THEY CAN TALK!

Progress! We have been working with tons of strategies, and we have learned a lot! We first need practice, and continued modeling of what we want from our students. Letting students choose their groups and record their conversations lowers the affective filter and produces better conversations. Using topics that are polemic. Give them things that they may or may not know already so that there has to be a discussion of meaning. No right or wrong answer conversations are awesome. People that are not talkers are talking more in class. There are some serious cultural questions we need to address to understand why our other students are not producing even at the most basic level. We are also getting the student homework atrophy. We also have students who we think have the ideas but the "spitting it out part" of language (in a sensible manner)has them sending us mixed messages. Something that is in our classes that needs to be addressed is cultural sensitivity among the nations represented in our school. Not every Hispanic is from Mexico, and not all people from Asia are "Chinos". We are keeping documentation (recordings, and classroom discussion topics) to track our progress. Maybe the students would like to use them in their portfolios.