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6 thoughts on “Support for the Invisibles – 2”
…I am excited to see the difference with this new method….
To be clear, this is not really a new method, but a way of looking at CI instruction differently. We start with an image and expand the language, putting no limits on what words we use. Thus we rely in trust on the infinite possible combinations of language to bring life to our classes. We do not reduce language into pieces, as the old way of doing CI does. That is the difference, along with the serendipitous gift of the Invisibles, the 14 student jobs and the 7 level questioning sequence, along with the 21 reading options.
By the way, those who bought TPRS – The Easy Way are now entitled to free downloads of the new book – A Natural Approach to Stories, which Teacher’s Discovery just released today*. Just email me at benslavic at yahoo.com and I will email you your electronic copy.
*hard copies of the book will be available on May 1st, in a few weeks….
Hi Ben,
In A Natural Approach To Stories, you mention that the picture/character for the next Invisibles storytelling gets chosen during the 2-5 minute Town Meeting. You explained what to look for in an image/back story, but does it really just take a minute or two to choose an image?
Also you mentioned that you review the details of the chosen image before you start the story, but it is unclear to me when you FIRST went over those details. Thank you!
… does it really just take a minute or two to choose an image?….
I prefer when it does because, and this may just be me and my right brain self, I like to not know what I will teaching that class period. So I never promise beforehand that a certain character will get in. It’s all spontaneous. This make it more interesting to me. I just “know” which character I want when my eyes fall on it. So much more energy that way!
On question 2 above: I ask for details in English when the individually created (vs. class-created/OWI) Invisibles arefirst created. There has to be a problem in all of those details. We are still ironing things out. But pls. don’t think there is only one way to do it.
In all, there are four periods of time when we talk about the character’s details: during OWI if it is a class created image, during the auditions first (no rule on that but that is when we learn the character’s back story in L1, then again we discuss more facts – in L1 – during the Town Meeting, just getting to know the character (as long as it has passed the drawing test) and then in the TL in QL2 when we add even more details.
But this is a very flexible system. Adapt it how you wish. The biggest thing is providing the CI with the lowest possible affective filter, and having fun. Then they will learn.
Here is just one of may related links to the concept of play and laughter in education:
http://insideclassicaled.com/plato-and-play/
“I ask for details in English when the individually created Invisibles are first created”
Do you mean you cruise around while the kids are drawing and chat individually with them as they draw or do you mean you give each kid a chance to talk about his character’s back story/problem in English to the rest of the class after they finish drawing? As you say the devil is in the details and I’m having visualizing the flow. Thank you!!
It depends on if you do auditions or not. When they audition their character, it is in English to the class. That’s in the book. I’ll send you the new book which has more detail…
Thank you!