This can happen in impoverished schools as well as any other as long as we tap into the needs of the children to express themselves using words in the L2. We didn’t have a way to do this in the old model of PQA because the input was not supported by images and captions.
And while I am on a roll here I will say that it is Julie’s work in making her Power Point presentations clear and scaffolded, thus creating a taxonomy that really helped the kids express themselves in the TL (you need to actually see it), her way of arranging the slides was just more clear for the kids than any of the other classes I observed.
In the other classes, the Power Point presentations, the series, the order of slides was flat. It didn’t build. It is this building from simple one word slide to complex captions on slides that Julie does, what I have labeled the Chest of Drawers Visual PQA technique (top drawer/first slide has one word and one image, the fifth drawer/slide down has a more complex image and like ten words on the caption, and that is why I think Julie’s slides are better.
I have been refused the use of slides from other DPS teachers but not from Julie and Sabrina, the two teachers who, and this is no surprise in my mind, keep their kids in the TL almost exclusively and who also seem the most genuinely interested in what their kids say from a human standpoint. Hmmm.
6 thoughts on “Visual PQA – 5”
Yup. “most genuinely interested in what their kids say from a human standpoint. Hmmm.”
NOt surprising.
Can’t wait to see these. And not gonna lie, I suck at power point so I am a bit queasy, AND I am going to work through the queasiness!
Your queasiness comment, Jen, made me think of something important, and I am kind of working this thought out as I write. The slide show, or whatever image, is supposed to support our personal communicating with the kids, face to face, looking them in the eyes, connecting, talking. We’re using the technology how we want to use it. It’s not really a “PowerPoint Presentation” that we have to do in a particular way. The screen shouldn’t be the main focus. It’s part of it. I’m really glad you said that. It made me consciously aware of this. We don’t want the technology bells and whistles to detract from the real thing.
Oh absolutely…my queasiness is only from the fact that I suck at making the slides, and the knowledge that it will take me really long to do it bc of such sucky-ness. But hey, time to buck up and learn a new skill! I totally agree with you re: supporting the communication. I can’t wait to try it.
Once you make a few, you will be a ppt master!
jen, having one already made to copy and use as a template makes making a new one go a lot quicker. You know what I mean? You’ll have some soon I think. Have fun!
And jen this is especially true if we all contribute to the ongoing, growing vPQA data base here. This is one instance, more than any in our eight years together here, where we can really help each other plan.