Webinar Information

5 thoughts on “Webinar Information”

1. Sean Lawler

   May 17, 2020 at 11:51 pm

   I wonder how we will have students interact with us while we are co-narrating OWIs, or Card Talk, for that matter. With Zoom, will we ask them all to have their microphones on so that they can respond with some spontaneity? Will we mute students ourselves who are responding but we see as disruptive? That is a very fine line. It really makes us more authoritative, and potentially suppressive, than being in a classroom where we have to roll with comments made unexpectedly by students.

   I’ll try to attend this Zoom session, Ben. In case I can’t, I hope you’ll have another.

   Log in to Reply
   1. Craig C West

      May 18, 2020 at 11:29 am

      Maybe through a google form you could take surveys asking students to submit possible story details. Then you can choose the details at random and place them into a story. Kind of like those story dice I’ve seen. I have seriously dragged my feet with this distance learning thing but see that I’m gonna have to get with the program.

      Log in to Reply
   2. Ben Slavic

      May 18, 2020 at 1:44 pm

      Sean do you have the book? Here is the information about the Zoom classes. I’ll quickly put it here bc I have to jet –

      INV ZOOM SCHEDULE – May 18, 2020

      1. The group is limited to 22 people. If someone drops out, someone on the waiting list gets in.
      2. Four meetings per week, according to this schedule:

      Monday – 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time
      Tuesday – 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time
      Wednesday – 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time
      Thursday – 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time

      You can attend just one or all five of the sessions, but you’ll get a Zoom invite every day.
      3. 30-minute sessions. Limited teacher talk; no Q and A.
      4. When we are ready, we will take entire journeys around the Star Sequence, and not just work in the Create phase.
      5. Only when everyone is ready (i.e. has command of all five phases of the star), will we move to Category B.
      6. Since this is a pilot, we don’t know how long it will take to get through the book. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we go slowly and repeat lessons, hence the five days a week option. This is body-based teaching and it’s not easy. Certain teachers will be quite content to just learn the heavy Category A artillery offered in a trip through the Star Sequence. That may be all they want to deal with right now and I can certainly understand that. That (Cat. A) shouldn’t take long to master. Others will want to go full monty on all six categories. That will take longer. Obviously, teachers attending all five sessions in any given week will get the training at a deeper level, but the idea of making y’all spend 90 minutes on a Zoom call when you are already so overwhelmed is not going to work; it’s just unnecessary, as long as you do the reading.
      7. This book is written with NEW teachers in mind.
      8. Once you have command over the Invisibles approach, do not use it with students who didn’t have it in level 1. It will backfire on you.
      9. If you are not wanting to go deep and master this method, please tell me so that I can offer your spot to someone on the waiting list.
      10. If I can’t make it to a session on a certain day, Greg Schwab, who has three years of experience with the Invisibles, will sit in for me. As others in the group become more adept at it, they may sit in to lead the discussion at times as well. There will be no break or cancellations of any of our sessions.

      Let’s recapitulate – 22 teachers limit; 30-minute classes; 15 min. Q and A. 4 sessions per week. Attend the sessions you can.
      If anything comes up, my email is benslavic@yahoo.com. Buckle up. Seat back straight and tray table in the upright and locked position. Get ready to fly!

      If you are new, here is the reading from the book that we are currently working on:

      ZOOM ASSIGNMENTS

      Don’t forget flower power!

      Zoom Assignment #1:

      1. In the book, read the introductory pages of the Invisibles book (pp. 6-10).
      2. Next, read first about Henry (pp. 11-18) up to Optional Question Set 1 (p. 18).
      3. Then about Pamela (pp. 36-39).
      4. Next, make up your own card to share in class as per the instructions given in Category A. We will make an Invisibles classroom out of the Zoom format. It’ll be just like starting the year with real students, only with each other. Our language will be French.
      5. Read about Walk Before You Talk pp. 237-240. Looks easy. Isn’t.

      What are we doing in this, our first Invisibles French class? We will imitate what we will do in our first class back with our students in the fall, if we choose to incorporate this way of teaching into our repertoire. Our goal in this first lesson is therefore to immediately draw the kids into the community with Card Talk. Get it? We will “draw” the students into class. It’s better than a big lecture on the rules in order to kill time till the next batch of victims walks in on that first day….

      Keywords for Assignment #1: feet, WBYT, flower power

      Zoom Assignment #2:

      ADVICE: During the week after each session, get this method into your body by practicing what you learned in the previous session on your family or any canines in the vicinity (don’t try this on a cat). Then, if you wish, practice with your Zoom team in the second half of class. The groups are small for this reason. Just our small team, keeping in mind that no one teaches in the same way and that there is no one right way to do this work. The Invisibles approach is just a pathway and we can go as fast or as slow, skipping or running, laughing or crying, etc. when we are on it. It’s up to us. The book was crafted with this in mind, that we all teach differently.

      So, for Assignment #2:

      1. Go bqck and repeat everything you did for Zoom Homework #1. Repetition brings perfection.
      2. Then, add in the first of the Optional Questioning Levels – the “time of day” option (p. 18).
      3. Next, add in the first job in Hub A – the artist (pp. 245-247).

      Keywords for Assignment #2:

      Zoom Assignment #3:

      1. In assignment #1 you learned and practiced implementing the main questioning levels (1-4). In assignment #2 you added in the first question in Optional Questioning Level 1 (p. 18) – morning, afternoon, evening. Now, in assignment #3, you will add in the second question in Optional Questioning Level 1 – at what specific time of day is this tableau vivant happening? (p. 18)
      2. So at this point, to make it perfectly clear, when going through the questioning levels for Category A, you have asked a total of six questions of your students:

      (a) How they are doing (Town Meeting).
      (b) Who the character is and what they do (ex. Henry plays the violin).
      (c) Where the character is (Canada).
      (d) Whom the character is with (a giant).
      (e) If this happened in the morning, afternoon or evening (morning).
      (f) What time specifically in the morning this happened (5:00 a.m.).

      Now you have flower power!

      Keywords for Assignment #3:

      3. Next, start getting your student jobs in place by hiring your first two students and putting them at the table to your right in Hub A. These are the artists (pp. 245-247).

      Zoom Assignment #4:

      Keywords for Assignment #1: feet, WBYT, flower power

      Log in to Reply
   3. Ben Slavic

      May 18, 2020 at 1:49 pm

      Sean I put you in the group. You’ll get daily invites. Attend when you can. You’re way ahead on the content so no sweat.

      Log in to Reply
2. Ben Slavic

   May 18, 2020 at 1:42 pm

   My only comment on teaching languages online is that it can be done and that it can be easier than teaching regular physical classes (not a lot but easier), and require far less planning.

   Log in to Reply