Our group member Jason Bond in Scotland on the Isle of Islay in Western Scotland has a question that is so common from new people that I decided to publish it over on this side instead of over on the forum. Please respond with any and all ideas since we now have more than a few new people in the PLC.
Here is Jason’s email to me:
Hi Ben,
I’ve cut down my structures to just one at a time with my first years and already they’re starting to naturally use them. One student said she was sad because she wanted one of the stuffed teddy bears on my desk. Then another piped up and said he wanted the penguin very badly. Seeing that my kids are absorbing more than I expected is a wonderful feeling. That class is like a Gaelic musical – we sing our song, gesture a few new words, laugh, do some quick TPR, make a quick scene with CWB, and deal with the ‘dramatic flair ups’ from characters like The Queen of the Sheep. I’m so proud of them. This kind of relationship with my kids is what keeps me going when the older kids get snarky.
Speaking of which, I could use some quick advice about my second years. I’ll keep it quick.
This class is a mixture of immature boys, rude and snarky girls, a kid “diagnosed with ADD” who loudly comments on anything anyone says in class, and a handful of genuinely nice and kind kids.
The rapport between us feels like it has dissolved and there is a negative/poisonous feeling in the class. I’ve been doing some CWB with them and really pushing myself to enforce the rules. Last week, we spent about 35 minutes on one sentence because many in the class were not bothering to chorally respond. They’ve never had rigour like this before and about half are regular non-participants. The jokesters tend to be the ones who add interesting details to PQA and there was one magical class when things seemed to click for about 20 minutes.
I’m working on basic high-frequency structures and want to engage more of the class, especially the few that I think would continue on with the language. I was thinking of doing a few embedded readings using a powerpoint story script with blanks, a bit like Madlibs. We establish meaning of the structure, gesture it out a bit, fill in the blanks and circle sentence by sentence. Then they write it down.
I want to keep them busy – they may be disengaging because they think that we’re not doing “real work.”
What would you recommend to get some good CI to the class, especially to those who may continue on?
Thanks a million. Your advice and the comments from the PLC are worth their weight in gold to me.
All the Best,
Jason