Ben Slavic

We are all just panning for gold. We are searching for nuggets lying amidst the skills of TPRS and the daily practice of teaching. We seek flashes of gold, something, the right idea, the right technique, the right way to personalize, that will make us better teachers. In my opinion, however, focusing in this way only on […]

I learned something about chants when presenting on Thursday: Chants are there, but they are hiding in the circling and in the general discussion. So, every once in a while, take any sentence that you are circling and kind of slow down and taste it, like you would taste a wine. Explore the sound there, audibly or sublingually or

At NTPRS this year there was a new rotating format that really worked. Presenters stayed in the same room and groups of teachers rotated in and out. Nothing was carved in stone, however, so there was a lot of choice. Bryce and Linda presented together, with Bryce doing the “teacher talk” piece, commenting on what Linda was

Last week I published here ACTFL’s position that the target language be used 90% plus of the time in the classroom. Here is that link: https://benslavic.com/blog/2011/07/10/actfl-90-use-statement/ Since then, Diana Noonan has sent me a highlighted version of the same text. It points to a few other sentences that may have escaped our attention, since we

While I’m in St. Louis for NTPRS, I will ask my readers to take advantage of this brief hiatus to read some of the back blog entries back to 2007. Just click on the calender or on a category that might interest you. Bryce has a ton of new stuff, and Jim’s new story book

I got this from Anne Matava. The hog referred to is one of a group of Maine kids who were lucky enough to have spent all four years of their high school careers acquiring – and I mean acquiring – German from Anne, where they heard nothing but comprehensible input with this great teacher: Hi Ben, I wanted

This was on Laurie’s site today: It’s a wonderful day! Scott Benedict has created a file on the site TPRStalk.com for Embedded Readings!!   I invite you to check in and check out the beginnings of a new resource for teachers. I have uploaded several stories as has Michele Whaley.  We will be adding more when we

Michael Andrews’ song Mad World poignantly describes something that kids experience in school every day: http://youtu.be/v52Igdotisk I mention it here because we are in a unique position to change what Michael sings about.

Building adminsistrators are no more qualified to assess the work of teachers than teachers are qualified to do the reverse and assess their work. True, building administrators can assess if the kids are involved or not, but since kids are always “involved” when administrators come into a classroom, those evaluations don’t mean much. Plus, we

Dr. Krashen just sent me this today: The Compelling (not just interesting) Input Hypothesis Stephen Krashen The English Connection (KOTESOL)  in press It is by now well-established that input must be comprehensible to have an effect on language acquisition and literacy development. To make sure that language acquirers pay attention to the input, it should

As many of us get ready to meet in St. Louis, those in Japan don’t need to feel left out if they can’t make it. In September, the second annual Shimabara TPRS Workshop with Susan Gross is happening, with a lot of excitement already starting due to last year’s success. Here is the link for

Bryce wrote this as a comment a while back but it should be a formal blog post so that we can categorize it and find it if we need to: Teaching with CI is a skill and one that takes time to be developed, especially when one has years of non-CI teaching habits to overcome. Your critics