To teachers who can’t get them to listen (due to dysfunction in the kids, previous bad experiences with other teachers, etc.) Tina gives this advice: Scale CI down to something that looks a lot like

Celeste in Chicago just began this work and is barreling along at high speed, but has run into all the predictable road blocks of attempting to change a class culture in mid-year. Anyone in the

Krashen and others in the 1960’s and 70’s designed the blueprint for the rocket ship (CI). Blaine Ray consciously studied that blueprint and in a move of sheer genius created the first CI rocket ship

Julio Maestas in Louisville got a note from his principal today. It’s a celebration: Mr. Maestas – Thank you for representing Irvin in fine fashion today. I am so proud of you and the work

Greg has some questions for the group: I just got this e-mail from this company that is doing a supposedly “comprehensible” version of a Telenovela: https://www.edunovela.com/ As department chair I’m trying to transition the department

The Invisibles Star has six points now. It occurred to me that the step of writing up the reading should be added (in orange on the new star below): Note that creating the reading (orange

Mila has a question for the group: Hi Ben, This is Mila, we’ve been emailing since I started a new job in January, replacing a teacher that left. I’d love to hear your advice on

https://mygenerationofpolyglots.com/2017/11/21/how-easy-it-is-to-self-publish-your-ci-novel/

I wrote this as a comment in response to a point Alisa made earlier today, but am moving it here as a post because of its importance: This work is all going to CALP. Yes,

Alisa pointed out how the 25 – 35 min. goal for an invisibles story is a good change from the old days of milking stories, sometimes for days. She pointed out: …sometimes maybe we wanted

Here is a very simple yet very powerful immediate response to any negative comment you may hear in your classroom, before, during or after class. It is from PLC member Ryann Campbell, who reports: …I

Mila, who is working to master the Invisibles process (and quickly getting there) asks: Q. So, they already drew the OWI character. They decided the details of the character: ex., gigantic red sheep named Geppetto*

Robyn asks: How do I get go about this sticky situation? I share a room one period with my department chair who stays in the room at least half of the period. She is sitting

I was just thinking how totally ridiculous it is for us to think that we can teach a language by grouping it in terms of themes, like the numbers or colors, etc. It really is

As I make the finishing touches to our new book, I keep finding paragraphs I really like. Here is one: …in the approach to teaching languages outlined in this book, students are not just students

Mila did her first dictée today and wanted to clarify a few points about the process: Q. How would you grade someone who copied the correct sentence but didn’t circle their mistakes as instructed but

Q. What does non-targeted CI look like in a French 3 Honors class? I got some images off the internet the other day so he could describe it and that went well… A. The question

New group member Jolene has a question: Q. I need to lean on your expertise. I’m in a unique situation in that I only have my middle schoolers for six weeks. What would you recommend as

The kids in this video go to String Theory High School in Philadelphia. PLC member Laura Munich is the French teacher there and was at the workshop Tina and I did last year in Philadelphia.

Hi Ben. This Monday will be week 3 for me (I started in January) and as you suggested I’ve been using their book (traditional teaching) for half the period (about 23 min) and CI activities

From Meg: Hi Ben, A question for the PLC. I’ve been working with my district’s social emotional learning coach and later in the month we’re supposed to co-teach a lesson on respect, why we want

This is from Julia: Ben, First question after trying this for a week. I have kids saying they already know this stuff. But I have many kids who are getting it deep down for the

Q. My French 3 student is quite a quick learner and a straight A student in all subjects. He’s quite brilliant. For small talk we can actually have a conversation about his day, what he

This is from Mademoiselle: Hi Ben! I have a really good google slide presentation about crepes because today is national crepe day in France. Here is the link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bnGm5oWDgU9_sAlujFkfv1ah0gbi6KzBMGty7uHudCI/edit?usp=sharing But where can I share things

Hi Ben, Q. I started OWI with my classes and we did Write and Discuss with two of the reading options, questions from the back of the room and I’m moving to story. In the

Our PLC member Sarah Downey was the GA WL Teacher of the Month in November. Here is an interview they did with her. If you listen to it, start 30 seconds in: What makes world

Steven has a question for the group: Hi Ben, I have a quick question for the PLC. Are teachers who teach with NTCI, using less and less written translation on the board? I find that

