TACTICS is an acronym attached to some language texts from Wayside Publishing. It stands for Through Active Conversation To Individual Communication Skills. Let me keep the emphasis on the word “active.” Active students are the ones doing the learning in class and TACTICS books support activities for students, usually in pairs. The goal of a TACTICS book is to help create classes in which every student talks more than the teacher.

 There is more than one way to create a class in which every student speaks more than the teacher. I repeat that line for emphasis. Let me introduce the idea of physical learning reinforcement (PLR?) which you can name any way you like once you have found ways to apply the concept to your own classes. No book required.

Language learning, especially speaking, requires practice, practice and more practice. Beginners require more repetition than a language user can reasonably stand, thus teachers do well to employ language laboratories for repetitive exercises. All too often teachers do not supply the enormous quantity of repetition necessary for fluent recall of a language structure.

 Think of learning to tie one’s shoes. I don’t think anyone ever learned to tie shoes by the lecture method. The teacher may be willing to go on at length about how to tie one’s shoes, but the only ones who can appreciate the clarity and accuracy of the explanation are those who already know how to tie their shoes. One learns to tie shoes by tying shoes, and one learns to speak by speaking.

Back to physical reinforcement. Certain concepts in languages can be signaled in relation to or with motions of the body. Singular could be one finger, plural two fingers. Personal pronouns can be indicated by pointing (but since people facing each other interpret such pointing (I-you) differently, we will save that topic for another day). Time can be interpreted by pointing forward (future) and pointing back (past). To point down in front of the body is to insist upon now (present). And of course it is fun for the teacher to point this out to the class, but what the teacher really needs to do (once the class knows what is going on) is to get out of the way.

When the class is organized in pairs, two students take turns being the teacher. One points and the other speaks. The simplest form of language behavior for this pointing is “today, tomorrow, yesterday.”  Is this too easy for students? It can be perceived as too easy by an instructor who is a language speaker. However, changing pairs and changing speeds will create, for a few minutes, the kind of activity necessary for deep learning. Another variation is (for a brief period of time) to have each student speak and point, so called “coordination drills,” for the finger and the mouth should indicate the same thing.

Adolescents are more often than not starved for physical activity in the language classroom. A change of air, mood, attitude can be effected by having all students stand and do “tomorrow, today, yesterday” with their feet. (Both feet together = today, step forward (both feet) = tomorrow, step back (both feet) = yesterday.) Obviously this is not a class but an idea for punctuation in a class that may need to breathe differently for a few minutes. Also this is a ridiculously simple idea which seems to require a lot of explanation (try writing instructions for tying one’s shoes.) In my experience, workshops in which student demonstrate such exercises are more entertaining and much faster than written explanations.

The point is to give students the ability to work with a language structure independently of the teacher for the time it takes to really master the structure. Students will always say that they understand – passively; the teacher needs to demand demonstrations of mastery. Physical coordination (individually and/or in pairs) along with language structure at speed is a very good way to determine what students can actually do.

Consider using two hands in front of the body to rehearse and learn the affirmative, negative, interrogative, and negative-interrogative. The teacher demonstrates: two hands forward (palms up) (we are); two hands forwards with fists (we are not); two hands forward (palms up) crossed (are we?); and two hands forward crossed with fists (aren’t we?). One student can cue another or all students can work individually. In French it takes beginners a long time to get used to what appear (to a teacher) to be simple variations: nous sommes, nous ne sommes pas, sommes-nous, ne sommes-nous pas. Coordination of action and structure (hands and mouth) is language learning at its best. How many pronouns can be used as variations on this exercise? How fast can students go and stay coordinated? Always faster than necessary and faster than you think.

Students are remarkably adaptive to this kind of drilling. A grammatical explanation becomes simply agreeing upon what will cue the language structure to be rehearsed. And if the teacher can’t think of appropriate cues, students will supply them. Consider expanding the front-to-back time line to include near future and recent past. A Spanish example: point down (hablo); hand in same position, finger points forward (voy a hablar); hand in same position, finger (or thumb) points back (acabo de hablar); hand moves forward (hablaré); hand moves back (over shoulder) (hablé). Change pronouns, change verb, change partners, and now you’re on your way to that class in which every student speaks more than the teacher.

