Today I Got Reminded of What Happens if I Don't do What I'm Supposed to...

I had a bit of a breakthrough today that I hope will promote a conversation among all of us.  Late for work due to a lack of shoes for my son and then also later not feeling well myself, the "meat" of my lesson today was hastily put together and in contrast to my normal stuff.

To practice using the theme and grammar of the unit, I threw up on the screen a couple of workbook pages and they got started.  I then called on volunteers to read their work out loud in order to earn "puntos," or participation points, something I learned from a colleague long ago.

I couldn't believe how dull it was and how incompetent the kids seemed.  If I asked them a follow-up question or even tried to role play the "person A" part of the activity, they seemed so lost and stuck as compared to normal.  It hit me that it was the type of activity that was doing it, not the lack of proficiency of the kids.

Using techniques I learned from Jo Ellen Nott (my former chair at a different school) and "circling" from Susie Gross, a well known teacher educator, I usually pepper my kids with structured questions that vary one piece of content at a time, like "Is it raining or is it snowing in the picture?  Is it raining or is it sunny?  What kind of weather is it in the picture?  What kind of weather is it outside right now?  Do you like the weather today?  Why do you like the weather today?  Did you like the weather yesterday?" etc. etc.  Dozens and dozens of 'em.  And boy, when we get going, it's so much fun, because the kids start chunking together pieces of the language that I've been feeding them to make up their own original ideas.

Yet, there were these same kids today, inert, fossilized, and bored.  I realized the beauty of the "right" way that others had taught me.  It's about the reaction.  Keeping kids reacting in my class inside of a fixed structure, as opposed to having them prepare something ahead of time to read out loud, gets them firing those neurons that create more proficient-looking behaviors.  Either way, they are conjugating and using vocab.  But the latter type of in-class work forces them to hear, seek clarification, and react, something they'll need to do a lot of outside of the class if they ever use the TL away from school.  It feels less scripted, more fresh, and so much more authentic.

I invite your commentary.  Thanks!