4 CI Strategies from CI Liftoff
I don’t think anyone would call me a TPRS teacher, though I’ve certainly dabbled in comprehensible input for years, and I will gladly sip some CI Kool-Aid when offered a fresh serving, whether through organized national conferences or a workshop conveniently passing through my home state.
I recently got the opportunity to see Tina Hargaden and Ben Slavic in action, and the enthusiasm was beyond contagious. What’s more, I walked away with four solid strategies I know I can add to my tool belt/toy box to make class time more fun and a little more effective.
Card Talk
Sr. Slavic has long been famed for “Circling with Balls,” but this is an update that is both simple and ingenious. Art was a big hook (Dave Burgess would be proud) to engage students in creation and collaboration, and in this case works a lot like when I would collect student interests with Nearpod–only even simpler. At the same time, it also taps into some of the best parts of my successful first day last year, when I did a little PQA to tie into student interests–but again, even simpler.
Basically, the kids get a card, write their name, and draw something they like. Bam. Done. Yet again, even simpler than the first-day homework collage (which I still might do, mind you). If they have trouble thinking of something, maybe try steering them toward food or pets or sports.
Then I start not with the questions but with statements in the TL, observations based on the cards. I remark on something one kid likes, find another kid who likes the same thing to point out, point out a kid who doesn’t have the same kind of thing on their card and maybe ease into questions with ¿no? on the end.
SUPER comprehensible and engaging.
Hub Jobs
One-Word Image
I confess, this is why I showed up. I saw Grant Boulanger do this at iFLT and Haiyun Lu at ACTFL. I still felt there was more to grasp about how to set it up and make it work. I already knew:
- The “one word” is the name of an object you start with–any object (that’s interesting)
- You build on the one word by asking questions to let the class choose the description
Invisibles
So they start out as student drawing, so I don’t know how they’re actually “invisible.” I guess it’s because they become part of the class, even though we don’t see them there with is? Anyway, this is more of the art hook, and let me tell you, it worked on me. I roped my daughter into coloring my character for me, too, to make it extra special (she gave my pizza green olive eyes). The kids create an object character (again, Maris’ post helped me understand why it couldn’t be Beyonce) and begin listing its characteristics, including
- name
- job
- age
- family
Workshop with Ben Slavic & Tina Hargaden Day 1
Workshop with Ben Slavic & Tina Hargaden Day 2