It won’t change until the training/coaching model changes. We’re trying. But we can’t make CI based instruction work until we trust each other more in schools. It’s going in the opposite direction. We trust less and less in each other and less in what Krashen and Blaine have served up. It’s a big table of wonderful […]
The classrooms of yesterday were places where a studious and obedient group of submissive learners hung on every word of the teacher-narcissist. That is old thinking. It is not what a TPRS classroom is really about, certainly. If happiness is the goal (happiness naturally generates gains in all facets of life), then we need to allow
What Does Learning Look Like in a TPRS Classroom? Read More »
I publish this link here so that anyone interested in attending iFLT in Chattanooga this summer can check out who is presenting: https://tprstorytelling.com/conference/presenters-2016/
This is from the West Coast Bear: Hi Ben, Here’s a little circling exercise that I wrote up. Share it if you like. The language is Sindarin (the version of Elvish used in Middle Earth by the Third Age). I challenge any of the “just try harder“ people to get this without help. (I included
A post appeared here a few days ago on how it feels to not understand anything in a grammar class: https://benslavic.com/blog/how-does-it-feel-to-not-understand/ Jim then reminded us of Robert Harrell’s grammar quiz for teachers, which can be given to teachers who teach using the old grammar model of teaching languages. So if you get into one of those
Recently kale has become the food to eat. Food researcher Mike Anderson, in his important book The Rave Diet, has made that claim for over twenty years. He claims that the closer one gets to a diet of pure dark leafy greens, the better one’s health. Recently TPRS has become the way to teach a
This is from a pamphlet by Bev Adcock & Michael L. Remus on disabilities awareness: Make a paper copy for each student of the “German Test” below. Hand out the “German Test.” Discuss how it felt to be given a German test and told to “try harder.” Did that help them do it? How many
My 18 year old son has had a difficult time of it in high school. He is gifted. No doubt, having me as a dad didn’t help him go all bright and bushy tailed about school, hearing me bitch and complain about schools all the time growing up. Now Evan is in an experiential school
Tina wrote this to me in an email this morning about kids who have not been trained from the beginning with TPRS. I find it quite poignant: …poor lil things. Those high school Spanish kids[I taught] broke my heart. They were beyond repair after two-three years of “regular” Spanish. I had to quit [ed. note: Tina
For upper level kids as a fun break. Not intended for input gains, just some fun for kids who have at least a couple of years of language and who want a change in activities. This doesn’t work with large classes of unruly kids, obviously, but if you have a small group of kids who
Chris Stolz looks a lot like a 6’2″ John Lennon, only handsomer. The dude is on a mission and here he shares with us something he recently posted on his blog, the link to which is here: https://tprsquestionsandanswers.wordpress.com/ Salut, prof! I hope all is well in New Smelhi. Your clean Colorado roadie lungs must be
