We can’t have the mindset when we start the year that we are going to be merely teaching our students a language – that part is incidental. Rather, our mindset should be about looking forward to training them, which includes hiring the 17 student jobs (over months and months). We want to get to know our students as allies, to work together with them to build something far more than a dry academic environment. That is why we start with Card Talk and wait on One Word Images, which can get out of control because the kids enjoy making them so much. They shouldn’t be making OWIs and ICIs until they have been thoroughly trained via Card Talk, which is a trick activity that answers our immediate first weeks needs to build community and put the hammer down on classroom management before it’s too late. We want the community building and classroom management pieces strongly in place to start the year, with the language coming along for the ride as we focus fully on those critical two things. Besides, One Word Images are not even as fun and interesting as Individually Created Images. So we introduce them later, after we’ve done Card Talk and ICIs.
Related: