So far, I've only blogged about my experiences with classroom management this year, which is still going swimmingly! But on Friday, I started circling with balls (or guitar, in this case), with my students.
In first hour, I picked a student who drew a rock band, knowing that I had a toy guitar for a prop. We talked about how he plays guitar (not baseball!) with his feet (never his hands!) better than Jimi Hendrix. That's all we got to on Friday, so today I picked up where we left off, fully intending to review the story and move on to someone else. It was not to be, because it turns out that little Johnny plays guitar at the library. And there is a girl there! What was her name? Well, of course, it was Betty White. (The kids went wild with this detail...they were very worried that Robbie was going to fall in love with Betty) Betty is Johnny's g-ma and she plays the accordian. Anyway, the story went on until 5 minutes before the bell, when I stopped it to do a quick comprehension quiz. It's amazing to me what I learned through osmosis at NTPRS. I think that once your brain starts going, those funky details emerge naturally. Last year, I struggled so much with trying to think of funny details and trying to figure out where the story was going. This year, after watching Blaine and Von and everyone else, it just pops into my head and I think, "Of COURSE that's what happened!"
This continued with other crazy kids in my other two hours. We are still on the first student! The other students really want a chance to get in there and talk about themselves, but I have my stars for right now! I'm so excited to see what happens with Betty and Johnny tomorrow...
Another bonus for me and TPRS: today, I asked my second year students what they did this weekend and they remembered how to answer, using "Je suis alle" (excuse the lack of accent) and J'ai regarde! Woo hoo!!!
I am having more discipline issues with my second year students. I have one class that is really pushing it because they aren't used to me cracking down. It will take a little while for them to calm down, I think. But, I have decided that they will not ruin my class for the other students. If it comes to an issue where they are losing PAT time consistently...I will take those talkers and give them a textbook and a nice quiet room to do the book work.
Wow, I am jealous! I wish I could have gone to NTPRS - I am a newbie teacher and new to TPRS as well, and I just had my first day of actual classes today. I also tried the circling with balls activity but it didn't really go as planned. I think I need some help with my circling... my kids were bored after the first few questions and I knew it, but didn't know how to get around it! Not to mention one student only lasted a few minutes before I felt I had to move on as I couldn't get any more information out of them. Any tips for tomorrow?
ReplyDelete--Kristin in Canada
I was you last year! Only I didn't start out at the beginning of the year with TPRS, so I never got to really felt like I really trained my kids.
ReplyDeleteI agree that you need to kick some major butt with classroom discipline. I read Fred Jones Tools for Teaching over the summer and it really changed my classroom, so far. I'm hoping it will continue to be so good...
Okay, here is what I did today. I kind of already talked about the guitar guy, so I'll talk about another card I picked.
I saw a girl who said that she listened to the radio. So I said: Classe, Suzie listens to the radio! and I wrote listens to the radio on the board. Then I circled that: Does Suzie listen to the radio or play baseball? Does Suzie play baseball? No, she doesn't play baseball, she listens to the radio! Does Bobby listen to the radio? No, Bobby doesn't listen to the radio! Suzie listens to the radio. The real key in this is pointing to each word and going really really slowly. Then, you can turn to Suzie. Hmmm...(act confused)...Suzie, do you listen to the radio? (write tu=you on the board...you don't have to write ecoutes because it sounds the same...we'll worry about spelling later) Coach her to answer oui. Depending on the kid, you might be able to coach them through oui, j'ecoute la radio. Then, ask Suzie, Suzie, do you play baseball? Coach her to answer non. Okay, after this short, interesting break, go back into the "story." When in doubt, you can always look at the question posters (available at tprstorytelling.com if you don't have them already). I looked up and saw Ou.
Class, where does Suzie listen to the radio? That's right...at school! Oh no, oh no! Does she listen to the radio in French class? No, that's ridiculous! She doesn't listen to the radio in French class! Does she listen to the radio in math class? Yes, she listens to the radio in math class. Hmm....why does she listen to the radio in math class? That's right, math class is boring for her (here, I avoided she thinks math class is boring and just added one word...pour Suzie) Bobby, is math class boring for you? Ohhhh, math class is not boring for Bobby. Class, is French class boring? Non, that's ridiculous. ( You can make this last as long as you want, asking different students what classes are boring for them) At this point, class was over for the day. The next day, we reviewed the story and started back where we left off. Suzie, who is your math teacher? (I then asked around the class who had what teacher for math, science (cognates) and French. Then I asked if they were boring, interesting (another cognate), funny, or smart. Try to use as many cognates as you can so you don't have to clutter your board...but always check to make sure they hear the cognate. As someone said at NTPRS, the kids might not be listening to you in French) What reaction did Mr. Math have? Was he happy? Was he sad? No! He was angry. Why was he angry? Because Suzie listens to the radio in math class. What did he say to her? Then, one girl yelled "Detention!" so I used it in English. Yes, that's right! He said...Detention! To Mr. Principal! (this way, I only had to add one word...to) Here, I pretended like I forgot some key information, a la Blaine Ray. Oh, I forgot! What song does Suzie listen to on the radio? She listens to Chris Brown! Why? Because he is a good dancer. Then it was time for a quick true/false quiz over Suzie's story and the bell rang.
ReplyDeleteI did exactly what you are doing last year. Don't try to get the kids to tell you true facts about their hobby...make them up and then ask them if that's right...coaching them to always agree with you. Any time I got bored and had to take a minute to think, I went to the students and asked them to verify the information I had just given them. It adds interest, gets the students exposed to 1st and 2nd person, and gives you time to think.
I hope this is helpful. I am by no means an expert, but I feel like I'm leaps and bounds better than I was last year!!