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Fast Processors
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14 thoughts on “Fast Processors”
Reading is key. The other thing I do with the fast processors is ask them at the end of every story to do a retell and then possibly a perspective change. If they get something wrong (like an irregular verb that they couldn’t possibly have known), I smack my hand against my head as though I was the one at fault, and write all the verbs/pronouns etc that need to change on the board as a guide, and do it slowly with the class before I ask them to repeat it. It makes them think they’re learning more, and gives the rest of the class more reps. If you have actors, they can be moving through their paces as the fast kids talk.
I think that I’m quoting Susie when I say that these things won’t really help them acquire any faster, but they’ll think they’re doing something harder and will therefore value the class more. I had a couple of snotty kids three years ago (fourth-year kids in a second-year group) who are now at college in advanced levels and who have written me letters telling me that I have to tell everyone to just believe in me. Yeah. Hindsight is great. Why couldn’t they have been polite back when they were learning more than anyone else because they got to absorb the grammar while others were getting the meaning?
I learned from them. That was an excruciating year.
Two mastery level teaching points to note here:
1. Michele takes responsibility for their not knowing something. Compare that with the old way, which is reflected in those “ridiculous conversations” I published here a few days ago, where the teachers consider the kids to be brats for not paying attention to boring crap.
2. Michele stood her ground with snotty talented kids and only received plaudits years later. What we are doing is naturally going to encounter a ton of opposition, but she has kept her ground. This is the behavior of a real pioneer. And in Alaska yet, the last frontier!
We are very proud of the ton of work you have done, Michele. You fly literally all over the world for training as a matter of routine. You share great stuff with us and on your website and in the many trainings you do with your teachers in Alaska. And you are not limited to just the TPRS method, but can bring in so much else and intelligently share it with others. Thank you.
One more thing, which I used today. It’s a little bit mean, while putting on a very encouraging face. I had CB do his retell (he’s a fast processor) and then I said, “Do you hear how his language is starting to speed up? He’s amazing! When his Russian is as fast as his English is to re-tell a story, we’ll know that he’s acquired these structures on a deep level.”
He stopped looking snarky after that.
All of my students this year were sent to me because they were failing English, so you wouldn’t think I have any fast processors, but I do. They were too bored to make an effort in the other class, so I got them. Now they’ve taken off like rockets, but they don’t want to return to the other class because they enjoy my classes. I explained to all of them that expert horsemen say, “Every mistake is a fundamental mistake,” and the way you can reach Olympic levels is by working on fundamentals. I went into the difference between “knowing” and acquiring. And when they come up with a sentence that is more complex than what the others can do, I give bonus points. Or sometimes I say, “now this question is difficult. It’s worth 3 points if you can answer it” and they’re sitting there on the edge of their chairs, hoping they can blurt it out. It may be that it’s more important to them to be recognized by you and their classmates as fast-processors than for them to actually be given extra work. I may be repeating myself but I was tickled pink (does that date me?) the other day when, discussing the Prologue of The Fellowship of the Ring, I asked a question using the active voice and one of my fast processors answered, switching to the passive voice. It was so exactly right that I gave him 5 points. Even he was surprised, because he didn’t realize he had done anything exceptional. The others wanted to know what he had said to deserve 5 points. We’d been doing passive voice all the time that we talked about the scene, but of course I’d never explained it. I told them in French that I’d given the points because he used the passive voice. His friend protested, “He doesn’t even know what the passive voice is!” I said he didn’t need to know as long as he was using it correctly, which he was.
Again, I find Laurie’s embedded readings very good with this type of student. They can skim through the easier readings and be challenged by the last one.
….it may be that it’s more important to them to be recognized by you and their classmates as fast-processors than for them to actually be given extra work….
I really do think that this is true. We all want to be recognized for being good at something in front of others. It’s a normal human thing. That is why, in the end, TPRS/CI or some version of Krashen’s research will slowly take over what happens in language education at all levels. People will like it better in the way that the “failing” kids appreciate Judy’s class more. It’s more fun to be honored and laugh than to be dishonered (by teachers yet!) and be sad in class, like it is currently in all those 20th century model classes that are still going on.
