I have found it helpful, in the very first classes, to begin the year by first asking the class to pair up and briefly discuss which of the four skills (written on the board) are learned in what order in small children. They always say the listening skill, then the reading skill, then speech and writing. We agree that speech and writing occur after listening and reading, is my point here.
Most agree that authentic speech occurs last, and I take this key moment to point out the difference between authentic speech and memorized speech and how the former requires over ten thousand hours to emerge vs. what they may have experienced in language classes in the past. They seem to appreciate how the little dialogues memorized in previous classes can’t work to produce authentic speech.
Having established the fact of the primacy of listening to small children, via this metacognition, I find that in the next few classes I am able to introduce each class with a little pep talk about how important listening is as a foundation for anything authentic in languages, all the other skills. Light bulbs can be seen to go off in them when I make this point. I get buy-in on the role of listening. I play the listening card over and over in the first week of the year.
More support for listening comes from the Classroom Rules. I continue to be amazed at how having the current version of the Classroom Rules up on the wall allows me to continually redirect, painstakingly almost every few minutes if necessary, each student. I put my hand right on the rule. I point out how the Classroom Rules support the four key Learning Habits that we have defined in my current school of Respect, Responsibility, Perseverance and Collaboration.
I also bought a pair of bright green framed glasses. I tell them that when I come into class in a few weeks wearing them, it’s going to be 100% French from them and 98% French from me, with 2% of the time allowed by the Class Timer to me for short explanations of classroom procedures. I won’t do any pop up grammar except in reading classes this year, and I think many of us have made that shift from doing pop-ups during stories, which in my opinion lets too much L1 into the room.
We did a Matava story this morning. Lift off. Yeah I did Afraid of the Package. Yup. Working from a script is just a fine thing. A boss (patron) who was actually a baguette (a really huge loaf of French bread in France is called a patron) yelled at a worker.
Why did it work? It worked because of the Classroom Rules. Man, I have missed this stuff over the last year! And I know we have a lot of new strategies, but for every ten cool new strategies, I would not trade what we have in stories. Just sayin’.
The 2015-2016 Classroom Rules:
Classroom Rules
- Listen with the intent to understand.
- One person speaks and the others listen.
- Suggest cute answers.
- No English.
- If the teacher is not clear tell him/her.
- Sit up…Squared shoulders….Clear eyes.
- Do your 50%.
- Actors – synchronize your actions with my words.