Preparing for the new school year means paying more attention to your physical space and structures for student interaction than ever before. Each school has chosen a plan for physical distancing and now it’s your job to make that happen. All those great cooperative learning strategies you’ve been using will need some rethinking, too.

Can you do GLAD® in a physically distanced classroom?

There are many options for schools to bring students back safely. The CDC’s recommendation is a plan called the Bubble Strategy. This strategy limits exposure to an isolated population reducing the risk of transmission to the rest of the school.

The same group of students would stay together all day in the same classroom with the same teacher(s). They would eat lunch in the classroom and would forgo specials, like library and PE. One iteration of the Bubble Strategy even calls for students to isolate with this group for recess.

We have an idea to take...

Blurting here, blurting there, blurting, blurting everywhere!

You are not alone. Every classroom is filled with internal and EXTERNAL processors.

How do we meet the needs of both?

How do we encourage a language rich environment where students are talking but not blurting?

First, resign yourself to the fact that a GLAD classroom is a noisy classroom. Scary sentence, we know. But it's language with purpose: guided, rich, surrounded with support and focused on the topic at hand.

GLAD classrooms have parameters in place to structure language and provide the internal processing and wait time other students need.

Ready to tame the blurting beast?!

Consider these 4 TIPS to promote language acquisition while taming the blurting beast:

1. TALK IT OUT

Language acquisition requires talking - LOTS of talking!

Either we provide structured time to talk or our external processors will incorporate it themselves. Consider going through your lesson plans for the...