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Report from the Field – Mila Garner
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6 thoughts on “Report from the Field – Mila Garner”
Mila asks:
…from now on what other CI activities do you suggest for the 3 classes? Keep repeating calendar/weather, card talk, OWIs for another 3 weeks?….
Mila what you will notice is that those three base activities will start becoming very comfortable and you will spend less and less time on them, of course depending on what happens in any one particular class, since the essence of this non-targeted approach is to just go with what comes up, go with the flow, go with what brings happy conversation to the group.
But you did say that you are only doing this for half the period, so you probably will want to keep on doing them for a little while longer. We do those things, really, all year. The basic rule of thumb is that we stay with any activity as long as it is fun and the kids are engaged. That is your yardstick.
One other really good thing to keep in mind is the Reading Options. They eat up gobs of time. Check them out, esp. options 4-7. Really, in my view, we learn languages best by reading, and these options are just fantastic. They are the goal, really, of the auditory CI that precedes them.
So keep doing those basic things and then throw in the reading options when you are ready, and then when you are comfortable with the “create and read” process, it will be time for longer stories. It all evolves naturally, you will see.
Thanks for your reply! Reading options 4-7, do you mean these below?
4. Choral Translation
5. Discussion of Grammar in L1
6.Reading from the Back of the Room
7. Reader’s Theater?
I think they have different numbers in different books so I just want to make sure you’re talking about these above.
I have been doing 4-6 haven’t done 7 yet….
Thanks!
Yes that is correct. Note that 7 may not happen all the time or not even a little. For 7 to happen, you have to have ACTION that you can act out, preferably that you can exaggerate for humor.
That second question is a real difficult one. On the one hand, the parents want accountability in the way they think languages should be taught, the traditional way. On the other hand, they want their kids to be able to use the language when they are in Europe. Which is it? They can’t have both. Maybe you should ask them what they want. And then when they tell you they want their kids to be able to use the language, then download and print a bunch of the Primer articles above, hand them to them, and tell them to allow you to do what you think is professionally responsible, since you are the professional. Isn’t it about time that teachers tell the school what the instruction should look like, and not the other way around?
Thanks again, Ben! It’s actually just one parent that is really anxious and nervous that their son is not learning enough. I have 5 German kids in this “French for Germans” class. The school is actually wonderful, they trust in me 100%. They tell me to do whatever I think is best and that I just need to be consistent. I love their trust in me. It’s just tricky because I started teaching in the middle of the year (January). I am just doing the book “Discovering French Nouveau 1” which is what the previous teacher was doing. This one parent wrote me saying we’re not “moving fast enough” and that only a certain amount of pages have been done since December, meaning I am going too slow. I told them that the numbers of pages accomplished does not equal learning and that I will continue to follow the pace of the class. The parent wants X amount of chapters accomplished by the end of the year. I told him in a kind way that that is not possible with the amount of time I have with the kids a week and that we can’t speed up language learning by “going faster and doing more chapters”. I will keep with this book for this year, next year will be different. Thank you!!
A note to the group to explain Mila’s use of the book. She picked up this job in January and was told she had to use the book but also wanted to explore NT so we decided to split the instructional minutes in half. This has worked! So hey, maybe it’s not such a battle as we make it when we have to use the book. I love what she told that one parent above. That is called not caving in to foolishness. I think she does the grammar the first half of class.