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Time to Bail Out on the Balls? #1
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20 thoughts on “Time to Bail Out on the Balls? #1”
Hi Ben. I have been experiencing somewhat of the same with my middle schoolers. After about 20 minutes of Circling with Pictures, they get bored, lose interest, etc. I have been able to get more repetitions by adding in the where question, which has led to some funny scenes. Today, I tried a suggestion from Martina Bex’s website (Write, Draw, Pass). It’s a paper version of the game “Telephone”. It’s simple output, but the kids had a blast!
Songs work great as a brain break too! I really want to try and incorporate some One Word Images in as well. Any suggestions on how to transition into storyasking when finished with the Circling with Pictures?
Angela just keep extending the PQA that happens during these early weeks of the year to greater and greater heights with more and more personalized details. Soon the kids will get how to help you create larger and larger scenes. When that happens, all you have to do is grab a story script and write the three words on the board and light the fuse of the rocket. It happens very subtly, but before you know it, you’re in a story.
If a teacher’s 3-ring circus is based on commands that have not yet been taught, the ensuing plentiful, slow repetition would seem to add them on to IL JOUE AU . . . as additional, ad-libbed targets. This would seem to be ok, because, as Dr. James Asher, Blaine Ray, and others state, TPR makes it possible to acquire ready comprehension of more language items in a given period of time than does any type of PQA. Not only should the teacher energetically direct, perform, emote, and encourage, but also humorously query both actors and spectators about the performances. (RANDY PLAYS WELL? Etc. After all, circus is a game.) So proper bailing out of a battle lost can lead to a victory gained, to a victory greater than was originally planned. What’s really nice is that during the next day’s circling with balls, one can continue using those same newly practiced verbs along with the original IL JOUE AU. . . for almost a story, especially if they were as well chosen as Ben’s.
Oh boy, also look at what into the circus “net” gets dragged along, hanging onto the 3 ad-libbed target verbs: a good assortment of point-&-pause nouns that, because of being important parts of a performance, will have greater probability of being remembered.
I second the music idea. As silly as some of the Alain Lelait or the Sing, Dance, Eat Quiche, or Etienne songs are, my 9th graders love them. Susie gave a great workshop on this in San Antonio. I was poking around on Youtube and there are some good songs out there to help beginners lay down what Susie refers to as the “carpet of language”. My kids tell me that songs help, no matter how “babyish” we think they are. I do quizzes on them too.
My 9th graders (and I) also LOVE Alain LeLait!!! I can’t seem to find an equivalent in Spanish, though. Anyone out there have ideas? I have found some of those cartoony songs, which are ok but not as awesome as Alain because he goes slower and has the text and it’s all so simple. ???
I don’t teach spanish, but teachers talk about the Senor Wooly songs, there are videos too on you tube I think for “puedo ir al bano” and other songs.
Ok, great! I can’t wait. I must echo the post “Celebration.”
“You’ve been a lifesaver for me so far this year. By using comprehensible input, and being better with classroom management I feel like a competent teacher for once. Last year was my third year teaching and I used the textbook, my students hated me and I wasn’t very fond of them. THIS year, I’m doing the circling with cards, personalizing the class, and talking about the students. The students are well-behaved, they know I care about them, and I think they actually like me. I feel like a decent teacher for once!” Expresses my sentiment exactly! Thank you Ben for this wonderful blog aka professional development 🙂
I could not have said it better. I’m in my 4th year too and it feels like none of the years really worked. I hope this one does…
So talking about ways to transition out of the Circling with Balls activity. There are the options listed in the post above, but we can always bail to a story. There is no “set time” to make that move. If the PQA and the cards and one word images and word chunking and such are working and the kids are building confidence and having fun, keep going. If things are dragging, even this early, why not try a story? I found out in St. Louis that it is possible, if we go SLOW-Li enough, to create a story with a group that has never even had a single class in the language. I may try that today. But the script has to be a really good one. I’ll use Afraid of the Package, my favorite story ever.
