- I had an"authenticity" hangup.
- I have a PBL hangup.
I like to think the PBL thing is more than a hangup, though. Really it's more of a paradigm shift--one that both complements and challenges my proficiency/communication shift. But the upshot is that I understand the goals and means of schooling and learning differently now. My ultimate goal is no longer to have a little fun poking around in the perspectives and opinions of the adolescent minds that get stuck with me (now for three years thanks to my Spanglish skills MWAHAHAHA!) I really did get into the game to entertain and inform myself, so I could keep learning a la Mr. Bancroft in my 11th grade American Lit class. At some point, though, I grew up.
Oh, I still have fun with kids' perspectives and opinions. I make an effort to actively respect them rather than just collect them now, too. But my ultimate goal now is more about outcomes based, more about what specifically they leave with. I want them to have something to show, something concrete they can display and explain as an embodiment of their learning.
I wholeheartedly believe this is possible--and beneficial--to do with novels, both in English and Spanish classes. I've seen it done (at least from afar) from the likes of second language superhero Carrie Toth.
The reason I won't be following in their footsteps? Two main reasons:
- I can't, and
- I'm not ready.
This might be the part where I get to say, "Gotcha!" I do like a sensational titlenow and then. Notice I didn't say "Why I won't be teaching novels in Spanish EVER"--and if I were really honest, I would have added "this fall." I fully intend to figure this thing out, maybe even in time for Spanish 2 in the spring (those are the kids who were all into Agentes Secretos after all, and my whole festival-centered Spanish 2 curriculum did kind of fall through completely last year).
But this year, I am taking time to re-invent the wheel.
Look, I know that's the first thing they tell you not to do in teacher training, but I have to. I was talking with my amiga who's taking over the online gig from me this year, and she was careful to express how much she liked my ideas, and that she was definitely going to use some. And I knew exactly where she was coming from.
I LOVE the way #langchat amigos CONSTANTLY inspire me. Arianne Dowd is a freaking genius(though I am 100% confident she would try to say otherwise), and I plan to revisit her blog regularly as I plot Spanish 2. But I cannot be Arianne any more than I could be Sara-Elizabeth six years ago.
I have to understand what I'm going to do from the bottom up, and I can't do that by cribbing someone else's strategies. I can weave them in where they make sense to me (as I do with basically everything I see Rose Rhodes do), but more than ever I have to be intentional about how and WHY I put them together.
Last year was rough for a lot of reasons, but one of the main ones was that I never fully wrapped my mind around where I was headed, much less where my kids were headed. And if that is my ultimate goal, OF COURSE everything is going to be off!
So the real reason I won't be teaching novels in Spanish this fall? I am taking my sweet time to process what I want kids to leave with, what I want them to present and to whom, and how I can make sure it is something that matters.
How that fits with novels is a question that will have to wait for another semester.