I have a colleague who has two middle school classes, one of 8 and one of 4 kids. I told him to just be careful with those small classes. They can get boring because of the lack of diverse energy in the room. Here is what I wrote in an email to him:
You will have to go quickly into imaginary scenes (what I call “extending” PQA) and really get a fanciful world of bedrock information on each kid. The questionnaires (see posters page on the resources link of this site). In a sense, each kid will have to fill the function of 7 or 8 kids to make it possible for you to get the energy needed to keep the interest high. I would suggest, as well, going to stories much sooner for the same reason of “How long can you PQA with just four kids?”
The stories are going to have to be of excellent quality, as well. Bring parents into class often, anyone who can provide comparision with the kids, because once you find out information on someone via circling, when it drags, bringing in someone new, imagined or real, or bringing in a new event, is crucial to keeping the circling alive.
This is what Blaine told me personally and it really works: you spiral down into greater and greater detail in the circling and then when it reaches a saturation point on the interest you bring in a new character or a new event.
Compare the kids to celebrities, who themselves could become a part of the imaginary ongoing fabric of the classroom. You will need a lot of leitmotifs and imaginary “friends” in the room, more than in most classrooms.
Read a ton, and do a ton of spinning of comprehensible input in the form of discussion whenever you can. What I mean by spinning is when you go back and forth every ten or fifteen minutes between reading and talking about what you are reading by making up new things, always new things, that are based on the vocabulary that you are reading. I would do this at least 70% of the time – the dynamics of your classroom will almost require it.
Always focus only on their listening and their reading in year one. Then you will be almost shocked at how much they can write and speak after that if you focus only on listening and reading here in year one.
Recruit other students. You’ll find that this fluffing up of the energy in the room is crucial in small classes. Once the kids know each other, they may develop (are very likely to) personal likes and dislikes between each other. Even if you are aware of them (usually we are not), then the dynamic betweeen certain kids could affect your work overall. That is why you want to try to get more kids in there.
Some kids are just too shy and quiet at this age and that is another reason to try to recruit more kids, especially into that class of four. You don’t want all the work will fall on you and just a few kids. I would base all of my work with that class of four on reading.
On the positive side, you won’t have to worry about comprehension checks and teaching to the eyes!