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… continuous updates to parents from me here…
Please join our Adult Spanish Class that meets each Wednesday evening from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. It is a class in which BOTH beginners or those looking for some Spanish practice should feel comfortable. Read more at: http://adultos.doctoracogburn.com/
Week of 1-3-12: We made it! It is now “next year” and almost the end of first semester. All Spanish classes are learning vocabulary; responding to questions in the target language about stories that use the vocabulary; reading the stories in a way that makes this teacher VERY proud; and they continue to work hard on stories as they prepare for chapter exams. Spanish 1 will eventually have a chapter exam about “The Cat Story” and Spanish 2 will soon have a chapter exam about “The Cow Monkey Story” which they have learned in the past tense.
The Spanish 2 classes have done an excellent job at understanding and using verbs to speak in the “Imperfect Past” with this simple Spanish 1 story that we changed to make it more challenging and level 2 appropriate. Try having your Spanish 2 student read one of their Spanish stories out-loud in English to you to see how they do! (If they read to you in Spanish you won’t know if they understand what they are reading so listen to the English and see if the story makes sense.) They really ARE doing a nice job at reading: One of the most important things you can do to improve and advance fluency in a language!
AN IMPORTANT DATE is coming up for all Spanish students in my room: Thursday, January 19. That is the last day that I will allow test and quiz retakes, or allow make up tests to be taken by students who are missing tests from being absent. That gives me a two-week-window to be able to correct that extra work, ensuring the students that I will have the grading completed for the Feb. 2-end of semester 1. Encourage your kids to retake or makeup any missing Quiz or Exam -though I will NOT accept late work for any general, everyday assignments unless an excused absence slip from the front office is stapled to the work when it comes in. (Still needs to be in on or before Jan. 19 to be accepted).
Song of the week will start up again next week with the Shakira song “A Day in January.” I hope that means you will be hearing your student singing in Spanish again around the house!! Remember you can listen to any songs, yourself, by clicking the Canciones link at the top of the page. Maybe you’ll be singing along too!
I hope you all are enjoying good health, that your students are as well so that they can concentrate on school, and I wish you Prospero Año Nuevo- We are almost to the half-way point in our school year!!! … when we can begin counting down the days until that last one in June. Thank you for sending your children and teens to Mountlake Terrace High School. I wouldn’t write this if I didn’t mean it: This is a WONDERFUL group of kids I am working with this year. wonderful. Sincerely, Robin Cogburn cogburnr@edmonds.wednet.edu
Week of 11-28-11: Greetings to the wonderful parents of my Spanish students~ You really do have, simply put, amazing kids. They are so much fun, and a privilege for me to teach. Now that first quarter is complete, students should be taking stock of earned points and reflecting on where they sit, grade wise. As a parent, you should know that there is no reason a student can not earn the letter grade they desire in my classes. Any one who puts forth sincere effort in my classes can earn an A grade-if that is their goal.
I will not accept late work unless an excused absence note from the attendance office is stapled to the work showing the student was excused when the assignment was to be due. I WILL, however, allow a student to take and retake any assignment marked quiz or EXAM in Skyward, anytime after the school day, as many times as the student chooses. The score will never drop-there is no partial credit, but rather full credit earned on late quizzes and EXAMS.
The student should consult Skyward to know exactly what they want to make up as well as make an appointment of at least 24 hours notice so that I can have the documents ready for them when they stay after school. With 150+ students, it is a great deal of lost time when a student says to me after school “I need to make up some work” but can not tell me WHAT it is they need to do.
Students should also be mindful of the categories of grades and the weights of each as they prepare to makeup work. The categories are divided like this:
Reading 20%
Daily Participation 20%
Speaking 12%
Listening 10%
Vocabulary 10%
Writing 10%
Culture 10%
Structures (Grammar) 8% =100% Total
Spending too much time on work in one of the smaller categories, when points are low in Reading or Participation, will not benefit the student in an efficient way.
An important procedure the students should pay attention to involves the beginning of each class with me: Students are to be IN their assigned seat with the Song of the Week in front of them and nothing else on their desks. They are to be Reading the lyrics while listening to the song. This activity is often graded. Having no song, working on other classes homework, using personal electronics, or visiting will affect grades in the Reading category-one of the most important categories on a continual basis…… (more to follow soon… RC )
ADULT SPANISH CLASS: Class from 6 PM until 7 PM each Wednesday will run quarter by quarter. Join me in room 133, down the stairs on the bottom floor of the school-walk straight ahead-past the cafeteria, turn left at the first hallway, follow the art hall around until you come to 133! $10 per class-We will use “Storytelling” as the methodology. To read more about the method, see the links below. For questions please feel free to email! cogburnr@edmonds.wednet.edu Robin Cogburn
Week of 11-04-11:
Classes this week learned language through cultural content by examining the unique and seasonal products, practices, and belief systems expressed through the holidays of Halloween and Day of the Dead. I reflected more deeply than usual this year as I prepared presentations for the students. As you know if you were in a grocery store this past week, Halloween-and the adjoining need to consume the perfect type and size of candy, was among us.
