Angie has a question:
Hi Ben,
I wrote this in an email to Eric but realized that I’d like to put this question before the group…
I had a good time with the video (The trailer from Frozen) but but the activities really showed me that my classes have taken a wide split between students who are acquiring at my rate of instruction and a handful who suddenly started getting really lost. One student was so overwhelmed by the reading that he just shook his head and said “I have no idea what this says”….not good. Meanwhile, I have others who are bored because “it’s repetitive and I understand everything you say”….I guess that’s the life of a teacher. I hope to talk with you and others up in Maine about strategies for working with those really slow acquirers…if I slowed down enough for them, I would lose everyone else, yet I obviously want to make sure they don’t get left behind. I think I have 3 of them this semester, out of 61. Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way, but I think of them as way slower than a barometer student.
Anyone have strategies for working with these guys? Especially for adapting Free Writes to their level of acquisition?
Thanks,
Angie