Crumbs #35: Interaction patterns: a messy choir

Ingredients

• Any drilling activity, any Q&A game, practice or drill, any Finish the sentence activity
• Online or offline
• Resources as usual: wordwall games, flashcards, posters, puppets, miro

Procedures

• I will describe the procedures for one of the games that we played in the messy choir manner with the use of the wordwall flashcards. It was done with a group of level 3 pre-schoolers and we used it to supplement Playway 3 (Puchta, Gerngross, CUP) materials.
• The kids were sitting on the carpet looking at the screen. The teacher showed the cards and asked ‘Are you scared of lions?’ and the kids would answer ‘I’m scared’ or ‘I’m not scared’. They would behave precisely like a messy choir – kind of doing the same thing but totally (and purposefully) out of sync. The main aim here is not harmony or timing but production.
• The teacher was participating, too, to model and to encourage production.
• Later on, in the following lessons, the individual students were asked to lead the game and ask the questions. Everyone was answering.
• The key element here is the slow (but not too slow) pace, without rushing through, giving the kids the ample time to make a decision, to be ready to speak and to be heard.
• The teacher sometimes had to pause and ask the individual students ‘And you, Sasha?’, but it was more necessary during the introductory stages of the whole approach, to signal to the kids that, despite that being a whole class activity, the teacher is listening and paying attention and curious what everyone has to say.

Why we like it

• It is especially useful with the pre-school or primary classes, especially those bigger ones. It can be a nice alternative to choral drilling (which can become boring if used constantly) and to 1-1 exchanges (which have to be limited in larger groups as they will be taking a lot of the lesson time and they might have negative implications for classroom management as kids get bored waiting for their turn and they start looking for something to do)
• It does take some time for the kids and for the teacher to get used to. The kids take time to realised that despite the fact that they speak all at once everyone will be heard and acknowledge and that it is not necessary to shout or speak loudly or that, indeed, they are allowed to take their time to answer. The teacher needs time to slow it down, too, to wait for everyone to produce the language, to call out those who might not have answered or wait for those who are taking their time. Like with anything, the task requires staging and scaffolding and time.
• The shy students still get ‘the protection’ of the group. They are not in the spotlight but at the same time they are not left to their own devices.
• It resembles a natural conversation.
• It might lead to extended production ie in the activity described above some kids will only say ‘I’m scared’ or ‘I am not scared’, some others (and when ready) might want to expand that and provide a rationale ie ‘I like snakes. They are beautiful’.
• I think the main benefit of this approach is that it contributes to the general atmosphere that I want to have in my classroom and that is: we talk when we have something to say, not only when the teacher asks a question.

Happy teaching!