“In every single class when you are giving CI instruction, interacting in fun and unforced ways with the kids, the output is inevitable.” Linda Li  

The End of Motivation Stephen Krashen New Routes, vol 55: 34-35. 2015 www.disal.com.br/newr/ I announce in this paper the end of motivation as a relevant factor in language education. I announce in this paper the

In my ongoing work at AES with Steven Cook, we have been exploring Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis as it may apply to ELA instruction. A summary of that work, a result of about six weeks

These are from Angie: Hi Ben! I wanted to share some materials I made this week in case anyone is in need of a quick filler lesson…. It’s for a MovieTalk of this trailer from

From John Piazza: There has been a lot of discussion on the list about dealing with 4%ers, but I would like to take the conversation in perhaps a different direction, which may help me in

Hi Ben, Thanks to the feedback from the PLC, I have revised the Eight Traps document, adding some additional information, names, and sources. Here it is. Robert Opponents of Teaching with Comprehensible Input in general

Of course this is much more than can be done in two blocks. More like 10. But it gives the sequence, a very valuable one in my opinion that has been cooking for at least

I like lesson plans that are rugged and tough and yet that have lots of flex in them so that if something is working we can stay with it as long as we like. It’s

I am and will always remain of the firm and studied opinion that grammar teachers secretly hate their jobs and yearn for something exciting but are afraid to leave the shores of book safety that

As mentioned here a week ago, there is a new arrangement with the story artist. Perhaps it’s the iPad with so many bells and whistles  that causes the artist to disappear into the iPad and thus

Here is the draft from Robert: In a recent discussion with other teachers, one of the participants expressed the following opinion in opposing Teaching with Comprehensible Input: “If you teach like a baby learns its

Hi Everyone, Last Thursday I was at a District World Languages Department Chair meeting. The TOSA (Teacher on Special Assignment) opened a discussion about language acquisition. During the discussion, classroom practice came up. One of

Diane mentioned Bryce’s Dual Line Reading Entry form. It is to be used with oppositionally defiant kids (or anyone else) whom we have separated out from the class in another classroom because they can’t behave.

I’m reposting this because the issue of blurting just came up as a thread. I have to say that this plan is better than any I have ever used to control blurting. Today it worked

Here’s an idea from Eric someone may like to try out: Hey Ben: Quick strategy I’m trying this year and having success with thus far: Kids sit in chairs in a semi-circle with a few

From Eric: Check out Jim Trelease’s image: https://app.box.com/s/42shyfan0x5p754wsr71/1/1189482717/14395317372/1

Running dictation is such a good way to give kids a break from lots of input. Linda did a running dictation class today and it was during my planning period so I was able to

Eric is testing a sequence of high frequency verbs. Here is the link: https://benslavic.com/blog/a-good-ideateaching-hf-verbs/ I have been using this. It is really good. I just take the sheet and hold it in my hand as

I was just talking with Linda Li and she told me that ten years ago in China she tried a yoga class, her first ever, and it was at the wrong level. She said that

Steven Ordiano in Fresno CA has given us some really great free write materials. One is a form for free writes and the other is an assessment instrument that resembles OWATS: FluencyWrite FluencyWriteAnalysis  

I don’t even know if this one is even listed in our list of bail out moves. It’s really simple. Whenever we need to bail out (when the CI is sluggish and we feel kind

It occurred to me that some of the newer people in our group may not know what our curriculum looks like. In a word, we teach verbs. We don’t teach a mosh pit of intellectual/academic

Our students forget content but they remember language. It’s a big joke that people are hired to teach kids things that they will definitely forget after the test, things that will have zero use to

  This story from Jim Tripp has an elegant simplicity in the structure. The one I am going to do with the Skyped in kid from Japan may be too complex. I am glad Jim

Some more details/clarifications from Linda Li on the current discussion about question words: I have two sets of Question words (Pinyin, and characters. Both posted in my classroom. Depending where they sit in the classroom

A student studied long and hard for a (memorized material) Spanish test. The test came and the student was upset that the test was too easy – he studied far more than he needed to,

Next week one of my students has to go to Japan for the week. I’m going to Skype him into our classes because he doesn’t want to miss class. We’ll beam him in from Japan

Ruth and I had a side conversation in the comment fields earlier tonight about question words in relation to the overall discussion about Linda Li’s recent Two Truths and a Lie classes here in our school,

There is a poignant scene toward the end of the film Night at the Museum when Amelia Earhart whispers into Ben Stiller’s character’s ear, “Have fun!” before flying off in her red airplane. It reminds

Every one in a while a sentence rings true. This from Polly, in just a few words, lays to complete waste everything that has ever been said about assessment: …I really feel like those kids

Nathaniel responds below to some verbage from somewhere. We don’t need to know where, just some sad educational factory place where people write stuff that they don’t really understand but do it because it sounds

I updated, made some changes to, this very effective way of getting high numbers of repetitions on the numbers. You will need to have the numbers and colors poster from Teachers Discovery here in order

This, from John Bracey, is telling. It is almost the equivalent of a criminal indictment on grammar teachers. It really burns me up: I remember having a conversation with some upper level high school students

A science teacher is using CI strategies to teach science. Linda sent this to me – it was on Facebook. Yes it’s also a shameless plug for my new book: …today, a young 9th grade

A repost for Keri: A person I know recently brought up some concerns about the 1950’s style of textbook based/thematic unit memorization of lists teaching going on in a certain school. This person made all

This one is from Keri: Hi Ben, I have a question that maybe the PLC could help me with.  Last year was my first “TPRS” year and, of course, those students are with other teachers.

Why would a person look at a book or interact with a computer to learn a language? It strikes me as a very good thing that CI teachers have as their goal each day to

When we create discussion in stories, we can exaggerate one of the qualities of each actor. This can be done using the Director’s Cues. When an actor is really exaggerating one single human quality, it

What if we just did a Free Write Portfolio as our summative assessment each semester? We could use the OWATS model. Then we wouldn’t have to formally test writing each semester with some stupid test,

Q. True or False: Assessment is an essential component of the learning process.

Q. Is it more important to focus on and use strategies that bring the greatest gains or strategies that focus on keeping the kids’ interest high? A. When the kids’ interest is the highest, the

My new t-shirt:

From John Piazza: On Latin Best Practices today, John Bracey shared some real insight about the traditional way of teaching grammar. It certainly resonates with my experience, as both teacher and learner of Latin: “I

Kids play in sandboxes. To them, when they are in a sandbox, even if they are doing “work” (building a sand castle, making something out of sticks), to them it’s still play. What about us?

James Hosler shares an important moment from yesterday in his Latin classes: I just kicked a kid out of my last class of the day. I hate doing that, but he just wouldn’t shut up.

Eric is in the process of trying out a new idea to teach high frequency verbs. I thought that if some others of us in the group tried it as well we could give him some

From Brother Eric: Gotta post a TPR breakthrough! I tried how Asher teaches TPR –https://youtu.be/KmfnrYerYbY – the teacher demoing with 2 students, the rest of the class observing. Wow, did this make classroom management easier,

Pour some concrete into your shoes. Or attach a 20 lb. ankle weight on each ankle. Take a sentence: Jacob was born on Sept. 29, 2011. Walk to Jacob. It will take a while because

We sometimes get bogged down when getting details via circling during stories. We get too many details. Details are great – they flush out the spatial imagery of the story. But they shouldn’t overshadow its

from Linda Li: With beginning students, I limited to three verbs “was at”, “saw”, “ate” as they learned those three words already. I used my 3 details as an example: 1. I was in India.