The current consensus on why circling doesn’t work is that the kids, who aren’t stupid but only appear that way to stupid teachers, figure out the pattern early on and once that happens they are quickly bored and tune out. Who can blame them?
The reaction of many CI teachers upon realizing this was to then mix up the questioning. That was supposed to work. But it didn’t. Why? It is because whether the circling pattern is the same or mixed up, the messages remained boring. The content wasn’t pulling the kids in. This may have had something to do with the existence of targets, which have the effect of removing the color from stories. Then what to do?
The best thing is to simply offer more compelling input, to bring the color in. That will keep the kids engaged. We can use images that we create with the kids to do that (not images that they can already see, that they didn’t create, but ones that they create together in class). We can invite the kids to the dance halls, to the theatres, to the art rooms that are down the hallways of their minds, and then our instruction won’t be so boring.
There, in the safe and happy realm of group imagination and play, they can be allowed to create with their classmates enjoyable and comprehensible word dances, plays and paintings, and other things that appeal to them, so that they are not continuously being blasted in their language classes with large waves of boring input.
That’s one answer, anyway.