Tamula had asked about ways to present the method. The Susan Gross Cat Story is the standard, and I had asked Corinne for it to share here with you, Tamula, which Corinne did and thank you Corinne.
This is the Susie Gross hand out, explaining how to get kids involved in pre-teaching the vocab to their parents. For workshops and presentations I simply start by presenting the six key words and getting repeats of them as visually and dramatically as I can.
Monday: Taught the kids “cat, runs, and mouse.” Homework is to go home and teach these 3 words and the gestures to your parents.
Tuesday: Checked on homework (had every kid tell me how the parents reacted.) VERY INTERESTING!! Taught the kids “comes, looks at, and screams.” Homework is to teach these three words to your parents. And review yesterday’s 3 words!
Wednesday: Checked on homework. Reports were fascinating. Some parents were resistant, some claimed they didn’t have time, some turned it into a joke. Most were good, but the kids saw how annoying it is when your “students” aren’t cooperative! Homework for tonight is to review the six words again and make sure your parents know these words for Thursday night’s “Back to School” night. Some parents are so nervous about this that they may not come! Kids just have to make sure that their parents feel confident, so the kids have to reassure the parents. Interesting responsibility for these kids.
Thursday: Taught the story to the kids and told them NOT to give away the punch line, but that they can give their parents the idea of the story. Told them to MAKE their parents volunteer to act !!
Thursday night: Parents came in and I ran through the words to be sure they knew the words. Got volunteers to act (this was hard) and then we did the mini-story (IN FRENCH):
Three baby mice look at mama mouse. Mama mouse looks at the baby mice. Cat comes. The baby mice scream “Mama, Mama! A cat a cat!” Mama mouse looks at the cat. Mama mouse screams “BOW WOW!” Cat runs away.
And in English I ended by saying: “Just like you, this mama mouse is a model of good parenting. She has just taught her children the value of speaking a foreign language.”
HAHAHAHAHA! Lots of laughs!!!
Then I retold asking ridiculous questions and the parents had to answer with “Oui” or “Non” With only a minute left I asked them if they had understood the French in tonight’s mini-class. Then I said “I hope that your child is enjoying learning a foreign language as much as I enjoy teaching it.”
Holy tamales did I get good feedback from this!