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Rethinking PQA – 3
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7 thoughts on “Rethinking PQA – 3”
No structures. No targets. Definitely no target structures.
What are you teaching? To me, that’s the wrong question given the unconscious nature of acquisition. We can provide the conditions, the environment, but we can’t control what gets into the mind/brain. If manipulating input can control what gets acquired (e.g. Processing Instruction), wouldn’t it be inefficient to focus on one grammatical aspect at a time?
Shelter vocabulary, not grammar. So you want kids to acquire the highest frequency 5 verbs. . . so communicate with your kids about anything you please, but limit conversation mainly to those 5 verbs. Use any grammatical structure you please. Chances are the grammar won’t impede communication anyway. When you want to expand the vocabulary, integrate the new words into the communication, rather than target them.
I don’t backwards design anything. Every time you do that you put a constraint on communication. If you just communicate (comprehensibly is implied) day in and day out, then there will come a time in year 1 when the kids are ready for the easiest TPRS readers (e.g. Brandon & Isabella). And we don’t have to stress about kids knowing 98%+ of the words in the book so long as they’re not reading independently.
I LOVE the Focal Skills design – kids stay in the listening module (80 hours each module) and repeat that module until they reach the intermediate level. Then, they go into the reading module. Even Krashen often lists reading as a tool for intermediates and practically speaking there are often not enough beginner texts to make reading possible.
Can we have a link to the Focal Skills model?
http://www.focalskills.info
http://www.glesismore.com/focal-skills/
and please remember that for most teachers, real and ideal are not the same. The vast majority now have to show, in written form, all of those things like targets and evidence of backwards planning in order to either keep their jobs or keep from being harassed on a daily basis.
I have been incorporating this term into my lesson plan write-ups: Practical Language Practice
Because nearly all of us have to give a test at some point that we haven’t written and because we will never be able to predict the needs of our students in the future, they must have “practice” with untargeted language. I explain to admins that I may be asking questions about a topic that we have not previously prepared for nor discussed, and that this activity is designed to give students practice in handling new situations and / or new language. I also preface this with the information that I choose a topic that is high interest so that students are motivated to participate.
It’s really just untargeted input. But because I have labeled it something else, it sells.
with love,
Laurie
Hi Laurie,
Thank you for bringing up the new reality that many of us are facing, namely evidence of backwards planning, daily posted SWBAT (students will be able to..by the end of the class) and specific agenda. In short, marching along to a specific scope and sequence, and nothing spontaneous. But at the same time, we should be ready at any time to stop and “connect” with students in order to meet cultural competency goals. But that is separate from our curricula.
Sorry for the mini rant. All this to say that I would appreciate hearing more about translating CI into language that will satisfy admins. A bit nervous about my upcoming observations.
John if it helps I use this SWBAT as a generic one for all my classes. Admins have to accept it because it’s what I ask my kids to be able to do:
Objective: Students will understand and interact in French using contextually appropriate vocabulary and grammar.
Same here John. I got a formal observation next thursday. What to do?