We can’t talk about SLOW enough.
A few teachers here have actually mentioned in various threads something to the effect that SLOW is relative. What does that mean?
I believe that we are becoming so successful with our CI instruction in level 1 that we are starting to see a whole new definition of SLOW in level 2 as pretty fast!
(So new learnings for me here lately are that level 1 should be about SLOW TARGETED instruction and then after that we are free to pace ourselves as per these two reent comments here:
Steve Ordiano:
…“but on the point of SLOW, it isn’t an option.” Here we go again. That push and pull. My kiddos are FAST processors BUT they relied on my predictability too much. I say that I havea medium pace BUT I have left behind some students. So SLOW it is! My area of growth is personalized activities plus conversation….
Tina Hargaden:
About going slow, I really do believe that they understood everything in that class. But maybe the pace is still too fast…I was thinking a lot about my pace yesterday as I was working. I asked kids a ton yesterday “What did I say” because I had read your email that morning. They were almost always correct, or maybe always correct, but pretty darn close. So my question now is how does one know if the pace is correct?
I think that as long as we protect the needs of kids in level 1 to understand at a very high level by beings painfully slow (for us) in our speech, then we can speed up the pace in level 2 and beyond according to the kids we have in front of us, and according to our own perception of what is going on in class.
I would however throw in the strong caution that I learned from my teacher Susan Gross many years ago that “they always get less than we think.”