We have had numerous inquiries this past year about our program we have been building over the past several years. We are finishing our fifth year teaching with Comprehensible Input (CI) in our small K-12 School in Van Meter, Iowa. In 2010, I started teaching with CI at the Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana, California. I am forever in debt for what I learned from the amazing educators with whom I worked there. From that moment, a spark was ignited as I began to envision a program where students were placed in classes according to their proficiencies rather than moved from level to level despite their struggles/deficiencies.
Traditionally we move students to the next level if they “pass” but realistically many of these students who squeak by are not ready to move on to the next level, we just have nowhere else to put them. Sometimes, we have students who move into district with no experience, but Spanish I doesn’t fit their schedule, so they are placed with their classmates despite their lack of foundation. These situations are frustrating for students and also for teachers as we know we are not reaching them at their level, but there are no other options.
We have developed a program with a two year rotating curriculum where students can spend two years at each proficiency. Since it is a rotating curriculum, students who are in year one are mixed with students who are in year two, but it is listed on their transcripts as 101 (first year) or 102 (second year). We are still in the process of building program and are learning as we go. We have tried to give numbers to classes as they might correspond with college level classes. A student who has demonstrated proficiency beyond Novice Mid level would most likely place in the the “2nd year” of a college level course. For that reason, at the novice high level, we have changed the number from the 100 level to the 200 level.
The names of our courses as we currently have (subject to change) them are as follows:
Novice Low 101, 102
Novice Mid 103, 104
Novice High 201, 202
Int Low 203, 204
Int Mid 301, 302 (We do not currently offer this course, but as we have a K-12 program, we anticipate some of our current elementary students placing into Novice High as 9th Graders.)
After five years we have students unofficially producing confidently at the Intermediate Low level. We are looking into official tests to place students according to their proficiency.
These are our expectations after one or two years at each proficiency level:
Novice Low
Students confidently produce Super 7 present tense, all forms
Students begin to produce Super 7 past tense, some forms
Students produce Super 7 future tense (is going to + infinitive), some forms
Students are exposed to a sheltered amount of other tenses in context
Students are exposed to a variety of reactions and idiomatic expressions
Novice Mid
Students confidently produce Sweet 16 present tense, all forms
Students confidently produce Sweet 16 past tense, all forms
Students produce Sweet 16 future tense (is going to + infinitive), some forms
Students are exposed to various other tenses in context
Students are using a variety of reactions and idiomatic expressions
Novice High
Students confidently produce Sweet 16 present tense, all forms
Students confidently produce Sweet 16 past tense, all forms
Students confidently produce Sweet 16 future tense (is going to + infinitive), some forms
Students begin to produce a variety of other tenses in context
Students are using a variety of reactions and idiomatic expressions
Intermediate Low
Students confidently produce Sweet 16 present tense, all forms
Students confidently produce Sweet 16 past tense, all forms
Students confidently produce Sweet 16 future tense (is going to + infinitive), some forms
Students confidently produce a variety of other tenses in context
Students are using a wide variety of reactions and idiomatic expressions
Placement
We are looking into an exam that our school can purchase and give from year to year that assesses Listen, Reading, Writing and Speaking. Recommendations appreciated!
Student Sample Intermediate Low (with Intermediate Mid tendencies)
The following are 15 minute writes from a student in our Intermediate Low group, a class for college credit through our local area community college. She speaks as well as she writes. You will see that she makes errors, which is normal. Typically in our Novice level classes, we do not correct errors, but give two suggestions per writing sample and give them time to reflect. More than that is overwhelming at this level. Before the next timed write, we ask they review the suggestions from their previous entries (they are all kept in a notebook from year to year and we hold them over the summer so they don’t get lost).
In the Intermediate level classes (and sometimes Novice High), I make corrections directly on their writing samples and give two suggestions. I took photos of the samples before writing on them. Wish I had thought to do that in previous years!
April 12, 2018
April 24, 2018 (a reflexion at the end of the year – This course finishes the 2nd of May, 2018)
I am sure there are many questions I did not think to address. Please ask and I will add to this post so that others can see the answers you are seeking. Our Spanish team in Van Meter is Megan Fandel, Stacey Wigant and Melissa Evens Newell. We do not claim to be experts. We are simply professionals doing what we think is best for students based on the experiences we have had! 🙂