Report from the Field – Ben Slavic

3 thoughts on “Report from the Field – Ben Slavic”

1. Eric Herman

   December 14, 2015 at 6:25 am

   While we’re talking about how we divide up class time, I’d like to share my current routine:
   1) PQA 1 question (e.g. What are you afraid of?) – 5 minutes, but more if it’s flowing
   2) 1 trick of Story Card Magic – 10+ minutes
   3) 8th grade: Book Clubs (read a chapter and then do some 5-minute activity) or
   5th-7th grade: read-aloud of next chapter and Reader’s Theater
   4) Blaine-style MT (students are actors in the video) OR create a story (TPRS step 2)

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2. Angie Dodd

   December 14, 2015 at 9:55 am

   Thanks for this, Eric…what are the time frames for steps 3 and 4?
   My current routine on a 75-min block:
   1. Greetings and PQA about last night, the weekend, do you have an Xmas tree, etc…
   2. Calendario: Day, Date and Weather (student-led)
   3. Warmup reading: A mini story on a slide , students translate it (student-led) and then I ask TL followup questions.
   4. Review: Usually L&D review.
   Those 4 usually are about 30 min.
   3 min. break
   5. Thematic work: I’m tied to a thematic curriculum but I CI it as much as possible. We do read and translate, students ask and answer questions in pairs, I do star of the day type interviews, or L&D, then they write essays and memorize them for the assessment. – 15-20 min.
   6. Stories, Movie Talk, and followup stuff for those. 15-20 min.
   We might play a little beach-ball volleyball in between 5 and 6.

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   1. Eric Herman

      December 14, 2015 at 10:07 am

      I like your routine, Angie!
      As for me, not tied to any curriculum, I just choose the most compelling activities to my middle school students. No time frame. We can spend as much or as little time on each. We could spend all class on personalized discussion if engagement stayed high.

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