This morning Sean shares a question from a relatively ignorant administrator that echoes questions from the past ten years. None of us is exempt from this. The administrator comes in, observes, then tries tries to show off what little language they have (see below) while at the same time having – just having – to find a way to get a dig in on what we know is in fact good teaching that aligns with the research. If the administrator only knew that, Sean wouldn’t have to come to the group with the question below. We need some real responses for Sean here – something he can use. So please write what you are thinking. Sean can decide how he wants to use our collective responses.
I confess, my first reaction is “Leave me alone, please.” I have a 2 week old infant at home, a sick 2 year old… And there’s been times in the past where she seemed open to a genuine conversation about second language acquisition, and I’d write a good amount in an email, to not get a response. So, it’s a little frustrating.
Anyways, I do feel like I can talk to her openly even if she doesn’t swallow everything I say about this CI teaching. So, what could I say to respond to her here?
Hi Sean,
This morning it was great to see how the students in your class are mostly all engaged watching you move through the text and physically demonstrate vocabulary. When you asked for a response or confirmation of a term, they were correct each time! And when you asked students to begin underlining verbs, they started working right away. I do wonder about the place for providing feedback to students, such as the students who weren’t able to circle verbs, or later to ensure students went left not right on izquierda and demonstrated understanding of those two directional words. What opportunities do you use to correct these students’ understanding?
Thanks!