Ben Slavic

I was just thinking that teachers who use CI are some day going to be in huge demand. It’s already starting to happen judging from the last two Reports from the Field (from Mary Beth and John Bracey). So if it is true that charter and private schools survive on the quality of their program, […]

I just got this email from Diana so if you haven’t already sent one to DPS hold off until we hear back from Diana later today: Hey Ben, I think it is best to WAIT to send anything out on my behalf. I really appreciate your undying support but I’m afraid that it might backfire.

That is not a misprinted title to this article. Diana is out of her job as World Languages Coordinator for Denver Public Schools. Why? It has to do with a technicality. She retired from Denver Public in 2004 and her status as retired causes confusion at the DPS administrative level. A new boss, who knows

From John Piazza: Hi Ben, This summer I’m going to be putting together and adapting a lot of readings using embedded reading strategies (ER). One big question is over whether to use ER’s to bring all students up to a high level reading, or rather to take a mixed level approach, with students reading at

Whether we begin our first day with a story or with the CWB cards doesn’t matter. And it is possible to take just one card and work with one student exclusively for the first two or three days to create a story from the card by asking the questions where and with whom. It’s not

Chris mentioned in a comment here recently that he starts the year out on the first day with a story. It’s a good idea. I often turn the CWB card information into a story with the springboard words of where and with whom. I just want to make it clear, as we start to hammer

We notice that in bike lanes there are images of bikes to convey their intended use. They don’t write the word BIKE LANE there – they draw a dude on a bike. Why? Probably because we process images faster than words. That tells us something about the importance of gesturing. Over the past year we

Alisa Shapiro is this month’s Teacher of the Month. Her leadership in Chicago and on this blog are very important to a lot of people here. What I like best about the work Alisa is doing is her encyclopedic knowledge of how teachers used to teach and how they are going to teach. She gets

If you ever wondered who MB is, it’s Mary Beth from Maine. Here is a cool report from the field from her: I got a new position. In a new school. In a TCI school. I was hired because – you ready for this? – because I knew about CI, I know how to teach

This is from Nathaniel: I recommend the following interview with Dr. Asher produced by The Everyday Language Learner:

Bob sent me this in 2012 but it still applies now:  I always give the same three questions to my students at different points in the year (as a check in) and then after the final exam in the spring, regarding the entire year.  Here’s a summary of what they told me. Items are listed

Connie Navarro is the DPS LEAP observer for WL teachers (LEAP is the district mandated professional evaluation program in DPS for all subject areas). Diana and Connie were observing a class yesterday and Connie sent the following comments to two other (Learning Lab) observing teachers, both who have been struggling with CI quite a bit