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Today's experiment.... ....
Sep. 17th, 2009 02:57 pmin drama and psychology:
Each kid in 4th grade had to stand up and read the same two-verse poem. There were three words with difficult pronunciation. I wrote them all on the board, had the class sound them out, and repeat them two or three times.
When a reader got one wrong, I winced in sympathy. When the kid got one right, I grinned or smiled. All of these were at least a little exaggerated, because I can most certainly ham it up. After each kid read, I had them repeat the words they got wrong - and if three in a row mistook the same word, I had the whole class repeat it again.
It took them awhile to catch on. But by the time we were a third of the way through the class, kids who were formerly whispering or chattering away were instead watching me-- and listening to their classmate in the spotlight. They wanted to know why I was making faces! And they CAUGHT ON that hey, this has something to do with the stuff I'm making them all say! OH HEY, pronunciation, THERE you are!
Aaaaand then a half-dozen of the best and brightest, with no prompting whatsoever, shut their books on their turn and recited the poem from memory.
\o/
And by the end, they ALL knew the difference between 'bow down' and 'bow and arrow', and how to say 'through'.
Today's experiment... ... ... SUCCESS
Each kid in 4th grade had to stand up and read the same two-verse poem. There were three words with difficult pronunciation. I wrote them all on the board, had the class sound them out, and repeat them two or three times.
When a reader got one wrong, I winced in sympathy. When the kid got one right, I grinned or smiled. All of these were at least a little exaggerated, because I can most certainly ham it up. After each kid read, I had them repeat the words they got wrong - and if three in a row mistook the same word, I had the whole class repeat it again.
It took them awhile to catch on. But by the time we were a third of the way through the class, kids who were formerly whispering or chattering away were instead watching me-- and listening to their classmate in the spotlight. They wanted to know why I was making faces! And they CAUGHT ON that hey, this has something to do with the stuff I'm making them all say! OH HEY, pronunciation, THERE you are!
Aaaaand then a half-dozen of the best and brightest, with no prompting whatsoever, shut their books on their turn and recited the poem from memory.
\o/
And by the end, they ALL knew the difference between 'bow down' and 'bow and arrow', and how to say 'through'.
Today's experiment... ... ... SUCCESS
