Jennifer Kelly shares below about how a return to circling more often has helped her. It is a good reminder, because we get caught up in so much during a lesson that we forget how many times the kids need to hear a structure repeated. I suggest that we all really focus on circling for the rest of the year, maybe asking kids to count how many times each structure gets circled. We must realize that, if the kids don’t understand, they can’t be funny and the story can’t go anywhere. Then we’ll think that we suck at stories when all that is going on is that we are not circling enough. Another way of saying this is that perhaps it is better to overcircle than undercircle. Otherwise, only the quick auditory kids get involved.
Hey Ben,
Something you wrote in your blog has REALLY helped me. I have not caved to the old habit of “falling back” on output or non/CI stuff, not since I got back (except for one sore throat day).
Here it is:
If I can’t circle it, I won’t do it.
That is SOOO golden. I ended up circling a tiny little dictee for a whole
class period, and it was all CI, and they all stayed with me. Thank you.
[Ed.note: when I asked Jennie permission to put this in as a blog, she wrote this gem back:
“Blog away. I am so determined not to give up! Basing everything on
circling has really made a difference.”]