Micrologue

Micrologue

One of the many features of Rassias’ work, I (Bob Patrick) was given permission to share of this material with Latin teachers.  A micrologue is one of the Rassias features that actually provides understandable messages in the target language.  A micrologue requires a story that can be reduced to 4-6 sentences.  Each of those sentences has a picture drawn on the board or on a slide.  The teacher delivers the sentence that goes with the picture to an identified guinea pig while the rest of the class takes it down as dictation.  Picture by picture, the teacher repeats the sentence that goes with the picture three times before moving on to the next.  The sentences must be understandable via the pictures.  After the entire story has been told this way, the text of the story (4-6 sentences) is shown on the board so that class members can check their dictation and make corrections.  Then, the teacher walks through the four pictures again and asks the guinea pig leading yes/no questions about each picture–requiring a complete sentence as answer.  The questions all evoke the sentences involved. Finally, the guinea pig is asked to stand and re-tell the story using the pictures.  If the guinea pig falters, the class can help from their dictation notes.

The teacher might easily extend this into a TPRS and/or PQA session by expanding on the story.

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