It was last year about this time that we really got into using Look and Discuss as a group. The three links at the bottom of this article are from March and April of last year and I think that Look and Discuss is a great option for us now in spring as we need strategies that really work since everyone is starting to fade out and think about summer. Doing Look and Discuss to start each class here in the spring for about ten or fifteen minutes can definitely help things along in our spring classes.
My reasoning is that I sure have noticed that, when I start class myself with R and D, the kids, having something concrete to look at and connect to the new sounds I present, have an easier time of it, are more focused, than when they have to fabricate the images in their minds themselves in a story or in PQA or whatever.
This is one of the great facts about L and D that it has over all the other teaching strategies we have developed together on this site*. Kids who are looking at concrete images do better in CI classes, and so does the teacher because you don’t have to think very hard for your next question – it’s there in front of you.
I only allow myself about three new structures per image. The tendency is to present too much and spend the entire period on the image but that gets to be too much new material for the kids, which no one can handle.
So I arrange my classes with ten to fifteen minutes of L and D – it kind of warms them up to working with CI and it’s certainly easier to stay in the TL with L and D than with stories or general discussion. (I simply don’t do stories this late in the year – they lose their power for some reason, maybe due to overfamiliarity with the kids, over time during the year).
Then for the rest of the class I go to Read and Discuss of a novel, which generally takes the class to the end of the period as long as my quiz writer has been very active in providing for me two five point Quick Quizzes, one on the L and D and one on the R and D.
So, to review, the class for me looks likes this:
1. One projected source image to introduce no more than three new structures in a heavily circled period of 10-15 minutes, followed by a quiz provided to me by the all important superstar quiz writer. (Without the quiz, kids come in tardy and get away with it, but when I start class right at the bell with the image, the late kids fail the quiz, which tanks their grade in just a few days, which is the best way to get them to get to class on time here in the spring).
2. Call roll at that point, give them a brain break, and then go right to the novel for R and D followed by a quick quiz on that.
This simple way to get through April and maybe May is a winner, in my opinion. You just have to really hit the circling and the SLOW factors.
Do I plan the structures and carefully choose the image before class? No, because they don’t pay me enough money to actually plan my classes. Plus, then the class is boring for me because then I know what I’m going to teach. I just go to Google Images and type in a topic, something I’m interested in that day, I get the image up on the screen before the kids get settled in their seats, and start in with the three structures, those that jump out at me (why is this man kicking his computer? what color tie does he have on? is he happy?) as we all start the process of L and D together.
Here are the three links to articles on Look and Discuss, for those who want a refresher course or are just now hearing about this powerful CI technique:
https://benslavic.com/blog/look-and-discuss-l-d
https://benslavic.com/blog/25574
https://benslavic.com/blog/look-discuss-3
*for a list of the very best CI strategies we have developed over the years on this site see https://benslavic.com/blog/return-to-core-values