Meredith is a new PLC member from Washington, D.C. Here is her bio and she needs some responses to an important question raised in the second paragraph below:
Hi Ben!
I’m a newly-joined member of your PLC and so far I am really learning a LOT. I’m in my first year teaching secondary ed – Spanish I. I teach at KIPP DC: College Preparatory in the poorest neighborhood of Washington DC. The beginning of the year was rough. I had only ever taught undergrads (while in grad school) and had a hard time and virtually no support from my school’s nonexistent foreign language program. Thankfully, in January, I met a local teacher who teaches with TPRS and she has started a small cohort of local Spanish teachers to show us her ways. In fact, we took a TPRS seminar in Swedish to help us understand a bit more of what our students are going through.
Anyways, this leads to my real questions… I started to introduce the techniques, but it was already late in the year and only about half of the kids really showed interest. However I want to start off next year and dive right in. I’m seeking out resources to rebuild my curriculum, develop my own Scope & Sequence, and really take ownership of my part of the Spanish department. I have to teach credit recovery to about 12 kids this summer and I’m really looking to develop a lot of techniques with them. But I am having trouble writing a lesson plan. I was given the KIPP format (Do Now, Intro to New Material, Guided Practice, Independent Practice, Exit Ticket/Assessment) and I find it too restrictive. But then again, I don’t know what other formats/templates are out there. Is there a template you use or someone else’s resource you know of? I know that more experienced teachers may not need to write out such detailed LP’s but if you can point me in the direction of one I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks ahead of time and thank you for running such an educational, informative site. I have already recommended the PLC to my “cohort” of newbie TPRS teachers here in DC and can’t say enough good things about the guidance it is bringing me as I plan for next year’s fresh start.
Best,
Meredith Gleason