My former student has sent a fifth installment, and it is a tribute not just to her but, especially, to her teacher. I am moved by the reaction of this teacher to what was described in the 4th installment of this thread. Instead of getting defensive, like I would have done, she tried something new. Here’s how my student describes what happened today in her French class:
I don’t care if all we do is worksheets for the rest of the year. Today made up for all of the less pleasing moments in French. I got to class early and the teacher showed me the getting to know you sheet that she was going to have us fill out. It’s great- has questions about nicknames favorite places, foods, books music ect . I say this is great. What you do with the information is up to you. She completely surprises me by asking What I wanted to do with it since we would be spending the whole class on it. I am so excited by this offer. I suggest that each student fills it out and shares one or two things that they like from the list of questions. Then we could translate their sentence into French and make a list of the French words. Using the list we could come up with an action and sound for each word we don’t know. I know that this is exactly what we did last year. Her response was “sounds great , let’s get some paper for the list.” A few minutes later the class comes in . They start to grab the textbooks but my teacher says ” you won’t need those today. All you need is on the desks.” Everyone is confused but they sit down anyway. Some kids gasp. I turn around and notice the desks for the first time. On each desk there is a getting to know you sheet , a learning styles quiz, and some crayons and markers. On the getting to know you sheet there’s space next to each question to draw your answer.
The teacher starts talking. She says that these questions are to help her get to know us better. This freaks a few kids out but most are still confused and waiting to see what she’ll say next. Then she says something no one expects- not even me. She says ” I’m sorry. I’m sorry that some of you have been intimidated by this class. That’s the last thing I want to do. I want to make that change . To prove it to you I want to get to know you better. Please answer the questions on your desk- only the ones you want to.
At this point everyone is thinking Are you okay? What happened to you?
The class fills out the questions and are smiling as they do. Then, slowly people volunteer answers. Some are quite funny. We create our list- over 100 words were on it by the end of class. Everyone relaxes as they see that the signs and sounds for the words can be funny and a little stupid. We add to the list for 30 minutes and for the entire time, I can see a sparkle in everyone’s eyes. The look of true learning. Then my teacher hits us with another surprise . She asks if anyone would like to act out a scene from their sheet, and we could improvise it along the way. A girl volunteers and says that when she was little carried around a small yellow bear named Sunshine with her all the time. We use our list to translate that sentence into French.
Il y a un ours jaune. Elle s’appelle Sunshine Elle aime le soleil. La plage est ensoleillée. Elle aime la plage. Elle va à la plage. Il pleut sur la plage. Elle n’aime pas la pluie. Il fait froid. Elle est triste . Elle voit un oiseau. L’oiseau s’appelle George. George n’aime pas la pluie. Il aime le soleil. Ils vont au Pizza hut. Ils mangent de la pizza. Ils aiment la pizza. La pluie s’arrête. Ils retournent à la plage. Il fait beau. Ils sont heureux.
There is a yellow bear. Her name is Sunshine. She likes the sun. The beach is sunny.She likes the beach. She goes to the beach. It’s raining on the beach. She doesn’t like the rain. It’s cold. She is sad. She sees a bird. The bird’s name is George. George doesn’t like the rain. They go to Pizza Hut. They eat pizza. They like pizza. The rain stops. They go back to the beach. The weather is nice. They are happy.
We go over our time limit and into lunch. No one minds, in fact they would go longer. This is saying something because it seems like nothing can stop my peers from lunch. Everyone is smiling and laughing as they leave. They all say thank you to the teacher. Tonight they will do the learning styles test. We talk after class. She says that today was fun. It really was. She couldn’t believe that no one looked bored or confused. She warned me that we wouldn’t have time for more days like this – too much material to cover. I nod and say that it’s fine. And for once it really is. She did say that we could go over one student’s question sheet in French as our warm- up from now on. Today was so great. Cumulative test Thursday. Thank you (Slavic) for teaching me to be a fearless person. It was so worth it and I plan to continue. I am smiling from ear to ear.
K.
[ed. note: we who know about the power of properly done TPRS to deliver great comprehensible input have nothing on this teacher. Without even understanding about circling and point and pause and all the other TPRS skills, she went and did the hardest thing for a teacher to do – embrace and implement new ideas. That’s class. I have the deepest respect for what this teacher did today. Nor do I find fault with her for telling K. that this wouldn’t be the norm bc of material to cover. It is the way she thinks, that covering material through time produces language results. I guess the next thing to hope for is that this teacher grasp something I got in another email from a colleague, which I will blog next if I can find it, titled “From Elissa”]