Over the last five weeks, I have been on a quest to improve my Polish through a project I am doing called "Genius Hour".
At the start of term, Genius Hour was defined as a student-centred, self-initiated research project. It allows students to entirely run the show in their own learning. They are allowed to choose what they want to learn, how they are going to learn it, and when. The reason it is called "Genius Hour" is because the learning/research is done during one hour a week (or day depending on the teacher). On my first week of class, when Genius Hour was introduced to me, I was both inspired, and a bit afraid. I had never been given so much freedom to do a project before. I am the type of person who thrives on guidelines and rubrics when it comes to projects. I need to know exactly what is expected of me and how I am expected to present it. So, when our Professor essentially told us: "go pick something you want to learn, and spend an hour a week learning it", I was a bit dumbfounded. I didn't know where to start, where to go, how to get there, nothing!
After a few hours of contemplation, I decided to centre my own Genius Hour project around learning Polish. I was born into a half-Polish family. My father's side of the family is Polish, while my mother's side is Canadian. We speak almost no Polish at home out of respect for my mom, but I do speak with my Babcia (grandmother) almost daily in broken Polish. I've always wanted my Polish to be better than it was, so I figured if I am to learn something for an hour a week, Polish is the one thing I'm interested in most!
While I cannot say that my Polish has improved dramatically in five weeks, I am confident in saying that it has improved! I am now slowly learning more and more about the structure of the Polish language through the app Duolingo (an app which I highly recommend by the way). I've learned small grammatical differences between the spelling of words, and most importantly, have learned that Polish is a language in which nouns are declined - just like Latin!
Although five weeks (read: five hours) is too short a time to drastically improve anyone's Polish, these last five weeks has definitely sparked my desire to learn! I found myself wanting to go on the Duolingo app and take notes even after I had completed my Genius Hour research for the week. I also found myself actually getting almost a butterfly feeling in my stomach when I learned something new or cool that I hadn't known before. This type of learning project was so fun to do.
As a future teacher, I now fully see the appeal of Genius Hour after having completed my own project. I was so motivated to learn, and found the learning fun and exciting since it was a topic that I cared about, was passionate about, and was eager to learn. Also, once I had finally accepted that this entire project was really in my hands, and I could truly do whatever I wanted with it, I really started to enjoy myself. It took a lot of pressure off of me to hit certain standards/criteria. I began to let go of "Is this enough?" "Is this what she wants?", and began to just go forward how I wanted. I loved having all of that freedom in the end. This was the least stressful project I have ever done!
I want my future students to feel this way about their own learning. I can see now how important it is to have students engaged and excited about what they're learning about in order to not only make their time in school more enjoyable, but to help them nourish their own minds in a fun and engaging learning process. Genius Hour is definitely a concept I will be using in my own classroom in the future!
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Language Life Hack: Read the Discussion Page! - GENIUS HOUR #4
This week during my Genus Hour I discovered a few incredible things!
While I was on Duolingo on my computer practicing the "defining" section this week, I came across a question that I got incorrect. The question looked like this: "Pies to (A dog is) ___________", and I had the option of choosing either "zwierzę (an animal)" or "zwierzęciem (an animal)". I wasn't sure which one to choose, because in my mind, they both mean "an animal". So, I picked "zwierzęciem" randomly and then was told it was incorrect. That was when I noticed there was an option called "Discussion" underneath the correction of my mistake.
How have I not noticed this before?
Naturally, I clicked on "Discussion", and it changed my language-learning world! The discussion page is a magical wonderland of questions and answers from those learning and those who are close to mastering the Polish language! In this discussion section, someone had already asked why the answer was "zwierzę" and not "zwierzęciem", and the response they received was incredibly detailed! Essentially, when using the term "to (is)" in the sentence "pies to ________", the noun has to be declined in the nominative case, which is "zwierzę". Whereas, if the sentence were "pies jest _________", then the answer would have been "zwierzęciem", because after the term "jest (is)" the noun has to be declined in the instrumental case. Both sentences mean the exact same thing and can be used interchangeably, which explains my frustration with trying to learn Polish by just listening to it! I knew both words meant "an animal"!
So, today I learned that the grammatically correct ways of saying "a dog is an animal" are: "pies to zwierzę" or "pies jest zwierzęciem".
Once I had read this explanation, I was immediately transported back into a stuffy little classroom at U of T when I was taking first year Latin! I could picture my professor trying to explain to us how in Latin, nouns are "declined" depending on their context in the sentence. Meaning, the spelling of a noun will change depending on how/in which context the noun is being used in the sentence. I immediately remembered that the main declensions (contexts) in Latin are: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Ablative, and Vocative, because of a nifty little mnemonic device I created years ago to remember them all (No Good Doctor (is) Actually Able (to) Vote).
What does Latin have to do with Polish you ask? Well, both are languages that require the nouns to be declined! So, Polish and Latin are actually very similar, even though they sound nothing alike!
