David Maust wrote some stuff here last weekend that just has to be repeated for the good of the order, since many of are doing PQA right now: I’m feeling a freedom this year to make extremely simple scenes with my Circling with Balls Cards. Last year I think I tried to develop the cards into larger stories […]
Kevin, who teaches with Kelly Haanan about five blocks from my house here in Littleton, has an FVR question: Hi Ben, Good to be back on the blog. I’m still trying to carve out some regular time to read and/or respond to all the posts, but I’m slowly getting there. I’m also wondering if you
Hi, I just finished my first TPRS day and I am impressed! I did Circling with Balls with all 5 of my 9th grade classes and I couldn’t believe how enthusiastic and engaged they were. Even the larger classes were on task and focused – it’s usually a battle from the beginning. The 2
Jennifer from NJ reports in: Dear Ben, Here’s my report: Today I got to meet the students in four of my classes. (Tomorrow I will meet the other four classes.) I had the students fill out the questionnaire suggested by Ben from his resources page and on the reverse side of the same sheet, I asked
Here is the actual text of the Then and Now part of the 21st Century Skills Map, just to have it handy in the Administrator/Teacher/Parent Re-education category. Chris you may want to gently suggest to that verb conjugating mom that she take a look at this bad boy. Again, the link to this astounding text
Ardythe has pointed out that [traditional teachers], by indicating they are addressing the common core and 21st century skills, cannot defend their program, and that [we] will be well armed with the information Robert (in italics below) gave: I know I keep saying this, but go to the AP test. As of 2013-2014 the Spanish
Got this from John today: Guys, I just wanted to share a success story today, and one that really confirms all the inner, emotional work we are doing, in class and on our own in order to be prepared to norm our classes in a compassionate way. I have been racking my brains about how
This is a repost from 2008: If I feel hesitant about letting go and just expressing myself in a lighthearted way, I will just remember what Drew Barrymore said: “Let your freak-flag fly, and if someone doesn’t get you, move on.”
This is a repost of a recent comment here: It is hard to look a kid in the eye – especially one who is bright and used to getting A’s – and tell her that her OUTSIDE behavior (reference the rigor poster found on the resources page of this site) is not sufficient to get
Grading in Accordance with the Three Modes of Communication Read More »
I feel like we’re getting too busy here. I can’t read everything, and I want to. I learn from every comment and it takes me more time than I have to absorb everything. Should I limit the articles? The queue is always full of new articles. I guess it is a problem with this kind
What a long and fascinating journey! Teaching using comprehensible input is a Long and Winding Road that leads me home, finally, from all that shitty teaching that is now, thankfully, years behind me. New idea du jour: what we have to do is insist on responses! Our mistake – a big one – is to
This is a repost of an article from a few years ago. I publish it here because of Angie’s recent question about emergence of writing: I got this question: Q. My kids can’t speak or write. The speaking is the problem. Any thoughts? A. They can’t speak or write. Those are output skills and they
