Eric Spindler

6 thoughts on “Eric Spindler”

1. Sabrina

   March 3, 2013 at 7:58 pm

   Thank you so much Eric and Welcome! Hope I did not put to much pressure on you to send your bio as it was not my intention , but if I did, it worked and was well worth the reading. I was curious b/c you are in Illinois and since I am too and I feel so lonely here I just thought it was so cool to have another CI compatriote joining in.

   You wrote: “I would not circle enough, because the kids would say they got it, and I would be afraid of boring them, so I would speed up”.

   When I read that I thought : Wow! major déja vu, been there, done that. But being on this PLC and hearing Ben pounding on us that slow is the key to succeeding in this method, I guess I have been brainwashed and I fully agree with him. I have seen with my own eyes the difference it makes to go slow.

   The kids say they get it but they lie, the 4% do and the rest of the kids don’t and they lie b/c they don’t want to feel embarassed .

   And most of the time they don’t use the hand signal to let you know. And if you ask them: what did I just say , most often they don’t know. That is a proof that we go too fast.

   Once we slow down and give the kids the time to process, they get it, and you can tell in their eyes and looks.

   I used to be afraid of boring them too, but not any more, I now take my time, the slower the better, and I’ll repeat it ad nauseum, I don’t care . And I explain to them how it works and why I do it, and they get it… They really do.

   I have a 4% in one of my classes who wanted to do the book thing back in November as she thought the stories were too easy and not worth her time in class, so I let her fill out the workbook in the back of the class. Guess how long it took to get her back ? Two days later she was back with us and never looked back.

   The other day I had the class write a paragraph insert to a story we did and I walked by her and saw an error so I pointed it out to her ( I only do that to her b/c she is a 4% and loves grammar) and I asked her to say it out loud and see if she could get the right answer and she did. So I asked her : do you see how it sounds right to you now and do you now why? b/c you ‘ve heard me say it so many times , that is why. And she agreed. Wow that made my day…..

   So no matter what we do, we never repeat enough and we never go slow enough…

   Any way if you want to contact me off blog to talk about getting together since we are both in Illinois, may be we could practice together sometime. I f you know of other people in Illinois doing what we do, that would be great too.

   My email is ssebbanjanczak@yahoo.com

   Nice to meet you Eric, looking forward to reading you more.

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2. Ben Slavic

   March 3, 2013 at 9:41 pm

   I have a new way to deal with the kids not being totally honest about what they do and do not understand. I just haven’t had time to share it. I need to test it for a few days anyway. So I’ll stay quiet on it for now. In the meantime, Eric, read the article – link below. It’s one of the big blue chip ideas we’ve had here over the past year. I think it is more important than Circling:

   https://benslavic.com/blog/2012/08/15/checking-for-understanding-we-verify-by-asking-more-yn-and-one-word-answer-questions-than-we-ever-thought-we-could/

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3. Chill

   March 4, 2013 at 5:49 am

   I know we all know this, but Carol Gaab really brought home the need to be able to circle artfully so it does not sound routine and sing-songy. You all know what I am saying – Blah, blah, blah, blah (rising intonation) Yes, blah, blah, blah, blah (falling intonation).. The ability to circle artfully and stealthily is something to think about and practice. I recommend her 2011 article entitled “Multistory Construction” in the “Language Magazine”.

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4. Chill

   March 4, 2013 at 7:38 am

   Oops! Eric, I meant to begin with welcome to the group! You will be on a very interesting journey!
   Carol

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5. Greg

   March 4, 2013 at 8:15 am

   Welcome, Eric! I’m brand new on here as well -I started CI last week and am at the beginning of my second week. I’m going through a VERY steep learning curve and so are my students. And some of them are NOT happy about it. I’m very happy, though, to no longer have 30 years of worksheets and silly little quizes and tests ahead of me. I was not excited at all about the thought of that!

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   1. jeffery Brickler

      March 5, 2013 at 7:06 pm

      Greg, welcome. And all I have to say to your comment about not liking the I idea of 30 years of worksheets is: Word!

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