I have to share what happened in my level2 today while CWB…..it was dyjng out for me too. Then one kid’s card said she liked to eat…..turned into a discussion about lasagna……i don’t like lasagna that others make…i’m afraid of it…….caught their attention….someone asked por que? (Sorry…on my kindle…no accents) this extended the conversation to what lasagna is made of. THEN it happened…..I asked seth what his lasagna had in it…he said “moose meat” JACKPOT!!!!! Well I had bought a stuffed moose in Breckenridge this summer thinking “this might be able to generate some action in my classroom” well I ran over to my desk and grabbed ‘Marcel the Moose”….which another class named him..and we were OFF and running.
Nice non forcing of props. I think we lose them when we try to get too cute with the props. We have them, but we use them when we need them, when that need emerges organically like above. This is with the exception of hats, which are cool anytime.
I don’t know where else to add this other point. I’ll add it here. A kid in one of my classes now is the App noise guy. He is a virtuoso at getting the right sound FAST. Plus, he sits in front of me so we kind of work together. There is one sound he found that is kind of a “you suck bronx cheer” and he uses that whenever I reject a cute answer, which is often. Seriously, the class is starting to revolve around this guy. The focus on the message is correspondingly high. Another big hit is the Professeur 2 tie breaker, the quiet kid who suddenly is involved big time. I’ve never seen a class like that. So much fun bc of the App Sound Guy. Just wanting to say that the more jobs the earlier, the higher off the ground the classes get. For the complete jobs list just look on the resource page here.
Congrats on that class MB. Must feel great after all the waiting!
And to address the specific point of when to stop or curtail CWB (one never stops until the last kid’s card has been discussed even if it takes all year), my thing is more and more going right to stories. For me, in my world, using a good script is my happiness in doing CI, these days anyway.
I’ve been trying to watch carefully to notice if kids are tiring of CWB and for the most part they are hanging with it and interested. But just to break it up a little I’ve been doing OWI with the word walls (these are great), and TPR with the word walls too (especially when I can see I need to get some blood flowing, because I have block periods and an hour and forty min. can be pretty long without some changes). I also did Word Chunk once, gave an easy quiz and did one dictee on the CWB sentences we made so there was nothing new (I’ve been teaching two weeks now).
One other thing that has been really a good way to break up the time is putting up the drawings that the kids make on the document camera. I assigned artist jobs right away (about 2-3 in each class), showed them a pile of scratch paper at the front of the room, and told them that they have permission at anytime to quietly get up and take paper and draw whatever story we are are doing (and these are just very simple mini-mini stories from CWB – generally one subject, one verb, one detail and a place). Putting these pictures up creates a lot of laughter (whether they are well drawn or not – usually more laughter for drawings that look a little crude and therefore even more funny) and I can just talk about them some and ask questions as I point to them. I just put them out on my desk at the beginning of the period and can go to them at anytime.
I also gave kids a “full” sign, which is hand in front of the forehead showing me in a polite, non-verbal and non disruptive way that they are needing a break. They have respected using the sign and it is helpful to let me know when to change it up a little before I start loosing lots of kids. I think it builds trust that they can help control the pace of the class, just like with the “stop” sign. When I was in high school, I always hated it when I felt like a teacher would just drone on and on and the class was unable to let them know; I don’t want to be “that guy.” I think it really can help with the self-advocacy piece, and won’t distract especially if the sign is non-disruptive and not really seen by other students – just by me.
One last thing that was pretty cool last week. I hadn’t planned on doing a dictee so early in my level 1s, but got the flu last week and missed two days. I have some older kids in each of my first and second level classes (Teacher’s Assistants and kids on Independent Study whose schedule wouldn’t word with their proper level) and had one of them lead the dictee for each of these periods. I heard that they did an AWESOME JOB! The kids said it wasn’t hard either and that the student leaders did a good job of going slow and repeating well. I think it also helped that the dictee was all sentences that they already had practice with from CWB.
