Knockathon gets us repetitions on “How many times?” Ringeroni gets us reps on “For how long?” Ringeroni happens in a story whenever an actor approaches a house not to knock on the front door but to ring a doorbell: Instructor: “Class, the girl rang the doorbell!“ Student: “Pendant combien de secondes/For how many seconds?” This
Knockathon happens in a story whenever an actor approaches a building to knock on the door, which happens more often than you might think: A girl wanted a boyfriend so she left her house and went to the house next door, where a boy her age lived. She knocked on the door. Instructor says: “Class,
In Questioning Level 5, actors usually leave the place where they found out that they had a problem and go to Questioning Level 6 – the place where the problem is solved or not. This going from one place in QL5 to another in QL6 requires actors to travel, and with that need comes an
Jenna sent what is below. It’s about the need for a person to be fully committed to a concept to make it work. A recent (last two years) leitmotif in these pages has indeed been the need to commit and not just dabble in the research about CI. From Jenna: I was introduced to this
So after all those years of thinking, reflecting and testing how to create a problem in a story I’ve come to the conclusion that all you really need is a story starter (I don’t know why I call them that but they work). They are explained in the link below. This really does make it
Q. I’m planning to do my first story from an ICI today and was wondering if you always use the problem on the back of the ICI paper in the story. Or do you present that problem and ask the class for a better suggestion? I’m thinking for my first time, maybe just to stick
There are moments in which something, usually some exclamatory statement in some scene, is remarkable and special, and we don’t know why. Someone says some cute line that grabs the attention of the class. The phrase is more interesting and somehow funnier than anything else in the story. I call that a catch phrase. Catch
I’m taking off my CI Cowboy hat for good. It’s been way too intense for way too long. We fought lots of intense battles with real courage, and they kept us awake at night. Many of the battles were fought right here on this PLC over the past 15 years. Remember when we took on
This is a comment from Bryan Whitney that I want to be a part of this thread: …I feel like this [combining CI with grammar instruction] is a huge relief to hear. Trying to mix the two and make them “work together” just doesn’t work, but dividing our time between the two (in whatever percentage
How does the “Half CI/Half Grammar” plan work through four years? That’s the beauty of the Deuxieme Livre – it covers four years of grammar from “er” verbs through the pluperfect subjunctive. It’s the worst-named workbook in the history of workbooks but is the best workbook ever designed – the best designed exposition of French
You’ve got total control with the Deuxieme Livre because it’s so good in terms of making the grammar understandable. Don’t feel like teaching CI? Teach the Deuxieme Livre. Don’t feel like teaching Deuxieme Livre? Tell a story or do a tableau. Cake. Don’t forget that the title says “second year” but goes nicely from beginning
So the Deuxieme Livre is a Mercedes in terms of organization of the French grammar system. It’s name is misleading – it beautifully covers all four years of grammar from beginning to end in a workbook format that you just plow through whenever you need a break from whatever CI you are doing. This is
