When I began teaching in 2007, I walked in the room with only one idea of how to teach Spanish, that is, how my French teacher taught me in 1999. It was a traditional way of teaching. We sat at desks, read out of a book, learned grammar and sometimes spoke French. This was how I thought language was supposed to be taught. In 2010, my eyes were opened to language acquisition and how we should learn a language.
In 2010, I attended my first Organic World Language workshop. It was transformative. I learned about ACTFL proficiency levels and that the brain can't focus on grammar rules and communicating in the target language at the same time. I also learned about the spontaneous use of the target language instead of memorized, pre-planned presentations. I had to change my whole mindset if I expected my students to learn Spanish. I couldn't have them sitting in class, soaking up grammar rules, reading pre-scripted skits and then expect them to authentically use Spanish. I realized I would have to follow these rules:
1. Use the target language 100% of the time.
This had to start from day one and I would have to come up with games and activities that would engage my students and keep them in the target language. I would need to pay attention to what they want to say. If they want to talk to their neighbor about the big game or about lunch plans, then I had to be alert and use those moments to teach those words in Spanish.
2. Tons of activities and brain breaks are necessary.
Within the OWL method, the students are not sitting at desks but instead they are standing in a circle. This allows for endless communication in the target langauge, movement to keep the brain focused, actions to help memorize vocab and games to keep the students engaged. This meant that I had to plan several activities in one lesson and have some as back up. Also, to ensure their brains weren't overloaded with only Spanish, I had to include "brain breaks", little activities such as rock-paper-scissors to allow a break. This would also pull in students who might feel behind as anyone can win/understand these kind of activities.
3. Provide ways for students to communicate, especially if they don't know too much Spanish.
To ensure students stayed in the target language, I had to teach them how to "circle around a word" they didn't know in Spanish. This would replace the traditional "How do you say....in Spanish?". This method is also called circumlocution. Basically, when a student didn't know a word, they had to be taught how to do one of the following, draw it, act it out or describe it.
4. Change my grading system.
If I was no longer going to use grammar concepts as my tests, than I had to find a new way to evaluate my students. I would have to adopt standards based grading and my standards would be the I Can statements from ACTFL (http://www.actfl.org/publications/guidelines-and-manuals/ncssfl-actfl-can-do-statements). I would then begin to evaluate my students on what they can do and allow for students to retake assessments when they are ready.
After four years, I am grateful for what I have learned. My students speak more Spanish than before, the I CAN statements are so realistic that they add in the spontaneous, realistic use of Spanish and we have so much fun as we learn.
I HIGHLY recommend that you look into an Organic World Language training (://www.owlanguage.com/) to also become TRANSFORMATIVE.