For convenience, I am putting my responses to Keri’s video here with the actual link to the video as well.
https://youtu.be/WL-p0aueG3o
00:05 – students are relaxed but they know who is in charge and I don’t think it is just the fact of it being recorded. You have a very strong teaching presence, loud clear voice. Perfect for TPRS. We must project confidence and you do that here.
00:36 – I love the way you say, after one boy suggested that they man’s name was “Billy” how you said “It is possible!” I never thought of that but it is a great way to get out of it if you don’t like it.
01:26 – this happens to me. You drag the name thing out as long as you can because you aren’t happy with the lame names they gave but finally had to cave with Jerry. That part of getting a name always seems to drag out too long. But you did the right think in accepting the one they as a class suggested right there. I’m like weird I gotta have the right name.
03:30 – you got through name and age and where he works in three and a half minutes. Not bad. I try to get through basic questions faster these days. I used to spend more than five minutes to get answers to basic questions and it kind of flatlines the story early. Gotta be crisp with early questioning esp. since they have been hearing those same questions all year.
04:00 – love the way you have them repeat chorally, “I can’t believe it!”
4:15 to 4:40 – artfully done on bringing up the actor. You sensed the hesitation in the first guy, went to the second, got him on the stool, all really crisp and nice. This is another area where many of us waste too much time. Get an actor and get going. Nice!
5:00 to 5:30 – we can all learn from this artful questioning of the actor after he has sat down. He is a big guy but lower than you and that is what the stool is for, by the way. Chairs are too low and if they stand they become an immediate distraction. You went right for district vocabulary (age). But the big thing here is how your pacing is just perfect. Not too fast, not too slow. You use no new vocabulary. All in bounds, all nicely paced.
5:40 to 6:40 – you got more reps by asking if the student “worked/wanted to work” at Victoria’s Secret. So more reps on a very common verb in context. Asking simple questions of the actor and students, questions that do not go out of bounds, is what is happening here.
6:33 – notice the subtle hand gestures from the teacher on “wants to work” while the student is speaking. Result of TPR.
6:44 – you are working from a script here. Who wrote it? For those not familiar with working with scripts you can see how nice it is to have that next question ready. Happens right at 6:44. When you work from a script in this way it just makes everything easier, gives a set of tracks for the story to go down. There are two good ways to ask stories and they each have their advantages – with or without scripts/targets.
7:35 – this many not seem like a big deal but is. Keri right here goes back with yet another question of the actor “Do you live with your mother?”. This is artful. We always want to be going back and forth from the developing story to the actor(s) with in -bounds questions.
General comment: I know that my speaking French is an advantage here, but the general feel in the classroom is, because Keri is so good at staying in-bounds, that I would like to be in there as a student because I can understand literally everything and I have never studied Italian although, like all of us, have always wanted to learn it. Why do I feel as if I could learn in this classroom? 1) teacher is comprehensible, slow and in-bounds. 2) no English side tracks to throw me as a student off, and 3) teacher is clearly in charge of this classroom. And those are big high school boys, some of them, who could easily try to take things over as we have discussed here recently. Keri is totally in charge. This is not easy work she is doing!
11:24 – Keri talks right through the loudspeaker interruption, Nice!
12:26 – another nice touch. Keri uses the laser pointer to point to the target on the screen. We can never assume that they understand us, and with the targets she laser points to she assures their understanding.
General comment: it is the nature of working from a script that the safety of the rails/structures that there is a bit less spontaneity and originality/unexpected responses. Is that a problem? Not at all. Quality of stories varies w scripted vs. non-scripted stories but both work.
13:00 Partner retells at this point was a good decision. Kind of a brain break. Besides partner retells I use tell the story up to this point to their hands, as partners bust right into English.
During the retells: I’m not a psychologist, and I may be way off, but as a lover of the subtlety of language I do not want this boy speaking this way. I want him to bring a different mindset to the work, more attempt at speaking the language (this is Italian!) Maybe it’s just me with kids like that. I know he’s a scared kid, and that is all that that behavior is about. But this age HAS to be the hardest to teach. I’ve done TPRS for nine years with middle school kids and six with high school kids. Give me the middle school kids!
14:40 – good time to get a retell to the group after the partner retells. This should be a part of any story, in my opinion.
