Here is a comment I better put here as a post to keep it within reach, as it were, in case anyone does a search on PQA. It’s on trusting PQA. It might be best to read this other article first:
https://benslavic.com/blog/2011/08/02/choosing-structures-is-important/
The background on this is that Chris wrote:
I think “receives a package” and “is afraid of” will be pretty easy to PQA, but…I need some suggestions on PQAing “wants to open it”. What questions should I ask to begin PQA with this structure? I want to make sure I’m able to make the PQA as compelling as possible and even through lying and making things up [work], “wants to open it” seems like it could be kind of tough. One idea I had was to have a box handy and ask students “do you want to open it?” and then circle that but I could see myself hitting a dead end without some advice….
I responded:
Chris you can just let go and rely on the flow of the other structures to get reps on wants to open it. And if the structure doesn’t get repeated for whatever reason THAT IS JUST FINE. We PQA what we can in our desire to get reps on the target structures.
My own students are way too wise to go for a prop during PQA. They are tough kids and the minute they see ME with a prop (it’s o.k. if THEY bring it), you can see them wanting to see if they can get me hanging out there with the prop, begging them to play. They would probably all say no, to be cool in front of the others. Yeah, rough school. I just play to my kids who want to play without a prop, and let the PQA on that come in the form of Extended PQA.
For example, as I remember when I did this story, the PQA would typically start out with something like:
Class, who received a package? (Theresa says she did)
Was it big or small? (small)
What color was it? (yellow)
Now look what happened. There is an imaginary package there. Everybody can see it because you just spent ten minutes talking about it, comparing its size and color to other packages that other kids who know how to play the game had in front of them. Theresa has a small yellow package in front of her. If you believe it, they believe it.
Now this is the time to go to wants to open it. Remember, you are in charge of which structure gets worked with when. Just because the structures are listed in a certain order in the story script doesn’t mean that you have to do them in that order. You do them in the sequence that generates the most natural order of PQA unfoldment. The logical sequence has shown itself to you here. You have so far:
1. asked if anyone received a package and used that in every question and statement for ten minutes or more.
2. asked Theresa if she wanted to open the one in front of her and used that open it structure in every question and statement for ten minutes or more.
Then just keep her and the others with packages in front of them from saying yes to your repeated questions of whether they wanted to open it. It would wreck your line of questioning and keep you from getting reps if she said yes. The others could say yes, but Theresa can’t. You do that by coaching her with your eyes to say “no” every time you ask if she wanted to open it, which sets up the big announcement 20 to 30 min. later that she didn’t open it bc she was afraid of it (you PQA’d each structure for at least 10 min.):
Class! Theresa didn’t want to open it! And then that has enough power in it for at least 10 more min. of PQA on that or with combinations of words.
Note also in this example that since we are making believe about something that happened in the past, the PQA is in the past, where often it is in the present tense.
You know that you are rockin’ it when you say stuff, toward the end of the PQA session, that includes two or even all of the three structures, like:
Class, Theresa received a small yellow package but she didn’t want to open it because she was afraid of it!
This is easily done in even a French 1 class. It’s not their level of study that determines if they can understand it or not, it’s how many times they have heard that particular structure, and, in fact, if you do 45 min. of reps on them, they will be so fresh in their minds that they can get those longer sentences, as long as you didn’t go out of bounds during the class and as long as you went slowly enough.
This is all predicated on repetitions and, in the case of these structures (they are all different), require, perhaps, the sequence suggested above.
It is also predicated on trust. If you think for one second that you can plan this stuff, you are wrong. I just made all of that stuff up there by just feeling as if I was with a class. It would be different another time. It’s different every time. That is the nature of PQA. Kind of reminds me about life, where each day is different. How wonderful that is!