Anna is from Caracas, Venezuela. Her family moved into New York a couple of months ago and now she is attending school here. She was assigned to my third grade class. Even though she has limited English language knowledge, she is very dedicated and willing to learn. The only problem I encounter with Anna is that she is very shy and doesn’t want to participate in oral class participation (understandable, given her present English ability).

     I want her to participate in class discussion, so I decided to apply the “Shaping” technique I learned in our classroom management course.
 
1. Anna will raise her hand when she knows the answer, but will not be called on (By agreement between the two of us.  We’re just practicing the right actions).

2. Anna will raise her hand when she knows the answer, be called upon by me, and respond with a “yes” or “no” answer.

3. Anna will raise her hand when she knows the answer, be recognized by me, and respond with short sentence fragments.

4. Anna will raise her hand, be recognized by me, and answer with short phases.
 
    As Anna improves at one stage, she will move into the following one.  If Anna has difficulty in any stage she will stay in that stage until she has mastered it fairly well.  As reinforcement, once she accomplishes a stage, she will receive a “reward certificate” to take home.
 
 
 

Return to the page on Shaping