Here is another idea, a repost from 2013, that maybe someone can use this year:
…we can work also with images when doing dictée. It helps the kids because they have a picture to look at while the instructor spins out stuff about what is going on the picture. This builds auditory comprehension, writing/grammar, and reading skills. Just put up a picture easily seen by all and go through the regular dictation process….
I might add here that, besides Pictée, there are a number of other variations on dictée that can be found at the link below, for those interested in getting your kids writing more during this 2016-2017 school year:
https://benslavic.com/blog/category/tprs-dictation/
I am not suggesting that we do more writing this year – we have proven that more time spent on writing does not lead to greater gains in writing. We get greater gains in writing by doing more reading.
My point here is that again this year more gains should not be our goal here on the PLC. We must be ever vigilant and again this year to continue to remember as we did last year that in schools it is a fool’s errand to try to focus all of our energy on student gains, when our #1 priority each and every day should be our own mental health. I intend to beat that drum hard again this year.
(We cannot be the best teacher at the expense of our families and the loved ones in our lives. When we make it all about student gains we throw off the balance of our overall lives. This is not a good time in our society to be doing that, with so many people who are, as the French say, détraqué walking around. Think of your colleagues in your buildings right now, today. Something is wrong. There is a look there on their faces that ranges from mild to serious alarm. It is because we think that what our kids learn is the most important thing. Of course, it is the job of the kids, upon seeing that, to shut down in order to teach us what we have forgotten – that they and not academic gains are the most important thing. It is not good when the teacher wants too much that they learn.)
Sorry for the mini-rant there – my point here is that the best ticket to good mental health is a quiet classroom. When kids are too unruly to be able to handle auditory input, don’t give it to them. When they are too unruly to handle the great gift of reading in the form of FVR of the novels, don’t give that to them either. Make them appreciate the auditory and reading comprehensible input that you provide for them. If they abuse those two pillars of our work in CI, input in the form of listening and reading, then get them writing. It always gives a sense of legitimacy to our classroom process, even if, when it comes to foreign language, that legitimacy is false.