Spanish
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!Cuentame Mas! Grade 3
¡Cuéntame! and !Cuentame Mas! Grades 4-8
After researching various Spanish Curriculums, visiting other schools websites, discussions with Mr. Martin, and emailing Spanish teachers I concluded that using the TPRS methodology of teaching a foreign language made the most sense.
Therefore, we will be using the TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) method for teaching Spanish. We purchased the recommended TPRS curriculum called !Hola Ninos!, !Cuentame!, and !Cuentame Mas!. The students will not be receiving textbooks or workbooks. However, they will be journaling and creating their own Spanish book.
What is TPRS?
TPRS, once referred to as Total Physical Response Storytelling, has evolved into a methodology that is now more appropriately called Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling. TPRS collaborators around the globe have honed a highly
effective methodology and transformed it into a tremendously successful method that promotes unrivaled fluency, listening and reading comprehension skills, and writing fluency.
A common-sense approach to learning and teaching language, TPRS facilitates a natural order of acquisition. While many methods focus prematurely on activities, which require output (production in the form of writing or speaking), TPRS focuses on input by providing a myriad of “input-based activities” before students are required or expected to
speak and/or write.
TPRS offers other advantages as well. Because it is a multi-sensory methodology, it meets the needs of various learning styles. Gestures and acting, for example, meet the needs of kinesthetic learners; visual images (illustrations, props, puppets, live actors, etc.) satisfy the needs of visual learners; the tremendous amount of contextualized,
comprehensible input appeals to visual and auditory learners. Students develop a real “ear for the language,” learning to listen and respond to what sounds right.
TPRS is a natural way of teaching a language than the traditional approaches. With TPRS, students learn words through movement and gestures. They hear words over and over again; they don't just see them on a worksheet or two. From the beginning students develop a real ear for the language and find themselves able to actually use it in real settings, something that many students cannot do after years of studying a language in a more traditional classroom. There is a continuous "Aha!" experience that occurs in the TPRS classroom as students connect meaning with new words.
Does TPRS work in a class where students' abilities vary?
Yes! Not only will higher performing students learn a lot with TPRS; the majority of students who tend to struggle in other classes will succeed with TPRS as well. Students with learning disabilities, attention problems, or personal problems that get in the way of learning often thrive in friendly, fun, student-centered atmosphere of a TPRS classroom. With TPRS, students constantly experience the rewarding feeling of learning. This is incredibly motivating for those students who often struggle in school.
How will my students learn the grammar they need to know?
With TPRS not a lot of time is spent explicitly teaching grammar, but students do learn grammar and begin using it correctly quite early on. By listening to so much comprehensible input, students develop an ear for grammatical structures. Teachers explain grammar points quickly and clearly and then move on to let students develop an ear for the language. In the middle school years the focus is on developing a broad vocabulary base.
