Teachers set up classrooms to make procedures in their classes more efficient. For immersion, you want to do the same thing, but with the idea of making English less necessary. Here is how you should set up your classroom to help keep your students speaking in the TL:
1. Student Supplies for the Day
On the wall by the door where students walk in, have an area where you put up what the students need that day. Use pictures of the items and have them labeled in the TL. Above, I also have the phrase “Today, I need…” in the TL. In this area, I only have spaces for “my notebook,” “my pencil” and “my computer” because anything else they would need I provide. I have the pictures/labels velcroed, so I can take them down or put them up easily.
The first few days of school, I do not have my students use their computers or notebooks (they may not have their computer yet or they may not even know they need a notebook, if your district is as good about getting school supplies out to students as mine have been). Then, during English week, tell students to look there when they walk in and to get their supplies before they sit down, so that you can transition quickly to notebook or computer activities during class.
After English week, I typically have my students get their notebook and a pencil everyday. (They may use the notebooks as a hard surface to write on even if we don’t write in them on a certain day.) Computer use should be rare—until you train them to act it out, draw it or use circumlocution, you do not want students tempted to translate anything.
2. Available Floor Space Along the Walls
After students walk in and see what they need for the day, they should put their backpacks down along the walls and then go sit in the circle. This way, they are less tempted to get out that English homework during class or do whatever else they might want to do when they should be focusing on French.
3. No Desks
I prefer a deskless classroom, although it is not absolutely necessary for an immersion classroom. I have not always been deskless, but I have always had my desks/tables outside of the circle, which I will go into more detail below. The benefits of being deskless include faster transition times for standing up for activities, fewer students putting their heads down and sleeping and nowhere for students to hide being on their phones. Having no desks also helps students feel that they can choose to sit on the floor or in a chair in the circle.
4. Taped Circle on the Floor
Again, a circle is not absolutely necessary for immersion; however, this is probably the most important aspect of my classroom, in my opinion. As discussed during English week, a circle first shows equality—everyone is a part of the class and is expected to participate and not hide in the back of the room. Also, because students can see each other, it allows for improved communication via acting it out, drawing or using circumlocution in the sense that anyone can help anyone else who is struggling.
This is true for me as the teacher, too, because I can be in the middle of the circle when I need to be, either to act something out in front of all of the students or to easily monitor that everyone is working during an activity or to listen to everyone at the same time during a speaking activity.
A taped circle is also a great visual for setting up an activity or resetting students after an activity. One of my go-to speaking activities is inside/outside circles, and the taped circle is key for making that transition easier. After any activity, tell students to return to the circle, then you are able to transition to the next thing. Finally, having students sit at the taped circle shows their readiness to learn. If there is anyone who is not in the circle at the beginning of class or after an activity, you know that student needs some sort of emotional support.
5. Calendar Bulletin Board
It is surprising how much my calendar bulletin board is used in my class. I have all of the days of the week, months, seasons and weather phrases posted on the bulletin board, then I have a sentence that says what today’s date, season and weather are. Everything is attached via Velcro, so that it can be easily changed each day. Below the sentence is an actual 7 day x 5 week chart with numbers. Not only do I notice my students looking at this bulletin board all of the time, but it is helpful if either I or my students want to talk about the past or the future. We can go up to it and point to what we are trying to communicate.
6. Useful Phrases on a Bulletin Board
After English week, the useful phrases you co-created with your students should immediately go up before you return back to only speaking in the TL. This way, any time a student says something in English that you know is one of the useful phrases, you can have them reference the bulletin board and say what they just said in the TL before you continue with class.
7. Class Expectations
After English week and after you get students to come up with the class expectations that you secretly already have set in stone, the class expectations need to also be hung up immediately before you return back to only speaking in the TL. (I actually have these prepared and hung up before school starts, I just cover them until after English week once we’ve had the chance to discuss them.)
Make sure that they are written large enough so that anyone can see them at any spot in the room and they need to be hung in a location that is easily accessible by you while you’re teaching. This is because any time someone speaks in English, you will stop class (I am serious!), calmly walk over to the class expectations poster, and point to the rule that is being broken. (I do not take credit for this technique. This is from Tina Hargaden’s book Year One: A Natural Approach to the Year and is meant to help your sanity and emotional stability throughout each day.)
8. Act It Out, Draw It and Use What You Know (Circumlocution) Posters
I have posters for each of these ideas with an image representing them. I hang them together and anytime students need to be reminded that they can communicate what they just said by acting it out, drawing it or using circumlocution, I walk over to these posters and point to them.
9. Restroom/Locker Questions
Near the door, have the question students should ask you to use the restroom, go to their lockers, etc. You don’t need to have every location listed, as they can look at the useful phrases for those, but I have found these two questions right by the door are useful.
10. Labels
Label as many objects as you can in your classroom from the floor to the ceiling, the wall to the window, and the white board to the light switches, among so many others! You can point to the labels when referencing those objects and students can associate the auditory input with the written word. Then, they will start referencing them when trying to ask for things, as well.
11. Turn-In Paper Bins for Each Class
This is just good classroom management, but have a spot by the door for students to turn in papers by class. This eliminates any English questions about where things should be turned in.
12. Hanging Folders for Each Student Divvied Up by Class
Again, this is just good classroom management, but have a hanging folder for each student divvied up by class with the students’ names in alphabetical order. Then, whenever you have finished grading papers, you return them to the respective folder and students can either collect the papers at their leisure or when you tell them to get their most recent assessment, etc. I also use these for when students are absent—just put the handout in the absent students’ folder and then it is their responsibility to retrieve those handouts and not your job to remember to give the handouts to them.
Above each class’ hanging folders is where I put that class’ list of student jobs and birthdays.
13. Easel Pads for Each Class
This is probably the best classroom management trick I’ve heard of—I heard about it at an Organic World Language (OWL) workshop. In your room, hang up an easel pad for each class. Then, at the end of class, have students share out what words they learned and/or used that day and you write them on the easel pad.
Not only is this a great activity because the brain is primed to remember the most from the end of class (and the beginning of class), but also students love seeing how much they are able to remember and they like competing with the other classes. The best reason to do this activity every day, though, is because you will never have down time at the end of class! No more “Oh, the teacher isn’t teaching anymore, so we can speak in English.” You will have them speak in the TL until the bell rings. And, if you finish up earlier than you expected, you have this activity to take up the rest of class time.
The idea is first to ask for them to provide the words. Do gestures for other words they may have learned that they aren’t remembering. Then, if they seem to be finished and you still have class time left, then you start reviewing those words. So, next, you would say one of the words they just told you and have them do an action for that word and/or point to it, if it’s in your classroom. After you have done that for every word, if you still have class time left, then you do the action and the students will now say the word (and if they forget the word, it is written on the easel pad and you can point to it not so discreetly.)
Once an easel pad page is filled up, I tear it off and hang it on the bottom of the page underneath and continue writing at the top. I collect filled pages like this (resticking them so there is only one page length hanging below and not a continuous roll of pages) until after an assessment or until they fall off at which time I recycle them.
