About ten years ago Anne Matava and I started a rich conversation about best practices in this work. We agreed on everything and we still do. Then, when I saw what Anne could do in creating story scripts, I asked her to write what eventually became three very fine volumes of story scripts that some teachers […]
This is an interesting repost from 2011. It reveals where we were then and allows us to see how far we have come in our thinking in the past five years: Of all the unique things that Malcolm Gladwell has said, his idea that mastery of anything is no more complicated than doing something for
A repost. I once asked Claire Walter to expand on something she had said about how curriculum, instruction and assessment should all go together as a unit. Like they are not three rings in a circus but all in one ring with perhaps a very slight level of Venn diversion, but not much. She replied: Ben,
Krista also wrote on FB: “Story listening was relaxing for all involved today…no answers required. No comprehension questions. No circling. Their only job was to let me know if they didn’t understand. Many shy students said they felt more free to just listen and process.” I responded: “Krista this to me is revolutionary in the
Imagine that a mistreated dog in our midst has been rescued. Now there is hope sparkling in its grateful eyes, after all the years of neglect by those in the neighborhood who, knowing about this dog’s plight, should have prevented it. But there is always a part of the dog’s gaze that remains guarded, fearful
Here is a repost that might be useful to someone right about now. Robert Harrell shares a response to a student who had learned up to that point in his academic career that school meant memorizing things and who preferred the textbook. The student had sent Robert an email asking him to raise his grade
Our discussion about authentic texts and the goofy stance taken by ACTFL’s Director of Education, Paul Sandrock, continues. Alisa sent these further ruminations by Sandrock from the ACTFL pages for us to reflect on and enjoy. I’m not exactly sure what Sandrock means. It is, however, an excellent example of using eduspeak to keep the
The repetition of chants can burn new language into the kids’ minds and bodies better than practically anything else. If the instructor can just get the words into the kids’ bodies via a good gut-based chant, it will, via the repetition, work wonders for retention. In my view, chants are better than songs because they
Carmen wrote on FB: …surviving on a diet of “main ideas” rather than understanding every single word does lead to excellent acquisition….. This is very important for me to read. Thank you. It help me further understand a lot of the confusing ideas that have been banging around in my head for the past few
Krista Kovalchick wrote on FB: I’ve found that the pressure to have cute comments cuts the pleasure in the story. Shy students who are brave enough to volunteer a suggestion but then don’t have their suggestion chosen, are, in my experience, quite reluctant to ever volunteer again. The stories then revolve around the 5-7 most talkative
One of the things that causes images drawn by kids to be so attractive to them might be similar to the pull on them of comic books. Would we rather read a comic with images or without? Something about images heightens the interest. This idea has been around for a long time and it’s still
