Mindee asked: Could someone help me with the idea of assessing via word count. I’m going to pretest w/a series of pictures (story) and ask kids to write as much as they can about the picture. I’ll do it again at the end of the year. How do I know what is a reasonable amount […]
Angie Pidgeon has seen lots of ideas come and go on this PLC. Here is her assessment of the new Invisibles idea: Hi, Ben!! The invisibles are a hit in my high school Spanish classes in San Angelo, Texas. I teach Spanish 2 and Spanish 2 Pre-AP. And the stories are BETTER in the on-level
A repost: In the spirit of wasting time in class in favor of self care and fun with the kids, I offer this game, which is done entirely in English: With beginning kids, when explaining to kids that everything (in French at least) is either masculine or feminine, I tell them that I will say a
A repost from 2013: I think that it is the rule rather than the exception that teachers new to the profession might tend to write exactly what Bradley wrote here a few weeks ago: ……I don’t want to give up, but I’m really feeling pain right now…. For we who have some major miles on
Ours can no longer be referred to as the “red-headed stepsister” of the field of education. Au contraire, we are poised now, with the advent of CI as it becomes more each day accepted as the way people acquire languages, to reform life for a good percentage of our students. Why? It is because, unlike
In the Los Angeles workshop during one of the sessions when we were talking about the power of images and especially those that the kids create (the Invisibles), someone mentioned something about a book called The Arrival. They may even use it in their CI classes. Craig West has found a PDF version of that
Many of the teachers exploring comprehension based instruction today have to attempt to manage the grand transition from the way they themselves were taught languages in high school and college to working with comprehensible input in their classrooms and at the same time deal with the vibe of the dark lords (yes, there are great administrators
A repost from 2011 that still applies: Robert has distinguished between a participation grade and a grade, in his words, that is “based on a set of observable criteria (behaviors) that demonstrate communicative competency based on the ACTFL Performance Guidelines for Grades K-12?. This is a grade that aligns with the Interpersonal Skill of the
A repost from years ago from Bryce, who as usual helps us all build confidence in all aspects of our teaching with comprehensible input in his uniquely positive way. In addition, he reminds us about those “have not” kids who, in our CI classrooms, can be “have” kids, which is the entire point of what we do,
A repost from a few years ago: I went over to Lincoln High, from which I just retired, on a bike ride two days. A new principal and a new assistant principal were there. I felt the management style. I got the vibe. It was old style. You know what I mean by old style.
Bryan Whitney has surgically listed below the best response I have ever seen to deal with riled-up middle and high school kids. (Often their lack of control is in no way generated by disrespect but ironically is often generated by enthusiasm! But riled up is riled up, so read this list and keep it ready,
I have a challenge for the group. It is a challenge that cuts deep. Can we help another teacher, a member of the group who is new to CI, break an unruly class? Here is the message I got today from this person. I feel that we can help her. Let’s give ourselves three weeks