Mila, who is working to master the Invisibles process (and quickly getting there) asks: Q. So, they already drew the OWI character. They decided the details of the character: ex., gigantic red sheep named Geppetto

So I asked Robyn to send pics of her cart. We kind of decided in that discussion a few days ago started by Jonathan in VA that NT is the best option for people on

Question 2 Jonathan explains: My colleague (also a member of this CI PLC) has been given the, shall we say, “beautiful challenge” of teaching a French 3/4/5 class comprised of 35 students total in a

We have some really good questions from Jonathan in Virginia. I put my responses below, and we can use the comment fields. I would love to see if group members have thoughts on the cart

Greg’s presentation below on the Invisibles is clear and concise, and highly recommended for people who can’t quite grasp the concept, or who have the Invisibles mixed up with one word images (OWI), etc. I

For those looking for some curriculum docs that match up with elementary CI, we have these from Alisa: Elementary Spanish grades 1-4: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K9iU1fxXePbdFFSehT4wSn6TnaDAKK0W0ZW_JL2H6Sc/edit?usp=sharing Spanish Grades 5-6: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GHq68aUbDAI1JaMhNaBBYSbpV2LzVKAg_wukNDn__0E/edit?usp=sharing Spanish grade 7: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oHuxXjikm1mQk0hdCFTf85vvoaFbWqcqaQI0eBvtKwU/edit?usp=sharing Spanish Grade 8: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FGEqvu5tQcmcMsY2Q2QiJfmOYAIW3F79Q7t4OcboiO8/edit?usp=sharing

Lisa asks: Hola Ben, I’m really interested in TPRS and CI. I teach PreK-3rd grade. I see my children 2/week. The wee ones for 30 mins, the older ones for 45. I’m not a traditional

If you look at this video of our Alisa teaching her very young kids, I suggest you turn off the sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2n6K6KRZtE&feature=youtu.be What do you notice? I notice that Alisa encourages, as much as possible,

When you have visitors, you may want to consider having the kids go around and explain their jobs to your guests, esp. the key jobs: videographer, professeur 2, artists, storywriter, story driver They will describe

Jeff Easthon wrote this one for his level 3 class: Easthon script The Interview

A repost from 2013, found by Betty. I had some fire going on in my attitude that year: We need to make a new category that answers this question: What specific resources do we have

From Sean: Students pair up and lay a pencil between both of them. Teacher says a statement. If the statement is true, students try to grab the pencil first. It’s best to demonstrate this activity

Mila just joined our group, and read A Natural Approach to Stories over the holidays. She took over for a teacher who left at the semester break and is just in her fourth day of

Why not just teach half the class period traditional and half CI? The reason I say that is because the yapping is just too stupid in some buildings. Now, if the department/school wants CI, that’s

I got this from Leigh Anne. It is pretty cool: Hi Tina and Ben, Hope you both are well! I am deliriously happy, professionally, having seen great results this week at Final Exam time. I

Q. It seems that every year I have an annoying group, a clique of about four students who just won’t stay quiet. They’re not mean kids, and often they are very bright, but they visit

Tina and I finished the book and it is gone to the publisher but we still have to finish the appendices. We’ve both been under a rock with all of it for a long time.

I got this question today: Hello Ben, After about five years, I am again seeking advice/help from TPRS & the CI community to help me teach language in the way I am convinced is the

Today Meg brought up the topic of what to do when the kids don’t respond to Plans A through D. I wrote up a Plan E for addition to the Classroom Management book and share

Sometimes we find that our students’ energy needs to be contained with some pencils-to-paper activities. When the kids have a pencil in their hands, they think that they are learning. Let’s be honest and clear

How to get structure and still retain what one might call an “intuitive” curriculum? So let’s say we have a choice of our basic types of non-targeted strategies, for example Small Talk (Calendar/Weather), Card Talk,

I post something Gretchen wrote here today as a comment in case anyone missed it….especially the last sentence, which I consider huge in its implications for what is happening right now every day in our

First they listen. Then they read. Then they write. Somewhere along that continuum, depending on the person, speech emerges. Input precedes output. WE cannot control that process, because it all happens where we can’t go,