First off, it's pronounced Shee-high. Just FYI. Craig is a super awesome, amazing dude who was in Blaine's first TPR class...the one that he uses as an example of how he moved beyond TPR to the stories because his kids got super tired second semester of just standing up and sitting down in weird ways.
I was terrified that I had lost my notes from this session (I always forget paper, so I was using the tiny hotel pads of paper and kept dropping them on the floor throughout the week). Thankfully, I found them tonight! This session was so awesome. Craig said that he was only going to give us ten ideas per skill, even though he has a ton of others. I literally groaned out loud, thinking he was holding out on us. Trust me, ten per skill was more than enough...
Okay, so here are the ten skills that he shared to get listening reps (other ways for the teacher to re-tell the story and not bore the kids).
10. Sleep-talker retell: Kids close their eyes while the teacher re-tells and asks questions. We did this, and it was amazing to be able to really visualize while he was talking...also, while he was talking, he was adding details so that the kids were adding to the movie of the story in their head. For example: the original story is There was a boy named Jim. In the Sleep-talker version, it might become There was a handsome blonde boy named Jim. He looked like Luke Skywalker. Or something like that. As long as the language stays in bounds, this is cool. Then, he would ask questions also that the kids would answer. I've slept since then and am trying to remember what type of questions he was asking, but I'm imagining that it was the general circling questions: Is there a boy or a girl? but the kids answer with eyes closed.
Craig used the phrase CRI-keys (imagine Croc Dundee or Steve Irwin saying it) to determine if a retell was valid. Comprehensible, Repetitive, and Interesting. On some of these activities, the only interesting thing is the name....but he says his kids beg for them BECAUSE of the name. I've got to get more creative in the classroom...
9. Dream, Dream, Dream: like the sleep-talker re-tell but without questioning the kids. Just a re-tell and you could add some details.
8. Fact or Crap: Like an oral true/false quiz but the kids get to yell something funny in the TL if it's False (ex. Caca in French) Then they have to chorally fix the false statements. Another teacher in the class said they have used this same activity, but made it a game by playing it in small groups/partners with spoons or post-it notes. (imagine the game spoons...where the students grab a spoon when they hear a false statement...the student without a spoon gets a strike against them)
7. Retell with no questions (Just the Facts Baby): I'm thinking you could add interest to this by having students give the teacher an accent/emotion/type of song to retell the story in
6. Rewind: retell backwards. You can ask the students questions to help with memory (it's really hard to do...even with a five sentence story), but it doesn't work to add details with this one.
5. La secretaria perfecta: this is basically a dictation. Craig has them star every third line (because they will be correcting errors on the second line) and they write as perfectly as they can the story, while the teacher re-reads the story THREE TIMES!! Then, at the end, have the kids read the story and correct only the words they misspelled. The person with the fewest errors "wins".
4. Artista Magnifico: Drawing the story as it is retold with added details. Note to myself: I've tried this before and have had a humdinger of a time because I forgot to MODEL it. So, this next year, I will make sure that I model it before and tell my more artistic kids that I just want it sketched out so that I don't have those kids who want to spend 45 minutes on one scene.
3. Silly Profe (Profe Stupido) Like Fact or Crap only the T tries to sneak in lies/false statements and the kids yell out "Profe Stupido!" when they hear a false statement and then chorally fix the false statement.
2. Charade re-tell: Kids gesture the story to remind the teacher of the sentences and the teacher re-tells.
1. Profe el Director Loco: Choose your actors and then decide a style for it to be acted out. For example, we acted ours out as an old Western, but you could do a Kung Fu movie or an anime film or... This requires must modelling and coaching, but the coaching can also be added reps as you tell your actors "no, the guy is ANGRY...try it again" and then you re-read the line from the story. Then, you can say at the end "Oh shoot, I forgot...this is actually a horror movie. Let's do it again."
Whew! Those are only TEN of the THIRTY ideas I got from Craig. I decided to split these up so that it's not such a long read for anyone.
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