What goes on in a typical classroom reflects the mental stance of the teacher. If the teacher is uptight, the classroom will be uptight. If the teacher is spontaneous, the classroom will be spontaneous. If the class is heavily planned with all sorts of fragmented/eclectic activities, the classroom will reflect that in the form of […]
Michele went to those 32 hours of OPI training recently and below expands on some of her earlier comments about OPI: Here are some more comparisons between the ACTFL Proficiency Criteria and how TPRS teachers work. At the ACTFL Novice level, students are not yet communicating autonomously. They are able to make lists and speak
Jennifer sent this to add to the word list discussion: Hi Ben, I’m still trying to figure out how to teach in this new bureaucracy I find myself in. But, I’m getting ideas that are starting to gel together. Thank you so much for all the wonderful, thought-filled posts and conversations. Without them, I’d
Make it clear to them that periods of silence, when the class is trying to come up with cute answers to a question, are welcome. Just sit there in that quiet space. It’s o.k. – sometimes everybody needs time to think. If the silence really drags out, do a retell right then. Then watch
Let’s admit that the influence of the people in our buildings who feel that grammar really needs to be taught to the kids in the first year is strong in our classrooms. Kids hear that the next year is all grammar and they get a look in their eyes like, “Are you preparing me for
I got this testimonial from Elissa a few days ago: “…I am LOVING LOVING LOVING my work with kids now that I have found TPRS. OMG this is frickin awesome. And I still feel like I’m at the tip of the iceberg! I’ve learned so much from you and the blog and DVDs. I just feel
Meagan told me an idea for next year. I think it has a lot of potential in immediate and front loaded personalization. You ask the kids to bring in images of their “mascotas” or family pets or any animal that they find important to them. Those critters then become potential drop in characters into stories.
Does anyone know the number of words in the average person’s spoken vocabulary? We in DPS had lunch today and the number 250 came up. Whatever the number is, I know that when we hear it in workshops it is always surprisingly low. I mean, we can and of course will use some words beyond those
Every now and again I have to take comments and make them into blogs so that they can be searched. So sorry if they’re on here twice. Jim’s stuff below about illustrating stories (I asked him to expand on an earlier comment) expands on the original thought of how, mechanically, to get the kids into
