This information is from The Big CI Book. It gives proper credit to Jody Noble. Jody’s idea – dating from about 2001 – was (certainly unintentionally) appropriated by many TPRS teachers over the years so that now it is known as the “Special Person” activity. But if you read through what is below, you will see that the Special Person is nothing more than Jody’s brilliant “Special Chair” idea from so long ago:
Strategy #18 – The Special Chair/La Silla Especial:
This original genius idea about asking students questions when they are seated in front of the class during the creation of a story is from Jody Noble. It has since taken many forms. Here is Jody’s description of the original “Special Chair”:
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“Four legs on the floor. Wooden seat. A back. It’s a chair, just a chair. Is that so? I asked my sixth graders to give me their thoughts on ‘the chair.’
Antonia and others:
“It’s cool. It’s different than any other chair in the room. It’s higher. You can swing your legs and they don’t touch the ground. When you sit in it, you’re higher than everybody else. You can see everything. You feel empowered. It’s the chair the teacher sits on sometimes, so it’s kind of prohibited or something.”
Pierce:
“When you are on the chair, it is a safe environment. You can be whoever you want to be. It feels natural that it’s in Spanish. You just think about making the story better. Other people add to the story when you’re up there. It’s like a circle. You have to listen and then you think about how to make the story better. I don’t have to think how to say it. I just think about how to make the story better.”
Jody’s own thoughts on the chair:
“I had always known that having young children come to the front of the room to stand while I circled and helped to weave the story/mini-story/PQA was a disaster in the making: the fidgeting, the fiddling with stuff on the chalk tray, the turning around, the goofy behavior of all kinds. Yikes! So, I have always hauled a chair or two from behind their desks to the front of the room. It was always a pain and most of the other students couldn’t see the kids anyway.
“However, it kept me from losing my mind and having to redirect behavior every three seconds. The kids in the front stayed still, got up to act only when directed to do so, and returned to home base after each location. The rest of the class focused more easily since the target wasn’t moving all of the time.
“When my friend, Beth, gave up teaching to live a life of sanity and happiness outside the classroom, she left me her teacher chair. It was really a stool with a chair back. It was tall and kind of cool looking. It changed my life.
“For each class I have some sort of small container with their class number on it. Inside each container lives a small binder clip and a ticket with the name of each student written on the back.
“Each time we do a story, act out reading, or do a parallel story based on a reading, I choose a kid’s ticket out of the box (sometimes more than one). It is truly random. I ask the child if they would like to participate. It is not mandatory.
“Rarely does a child refuse. It’s only a matter of time before they will ‘kill’ to get picked out of that box. I still marvel. They come to the chair while I put their now used ticket into the binder clip. They are now ‘a clippie’ until
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everyone else gets a chance to do something in class. Keeps it fair. This is important to them.
“Having the kid sit in a ‘high’ chair means that when I stand next to her/him and talk, we are almost at eye level – a small, but very meaningful detail when communicating with another human being.
“The chair has rules, of course:
- No dissing of the person in the chair, not ever, no way, no how.
- You do not have to tell the truth while sitting in the chair. It’s up to you.
- People may disagree with you, but they may not change your mind. Only you do that.
- You have the final word and then Profe has the final word after that.
- You may only do what you are told to do or risk being replaced by the next lucky person.
“If you think they follow the rules just because the rules are explicitly stated, you would be mistaken. We practice them and practice them and practice them. Much modeling, much ‘replay’ when mistakes are made, much elation and praise when rules are followed.
“Emotional SAFETY is my #1 concern. When it is protected, the affective filter is reduced tremendously and language has a chance to be understood. The affective filter not only affects language production, it greatly affects language ‘ingestion.’ If it doesn’t get in, it can’t come out!
“Please read more of the students’ reflections about the chair. I got a beautiful peek into what their experience in Spanish class has been like. They think it’s the chair! They are sold. My students were very pleased to know that I would include their thoughts here:
Colin: All of the attention is on you. (Me: Is that always a good thing?) YES.
Omar: When you go up there (on the chair), you wonder what’s going to happen. It’s exciting when it’s like that –
like a mystery.
Benny: Going on the chair is an incentive. We want to get picked. We start thinking about the things we want to add on to the story – which makes us want to know more words in Spanish. Going in the chair inspires you to want to know more.
Karson: We learn so much Spanish in the stories that we don’t think about it. It just comes out.
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Ellie: We don’t have the chair in any other class. It reminds us of when we were little and when we got to do ‘make believe.’