Individual “coordination” drills allow all students to point and speak at once. Paired “leader-follower” drills allow variations on speed. Both forms of physical reinforcement drills lead to control and comprehension and fluency. The teacher may even have a few moments for attentive observation (or relaxed breathing) in his or her own class.

Such drills are effective but perishable. Once the language structure is internalized and well-controlled, doing the drill is unnecessary. However, drills can always be expanded (made more difficult for whatever reason) and used for rapid review. (You can tie up presents, not just shoes.) You are invited to find one physical reinforcement drill which works for your class and then find variations and find new drills. You will know you have found one when every students is speaking and moving and on task!  Your assignment is to think of what comes next…

Joseph Scott

Author, TACTICS: Conversaciones Entre Dos

Who can forget the experience of reading certain short stories for the first time: the sense of foreboding that gradually builds throughout “The Lottery” until it explodes in the horrifying climax; the shocking twist that rocks the reader at the end of “An Occurrence at Owl Cree Bridge”; the delicious irony that wraps “The Gift of the Magi” up like a well-tied bow? These are stories that reach out of their pages and take you in their grip and never let go. Many people can remember in vivid detail the time and place they first read “The Lottery.” Most of those people have never felt the same about the word “lottery” again.

Little Worlds was born out of our love of short stories and our frustration with the anthologies available for middle school students in the early 1980s. These anthologies were unsatisfactory in a number of ways. Some of them contained low-quality stories by unknown writers. Others contained a few good stories but not enough. In still others, the stories seemed dated in a way that truly great works of fiction never do, no matter how old they are.

Our goal in editing Little Worlds was to put together an anthology with a large number of stories that were both high in literary quality and accessible to middle school students. We wanted to introduce students to some of the best practitioners of the short story who ever lived, including writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Eudora Welty, Edgar Allan Poe, Katherine Mansfield, Ernest Hemingway, Guy de Maupassant, and Flannery O’Connor. We wanted teachers to pick up our anthology and find the classic stories they wanted to teach all in one place.

By creating a two-part structure for Little Worlds, we also hoped to make available an anthology with maximum flexibility. The first part includes stories that illustrate such basic elements of the short story as plot, character, point of view, and irony. After mastering these elements, students are ready to apply their skills to the more complex and often longer stories in Part II. But depending on the themes or writers they want to emphasize, teachers are free to move back and forth between the two parts.

Judging by the longevity of Little Worlds, we achieved our goal. The anthology recently celebrated its 25th anniversary and seems more in demand than ever. The feedback we have received over the years has been gratifying. One teacher called the two-part structure “a very useful teaching tool” and added: “I have used this book with eighth graders and have found it hugely successful.” Another teacher said, “I browsed the internet forever before finding this great anthology. It contains a wonderful selection of stories perfect for middle schoolers.” A third described Little Worlds as an “invaluable” classroom resource with “fantastic” stories.

 In the end, what pleases us most is knowing that, through Little Worlds, we have introduced tens of thousands of students to some of the most powerful and memorable short stories ever written. We hope that, in the process, we have instilled in them a love for the short story, what Eudora Welty called “a little world in space.” And we would like to think that every one of them remembers where they were sitting and what they felt when they read “The Lottery” for the first time.

Peter Guthrie

Author, Little Worlds 

Twenty-nine years ago when Peter and I first started work on Little Worlds, neither of us had been teaching for very long, and we didn’t know much. We did, however, know that we loved stories and that we wanted to give our students stories worth loving. Today I am a teacher with over 30 years in the classroom and I still love these stories. Now, however, I also love them for the many ways they fit into my classes, no matter what I’m teaching or at what level. I have used  “The Tunnel,” “A Visit of Charity,” and “The Fig Tree” at the beginning of an English elective entitled “Journeys” and later incorporated “The Japanese Quince” and “Miss Brill.” While teaching a unit on stories from the Bible, trees and gardens seemed to jump out from these stories. I chose “Marigolds,” and once again “The Fig Tree” but could have chosen “Japanese Quince” or even “A Visit of Charity” with its red apple in the final scene.

