We pay attention to the administrators and ignore the parents. Why is this? I think it is a big mistake. Let’s talk about the parents briefly. Yesterday, I met a highly educated and articulate parent who happens to be quite pissed off at years of lack of communication with administrators about what is best for […]
My heart goes out to students whose learning style is predominantly visual. The reason is that languages are not learned visually – they are learned primarily in an auditory way. Reading, writing, speaking – all emerge from listening. Most students have been made into visual learners by the nature of instruction in schools (thus fully two thirds
This game I invented was a huge hit in my classes. Easy to organize. Very engaging. Might help a few teachers who are looking for ways to keep CI going these last weeks of school. Jody Fun CI Game after Reading (adapt for age group): Devise 10 (or whatever number suits you) opinion questions, which
There is a point of critical mass where, if one too many students is confused, heads go down on the desks and we lose the chemistry of the class, to which all must contribute. Then we feel like fools and blame the method. In order to avoid getting to that point of critical mass, we
People have asked me how our Anchorage TPRS group got going. They’d like to have something similar in their communities. Susie thought I should present a “how to” at a TPRS conference, but I knew it would only take about six minutes to explain. Here goes: Ben’s books gave me the concept of today’s TPRS
There are days when we wish we could go into our classrooms and be mindless and not worry about anything at all, following a set of automatic steps that still hold our students’ attention for the entire class period. Below is a 90 minute lesson plan that does that for me. I use it
We can get lots of reps and lots of additional input with the personalized readings we do the day after our story. But not only can we do this in the class that the story was created, but we can (and should) also share these stories with other classes. Not only are kids interested in
K, my former student who has written so beautifully and with such great courage about her experience promoting stories in her IB school this year, and the unexpected support she got from her wonderfully open teacher, now shares her thoughts on how next year is setting up for her. The blog is very direct and
Having just watched the movie Outrage, I am so moved by how some gay activists must just feel so tired from fighting the discrimination and ignorance perpetrated by those who would oppose or attack them for whatever political or personal reason. I wouldn’t dare compare the intellectual snobbery and ignorance from Krashen’s colleagues’ on his work to that
Dr. Beniko Mason is a professor at Shitennoji University in Osaka, Japan. She has known and worked with Dr. Krashen for over fifteen years and fully embraces his Comprehensible Input Hypothesis. I was honored that she visited my classroom last week. Here is a short email she sent back to me, which is then followed
The Big Picture has been a wonderful resource for me this year. Most of what shows up is related to current news footage, and as such is mostly useful for my 3 / 4 combined class who enjoy talking about the real world, but even then, I only pick and choose (Useful: Oil Slick in
I asked K to give us a few thoughts here at the end of the year: Today I asked the kids at lunch what the best or most important part of the year was. Based on their answers, here is what I have come up with: Build a strong community in the classroom and throughout