Jeannie: You don’t have to tell the truth when you are sitting on the chair if you don’t want to; and that is really fun. People don’t really argue with you and make you stay in reality. I like that.
Anna: After class, I can’t remember if we were speaking Spanish or English. I am not aware. It’s weird, but cool. I just ‘know’ what we talked about.
Alex: When you sit in it, it turns into a magical, wonderful chair. Henk: The spotlight is on you when you sit in it.
Jack: Sometimes you get a little nervous, but it’s ok. It’s much easier to be on the chair if the class is behind you (rooting for you).
Gloria: You never have to do it if you don’t want to. You always tell us what things mean. Cameron: When you’re on the chair, it makes you feel powerful. I like the acting the best.
Byron: You get to be in charge when you’re on the chair. There should only be ONE special chair.
Nicole: When you get to contribute to the story personally, with your own ideas, putting yourself in the story, you remember it. It’s fun to share a bit of yourself (fantasy or real) with other kids in the class when you’re on the chair.
Griffin: I enjoy the experience of sitting in the chair and making ‘new worlds’ that the class helps you create.
Sam: I think the chair is important, but I think there’s something else that is more important – the teacher – because you make it all work out; you help us make the story good; you ask the questions; you repeat the things so much that we feel like we know stuff. (I reminded him that none of this can happen without the students’ cooperation and willingness to play the game. Without them, there IS no story.)
Sam: Even though the story stuff we make up is crazy, we can use the things we learn to talk about other regular stuff. (Sam gave examples and got extra points for his reflections.)
Jody continues:
“I often begin the story (after the child is seated) going over the expectations and reminding the class how brave a
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student has to be to come up in front of their classmates to be in a story that hasn’t even been created yet.
“When a child (for all of their bravado and inappropriate remarks) is in the chair, they are still vulnerable. All eyes and ears are on them. They have a lot to win or lose in front of their peers. All kids make mistakes – it is what children do.
“They also say things that horrify me sometimes. But I learned something from Susan Gross that is effective when this happens: the private whisper.
The Private Whisper
Jody continues:
“When a student in the chair speaks in English, says something awful for effect, etc., I stop for a moment, crouch down a bit, and whisper in their ear. It usually goes something like this: ‘I notice that you are blurting out in English. (Or, ‘I notice you said something that you shouldn’t have.’). Did you notice? I really want you to be in the chair today because you are such a good actor and you really make it fun for the class. It would be a terrible shame if you lost that privilege and had to go back to your seat. Do you think you can control the blurting out?’ They always tell me that they believe they can control the outbursts. And they usually do. If not, I follow through. Softly, quietly, swiftly.
“No one knows what we talk about in the private whisper. They get a chance to ‘fix it.’ They know that I am in charge of the class. They know they are in charge of themselves. I don’t let too much time pass before I notice that they are controlling themselves. I give them a thank you whisper with some specific feedback about what they are doing that is making the story work well. As Susie says, ‘After you make a withdrawal from the love bank, you will need to make several deposits.’
“When a child blurts out, we often do an instant replay of certain scenes. If I notice an off tone or inappropriate remark, I call it out and say, ‘Let’s try that again.’ We just play the scene again – this time in a more positive way. I often tell them exactly what I had in mind. I am not convinced that all of these kids really get it. They are so used to making and receiving unkind remarks from peers which are immediately followed by, ‘Just kidding!’ Anyway, this is just my own take on things. Every situation and child is different for sure.
“What I have noticed over the years is that little by little, they get the message: In this classroom, each one of us is the very best, the most intelligent, the most beautiful being that exists. (I can’t make them believe it; I can just make them practice it. It starts to work.) It has made me a better person, too.”
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Other details about the Special Chair activity:
- Kids do leave the chair to do acting, but they always come back. So there are in fact three chairs, two in addition to the primary one next to the teacher at the front of the room. Both are available if a story goes to a second or third location.
- Circling, review, and summarizing all happen better when actors are seated because there is much less fidgeting and more focus.
- The Special Chair technique can be used at any level. It is powerful in the lower levels because younger students often focus much better when there’s a real person in front of them who is being talked about. In that sense, the technique is very much like the One Word Image strategy. It is powerful in the upper levels because when questions are directed at upper level students the way is opened up, like in the Two Truths and a Lie activity, for shifting of person from first to third, thus giving the students practice in hearing and doing output in those other forms.
- For teachers who don’t have their own classroom and therefore don’t have a special chair, it is possible to solve that problem by carrying decorations in to transform the teacher’s chair into a throne… a fancy pillow, a cape, a crown, etc.