Look people. Next time we get bent out of shape about how hard stories are for us, and how challenging teaching is in general, we need to just relax. The following story says a million things: http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/first-grader-born-without-hands-wins-penmanship-award-180647263–abc-news-topstories.html
Today I received a bio from a Latin teacher in Cincinnati, Jeffery Bricker. Jeffery combines his personal interests in the method with where he is professionally and that is what we want to hear about each other. The tone of what he wrote is wonderful. It says, “O.K. that old stuff doesn’t work so come hell or
This is the first of four questions – a variety pack – that jen would like to discuss with the group: jen’s department head, who is new to TPRS, but using it in her classroom (Carol Gaab Cuentame book 1) told jen, who will teach this child in level 2 next year, that the child
Waiting in the queue for a few weeks now has been a series of four articles on dealing with professional conflict that seems to segue well from the last few posts but that is just by accident. This next text on the theme of conflict and of keeping the professional peace is from Robert, describing some
Chris was on one of those language teachers sites* and just now sent me a link in which a teacher said: ….TPRS won’t even be around. Maybe silly stories and such work for your students, but definitely not mine…. *http://teachers.net/mentors/spanish/topic27773/4.16.12.08.53.23.html Here is my response to that: Whatever gave you the idea that TPRS is all
A very poignant story from Bob Patrick: I had one of those moments that, well, I simply needed in my life even though I didn’t know I needed it. I was working at my desk after school a Monday or so ago, and there was a knock at the outside door of my classroom. There,
This is a partial list. Please add more reasons below as comments if you think of any. 1. When we use English a lot, over the course of the year, the students’ minds get weak. They also get confused, because they don’t know what language they are in. 2. The proof is in the pudding.
I have been learning to erase the board after the PQA before starting the story, leaving only the three structures up there. It makes for a nice transition into the story, with a fresh slate like that, and it also signals the kids that a story is about to begin. Now if I can just
There is a big problem with applying research in language acquisition to schools. Said research has been designed by Krashen and others without any real consideration of the variables that must be accounted for when the very large part of learners is unmotivated. We need research that specifically looks at how language learners in schools learn,
Yes, Blaine has said that TPRS only works with motivated students. and we must not forget that on a Monday morning. It is accurate to state that most of our students are honestly not interested in learning the languages we are trying to teach them. It’s not their fault. The smart ones have a goal in college
Remember the find/replace feature in Word. If Kelly in your 2nd period class does something, but in 4th period the actress was Salma and on through the day, and the script was pretty much the same, then we hit “control-find-replace” and make all the Kelly/Salma/etc. replacements at once. That is, if the stories are similar enough. Of course,
