Last week we were using (from Matava):
- Allons-y!/Vas-y!– Let’s go!/Go ahead!
- veut tellement l’embrasser – wants so much to kiss her
- s’est endormi/s’endormit – went to sleep
So to begin the 53 minute class I had to PQA these, I first asked myself if they have power. All three did.
Next I had to figure out what order to present them in. To me the first one should not be introduced first – it felt kind of clutzy. I felt it out and decided to start with wants so much to kiss her.
First thing, I immediately tried to relate it to previous stories. It’s not like we hadn’t done any love stories this year in class. So when I looked at the structure and then at my class, wondering how to start in on that structure, I saw my student Oscar sitting there, and I remembered a story we did a month ago with Oscar sitting in the back seat of a car.
The image from that story came back to me and to the class right away. Bertha, the other actor in that story, had looked into the back seat of the car and was surprised in that moment to see Oscar, who in that other story played the role of a would be lover.
We remembered it bc it was compelling. Hell, there are stories I remember from years ago. So do you. It’s what makes this work so much fun. So there was my structure being related to previous knowledge. So that is one way to build interest.
But – and here is the point of this article – if I can’t think of anything from previous classes to relate a structure to, I just play off the kids in the room by stating things, not asking them. This is PSA and it works a hell of a lot better than PQA.
I tell them a secret, that Marco wants so much to kiss Janet and not Bertha. I Just start TELLING the students stuff, using the target structure wants so much to kiss her in each statement. I circle a lot. I take the initiative. I become the Annoying Orange, as per:
https://benslavic.com/blog/2012/10/03/annoying-orange/
The point to make here is that PQA is really kind of a misleading term. Obviously with such a powerful structure as wants so much to kiss her we should have no trouble getting a good PQA session anyway, but if the kids are sleepy or it’s too late in the spring or whatever, we just make pronouncements about who wants to kiss whom, etc. This is PSA. Use it.
Now let’s say it’s 20 minutes into class and I’ve been circling wants so much to kiss her and the baseball pitch counter kid (see the Jobs category here for more) tells me I have 41 reps. Fine. I’m looking at the clock and seeing that I need to go the the next structure.
But I’m in the middle of Bertha and Oscar looking at each other and Oscar wanting so much to kiss her. Out of control reps on one structure but I want to get to three today. So I try to find a way to segue me from the first targeted structure to the next. I just say:
…Class! Oscar wanted to kiss Bertha so much but Bertha went to sleep!….
Even though it’s not a story, but, knowing that Bertha is an excellent actor, I ask Bertha and Oscar to come up and act the car scene out for the class. Of course, Bertha’s head drops into deep sleep the minute I say that Oscar wants so much to kiss her, but I have succeeded in bridging one structure to the next.
An aside: Don’t try to plan this shit before class. Let go of your need to control. Say to yourself, “Yes I am a teacher, but I don’t have to control everything all the time.” Do it. Trust the universe, which wants cool stuff to happen all the time. Don’t doubt that the universe wants to laugh. Especially now, right?
If you go in without armament, plans, all that teacher nonsense that the kids are so very tired of, you will be more vulnerable, but you will also become much more real to the kids, since you will be more with them, so do it.
Of course, if you don’t really want to be present in the moment of instruction with your students, if you became a teacher to be, say, the coolest and smartest person in the room, if you don’t want to learn shoulder to shoulder with your young charges, in short, if you want to be four percenter. you can join the others doing that.
Just bear in mind while you are doing your instructional service work that the way things are going in language acquisition now, you probably won’t have a job in ten years, but hey, knock yourself out. It’s not like the kids haven’t seen that kind of teaching before. Hey, stretch it out for as long as you can.
Sorry for the tangient and the bitchy edge. I’m done now. So then I try to drive it all towards “Let’s go!” to be sure I have gotten reps on all the structures before the end of class. So how to get to Let’s go!? Well, and this is key, I can’t plan it in advance. I can’t plan it. I just have to trust that I can find my way into Let’s go!
This is where PSA comes in. I pronounce things to the class (PSA) things in order to keep the CI going, in order to now start getting sufficient reps on Let’s Go! I look at Oscar and make up a totally false statement, that six weeks ago in class Marco told me that he wanted so much to eat at Burger King so he asked me in class that day for permission for him and Oscar to go across the street to Burger King and I said yes. That’s about five minutes of circling there:
Class, six weeks ago Marco asked me if he and Oscar could go to Burger King because he was so hungry. Do you remember? (Of course they don’t – it didn’t happen).
Marco, what did I say? (Marco looks at me uneasily bc he left his playful inner child back in 4th grade in Miss Dumerville’s class but I encourage him.)
Marco, remember? I said yes when you asked me if you and Oscar were so hungry that you wanted so much to go to Burger King. ! I said that because you and Oscar wanted so much to eat at Burger King that I said, Go ahead!”
And remember, class? (now I am starting to really talk like the Annoying Orange – I mean for real – in class, to Marco, who is coming around to the game slowly.)
(to the class: Marco asked me if I wanted to come and I said, “just go ahead” because I wanted so much to teach the class. Remember?)
So in PSA we just tell them what happened. As soon as I say something, however false, about a kid, they have to go along with it. They have to try to understand. Too many people are looking at them. I put them on the hot seat. They literally have to get involved. I am in charge.
Note well this difference. In PQA, they are in charge. They can sit there like the incredible little shits that they sometimes are, and, when we practically beg them to answer our PQA questions, they know how much we are squirming, because, even though they are shits, they are smart shits, and they let us squirm. That’s PQA. Screw that.
When I do PSA, they need to know what I am saying to keep from getting embarrassed. I’m in charge. I’m the shit. It’s a strong card to play in a comprehension based classroom. I play it all the time. I don’t ask. I tell. I make statements. I take complete control of my classroom. I don’t really do PQA unless it happens as part of PSA. Feels good to say that. Shows growth in me.
So that’s all that PSA is – just mixing up the structures, keeping on with the circling, and turning it around on them to state to them what happened in the moments they have the “look” in their eyes. I trust that it will all go well and I keep staying in the TL. It does go well bc I am not needy. I don’t need them to answer my questions.
(If any of that – the PSA or the PQA – doesn’t fly, I just start the story. PQA is not a pre-requisite tfor stories. It is very very helpful but not required. The only things required are SLOW and staying in bounds and all those skills we have discussed here in such detail over the years as per the Punch List category).