Lance Piantaggini below makes a very strong argument on the topic of specifically how to respond to attackers. He elucidates reasons for attackers’ motives, describes their mindsets and finishes by suggesting three talking points – designed to not be directed at any single individual – that are very hard to argue with. This article, which I am […]

This question is from Ros Stannard in Australia. I gave here Betsy Paskvan’s email address in Alaska, and Martha Nojima’s in Japan, but if anyone else has any insights I’m sure they would be welcome. Hi Ben – I am trying to implement TPRS into my Japanese classroom. Do you know of any teachers that

“Whenever the desire for communication precedes the selection of structures, the lesson goes great. Whenever the structures precede the desire for communication, the lesson falls flat.” John Bracey

Some may have missed this post about a month ago. https://benslavic.com/blog/check-this-out-2/ Also, Angie asked me to add this video to our video collection on the hard link above. As I rewatched it, I had the sound off and was struck at the grace of movement and soft artistry/use of arms and hands to support ideas and

We have Bryce’s Dual Entry Form for when we send kids to a colleague. Diane shares a few slightly different forms, but it’s the same idea: Alternative plan – word list Alternative plan Somehow during September we missed a “storm of the century” going on in Diane’s classroom with one student. I am looking to

From Steven: Hi Ben, I’ve noticed in a story you wrote that you use “inversion” to ask questions.  My experience, which is narrow, is that not very many people use inversion when speaking.  Is this because you want to students to become familiar in more academic or formal writing styles? My circling involves adding the

This is from Eric. It ties together stories and interviews: …after the TPRS 3 steps, do the “Special Person” (aka personal interview) of the character(s) from the story….

When interviewing kids we now have six options. I’m posting them here for ease of reference, with a new category for this increasingly popular way of doing CI in our classrooms: Special Chair (Jody) https://benslavic.com/blog/?s=special+chair Persona Especial  (Bryce) http://www.brycehedstrom.com/wp-content/uploads/LA-PERSONA-ESPECIAL-CLASSROOM-POSTER-Other-Questions.pdf Star of the Week (Sabrina) https://benslavic.com/blog/category/star-of-the-week/ (multiple articles) House Interview (Angie) https://benslavic.com/blog/category/house-interview/ Pets Interview (Robert) https://benslavic.com/blog/pet-interviews/ Dream Job (Diane) – suggested for upper

Robert adds another interview topic to our list of interview activities. This time it’s pets. Of course, this may be an activity we all do, but it needs to be categorized for reference. So thank you Robert for this description, offered here first back in 2015 : Students were divided into three groups. Each group

Lance has given this update with some changes by Sabrina on Star of the Week. I like how simple it is: There are notable changes Sabrina has made that everyone should be aware of before adapting this year-long activity to suit their own style, and community. Sabrina’s process: – Create spreadsheet with the questions, and the response/statement frames.

This site can be confusing for newer people. To address that, I suggest the following: I assume that you already accept the TPRS/CI methodology so the numerous articles here on that topic are not what a new person would probably want to read. Rather, the benefits in these pages for new people lie in the

A cool thing happened today when I was asking how an actor (in the tent story) felt in reaction to being scared by a ghost, and how the ghost felt. All the kids’ eyes shot up to the list of answers to greetings over the board. This list was created first by Sabrina and was