A teacher wrote and expressed fear that with Story Listening we might go from too much transparency (TPRS) to confusing the kids (SL). My position is that any confusion that the kids might experience in a Story Listening classroom would be a result not of methodology but of lack of individual eye contact in a […]
This is from Keri. Any responses, and pls send anything that comes into your minds, have about a one hour turnaround time since Keri is in CT and it is almost two o’clock there now: I am hoping someone could help me out with this: This afternoon the High School World Language teachers have a
I consider what Bryan wrote below to be of immense importance. Why? Because real language teaching is about some noise, and not making language instruction as transparent as we all have insisted on over the years. We really lost our way over the years with the focus on transparent instruction to teach specific linguistic elements that we
Here is a link to Beniko Mason doing a Story Listening class: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx7VZ2AGXWJ0N1l5QnNwa0U5Y0U/view Beniko doesn’t care at all if the students know every word; she just tells the story. After all these years, I see how brilliant that is. She supports her story by drawing pictures and translating words into Japanese occasionally. She is just pumping
We cannot state enough that comprehension-based teaching is 100% different from other ways of teaching languages. It is different from what form-focused language teaching does. Focusing on form exercises our brains. It is conscious learning, much like memorizing vocabulary or conducting an experiment in science class or learning the reasons for the American Revolution in
Tina wrote this on the CI Liftoff FB page, which is devoted to discussion about non-targeted input: I gave a short talk on Story Listening and gave a demo with the Québecois tale “Ti Malice et Monplaisir” in sunny, beautiful Ellensburg, Washington, yesterday at WAFLT. The topic of circling target words/structures (which I would call
We must remember to have empathy for our kids, for how hard it is for them to even live sometimes. I want to try to do three things when I teach kids who are hurting: their desire to be heard, to have their thoughts recognized. trying to love them no matter what a pain they are.
We have moved the dates of the Maine summer workshop from August 14-15 to August 11-12. Hope that doesn’t put a crimp in anyone’s plans.
How can we even measure and control what is a magical process of unfoldment? Do we measure the unfolding process of a flower? The flower is given sun and water and soil (input) and it grows into something that is beautiful, reflecting the natural and imperceptible speed of the growth processes found in nature. Language
Jeff Tamaroff, who coordinates a very large St. Louis suburban district, in order to further communication between his WL and ESL teachers, has established the “CI Liftoff – St. Louis” FB page. Tina sent him our CI Liftoff logo (below) and he is going to put it on that page. Thus, the St. Louis people
This in my view is a significant post here today because it is an example of many such emails that Tina and I have been getting lately in support of our work promoting non-targeted CI instruction. We are seeing proof now in classrooms that the thematic unit “align with the curriculum” mindspeak that dominates our
Megan Smallwood is in our PLC, a member of the MO Lift Off Facebook Group started by a district coordinator in St. Louis, Jeff Tamaroff. She only heard about TPRS and CI a few weeks ago when Tina and I went over there for a three day workshop. Here is her report today: Today I
