This is a repost, for people who have recently joined our group, of strategies that have formed the core of our discussion here over the past six years. This list is meant to refocus, restate, defend and illustrate what we know works in our comprehension based classes. Find information about these bad boys either in the Categories list or via the search bar.
The Big Ideas
1. CWB (Circling with Balls)
2. WCTG (Word Chunk Team Game)
3. OWI (One Word Images)
4. jGR (jen’s Great Rubric)
5. the Classroom Rules
6. Jobs for Kids
7. L&D (Look and Discuss)
8. ROA (Reading Option A
9. cRD (Compact Read & Discuss)
10. The Net Hypothesis (Verb Walls/Word Walls excepted)**
11. Two Weeks Weekly Schedule 2013 (includes Textivate and IMTranslator)
12. jGA (James’ Great Argument)
13. RSF (Robert’s Sentence Frames)
14. Dictée
15. Self-Dictée (see category)
16. SOA (Story Option A)
17. Movie Talk
18. cWZ (Charlotte’s Wall Zoo for elementary)
19. https://benslavic.com/blog/category/checking-for-understanding-we-verify-by-asking-more-yn-and-one-word-answer-questions-than-we-ever-thought-we-could-in-a-million-years/
20. https://benslavic.com/blog/2013/01/12/alchemy-2/
21. TPR
In the comment fields below, please suggest additions or subtractions from this list. It is just my beginning attempt to redefine what got us here, what got us excited about teaching again, what powers us up, what we need to not lose sight of as the site moves forward, and what we need to stay focused on in the future, by focusing on the great strategies we have developed here in the past.
**Our students do not learn from lists of words, which represent a pox on our attempts to teach using comprehensible input. They waste time and people who use them fit into the category that Brigitte once described in a comment about teachers who “claim to do CI/TPRS but for the most part they just think they do because they “tell stories” in their classrooms”. They make lists and give kids tests on the words. The exception is the walls of words and verbs we put up in our classrooms. They may not serve the purpose of learning, but the business of schools is not always about learning, but rather keeping kids on task and holding teachers accountable for doing that, and in that sense the word and verb walls are needed. We look like we are “doing a good job” when someone walks in and we are referring to a chart on a wall. Plus, the kids can refer to the words on the walls when doing freewrites. We can start class with them if we don’t use SSR and Calming Music, which we should be doing – in my view that is the definitive way to start class for ten minutes, the best and only way to deal with all the crazy stuff that happens in schools with kids arriving late and all the other interruptions.