I have a question for the group. Should brain breaks always be in the TL? That is, the kids may be batting a ball around the room but should they be allowed English during that time? I think the answer should be no, because if we do not establish a clear culture of only using the TL when the kids are in our classroom, from the time they walk in to the time they walk out, then we will be guaranteed that no English blurting will occur in our classrooms. Without that happening, we can’t really make CI work in our classrooms. We can use English in our classrooms to an extremely limited extent at the beginning of the year to establish procedures and over the course of the year to clarify meaning, again to an extremely limited extent. But I am currently rethinking how I have used English way too much in the past and would like the group’s opinion on brain breaks and the use of English.
