[ola] Re: Trust Falls - Help!
- From: Shahla Brown <sbrow@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ola@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 11:56:17 -0600
It is so great to know that others continually deal with students who are
unengaged or constantly distracted.
On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 11:45 AM, Jody Soberon <jodyso@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am so looking forward to responses on this. I haven't even dared to do
> this yet, though I probably could have success with my Span 2 classes that
> are pretty much on board with immersion. But my Span 1 classes have so many
> issues similar to what Warren describes about English, being off task,
> playing on their phones, uninvolved, non-participatory, chatting in English
> in circle, not following instructions etc.
>
> Thank you!
>
> On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 8:11 AM, Warren Billings <
> wbillings@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Good morning!
>>
>> I just did trust falls with my first period class and honestly it failed
>> and I am discouraged by this.
>>
>> QUESTION: Does anyone have tips on how to make trust falls successful? I
>> think I just brought the class backwards in their trust for each other.
>> Again, I am discouraged and frankly upset by this. Give me some basic
>> advice on how to make it work!
>>
>> There is a split of half the class that works super hard and does well
>> and the other half of the class talks in English, doesn't have notebooks,
>> plays on phones, wants to eat their breakfast, is late, absent often, etc.
>> I've been talking to them and to their parents but the issues are
>> continuing to come up. I maintain those high expectations in class but they
>> are still exhibiting this behavior even though I have created a safe
>> environment where it is easier to simply participate than to be off task.
>>
>> They just had a writing performance assessment and those that aren't
>> working just had a reality check - lots of 1.0's (equivalent to D or F).
>> They are performing at NM with incomplete sentences. It was a true
>> assessment though because all the ones that I expected to pass did pass.
>>
>> I am planning on doing a critique session of exemplar work later but
>> wanted to first establish that community of people that trust each other
>> when they need help.
>>
>> Today I did trust falls to fortify the feeling of community before we
>> start critiquing tomorrow. Here is the process that I went through:
>> 1. Hook: sing the song we just learned
>> 2. Modeling: I modeled a trust fall (with one of the struggling students)
>> saying in L2 Ready? Yes! Trust!
>> 3. Pairing Activity: Sneakers inside the circle, boots outside
>> 4. I wrote the key words on the board: ready? yes! trust!
>> 5. Modeling: I asked one pair to perform the trust fall and had everyone
>> watch.
>> 6. I then counted down from three and asked everyone to fall onto their
>> partners.
>> 7. They said thank you and gave their partner a high five and switched to
>> do it again.
>> 8. I asked if trust was important in class and said that trust was like
>> saying help
>> 9. I wrote trust = help on the whiteboard and we drew pictures of people
>> needing trust and people needing help.
>> 10. We then drew pictures of people helping the drawings on the
>> whiteboard.
>> 11. We then shared some sentences as a group
>> 12. We then wrote five sentences about help and trust.
>>
>> The trust falls were a fail because one boy let another boy fall and I
>> didn't do anything because I thought it was an accident. I will talk to
>> them tomorrow. Lots of people doing the shuffle step when they fell back.
>> They were too clumped up with room to hide and misbehave. I should have
>> stopped, made space, then had those two boys do it again in front of
>> everyone.
>>
>> Tomorrow I am doing it again. We need to have success here. Today was not
>> successful. I know that this is only one step in our journey of
>> establishing a positive community. Everything we do in class either builds
>> or takes away from that community.
>>
>> QUESTION: Does anyone have tips on how to make trust falls successful? I
>> think I just brought the class backwards in their trust for each other.
>> Again, I am discouraged and frankly upset by this. Give me some basic
>> advice on how to make it work!
>>
>> Un abrazo,
>> Warren
>>
>> --
>> Warren Billings
>> Spanish Teacher
>> Pittsfield Middle High School
>> Pittsfield, NH
>> Telephone: (603) 435-6701 x4226
>> Visit our Website! http://pittsfieldspanish.weebly.com/
>>
>
>
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