Q. We have to submit a syllabus for each class, with supplies needed, district tardy and behavior policies, grading policy and classroom behavioral policy, what do you suggest as a possible syllabus using your approach?
A. One answer and perhaps the best one is to hand in the same syllabus as your CI colleagues and teach it in half the time each class, which is easy and has the benefit of lessening the BOREDOM. This answer is for those caught up in departments where everybody wants the status quo to not change.
Doing this protects you. It doesn’t label you as a CI freak. Big point here: there can be no “half-way” syllabus where you try to “mix” CI with your colleagues’ concept of what a syllabus is. Don’t try it.
If you want to submit a true CI syllabus, use the Invisibles Star Sequence, which is pure. But only those working in schools where you don’t have to walk around looking over your shoulder from traditional colleagues’ scowls can use the Star.
The naysayers on CI are not going to give up a cushy job as a textbook teacher (no real work is involved, just go through the book and give the common exams with your colleagues) just because you are into what is – in their minds – the next fad.
WE know that it’s not a fad and that finally we are aligning with the research and doing what is professionally responsible (aligning w the research) but THEY don’t. So sneak in whatever OWI or other Invisibles Star Sequence activities you want to do AT THE END OF CLASS. Start with ten minutes and let it expand as the kids keep on insisting on making and discussing new characters.
DON’T TELL THE STUDENTS OR ANYONE ELSE IN THE BUILDING that you are doing “something new”. Might as well resign now bc they will not like that!
What happens when the students want more and more CI based on drawings? Provide it, but make sure you teach your required verb forms or whatever is required first.
If it takes 10,000 hours to come close to mastering a language and you thus sacrifice half of the time you have to the book (that would be less than 75 hours a year), then where’s the harm? You don’t have the time you need in a four year program of 500 hours to even put a dent in the time you need to get real observable results.
So, whenever you think you’re not doing a good job and that your kids should be learning more, think right away about those 10,000 hours and give yourself a break and keep your life simple.
This “stealth” brand of CI, using the old syllabus but sneaking in the new CI work, just makes it easier on you to go through the change, which is hard enough w/o having people hating on you for aligning with the standards. Honor the syllabus, teach it in half the time you would normally, giving yourself time for CI always at the end of class.
In this way you don’t get labeled as a troublemaker, your syllabus matches the other people in your department, and the pushback is minimized.
One thing you cannot do, must not do, is try to write a syllabus that bridges the gap between CI and what they are doing. There is no bridge that can be built to bridge that gap. The old way and CI are not compatible and exist in separate universes, i.e. separate parts of the brain.
Devote half or more of the class time to the textbook, follow the tradititional syllabus, stay out of trouble, and do stories or one word images in the last half of class. That’s my current thinking on the question. It changes, but really I can only speak based on my own experiences in 7 buildings over 42 years. You have to decide what to do about the syllabus yourself.