Sure seems like a crazy winter this year and if you are living in the eastern part of the country you about had enough of it all and perhaps are missing your students. All this weather reminds me of a question I get asked quite often while working with a group of teachers on curriculum design. When is the best time to teach the weather? Should there be a weather unit? Certainly weather vocabulary can be found in most textbooks so there must a reason for teaching it in our classes. Not so fast …
Why are they still wearing shorts?
While the first sign of a snowflake or the pure mentioning of a chance for snow on the local weather forecast gets students excited about the possibility of a snow day, most students probably don’t care much about the weather. Based on what I see them wearing to school during near freezing temperatures, not only do they not care, they may not even know what the weather is going to be like on any given day. So why do so many teachers insist on teaching weather vocabulary and very often during the early stages of a student’s language learning experience? If you are debating this issue with yourself or in your department, try to answer these questions:
- Are students not going be able to communicate if they don’t know weather vocabulary?
- Are students not going to be able to move up the proficiency continuum until they have mastered weather vocabulary?
- What kind of functions/structures are students really learning that will help them later? Are there any useful language chunks in the weather learning scenario?
- Do the assessments often associated with the weather unit (students creating a fake weather report, students acting out a TV weather forecast, etc.) provide students with a realistic motivation to continue learning a second language?
There is a time and a place for everything
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating for never ever teaching students how to talk about the weather. In fact there is a perfect time for that. When, you ask? When weather is happening. When exciting weather is happening. When unusual weather is happening. When weather impacts other aspects of life. When weather becomes an issue in a country that speaks the language that students are learning about in their class. Give them a reason to talk about weather. A reason that matters and will cause your students to want to talk about the weather and what it means for their own lives or the lives of others. Then we have something to talk about. Then we can push our students to have authentic conversations that allow them to describe with details, narrate events, find and report information in a way that is truly meaningful communication.
You can blame the weather for everything
Interestingly enough the “when-to-teach-weather-in-our-curriculum” problem translates well to everything else we are hoping students will learn in a language class. The issue of relevancy seems obvious when it comes to weather, however it likely applies to everything that is happening in our classes. Let’s take a look at some more of my pet peeve topics that could benefit from a review in terms of relevancy.
- House and rooms of the house. How many 14-year olds are truly interested in designing floor plans of their dream apartment or are searching for a new apartment in another country? Never mind the fact that when teaching housing in a high-poverty setting, you are setting yourself and your students up for some dangerous reactions. –> Can you think of a context that would allow your students to talk about housing in a more meaningful way?
- Going to a restaurant. While I’ve seen teachers work incredibly hard to develop memorable learning experiences around this topic that may even end up with a visit to a local restaurant, I have to ask: why? Are we preparing our students to become waiters at a tapas restaurant in Barcelona? -> Can you think of a context that would allow your students to talk about food and it’s impact on culture in a more meaningful way?
- Daily routine (which most of the time, really just means morning routine in order to teach reflexives). I may not be a student anymore, but I can’t recall even once in my life telling anyone the minutiae of my morning routine. I think if I were to start telling you what is happening at my house every morning at a party, our conversation would come to a quick end. (Note: I can’t believe I forgot to include this in my original list. Thanks to Jaime Basham for reminding me.)
- School schedules. Our students are in school and more than likely they aren’t very fond of it. I can’t imagine a topic that they would be less interested in in another language that talking about their school life. That being said, there are so many interesting things going on in and around a school that would be worth talking about.
Again, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be teaching any of these things, and depending on the age of the learners some of them might be more relevant than others, but perhaps we can find new contexts to approach the vocabulary in a more meaningful way. After all, it’s not the vocabulary and the amount of topics that students have been exposed to that will help them increase their proficiency.
The problem isn’t the topic. The topic is the problem.
So, it doesn’t matter if we are talking about weather, rooms of the house, or anything else that we like to teach. Focusing on the topics we teach allows us to focus on the vocabulary we teach. So much of curriculum is based on mountains of vocabulary either in textbooks, units, pacing guides, or vocabulary lists. Learning a language isn’t about knowing the most vocabulary. Learning a language is all about communicating, which means our focus shouldn’t be on WHAT the students are saying but HOW and WHEN they are saying it. That shift in focus, requires us to change our curriculum from being based on topics to being based on contexts (some people call it themes.) Making the shift to creating learning experiences that provide a reason for communicating and a reason for learning, will pay dividends in student motivation. Amazingly enough, when students are provided a meaningful context, their attention level, and hopefully their engagement, goes up. Just like their attention level goes up, the moment the first snow flake appears outside the classroom window.
