This is some stuff about beginning the year I shared with Libby Whitesell recently and I thought I would just put it up here and add it to the Beginning the Year category:
Libby: Is the word wall that you use in your classroom and brought to St. Louis on your site?
Me: It’s not on the site. I have to take that other big word list down. It’s way too many words. I thought it would work but it doesn’t. 30-40 words per month is way too many. I’ll try to update that soon with the first 150 words I personally use. Now I just leave the seven panels of about 150 words up all year. Much better, much more effective. There are so many ways that that wall of words is helpful almost in a lot of different ways every day, even though it’s not part of the TPRS “plan”.
Libby: Also, just want to thank you again for your blog and your honesty. I will be in front of students in a little more than a week and I am nervous! I am trying to write something to give the kids that explains expectations, procedures, and how the class works. I want it to be concise and concrete.
Me: They won’t hear anything like that. Six other teachers will be saying the same thing in different ways and, being kids, it won’t reach them. By the end of the first day, they will have received seven longish letters for parents and heard approximately 35 rules at least. I will personally just start teaching – I want them to know from the gitgo that the language that will be used in my classroom for communication is French and I will focus on enforcing my rules only when they occur instead of explaining them and that is how I will start. I will NOT say my rules in French – it wastes time. In fact, I will try to avoid saying ANYTHING in French that I have not painstakingly made clear to them. I won’t have them ask permission for the bathroom in French, and things like that. They can’t do it and it freaks them out.
Libby: I also have a meeting with my new principal. He is young and enthusiastic and I am going to try to explain TPRS in my class. Another stress! He will be doing ‘snapshots’ of my class. This is a five minute observation to be sure all are engaged in learning and teaching.
Me: Then walk over to every kid in those first few days who looks like a non-participant and get them involved. Use the TL. Include every kid asap. That is one of the main purposes of the many goals of the Circling with Balls activity. If you want to explain any rules so Linda Li’s four simple ones:
1. Everything I say is interesting, so respond that way.
2. Always slow me down if I go too fast (with a big downward sweeping of both hands)
3. can’t remember right now but Annick Chen knows them all and I will see her Monday adn update this.
4. same as (3) – I think one of these has to do with look at my eyes all the time or something
Libby: I’m going to give [my administrator] a copy of the administrator observation form (Susie Gross?) [ed. note: yes the “Administrator Checklist for Observing a TPRS Classroom” is at susangrosstprs.com and it may also be on my posters page] so he knows what to look for. I may as well take advantage of a critical eye in the room.
Me: Administrators love that list and not enough of us take advantage of it. It helps the administrator a ton. It really lowers THEIR affective filter. I think it’s one of Susie’s best ideas ever. Don’t forget to do that. And don’t try to ‘splain TPRS. It can turn them off, like you are trying to sell them something, in case they are not open to Krashen. It can cause a polarity that is unnecessary. Just get the kids engaged and have fun.
As Laurie alluded to in a comment here yesterday, we can’t seem to realize how simple this all is and we can’t seem to stop all the planning. The more we plan, the less they learn, in my opinion, because it takes us away from Krashen’s underlying principles like the Net Hypothesis and the fact that humans learn languages when focused on the meaning of the message and not the words used to convey it. How about we just do that? We are Nervous Nellies right now and we don’t need to be. The method works. It’s a Mercedes. Just gas it up with the high octane SPC* formula and go!
*Slow Personalized Circling