Auditory Focus
Sometimes with untrained students the sounds we make go into their ears, rattle around a bit, and then fall out. This is not what we want. We want to instruct our students in such a way that the sounds we say
The Psychology of Withdrawal
Some kids engage at the right amount. Some too much. What about the kids who withdraw? It is my thought-out position that, generally, kids who withdraw from interacting in a CI class have a reason to do so. We all know
AP Exam
Why do we assume that just because some governing body in our profession like the College Board has the best interests of students and teacher at heart? In fact, they don't. They have their profit line at heart. Indeed, when God
Thoughts on Pacing Guides
The differences in philosophy between CI and traditional language education: CI is a student-driven methodology. It responds to the linguistic needs of students, to their wishes to speak about things interesting to them.This necessarily changes the nature of how we plan.
Report from the Field – Craig West
This profound report from Craig reveals exactly what WBYT can bring to your instruction. It reminds us that engaging kids, actually commanding their attention in the TL, doesn't happen as nearly as much as we think: Hey Ben - Thinking about
Elevator Speeches (2)
When a class is pushing you, and Classroom Rule #2 and the "Zero Option" aren't doing the job, you can go to two options, known as the "Mini-Elevator Speech" and the "Elevator Speech" - Mini-Elevator Speech: (said to an offending child
Report from the Field – Sean Lawler
Hi Ben - Please feel free to post these two videos of my first 15 minutes of the first day of my Spanish 1 class this year, on 8/23/19. Part 1 is 5 minutes. Then there was an announcement by my principal.
Welcome Poland
I don't know of any CI activity in Poland. However, we now have a group of five teachers from rural Poland with us, reading the books and hopefully taking part in the discussion here with questions, clarifications, etc. So, we
Report from the Field – Jake Firestine
Jake reports on what has really been quite a remarkable re-entry into teaching after a long segue. I think he has decided well in terms of simplifying his job and of reducing daily stress. Note in particular what he says
Upper Level CI/AP Themes – 2
A few days ago David wrote about applying CI to upper levels and I gave a response w high levels of snark. But that's really what I believe based on my own experiences - I do believe that for