I was very pleased to welcome a beginning French student who studies with PLC member Don Read to New Delhi from San Francisco yesterday. With dual citizenship, Sahaana and her family were here for Divali.
I chose an Anne Matava script called “Seated in the Corner’ from her new book because it came highly rated by Anne. (We should have a category for “Highly Rated Scripts”, scripts that we know will work for situations like this one. I never work without a script when being observed so that I can be guaranteed that the train will stay on the tracks.)
As advertised, the story was fun, held the interest of the class, and, if not a home run, was definitely a triple. Sahaana jumped right in acting as the main character. She understood everything and seemed to be quite enjoying herself seated over in the corner, the focus of the story, at one point going to the principal’s office while driving a car with a four foot wide steering wheel that was about six feet off the ground.
In a time when students who change teachers in mid year are met with old and hackneyed refrains like “That teacher didn’t teach you anything!”, Don, a recent Teacher of the Year in his CA district , and I have reason for a big hug because Sahanna fit into a class half way around the world seamlessly.
[An aside: all of Anne’s new stories follow the traditional three location structure of TPRS, and as the story went through the three locations I couldn’t help but think how the three locations are better than random communication because the same structures are repeated so much – so many times! – in stories. It was an eye opener.]
I know why I always use a script when being observed – they guarantee my safety by guaranteeing interested in case the story doesn’t grow wings of its own. The kids never notice how the script is guiding things along – they think that they are making everything up. Usually the final story when working from a script is a combination of Anne’s script and things the kids make up, which works well.
All in all, we had a great time, and I got an awesome reading out of it, a full page of details and vocabulary that I will send through its paces using Reading Option A for at least two block classes after the Thanksgiving break. Thanks to my great story writer in that class, I can now work my CI instruction narrow and deep in this upcoming most important part of TPRS – the reading piece, staying very much inbounds with all the ROA activities.
Don, if you read this, THANK YOU for sending Sahaana over. Her mom was smiling from ear to ear during the story and even her little brother Zubin got into it. Mom asked Sahaana after class if she understood everything and Sahaana said yes and mom said that she only got about four words, although she totally enjoyed the mood in the room. We must be doing something right!
The Problem with CI
Jeffrey Sachs was asked what the difference between people in Norway and in the U.S. was. He responded that people in Norway are happy and