Image Credit: “Men Leather Shoes in Snow” http://picjumbo.com/men-leather-shoes-in-snow/
Oh my God, THANK you. I have been so mystified by these exact units, and you finally crystallized that feeling for me. Mind you, knowing “nieve” would have been handy when my kiddos met with their amiguitos after a week of snow days, and their favorite subjects proved to be worthy small talk–but the need came from the situation, not from shoe-horning in prescribed lists.
I bet it would. Seems to me that “small talk” is a great functional skill to have that probably few students actually ever acquire until they study abroad in the country. If our students have that skill that can probably find out any missing words from whomever they are talking to. ….. hmmm, now you got me thinking about a unit called “Small Talk. Big Value.” That could be fun.
Thomas, I am so glad you said these things “out loud.” I have always hated teaching the weather, school schedules and I am not crazy about teaching rooms of the house or chores for that matter. I think there are other things that are so much more valuable and less like conversational dead ends. If we have to teach things like this, I would so much rather teach them about things they see all around them. At least our students could go beyond describing each other and maybe work more towards complimenting with similes and metaphors such as, “You are as pretty as a flower,” or “Her smile is the sunshine on a rainy day.” Aren’t those descriptions more interesting than the average AND I got two weather expressions into one compliment, and maybe just maybe the young man who gives that line a try a date! Now, there’s a problem solved with language!
you probably aren’t the only that has “always hated teaching” these things. wonder what we can do to help teachers let go of some of these curricular clunkers.
On point and well said!
You have such a way with words. It is SO true. This year, I didn’t even distribute my textbook and I am ready to start getting these kids interested. Why would any student be interested in, for example, CHORES? Or how frequently one shaves? The list goes on. I loved hearing you at ICTFL this past fall and I look forward to your words helping me on my journey to be a better teacher (after 18 years of doing it wrong!)
Hello. Great ideas here! My department is currently looking at textbooks. I do not want a textbook, but they rely so much on it and do not want to make all their own materials, so I am outvoted. Any suggestions for what to offer these teachers as an alternative to textbooks and to teach the way you suggest (which is much more useful and beneficial for students)? There are so many options! THIS is something that could be presented at a conference – a how-to-session with concrete examples for a variety of levels.
I would love to hear the answer to Kara Jacobs’ question. You #langchat people amaze me.
I feel I need more concrete help make all these changes that I’m muddling through the best I can. 🙂
I so agree with everything that you have said. It is wonderful to see it in writing, and so well stated. I am sharing it with my supervisor, too. Like Kara, I am part of a department (county wide) that rigidly adheres to vocabulary lists and grammar. Slowly, slowly, slowly it is changing…..just not fast enough for me.
“That shift in focus, requires us to change our curriculum from being based on topics to being based on contexts (some people call it themes.)”
Thanks for the post. It is important coming from someone as influential as you. You have obviously struck a chord with a number of teachers here who agree that many topics (such as the morning routine which I am currently boring my students with) are stilted and inauthentic. However, departments such as my own are invested in changing the curriculum according to ACTFL “themes.” In fact, as my own department started this overhaul they used unit plans from Jefferson county as a model (and still do). So what used to be an excuse to practice reflexive verbs has now become a unit about describing your daily routine to the host family you are about to visit in Madrid. The focus is on communication, but the unit is no less stilted. And this is in a department that has drunk the ACTFL kool-aid and invested heavily in professional development.
I suppose my question is two-fold. First, you advocate for context-based or “thematic” unit, not topic driven units. However, the common usage of the term “themes” (both in my school and elsewhere), implies the very units that you are criticizing. We design an IPA which involve communicative tasks and then backwards plan it looking at what the students need to be able to do to accomplish the task. The tasks are always “theme” based. In this case it is describing your morning routine. Are you saying that “thematic” units which ACTFL endorses are different, or are you criticizing the ACTFL model?
Second, you advocate for “Making the shift to creating learning experiences that provide a reason for communicating and a reason for learning…” an idea which I agree with 100%. However, I don’t know what that means in practice. I ask, because following ACTFL and Jefferson county models we have ended up with the units you criticize. I would love to end up with a more meaningful context with my students.
thanks again,
Interesting that our district worked really hard to create “thematic units”, yet the majority of the activities revolve around the “topics” you mentioned: daily routine, describing people, describing your ideal home, school schedules, and free time activities at home and at school. Where can we find an example of a great curriculum that avoids all these “boring” topics and focuses on language chunks?