The second topic I will be presenting on at NTPRS is Circling with Balls. Thanks again to those who edit for mechanical issues or clarity:
Circling with Balls
Each student has a sheet of colored card stock folded in half lengthwise with a line down the middle of one of the halves. (I use a different color for each class.) The students write their first names clearly in large letters on the right side, and next to it, on the left, they draw a picture of a sport or musical instrument they play.
They place that in front of themselves so that as I walk around the classroom I can see their names (they have to be written in very large letters) and what they do.
The background on this is that I created this activity while teaching in a middle school, and I noticed that many, if not most, students drew pictures of sports balls. It’s definitely a middle school thing.
But it doesn’t matter. The kids can of course draw something that they enjoy doing, like reading. Anything that they want to put on their card is fine. Call it Circling with Cards if you want. This is not a CI activity biased towards kids who do sports.
Anything that personalizes and allows us to focus on the rules in our classrooms and just talk about the kids is fair game.
For the next several days, I just walk around the room, expressing authentic interest in each student while engaging them in conversation in the target language about the images they have provided for class discussion, using the powerful tool of Circling to make that happen.
As I walk around, I notice that Casey has drawn a volleyball next to her name. I say:
Classe, Casey joue au volley!
Next, I go to the board and write:
joue au volley – plays volleyball
Then I begin a series of circled repeated questions based on the original statement. While making these statements, I ask the class to respond to each one in some way, as indicated below in parentheses:
- Statement: Class, Casey plays volleyball! (ohh!)
- Question: Class, does Casey play volleyball? (yes)
- Either/Or: Class, does Casey play volleyball or does Casey play soccer? (volleyball)
- That’s right, class, Casey plays volleyball! (ohh!)
- Negative: Does Casey play soccer? (no) No, class, Casey doesn’t play soccer. She
- plays volleyball! (ohh!)
- 3 for 1: Class, does Casey write novels? (no) That’s right class, that’s ridiculous,
- Casey doesn’t write novels! She plays volleyball.
- Who: Class, who plays volleyball? (Casey!) Correct, class, Casey plays volleyball.
If our goal is to get to know the kids and norm the classroom by teaching the rules at this crucial point in the year, then we are now in a perfect situation to do those things.
By thus starting the first class of the year in the target language, I send many messages to my students:
- By asking the kids to do this on the first day of class, I send them the very clear, and, for them, quite novel, message that their interests, and not a textbook, are going to be the subject of the class.
- By speaking only in French, I am sending the message that French, not English, is the language that we will be focusing on in class this year.
- By slowly circling in the first minutes of the first class of the year, I send the message that slow circling will be the rule in my classroom all year. I am also sending the message that it is my job to make my message clear, and that all they have to do is sit back and listen.
- By taking time to stop and laugh if something is funny, at the expense of no one, I am sending the message that we will have fun and laugh in my class this year.
- By laser pointing to the Classroom Rules at each use of English or head down, etc. by a student, I send the messages that we have strict rules and consequences in this class that will be enforced. Thus, I guarantee my own safety in terms of classroom discipline for the entire year.
- By requiring that my students react when I state something, I send the message that everything I say is totally fascinating to them, and that it is their job to show me that.
- By praising them at every turn, I am sending the message that they will not be criticized on even the smallest level in my class this year, and that any hostile or controlling personality they may have brought with them as protection won’t be needed.
- By making constant eye contact with each of them, I send the message that this is a different way to learn and that I care if they are learning and that they count more than a book.
- By giving a five minute quiz at the end of the class, I am sending the message that they will be assessed often in the form of short, unannounced quizzes.
- By choosing test questions that are reasonable and straightforward, I send the message that it is not my purpose to trick them on tests, but instead to grade them fairly. This motivates them.
- By speaking French in such a simple and straightforward way in the first days of class, I build good will and ensure my students’ success, thus insuring myself against the “October Collapse”, which happens when the kids’ gas tanks of good will that were full in August are empty because the teacher has insisted on teaching in an analytical, thus boring, way.
A tip is to print the questionnaires on the back of the Circling with Balls cards. In one class, my eyes fell on “a name that you would like to be called and why” on that questionnaire – the student had written, “Her Majesty”. This student’s full name was actually Her Majesty the Dancer, and I brought her into PQA and stories all year.
Building this kind of personalization into your program obviates the need to build interest in the class. It starts out interesting with the Circling with Balls activity and builds from there.
The kids can’t wait until you get to their cards. After a while, they don’t even notice that everything is in the target language, as per Dr. Krashen’s largely ignored statement that we learn languages when we are focused on the message and not the medium of its delivery.