I keep the PQA going on three structures for an entire class on Monday to set up the story on Tuesday. I need to do that. The success of the story rests on as many reps of each target structure as I can possibly get. I like to get over 100 on each before starting a story. […]
The plan in WL in my district is to use stories to set up the reading of novels. This puts pressure, however, in my view unnecessary pressure, on the teacher to create those stories. On the DPS website we have targeted a number of structures per chapter in Pobre Ana. We are to write stories
Bryce and Lavinia from NJ are coming to my classroom today. I used to get nervous. All the time, I got nervous. I just can’t do that this time. I doubt if I’ll ever be able to get nervous in that deleterious way anymore when being observed. I’ve come that far. When I teach kids,
After all these years of trying to get better at comprehension based instruction, I have come to realize that the best kind of reading is not novels. It is the readings we create from the stories we build in class with the kids. Step 3 readings are far superior to novels in many ways: They have much more direct interest
I do feel that the following three things, all new this year to this PLC, add what we could call a wonderful Triangle of Classroom Discipline to our work. jGR (keeps students engaged and respectful). Classroom Rules poster (works with jGR to keep behavior at its best). Jobs for Kids (they make the classroom environment instantly positive, as all people need
I am getting ever closer to the desired point where we as a group know everyone bc we can read their bio. I’m getting that email blast out right away, I decided, to get this thing wrapped up. Our goal is a complete list of every name with a bio. Someone expressed the fear that
Here’s Yvonne from the Big Apple: Dear Ben, My name is Yvonne Villa. I teach Spanish II, III, and “Native” Spanish in a public high school in NYC. I came to this site because I am interested in comprehension based teaching after attending a few TPRS workshops and doing lots of reading. I must confess
Here’s Karla who has been using TPRS for a long time: Hi Ben, I regret that I haven’t been on your site lately but want to continue. Karla Reed Teacher of Spanish Damonte Ranch High School, Reno, NV I’ve been teaching using TPRS since the mid 1990s.
Here’s Chris from Western Canada: Tamanawis Secondary, Surrey, BC, Canada. Intro and level 2 Spanish, Social Justice 12, English 9-12. I come to CI via frustration with “communicative” teaching, Michelle Metcalfe’s workshop, and a desire to teach in a way that’s fun and grounded in actual research, rather than in somebody’s misguided fantasy about how
I am a first-year teacher in Ohio in my first teaching position. I teach High School Spanish 1 and Spanish 4 at a rural district. I acquired Spanish mainly through speaking it with close friends and my self-designed 5 month study abroad in Veracruz, Mexico where I arrived as a college junior, by myself with
Another bio from SoCal, and many of us are lucky to know this real gentleman from summer conferences: I’m Doug Stone in Orange, CA. I’ve known Ben since San Antonio NTPRS, which was in 2009. Then in Los Alamitos I did some classes with Laurie, the Alaskans, Jody and others where we created a scene
Here’s Lynne’s bio: Allendale Middle School, Allendale, MI 8th grade Spanish. Our district made the decision to switch to TPRS/comprehension based teaching about four years ago. All our language teachers (there were 5 at the time) went to Ben Slavic training and we have been plugging away ever since.
