The big fight about non-targeted vs. targeted input is a red herring. The fact is that it’s all CI. The only difference Tina and I are suggesting (Jan. of 2016) is, instead of working from words connected to a curriculum, with the focus on teaching the words, we instead work from an image, which results in […]
Hello, I am your grade book and I wanted to congratulate you on another year in service to me. Oh, I know, I know. You thought you were working on behalf of the kids. Hah, hah! That’s funny! We all know that you can’t serve two masters. Serve me! Let’s take for example that pesky
This one is from a parent of one of Steven’s students: Hi Ben, During the summer, I was emailed by a supportive parent. They attached a picture I took with my superstar student in the email and I realized “Wouldn’t it be cool if I ask for a testimonial?” I asked and below is the
Q. What do you do with dictées? Do you mark them? I’m looking at their translations right now and how carefully they copy them. Would you ever use them as summarize marks? A. I put them into the book as a quiz type of grade. I use a ten point system, and I would award
Q. Just a quick question. What’s the difference between the archivist and the curator? I thought that I had it clear but now that I’m coming closes to bringing in the jobs, I’m not sure. A. The archivist is kind of a relay person each day, sending the Video Retell (Step #7 in the questioning
A report from Dana who is working with the very same 8th grade students who as 6th graders two years ago are the very students who invented the Invsibles concept: Hi Ben, I just have to share with you. Even though we lost a lot of your original Invisibles students, this group is lots of
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/well/family/why-kids-shouldnt-sit-still-in-class.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&moduleDetail=inside-nyt-region-3&module=inside-nyt-region®ion=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region
Someone on FB asked this truly important question: I need help! I have a VERY challenging group of Spanish 1 at the worst time of day. They are energetic but compulsively talk chatter and joke with eachother. They came with a reputation. Anyways their card talk is not interesting any more. Does it have to
How to reconcile the obvious disconnect between Krashen’s idea that learning a language should be an effortless process while at the same time being rigorous? It depends on how we interpret the word “rigorous”. Robert Harrell has said that our language classes should be rigorous, but not onerous. This involves, among other qualities, “sustained focus”.
Hey Ben, I’m really liking the beginning of the school year the way you shared with us this summer. Since my students are all so keen, I feel like they’re ready for more stuff. We’re finishing almost the third week of school and we’ve created 3 characters that are quite developed, and we’ve done card
The passwords they give us are unwieldy. If you want to change it, just click on the tutorials hard link at the top of this page and follow the instructions.
