Alisa ends her critique:
If you could set up/explain what preceded the video a bit – do they already know the language elements/verbs of the story Sarah is spinning such that this story asking is but recombining those solid elements? Otherwise I think more play with this new language is in order before we go straight to story-asking and writing more details on the board. In order to put together a pretty complex story with several verbs and no cognates (why not?), the Ss, to be successful, would need more familiarity with the words in the story.
So a cycle of tight (in-bounds) and compelling PQA – with comparisons to other known characters and self, would give the kids lots of CI before expecting them to manipulate this new stuff. I think hearing the kids answer regular questions throughout would affirm what they understand better – but I’m not sure they get all the story parts in this (edited down) 17 minute lesson…
I get the impression that you, Joseph, really understand the input and can output too, but I’m just not sure about the kids. There are segments throughout where the students don’t seem engaged or like they’re comprehending – I think narrower language coupled with more compelling input and more comp checks will clarify / fix this.
If you go back and count all the verbs within this cute shark story you’ll get some idea of how expansive the language used really is…perhaps practice retelling it within a narrower framework? This is a skill that develops over time. I can see the teacher writing it down, streamlining then retelling it (maybe adding some comprehensible surprise details – proper names & places, etc – no new vocab though) while the kids draw – stopping for comp checks along the way – that’d be fun!
I think that Ben’s steps for story asking are preceded by familiarity with the highest frequency verbs (certainly for novice low) and also must be modified for the developmental level (age) of the kids, plus must take into account that this is a non-Roman alphabet and we can’t yet rely on reading of created sentences/scenes/stories for more input.
PLEASE keep sharing your trailblazing work – feel free to email me any specific Qs! I’m starting to gather & create my Hebrew stuff for teacher training once school is out in June.
I hope you find this helpful – it comes from my heart.
Best to you and your lovely family – I have very fond memories of Jerusalem during Pesach.
Alisa
PS: Has Sarah watched any T/CI training/demo videos yet? Jason Fritze is a highly skilled elementary Spanish teacher….Carol Gaab is also great to watch.