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.