Second Type of Student Response: Connect

Doesn't it just feel so great when you plan a lesson and it goes smoothly, the kids have a good time and, are enjoying the process of learning?! I love it when that happens! My students did such an amazing job this week! We deepened and extended our ability to listen to and repeat sentences. I felt they were ready for the second type of structured student response: connect.

Connect - That reminds me of ...
Use your pointer fingers and thumbs to make circles. Open one circle and put it around the other circle. Close fingers to make two loops like a chain link.
Connect is all about prior knowledge. I am using the quote, "That reminds me of..." on the poster. Students come to us with so much knowledge already in their brains. Why not use that knowledge and build upon that foundation with new knowledge. It takes me all the way back to Ed Psych, my favorite undergraduate class. The official term for using background knowledge is scaffolding.  It is much harder to teach a concept if we start from scratch without any experience on that topic. Using what students already know to enhance learning makes it relatable and meaningful. For my purposes as a language learning teacher, when students share their previous knowledge it gives me a glimpse of their experiences and where gaps exist in their vocabulary and language development. They may have experience with an idea but are lacking the language skills to convey that idea to the group. Our small group meetings are designed to give students the opportunity to practice their language skills in a low-stress and encouraging environment.

To introduce connect this past week, I had a variety of picture cards. For this introductory activity I wanted students to just share what the picture made them think about. If we had a picture of a pillow, students would say that it made them think about sleeping, their bed, or being comfortable. Those are great connections. The picture did not show a bed or someone sleeping, but the students already had experience with pillows and what they are used for. I plan to extend connect past just recalling previous knowledge or experiences. When we connect to texts we use TTS (text to self), TTT (text to text), and TTW (text to world). I want to use connect as a language development tool and as a structured student response to encourage listening and speaking about our own ideas and the ideas of others. We just touched on this skill this week and will be practicing more in the coming weeks.  Click here for the poster on TpT. Stay tuned for next week's new skill: Question.