15:00 – Throwing the ball to someone, they have to speak a sentence so far. This works to keep focus.
17:40 – This is very interesting in through here. Keri wants to get reps on the problem, first structure, and should do that. But we are working our way up to 20 minutes in the story and we’ve only established the problem. I have changed to where I try to get the problem established earlier and the failed attempt going a lot sooner. If you think about it, the best action happens AFTER the problem is established not before and during.
20:00 – I can’t find anything to critique much in this story. It is just really good. I know you wanted help with that but it is a well-oiled machine. You are doing the right thing by staying expertly in bounds.
20:30 – we see the value of dialogue. It is always effective and the kids always get into it. These kids didn’t even need any coaching. I use the director’s cues when doing this (kept above my whiteboard). Great coaching.
21:00 to 22:00 – great stuff in through here totally comprehensible.
22:30 – great buy in from the football player on acting. I wonder how much buy in we would get from the big guy by giving hime a verb conjugation chart. He would probably have to find different ways of getting attention in class.
23:30 – the first time she let in a new word was at this point with the word “adopted”. That is some kind of record.
Timer: You had a timer going the whole time and it has been perfect. Comments for us on that? (Did the video influence their staying in the TL?)
26:50 – I personally don’t like the ball where if they catch it they have to say something. But this is where we all get to be different. There is HUGE ADVANTAGES in this move with the ball. It keeps them focused. I just don’t do it and that is what is great about this method. We all get to be different.
27:00 – Watch this artistry right here. You – need – a wife – Jason. Keri plays a fully comprehensible card with her hand almost beating out the music with a slight pause between words and very strong loud accented speech. Really effective CI. And all in flow. How can they not learn the language when it’s that many reps? Love that move right there. Just great.
28:10 – Nice work to stick in a date. Boring but we got to do it.
29:15 – And then same thing with the time. Nice work. You hit both the date and the time and then got right back to the story. That’s the way to not let the story lag.
31:30 – This is master teaching. What is being conveyed? Happiness. Pride in Mario, who needs love very much. Happiness in the fun of expressing herself in Italian. Round of applause for the kid. This is real teaching.
32:00 – I just noticed something HUGE. I have heard almost no English for over a half an hour! I am amazed. Wow! I want to learn how to do that. Even with a timer like she has I mess it up. I can’t keep my own dang thoughts from messing up my CI with English. Oh well.
32:30 – I don’t use props even hair props. Jason Fritze says hats and hair are the best. Again, just my style. I find that kids play with them and it gets distracting. And they smell. Distractions with props are not happening here, testimony to the firm hand Keri has on the class.
33:00 – Look at the whiteboard at 33:00. That is very little new stuff for that amount of time of CI. I LOVE how Keri writes out that sentence at 32:50 to make sure they understand it. She’s teaching reading right there.
33:20 – Finally she breaks into a little grammar lesson. Pure Susan Gross. What does this ending mean? PAST. What does “endo” mean? ING. That’s how you do it. It doesn’t have to be as short as four seconds long in this pop up grammar lesson. There are no rules in this work.
34:15 – we can’t miss the little details here. Look at the way she keeps the students in line. I know that has to do with a timer working a clock there in that classroom but just notice. Whatever she is doing, it is something we all want to emulate. She has control over blurting. This class is a clinic in keeping kids in the TL. And she goes right down that row on the right and requires a response from each one about what the woman was doing when Jerry got there at five in the morning. The kids are really well trained!
38:00 – great example of how to run a dialogue here.
38:40 – How did so and so react? This is a classic TPRS skill move from many years.
40:00 – 41:00 – I would have had the actors sit down on stools and stay there. Distracting. I would have pointed to Rule #7 on the Classroom Rules chart by now – “actors synchronize your words with my actions.”
42:00 – this wrapping up is a good way to end a story. Just say what happened. The wallet got stolen. Simple.
42:00 to 42:45 – I would have gone to a big retell right there instead of pair work. While it was super fresh in their minds. Would have not used the actors for the retell, just pointed to the spots they were in. BUT I do like the pattern Keri uses as well of short pair retells and then on kids does a big celebration retell.
42:45 to end: Any further proof needed that this method works? I think not. The student retell is marvelous!