I think that the power of Robert’s idea of sentence frames (see previous two articles here on that topic) is significant, especially to use after a vacation. I didn’t think it would be when I started them on Tuesday, but it is as elegant a form of CI as I have seen, and is highly personalized, so it keeps the kids involved. Another reason the kids are involved is that, as in a story or often with PQA, the Quiz Writer is busily writing a ten point quick quiz during the CI about the frames the kids wrote from the prompts given here:
- I went to
- I saw
- I received
- I ate
- I play
To sum up sentence frames, we can say that a SF class could follow this pattern:
- Teacher establishes meaning of the five frames above.
- Students write out what they can to complete the frame. (15 minutes)
- Discussion in L2. (from 15 minutes to 15 days or more)
- Timed writing on “My Vacation”.
- Samples of student writing on the document camera for general discussion.
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For more on how to assess them at the various levels, see “Sentence Frames 2” – here is the short version, simplified – in levels, as per what Robert does in his classes:
4/AP – he discussed structure/grammar but only had them correct what they felt was important. I like that level of “grammar hospital” response for the advanced kids.
3 – grammar correction was made only when the writing interfered with comprehension.Lots of discussion of the conteent text in L2.
2 – “…even less grammar and more discussion of content…”. (than level 3)
1 – no grammar correction whatsoever at this level. As he read, Robert changed mistakes into correct German. Discussion of content only. Lots of praise. This is significant.
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A note regarding sentence frames and class discipline: how can the kids not behave when the following four pronged discipline plan is in place?
- jGR is in place and being enforced.
- the Quiz Writer is bringing heat to the end of class – the kids know this and so they have to focus in class.
- the Classroom Rules are posted and being referred to.
- the class is all about them and what they did over the break. Highly personalized content bring positive discipline to CI classes.
- the jobs are carried out as usual in this class.