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4 thoughts on “It Works For Some”

  1. What is best for kids? In terms of gains yes, untargeted rules. As far as reaching the kids ues untargeted has this power. In fact, untargeted ci is too powerful for some teachers. You have to have firm boundaries, be on your toes, know bailout moves and more importantly letting go of that teacher ego.

    Durin my informal observation my principal saw it in action when I started to ask my kids what did /blank/ do? Out came out answers I never heard. Some of violence. Uh oh! So I cooly said I need school appropriate ones. Limit your answers to three words. I mean theyre 12-13 year olds. exposed to all kinds of media. So I taught them “there is a secret” and then I saved the story from turmoil.

    Are teachers ready? In another class, a class wanted a horror story saying they can take it. I told them that “I cant take it.” So we went forward and described a mirror in an abandoned house. When I asked for a description, all of them were negative, I wrongly chose bitter. So I had to stop the story. We took a brain break with tpr then I continued with the questioning sequence and.we.brought in a ghost potato character that was taken away by the Ghostbusters. Our story was the prequel and was going to reveal the demise of the ghost potato. The end. Yep. Powerful stuff.

    1. Steven, I hear you with the violent and uncomfortable answers. We cannot tolerate that. Honestly I feel like my kids suggested inappropriate stuff equally as much in my older Classical TPRS stories as they do with the stories built on emergent language.

        1. One thing I am firmly committed to is not letting my classes get me to channel any of their ideas that are in the slightest bit uncomfortable. Some of you might remember how my fourth period class last year, after starting stories with the Invisibles halfway through the year, were using the stories as a vehicle for some inappropriate inside jokes. We must, if we are truly going to think of our jobs as conduits for kids’ ideas, we must be on the absolute lookout for any undercurrent of discomfort. If a suggestion seems to be “too funny” then it is best to bypass it. If a student’s idea seems to engender a wave of nudging and snickering, then we must leave it alone. I found out the hard way that sometimes the “fun” in class is just too fun! I now strive for a level of fun that is shared by all and not just the vehicle for one group of kids to share their naughty inside jokes.

          Teaching with no language objective besides speaking slowly an comprehensibly, you have to sort of recalibrate your heart. Grant Boulanger does this with such aplomb. He follows the kids’ interests, runs with compelling diversions, and generally goes with the flow of the kids’ energy. Watching Grant’s videos last year was a course in student-centered conversation. Ben’s One Word Images growing into stories with Invisibles have helped me to bring that energy into storytelling – a sense of “we are all in this together” and as a teacher, a message of “I am just here to bring your ideas to life”. But whenever we put kids’ ideas in the driver’s seat, we have to be strong enough to drive that hormone- and insecurity-fueled Ferrari. We have to know what to do with all that horsepower.

          With student-centered and not language-centered days ahead of us, we must learn to be the filter and the amplifier. Filtering out the hurtful, the inappropriate, and the darkness…and amplifying the light, the love, and the beauty of their imaginations.

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