Ruth was talking about teaching sixth graders and Don posted this comment which I missed until tonite. I was probably out riding my bike. I’m just publishing Don’s advice to Ruth here as an article

When I suggested here and on the moretprs list that two forms of TPRS had occurred out of one, the second less true to Krashen but more true to real life in schools, Judy Dubois

Once it hits us about what comprehensible input really brings to our teaching, some of us tend to push hard to get it going in our classrooms and in our buildings. That’s my tendency and

OK with people off to conferences, and with summer in full sail, let’s really take a full break. We can report back from the conferences, of course, or anyone with a pressing article can just

Until I can figure out where to save the vPQA files that we eventually want to put into our big vPQA data base, I am putting this from Julie right here. At least we can

https://docs.google.com/a/mps148.org/presentation/d/1ZTVSHFLiAhHr_rKJeVwIGalPEaxU7Zk4OTwbjTqDBhM/edit?usp=docslist_api

A nice simple Star of the Day from Don Read. Thank you Don. Etoile du Jour 24 Fevrier 2015 Don Read

This slide show from Bryan is not vPQA per se but can be modified. See qualifications in the comment fields below: 00 Les Aventures d’Isabelle Master – Chap 1-2 00 Les Aventures d’Isabelle Master –

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=adfa3190f365a81690030bbe1&id=b5e78c165c&e=9b6c8bc68b

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=adfa3190f365a81690030bbe1&id=725c87342c&e=9b6c8bc68b

Eric asked me: “Would you have ACTFL write policy/positions to align everything exclusively with Krashen and ignore or condemn the rest? ACTFL cannot do that if it is to represent the entire field of SLA.”

I have made a synopsis of the steps Julie uses to design her vPQA slide shows. I republish it (it first appeared here in March) because some of us will be working with it next

This is from Bryan Whitney: Hi Ben – I made a reference for the top 50 high frequency French verbs with images for the Power Verb Activity, and I also included the opposites of each

Yvonne asks: My name is Yvonne and I live in London, UK with my husband and 3 children. I have a background in Digital media and eLearning (BSC & Masters degree) I taught Business Information

This is to formally announce the publication of my newest book: The Big CI Book – A Step by Step Survival Guide for Foreign Language Teachers. At 400 pages, it vastly expands on the skills

I’ll put this and the article on the new book up here as sticky articles for those not reading every day over the summer and take it down later. I appreciate all the nice comments.

Dude every time I go to the list, once a year maybe, I regret it. I thought my message to Curtain was a good conversation starter and it ended up as usual ruffling feathers. The

A nice check-in report from Emeka: Dear Ben, I am finally taking a moment to reflect on this last year of really delving into teaching with CI and want to thank you, Ben and the

(Note: this post, though interesting to its writer, is probably too long to actually read.) Yesterday in a comment here Diane Neubauer said this: …It seems to me that among the TPRS and CI teaching

It has been a few decades that we have been doing NTPRS. iFLT is five years old this summer, maybe six. Agen is in its third year. And Maine has been putting on a great

We translate almost nothing. If we have to translate words after the first part of class after we have established meaning, then we have made an error, we have gone out of bounds. That is

Chill shares. I read the last paragraph twice: Some teachers among our colleagues are only able to work with the top students. In a traditional FL program, that’s usually what’s left – the ones who

Is Robert’s report a sign of the times? – Hey Ben: The French program at my school died this year. The teacher has been struggling with it for a couple of years and sees a

Steve addresses two jobs, one new (the second one below called the L1 Translator) that I will immediately add to the jobs category. This new job that Steve suggests is not one of those minor

I need to take a break for real this time. I tried in early June but the momentum from the great work/innovation being done in our classrooms from last year’s discussion and our own inner

How do we put on paper all the leadership that Judy Dubois brings to the language teaching table? I think it’s quite impossible. But let’s try: For starters, just do search of her name here.

I asked Jeff for a bio to go with his pitch on badges. We haven’t done bios in a while, for years now, like we used to. I think we’ve just been too busy. But

What if we invented a new way altogether of assessing our kids’ work? What if we focused more on what they could do than where they fail to reach 100 points, the sought-after A that

(If you are new to vPQA and missed that discussion last winter, this post may seem obtuse, so if you want a powerful new strategy for next year you may have to read some of

When making a Haiku Deck to share on the PLC, please try to include points 3, 4, 7, and 9 below. Also don’t forget to include some Debate slides and questions (given to you by

Some information on Haiku Deck: 1. A two minute video: 2. Getting started with Haiku Deck: I don’t want to put too much of a point on it, but the fact is that many of

Don has a question about the current movement in our community towards deskless CI classrooms: Hi Ben, I am going to get rid of the desks in my classroom next year and I am going

Chris also shares on VanPatten: So I asked Bill VanPatten for a metaphor and this is what I got: Chris, I use the metaphor of a grocery checkout. The cash register computer is the mind/brain.

Carol Hill, who just this morning presented on vPQA at her Tri-State gathering this morning, shares: Grammar Is Not a Skill, or, What Does It Really Mean to Know a Language? “I remember well that

How many times over the years have we all heard this from someone in our building? It is nauseating. Nathaniel addresses this idea in a whimsical and funny way, offering us a little comic relief

Eric has written what I consider to be a very important paragraph on the use of translation in CI classes: “When we talk about FL classrooms, there is less exposure to the L2. All the

The old way in foreign language instruction, the Orc way, the way of dominance by ugliness in foreign language instruction – and what they do with those textbooks and computer programs is pretty ugly with

[ed. note: if you have recently joined this group and are new to CI, you will find this post extreme. Just don’t read it. There are many other posts – thousands of them – that

Maybe Laura could post this in her room. Thanks to Alisa for sending it:

Everything John sends us if of the highest quality. This article is no exception: Ben, This article discusses underlying causes of addiction. Many studies have found that people do not turn to drugs when they

Dear Ben, As I head off to Latvia to oversee an intensive Russian study program for 14 kids who have done well in three years of Russian, I find an email in my box with

This is from Ruth Fleishman: Hi Ben, I just got this message if you want to post it. White River Junction, Vermont Hartford High School is accepting applications for a full-time Spanish teacher. See Schoolspring

Another teacher has lost a job: Hi Ben: I’m out of a job. My school situation was classic – department head who wanted to institute change and introduced us to CI, then when I embraced

It was like a different life. It was like a miracle. With my new tools and perspective, I was able to be myself in the classroom. I had a fierceness in me, knowing that I

This past August I moved into a huge, sunlit classroom with my name on the door. I started right in with CI. I had a fabulous mentor, a sweet, intelligent department head, great colleagues and

Hi Ben, A few days left in the semester, and I’m finally feeling that I’d like to share a bit about my journey with folks on the blog. This community has been such a huge

Here is the version of jGR/ISR (the Interpersonal Skills Rubric) that is now in poster form: Interpersonal-Communication-Rubric-in-Color Here is a self-evaluation form that I sometimes use: Interpersonal-Cummunication-Self-Evaluation-Form-201521

These are from Keri Biron (Colwell): Hi Ben, So, I gave an exit survey to my kids yesterday and got great feedback. However, a couple students mentioned the fact that we focused heavily on s/he

Eric, Thanks for writing and for sharing—and for your very kind comments about me! It was fun to look at your videos at Edgartown. I’m of course familiar with a lot of these methods, techniques,

Eric wrote this to Dr. VanPatten: Dear Dr. VanPatten, I am reaching out to you in an attempt to bring our worlds closer together. I teach Spanish to grades 3-8 using an approach called “Teaching