Jody’s Special Chair technique has recently taken form in Denver Public Schools as a highly successful CI strategy called Star of the Week (“Etoile de la Semaine” or ” Estrella de la Semana”). Credit for this goes to Bryce and Sabrina and Nina.
Here is Step 1 the process:
1. Give a handout with about 10 questions to your students.
2. There are 4 columns on the sheet:
a. The first left hand column is labeled “Anglais/English”. It asks the question in English.
b. The second column is labeled “Question”. It asks the question in the 2nd person in L2.
c. The third column is labeled “Ta Réponse Personelle/Your Personal Answer”. Note carefully that this box gives only the first part of the response to each question in the TL. The student copies that first part of the answer on the back of the sheet in order to then complete the sentence with their own answer in the 1st person singular in L2. They thus learn first person spelling and how to speak in the first person during the discussion that follows.
d. The fourth column is labeled “Sa Réponse (il ou elle)/His or Her Answer”. The student uses the first part of the answer to then note in the TL the answers provided by others in the class. This is done in the 3rd person singular in L2 on the back of the questionnaire, in similar fashion to what was done in the third column with their own answer. By taking these notes they thus learn third person spelling and how to speak using person.
First example:
a. In the first left hand column is the question in English, “What famous person would you like to go out with?”
b. In the second column is the question in L2, “Avec quelle personne célèbre tu voudrais sortir?”
c. In the third column the student finds the first part of the answer that she needs to then respond to the question. In this example, the student would see, “Je voudrais sortir avec…”, flip the sheet over and complete her answer in L2.
d. In the fourth column the student finds the first part of the answer that she needs to note how her classmates respond to the question. In this example, the student would see, “Il/elle voudrait sortir avec…”. She would then flip the sheet over and complete the sentence with the answers given by other students in the class. She would then have her sheet in front of her ready to answer any questions the teacher might ask about a celebrity she would like to go out with or celebrities her classmates would like to go out with.
Second example:
a. In the first left hand column is the question in English, “Do you cheat when you play games?”
b. In the second column is the question in L2, “Est-ce que tu triches? Quand?”
c. In the third column the student finds the first part of the answer that she needs to then respond to the question. In this example, the student would see, “Je triches quand…/Je ne triches jamais…” then flip her sheet over and complete her own response in L2.
d. In the fourth column the student finds the first part of the answer that she needs to note how her classmates have responded to the question. In this example, the student would see, “Il/elle triche quand il/elle…Il/elle ne triche jamais.”. She would then flip the sheet over and complete the sentence with the answers given by the other students in the class.
In this activity, the student answers questions, takes notes, and participates in a class discussion about her own responses and those of her peers to the questions on the Star of the Week sheet. Everyone is included in the discussion, however briefly.
As usual, the Quiz Writer and Artist are constantly busy, although obviously the Story Writer is not. Whenever the class needs some redirection, the teacher can quickly give a quiz or ask for the work of the artist about some of the images she has created to share with the class using Look and Discuss.
CI and the Research (cont.)
Admins don’t actually read the research. They don’t have time. If or when they do read it, they do not really grasp it. How could
10 thoughts on “Star of the Week – Step 1”
Thank you Sabrina, Jody, Ben for this great idea. 10 minutes was just enough with a Kindergartner today. We found out about his family members and pets, names and all. I used a felt board dangling on the student’s lap, upon which we velcro’ed random pictures to represent his family and house. It kept the kids focused and highly engaged. Rather than write the questions I asked them. I did not check for comprehension into English, and it forced me to circumlocute a lot more. It was immediately clear when kids did not understand, so I kept at it until they responded correctly. I will try 10 minutes/kid/lesson and let everyone get a chance to be the “star”. My ultra simplified version is nothing like Sabrina’s of course. It’s so versatile. Love it!
I will follow-up first thing tomorrow with review questions about today’s star. That will give us much needed practice on a variety of questions. Like a mini oral quiz.
Maybe with my level 4 kids who are reading parts of “Notre Dame de Paris”, each one could take on a character and give their response as the character. Quasimodo, why do you obey Frollo all the time? Esmeralda, what’s up with the fatal attraction to that louse, Phoebus? I have made a template with some level 1 questions – age,etc. just to fool around with a format. Email me if you want to see it.
Chill
Thanks you DPS folks and Bryce for this different idea!
Great idea Chill!
We need a like button!!
with love,
Laurie
Would you be willing to email me the level one template you made? tim.geerlings@gmail.com
THANKS!!
Sent, Tim. The questions are just some can-do type stuff I fooled around with. I can see that the line of questioning could go anywhere as long as, as Ben said, the language used is in bounds.
I was reading something by Bill VP. One of the activities that he seemed to be big on was the survey. Part of his thinking is that a survey is truly communicative. It is not to practice grammar, but rather, to find out information about each other. I admit that I was not very excited about it when I first read it, but Sabrina has brought it alive for me. I am currently trying a mixture of this and the sentence frames. That is, I am following the “star” format, but using the sentence frame questions that similar to those suggested by Robert for a return from vacation activity: Did you like the vacation? Did you stay home? If not, where did you go? What did you do? What did you eat?
This is with Spanish III. So after each Star, I have chosen someone to come up and give an oral recap of what we found out about each person.
I wanted to share a little twist on this activity:
1) Have 2 people as the “special people” at the same time. This resulted out of necessity in my adult class due to the limited class time I have to interview everyone. It was also taking an hour or more to finish 1 middle school student and at that rate I wouldn’t get to everyone this year. Having 2 people interviewed at the same time means compare and contrast questions and it means second and third person plurals, 2 forms I rarely use!
2) This activity is definitely more non-targeted – I let kids suggest 2-word English answers and occasionally explain follow-up questions with English, much of which I point and pause on a mini whiteboard. I have to have a strict “touch the door” rule for more than 2 words of English use.
3) This type of interview has more real-life relevance and transferability – these are questions the kids will be asked in real-life and this interview procedure is similar to the ACTFL OPI !
4) When I let my kids choose the activity of the day, I find my rowdy 8th grade boys request this activity. At times this activity can feel like pulling teeth and then a kid suggests a cute answer, we get a good laugh, and the energy returns to the classroom. I find that a lot of energy comes from the class spontaneously co-creating the answers FOR the Special Person, which brings into question whether or not I should be giving them time to fill out the questionnaires.