Laurie told us to just play around with her EBR ideas (that thread from a few weeks ago about how they can be used with films in class). Personally, that the kids see their own sentences does make a significant difference in how they read. Moreover, adding in new layers to an original text is quite the way to increase new knowledge – the embedding of the new stuff is a strong and effective teaching tool. That is what I have been doing, but Michele has reported the following much more detailed analysis of how this idea is working for her. What I get from what she wrote is the mega power that is potentially there for all of us if we just keep exploring the many ways in which readings can be injected into our TPRS classes:
Ben,
Because of our recent [Skype] discussion, I have embedded readings on the brain. This has been a huge turning point for me, but at this moment, I’m not really even sure what I used to do before because everything is getting embedded and embellished. There’s really no obvious end to any story or activity. I can’t say that I am following a set curriculum in any one class. It’s pretty free-form, though one class was able to read the piece on environmental pollution that I’d been aiming for this month, and another group read about the October revolution with very little difficulty. A third class watched a children’s video about a baby mammoth.
The one constant lately is that I’ve handed the kids the structures and they have spent two minutes coming up with skeleton stories, which I then ask. Generally we don’t get to all the stories.
In one afternoon lesson, I printed out skeleton stories that kids had told the day before when they had to think up stories for me from three structures, handed them out to groups, and they had five minutes to expand on those stories by figuring out back-story details. They told the class the expanded story, meanwhile fulfilling a speaking grade. It could have been the same story in every group, but it turned out to be different ones. It could be fun to have several different versions of the same story.
I typed up those extended stories during class as they retold the stories – dictating to me – (as I typed, they could read on the LCD, so we got more reps). Then I added extra details to the stories for the next day’s text on my own. By then, we all knew the vocabulary really well. I could and probably should have followed up with a fast write, but I got distracted and did something else.
In another class, I typed up some skeleton stories, sent them off to our native speaker, and she embellished, returning the stories to me by e-mail. The kids were really happy with her take on the stories.
In a third group, I typed up the skeleton story, and then we asked the back story with the whole class, and I typed that up after the lesson. We read the results today during class. Unfortunately for me, I missed some of the details, and got others wrong, so the kids were YELLING out the corrections. Naturally I had two visitors sitting in the back of the class, and they thought the kids were unruly. But they were still impressed with the amount of Russian they knew. We’re using all sorts of irregular past tenses, reflexive verbs, and verbs of motion.
Ben, I started to write you this to explain where our conversation about embedded readings has taken me. I’m not sure I explained very well. But I think my kids are feeling very happy with themselves, and I’m feeling like a power teacher again.
I’m SO glad I’m teaching this way. It’s so much more elemental than any other way. Thank you for all your writing, your engagement and your support!
Michele