Zach Zaitlin has a good question for the group:
I teach Spanish in grades 1-8 at a small private school. I’ve been thinking of purchasing Cuéntame or some other TPRS curriculum (but leaning pretty strongly toward that one) for use, in particular with my 3rd/4th grade class. I’ve tried to find reviews or feelings about Cuéntame on your blog and in other places, but I haven’t found much. I have heard positive things about it from a couple teachers.
I’m also curious about people’s thoughts on using a curriculum in general. I think I can imagine some misgivings, like it reduces chances for personalization or for the natural flow of the class. Are there other objections or problems I’m not thinking of?
I recently started using some of Martina Bex’s curriculum units with my older classes (5th/6th and 7th/8th grades). It’s been really helpful for me to feel like I have a little bit more direction and clarity in what I’m going to do (and to feel like I can give clearer answers about what I’m doing to sometimes skeptical students and admin), and I feel like I can also learn a lot about possible supplementary activities that are also CI-ish by seeing/using the great variety of activities she has thought up. It’s also nice to feel like I’m “covering all my bases” with regard to key target structures since I’m using a curriculum that’s, presumably, been well thought/mapped out by a teacher with more experience than I have (I’m in my second year, and starting trying TCI/TPRS toward the end of last year). I don’t want to feel like a traitor to true CI, but I do feel like I’ve been kind of floundering up to this point this year and that these curricula could be helpful right now. Maybe I’m just looking for “permission” from you all! But I’d love to hear your thoughts, and/or your experience with Cuéntame or other curricula.
Thanks,
Zach