Anne Marie is in one of those situations where she is presenting on comprehensible input at a board meeting and would like our help and suggestions:
Hi Ben!
I’ve been asked to present 5 minutes of TCI to the Portland School Committee here in Maine for next Tuesday’s board meeting. It’s to give them an idea of the importance of moving our schools more toward oral proficiency. After my presentation they are going to do a power point of language acquisition, how many hours it really takes to acquire a language,etc. so they wanted to start off with a demo to “catch” their attention.
What do you think I should do? 5 minutes isn’t very long – I’ve thought of Circling with Balls, but I don’t know if that would work because the school committee members would go into it without knowing anything. Or 3-ring circus? Or the Lindi Li thing with looks at, coffee, and loves?
I’d love your input.
And check THIS – I got my school to pay for my two world language colleagues and myself to go to the TCI conference with Skip next week. Yippeee Skippeee!
Best,
Annemarie
My own response to this is to circle one verb like looks at. Linda’s thing takes an hour for those three verbs and you only have five minutes. If you teach “mira” you could be on safe footing by bringing the class to simple understanding right away. You are right that CWB takes too much time to get off the ground. So you might get something going by keeping your target simple – one verb – as in:
(this is what I would do):
Step 1:
Class, ‘mira’ means ‘looks at’. What does ‘mira’ mean? (‘looks at’)
Step 2:
Class how do you say ‘looks at’ in Spanish? (‘mira’) Good class, Very intelligent!
Step 3:
Class how we can we remember that ‘mira’ means ‘looks at’? (wait. Reject answers in a loving and praising way. Somebody will probably say ‘mirror’.) You say:
Oh! like in mirror! Class did you hear what Suzanne said? She said that you can remember that ‘mira’ means ‘looks at’ because of looking in a mirror! That is brilliant. Aplauso! (they applaud)
Step 4:
Class show me ‘mira’. Again lovingly reject or ignore some of the hand motions they offer and settle on one and praise that person. Each time you say’ mira’ – and it should be in every single question/sentence you say – look at the person who suggested mirror or the person who gave you the hand motion for ‘looks at’.
Remember as the class goes on to include those specific people in your approval of them. Get some fist bumps going with them. Make each person in the room feel special if you can. Use their names all the time (they should be wearing name tags. If they don’t bring some yourself for the demo.) They won’t want to learn unless it’s about them. So say their names every time you can. Saying their names over and over will bridge the distance with them in a way that you have to see to believe.
Step 5:
This is where the rubber meets the road. So far, the above has taken about 3 minutes. Now in the remaining 2 minutes, using a modified question word wall of only three or four questions (it’s all you have time for) ask the following questions pointing to them on the board or in a poster with the laser pointer:
Class, who looks? (if they just stare at you tell them “Class, un secreto!” – and remember to write all new words on the board with their translation – and teach them the trick where they lean in and tell them “Class, (name of person in the class) mira! (Ohhh!)
Then point to the next word after who (the questions words are in both Spanish and English) It could be at whom…. Again, if they fail to play just tell them the secret that John looks at Jennifer Annisten (point to a woman in the class to play that role. You will know who she is because she will be smiling and supporting you in the invisible world). Whenever a class just stares, stop asking questions and tell them that (someone in the class) does whatever verb you are trying to teach.
Now you have the people in your audience understanding Spanish and it is real to them because one of them is looking at someone else in the group. It can get silly if you have time to add in some adverbs like romantically or sexy. In fact, do that – write a few adverbs on the board before you start with translation. (Even if you think a cognate is obvious, it usually is not to them so make it visual.)
Then the third question you might ask is, “Class, where does John look at Jennifer Anniston? Wait for a cute answer. Where is a powerful launching pad of a question. But by that time you wil have left this template. Any celebrity will do. Just get the people in your audience doing the action of the verb you choose.
When Krashen came to my classroom last year I got nervous and asked Diana what to do and she said, “Just do comprhensible input! That’s all he wants to see!” It was the right thing for her to say. I relaxed and didn’t try to push a lesson on my students. I followed the flow of the discussion. It’s like forcing speech, we don’t force CI on our kids. Force doesn’t work in languages. If your classes are rebellious right now and you don’t know how to stop it, stop it by not forcing the CI on them. Invite them.
So if you use this idea or any part of it, Annemarie, and you feel it bending somewhere else, go there where it takes you. Follow the comprehensible input. Don’t try to force it in any one direction. If you are relaxed and asking questions about whatever verb you choose, they will be too. If you go slowly enough, they will learn. If you use another verb, like eats, then the question words you use will change, in that case ‘what’ (does someone eat? will be the question and you wait for the funny answer.
If you do this idea, you will need a marker, a board, the modified question words, and your laser pointer.
This is all I can think of that you could to in five minutes but others might have some ideas.
Then when you end say, “Wow! Look how long it took on just one word! And that was just to understand it! Can you imagine how long it takes to start creating sentences in the target language? In fact, let’s take a look at some numbers… and that leads you into the Power Point (which you can send to us in case anyone else here has to do a short presentation like this so they don’t have to reinvent the wheel).
You can also read in the category entitled “Presenting to Colleagues on the Method” to the right of this page.
I am sure it will go swimmingly, whatever you choose to do. As long as it is comprehensible you are doing your job. It’s time everybody just let go of how this work is supposed to be funny all the time. It isn’t because it can’t be.
