Reading has become the central core of my comprehension based fluency program. On Monday, I do 95% L2 PQA to set up the structures. On Tuesday, those structures form the core power for the (also 95% L2) story. On Wednesday and Thursday, the story thus produced forms into a spectacularly effective reading passage, which is read, translated, its grammar discussed (40% L1) and spun into new (60% L2) discussion. Then, on Friday, I use the same discussion format used on W/Th for the reading to discuss a song or piece of poetry.
The actual ratio of L2 to L1 for the week, then, is just over 8:2. so that by the end of the week I will have spent about 80% of the time actually using the target language with my kids. It must be noted, however, that the time spent translating the text into L1 is really a form of input since, during that time, the kids are reading, the translation being key yet incidental to their experiencing the powerful form of input known as reading.
Like my classroom rules, this weekly schedule has required over ten years to take form. I am very happy with it. There is tremendous freedom in it. I don’t even have to plan – not a thing, except which structures/story to use for the week, and then it takes up to 30 minutes to create the reading in mid-week. I spend more time connecting wires on document cameras and LCDs to set up my classes these days than I do planning.
There is tremendous power in that. It is the way teaching should be, and must be, in this time when we suddenly find ourselves in the nightmarish situation of having to spend easily over half of our working time in meetings and having to justify to others what we are doing in our classrooms.
At least, with this crackerjack weekly schedule, I hardly have to plan. I know that my boat will float nicely down the river of the week without hitting any rocks, won’t have to negotiate any difficult turns, the engine will take care of itself, that the banks of the river are high and safe and will keep my boat in the middle of the stream, and that the water is clean and wonderful. I no longer have to “remember to teach anything”, as this schedule and the way it is all planned out results in everything teaching itself naturally. All I have to do is show up in the classroom.