The videos here were taken at a recent workshop I did in Connecticut that was organized by our long time colleague here on the PLC, Keri Biron. As such, the videos are not what we might find in a classroom with students, but rather are more instructional in nature for the teachers in the workshop. […]

Hi Ben, I recently read with envy about our colleague that has so much freedom to teach as he wants.  My status as a new teacher in a department based on traditional textbook instruction leaves me vulnerable on many angles.  I have had blowback from parents, students and administration.  I have not been able to

In terms of their classes, there are certain “big words” associated with school in the minds of kids like: test, homework, grades. Those words all carry an air of negativity, if you think about it. But there is one word in the Invisibles program that doesn’t carry a negative feeling: jobs. Of the more than

I got this from a long-time member of our group: Hi Ben – Most of my classes have gone completely off the rails and are now 100% free form, one story leading into the next, using characters we already have and occasionally adding a new one. There are family trees and timelines all over my

This is from Steven: Hi Ben, Below is a write up as to how I do personalized stories using the invisibles questioning sequence. Hi PLC Warriors, I wanted to share a twist on the old way of doing PQA type of stories.  It’s my Slavic-ification twist on it. In traditional TPRS, we would PQA target

I made five videos in Connecticut that I would like to share here. This one describes how to create an Invisibles story using the “seven level questioning sequence” described in A Natural Approach to Stories. The instruction, being from a workshop and not a regular class with real students, is not great teaching – just

Our elementary CI expert, the one and only Alisa Shapiro-Rosenberg, asks the group:  Hi, Ben, Hope the thumb is healing. Can I please get some group think here – what are the reasons to discourage the common practice of asking/requiring beginners in the WL to read aloud (individually)?  I know someone who is looking into

A teacher wrote: …I have been asked to provide more documentation, assessments and curriculum maps with lessons to my admin to justify my work, and I am feeling overwhelmed and misunderstood…. Everyone takes it as natural that, if a teacher wants to be in the good graces of those who employ her, she would of

Dictée is a tried and true bail out move. Getting the kids writing for about ten to minutes is a fail safe alternative if something we are doing isn’t working. Searching the term dictée here is a good idea although some of the older posts (30 of them) on dictée over the years make it more

I got a message from a teacher today, talking about things connected to the Invisibles: Dear Ben, I am reading your ideas and trying to pretend they are not true even though it is as if you’ve read my innermost thoughts. I suppose I don’t want to believe they are true because that will mean

This report from the field is from Robyn who is now famous – in my mind at least – for her decision to be observed on her first day of ever doing CI. I just think that is so cool, really brave. Below, she explains a bit more about that choice: Hi Tina and Ben,

In a comment today Amy wrote: …I basically told my admin. that by providing more correct input and repetition, along with choral response, those who don’t get it the first time will get it eventually and that often the feedback they need is simply more and varied input…. This kind of slays the “ignorant administrator