural skills. SO, for every day that nobody speaks anything other than Spanish, a rung on the ladder will be filled in. If ANYBODY speaks English (unless I give them permission to do so), then we start all over again. There are "prizes" at every five day increment. I asked the students what they would like as prizes (of course I knew ahead of time pretty much what they would say!).... after 5 days, they get a "no homework day". After 10 days - still undecided. After 15 days - a class party! My Spanish IV students have REALLY bought into this! They are so proud of themselves! On days when there is a test that takes up the entire period, I do not count because we, obviously, have not been holding much conversation in class. Anyway, my students reached there first 5 days on Monday, but decided that they would like to have the "no homework" day tomorrrow. I don't have a problem with this at all! I also use a "peso" system to keep track of individual participation and "pagames" for students who are speaking English. So far I have not had to collect an "pagames" because the students know that it is not only their INDIVIDUAL grade which is affected, but the entire class (the chart!). Hope this makes sense. For first and second year classes (I haven't done this yet with them), perhaps you could tweek it to how many minutes in class Spanish is used. The ultimate goal would be the entire class period!
-Beth D