Integrating Higher Order Thinking into
“Learning a Verb in Spanish”

In learning Spanish it is vitally important to pay attention to, memorize, practice and learn your verbs. “El verbo” is a fundamental building block for the Spanish language. Once learned you can describe action as well as the person performing the action (Gutin, J, 2007). My intent for this lesson is to introduce one of the verbs to be studied in a unit, have the students practice it, use it and in the end be able to apply in unison with the other items learned in the unit.
Preparation for this lesson and all lessons of the unit starte on the first day of the unit:
Grammar: Each student is given a “Grammar Item Sheet” which breaks down the progress day by day for the class. They know from the first day when they expect a quiz, when they need to hand in homework, and when the test is to be given. Any project that will be introduced during the unit will have a notation and dates assigned to it.
Vocabulary: Every unit starts with a review of the video for the unit, where they will be introduced to the vocabulary words and their sound. Now I give them their Quizlet work sheet, which is a homework assignment, based on the vocabulary for the unit. Quizlet is vocabulary help that I have used this semester in an attempt to get them to study their vocabulary. They do this at home recording their progress on the sheet given. The terminating activity for the Quizlet sheet is taking a vocabulary quiz on Lab day.
Subject Pronouns: The relationship of the subject pronouns and the Verbs is pretty much understood at this point in the semester.
Conjugations: How the verb forms are created is understood and the conjugating of some irregular verbs as well as the basic regular verbs is understood.
The lesson starts with the students being assigned to summarize the Grammar Item in the book or the work sheet that is given. They are also given several exercises to do that support the new learning. As they begin doing the assignment I go over the grammar item rules and work out some examples for the exercises.
Next I assign students to put up the answers on the board. As they finish getting their work on the board I will go over the answers and have a different student translate.
After the exercises we get ready for the triangle game, which reinforces the learning of the conjugation forms of the verb.
The next activity is the group conversation. Each group needs to create a dialogue or conversation using the grammar items of the unit. Everybody needs to participate, each person having at least two sentences with the appropriate vocabulary.
The culminating activity to the conversation is of course the presentation of the work. Again everybody participates with their two sentences using appropriate vocabulary and grammar.
Finally as time allows we pack up and do a summation exercise which is a simple vocabulary grilling by one of the students. I first grill them on the verb we have learned about and then we continue with the other words off the vocabulary until the bell rings. They are all aware that a quiz on this verb will be taken the next day.

Now, how do I integrate this first into Blooms Revised Taxonomy and better yet into Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy?
1. I have been putting all the initial documents on one file. It would suit the student and parent better to have them separated.
2. Quizlet vocabulary has been one big set from 50-70 words. I will experiment with smaller sets that are more directed to each lesson.
3. I did not make sign-up for Quizlet mandatory mainly due to schools system prohibitions to outside websites. This is passing and I will seek authorization so students can sign-up to Quizlet and I can see the work they do.
4. We recently joined Edmodo as a system and it says quizzing is one of its applications. If this capability is anything close to Quia.com I should be able to get students to produce much more creative work which I can assess and give feedback online.
5. I need an application that will allow them to add their voices to their text. I have looked at VoiceThreads however it is prohibitive due to budget. There was an interesting post by a teacher on the World Language group of Edmodo; she was telling how she used Google Voice to have students get assessed for conversation and dialogues.

References

Gutin, J, (2007), Everything Learning Spanish Book: Speak, Write and Understand Basic Spanish in no Time, Adams Media, Avon, MA, P 56.

 


Higher-order thinking

  

Actions

Products

Learning Activities

Creating

 

(Putting together ideas or elements to develop an original idea or engage in creative thinking).

 

Designing

Constructing

Planning

Producing

Inventing

Devising

Making

 

Film

Story

Project

Plan

New game

Song

Media product

Advertisement

Painting

7. Skits are given without help from cue cards or books.

Evaluating

 

(Judging the value of ideas, materials and methods by developing and applying standards and criteria).

 

Checking

Hypothesising

Critiquing

Experimenting

Judging

Testing

Detecting

Monitoring

 

Debate

Panel

Report

Evaluation

Investigation

Verdict

Conclusion

Persuasive speech

5. A short quiz is announced for the next day to enforce the learning of the verb.

6. Groups are assigned to build a skit using the grammar items of the unit with a strong emphasis on today’s verb.

Analysing

 

(Breaking information down into its component elements).

 

Comparing

Organising

Deconstructing

Attributing

Outlining

Structuring

Integrating

 

Survey

Database

Mobile

Abstract

Report

Graph

Spreadsheet

Checklist

Chart

Outline

4. We go through each answer and translation making sure everyone understands the meaning, the process and the use of what is being learned.

Lower-order thinking

Applying

 

(Using strategies, concepts, principles and theories in new situations).

 

Implementing

Carrying out

Using

Executing

 

Illustration

Simulation

Sculpture

Demonstration

Presentation

Interview

Performance

Diary

Journal 

3. Once the exercises are done they are called up to the board to post their answer.

Understanding

 

(Understanding of given information).

 

Interpreting

Exemplifying

Summarising

Inferring

Paraphrasing

Classifying

Comparing

Explaining

 

Recitation

Summary

Collection

Explanation

Show and tell

Example

Quiz

List

Label

Outline

1.The first activity will have to summarize the grammar item that will be addressed today (verb).  They are given a Page number and grammar item title.

Remembering

 

(Recall or recognition of specific information).

 

Recognising

Listing

Describing

Identifying

Retrieving

Naming

Locating

Finding

 

Quiz

Definition

Fact

Worksheet

Test

Label

List

Workbook

Reproduction

2.They are asked to do the exercises in the book that relate to the topic to be covered.  They will need to review their vocabulary in order to remember the words and meanings.

8. we reinforce our learning with the pyramid game;  where the teams go up person by person passing the baton (marker) until the conjugation of the verb is complete.  The first team to finish and get it correct wins.

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You can use voicethread for free... You can have your account as an educator and your students can create their own accounts. They will be able to produce 3 voicethreads and when they are done with them they could delete them to do new ones. I use voicethreads all the time and all of my students have accounts for free and so do I.

I have an account but I could not see how to get past the three voicethreads.  What you do sounds interesting.  If I have three classes (block schedule) then I can do one for each class? 

I am a bit foggy because I never got into the actual production of the voicethread.

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