Unlock with PatreonThe Problem with CI
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Update 2
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4 thoughts on “Update 2”
I had an observation with my principal last week and during our post-conference he made an earth shattering revelation that never even occurred to me.
Background information first, before I get to his statement. During this observation I was doing a story, the “Can’t Find His Brain” script. During this story I was so uptight about having the principal in there that I was trying so hard to stick to that script and TELL the story that I completely neglected to give up control of the story and let the students drive it. Instead of asking the story, I basically told it and just circled the statements that I was making and coming up with. I wasn’t happy about it afterwards.
During our post conference meeting, we were discussing how the lesson went and my reflections. I mentioned to him how I stuck to that script too much and didn’t ask enough questions and didn’t give them control over the details like I normally do. And as a result they weren’t as enthusiastic and involved like they usually are. He then said “Yeah, I noticed that. They were really quiet compared to the engagement I normally see. It’s almost as if that story script BECAME THE TEXTBOOK and you were sticking to it like a textbook”. Whoa! He was completely right. That story did become my textbook that I hid behind and authentic communication was lost.
Wow, Chris, you must have a principal that really “gets” TPRS. Very insightful observation.
Thanks, Ben, for the push for simplicity. I am still trying to do to much and figuring out what simplicity looks like on a block schedule. Do you still do timed writings and dictees in this simplified life?
Rita the 90-minute block schedules that I posted here a few years ago did include dictees I think, but, if you read them, those were for survival. There were things associated with CI but mainly stuff, including some output, that was designed to get me through the class.
Those 90 min. plans have evolved, however, and are now pretty good. They are in the articles here somewhere. I think I posted a plan for a block class just in the past few weeks. Of course R and D is the big anchor for any CI block class.
I don’t even teach on a block. Maybe we should try to come up with “the ideal block schedule” for a class based on the use of comprehensible input. It would be a lot better from the group to create it together and then we could test it and make it a thread over the next few months to give those of us who use the block time to test it.
I would add that in my opinion the block is ideal for CI classes. Start with PQA for half an hour, go to a script, build the story for up to an hour, that ends that block, and then the next block is a big R and D on the reading that you created from the story. This overall general plan is better than a bunch of short unrelated activities. The Three Steps are really ideal for block classes, if you think about it.
Right on Ben (and Chris for that insightful account)!
I have a hard time letting the critiques go, remembering what John said somewhere that for every student that complains (usually resulting from insecurity I think) there are many that aren’t complaining, because I’m teaching in an INCLUSIVE way. Those students, those high-acheivers who can’t take the slow and steady pace and who can’t see the forest through the trees, well, it would be nice if we could let them go, assign them a textbook to work through, and know that they will be supervised and not allowed to screw around, you know? So that there is that option, everyone can take it, but they don’t have to be in our rooms tainting the air so to speak.
But all in all I’m a happy camper this year. Mostly due to accepting students, but also to the variety of readings, mostly personalized, that I have at my disposal. It really has been a big deal for me.