Hayne came up with an option involving writing and reading practice that represents a nice option to our basic fake classes routine. It allows the kids to do nonjudgemental peer review of each other’s writing. Using this option allows:
a. kids to know and respect each other in class.
b. administrators to see that we do peer group work that actually works.
c. motivate kids to know that they can indeed produce something in another language that can be read and understood by another person (huge).
Here it is:
I did a new take on a fake class and it worked pretty well. I know it goes against the basics of CI but it just kind of happened. I started class with a dictation. After corrections, I did a short circling and then had the students do a 10 minute free write. After the free write I had the students trade papers for a reading period. I told them to read without comment, pretend that they are by themselves free of interruption. After a few minutes I had them trade the paper they were reading with someone different. I did 4 rounds of this. At the end of class I allowed them to comment on the papers they read which was really a positive reinforcement because they commented on how each writing was funny and interesting. I guess I was lucky but I’ll take it.