Phase Two Implementation
While my second implementation included aspects of phase 1 (engagement, learning, sense of community, collaboration and technology), based on my findings from Phase 1, I now needed to focus more on how sharing and making connections with Spanish-speaking peers would affect my students’ attitudes towards learning Spanish.
Connecting and Sharing with Spanish-speaking Peers
On the day that I introduced our class project to my students, I explained to them that they would have the opportunity to write in Spanish about significant events of their own lives and then share what they wrote to an audience of Spanish-speaking peers. My students’ curiosity immediately began to peak: “Where are they from?” “Where are they now?” “How old are they?” “How do you know them?”. Once I had all of my students’ attention, I began to answer their questions. “These students are your age. They are freshmen. Most of them are from Mexico, but they are now attending school where I used to teach last year in Chula Vista. Like you, these students are also learning a foreign language--but they are learning English. This is an opportunity for you to reach out to and connect with members of our Spanish-speaking community who are your age. And lastly, once you have shared with my former students what you have written about your lives, they will have the opportunity to provide commentary and feedback about their impressions of you and your experiences, and they will also have the opportunity to share a bit about themselves with you.” When I said this, the excitement in the room peaked once again. I listened as my students exchanged comments about their upcoming project: “This is really awesome!” “I can’t wait to get their feedback!”
Once the initial excitement of sharing and connecting with Spanish-speaking peers had subsided, I provided the instructions and rubric for the project. My students would be required to create a personal timeline in Spanish of important dates of their lives. The events they would choose to write about should be ones that are both significant and that they are willing to share with an audience of readers. Furthermore, I wanted the events to be varied in theme; e.g., they should think about challenges they have overcome, and times in their lives when they felt scared, happy, sad, or even embarrassed. This way, their writing would be more personalized, which according to Mantle-Bromely's findings, the likelihood of making a deeper connection with their Spanish-speaking peers would be greater (1995).
In addition to sharing their work with Spanish-speaking peers, I also wanted to give my students an opportunity to share their work with their classmates. To make that happen, I embedded a peer-review component into the project. This way, my students could continue to build a sense of classroom community, according to Stepp-Greany's findings (2002) as well as my own from Phase 1, as they shared their stories with each other as well as provided peer commentary, feedback, and revisions.
Engagement
During the next several days, levels of student engagement remained high as I allowed my students to work autonomously on their timelines during the last 15- to 20-minutes of each class, which according to Dornyei, is an "important strategy for promoting positive attitudes towards learning a foreign language " (1997). As I attempted to sit back and observe, students seemed to continuously approach me with questions and or comments about their projects: “Señor Floyd, I am writing about when I moved from Japan to the USA!” and “Señor Floyd, since I will be sharing this with Spanish-speaking students, I want to be absolutely sure that what I’m writing in Spanish makes sense. Can you look at what I have so far?” Students not only seemed to want to share their stories with me, but they wanted to make sure that their stories would be intelligible to their Spanish-speaking audience. This was in line with my Phase 1 findings as well as with what I learned from Beauvois's findings in terms of how foreign language students tend to use more complex sentence structures when they are allowed to connect and collaborate with other language learners via technology (Stepp-Greany, 2002).
Connecting and Sharing with Classmates
At the beginning of the following week, my students brought their rough drafts to class for peer revisions. Students were eager to share their stories with each other. Before I released the responsibility of peer editing to my students, however, I provided a mini timeline of my own for them to revise as a warmup. I also provided a Peer Review Checklist for my students to use as a guide during the warmup as well as during their peer reviews. After the warmup, we transitioned directly over to peer reviews. During this time, I watched and listened as my students read each other’s stories. While many of these classmates had known each other since as early as kindergarten, many seemed to be surprised by the new things they were learning about their classmates. I noted that several students had one hand clinched to the paper with the other hand covering their mouth as if shocked by what they were reading. And others giggled as they learned about their classmates’ past embarrassments. Once my students had read one to two stories, they had the opportunity to provide their commentary and revisions in written form and then hand it back to their partner(s). When it was time to transition to the next activity, several students quickly raised their hands: “Can I share mine with some more classmates?” My students seemed to enjoy sharing, connecting, and learning about each other through their personal stories. This made me feel more excited about the next steps of allowing my students to connect and share with their Spanish-speaking peers. As per Mantle-Bromely’s findings, my students’ pending experience with my former Spanish-speaking students could have a significant effect on their attitudes towards Spanish (1995). My hope, then, was that my students would have as positive as an experience sharing and connecting with their Spanish-speaking peers as they did with their own classmates, thereby experiencing a positive change in attitude towards Spanish.
