We need to like our work. I didn’t like my work for 37 years. Then I found the Invisibles/non-targeted. Now I like it. If we can’t blend vocation and avocation, as Robert Frost says in “Two Tramps at Mudtime”, then what are even doing? …but yield who will to their separation, My object in living […]
Sometimes you never know how you affect others. This makes all the craziness of the past decade worth it: Hey Ben – Your blog saved my career about 10-12 years ago, and your compassionate insights on the PLC continue to motivate me and remind me of what really matters in our work. I can’t thank
Julia has been giving us regular reports on how great the storybook project from A Natural Approach to the Year has been working for her. Here is the latest update: Good morning Ben! See attached. One example of several…
Greg Schwab has another reader (25 stories) which is proving to be good Free Choice Reading material for level 1 and 2 students. It has an accompanying native speaker audio for when sub plans are required: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Making-the-Invisibles-Visible-Vol-2-25-Stories-for-FVR-Reading-with-Audio-3846183
Dear Ben, I attended your workshop at Collegiate in Louisville, Kentucky one weekend in April. I very much enjoyed what you and Tina had to share with us. Before the end of the school year, I decided to try out a story with my students. I teach Kindergarten through 5th grade, but due to timing,
(Elementary) Report from the Field – Erica Ridge Read More »
A teacher has expanded the Star Sequence – thought I’d share. It’s not a linear conceptualization of this work, but spatial. This means everything to me because the attempt to make what is an essentially spatial way of teaching (CI) into a linear process that can be followed almost like a textbook has been –
Kids only learn things when they feel encouraged, when they are made to feel as if they can genuinely do it. They are very good at faking learning. The old model of forcing kids to sit and listen to our comprehensible input is outdated. It needs to be replaced with a new model. What is that
If you are new to all this, before you get too nervous about the changes that you wish to implement next year, I offer one important idea to hold on to – just take an image and work with it and stay with it and don’t go into any other stuff too fast. What does
Kara has a question for the group: As I wind down my first full year of CI, I’m looking for “final words” to end the year. Most of my students came with me on this journey of learning French without grammar and vocab lists. However, I’m looking for some words that might reach those kids who
A Natural Approach to the Year (2017-18) is a sequel to A Natural Approach to Stories (2016). It is basically how I spent most of my time over the past year and a half. After six previous books over the past twelve years, these two books represent my best efforts and deepest thinking. They reflect what
I am starting to see that teaching French was only a vehicle to carry me into the battle ground of schools where I would end up fighting as hard as I could each day for 40 years. The newest book Tina and I have written is providing me with that precious insight. That book is