I find the stories to be excellent companion pieces to longer works and often pair them with books aimed at a young adult audience. “To Build a Fire” was the perfect complement to Into the Wild and led my students into a lively discussion about arrogance against nature. More recently I have paired “The Lottery” with Hunger Games to focus on rituals, a topic we pick up again later while reading the Odyssey. “Marigolds” and To Kill a Mockingbird both take place in the South during the depression, but present two different racial points of view.

These days I primarily teach 9th grade with occasional side trips to the 8th grade. Students use Little Worlds in 8th and 9th grade. The 8th grade curriculum focuses more purposely on genres and incorporates Little Worlds as Peter and I originally envisioned it. Students work their way through the first part and learn the vocabulary and techniques they need to read short stories closely and to talk about them effectively. My 9th grade class is designed around essential questions such as “What is justice?” and “What do individuals and society owe each other?” For this class I rely on “Winter Night,” “Marigolds,” and “Sun and Shadow” to help my student explore the complex relation of individuals and society. When we explore justice. I have them read “Daughter,” “African Morning,” and the almost myth-like “Why Reeds are Hollow.” I now know that the stories Peter and I chose are also valuable guides leading my students to more abstract thinking and a deeper understanding of what it is to be human.

 Mary Page

Author, Little Worlds 

Our major changes

 In its second edition Azulejo has been completely revamped, revised, and rewritten. Attentive to all of the curriculum changes laid out by the College Board, we have also attempted to incorporate the comments and suggestions of seasoned AP Spanish Literature teachers.

 With these guidelines in mind we introduce the following major changes:

• The inclusion of the Spanish AP Literature and Culture texts. Azulejo is now an anthology as well as a course guide. Students will need to purchase only one text in order to achieve a complete preparation for the exam.

• The creation of a Teacher’s Manual.  This text accompanies the student edition with major aids for teachers such as: notes for class preparation; answers to all of Azulejo’s analysis questions; essay questions along with their detailed answers; suggestions for multidisciplinary activities, which can be used in class or assigned as homework; guidelines on how to teach students to write an analytical essay and to read poetry critically; sample quizzes and tests; a proposed syllabus.

• Comparative questions at the end of each unit that integrate the course themes delineated by the College Board in the section on organizing concepts and essential questions of the Curriculum Framework 2012-2013.

Our philosophy: Every text must be studied in its context

 Azulejo has a history of preparing students for success in the Spanish AP Literature Course by simultaneously emphasizing context and themes. We enthusiastically support the College Board’s new approach, which emphasizes “global, historical and contemporary cultural contexts.” Azulejo’s introductions and organization are based on the philosophy that every text is bound to a cultural context —literary and historical— whose rules and conventions it may follow or resist. Background information arms students with the fundamental knowledge needed to tackle the essential questions proposed by the new AP. Moreover, throughout our textbook we integrate art and history into the study of literature in introductions, reading questions, essay topics, tests, activities, and comprehensive discussion questions at the end of each unit.

Our revised organization

The first edition of Azulejo was organized in a strict chronological order. We have found that in order to address the proposed concepts in a comprehensive and comprehensible manner, we have needed to nuance our approach. The second edition of Azulejo is divided into units that progress chronologically, but are organized along a common thread (e.g., a genre or a major theme). Each unit opens with the exposition of relevant literary-historical information, introduces authors and literature, and closes with the comparative questions mentioned above.

Our special features and highlights

In the new edition of Azulejo, we have significantly expanded the introduction and analysis section of all authors, paying special attention to certain texts that many teachers have considered particularly challenging for students. These include: El Burlador de Sevilla, Lazarillo de Tormes, and El Quijote. Extra attention, in the form of vocabulary, questions, and notes, has also been lent to a new text: José Martí’s “Nuestra América.” The essay is another work whose linguistic characteristics may pose some problems for students, but whose style, rich with metaphor and allegory, presents an ideal opportunity for students to learn and apply their acquired literary lexicon. The themes treated offer an incomparable opportunity to discuss topics unique to Martí’s context in their particular details, but extraordinarily relevant today. Azulejo will challenge and assist students in their investigation of both the evolution and consistency of notions of race, community, and identity.

Azulejo, of course, also devotes pages to the expansion of our list of defined literary terminology in order to enable the critical analysis of texts such as Martí’s.

