It’s interesting to me that some in our group are having success with the Big CI Book and others with ANATS and ANATTY, since they are different, the first one still retaining elements of TPRS/CI and the second ones being fully devoted to NTCI. It doesn’t matter. We work for success however we can find it depending on what we are drawn to. This is Jennifer’s excellent report based on what she has done with the Big CI book and she is to be congratulated because she is on a roll:
Hi Ben, I wanted to drop you a line to let you know that today, I was near tears over how well my students did with the CI story that we created together. I am supposed to be teaching them to describe themselves, their friends, and their families, and having them review ÊTRE and AVOIR, ER/IR/RE verbs, and teaching them DORMIR and PARTIR. That’s what’s in the curriculum for Unit 1.
I decided to only use DORMIR and PARTIR and to use a Blaine Ray mini story as a frame, like the sample story you wrote about at the end of the Big CI Book. I started a PQA about how well individuals in the class sleep at night and at what time they leave for school in the mornings.
Oh, my god, the kids went nuts. We had one boy telling me that he didn’t sleep well because he was texting at night. I asked him to whom he was sending text messages, and he said they were to his mother. Sleeping poorly due to texting got circled about a million times — asking other students if they were texting this boy’s mother as the reason for their poor sleep. Later this student told me that his bed was broken. Other students talked about leaving for school at a particular time, and when a boy and a girl both left at the same time, we talked about whether they could leave together… The PQA went on for 45 minutes. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, I read your stories, and how your PQA can go on for hours, but for myself, I just couldn’t see how I could do it. Especially, I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to keep repeating the same verbs and to stay inbounds (I’m still working on all of this, and the biggest challenge by far is SLOW). But I stopped myself from going off on a tangent and using more verbs. I repeated those two verbs so that I got 73 repetitions on DORMIR and 69 on PARTIR. I realize you would have gotten 250 or so, but for me, this was an accomplishment.
Then we made up a story together — a boyfriend and girlfriend — Fred and Rose — who both would sleep really well at night because they each had a super comfortable bed. One Saturday they slept late and the boy called the girl and asked her to go to the movies with him. (The kids think it’s hilarious to always send people to see “Crazy Rich Asians.”) They left for the movie at 1:30, and afterwards they left the movies for the girl’s house. When they arrived at Rose’s house, they saw that her bed had disappeared. So, Fred offered to give her his bed. They went to Fred’s house, and his bed had disappeared. They decided that the beds must have run off together because they were boyfriend and girlfriend too! But Fred and Rose were very upset because they couldn’t sleep without their comfortable beds.
So, Fred and Rose decided to leave for Spain to find their beds. They left on an airplane and when they arrived in Madrid, they left for the famous bed store. There, they found their beds. Rose was very tired, and she said she needed to sleep. So she fell asleep. Fred decided to sleep on his bed too. Finally, they decided to stay in Madrid and live in the mattress store where they would sleep very well on their beds, and never return to the U.S.
I got a little cartoon from the class artist (who was very excited because his dad’s name is Fred). I got a synopsis of the story in English from my story writer, and I gave them a T/F quiz afterwards taken from my quiz writer.
I used a student with an IEP who is VERY quiet in class as my barometer student. He was cooperative, and he loved the attention he got. He started nodding and even adding to the story.
I tried this same lesson yesterday with my A-Day class (today was a B-Day) but I forgot to milk the PQA. Yesterday’s class deserved so much better. And they’ll get it on Monday.
I’m writing this all down and sending it to you because I cannot believe how much I am loving my class. We’re leaving the textbook behind, and I am excited about teaching again! The kids were happy; I was happy…
My department chair wants me to do a presentation on CI on Monday, to share with my colleagues what I’m doing. I’m basically going to do an advertisement for your book and PLC.
Meanwhile, I just wanted to drop you a line to let you know how grateful I am to you and the PLC for guiding me to this moment.
Mme/Sra. Jenny Goldszmidt
World Languages
Marriotts Ridge High School
Howard County Public School System
410-313-5568