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Ten Minute Deal 2
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12 thoughts on “Ten Minute Deal 2”
This is a great idea. I tried this today and was able to string along a series of 10 minute. I also ask my students for permission for me to speak English, and recently their typical answer to me is “Dos palabras.” (two words), which I love!
With me what happens now Ben is that I will be going along ok for 7 or 8 minutes and then I forget and speak English for more than a four second pop up. Like I’ll just forget I’m on the 10′ Deal and then the kids forget. It’s hard to explain but my initials are B.S. and that doesn’t help.
So I see two possibilities:
1. We ask permission from the students to speak in English like you do.
2. We stay in L2.
Seems kind of like a minor deal but with me it’s a major deal.
Thanks for acknowledging that this is helping you Ben. It’s helping this Ben a lot!
Maybe a new job: The holder of the “Teacher Speaks English” card. Like a get-out-of-jail-free card but that allows the teacher to speak English for a moment without being flagged and without the clock stopping? So the teacher asks “May I speak English” and the kids respond “Yes, but only such and such many words!” and then the kid gives the card to the teacher. After the teacher speaks in English, he must give the card back to the holder of the card.
And maybe it’s not just a “teacher speaks English” card but a “Speaks English” card so a student (ONLY ONE AT A TIME) can hold it to offer cute answers for stories?
Really James this is brilliant. What it does is acknowledge that we can’t stay in L2, which we have to admit, and yet puts some controls on us. Me likey.
But then, referring back to my original response to Ben, shouldn’t we just tough it out to the end of the ten minutes and THEN say what we wanted to say before and if we forgot it couldn’t have been that big a deal (and not worth stoppage time during the “game”).
Dude with the flag idea (what was that job – for speaking English by anyone, right?) and the stop watch guy, and now this person handing out cards, we are turning our language classes into a soccer game!
The point of the “Speak English” card would be to allow:
1) clarifications of meaning
2) giving directions
and 3) cute answers from students.
I don’t think grammar pop-ups should come in the middle of auditory CI. (And of course not off topic BS, which I am always spewing out to students in L1.) Maybe in the middle of reading (ROA, for example) it’s okay, but we wouldn’t have the card then, anyways. Does that make sense?
I am feeling how this “soccer game” effect could really benefit us. Help everyone stay focused but in a fun way. It is a game, after all, isn’t it? Little things like this off natural brain breaks and are just fun and memorable.
This all feels like we are codifying the rules of jGR in a way that’s fun for kids. If they still break the rules we punish them. But at least here there is a fun buffer to remind them constantly what we are doing.
…I don’t think grammar pop-ups should come in the middle of auditory CI….
That has never been said before. I agree. It feels wrong to stop the L2 CI for any reason. ANY reason.
And good point where in a reading text we might go to some L1 to explicate things. Very limited there as well, however. But the auditory CI is sacred.
Which brings back the question about the cards. Should we allow them? Today I made two ten minutes periods with almost all CI then in the third one I asked my timer for permission to make a point and went nuts for at least five minutes. Say good by to the CI Ben.
We don’t have enough time. So we have to relearn everything we are doing with CI. We have to once and forever get off the English side bars. Not because we don’t have anything to say about our cultures in English, we whose hearts are stamped with their poets, painters, architecture and people. We just can’t mix both.
And so do we allow the cards? I for one am going to need a few weeks of testing on this one. Let’s not forget this topic James.
I have the kid actually throw the flag directly at me, with the intent to hit me. In this case, it can only be thrown for the teacher speaking. It could be explained that they just throw the flag up, not at any person, when a student speaks English.
From time to time, I will time my classes in the L2, and then I post the class times. It turns it into a competition between classes. I do the same thing with my “Real-time reading” and I write the word count (when I type my questions and the class answers as we retell a story). They LOVE this. I do it for a 25 minute span. 7th grade holds the current record with 505 words. I constantly check comprehension and won’t go on until I feel like everyone is with me. With my feisty 4th graders, I tried giving PAT points for every 5 minute period we went without English, but I’m not a fan of PAT. Then, the kids are just thinking about the reward and they get mad at each other when someone speaks English. Kills my positive vibe. I don’t like extrinsic rewards. It doesn’t seem to me like a good, long-term solution.
-Dude with the flag idea
Hi Eric. When you have a minute would you please explain how the Real Time Reading works and what words are being counted? I would like to start an interclass competition like that. Thanks, Laura
I did Real Time Reading last year. It’s a way to be lazy if you don’t want to type the reading up beforehand. Or a way to link auditory to visual CI. It just means you are typing everything, teacher questions and student answers, and it’s projected as you go. A wireless keyboard helps. I used to do it in place of Step 3, but it could be what you do for any TPRS step.
Thanks Eric! Got it – that is what I do already and for the same reasons and have found it to be a good activity too. I do it at the beginning of the next class to see what kids remember. I limit kids to one sentence, and doing this gets good participation from quiet students as well. If there were enough details, everyone remembers one little part of the story generally.
Also, I do not do a good job of writing on the board to support what I am saying, and I am much faster with a keyboard. I need to get a better system of visual support that way, and this activity helps. (I watched a Jason Fritze Fluency Fast and he does a fantastic job of writing everything, neatly and quickly. It is so important to see it as well as hear it.)
I have done it in English after reading a novel to do a comprehension check, but with class stories.
Thank you Eric – this is an idea that originated from Susan Gross. It is very useful when you don’t feel like teaching and never got around to typing up the reading beforehand. The kids enjoy re-creating the story and seeing it become a reading because it is their input that they see becoming a reading. I allow them to speak in English on this. I can’t remember what Susie said about that. Anyone?