This repost from June is a cobbling together of ideas from comments made by Jody and Sabrina about CWB and OWI last spring. I think it is an important read if you want to make the beginning of the year work for you with CWB and OWI this year.
The general point, from Jody and supported by Sabrina, is about the importance of setting up, embellishing, supporting all CI with our kids by using TPR first. Get the verbs in the kids’ bodies BEFORE trying to use CWB an OWI. It’s really important, actually. So I will categorize this post under:
- Beginning the Year
- CWB
- OWI
And I would appreciate it if people would remind us about this key TPR point as we start the year next year so none of us forgets to use the TPR engine all year in our teaching.
Here is Jody on the topic:
Everyone gets exposed to the same verbs so that when they show up in the CWB/OWI, everyone pays more attention and feels part of the game. How the class is responding during the TPR session can really tell you how you might proceed during the CWB/OWI: which students are the slow processors, fast processors, super shy ones, slugs, people pleasers, great actors, etc. Starting with a little TPR practice–doing stuff you know will come up in the CWB/OWI–can be very fun and brain friendly and will give you lots of information about your group before you start zeroing in on one participant with the CWB. It can loosen up your group, cohere them a bit, and give you a better read on how truly mid-novice they are or not.
Sabrina adds:
Yes, totally agree with Ben and Jody about TPRing verbs. Doing TPR will set the mood of fun using our bodies. I always do TPR with parents at the beginning of the year and they always LOVE IT. It works (well at least for a little while in the beginning).
Furthermore, it will help with the visual/kinesthetic learners as well.
When I do PQA and a verb is involved, I ask my kids to find a gesture and I sign that gesture throughout PQA and storyasking and I find that signing in solidifies or helps the kids recall the structure. So I would suggest you use your hands and body to TPR or sign in whatever you are saying whenever possible.
A lot of what you’ll do through CWB/OWI is establish for yourself where they are with the language and what their interests are. By personalizing you will make it fun. Tell them at the beginning that fun and crazy answers are better.
So here are some suggestions for verbs you could TPR/sign in to get you started:
likes/would like/liked: I use my two hands and do a heart with both thumbs and indexes and show the heart next to my heart.
wants/would want: I’ve used (from the kid’s) two hands joined together in a back ad forth motion (almost like begging). Really it doesn’t matter what the sign in gesture is in case of ambiguity b/c if that is what they choose and agree on, then they’ll recall it like that. Actually you can ask them to come up with the sign they’d like to agree on as a group.
go/would go/went: one hand is extended palm up , the index and middle finger of other hand are in a walking motion on top of the other hand
have/had/would have: I have so many different versions f this one b/c that is kind of a hard one to TPR so better ask them here.