Okay, so we've been working on commands for a couple of weeks now, and I still have those students who have no clue what's going on. We've done TPR, Madame says, translations, etc...I've had them written on the board, in their notes...but I still have kids failing quizzes. What is the solution? For the students that I'm reaching, they are doing SO WELL, but I still have those kids that I can't get to. I'll be working really hard the next couple of weeks to fix that problem.
Today, as I was walking down the hall after teaching for the first half of the day, it struck me how happy TPRS makes me. It's so much FUN to teach the class and be able to laugh and make jokes...sing and dance and BE MYSELF. This is really the only method for me, I think. I don't know if I could really keep 16-18 year olds interested, but it would be a fun challenge! Thank God I starts TPRS when I did. I was feeling burnt out after only 2 years! With this, the only thing that feels burnt out is my voice and my body...but I can handle that if my mind is sharp.
I've started watching Ben Slavic's DVDs and they are absolutely amazing. What an inspiration that guy is!! I love how he has the words on the wall, and we are highly encouraged to have a word wall in our classes at my schools as well. My problem is that I travel between three classrooms and don't have the time, space, or ability to have word walls in all of my rooms. They suggested making something that I can project in all the rooms and take with me...so we'll see if that works. My other problem is that my school suggests keeping word walls to no more than 30 words. It seems like I would have a lot more than that...maybe I'm wrong? I wish there was a mentor/coach for me here so I could ask him/her all these burning questions I have. But I also kinda dig being the resident "expert" on TPRS for my school. Hopefully I can get at least a few TPRS ideas in other classrooms in my district!
Hey, great blog...it is great to be able to experience this TPRS journey with you. My name is Liz and I am an elementary teacher...regarding the word wall, have you thought about using butcher paper, taped/stapled to the wall...that you can roll up and down? Maybe you could then leave it in the room and add to it as needed? To save yourself time, you could have some "superstars" write the words (while you are asking a story, so you can keep teaching)...you'd be surprised how many more students you are able to reach when you have the words visible. Ben uses those word walls for his word-chunking games, too. Just an idea...
ReplyDeleteBen asked me to post this since he can't post it himself:
ReplyDeleteElisabeth I agree that word walls should be limited to 30 words. It makes sense because in TPRS when the kids use those words in various ways during class, like:
PQA
stories
freewrites
reading
etc.
over a period of three weeks or so, they just know them (i.e. have acquired them). The constant reps that we do pretty much guarantee that they will be in kids' minds pretty much forever (see Ignite blog by chill on this on my site). If they do fade from lack of use, which doesn't happen in four year TPRS curricula schools, one or two reps instantly brings them back into the active language mind.
I am going to actually shorten my word walls to what are actually word strips, with about 15 words in each strip. One strip will be up for a few weeks and then come down. The thing we don't want to do is put too many words up there. Therefore, the walls/strips should have nice random cominations of verbs, nouns, adverbs, and adjectives.
Ben