One of my goals for this semester (and for any semester I teach Spanish) is to get the students speaking in the target language (aka: Spanish). Most students who take Spanish in high school expect to be "fluent" after a few years, but realize they can barely carry on a conversation with a native Spanish speaker after all those semesters. Part of this is the fault of teachers for 1.) not speaking to their students in Spanish and 2.) for not making the students ever have to speak in Spanish. These are both understandable problems. For one, it's SO MUCH EASIER to speak to your students in English. As for getting them to talk to you in Spanish, it's challenging, makes them feel vulnerable (what if they say something funny or incorrect in front of their peers), and they know you will understand them perfectly fine if they speak in English. So to achieve my goals of making my students as conversationally "fluent" as they can possibly be from Spanish class, I have create the "Dona Dollar". This is how it works... 10% of the students' grade is participation and I give the a weekly participation grade. Each Monday the students will start with a 90% participation grade. When they speak to me in Spanish or a classmate in Spanish I give them a Dona Dollar. (Side note: they cannot randomly yell "hola" during class and get a Dona Dollar. Their comment must be relevant and beneficial for the whole class. ) At the end of the week I collect their received Dona Dollars and for each dollar their participation grade goes up a point. (example: 90 + 6 dona dollars= 96%). I also have a seating chart taped to my whiteboard that has each of their names on it. If during class they are talking in English, while either I am talking or another person is talking I put a tally by their name. I also put a tally by their name if they are sleeping in class. At the end of the week I subtract a point from their participation grade for each tally by their name. (example: 90+ 6 dona dollars - 4 tallys = 92%)
This system is also a great way for me to diferentiate. I have some students who are very conversational in Spanish and some students who are still working on learning how to introduce themselves in Spanish. I remind them that I am the Queen of Dona Dollar (because I am Dona Sullivan after all) and I determine when a Dona Dollar is deserved. For example, my more advanced students must use an upper level phrase or sentence to earn their dollars but some of my students will earn dollars for simple phrases, because I know they are reaching the current potential. I also give them Dona Dollars if they see me outside of class and use Spanish.
The Dona Dollar system is AMAZING and I can't get my students to stop talking in Spanish. Even though they think up questions to ask that might not be super necessary, just to get a Dona Dollar, I don't care because they are speaking in Spanish!
*** this picture is the picture of my actual Dona Dollar and I print 600 (10 per page) of them each week on light green paper.