Additionally, our textbook has increased suggestions for creative activities and the use of authentic media in order to encourage interdisciplinary cultural comparisons. 

Azulejo incorporates all aspects of the new AP Spanish Literature and Culture Course, emphasizing the Five Cs (Communication, Communities, Cultures, Comparisons, and Connections) and adding a sixth: Creativity. It is the authors’ goal to immerse students in past and present cultures, in spaces far from their own, to help them bring the texts to life and develop a love of literature.  

We are also in the process of creating an audio program for Azulejo – more on that next month! 

María Colbert, Abby Kanter, James Ryan, Marian Sugano

Authors, Azulejo

Desperation can be a gift. You are looking for ideas about language teaching. After decades of language teaching I have a few ideas to share.

TACTICS is an acronym attached to some language texts from Wayside Publishing. It stands for Through Active Conversation To Individual Communication Skills. Let me put the emphasis on the word “active.” In the worst sense your students are too active to behave in class and you are too active wearing yourself out trying to maintain civil order. In the best sense your students learn by doing, actively participating in acquiring skills.

My essential point is that what you do is not as important as what the students do. Can you observe your own classes? What are students doing?

You can look around when all students are writing. You can observe when they read individually and silently. You can supervise when every student is glued to his or her own individual computer or other electronic device. Is that active enough? What about those times when it is just you and a room full of students?

Worst case: Sit down! Shut up! This is a language class!

Traditional case: Listen carefully. I will ask a question and call upon raised hands.

TACTICS: Here is the task. Turn to a classmate. Go to work.

In the worst case, very little is accomplished. In the traditional classroom order is maintained and progress is slow, especially when one student is active and all others are passive. A hard working teacher can elicit as much language activity (answers?) as he or she demonstrates (via questions?). However, the students must share response time. In a class of 25 the individual student response time is 1/25th of 1/2 (the other half belongs to you) of the class time. Another way of looking at this sharing is that students can anticipate 98% wait time! In an age of electronic instantaneity, impatience and distraction can undo your extraordinary efforts made with the best will in the world. And how many times a day?

Students need engagement and the only way to engage them is with each other. Students need support and direction and a good way to provide it in a language class is with TACTICS materials or TACTICS ideas in whatever form. The most energetic and least utilized teaching resource in the language classroom is the student.

When all students are engaged with each other, you can observe your own class. Paired activity is ideal but in classes with an odd number of students I recommend the role of another student to the teacher. If that is dangerous or impractical, I have been told by others that three girls (you know which ones) will be able to manage “paired” activities for the time allowed.

The way to move from the traditional class to a TACTICS class is simply to share. If every student has in hand a copy of the teacher’s questions for the day, the task is simply to ask and answer the questions. I used individual pieces of paper for a very long time before a book became a logical solution to copy and distribution problems.

If private rehearsal time is followed up by public performance time (traditional question and answer before the class), students have some stake in making rehearsal time worth while. In this context students are surprisingly supportive, remarkably resilient, and nearly inexhaustible. Various studies suggest that language is no more than half of any communicative interaction. Thus, changing partners and performing the same task is very much a new experience. Add to that the glue provided by a real human being, a peer even, paying attention and language activity becomes more of a pleasure than a chore.

Private (protected by the noise of the class) rehearsal, personal interaction, changing partners, results in extraordinary language production. Improved pronunciation comes directly from production, production, production. Observe any toddler learning language.

Public performance before peers with no rehearsal is fraught with peril and adolescent angst. It is a grotesque commonplace observed in more than one Hollywood movie that a high school public nervous breakdown occurs in French class! Successful rehearsal leads to confident and competent performance. A general rule might be that students are never asked to say publicly anything they haven’t said privately at least ten times.

All this does not rule out discussion, thinking and hesitation. If the discussion is on the topic rehearsed, the results will be surprising.

Look in the TACTICS books for ideas. Ideally a classroom set is one book for every two students who are looking on while working together. A variation on working together is that only one looks at the book and the other responds without looking. The most common form of work involves lists of questions, vocabulary definitions, and suggested answers. Note that the question almost always contains all the language behavior needed for the answer. Always encourage full sentence interchanges to increase production.

