This comment by Carla is longish but important to read in its entirety if you are following the current thread on this topic: I am an intermittent reader of Ben’s blog but my dear friend and colleague, Alisa, mentioned that people were discussing circling recently. She watched the video Haiyun took of me doing a […]
On Encouraging Speech Output During Circling – 1 Read More »
These are from Sandra Lin. Don’t skip them if you have any time at all to watch them. Sandra definitely needs the feedback and support. She says: “I am using this method to middle school students with a traditional Chinese book and a traditional cooperating teacher. Some problems come along. The learning environment discourage me to
The email below from our PLC member Kevin Taylor was sent to Diana Noonan in Denver but could apply to any of our communities and prompt us to act if we can possibly do so. It is a bridge building email. It shows that what we are doing is important beyond the classroom. I feel
Hi Ben! I wanted to share with you and the PLC that I had a wonderful visit from Lance Piantaggini yesterday. He spent the morning with me in my classroom, observing and participating in 2 block-length classes, then we went out for lunch and talked shop. It was SO MUCH FUN! I recommend to all
The most important element of our success with CI is not even CI: Maria Popova shares: https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/04/18/antoine-de-saint-exupery-letter-to-a-hostage-smile/
Teaching this way requires vigilant self-reflection and relentless honesty. The growth is through the ups and downs of each class. A few days ago Craig West had a bad class and reported in on it here: https://benslavic.com/blog/advice-needed-7/ Then he thought about it and fixed it. THAT is where the gains and changes in our teaching will
John Piazza shares: Hi Ben, Not sure how many people know about this series. May come in handy for inviting our colleagues, administrators, etc, to think differently about acquisition/learning. The Black Box
There is so much backlash to the reform we bring that often we forget it is there. We just think it’s normal. But those little looks and comments and outright hostility from uninformed (uninformed about the research!) people will not always be there. We have to stand firm in spite of all the incoming heat
Joseph would like any feedback here. Remember our mantra – “If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what is a video worth?” Hey Ben, I have been training a young lady in CI and TPRS using your materials here in Israel. I invite you to have a look at this video and offer
PLC member Elissa is doing some summer TPRS trainings for those interested: Hola amigos, I am excited to finally have the dates and details of Express Fluency’s summer teacher trainings workshops up on the web site! I hope you’ll join us! Great stuff is planned (not to mention all the unplanned surprises!). I posted this
Robert Harrell writes below on the topic of professional obligation. I like reading this passage when I have a chance during my current three days of parent conferences. The parents of my students are wealthy and in the British/Indian mode of push harder and learn more grammar, and it is hard to keep my shoulders
Craig West describes a situation that can only be described as gnarly: Hey Ben – Well I thought I had come up with a more interesting way of doing a reading about the MovieTalk we’ve been working with for the past couple weeks. I made a dialogue between a mom and a little boy about
