Q. I’m using a text that presents both Spanish verbs, “Saber and Conocer” (to know) at the same time. How do you handle this? A. In my opinion the mistake we make as teachers is to focus on individual words – this is a great example. In reality, words cannot make sense without other words around them. It […]
I got this email from a mother in Denver in 2010 – this is a repost. It broke my heart then and now again seven years it has the same effect. We need to get ourselves together and fight to end this kind of situation: Hi Ben, I was wondering if you are offering any workshops or
This post first appeared here about eight years ago but periodically I like to publish it in honor of us and all the hard work that we do, a kind of work that few who are not teachers can even begin to understand: Dear Lord: When I go in to work with my students tomorrow,
In a comment today, Alisa described a strategy that she uses with her elementary kids when they do Movie Talk. It is new to me and looks like it has good potential for the little kids, or really any age group. Find the original comment in the comment fields today. I tried to rewrite her idea below
This report is from Dana (pronounced Danna) Miller-Kitch, from Canada, who is just starting in the MS French position I had two years ago at the American Embassy School in New Delhi. Tina and I worked with Dana in Philadelphia this summer and she is using the Invisibles with the same kids, now 8th graders, who invented them
Señor Wooly and others (Elvira, Annabelle, etc.) differ with my post on homework, which I also posted on CI Liftoff, a site that Tina and I started a while ago in an effort to have a safe place to say things. I guess this PLC remains the only safe place to speak freely so I will
A repost: Four kinds of teachers give forced/required class homework: Those who are mean. Those who are afraid. Those who need approval. Those who can’t get the job done in the time they have. I have never given assigned/forced homework. It just seems so insulting to the kids, most of whom don’t do it anyway.
With non-targeted CI we deliver the ocean and they get it. I used to deliver cups of water and make them drink. Now, it’s the ocean! How could an ocean ever fit into a cup anyway? What was I thinking?
This idea can get the students working in the three skills of reading, writing and listening all at once. It eats up minutes if you ever need that to happen. Level 1 kids obviously can’t do it right now, but gnarly upper level classes that you are just trying to make it to the end of the
As I revisit some old posts from years ago, the one below from 2009, I see that my thinking about basic aspects of our work hasn’t changed much. I interpret that as a good thing: I think that, in curriculum design, grammar should be taught only after the lower levels of study (levels one and two) of constant
Julie asks: Hi Ben! Not sure if I’ll get a response before next Tuesday when here, in Canada, we have our first day of school. I’m really excited to get going in TPRS. One question for now: I’ve got the cardstock sheets double-sided for the personalized question/name and fave activity — but I’m wondering when
Poor auditory and kinesthetic kids! They have been like beached dolphins all those years. But when they get into a classroom where there is a lot of CI going on, and their C in other classes is suddenly an A, and the totally visual kids are struggling, then there is at least a bit of
