We wish Greg good luck in his Edcamp initiative today. Greg reports: “This Saturday 12/9/17 will be Edcamp Lake County in Mundelein, Illinois (I am one of two organizers), within Edcamp we will be having a TPRS/CI room in which the Chicagoland TCI group will meet. The Chicagoland TCI group is run by this blog’s […]
There are fettered and unfettered responses to discipline problems. A fettered response would take into consideration all sorts of factors like who said it, the tone of voice, the history of the kid’s involvement in class, the kid’s grade, who their parents are, if the administration likes them, if they are a cheerleader or a
I got this from Alisa: Hi Ben, I searched ‘Bitchy Edge’ on the PLC and got the thread from 2010 with Susie Gross where you are clarifying what is and isn’t an ‘Eclectic Teacher.’ I don’t recall ever reading it before, so thanks – it was awesome, and apparently I too was a non-textbook toting
For upper level kids as a fun break. Not intended for input gains, just some fun for kids who have a couple of years of language and who want a change in activities: 1. One student starts with Il y a 2. Next student adds a word. 3. They build a story that way. Teacher
We are collecting semester exam samples if anybody wants to send theirs in. Here is Greg’s: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11mSxjaeU94M5Qb4k3suft-WELd6lE0Y0PMwQRxg14rg/edit?usp=sharing Another one from Greg: Here is my actual multiple choice final for Spanish 1 UCP this semester. https://docs.google.com/document/d/12G_fPWfdSBUMJLRYBO0LL1cxCZJ6IrJesz6f6M969gw/edit?usp=sharing It contains: Persona Especial, Listening comprehension based on an Invisibles story, a OWI story for Reading Comprehension (from another teacher’s
A note on gender: In some school populations, the character’s name is enough to assume the person’s gender. If it is named Bill, it is a boy, and if it is named Sally, it is a girl. However, the national culture is changing rapidly in regards to gender identity and expression. Therefore, in many school
I was admiring the crisp New England weather last month when visiting Connecticut and Keri Biron told me that the winters could be pretty bone-chilling. So I do appreciate the nice 60 degrees with sun here in Denver today. While I was watering my perennials, staring at the ground, my mind does what it inevitably
To do a Movie Talk, you do not have to do much planning. Simply find an engaging movie clip. Engagement drives the bus, so you can use any clip that you think your students will enjoy watching. If you have never done a Movie Talk, Erik Olsen of San Francisco, at a presentation at COFLT
To keep your kids honest, always have your quiz writer write up a short (usually five point) quiz of the Movie Talk while it is happening. This keeps the students accountable. Double the five point score they make, and pop it in the grade book. Formative assessment drives the bus in CI instruction. It’s amazing
Tina and I have noticed that many CI teachers use Movie Talk a lot. We have five reasons why we don’t use it too much: Technology already plays such a huge role in students’ lives today. We like the hand-built aspect of working with the student artwork. Students today need community and acceptance more than
There is only one way to teach greetings that I have seen that works: We make their answer visible – on a chart in front of the room which they can look at when you ask them the question. Then it works. So just write out a list of possible responses to the “How are
If you are smart, you have not spent too much time so far this year laboriously teaching greetings each day, which gives new meaning to the term “boring”, but rather have sprinkled in the greetings into your stories, or as the kids come in at the start of class, etc. But they probably don’t know
