I think we get unnecessarily fooled by the method. It’s not all that hard. Circling is overated, in my opinion, and not as big a deal as everybody makes it as long as we have these other three things of SLOW, Staying in Bounds, and Checking for Understanding.
I think that our focus should be more and more on classroom discipline via our Classroom Rules, jGR and, for me in my world, Three and Done. I was just thinking how they are bringing the power to my instruction now, and that all of the basic TPRS/CI instructional tools are just part of a much bigger picture.
And the most underated thing of all? The part that really has the capacity to kick our instruction way up to the next highest level? The jobs. I am intentionally adding the jobs topic into the discussion here and I hope it is lively throughout the year. We are doing great with so much, but this jobs piece is a sleeper, I believe. Why?
It’s the personal involvement. It just changes the classroom so much. One of the deeper needs of human beings, and kids are human beings even though they don’t always look and act like them, is to be an accepted part of a community. Krashen says that all the time. So the jobs do that for us and changes the behavior of the kid in the process.
I would like to hear from people on what jobs they have in place and which ones they think kick the most ass. For a list of jobs, see the resources page of this site and look them over. There is also a category here on Jobs for Kids. I am getting major returns, for example, on the Professeur 2 job right now. You may want to try that one out soon!