Henry sends his bio from Japan and thank you Henry: I started out as a picture framer. Did my degree in literature and linguistics part time while working (due to being fed up with all these artist types I met who thought that they had something I didn’t). Then, at the tail end of a […]
Many new teachers walk into a buzz saw when they faithfully stay in bounds like for twenty minutes during the CI, and then in one moment of folly, something comes up in the story like when mom says, “You can’t be a gorilla (in bounds) because we don’t have a gorilla suit! (out of bounds)”
This is a compilation of three emails that I got from Diane. If you are a middle school teacher trying to implement comprehension based instruction in your classroom, it is worth the long read: Email #1: Hi Ben, Can you post something about my situation on the blog? I really feel a need for wisdom and
Our work includes something we rarely think about. By offering a better, more interesting product and by aligning with standards in a way that people who use L1 to teach L2 never can, we are debunking a myth that has been accepted as a truth for a very long time. That is huge work. In
One thing we can do with boring kids – and this is most effective – is to always bring a lame kid into the PQA without his permission. This is a major tool in PQA. I have developed a habit over the years. It is kind of bad ass. I sense, as I am explaining
I noticed a lot of things today about teaching using comprehensible input: I noticed again today (Monday is PQA day for me) how getting enough reps is just such a challenge, especially if I go slowly enough for the kids to understand, especially with the rather challenging structures we are doing in Jim Tripp’s Halloween
I’m calling the fall of 2013 the Time of the Finding of the Missing Pieces. It started out with my realizing how important it is to get single choral responses from the entire class to each question I ask. I learned that from Von this past summer in Las Vegas. Then jGR rolled in like
skip sent this link and would like to discuss it with anyone interested: http://www.actfl.org/publications/the-language-educator/sample-articles (the article “Going for 90%” is in the October issue…).
I received a major email today from a member of our group. Here it is: Ben, I have had a great year with four out of five classes. Students love the personalized Matava and Tripp story scripts. My smallest class of eighteen gifted students, which should be a dream class, has become my worst class. I have no
Andrew sent us his bio: Hello, my name is Andrew Edwards. I live in Lincoln, Nebraska but teach in a different city. This is my second year teaching Spanish and my first year teaching with TPRS. I taught using traditional methods and a textbook last year. It was a mess. I drove myself nuts trying
The Three and Done blank spreadsheet helps jGR. Three and Done has the result of limiting behaviors that distract from what the child should be doing in trying to align with jGR and the Classroom Rules. I find a clerical kid to hold the blank spreadsheet and just indicate to her, as described in the link
