Yesterday was a "blah" day. I was tired from working my second job this weekend and feeling overwhelmed with the amount of work I need to do to get myself more ready to teach with TPRS. So I planned a reading/writing day. It went...so-so. I guess I'm feeling like if my lesson plans say "story time" every day...I'm not working hard enough. I need to get over that. Today, I watched Ben's DVD segment where he shows off his room and talks about lesson plans. It made me feel much better. I need to remember that I am doing a lot of work; it just looks different.
And then there was today. Yahoo for today! I did my first official story today in that I had three phrases I was focusing on...reviewing the rest. I had a general idea of where the story was going to go, but I let the kids add the details. It worked in both of my classes. I'm still getting them trained on how to act during story time, but I'm getting more and more students on board with me. At least that's how I see it today; tomorrow I may feel like I'm drowning again. My question now is: What do I do with those three phrases? I know they didn't get the needed amount of reps. I'm planning on reviewing the story tomorrow and giving a quick comprehension quiz. Then what? I'm not really sure if the kids are ready for re-tells. I also have a learning objective for the week that is not matching fully what has been happening in the class. So...my choices are: force a re-tell and be happy no matter the results, have students create a mini-book based on the learning objectives (reviewing the school day), or some other melange of ideas that sound good tomorrow morning. Hmm...
Sure, try a retell, but don't force it. Have it be individual retells, as far as possible, but collaborative is great. Then maybe have pairs, trios, or whatever, retell it, each individual signing off on his or her spoken contribution, someone taking responsabilty for illustrating one or more sentences, someone for gesturing/acting out, etc.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you could bring a similar story which you have written that is somewhat different in the details and language (a good way to introduce some easily(?) recognizable cognates, display your story, and have the students collaborate in oral translative reading after having silently read for a few minutes while you continually point and pause, and copy a few sentences that are different in your version plus write each original sentence as they recall it in their own words, etc.
This is somewhat jumbled maybe, because of my haste to reply; but let it serve just to get your mind aworkin'. Don't forget to check out Ben's material. In the end you will probably come up with better ideas than mine. And, to your profit and mine somebody else may join in here on your blog entry for today.
Oh, you could come in with some scenic drawings to trigger the retells. You don't have to draw well to do this. Also, Maybe next time there's a student or two who can have the job of producing some fast, make-shift drawings during the story-asking, just like maybe also a student who then has the job of recording the story. And there can be other student jobs during the story-asking. These job ideas are Ben's. So check him out on this.
ReplyDeleteBe encouraged - I'm just hitting my 7 yr anniversary next week (with tprs) and I have good days and bad days (my eval)....it's SO challenging..but it feels great when it goes well. Very humbling. I keep throwing myself on God..and I get a 'do-over' each day.
ReplyDeleteMaria
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