Laura Censi sent this image, taken at the end of class. Sorry I can’t figure out how to make the image smaller. Here is what she asked:
Hi Ben,
This is my first year doing TPRS and I’ve got three Spanish I classes. I wanted to show you how much I have on the board.
I know this is way too much to have on the board, and I told the kids it will be less once they have some basics.
I’m circling with the questions words, and I’m trying to get over the fear of boring them and being too repetitive. I have not started PQA but had them fill out the questionnaires. Should I incorporate that?
Thanks!
I responded:
This is a busy board! It looks like my board for the first ten years I did TPRS – actually mine was even more cluttered and plus you had to turn your head at an angle just to read it.
The kids just can’t process all that stuff is the simple way to say it. I suggest that this teacher get into a slower rhythm and try to accomplish much less. I wouldn’t add the questionnaires. Just hang out with the kids and develop only one of the points made above. The questionnaires work for Anne but like Diane said a few weeks ago they can have an artificial feel to them.
I would stay with the cards, trying to extend them into little scenes by asking questions – mainly “With whom?” (does the student do their activity) and “Where?” (does the student do their activity).
The group will certainly have some ideas as well. Thanks for this image. A picture is a worth a thousand words and by seeing that board we who are doing CWB right now can see what we don’t want to see at the end of a class. And yet I believe at least nine out of ten of us have boards that look like that at the end of class.
I do understand that this is the beginning of the year and that we need to teach them all that stuff as quickly as possible, but the Zen part is that it will not be retained so why do that when Staying in Bounds and limiting new vocabulary is the very fabric of what we do?