I think I will do this in the future, even if I’m not out sick. Giving kids the job of doing something like this can be really cool if they are up for it and capable of reading well in the TL. I could tell the kids who led the dictee felt proud of their accomplishment; I’m glad I was forced to try this out and that they had a chance to rise to a challenge.
…I assigned artist jobs right away (about 2-3 in each class), showed them a pile of scratch paper at the front of the room, and told them that they have permission at anytime to quietly get up and take paper and draw whatever story we are are doing….
This basically kicks ass.
Something kind of funny happened yesterday in my Advanced Chinese class yesterday that allowed a story to emerge. This is really good for me as a teacher because I am still having some trouble letting stories emerge rather than just controlling the whole thing. We were working on the following new terms: nuren (woman), jiehun hou (after marriage, after getting married), qizi (wife). Princess Peach asks Nighthawk what she would be called if she were to marry him and instead of “qizi” he accidentally said “qiezi” which means “eggplant.” I wrote it on the board and everyone laughed then the Princess took over from there with some good unplanned dialogue. They are going to reenact it today which will enable me to do some more reps with questions. So in reading the above I wonder if the PQA can be jazzed up with some silly answers put into the mix.
Speaking of the Afraid of the Package story…I started that today and we spent so long on the intro that we didn’t get very far lol. But here is what was so funny….(this is a Level 3 class that is new to me ) the kids decided that the main character was in her bathroom (second floor) putting on her makeup (in the full-length mirror). So we put a second girl facing her to be the mirror. :o) Everytime Mia did or said anything, the reflection (Pia) did it too, so I got in lots of reps and plurals…but it was so darn funny to watch!! Then Pia the reflection started to show a little “attitude” and it was funnier yet.
Getting to know when kids are “done” and when they can go a little farther/longer and should is tough. And it is a decision that we end up making every day!!!! Because we are not on a curriculum trail we can go back and jump back in to something if we left it too early.
with love,
Laurie
That’s a great idea and when everyone is laughing they’re all involved in the story!
My 4th graders are my beginners and I had something emerge that was pretty fun…we were circling with balls and it was going really well. I kept on screwing up on purpose. (“So Ellis likes to do gymnastics and Jasmine likes to play basketball.” The class then yelled at me “NO!” This has gotten a lot of mileage in all of my classes.) Then, because one girl liked to swim, I asked if she was a girl. The class said yes, and I said no, she was a dolphin. This set off a huge distribution of stuffed animals all around the classroom. Each student had an animal by the end of class. (Insert rules regarding playing with stuffies here.) We had a ball. This then launched into colors, numbers, fun vocabulary that can give us so much to work with. Then I introduced “there is” and “in” and we could review “who” and “has.” “Is there a cow in the class?” “Yes.” “Yes, there is a cow in the class. Who has the cow?” “Bella.” “Is there a monster in the class?” “No!!” “No, there’s no monster, that’s stupid!” (A la Ben.)
Now the kids have an identity that was so simple to create. An alternative to giving names. We are still having a blast with this; activities keep flowing out of my head faster than I can do them.
…“So Ellis likes to do gymnastics and Jasmine likes to play basketball.” The class then yelled at me “NO!”….
That’s the entire thing right there – they were focused on the meaning and not the language. That’s why it worked. That’s all we’re trying to do – get them focused on the message. The deeper mind will do the rest of the work, in ways that we can never know. We learn languages unconsciously by focusing on the message.
Related:
https://benslavic.com/blog/2010/07/19/learning-a-language-is-an-unconscious-process-3/
https://benslavic.com/blog/2010/07/18/we-learn-languages-unconsciously-1/
https://benslavic.com/blog/2010/07/19/we-learn-languages-unconsciously/
Animals ROCK in 4th grade! I love hearing about how you just let your imagination flow. Everything is natural and fun for them. Here’s to more home run days with the short guys (4th graders)!