What if our classes could meet once every few weeks for ten to twenty minutes, or longer, to discuss anything they wanted that pertained to the class? We have talked about the need for self reflection by our students about how they are learning. There is a whole category on this topic called the Metacognition Piece. Last year I tried to build such a time into the last five minutes of each class, but it never worked because of time.
There are posters on this (the Student Reflection Check List) on the TPRS Resources page of this site that could be used as a starting point for the discussions. Indeed, do we ourselves not constantly reflect on how we are teaching? It seems that our students should be offered the same opportunity.
Each student would be free to talk about how the class is working or not working for them. In my opinion, this would be an important step in building trust, community and would lead to much higher degrees of classroom discipline.
Of course, the reason that it hasn’t been done in the past in traditional programs is that they didn’t work, the kids turned off and, as children, turned the blame for their failure onto themselves, since in their young minds the teacher couldn’t possibly be at fault for dealing them an unplayable hand. They couldn’t participate in such a discussion because they felt as if they had nothing to say, and indeed they didn’t in those class settings.
The only problem I could see with this is if the CI teacher, like the traditional teacher, is in fact dealing their class an unplayable hand. I see the teacher as fully responsible for making their CI instruction clear, and so such a step of creating a periodic Town Meeting to discuss the thumbs ups and thumbs down of what was happening that week in the class could result in some real complaining from the kids and get out of control.
On the other hand, if the CI class was working and the kids were pretty much clearly on board and moving towards fluencey via lots of listening and reading, as it should be, then such a meeting might be a good idea. Our job, in my view, includes teaching, not necessarily in this order:
1. the language
2. communication skills in class
3. students that they have a voice in what happens to them in life
And, in terms of the discussion about testing, this is a far superior way to get to know what is going on with our students than any test could ever be.