Suggested TCI Schedule – Wed/Thurs

6 thoughts on “Suggested TCI Schedule – Wed/Thurs”

1. John Piazza

   March 29, 2011 at 11:29 pm

   Ben, Thanks for posting such concrete strategies. This is very helpful as I try to visualize and even attempt some TPRS in my classroom. One question I am wrestling with (and perhaps this could be another thread) is the role of technology in the language classroom. I am lucky to be in a school that has all the bells and whistles and wants us to use them. However, I also feel that many of the online activities out there are drill-style, and only help with short-term memory. Online games and activites, culture DVD’s, etc. have been lauded for “reaching” students whose attention spans supposedly cannot handle an entire period of intense language conversation. But what does it mean to “reach” students?
   One pleasant surprise resulting from my early attempts at TPRS strategies, is that even when a lesson crashes and burns in my opinion, I look back and realize that we spent most of class in TL, and students actually remember what we did, even the kids who have diagnosed attention difficulties, or who get overwhelmed and tune out when we’re working in the textbook.

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2. Jody

   March 30, 2011 at 6:22 am

   John, it has been my experience that kids w/attention problems and spec ed kids thrive with TPRS instruction–functioning exactly as you describe. TPRS does not “take away” their challenges, but gives them access to language acquisition in a way the textbook never will.
   I really like seeing Ben’s templates. One thing I know is that a TPRS template is a living, breathing schema. These have worked for Ben who teaches high school. I also know that they will change as Ben sees ways to improve them. They stay true to his personal experience with TPRS.
   What I have observed over the years, as I have developed my own templates (an activity I suggest all teachers attempt), is that the age of the students (middle school vs. high school or elementary school) and their current language level can change some of the elements of the templates.
   Some examples from this template:
   Choral translation could be individual translation–a sentence here, a sentence there–finding out whether individual students have their eyes on the text and are comprehending well.
   Silent reading of the text could happen or not–you may want the first reading of the text to be accompanied by the acoustical language from you instead of them hearing their “anglicized pronunciation” in their heads.
   Silent reading could be a paragraph instead of a whole page– a whole page of FL text might overwhelm a student’s memory;.
   Choral oral reading of the text could happen or not (I never do this.).
   Translation quiz could happen or not (this really varies by age of student).
   Dictée, choral reading and pronunciation work are not TPRS, but have been helpful to Ben with his students.
   I like dictée and do it with my kids, but it takes forever with younger students. I find it helpful as a tool to heighten their awareness of word juncture and sound/spelling patterns. I have to make sure that the dictée, itself, contains only sentences with which students are very familiar or the task becomes overwhelming to the younger student and they miss the point. For me, dictée reinforces the target structures one more time. It is great for pre-writing. I find the inclusion of these things in a program to be very personal teaching calls. I am glad Ben mentions them, but I (from my experience) would not say that they are “musts” for a CI class.
   The order of the tasks, the time on those tasks, and how the tasks are shaped and carried out are all variables that each teacher must decide based on the needs of the students in the class.
   Curious about other people’s templates and your rationales. Thanks for putting your stuff out here, Ben.

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3. frank james johnson

   March 30, 2011 at 10:35 am

   Text written specifically to supplement the previous interactive oral communication is the best place for pertinent introduction to new cognates and other supposedly transparent words.
   (Into our novice-level PQA and related storyasking, should we, or not, unhesitatingly supplement our three entirely new target structures with some target-language words that we consider clearly cognate or otherwise “transparent”? Auditory-wise, such supposed transparency is often, at best, a more or less translucent, at least somewhat defocused blur to the inadequately experienced ear. Here is where extensive POINT & PAUSE comes in handy, but I have found however that many of my high-school students have not known a good deal of American-English words that I thought were rather common. In any case, it would seem best to confine introduction of target-language doubles of American-English words, as well as other reputedly transparent target-language vocabulary, to written text and related subsequent discussion.)

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4. Nathan Black

   March 30, 2011 at 1:10 pm

   And regarding the technology, John, I would recommend picking and choosing what is actually useful. Far and away for me the most important thing is the overhead LCD projector and a word processor so that I can type the words we are talking about (as Frank points out) for a Dictee or a reading based on stories that get asked. I’ve even taken to putting my target phrases onto the word processor (blown up to a 40 point typeface) because that makes me less likely to fill a board with additional point and pause words, as I am apt to do. (If I add too many words, I have to scroll up away from the target phrases, so that sort of auto-enforces discipline for me).
   The other big tech thing I find myself using a ton is my document camera, as this allows me to grab student work (often drawings) and make them available to the class instantaneously. If I have multiple people draw pictures for a given story (or sequence of small stories, as I am partial to) I can get a ton more reps in a retell because I’ll flash up a doodle that somebody sketched of what we just talked about and make the class react to/decipher the drawing for me.
   My question for Ben was how to extend the reading of the story over two days, because I can never make that happen. That said, I think I might have just answered that for myself in extending the story through typing up new details (in a different color), adding new pictures, asking for partial retells, adding new endings, etc. In other words, don’t just let the storyasking process breathe sufficiently, but let the reading day breathe sufficiently by processing the reading in multiple ways.

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5. Melissa

   March 30, 2011 at 3:05 pm

   These posts are so helpful as I move through my first year with TPRS/CI classroom. I am wondering what the “accent work” is like? Do you have students read to each other or discuss the text in the TL?
   Thanks for being so willing to share your stuff. This blog has really helped me through this year.

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6. Kristin Dahl

   April 5, 2011 at 11:32 am

   Hi Ben – So nice to see your blog up again. What a blessing for us all!
   I have a question about step 6 – Sacred reading of the text. I have a guess, but I’m not really sure what you mean by that. The text has been read multiple times: silent reading, choral translation, discussion of text, discussion of grammar, and then choral work on accent. How do you help you kids find energy to yet again read the text, much less read it with awe and respect, – if that is close to what you mean by sacred. Do you use actors at this point?
   Thanks!
   Also, when you do the accent work, what do you do that engages students for 30 minutes? I often work with an expression or sentence for 30 seconds to 3-4 minutes. Do they read the whole text in French as a group? Do you model and have them repeat? Do you let them read and the stop and coach them on certain sounds, words or intonation?

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