Since I had no idea where the Mr. Positive story was going, I was able to go along into interesting places with this story only because I didn’t know where it was going. Even more important to notice for those who are aware of the targeted vs. non-targeted structures discussion on this site over the past six […]
I wrote that Language of the Trees post after observing and coaching our WL Department Chair Zach Al Moreno last week with a group of sixth grade beginners in Spanish. As he taught, Zach gave me insight into the true nature of what we want from the TPRS skills. As he worked with his students,
Once in Montreal I visited a French high school with my students from South Carolina and met and spent some time with the censeur (notice the word) as he was doing his thing of being an assistant principal. As we walked around the school I observed a palpable sense of fear from the students who
We were talking about how TPRS lesson plans and target structures squeeze the life out of stories, creating in new teaches think that TPRS is hard to do and formulaic and they need to learn the formula. This is an investment in boredom. I say that learning how to teach in this way couldn’t be
Angie shared a video with us. She reports: My colleague filmed my Block 2 class today. It’s long, but has many parts. PQA, reading and discussion, partner reading, and Movie Talk. It’s definitely a weird feeling to see myself on film, and I struggle with this group because there are a couple of mean kids
I can’t find anywhere in Krashen, although I don’t have much time any more to look thoroughly, where he talks about communication as awareness. There is one passage that is kind of connected. This is from a paper (I’ll give the source later) that Krashen wrote about something Roger Brown said: This is Krashen: “After
Alisa saw this and sent it to me. It’s not just the air here: http://www.npr.org/2016/05/11/477415686/can-indias-sacred-but-dead-yamuna-river-be-saved
Here is another picture report from the field, like John’s, of me sitting in my classroom:
With my own boys if there was ever any sense in me that they don’t need school that day, for whatever reason, I supported that. But the school always made me somewhat guilty. I accepted that message, that I was doing something a little wrong. The thinking needs to change on that. I am not guilty
That first post about the grove of trees is an attempt to get deeper into the nature of communication, which is the overarching standard in our profession, and yet one that I am sure is not agreed upon, not in the least, by members of our profession. Here is a link to the first Language of
This report from the field is in the form of a picture. John Piazza reports from Berkeley High School (CA): Hi Ben, I wanted to share this pic with you, because I think that you will understand when you see it. This was taken a week ago by a former student who asked to interview me
