This is from Cherie Thomas in Albermarle, Virginia:
Hi Ben,
I have a situation that I need some help with. Our school is using our PD day next Monday to work with the HS we feed into. All departments have to meet at the HS to discuss “common student experiences”. We are supposed to come with a unit that demonstrates “P Based Learning”, passion, problem, or project. The lessons/ units are supposed to show evidence of student driven instruction, which is great for me because that is my focus everyday. I am the only teacher in my feeder pattern that uses TPRS, the rest are traditional textbook/ grammar teachers. They are devoted to their content and do fun things with their kids, but we have very different approaches and desired student outcomes. The teacher that gets my creative, confident, amazing kids told me before school started this year that I set kids up for failure by not teaching verb conjugations and explicit grammar rules, and sending them with inflated grades. I tried to have a conversation about language acquisition vs. linguistics and was told that she believes there are lots of ways to acquire language and grammar instruction works for some. I do not want to get into a battle of teaching philosophy, so my intent is to keep positive and focus on the student experiences and student driven instruction. Fortunately our county is supportive of TPRS and this is the direction that both the county and state are moving in, this group of teachers is just not interested right now. I have been working with Invisibles and untargeted instruction, so I do not have a unit plan. Do you have any suggestions of how or what I can present that will aid in keeping the focus on instruction and the kids?
My kids by the way are loving the Invisibles! We have “Bandwagon le Poisson”, “Becky the Olympic Speedwalker”, and “Mr. Chippy” the chocolate chip cookie who wears a hat and carries a purse. I have one class that is less interested, but loves Star of the Day and CWB, so we have come up with some great stories in that class about the kids.
Thank you for any advice or feedback you can give. I hope you are well and adjusting to all of your traveling and workshops. I’m learning so much by reading about the incredible work you are doing!
Cherie