This is the final article on Spinning PQA.
When we give up any idea of establishing meaning, defining words, telling a story that resembles a script, or even of teaching, then we have arrived at the threshold of a new world, at a new experience in teaching. Those things, the three steps, are necessary, but they aren’t all there is.
We can give up the need to become clever TPRSers who worry, fret and analyze about how PQA differs from a story – this describes me for the past ten years. We can give up finding a million ways to do a reading class, or to use computers in the service of comprehensible input.
We can float above all that in our classes. We can become just people talking to other people in a spirit of shared meaning and a desire to communicate and uplift each other’s experience of life by means of the vivid experience of imagining things together. This is where I see the method going.
This kind of TPRS brings a new day of lighthearted discussion, laughter at the expense of no one, language flowing like water in directions that reflect the make up of personalities in the group, language that is free to naturally go in the direction created in each moment of circling during PQA.
I am not so naive that this kind of classroom experience can be reached without first basing one’s work in the classroom on all the established premises of TPRS. Indeed, the steps of TPRS are just that – stepping stones to a higher experience of teaching.
3 thoughts on “Spinning PQA 5”
¨… language flowing like water in directions that reflect the make up of personalities in the group, language that is free to naturally go in the direction created in each moment of circling during PQA.¨
So, in a spin-off of Jim Tripp’s “Mucho gusto” story, (which you can find by searching ‘mucho gusto’ on the blog), we were setting a scene in an elementary, 5th grade class. Madelaine was our character, and she was on the beach. It was sunny, there was a shark in the water, and Madelaine looked beautiful. We were using the structure “she meets”. I asked the class, “Who does Madelaine meet on the beach?” (It was going to be Barack Obama’s nose if I needed it). And this 10 year-old in the room very confidently rose his hand. So I said, “Max, who does Madelaine meet?¨ and Max replied, ¨She meets Richard Simmons.¨ Now, the other 5th graders did not laugh as hard as I did, since they are only 10 and have NO IDEA who Richard Simmons is. But we got a picture of him up on the board and continued the story. It was hilarious. One of my favorite classes yet this year. Way funnier than anything I could have made up. I am looking forward to more days like this, with¨… language flowing like water in directions that reflect the make up of personalities in the group, language that is free to naturally go in the direction created in each moment of circling during PQA.¨
“We can become just people talking to other people in a spirit of shared meaning and a desire to communicate and uplift each other’s experience of life by means of the vivid experience of imagining things together”.
Wow as I read this I had in my head the movie of Bryce talking to his teenage students in Breckenridge: just a genuine and super interesting (BTW) conversation with these kids. I even forgot what structures he was using because I was so amazed to see the beauty of interactive language unfold in front of my eyes.
It was indeed : ” a lighthearted discussion, laughter at the expense of no one, language flowing like water in directions that reflect the make up of personalities in the group, language that is free to naturally go in the direction created in each moment”.
I find myself wishing the blog had facebook’s “like” button, or better yet, a “love” button! Loving all of this, all of you, and the work we are doing with kids! (and especially the image of Richard Simmons joining the 5th grade in Breckenridge!)