Choice and Motivation
Over the next several days, I allowed my students to work on their final drafts during the last 15- to 20-minutes of each class. Similar to my phase 1 intervention, while this project was mandatory, I gave my students the option of using technology. According to Dornyei, encouraging student autonomy and effective student-centered learning strategies (1997). According to Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory, autonomy is the “innate human need” to be “self-initiating and self-regulating”, and student-centered learning environment helps students feel a “sense of wanting, choosing, and personal endorsement”, which is “prerequisite for any behavior to be intrinsically rewarding” (Dornyei, 1997). During our timeline project, while some of my students decided to create little booklets and or poster board timelines, others chose to create a Prezi, PPT, and or a YouTube Video. Several of my students also asked me whether they could create voiceovers to go along with their projects so that their Spanish-speaking peers could hear their voices.
Each time my students worked on their projects, I became more and more impressed with the amount of detail that they were putting into them. Not only had they put in artistic talent into their project, but they had written very cohesively and very in depth.
Over the next several days, I allowed my students to work on their final drafts during the last 15- to 20-minutes of each class. Similar to my phase 1 intervention, while this project was mandatory, I gave my students the option of using technology. According to Dornyei, encouraging student autonomy and effective student-centered learning strategies (1997). According to Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory, autonomy is the “innate human need” to be “self-initiating and self-regulating”, and student-centered learning environment helps students feel a “sense of wanting, choosing, and personal endorsement”, which is “prerequisite for any behavior to be intrinsically rewarding” (Dornyei, 1997). During our timeline project, while some of my students decided to create little booklets and or poster board timelines, others chose to create a Prezi, PPT, and or a YouTube Video. Several of my students also asked me whether they could create voiceovers to go along with their projects so that their Spanish-speaking peers could hear their voices.
Each time my students worked on their projects, I became more and more impressed with the amount of detail that they were putting into them. Not only had they put in artistic talent into their project, but they had written very cohesively and very in depth.
Story Booklet
Prezi Poster Board
Authentic Audience
The day my students submitted their final drafts, I let them know that I would be sharing their timelines with my former students that afternoon, and that they would be providing their feedback and commentary over the weekend on a Google Form I created. Upon hearing this, my students perked up, and their level of energy once again peaked. Several students began to ask me at the same time, “When will we be able to read their feedback?” The students seemed to watch me carefully as I replied, “We’ll go to the lab on Monday to . . . ”, before I had the chance to finish my sentence, the volume in the classroom rose by several decibels. My first inclination was to immediately calm them down and demand their attention, but instead, I decided to listen: “I can’t wait to hear what they have to say about . . .” and “This is so exciting!” Within a minute or two, my students calmed down. I thanked them for all of the effort that they had put into their timelines, and I assured them that they would have the chance to read the feedback and commentary on Monday. My hope was that my findings would be similar to those of Beauvois, who found that through connecting foreign language students to native-speaking students via technology resulted in a positive change in attitude as well as an increased motivation to learn more about the language and culture (Stepp-Greany, 2002).
Connections and Attitudes
On Monday, I explained to my students that I had received the commentary and feedback from my former students. Needless to say, my students were eager to go to the lab and read it. Once we had arrived to the lab, I provided the link to the feedback and commentary on one spreadsheet so my students could read their own as well as their classmates', respectively. The classroom fell silent as my students’ eyes hovered over the document and explored all of the commentary. Within a couple of minutes, my students began giggling and smiling and chatting. Several students called me over to their computers so as to share the commentary with me as well.
Once they had finished looking over the commentary, I provided a link to a Google Form that I created for my students to provide their commentary as to how sharing and connecting with Spanish-speaking peers may have affected their attitudes towards learning Spanish. Once again, the classroom fell silent as my students focused on providing their responses. When my students had finished providing their commentary, I thanked them for the level of effort and quality that they put into their projects, and we began to walk back to the classroom. While we were walking back, several students approached me: “Señor Floyd, getting feedback from your former students made me so happy. It just made my day.” “Will we get a chance to learn about their lives too?”