This has really changed the way I am going to continue tackling the noble art of learning Polish going forward. I have a very basic background in Latin after taking that LAT100 course, and I know that learning the meaning/context behind each declension really helped me to learn. From now on I am going to try and find all of the noun declensions in Polish (since not all are the same) and learn their contexts, and then when I learn a new noun, I will research how to decline it in each case, just like I did in Latin!
This was a big day for me, and I hope I was able to explain it in a way that is clear and simple for those with no background in either Polish or Latin (which I am guessing is quite a few of you).
This will be my last Genius Hour discussion post before I wrap up, but I am so thrilled with my progress already and am very excited about what I have learned so far! I will absolutely be continuing to learn Polish in my spare time, and will use every opportunity I have to speak Polish with my friends and family so that I can continue to improve!
Thank you all so much for joining me on this educational adventure, and I hope to be posting again very soon!
While I was on Duolingo on my computer practicing the "defining" section this week, I came across a question that I got incorrect. The question looked like this: "Pies to (A dog is) ___________", and I had the option of choosing either "zwierzę (an animal)" or "zwierzęciem (an animal)". I wasn't sure which one to choose, because in my mind, they both mean "an animal". So, I picked "zwierzęciem" randomly and then was told it was incorrect. That was when I noticed there was an option called "Discussion" underneath the correction of my mistake.
How have I not noticed this before?
Naturally, I clicked on "Discussion", and it changed my language-learning world! The discussion page is a magical wonderland of questions and answers from those learning and those who are close to mastering the Polish language! In this discussion section, someone had already asked why the answer was "zwierzę" and not "zwierzęciem", and the response they received was incredibly detailed! Essentially, when using the term "to (is)" in the sentence "pies to ________", the noun has to be declined in the nominative case, which is "zwierzę". Whereas, if the sentence were "pies jest _________", then the answer would have been "zwierzęciem", because after the term "jest (is)" the noun has to be declined in the instrumental case. Both sentences mean the exact same thing and can be used interchangeably, which explains my frustration with trying to learn Polish by just listening to it! I knew both words meant "an animal"!
So, today I learned that the grammatically correct ways of saying "a dog is an animal" are: "pies to zwierzę" or "pies jest zwierzęciem".
Once I had read this explanation, I was immediately transported back into a stuffy little classroom at U of T when I was taking first year Latin! I could picture my professor trying to explain to us how in Latin, nouns are "declined" depending on their context in the sentence. Meaning, the spelling of a noun will change depending on how/in which context the noun is being used in the sentence. I immediately remembered that the main declensions (contexts) in Latin are: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Ablative, and Vocative, because of a nifty little mnemonic device I created years ago to remember them all (No Good Doctor (is) Actually Able (to) Vote).
What does Latin have to do with Polish you ask? Well, both are languages that require the nouns to be declined! So, Polish and Latin are actually very similar, even though they sound nothing alike!
This has really changed the way I am going to continue tackling the noble art of learning Polish going forward. I have a very basic background in Latin after taking that LAT100 course, and I know that learning the meaning/context behind each declension really helped me to learn. From now on I am going to try and find all of the noun declensions in Polish (since not all are the same) and learn their contexts, and then when I learn a new noun, I will research how to decline it in each case, just like I did in Latin!
This was a big day for me, and I hope I was able to explain it in a way that is clear and simple for those with no background in either Polish or Latin (which I am guessing is quite a few of you).
This will be my last Genius Hour discussion post before I wrap up, but I am so thrilled with my progress already and am very excited about what I have learned so far! I will absolutely be continuing to learn Polish in my spare time, and will use every opportunity I have to speak Polish with my friends and family so that I can continue to improve!
Thank you all so much for joining me on this educational adventure, and I hope to be posting again very soon!
Monday, October 1, 2018
I Think I'm in Love with Duolingo?? NOT CLICKBAIT - GENIUS HOUR #3
This week's Genius Hour was spread out throughout the week. I worked roughly around 15-20 minutes a day on Duolingo and let me tell you, that app is revolutionary. At first I wasn't sure about it, if you all couldn't tell from my previous post. In reality I just needed the levels to get harder, since it had me starting at ground zero.
The more I worked, the harder the levels got. I was originally taking messy notes that weren't really organized when I found the levels super easy, but now I am taking detailed notes, and underlining corresponding subjects, verbs, and predicates, so I can begin to find patters in the language that I didn't bother to look for before.
This has been immensely helpful for me, and I am actually starting to believe that this app really can help me improve my Polish over a longer period of time, if I continue to take the time to take these detailed notes and make sense of the language as I go.