If feels like the world is changing. It used to be that you had to have a PhD and be rich and be privileged to enjoy the finer things in life (the Charles Dickens model, if you will) but now, and not just in teaching, the model is increasingly becoming happiness for all.
It doesn’t seem like it now in these dark days, but that is what I think is coming after the times we are living through now. It’s like a birth happening right now in the world. Births aren’t easy for the mom, but look at the result. We’re just a small part of a bigger change. A really bigger change. Judy’s teaching in France reflects that, where she takes old broken down furniture, victims of a bygone era, and brings it back to life.
Even he was surprised, because he didn’t realize he had done anything exceptional.
This is one of the coolest sentences in the post – which is throughout amazing. Here is a student using “advanced grammar” in a totally natural way without even realizing it. That is indeed “deep learning” aka “acquisition”.
Huzzah for Judy and her students!
I also like the equestrian quote. I’m going to SWCOLT and was looking at the program today so I could decide what sessions to attend. For one of the descriptions, the presenter wrote, “Learning a foreign language in English, rather than in the language itself, is like learning how to swim without water.” Great analogy. I will to that session about the 90% position or the one on scaffolding, but wish I could go to both.
It has been a while since I reminded everybody in this PLC how much I appreciate and value each and every voice of insight, encouragement and advice.
Thanks to everyone.
I wish everyone a wonderful Easter and a great end of the year….
Skip
It’s been a great year skip. Very intense. But we all grew a lot. And we’ll grow more. I have been in contact with Jeanne Gibbs who originated a process for social development program called Tribes a long time ago. I told her how much Tribes, which I started doing in the ’80’s, has infused my book PQA in a Wink! Anyway, the same sense of appreciation was there in those emails between us as is in yours above, Skip. It is a grand thing to know that we are learning to fight all this darkness in schools by getting better at what we do and by standing alongside people like you and Jeanne and not making it into an antagonistic thing but a loving thing. I hope that makes sense. Et Joyeuses Pâques.
I should probably clarify that it was the “Ridiculous Conversations” thread and this holiday weekend that motivated me to express my gratitude. It was six very short years ago that those described my relationships with students. It was SO painful. Now teaching is a JOY! I love how you put it Ben Slavic as “A LOVING THING”… how cool! because it is, you know, it is a Loving Thing…
Skip
My favorite sentence in Judy’s comment was
…I asked a question using the active voice and one of my fast processors answered, switching to the passive voice. It was so exactly right that I gave him 5 points….
I liked the “it was so exactly right” part. Remember, these are the reject kids. It proves what we say over and over – learning a language is not a conscious thing. It’s not about being smart. It’s about hearing the language enough so that you can one day speak it. That’s all.
[ed.note: Judy teaches in English in France, to clarify the above]
I might add that while French has a passive voice, it is used much less than we use it in English, and my students often find it difficult to translate an English sentence in the passive voice. And I want to add how much I feel honored when your comments show that you appreciate my little anecdotes. This is my last year teaching and because of the Kafkaesque French administration I’m technically being paid for doing nothing. So I’ve invented my own workload, which is why I’m able to take the “losers” out of their normal classes. Their teachers are glad to have them out of their hair, the kids are glad to do something different, and I’m having a ball, feeling really useful and free as a bird. I get so much pleasure out of seeing these kids look up and smile at me, showing me that they are gaining in confidence and self-assurance. The boys caught on right away and ran with the ball, but the girls were very shy and silent for a long time. They are just now starting to speak up and it’s like seeing flowers blossom. But sometimes it feels as if our success is a closely guarded secret, since no one comes to watch.
Judy, I hope that you will continue to teach in some way. You have so much to share! This year’s self-imposed workload sounds just fabulous! How great to do exactly what you want. Ideally, all teaching and learning would be like that.
I knew TPRS was for me the summer that I was in Russia with Ben’s books and did essentially the same thing by taking a bunch of kids who were failing English and learning TPRS on them. They were so happy that teaching them was a perfect joy.
According to the Calendar of Everything Good, France is estimated to be the 241st country that will succeed in fully incoporatiung Krashen’s ideas into their national system of education, and that won’t happen until the year 2716, so those kids are lucky.