The following article and 68 comments are from 2013. I republish it here to perhaps help a few of us get to the finish line this year by getting some general discussion about what works at this time of year and what does not.
Lori has some important technical questions to help her on to the end of the year so pipe up with some technical answers for her. The year’s not over and some of us need to come up with options to stories and the stuff that may have been working earlier this year:
Hi Ben,
I have a French 1 class that I have decided is unable to do the live stories (or listening CI in general). Do you or anyone in the group have ideas for reading alternatives that are very basic? Perhaps the reading equivalent of One Word Image? I have done some embedded readings with them but they struggle with it and I would like to build their confidence back up.
Really looking for simple preparation.
Also these topics:
1. Bail out ideas with listening –
I’m not a very good writer (I work with a native speaker on my writing and she proofreads my work before I use it in class) but I speak really well. I don’t want to write off the cuff in class and be wrong so bail out moves with writing are a bit tough for me. They require a lot of prep time. Does anyone have any ideas for listening comprehension bailout moves? Math is a great idea and I am already using this one.
2. Tricking kids into a story –
My kids are “sick” of the stories. I am currently reading PQA in a Wink! and I’m having trouble getting started back into pure PQA. (I’ve done a lot leading into stories but never just stuck with the PQA) I have a tough population and I think they would enjoy talking about themselves more.
Or I’m thinking I need a different lead from just talking about a student into a “story”. Thus I’ll be tricking them to think that there isn’t a story about to be told. I always use “there is a problem”, and I’ve used “he/she has a secret”. Any other, more creative segues people are using when creating stories solely from PQA (no script)?
Thanks as always,
Lori B