This circling thread is presented as a review for experienced people and to help instruct some of the newer people in our group about this fundamentally important CI skill.
In this article, Daniel Noll, who is relatively new, talks about and shares with us what the back of his classroom looks like, with a photograph. If you are new you may want to consider this, especially in the light of Daniel’s success in finding a way to make circling work for him.
Daniel reports:
Hi Ben,
The basic design for the chart came from a Susan Gross video I watched before teaching this class.
I made this chart because I really didn’t have circling down, and it was resulting in some structures simply not being acquired. After I hung this up in the back of my room, it helped a lot with staying on track and sticking with the basic principles of TPRS.
The color coded parts of speech are helpful too. Early on, I had a hard time thinking of funny words on the fly to keep things lively while circling. When-ever we read a story together, I often felt like I was stumbling around trying to keep things lively. Now, I highlight parts of sentences that I want to circle based on the color-coded parts of speech, then I write some funny words in the margins so that I don’t need add-lib. I’m also thinking of writing down a Wh question word for each sentence, because I find my brain over using What and Where, at the expense of just about every other potentially engaging question.
Also, I’m seriously considering making a giant Yield sign with the word “SLOW” inside, to remind me that some of my students really do need me to slow down, as almost all of them are too shy to tell me.
Speaking about shyness, since the beginning of the class, asking for gestures always seemed awkward for my students. My supervisor noticed they were really comfortable with math breaks because there was a familiar flow to the activity, so she suggested making a chart for gestures to help the students. After making a chart for gestures, everyone quickly figured out what I meant when I pointed to the chart and said something like, “Class, we need a movement for ‘didn’t have time.'” All I need to do now is point at the chart, and they know what to do.
I’m quickly realizing that building familiar routines is one of the only things that will really make this class flow smoothly.
Thanks for asking about the poster; it helped encourage me to put more effort into making the walls of my class assist me in teaching English.
Best wishes,
Daniel
