From Bob:
Cool thing happened today. Our Language Arts Department took most of our sophomores to see a Shakespeare play today, so in my last period class we only had 15 instead of the usual 33. My student teacher was planning to teach the class anyway (why not, right). The 15 who were there went into mutiny mode. He was pressing on and they were having none of it. So, I chimed in.
What if you gave them 10 minutes to prepare and every student in here had to give a one sentence reason why we shouldn’t have class today–all in Latin, and no one can repeat another’s idea.
The students immediately took the challenge. They spent their 10 minutes huddling up to make sure no one had the same idea and to help each other formulate their ideas in Latin. Then, the timer went off, and the student teacher began calling on individuals (using wooden tongue depressors that we have everyone’s name on–so random calling). The reasons were fun, funny, witty, ridiculous, and in many cases the student teacher or I followed up with more questions and a little circling. Everyone was listening to each other and having a blast.
Yes, this was output, but they were ready for it (which for me is always the guiding rule). But, it was also sort of story telling as their reasons began to create a story of it’s own. By the time they finished, they had spent 2/3 of the period speaking Latin to each other, and they were completely into it–all in the name of defeating the teacher. It was perfect! The student teacher was delighted how this worked. Great lesson all the way around.
Bob