This is a repost from May 5, 2015. Jennifer reports: Hey Ben – The impetus for me writing now is from a student questionnaire. I used Anne Matava’s questionnaires yesterday and got a wrenching response from a student. Just a bit of background…as you know context is everything. I’m doing a super short session with […]
The point about being happy – everyone in the classroom being happy – is at the crux of our discussion, or should be. For many in the CI world, it isn’t. The work has been too much focused on student gains and how the teacher can focus on their own skills and wonderfulness to bring
So many of us involved in language education want to mold our classes based on how much is learned and grades. But we must protect our ourselves and our students from such thinking. Let’s not go down that worn out 20th century road. If we continue to teach our students without a feeling of love
I feel that in some ways there are teachers who have an effect on children that can only be described as evil. It is because when they design a curriculum that only favors the fast processors, they are making the slower processors feel less than they are. That is evil. We need to call out
There is a another quote from Fred Rogers that I consider of immense importance when thinking about what a language curriculum should look like: Rogers said, “I don’t think that anybody can grow unless they are accepted exactly as they are.” By putting the focus on the child, Rogers puts the focus on what is
Fred Rogers has said that “…love is at the heart of all learning…”. If the statement is true, and I feel that many teachers who are attracted to comprehensible input language instruction feel that it is, then why shouldn’t a learning curriculum be based on it? It is the position taken in this training program
A follow-up to points made in the previous post: 1. The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis: Conscious learning about a language, including memorizing and learning and manipulating grammar paradigms, is a separate process in the brain than unconsciously acquiring a language. In order to build long-lasting proficiency, where using the language to communicate (take in and produce meaningful,
It’s been over a year since Teacher’s Discovery found out about what we’ve known for over ten years: the greatness of Anne’s scripts, so I wish to take this opportunity to recommend it to anyone new to the PLC or experienced teachers who want some extra ammo for the winter wars: 97 Story Scripts By
A 2010 repost: I used to think that forcing and prodding the kids into early speech production too early was just a waste of time, but now I see it as harmful. The image is of a field with seeds just sprouting but not yet above the crust of the earth, needing the protective warmth
This is from Greg in case you missed it in the comments a few days ago. It’s important: So my school did student based surveys that give scores of teachers this year (we are told that this is not going to be evaluative just informative). You can check out the company here: https://www.panoramaed.com/ They did
I found a nice site (link provided below) on personalized learning (is that not what we do?) while looking for a definition of the word curriculum. I like the suggested definition below and suggest that we make one of our goals this year – of course along with our staples mental health and classroom management
