Throughout the week the teacher can share with the class a Power Point presentation of the child with his or her photo taken when the student came up to be the star. On each slide is the photo of the student, along with the question, as well as a picture of what the questions represents.
If there are ten questions, ten slides would be prepared. Each would have the photo of the child, the question, and a related picture. The stage is set for all kinds of questioning, comparing/contrasting during the process.
Stay in bounds. How? Well, since each question has a verbal core structure, all you have to do is remember to repeat that core every time you ask a question or repeat something that the star has said. Don’t leave that verb. (This is one of the true keys to successful CI instruction. Repeating the target every time you say something is your only hope to keep from going out of bounds.)
So this strategy is wide open, in a way, because of all the different information being shared, but those are only nouns and such. The verb is always the same, which allows the kids to be able to track the discussion as long as you do that repeating of the core in everything you say.
If you think about it, you may be asking the same question to up to 35 kids – that’s hundreds of reps. Just stay in bounds by repeating the core verbal part of each question. With ten questions, ten structures on each sheet, that is a lot of in-bounds CI. Good stuff.
The Star of the Week can be an amazing journey for a class. The teacher must be working from a place of trust, obviously, because personal things will be discussed. It is imperative that the teacher avoid overly personal questions, obviously, just like in the Circling with Balls activity, keeping things lighthearted at all times.
Of the many CI strategies discussed in this book, it is possible that the biggest students gains are achieved in this activity. Sabrina and Nina feel that that statement is true, and both are masters of most if not all the other strategies available to us in this work, so that is a pretty strong statement.
One option in this process is to ask the students to come up with some questions they’d like them and their peers to be asked. From these, a new questionnaire can be created. By asking the students what they want to be asked, you further open up the already wide pathway of interesting communication with the kids.
In this work the CI:
1) is personalized, the students get to be a star for a day, they get to shine , and their peers get to know them at a deeper level.
2) builds community at a level that most teachers would not have thought possible. For example, as a result of a set of questions that included students’ birthdays, the students quickly learns each others’ zodiac signs.
3) provides tons of repetitions needed for acquisition.
4) is highly compelling, not just interesting, because it is their questions that are being discussed.
It is entirely reasonable that an entire curriculum could be based on the Star of the Week activity.