Ben Slavic

PQA – step 1 of TPRS – is the foundation of our fluency house not just in the form of rebar on each floor, but it is literally the foundation of steps 2 and 3, of the entire structure. To understand the rebar analogy, see the important PQA related blog posts here: https://benslavic.com/blog/2011/03/11/rebar-1/ https://benslavic.com/blog/2011/03/12/rebar-2/ https://benslavic.com/blog/2011/03/16/rebar-3/ https://benslavic.com/blog/2011/03/20/rebar-4/ https://benslavic.com/blog/2011/03/22/rebar-5/ […]

I had an odd experience today. A teacher showed up from another school and wanted to see a story. So I chucked the reading class that I had planned and grabbed Vol. 1 of Anne’s book and opened it and did that story. It was good. At the end of class, the teacher said that

Here is a follow up from that teacher, our group member, who went through the rude boys thing last week: “I did the thing I dreaded today – the conference with the kid and his dad.  I was the only female in the room and that SUCKED, along with the principal and the assistant principal. 

I was visiting the ACTFL site and came across this interesting page at http://www.actfl.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3328. Thought I’d share it here:  Since their introduction in November, 1998, the ACTFL Performance Guidelines for K-12 Learners have helped language teachers, school administrators, parents, and students to understand the developmental path that second language learning takes when it occurs within

I just cut and pasted a comment from the thread on the DPS study: When I shut down this blog a year ago, which lasted until May, it was to take some time to think about how I couldn’t speak honestly on the internet, which eventually led to this blog becoming a PLC for members

I got this from a group member. We need a group discussion on this one. It’s serious. Hi Ben, I have a question that I have faced this year more than any other that I can remember.  Usually I encourage students to make connections to French with English to help with meaning and pronunciation.  For

This is the third blog post from that self-reflection email from jen: An overall observation from many of their responses is that (probably due to me not upholding my 50% and keeping martial law in place) they still seem not to be aware of the fact that I do not expect them to “output.” Many of

Here is another part of that last email from jen (and, no, she didn’t drop the bomb in class so don’t get all excited): I think that this group (the one with the fast processor in it) is ready to start the “input” homework a la Nathan Black. I did this last year and they

Jen sent this: Ok, so I just had the kids do a bit of reflection today. Two out of ten students in a level 2 French class actually requested some “book learning.” I don’t have their responses handy or I’d quote them, but I’ll paraphrase below. My question is how do I respond to these

Dori, who lives in Parker, CO, sent this today: Hi Ben: Yesterday our district had a job-alike day, so we had a workshop focusing on ACTLF’s three modes of Communication (curiously, no mention of the 90% in the language!).  Anyway, I was struck by: a.  the number of people who have no idea what the

Here is the first script we are using in the Beniko study. It is related to a series of recent comments involving Chris and I about making PQA work: Script #1 steals takes out something escapes Debbie steals a BMW.  The police catch her and bring her to jail.  She takes out something sharp and

I got this question from a group member: …if I could go to just one of the conferences (NTPRS or iJFLT), which would you recommend?   I think I can only manage one and I would be at a loss to choose the one that would be best for me…. David Young commented on what he sees as