I’m reposting this because the issue of blurting just came up as a thread. I have to say that this plan is better than any I have ever used to control blurting. Today it worked perfectly. No blurting. Even the worst blurter, a funny 6th grader with a fast mind and a great heart, came up to me at the end of class and proudly said, “Hey Mr. Slavic I didn’t blurt once this period. Are you proud of me?” I told him I was. It’s the brain break carrot that they just go for. See below:
FVR Opening Session: 10 MINUTES
CI Session #1: 25 MINUTES OF FULL-ON CI with timer timing it. When someone speaks English, we revert back to the beginning and start the 30 min. again. Important note: if I need to explain something I ask for an “official time out” from the timer, who stops the clock and I quickly explain what I wanted to say. The key word there is quickly. Sometimes those little explanations – initiated by me and so my responsibility – go 15 minutes long. Want to lose a class? Speak English.
Brain Break #1: 10 MINUTE FVR PLUS BRAIN BREAK. The students get to just hang out for ten minutes. Of course, if they never get there because of restarts during the first fill-on CI session, then they never get to the brain break. It happens a lot! But they don’t know that. They forget and it makes them even more motivated to make it through to the end of the 1st CI session.
CI Session #2: 2o MINUTES OF FULL-ON CI. Same exact thing as in the first CI session described above.
10 MINUTE FVR PLUS BRAIN BREAK. Same exact thing as in the first brain break described above.
10 MINUTES OF QUIZZES or CI.
Total time: 85 min.