Hello Kitty

I got a big grumble today in 6th grade when I told them we were continuing with Hello Kitty.  That was surprising to me because after class on Tuesday (when some moms had come), I asked some of the 6th grade girls what they thought of class.  They all loved it and hoped we would do more things like that.  I know that their attention span is that of a 6th grader, so I knew better than to try to get them to be silly in front of their classmates (and occasionally their moms) three classes in a row!  (I had a secret plan.)

I shushed them and started explaining what I wanted for them.  I have struggled with speaking just English with them.  But today I did it.  I explained that I was going to number them off and that then they would need to all sit together by number in a certain area of the room, making a circle with their group.  There was some commotion and some trying to figure out who their team would be, but the important part was that they GOT it.  I was stoked!

I have done some group work with them, which is non-existent in Mexico.  Typically what happens is that the two students who have lived in the US dominate and the other kids on their teams do nothing.

I had a plan today.  That's an inappropriate description.  As I've said before, most teaching ideas (at least the good ones I have) are spontaneous.  I didn't have a plan.  I made a plan, right when I needed it.

After the circles were formed, I explained that I would be passing out a sheet but that it was to remain face down or they would lose time, that it was a race.

They were attentive and excited.

On the sheet of paper, I had 17 sentences from our story.  It was probably too much for the activity we were doing, but now I know.  The sentences were the exact sentences they had used to explain the story.  They weren't sentences straight from the book.  They had to put their sentences in order.  This required several things.  They had to understand what they read or heard (from another student's reading), they had to remember what had happened in the story, and they had to work together.  Here's where the genius teacher came in to play.  I told them that after every minute and a half they had to give the paper to the person to their left.  It worked like a charm!

There's one girl, Johana, who lived in the US for quite some time until 4th grade.  Apparently she used to correct Gris, the teacher before me.  Needless to say, she doesn't correct me.

I told her that she had to stay silent for one session of 1:30.  That helped the other teams a little.  Her team still won, but only by about 20 seconds, which in my mind means the second team actually won!

The video below shows two things:

1-practically every student actively involved in the activity

2-their excitement and intent when it's time to pass the paper.

You'll notice all Spanish being spoken.  I'm okay with that.  That will get better.  Likely there was more English spoken that I didn't catch on camera.  But also, even speaking Spanish to describe which sentence should go next, or to describe what the English words mean still requires the initial understanding of the English words.

After all groups had gotten their sentences in order, we all read the paper in the wrong order together.  Even though they haven't studied a lot of these words, they were able to read them because the words were already so familiar from telling the story.

Then I asked for volunteers to help me put the sentences in order.  They did an excellent job and suddenly class time was over!  I absolutely MUST continue this teaching stye with them.  They are eating it up and participating way more than they did before.