Another common form of paired work involves a pattern of behavior (a verb conjugation, for example) arranged in an odd number of elements.  The odd number is essential, for as two students alternate they exchange elements with every repetition. (Two student (rehearse and) learn to count from one to nine (not one to ten). Student A, first time through says 1,3,5,7,9 and second time through 2,4,6,8. Student B first time through says 2,4,6,8 and second time through 1,3,5,7,9  alternating until they change partners and start again.) Each student always hears 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.

My final bit of advice: Remember it could be as easy as PIE, Paired Interactive Exercise. Now you can observe your own class hard at work. If you can share your agenda in the form of private interactive rehearsal exercises for paired work for half the class, then everything that once took a whole class to do will be done in the remaining half class.

Don’t believe me? Try it. That’s why I lasted so long as a language teacher.

Joseph Scott 

Author, Tactics: Conversaciones Entre Dos 

The APprenons team has been busy writing and researching to include the latest updates from the francophone world and the College Board.  This experience, thus far, has been a true 21^st century project in that we’ve written the entire manuscript using collaborative web tools. We all live in different parts  of the country, and we were not able to meet face-to-face until the 2011 ACTFL Conference in Denver, CO. Speaking of ACTFL, we so appreciate the support of all those who gave us feedback at the conference, as well as our  PLN (Professional Learning Network) via Twitter. We are using your thoughts and ideas as our roadmap to create a book that meets the needs of today’s students and teachers.

Our initial vision of the book is finally becoming reality. The graphic design team is hard at work making the content sparkle. We’ve seen the book evolve from ideas and font families to mock ups and now we’re finally seeing finished lessons and chapters.  The book was written for students, so don’t be surprised if it doesn’t look like your average American textbook!

It is particularly exciting to see so many authentic resources from all over the world incorporated into each chapter. We’ve included blogs, forums, newspaper articles, chats, texts and much more. We have learned more than we ever wanted to know about copyright rules and regulations, but we believe these authentic texts model ideal language use for our students.

It is important to note that the use of authentic resources is just the first step in the APprenons scaffolded approach to language learning. The accompanying activities ensure that the students understand the material, but also engage them in grammar practice that will enable them to model the resource to complete a communicative task. This structured, modeled approach encourages students to use sophisticated grammar and idiomatic expressions. As classroom teachers, we’re always searching for the combination of authentic material and supporting activities, and we’re proud to offer that to you in APprenons.

Of course both authentic resources and communicative tasks will help prepare students for the AP Exam. However, the ultimate purpose of this book reaches far beyond a test. This book will enable students to use the language skills they have to effectively (and confidently) read, speak, write, and listen in French.

Brittany Selden, Mireille “Mimi” Jones, and Andrea Henderson

Authors APprenons

Can stress be good for kids? 

The upcoming new edition of How to Study recognizes good stress in today’s learning environment. Good stress includes getting oneself pumped up for an important game – or for a crucial test, for example.     

But it’s the bad stress that has destructive effects on students’ academic progress.  Some stress may originate at home and carried into school.  Some comes from peer pressures at school.

Both of these are harmful to learning and wellbeing but are psychological by nature and thus beyond our purview.   The new How to Study recommends that these concerns be dealt with by a sympathetic mentor or professional counselor.

What the new How to Study does address specifically is self-induced stress, particularly the current varieties.

Self-induced stress often stems from students without a thoughtful plan of confronting their work effectively and of willingly squandering their time, thus neglecting their academic duties.  The text of the revised How to Study is designed to provide students with steps to develop successful tactics of working productively.  The theme throughout is: “You are unique.  Find what works for you, and use it to master your academic life.” 

Today, it is the screen that beguiles our students, often leading them to stressful dead ends as they procrastinate, thus disregarding their work.  TV, hand-held tech devices, and computers present an attractive distraction for many students, enticing them to use their time frivolously rather than on schoolwork.  But – and here’s the big “but” – the screen is now in universal use in classrooms everywhere, and computers have become a must as a tool for studying.

The revamped How to Study suggests methods to reduce stress in general as well as ways to use computers fruitfully for academic work.  No book in the world can dissuade students from wasting their time. But the revised How to Study can surely help students achieve success in school by offering ways to succeed, replacing stressful periods of barren performance.

Confident and productive learners are just about immune from self-induced stress.           

David Griswold

Author, How to Study