Move it! Bring Physical Movement into your World Language Classroom (Part 1)
Research and student wishes align: kids learn more when they are out of their seats!
Sitting through a long, boring day of professional development is a good reminder… our students deserve better.
It was the end of a long, boring day of professional development. Some of my colleagues were nodding off, some were playing unapologetically on their phones, and some stared blanky into the distance as the presenter rambled on. After 6 hours trapped in my seat, I no longer had any idea what the session was even about. We were all counting the minutes until the required training ended and we could get back to our real lives.
One of my colleagues stood up and walked to the back of the room where she leaned against a bookshelf. After a few minutes, I left my seat and joined her – I was dying to just stand up.
“Physical actions make engagement visible; no one can hide. This fact alone improves student outcomes.”
As an adult, I can make a judgment call– to stand up, discreetly change position, perhaps step out to the restroom or to take an important phone call. Our students, on the other hand, have no such autonomy. If their teacher is a droner, they are stuck – watching the clock, counting the long minutes until they too can experience freedom and return to the things they actually care about. Participating in such a deadly dull learning environment as an adult is a good reminder; our students deserve better. And, according to research, one of the most effective ways to improve our students’ learning and engagement is to simply get them out of their seats.
What the research says:
Researchers have established a strong and direct connection between physical movement and academic performance in tasks involving memory, concentration, and abstract thought.
The Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) published Eric Jensen’s excellent manual, Teaching With the Brain in Mind (click for citation). According to Jensen:
The connection between physical movement and improved brain function is deeply established
“Most neuroscientists agree that movement and cognition are powerfully connected”.
Movement increases blood flow to the brain, bringing neurons the oxygen they need to function. Even movements as simple as taking a short walk or standing and stretching have a positive impact on brain function.
The cerebellum, located near the brain stem, is most responsible for motor control. This brain lobe is small but dense; it comprises about 10% of the brain mass but contains almost 50% of the neurons. The majority of these neural pathways lead outward to centers of memory, cognition, and attention, creating a strong connection between motor and cognitive functioning.
In studies where time in the school day was dedicated to physical activity (such as PE classes and recess) students’ academic improvement mitigated the ‘lost’ instructional time
Hundreds of studies have shown connections between physical movement and improved memory, attention, cognition, visual performance, all areas of language, and mental processes.
In other words, the connection between movement and learning is deeply established. As teachers, we should capitalize on this educational research in our classrooms by incorporating elements of movement into instruction. Personally, I make it a goal to have students out of their seats at least once in every class period. Here are a few of my favorite techniques to get my students moving.
Sentence Builders
Sentence builders are one of my favorite ways to get out of their seats. As a bonus, sentence builders are great for reinforcing detailed grammar points. Here’s how they work:
Identify one grammar point you want to reinforce. My favorites are adjective agreement or verb conjugation.
Identify about 15 sentence components in the target language that can be used to build a variety of sentences which include your chosen point of grammar. A sentence component could be a subject or subject pronoun, a verb stem, a verb ending, a predicate, or a prepositional phrase
Put each sentence component on a sentence strip. Give 2-3 components to each student. Depending on the size of your class, you may need multiple sets of sentence strips (I draw unique symbols on the back of each card to easily tell sets apart.)
Read a sentence in English. Students must race to collaboratively build the sentence using their sentence components. I will only count the sentence if all students are standing in a line from left to right holding their sentence strips. They may not change cards.
In a variation of this game, pairs or individual students can build sentences using a desktop set of sentence builder cards.
Click the image to access a FREE French Sentence Builders activity
Click the image to access a FREE Spanish Sentence Builders activity
Visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store for a ready-to-print sample Sentence Builder activity in French or Spanish, and click on the links for my entire collection of French and Spanish Sentence Builders!
Sorts
Any time you work with content that can be categorized or sequenced, consider using a sort. Print the list of content, chop it into strips, and ask students to organize it on their desk. I love using sorts in particular with listening activties; give students a cut-apart audio transcript and have them sequence it as they listen or match each statement to the speaker.
“One of the most effective ways to improve students’ learning and engagement is simply getting them out of their seats.”
Sorts are a powerful tool for scaffolding instruction because they allow me to “see” a student’s comprehension. They are easy to differentiate; for high flyers, I can hand out a few extra sentence strips to work in. For struggling students I can pinpoint exactly where the difficulty lies and provide support ranging from “you have one mistake – can you find it?” all the way to “Let’s listen again. Which of these two sentences do you hear?” Sorts add a kinesthetic element to an otherwise ordinary classroom activity, increasing engagement and helping make students’ thinking visible to the teacher.
Sentence Builders and Sorts are flexible techniques that can be modified for use with a wide variety of instructional content. They are engaging for students and highly effective in creating a visual representation of students’ learning, allowing teachers to identify points of confusion. They also make learners’ level of engagement visible. No one can hide or check out from participating! This fact alone improves student outcomes.
If there is one drawback to these two techniques, it’s that they do require some forethought and preparation from the teacher. While the benefits are worth it, I also use some movement-oriented techniques in class that are much lower prep. To learn about them, read part 2 of this blog post!
Remember the droning, endless, passive professional development workshop? We’ve all experienced them! With the right perspective, however, these poorly designed trainings can be the best professional development of the year. Whenever you sit, being talked at, passive and bored, use the experience to renew your commitment to do better for your students. With creativity, commitment, and research-based pedagogy we can get students up and moving, engaging both their bodies and their brains.