So far, Duolingo has helped me understand the difference between the spellings: kobieta/kobietą (woman), mężczyzna/mężczyzną (man), and dziewczynka/dziewczynką (girl). Before Duolingo, I was interchanging these words (and similar words with the same pattern) like a madwoman because I didn't really understand the difference, and to me they both sounded right. I now understand that when these words are spelt with an "a" at the end, it means literally "a woman/man/girl", in the plainest and most basic form. Almost as if just reciting a noun on it's own, with no other grammatical context. Now, if one were to say "I am a woman/man/girl", that is when the context changes, and the noun must be spelt with an "ą". This would be the same for all the singular conjugations: "I am", "you are", "he/she is". I have yet to learn if this spelling changes in regards to plural conjugations like: "we are", "you(pl) are", "they are". However, I'm sure that practice is coming, and I am actually looking forward to learning it!
I really do love Duolingo. I think it is wonderfully easy to use, and I love that I can use it across multiple devices. When I take the time to practice on my computer, that is when I take these detailed notes. However, sometimes it's so easy to whip out my phone when I'm on the bus or in the car and just practice a couple levels while I'm on the go! I did this on Thursday while my Dad and I drove to Niagara Falls for an event. I practiced in the car, and when I didn't understand why my answer was wrong, I just asked my Dad and he would do his best to explain the difference.
I have been speaking Polish more and more around my Dad (sorry Mom), and slowly, small grammatical differences are starting to make more sense. It's only week three of practicing Polish, and I can say my confidence is definitely increasing!
I haven't felt this proud of myself in a long time, and I think it's fantastic that this pride has come entirely from setting my own learning goal, and working towards it on my own time, and in my own way. With each passing week I am experiencing the beauty of Genius Hour, and I know this will be something I will be implementing into my classroom.
For my final week of Genius Hour, I think I want to do more of the same! I want to keep practicing a little every day on Duolingo, and have a few sit-down sessions where I take notes on what I am learning from the app. I have found this to be the most helpful these past few weeks, even more so than watching Polish YouTube videos. Why try to fix what isn't broken?
I'll check in one more time next week to tell you my final thoughts and findings on how I've progressed through all my Genius Hour endeavours! Thanks so much for reading along so far, and I'll talk to you all in my next post!
The more I worked, the harder the levels got. I was originally taking messy notes that weren't really organized when I found the levels super easy, but now I am taking detailed notes, and underlining corresponding subjects, verbs, and predicates, so I can begin to find patters in the language that I didn't bother to look for before.
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| © Ella Wiernikowski, 2018 |
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| © Ella Wiernikowski, 2018 |
This has been immensely helpful for me, and I am actually starting to believe that this app really can help me improve my Polish over a longer period of time, if I continue to take the time to take these detailed notes and make sense of the language as I go.
So far, Duolingo has helped me understand the difference between the spellings: kobieta/kobietą (woman), mężczyzna/mężczyzną (man), and dziewczynka/dziewczynką (girl). Before Duolingo, I was interchanging these words (and similar words with the same pattern) like a madwoman because I didn't really understand the difference, and to me they both sounded right. I now understand that when these words are spelt with an "a" at the end, it means literally "a woman/man/girl", in the plainest and most basic form. Almost as if just reciting a noun on it's own, with no other grammatical context. Now, if one were to say "I am a woman/man/girl", that is when the context changes, and the noun must be spelt with an "ą". This would be the same for all the singular conjugations: "I am", "you are", "he/she is". I have yet to learn if this spelling changes in regards to plural conjugations like: "we are", "you(pl) are", "they are". However, I'm sure that practice is coming, and I am actually looking forward to learning it!
I really do love Duolingo. I think it is wonderfully easy to use, and I love that I can use it across multiple devices. When I take the time to practice on my computer, that is when I take these detailed notes. However, sometimes it's so easy to whip out my phone when I'm on the bus or in the car and just practice a couple levels while I'm on the go! I did this on Thursday while my Dad and I drove to Niagara Falls for an event. I practiced in the car, and when I didn't understand why my answer was wrong, I just asked my Dad and he would do his best to explain the difference.
I have been speaking Polish more and more around my Dad (sorry Mom), and slowly, small grammatical differences are starting to make more sense. It's only week three of practicing Polish, and I can say my confidence is definitely increasing!
I haven't felt this proud of myself in a long time, and I think it's fantastic that this pride has come entirely from setting my own learning goal, and working towards it on my own time, and in my own way. With each passing week I am experiencing the beauty of Genius Hour, and I know this will be something I will be implementing into my classroom.
For my final week of Genius Hour, I think I want to do more of the same! I want to keep practicing a little every day on Duolingo, and have a few sit-down sessions where I take notes on what I am learning from the app. I have found this to be the most helpful these past few weeks, even more so than watching Polish YouTube videos. Why try to fix what isn't broken?
I'll check in one more time next week to tell you my final thoughts and findings on how I've progressed through all my Genius Hour endeavours! Thanks so much for reading along so far, and I'll talk to you all in my next post!
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