The Conversation Circle
...written on 06.11.03, @ 11:17 p.m.
Sun June 8, 2003
Saturday, Fred, Hiroshi and I headed for Kamiishizu. We were to do a special presentation for 26 elementary students from grades 1-6. Having such a range proved to be quite daunting in determining what the program should be about. I had to find something that would be active and appeal to many ages and learning styles. I finally decided I would do a Conversation Circle.
The Conversation Circle is made up of 6-7 stations. At each station there are some questions and materials with which to practice the questions and responses to them.
Station #1. The main question here is "What's your name?" Children were to practice the question and the answer with each other. They also got to play with alphabet cards, dice, scrabble letter tiles, etc. The students could play concentration, slap the correct letter with their hands, or match letter tiles to spellings on picture cards. For many of the younger students, this was their first time being exposed to the roman alphabet.
Station #3. "How old are you?" was the main question along with "When is your birthday?" "What time is it?" and "What's your telephone number?" Some students were blindfolded, asked a question and were handed a foam number and had to guess what it was. There were also fake cell phones to practice phone numbers on as well as a calendar and small paper clocks.
Station #4. "Where are you from?" We had pictures of kids from other countries, a small foam puzzle of the United States and various postcards. Students took turns pretending they were from other countries and practiced the questions and answers with each other.
Station #5. "What do you like?" Lots of materials here, photos of sports, food, drinks, hobbies, animal magnets, dolls, CDs, etc.
Station #6. "What do you want to be?" I had a toy stethoscope, syringe, hairdryer, pictures of different occupations like policeman, doctor, fireman, cook, sports players, etc. This was probably the most daunting question to teach, but I made it manageable by making it into a chant. "What do you want to be? (snap fingers twice) What do you want to be?" (snap fingers twice). "I want to be a _____" (slap hand on the table). repeat. The kids found it very easy to remember.
Fred and Hiroshi, had made a cute intro video for the class. I had planned on the first half hour being a quick go round of the circle and then the second half we would all practice it and then some volunteers would perform it.
There were four of us for seven stations (#7 was a catch-all rest station staffed by a volunteer). We divided the kids by grade which gave us 3-5 students per group. Each group went to one station and were taught the questions and answers and shown some of the games. I wanted the kids to come up with their own games for the stuff available and was very pleased to see this happen.
At my signal we all started and then supposedly after five minutes we would switch. I taught two groups at once by having Station #5 come over to station # 6, learn the chant and the game and then go back to station #5 and learn that one. My doing that allowed me to finish before Fred and Hiroshi were done with their groups, so we couldn't change after five minutes and what was supposed to take half an hour, took an hour!
I easily cut the last part and just had some volunteers come up and practice the circle with a partner. They stood at the front of the room and then looked at each station to remind themselves of the questions.
We gave the students notebooks, a passport to record their progress through the other programs, a Conversation Circle spinner and a CD! Fred and I made the CD together. It's about ten minutes long and has all the questions and responses on it. The students will really be able to practice what they learned and review it at the next class as well.
The class was labor intensive for us and we were very tired when it was over. Clean up was a bear, but I have since bought some color-coded organizers to help with the task in the future.
I really enjoyed watching the students have fun with English!