Although the post is about why you should use circling in the classroom I want to start off by talking about what circling is. Many people are confused by this technique or they don’t know what it is. Often times when you Google this technique it shows up as sitting in a circle talking about your feelings. This is far from that.
What is circling?
Circling is a technique used by teachers in the language classroom. Although it is considered a CI method, it really can benefit all language teachers and their students. Circling is when a teacher uses a sentence in the target language and then uses a series of structured questions about that sentence to get in lots of repetition of a word, verb, or structure in. Using this technique gives students more opportunities to see new terms and phrases and increases acquisition.
Circling is an important skill for a teacher to develop in order to help students increase their understanding of the language and acquire language more easily.
Why use circling in the classroom?
A simple answer to this question could be because language learners need a lot of repetition and they need it in ways that will keep them from becoming bored with the content. Using the circling method with an engaging story will do this. Students get a lot of meaningful repetition of terms and they see various structures being used (like question asking).
Circling was developed by Susan Gross (if my history is correct). The technique of asking a series of questions allows students to see the vocabulary numerous times in meaningful ways…in context, in questions, and in structures. Repetition of the words are not in isolation.
When do you use circling?
You don’t have to be a CI teacher or a TPRS person to use circling. You can use it with picture talks, movie talks, newscasts, stories, historical events, current events…really any content you use in the language classroom. If there are new words and structures that need to be taught, you will want to use circling to add in the repetition.
How do I do this?
Circling takes some time and practice to get used to. It is certainly not something that comes naturally to most teachers. It takes some practice. However, it is not difficult and you can do it! Basically, you can follow a few basic steps:
- Say a phrase
- Ask a no question – student answers, teacher repeats the correct answer
- Ask yes question – student answers, teacher repeats the correct answer
- Ask either/or – student answers, teacher repeats the correct answer
- Ask an open-ended question – student answers, teacher repeats the correct answer
- Ask a WH question – student answers, teacher repeats the correct answer
- Ask an opinion question – student answers, teacher repeats the correct answer
Notice that the teacher should repeat the correct statement after the student even if the student answers correctly. Easy peasy right?
There is a workshop you can take that is open right now that takes the guesswork out of circling. Register now to learn more about this technique and become a CHAMP teacher!
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