In Spanish speaking countries the celebration described as “one of, if not THE most important holiday of the year” runs parallel in both time and unusual imagery to our holiday. Though it occurs at the same time, and though much of the imagery resembles what we find in the U.S. during Halloween, El Día de los Muertos, or The Day of the Dead, is distinct. My goal during the week is to teach language through the comparisons and contrasts of the two holidays. My intention is to help students see themselves situated precisely at this same intersection without clear boundaries where two languages and cultures are expressed. By looking within oneself, and by looking outward at other cultural beliefs and expressions, the student is located in a place from which to begin to take a critical look at self; how they come to their own cultural belief systems; and to examine their own idea of mortality. Looking at those ideas through Spanish language helps to broaden the student’s perspective and understanding of the world. It will also help them with their ability to interact with people of different backgrounds and cultures.
These two holidays give me pause each year as the teacher of your children. Both are controversial. I pause because I want more than anything to drive the conversation away from the morbid, the creepy, the grotesque and violent-so prevalent in some popular horror movies. Rather, I want to guide the students to join me as we all engage in our own journey of looking for meaning in something so foreign and without clear boundaries as how another culture looks at, celebrates, and even makes fun of death. It is a precarious tight rope that I walk as an instructor of language. Yet language and culture are so closely linked that one can’t be taught without the other. To see some of the resources themselves that the students viewed, visit their pages, Sp 1 or Sp 2, and you’ll be led to the links. Happy November Everyone. Dr. Cogburn
Week of 10-28-11:
All classes will have finished a “listening, reading, writing assignment” this week by watching the classic movie Viejo Descolorido- better known to us as “Old Yeller.” So many of the students had never seen it. Spanish II classes listened to the movie in Spanish while reading English subtitles, the Spanish I classes listened in English while reading Spanish subtitles. Students engaged in a writing assignment during viewing, but, above all, they have now experienced the joy, sadness, and joy again, of the classic Fred Gibson/Walt Disney story of an old, yeller dog while building their fluency in the Spanish language. Robin Cogburn
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IN TPRS, we are trying to create a mini-immersion experience for the learners
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We try to make the input the students receive compelling, comprehensible, and we co-construct the stories with our students
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TPRS® (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling, originated by Blaine Ray) TPRS is a powerful teaching methodology that is based on proven techniques and sound pedagogy. An input-based methodology, TPRS focuses on specific activities and techniques that expose the learner to an abundance of authentic language in a condensed period of time. It simulates a hybrid immersion experience by eliminating its flaws-incomprehensible input and excessive amounts of time-while maintaining the powerfully effective aspects of an immersion experience: context, comprehensible messages, natural and useful language and a great deal of repetition (Carol Gaab, 2009)
- TPR Storytelling works quickly because, for one: it is a 100% comprehensible method of second language acquisition.
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But where is the grammar? Our philosophy is based on first language acquisition studies, and the way we all, as native speakers of a first language, learn to speak. Linguist Stephen Krashen explains the philosophy behind language classes that are not driven by teaching explicit grammar rules in this way:
“Research consistently shows that conscious grammatical knowledge has a limited function, acting only as an editor of what is already produced.
In support of this position are studies showing that even advanced students with a great deal of interest and experience with grammar are able to access only a small amount of their grammatical knowledge when actually using language. Even when students are deliberately focused on form and taught rules carefully, the impact of grammar study is weak.” (Krashen, S.)
Read more about Dr. Krashen’s contributions to the field of language acquisition here.
Tue, Sept 27-
Dear Parents! I look forward to meeting you on curriculum night, Thur, Oct 6! If you are not able to attend, watch this page, and the particular link (Sp 1) (Sp2) (Independent Study) for the class in which your son or daughter is taking Spanish with me to learn about what is happening in room 133, Spanish . As any handouts become available for students, you will find them in the Documents folder. Students can, and should print off any handout they are asked to by me, or those that they may misplace. **THERE IS HOMEWORK EVERY NIGHT in the form of listening to a song on my website. Students should be listening to, AND singing along, while reading the words to their Song of the Week. All songs can be listened to from within the Canciones folder. They should have the print out of words to the song which can be found in the folder labeled Songs. All of the students this have are arriving with a positive attitude, enthusiastic, and adding creativity and joy to the Spanish classes. Thank you for sending your son or daughter to Mountlake Terrace High School. It is a very nice place to be. Spanish language learning and acquisition is underway in room 133 because your child is learning the rules to “play the game” of allowing the creation of a mini-immersion experience (to the extent it is possible in a 50 minute period) and making it possible for us to have fun while we do it. You are invited to come in, join us, simply observe, or watch your child experience the Spanish language via TPRStorytelling. Sincerely, Robin Cogburn, Ph.D
Dr. Cogburn’s Daily Schedule, Academic Year 2011-2012
Per 1 Sp 2 7:20 – 8:14
Per 2 Sp 2 8:19 – 9:13
Per 3 Sp 1 9:18 – 10:18
Per 4 Sp 1 10:23 – 11:17
Lunch 11:22 – 11:52
Per 5 Prep Period 11:57 – 12:51
Per 6 Sp 2 12:56 – 1:50
Email: cogburnr@edmonds.wednet.edu Voice Mail: 425-431-5049 FAX: 425-431-7771 Attn: Robin Cogburn