Dori shared with Karen something we should all be aware of as a technique to use at parent conferences:
I thought I’d share something that worked for me last year–maybe it will work for you, maybe not. But I thought I’d share.
At parent-teacher conferences a rather weak student came with his parents who weren’t overtly questioning my methodology, but were wondering why “he never says anything in French at home” and wondering if he was really learning. So I explained how we start with kids hearing the language like when they were little, and then later they speak.
Then I quizzed him. I said, “Il y a une fille.” And he said without missing a beat, “There is a girl.” And I said, “Elle s’appelle Becky.” And he said, “Her name is Becky.” On and on. She wants a purple cat. She goes to Target. There are no purple cats. There are blue cats. She yells no! He knew it all. The parents were SO surprised and thrilled! “Oh my gosh, he knows so much…blah…blah…blah…” And then raved about him at home so much that he thanked me the next day.
So with a KID who says “I’m not learning,” I might try that same approach, but using the vocab and structures you’ve been working on. So for my 8th graders it would be something like, “A girl is looking for a dog. She finds a dog in China. A giraffe is selling the dog. He wants $500 for the dog. The girl doesn’t buy the dog. (looks for, finds, buys, sells…)” And when the kid gets them all right, “Looks to me like you’re learning…” might be all that is needed to say. Of course if he doesn’t know it, “Looks to me like you’re not stopping me when you don’t understand. That’s your only job in this class. Let’s work on that this week…” But I bet he knows it. As Krashen says, It happens unconsciously; you can’t help but acquire language. (okay, so that’s my paraphrase because I don’t know the exact quote.)