Ben Slavic

James Hosler asked me this: Have you thought about how well your recent initiative of Class Competitions lines up with that fifth and most awkward of ACTFL’s Five Cs, Communities? I asked him: No. where you going with that? Communities of kids contacting each other in other states? He answered: Well just the dynamic of […]

Grant wrote: I would be interested in collecting data in a document that shows increased retention over time, increased enrollment of boys or students of color in upper levels, increased performance on AP or IB tests over time, etc. with you, the person submitting the data, holding on to the cold hard numbers. I am

There are three new hard links across the top of this page. They are my attempt to consolidate some of the major blue chip breakthrough ideas we have come up with over the years in one place. Otherwise they will scroll out and be lost. The rubrics and templates are to capture in flow chart or rubric

Robert has some ideas that might be shared with students when starting out using comprehension based instruction with them, either at the beginning of the year or if a switch is being made in mid-year. I support this advice. I believe in transparency. I probably talk about the method with my classes to a fault,

I have thought about it a lot, and I can honestly state that I mean no insult in my analysis of why traditional teachers stuck in the book and computer programs aren’t showing a lot of desire to change in spite of the 90% position statement and Three Modes of Communication of ACTFL. Those people, our

Here is Bob’s response to the previous post about what CI really is, and I see there have been a few other responses to this thread. I am putting Bob’s comments here because of some odd glitch in the comment software that prevents him from posting. If that ever happens to you, send the comment to me and

Bob Patrick asked, “What is CI?” I honestly think that teaching using comprehensible input – that term in lower case – is what Curtain and Met and all the other people who have jumped on the bandwagon mean when they use the term. They say it to get credibility, not because they embrace it fully.

This is another bail out move along with dictation and the others. It is also good also for vacation days when they can’t focus. It is also a suggested part of the new biweekly schedule. You can brake the flow of your class when you simply don’t feel comfortable with what is going on in the class or when

For those feeling harried and harrassed by too much to do at this time of year, and you just want to let the train coast along the tracks for awhile, don’t forget that that is the intent of the new bi-weekly schedule. When we use it, we start with two or three structures and can

This is a new feature here. I would like to focus on one teacher per month and their struggles and successes. The first teacher I would like to focus on is Jeff Brickler in Cincinnati, OH. The two of us have talked via email recently and the one outstanding quality I see in Jeff is a most important quality for

Carol Gaab is in Chicago now for a training Sabrina but it’s full so I apologize for not publishing that here sooner. Next week she is at these places: Monday – White Plains Tuesday – Newark Wed. – Cherry Hill Th. – Charlotte Fri. – Roanoke Sat. – SPRING TRAINING… Yes, as in spring training

Hi everyone! I was an avid reader of the blog before it became private, and just recently have gotten reconnected. I cannot begin to explain how much I have needed to be back here, as I have found myself drifting back to the old ineffective methods due to pressure from students & parents who fail