A repost from last May:
Today my sixth graders took over for about 3 to 5 minutes in French. I couldn’t believe it. I just sat down and watched. Half of the class was trying to decide on a story and the other half was really involved in listening. It was important to them where the story went. They didn’t even notice that they were all in French.
Was it perfect French? No. Were they communicating? Yes. It was a sacred moment for me, a vindication, a justification, a proof. It wasn’t the Pure Land, just a strong demonstration of all that I believe professionally – that massive input leads to output as sure a river flowing down the side of a mountain must eventually reach the sea.
How did the streak of French break? One student who has trouble being present, Jack, got nervous. He stood up and walked across the room. If a person asked him if he did that on purpose, he would say that he was just going to get his notebook. The truth is, he was uncomfortable because he had not listened this year like those speaking and could not keep up with the conversation.
We all know that there is a direct correlation between quality of listening and later emergent speech. I wonder how long they would have gone if Jack had not pulled the plug on the magic?