I got this from a long-time member of our group: Hi Ben – Most of my classes have gone completely off the rails and are now 100% free form, one story leading into the next, using characters we already have and occasionally adding a new one. There are family trees and timelines all over my […]
This is from Steven: Hi Ben, Below is a write up as to how I do personalized stories using the invisibles questioning sequence. Hi PLC Warriors, I wanted to share a twist on the old way of doing PQA type of stories. It’s my Slavic-ification twist on it. In traditional TPRS, we would PQA target
I made five videos in Connecticut that I would like to share here. This one describes how to create an Invisibles story using the “seven level questioning sequence” described in A Natural Approach to Stories. The instruction, being from a workshop and not a regular class with real students, is not great teaching – just
Our elementary CI expert, the one and only Alisa Shapiro-Rosenberg, asks the group: Hi, Ben, Hope the thumb is healing. Can I please get some group think here – what are the reasons to discourage the common practice of asking/requiring beginners in the WL to read aloud (individually)? I know someone who is looking into
A teacher wrote: …I have been asked to provide more documentation, assessments and curriculum maps with lessons to my admin to justify my work, and I am feeling overwhelmed and misunderstood…. Everyone takes it as natural that, if a teacher wants to be in the good graces of those who employ her, she would of
Dictée is a tried and true bail out move. Getting the kids writing for about ten to minutes is a fail safe alternative if something we are doing isn’t working. Searching the term dictée here is a good idea although some of the older posts (30 of them) on dictée over the years make it more
I got a message from a teacher today, talking about things connected to the Invisibles: Dear Ben, I am reading your ideas and trying to pretend they are not true even though it is as if you’ve read my innermost thoughts. I suppose I don’t want to believe they are true because that will mean
This report from the field is from Robyn who is now famous – in my mind at least – for her decision to be observed on her first day of ever doing CI. I just think that is so cool, really brave. Below, she explains a bit more about that choice: Hi Tina and Ben,
In a comment today Amy wrote: …I basically told my admin. that by providing more correct input and repetition, along with choral response, those who don’t get it the first time will get it eventually and that often the feedback they need is simply more and varied input…. This kind of slays the “ignorant administrator
Ann K has a question that might be best handled by the group: Ben – What would CI look like in a concept based curriculum? That is the direction my county wants to go with all subjects. I am supposed to come to the curriculum meeting with a list of concepts I would like to
This morning Sean shares a question from a relatively ignorant administrator that echoes questions from the past ten years. None of us is exempt from this. The administrator comes in, observes, then tries tries to show off what little language they have (see below) while at the same time having – just having – to
I just got this rather impressive news from a teacher: …our county won’t hire anyone who is not CI trained or willing to go through training and transition. Teachers who aren’t on board are feeling the pressure….
