Today was the third day of class. The first day was when I did the Big Circle. The second was district pre-testing. Today I started in earnest with Circling with Balls.
It was pretty cool. All the training this summer helped. I did the Circling with Balls and, since I went so much slower than every before (SLOW-LI!), each kid stayed involved. I relied heavily on the Five Finger rules as well as my own Classroom Rules.
The kids made their cards. We circled only the cards of three kids in each class. There was so much going on in this their first full day of class, so no way around it. Staying with the kid. Focusing on the kid. Talking about the kid. Circling around what the kid does. Norming the class with the Clasroom Rules and the Five Finger rules (both worked great!).
Calling roll? Did I teach them how to say “present” in French? Nope. Why not? That’s output and they are not ready for it. Seriously. Try asking them to say present in French in front of 35 kids they don’t know. They are not ready, plus they are nervous and unsure about themselves. A better way to call roll? Just look at your seating chart. If there is a desk with no one in it, then that student is absent. Takes 15 seconds to call roll that way.
I used the cards to compare one kid to the other, but only to the point of “Class, Sally plays soccer and Eric plays football.” That’s all I could do in one period on their first day. It’s fine.
I went SLOW-LI. What confidence that gives both me and the students! I explained both sets of rules – the Five Finger Rules and the Classroom Rules. Boy do they work! Those Five Finger rules are very important and very effective and I wish now that I had had them all along with TPRS these past eleven years.
Hired a MAIS echo bleater. Did the whole audition thing. Hilarioius!
Results :
The kids, as I am norming the classroom right now, seemed very pleased that they can understand and that the rules are so clear. I didn’ t let one single kid get away with not paying attention. As the class went on, the affective filter went down. The MAIS thing really relaxed everything. I recommend doing that every first day of school. By telling them that one of the purposes of the mais thing was to prank administators, we built a common bond that I can tell will last all year.
The kids are very happy in general. They know now that all they have to do is listen. They like knowing that they won’t be forced to speak, that they won’t have big tests but rather many small quizzes. They like knowing that there will be no homework and no book.