I think now is a good time to repost some articles from last spring on PQA. Just to get the creative juices flowing since most of us are doing heavy duty PQA right now, much more than we will be doing once the stories start. There are five of these articles and I will post one per day here over the weekend and into next week.
My view on PQA is that if we plan it, it won’t be interesting. We have to become weavers, alchemists who spin gold from the straw the kids provide for us. That’s what this stuff is, really, in my opinion – trusting, letting things emerge organically. Now is a good time to practice that a bit in each class, to get ready with our PQA skills for next year.
We can’t say it enough – our job is to take the focus of the learner off the vehicle that delivers the language and onto the meaning of what is going on. The mind can’t serve two masters, and the real master is what is happening, not the language used to convey it.
Would we read the Narrative of Sojourner Truth to study the words in the book that holds her story, ore we would read it to find out about this unique, fearless American?
In PQA, I always try to remember to take the first bit of information that lends itself to being bent into something weird, something interesting and I go with it. I push it, if I have to, but generally, if the kids are doing their job of supplying cute answers, and if I am doing my job of circling creative (maybe even compelling on a good day) questions, we can quickly get into something that removes any danger that we make a mistake and end up focusing on the language.
This means that if I found out during PQA that Sammi has three cats at home, I generally would leave the direct questioning of Sammi (boring). Sammi is the only one interested in her cats, and is far too “close” to her little darlings to help us make up weird stuff about them.
But the class is not! So I would just start a discussion about an imaginary cat:
Class, there was a cat!
Nothing great here yet, but I try to spin this into a bizarre image. I point to an empty part of the room. The left brainers have trouble with this, but the right brainers are ready to pounce.
Class, the cat was eating!
I remember to embellish with nuance. I say the words with mystery, maybe yelling them, maybe whispering them. In doing this, and not saying the words like a computer merely conveying information, I am focusing the minds of my students on what the words mean, and not the words.
Is it o.k. if I throw in a little English here? Just a little English? Only half the time? Would that increase the interest and focus on what is going on?
Uh, no. I need to stay in the TL for this cat to come alive in our room.
(à suivre)