I’m not going to be able to fully describe what I want to describe here, but I’m just throwing some thoughts out that are in my head.
I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on the use of PQA (personalized questions and answers) in my classroom.
It’s not just about using high frequency words so that students acquire them. It’s not just about the level of interest it can generate because we are talking about the other students in class.Will they acquire more if the input is comprehensible and compelling? Yes. However, it’s not even about language acquisition.
What it is about is getting to know the students.
I want to know what makes them tick. I want to know their struggles, their successes. I want to know as much about them as they will let me.
I experienced my first loss of a student this past week. I knew some of her interests, I knew a little bit about her life. However I could have known so much more, PQA could have helped with that.
Moving forward I’m going to try so much harder to get better at really getting to know my students. Not just superficial likes and dislikes, but what they are happy about, what they are upset about.
We are so lucky that we are in a position that we can get to know our students on such a deep level all the while facilitating the acquisition of language.
Languageley 