We rarely talk openly and honestly with our students about what is happening in our classes. Perhaps we are too afraid to be met with open rebellion. Perhaps we are still clinging to the centuries old old model of the teacher being the unquestioned expert. Steven Ordiano in Fresno, CA, shreds that image of a teacher in this fascinating post:
So I used the following sentence frame in L1 to understand what was going on in my class. This was provided by Jillane on the FB CI Liftoff group.
I first modeled and used the sentence. I made sure to remind my students of my RULE 1 of “listen– One person speak only” I also said to not name specific names. No blame. Just how we feel in relation to the situation.
When ______ I feel ________ because __________.
When people are talking over me I feel disrespected because I want to provide the best possible education for my students.
If students did not want to speak, I allowed them to write it without writing their name.
Here are some of the biggies from that class:
When people talk, I feel annoyed or pestered because I’m trying to learn and pass this class.
When we do free writes, I feel dumb because everyone gets higher word counts.
When we do the same thing over and over again I get bored because I believe we should do more than just stories.
When we play games I feel more connected and fluent because it’s more real.
When we don’t read our [own] stories out loud I feel like I’m not learning as much because I’m not learning how to say the words.
When we don’t write down vocabulary I feel like I’m not acquiring the language because I might forget the words.
When I am seen as someone who is too weird to talk to or out of place, I feel angry at myself because I am not good enough.
After we problem solved together. I heard students suggestions — it’s hard to put my ego aside. They wanted more novelty though some of what was not connected to our work or the research grounded in it.
Then I remembered, it takes 20,000 hours of motivated learning. Let’s have some fun here. However, the simple fact of being heard was powerful for students. For me, it points to provide students with the tools to continue learning another language but not at the expense of pleasure. Maybe someone else can chime in.