We’ve been snookered. In the goal to get more reps and to go narrow and deep, we’ve very often accepted a false truth, a received idea in TPRS, that it doesn’t matter if we finish the story.
Well, I haven’t finished a story in about ten years. I just wanted more reps and more reps and more reps. I’ve gotten half way through the first location in many of my block classes this year. This puts the kids to sleep. I am just waking up to that fact.
Interest is more important. Interest is everything in TPRS. The research points to that one fact above everything. Why get lots of reps if it’s boring to the kids? I can’t be the only one who has given in to the idea that reps rule in CI – they don’t. Interest is what counts.
So this week my focus is on moving right out of the first location and on to the second and possibly a third and to FINISH THE STORY.
And lots of repetitions are going to come with the second and third locations, anyway, right? We can no longer belabor the same old information before the story has sufficient time to hook the kids and to maybe actually get actors moving from one location to another.
This belaboring of information in order to get lots of reps bogs the story down can actually affect classroom management in some classes. That high interest in the kids’ faces when the story starts quickly become bored looks on the faces when the story starts up with too many reps.
How long can we hold their interest when they are asked to answer yes or no to endless variations on what her name was, what color it was or how many peanuts there were.
Plus, we can get plenty of reps when we read the story with them in ROA, especially in Step 7 of ROA, Reading from the Back of the Room.
My goal this week is less early reps in favor of quicker movement and funny action to the second location and on to the end of the story in less than 15-25 minutes.
To sum up:
- Get the reps in locations two and three.
- Get the reps in Step 7 of ROA.