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Report from the Field – Jeff Brickler
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6 thoughts on “Report from the Field – Jeff Brickler”
Jeff one thing you might try is, once you have the story done, get it written up as fast as you can, for the next day, and review what was created by a lengthy Read and Discuss period (R and D such a crucial, underated process).
If you start class in this way, the grammar heads and all of those kids who find themselves on unfamilar turf with you after a year or two of having figured you out (levels III/IV being the worst of it), they at least have something to look at to calm down their flailing visual faculty which has steered the ship in your classes over the past two years.
You can (with them but certainly not with the level one kids) even use English to discuss the reading’s grammar and such, to get them comfortable. Then you could slowly turn the screws up on the CI as the year goes along. But starting the year with full blown CI in these upper level classes who don’t know how to play the game can’t work – it’s just too abrupt for them.
So maybe that’s an idea. I am currently using it successfully with the 3/4 French classes* I teach that know nothing of CI and in which I depend entirely on the good will and willingness to change of about eight kids in the class.
By the way, we need to get those positive kids and thank them in the hallways for their support of what we are doing. They don’t know. We have to tell them how valuable they are to us.
The use of a written text as a bail out move with kids in upper levels who don’t know how to do CI classes is a good move. The only problem is that we have to create the story first, which can be very difficult.
One way around that, however, is to just start the year with those untrained kids with a novel or some kind of SIMPLE reading (because even though they are upper level kids they don’t know anything) and then use the “discuss” half of the Read and Discuss formula to slowly crank up the CI without their really knowing it is happening. Then, if that works, you can start stories later.
*I have to use cardinal numbers because it’s a French class; I can’t use the Roman Numerals like you can bc yours are Latin classes. I want to use Roman Numerals (notice how they are capitalized?) but I just can’t – the Latinists drive the ship of modern CI instruction and they get the cool stuff. The modern languages will catch up to Latin one day….
Another thing you can do Jeff, which I plan on doing next week, is to haul out the rigor/metacognition/self reflection posters we built last spring. Next week I am going to have entire classes in English where we just talk about what is happening in the classroom, using smaller group discussion and then having them report back to the big group for processing. Those posters are great for that.
Hopefully doing that will get some of the black hole kids to realize how ugly their academic behavior is and get them to change. As they see creative kids around them having fun and getting involved, maybe they can be prompted to try to do the same against their training in schools in the past. Maybe they can change and grow.
“but I always have this nagging feeling to show results, get data….blah, blah….blah.”
You are not the only one, Jeff. One slightly related thing that came to mind while reading your post is how so many administrators, even good ones, think that fast-paced content delivery with seamless transitions between multiple and varied activities is the magic pill: it supposedly will a) eliminate dsicipline issues, and b) ensure that lots of “content” gets “covered” without “wasting time.” I think we have all been duped into thinking that we can hide behind a never-ending series of activities and tasks, and if we just keep them coming, we’ll never have to confront our students as human beings during that dreaded “empty” time which alone allows for real human interaction. It’s like the Wizard of OZ (the book more than the movie), where the Wizard keeps telling them to come back the next day, and each day he has devised some crazy illusion to impress and frighten his visitors, until finally Dorothy cuts through all of it, threatens physical violence, and demands that he show them who he really is and help her and her friends get what they really need: a mind, a heart, courage, and a home.
…we have all been duped into thinking that we can hide behind a never-ending series of activities and tasks, and if we just keep them coming, we’ll never have to confront our students as human beings….
That’s it. That’s what most of the people we work for think. So well expressed in that sentence. So next time you try to convince people about what we are doing, going slowly, personalizing, etc. don’t expect a great response. It’s Robot Time, and we’re in it.
“…a mind, a heart, courage, and a home.”
Can’t speak for everyone, but I really need those things too. So it becomes a symbiotic relationship, where giving students what they need for acquisition (life as well) gives us fulfillment as well. I really like the analogy of the Wizard. Thanks!
Jeff,
I hear your concerns about the older students. I am lucky that I only have A and B students this year. It is still early enough with them (and I don`t have to cover so much material) that I can slow down with PQA and creating basic stories.
In the future, I may have to teach students in upper levels who have not had any CI , and are probably quite happy with the grammar/translation style which has carried them that far. I’m not sure what the answer is in that case.
Are you still trying to use a textbook series?
The major problem that I see in Latin (besides the complexity of case endings) is the lack of suitable readers. There is quite literally nothing out there that I know of. That means creating a bunch of stories yourself to use in class. If you are anything like me, writing any kind of Latin story, let alone a repetitive comprehensible one, is extremely time intensive. The Cambridge stories are good, but even they go into way too much new vocabulary. I have been trying to create some embedded readings for Unit 2 of Cambridge over on the bestpractices site, but it is slow going.
Are we going to see a Latin version of “Anna Infelix” anytime soon? or something else more culturally appropriate?