Jen recently had a year end interview with an administrator about her new work with comprehension based methods. She said that her administrator asked this crucial question:
“How do you choose which structures you’re going to work with if you don’t have a textbook to give you a road map?”
This is an excellent question – too much for right brained me, so I forwarded it to Diana Noona, who responded to Jen as follows and has given me permission to share her answer with our group:
Hi Jen,
In response to your questions about the structures, there is a relatively easy way to figure it out. Here are 3 options:
1. Choose materials/stories/novels that you want to use. DPS teachers have found that the top structures listed in Blaine’s LICT mini-stores-teacher’s manual work very well.
Other teachers who are more experienced in TCI choose about 3 novels for the first year/novice students and backwards plan from the novels. (Rowan/Gaab/Miller/Ray) These teachers are capable of Storyasking so there are not really any mandatory stories just mandatory structures.
2. Coordination with others in the department is necessary based on the list of structures. Materials teachers use are discretionary as long as there is agreement on the structures. (Chosen from the top 200 list which is available on the DPS website:
http://curriculum.dpsk12.org/lang_literacy_cultural/world_lang/curr_docs/index.shtmlI I suggest making a list of the top verb structures.
What is interesting here is that when teachers divide into language groups/small groups and are asked to create this list, the structures chosen in the top 30 are almost always the same. Why? Because functions of language are the priority and those functions (wants/needs/likes/describing actions/emotions etc./comparisons/retelling in the past) demand that certain structures are taught before others.
3. The easiest thing to do when first beginning is to use either LICT, Cuentame mas/Raconte-moi encore, Charo y Lee (Spanish only) and then stick with the series. This is good for beginning TCI teachers but as teachers get more experienced, the books are used rarely and only for a story here and there. Once teachers are more experienced, the Anne Matava stories are amazing, fun, engaging and way better than any others for Storyasking.
Good luck Jen. I hope this helps! I’m happy to answer questions any time.
Diana