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5 thoughts on “Simple R & D”
Reading ‘Patricia va a California” right now in level 1 simply because I’m done with them.
Here’s my bailout move I’ve been doing:
We’re reading the novel I mentioned above which is great because I like reading classes (they’re easy and I’m burnt out this year). The problem is now, at this point, the kids just aren’t engaged, especially in reading, but I’m D-O-N-E with stories in this class for our remaining 33 days. This class showed me about 2 months ago that it can’t handle stories. But we’ve done so much reading this year, they’re bored with it. I even had one kid privately ask me if I was worried about the majority of class not being engaged. Not liking those types of comments I said no, but secretly thought yes. My solution: Student-led Read and Discuss. It’s R & D but I randomly call on students to read a paragraph, after each sentence the rest chorale translate. Some of them use funny accents, some purposely read as monotone as possible, and some do so awesome it blows my mind. For some reason they like doing this. I think because they feel like they’re doing something because they’re giving output. And class clowns get a chance to appropriately be clowns while still getting CI. They enjoy it and I enjoy it because its even easier than regular reading classes!
Hi Chris,
Sounds like my 7th graders. They bore easily – or perhaps several of them have a need for lots of action, excitement, and attention. Competition is another motivator. But anyway – I let them do this, too, with voices. I take volunteers to read aloud and another student points to the words on screen. They always love that attention. As long as they’ll keep from making it incomprehensible, it’s ok with me to be a little goofy with voices. Sometimes it’s really great.
Another thing that works with them well: look & discuss weird photos. It’s what they do in English in their spare time on Google, so the concept is very clear to them!
I’ve also had a good time with them watching a video clip, doing normal watch & discuss stuff focusing heavily on comparing them to the video people, and then ask them to work in partners to come up with an ending scene. It’s been a good way to spend the final 5 minutes of class: they have to work fast with a partner or two to decide what happens, then act it for the class quickly. I find it’s good for them to finish class with something goofy/active/full of attention. They return happier (=more cooperative) the next day.
Here is one thing that has worked well in my noisy Chinese 2 class over the past two months. When we get to the reading of our story in Chinese characters, I hand my laser pointer to this little shy fellow and he takes over. He points to the sentence and calls on kids to read. I stand in the back of the room with my clipboard and the students know I’m doing some jGR so they stay completely on task. At the end of the paragraph, I circle. Then the kid flips to the next slide and he keeps going. Works great, keeps us in the target language and has totally boosted the confidence level (and grades) of my little teacher.
Rad.