Paul Kirschling in a few recent comments here said:
…we know what we know to be true. And we know that if we don’t do what we know to be true, then we betray our students and ourselves….
…I will not judge but do wonder how long one can last doing something you know is ineffective….
I will apply that message here. To me, I know it to be true that date and weather is boring. The kids are waiting, waiting, always waiting (in all their classes, not just ours, like prisoners chained to a wall) for something REAL to happen. (A curriculum is NOT NEEDED in language classes. Why do we teach date and weather? It is not interesting to them. I really mean it as a question. Why do we do that? This comes under the heading of “Hey, let’s take just enough of Krashen into our curricular designs to say that we follow his ideas, but not so much of it that we actually have to follow his ideas!”
And the first person who says it is because we HAVE to I’m going to get on a plane and come over and slap you with a wet noodle. Just kind of kidding. Are we children? Do we really HAVE to teach shit that is boring? Come on, people, throw me a bone here. Mention the date in a story but quickly before the mojo wilts and then move on. Do we teach boring stuff because someday tells us to? Do we teach that stuff because some day our students will be in a foreign country and suddenly have an immediate need to know what the date is?
Has anyone ever really reflected on the absolute fact that when a person has had enough interesting and on good days compelling input that the time, date and weather terms just may have been absorbed into their minds while all of that input is happening in class? They will learn it naturally and not on some time line. Throw me another bone here, people.
If it doesn’t engage the kids, then toss it out, is what I say, echoing Paul. Keep all the input in the “high interest room”. Oh is it because of the curriculum? Oh well I beg your pardon, but the LANGUAGE is our curriculum and UNLIKE OTHER CLASSES IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO BREAK IT DOWN TO TEACH IT. WE MUST TEACH HOLISTICALLY IN OUR FIELD, and not by breaking the language down into little pieces, like dumb asses. Do we really have to teach using a curriculum that fragments, breaks up, beats down and confuses kids because of the big people standing over us making sure we teach how they say? Throw me yet another bone here, people. When are we going to grow up?
I call for the end of all administrators and curriculum directors. We can do it ourselves.