Never one to obfuscate or confuse, our Steve Ordiano said something in a comment here this morning that bears repeating. It is an idea that is refreshing and quite new in the CI community, which in spite of all the rhetoric is still very tied to curricular objectives and lists of words and, dare I say it, textbooks. Where many people are arguing fine points of this and that and he said and she said, trying to establish intellectual dominance over others, Steven provides something new and different. It is not lost on me that Steven is only in his second year of teaching. He is thus able to see things clearly (he knows that his real curriculum is the language and not pieces of it) in a way that teachers whose minds have been trapped in buildings for a long time cannot.
Here is the quote:
…my class doesn’t cover necessary vocabulary. It drives the language deep so that they can be successful at being part of a conversation in the TL. I can’t wait to see my students at French camp next year when they are in French 3….
Hmmm. A teacher who can’t wait to see what his students will be able to do in the future. That’s a twist!