This is from skip:
Hey Ben,
Do you remember earlier this summer people were writing in about their HUGE classes and asking for ideas and I said that Blaine said that classes of 40-50 were not only good but preferable?
I spent a while looking for that thread but I couldn’t find it… I wanted to put this recent post from Blaine under it… You don’t remember what it was called do you?
Here’s the post from moreTPRS:
“TPRS works best in large classes. I rarely had a class under 40. My largest was 51. I taught a class last week that had about 40. With large classes there is a theater affect that builds enthusiasm. Make sure you are getting a choral response. If they give you a weak response, let them know you need a choral response. Do it again if they give you a weak response.”
Blaine
My response is that I can’t find it either, but I do remember saying that I would rather spin plates on sticks than teach 45 to 50 kids. With each kid over about 30, the weirdness factor increases, in my view, exponentially.
I also think that it is a bit optimistic to think we are going to get a nice energetic choral response in every moment of our teaching. I do totally agree with his point, however, and Von really helped me with that idea in a session I did in Las Vegas. It’s CRUCIAL to get those one word responses from the group, and Blaine is totally right that we need strong choral responses. I’m just wondering how he does it.