Unlock with PatreonThe Problem with CI
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Nathan Black
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7 thoughts on “Nathan Black”
And the thing is that the content doesn’t matter – pictures, songs, PQA, whatever. The most common words in the language will come up, we can count on that, as per Krashen, and wonderful mind, that powerful machine, will go and sleep and parse out what it wants to retain and they will learn that way. All in a natural and no pressure way. BUT we have to go slowly so slowly so that they can have their confidence. They are reticent to let us know that they don’t understand, so we have to sense that and slow down. I am about to ask a class to make sure that, as a class, they slow me down. Maybe they will do it.
Following on the above comment, the 90 minute class went by in what seemed like 15 minutes. That is because we circled around their cards effortlessly and endlessly, but always following the emergent energy surrounding the activity. One kid plays field hockey. We tried to take that somewhere but it didn’t go anywhere. But, my quiz writer got a question out of it and we mentioned the girl’s name and so everybody knows who she is now. She wrote down the French for field hockey in her composition book in the most serious way. So here at the beginning of the year we
– personalize
– norm the rules and behavior expectations
– go much slower than we think is normal
But then Thugg, a cheerleader, sings, her card said that she sings, and that moved the class into a “Chante Off” – they made the word up – a “Sing Off”. Maybe it is the influence of Idol or whatever, but five kids wanted to sing better than Thugg. They tried (30 seconds each) and failed. One kid got so nervous he had to sing behind the audition screen. I also tried but failed. They all sang better than me. To them it is real. We really bonded. Not that much French during those minutes, but that will come later, when we are bonded. After the Chante Off, we got to the business of circling more of the cards. I got fifteen great and VERY EASY questions, thus guaranteeing their buy-in to the class. The combination of getting the kids to be known for what they do, going so slowly it was ridiculous, and following my rules, worked to create a class like the one Nathan described above with pictures. It wasn’t at all like teaching. It all leads me to say one thing – we must take full responsibility for their learning. We have to stop acting like teachers. If they aren’t getting it, we are going too fast and we are not paying enough attention to them. Other teachers in chemistry and all of that cognitive stuff can’t do that like we can.
Now, later in the day, with a first year class on a brain break to drop what we just did into the hard drive, we just spent a half an hour talking about how Poulami makes cookies. Ain’t it great? Thirty minutes on one sentence. Call me crazy.
I love this site. Thank you Nathan and Ben!! Just look at these silhouettes and their incredible potential: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/in_silhouette.html
Also…for anyone following the Chilean miners: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/09/trapped_in_a_chilean_mine.html
I’ll be spending a few hours here. :o)
with love,
Laurie
after a glorious first day!
and San Fermin……
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/07/the_festival_of_san_fermin_201.html
and the Tour de France….
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/07/2010_tour_de_france_-_part_i.html
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/07/2010_tour_de_france_-_part_ii.html
The World Cup:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/preparing_for_the_world_cup.html
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/opening_weekend_-_2010_world_c.html
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/halfway_in_-_2010_world_cup.html
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/07/2010_world_cup_comes_to_a_clos.html
Argentina’s Bicentennial:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/argentinas_bicentennial.html
You know Ben, I don’t have good luck with people telling me that they don’t understand. In fact, today’s story I taught the phrases stands in line/would stand in line/stood in line/was standing in line. In each class I found a kid who would stand in line for 5 years for a car. Long story short, I started telling the story in French (I think I speak great French from your DVDs) Il y a une fille que s’applle Priscilla et elle voudrait avoir un voiture rouge. blah blah blah–impressed?
Anyway, some of the kids thought I was speaking Spanish and refused to tell me they didn’t understand. The kids who get it tell me when they don’t; it’s the kids who don’t get I worry about. Slow is so f[reak]ing hard.
You are totally right about needing to sense the atmosphere of the class. I am teaching my buddy’s 2nd-grade kid German a la CI and I realize that he understands me but it takes his little brain a while to put the pieces together and respond. I realize I need to control my impatience to teach this kid everything I know. It’s a totally different scenario when you can teach directly to someone’s eyes vs. teaching to a class of 74 eyes. He is a super kid, last time he said, “When are you going to teach me words like tank, and airplane, and machine gun?” Total WWII buff in 2nd grade. So today we counted Soldaten und Fleugzeuge and described their colors.
Even harder than slow is to not dismiss those kids who aren’t keeping up, who give up. This is a human thing. We put them, their needs because they also are our students, above all we’ve ever learned about teaching, which is that some kids get it and some don’t. We painstakingly reach out to them. We walk over to them when their head is down and we smile and act surprised that they are doing that, and then we go back to the place where they did get it, and we start in again. They come around. They are not used to that kind of attention, and they come around, knowing that they will not be left behind. It’s kind of like going back and getting somebody if they fall out of a boat. That is why the Circling with Balls works for me. I can always go to their card at any moment and make a big deal out of the fact that they are a skater. I know, dude, this is hard as it can be. Teaching is emotional, challenging, difficult, not like any profession. On some level I know that I chose and stayed with teaching for 1/3 of a century because I wanted in this life to develop my heart. I woke up at 1:00 a.m. and lay there until 3:00 a.m. last nite worrying about a flock of good but chatty girls in one of my classes. The kind that pulls an attitude for anything, that speaks English in spite of all my protestations and best efforts. I have already acted on that with building support and if that doesn’t work an email to parents is next. A pep talk won’t work. Nathan told me thank you last night for challenging him to contact parents, something he said he never really had the impetus/courage to do. We have to do that. We move the chatty kids apart. We email/call parents. We talk to counselors to get them changed to other sections. NOW not in October. If their head is down, we act. We contact people. We make a big deal out of it. This is the month of hard work. By working hard in that way, intervening, reaching, doing what is necessary so that they GET that we MEAN IT about our rules and how we are responsible for all of our students, we then have one month of hard work and eight months of easy work, and not the reverse. I know that it is hard to reach out to any and all support in the building or at home. Do it anyway. And yes, control your impatience like you said above. That is our main job. We must become champions of patience. We must present the language so slowly that it is painful.