Oddly, another teacher besides Greg expressed a very similar situation to his today as well. Responses and ideas are welcome from all to both Greg and Carly, who’s been a member of our group for many years. Here is the (rather lengthy) discussion so far with Carly: Hi Ben, I’ve been mostly lurking and only […]
Here are two effective reading options that you might want to use when you start reading with your classes: Choral Translation: Use a laser pointer or put your hand on the projected words as the students read through the text in L1 with loud voices. The Reader Leader guides the class along with a strong
Jim Tripp recently wrote a tour de force list of what NT can mean. Non-targeted input can mean: (1) going in without a plan and winging it. (2) putting the message before the language. (3) keeping input comprehensible by sheltering, not targeting. (4) massed reps over time versus input flood. (5) in assessment, recognizing that
These Classroom Rules have been used since 2004, but there are far less of them now than before. This is the current version. These six rules can be said to actively and strongly support non-targeted comprehensible input based instruction and in particular the One Word Image process and the Invisibles story creation process. Classroom management
The lists below were published as an appendix – but only in English – by Teacher’s Discovery although I included it in 3 languages in the final draft for them (below). So what is below could help people who are using the book on the Invisibles – A Natural Approach to Stories. It I have
I envisage for this internet space a closed community of teaching professionals who are willing to explore their feelings and fears in this work at a deeper level via honesty with each other when real things happen, good and bad, in our buildings. The real thrust of this consciously stated new direction for our PLC is a
We must know when to lovingly confront administrators and when not to. It’s the only way. Not only do we have to teach our classes and all the other things we do in our buildings, we have to re-educate not just our students but also the people we work for. And to do that we need
Administrators play a big role in our job security, and yet they come and go in and out of our buildings with such frequency, sometimes yearly or even less, that no sooner does one leave than another arrives. Then we have to put the dog-and-pony show on again for the new one, and stuff our real feelings
Hi Ben, I did my first set of Invisibles stories. Just wanted to update you on how it is working: 1) We went through all of the pictures in “town meeting” but I did tell the kids that I had one invisible character that I was really “feeling” and wanted to do a story
Q. I’m using a text that presents both Spanish verbs, “Saber and Conocer” (to know) at the same time. How do you handle this? A. In my opinion the mistake we make as teachers is to focus on individual words – this is a great example. In reality, words cannot make sense without other words around them. It
I got this email from a mother in Denver in 2010 – this is a repost. It broke my heart then and now again seven years it has the same effect. We need to get ourselves together and fight to end this kind of situation: Hi Ben, I was wondering if you are offering any workshops or
This post first appeared here about eight years ago but periodically I like to publish it in honor of us and all the hard work that we do, a kind of work that few who are not teachers can even begin to understand: Dear Lord: When I go in to work with my students tomorrow,
