Yes We Can!!! (The Speaking English System)

Other super important systems that changed the dynamic of our class this year are the "Yes We Can" English speaking board, the participation cards, and the vocabulary journals.

Each week we have a goal of how many circles need to be left on the board at the end of class to earn a letter in "SUPRISE."  Each time a person speaks Spanish, I take a circle away from their name.  They each have 5 circles.  If they get down to 0 circles there is a challenge.  At the end of class, if we are only missing 6 circles as a group, for example, they earn a letter.  When it spells SURPRISE, we get to watch a movie in English - which really fuels more curriculum anyway so I still win :]  haha.

This system also includes the "Spanish Ball," which the students can ask to be thrown if they can't explain or ask something in English.

It is amazing what a classroom management technique this is because side talking is in Spanish.  When they loose a circle, they immediately get quite and start paying attention.  The rest of the group says... "Hey! Why you speaking Spanish!?"  To which I reply, "Why ARE you speaking Spanish." They're funny.

Another aspect of the system is participation.  Each student has a participation card and that serves as positive reinforcement for constructive behavior.  This could be helping someone, volunteering to read, asking a question, working on task...

It has totally shifted the working environment; if someone is off task and I give the person next to them a point, they often start working without me having to nag them.
*An important side note is that if they ask for points or whine I don't give them points.  Otherwise, you can imagine the chaos that would ensue.  If they lie and add their own points to the cards it will be dealt with as cheating and will have major consequences.  So far, so good.
**It is also important to clarify that when we started, they had already brainstormed goals and ways to work on these goals.  That way, when I brought the system to class I presented it as a tool to help them with their goals of speaking more English in class, etc.  It is important to remember the motivation so that it does not become just about extrinsic rewards and prizes.  I am always wary of extrinsic motivation, but if they don't have it internally I guess you have to start somewhere.

some brainstorming of strategies to learn English

The students with the most points at the end of each week get a ticket which they can use to redeem prizes from the treasure box.  They love the prizes soooo much - way more than I expected.

Trying on one of the prizes

She is collecting the stickers - three for each ticket
She gives the subject stickers to her teachers
She is participating so much more this year and is so much happier

Their favorite part of the week!

He holds it out and says, "Teacher, it's beautiful."
It's a squishy dolphin from the dollar store.
I love them.

The last strategy that has really helped our class is the vocabulary journal.  Whenever they ask me the meaning of a word, need a word to express themselves, or don't understand something I say or something they read... we add it to the left side of the board.  They know that all of these words go into their vocabulary journals which become our ongoing lists for "vocab murals - with graffiti art," quizzes, and weekly vocab review games.  

The most exciting part is hearing these words come up in conversations we have in and out of class... or seeing them look back at the vocab murals in search of a word they need to tell their stories.  They are building more with the tools they are developing and this makes me so proud.