David Strock has a question:
Hi Ben,
Below is my first post in this PLC. I hope I understood correctly, that we email you our question/comment and you will share it with the group. [ed. comment: yes, this is encouraged…]
After attending a workshop by Susan Gross in 2007 I drank the kool-aid and embraced TPRS with Michael Miller’s “Sabine & Michael”. I had fantastic results with his materials. After transitioning to a new school district 5 years ago and experiencing ZERO support and a lot of hostility, I (with regret) gave my power away and abandoned all of it to teach “the other way”.
This year I began a fresh return to TPRS with 100% support from my principal (former Spanish teacher) who truly gets it. I am making major changes and it’s going well, but I need some help. Since I returned to TPRS I realized that Comprehensible Input (I hadn’t heard of it before) has evolved and TPRS is a good example of that process. So I’m wondering if anyone who uses Michael Miller’s “Sabine & Michael” materials has any suggestions on how they have modified that TPRS curriculum to align with up-to-date CI. Michael Miller even stated in the last iBook publishing that he himself has moved away from or altered some aspects of the lessons in order to align with more straightforward CI.
I’d like to continue using his materials while incorporating any suggested modifications. For example, I was taught to initially say and write what something means in English on the board. In Sabine & Michael, the students don’t see how the words are spelled in German until the last day of each 3 day unit chapter. And then they have to guess the spelling. It takes too much time. So I’ve altered this by displaying clear, simple images (with no English or German) right away to establish meaning. Will students grasp meaning faster seeing the German word and the picture right from the start? This is the kind of stuff I’m wondering about, what to cut, change, alter, and keep.
Thank you so much for everything you contribute, Ben.
David