Grant has given us a fourth concrete way to deal with recalcitrant/non-listening kids. Here are the other three that, at least in my mind, are Bad Boys #1, #2 and #3: 1. The Classroom Rules (happens very often, every day, in the first two or three weeks and then rarely, if you did it right […]

Catharina wrote this over on the Forum today. The ideas she mentions are directed toward elementary TPRS teachers, but pertain to all levels: When teaching the very young I have found it essential not to go out of bounds. Every word is a foreign sound. Even yes and no in the target language confuses some

Eric wrote this over on the Forum. It nicely covers the targeted vs. non-targeted discussion and introduces a term we should all know, – “fluency development strand”. So your homework is to read this article and get command of those terms if you don’t already. There is a category on “Non-targeted” if you want to

There has been some discussion lately about a certain group of verbs that we need to put front and center in all the CI we present to our students in the first few months of the year – the Super Seven. The information about what those verbs are has not been clear, however, until Angie

Here is a cool report from Katie: Hi Ben, I spent the summer studying your site and reading the Stepping Stones book, trying to learn more about CI. I haven’t taken any classes yet, but I’m going to a Blaine Ray conference next month.  I waffled until the first day of school about whether I

Today is October 1st, the date I have scheduled to cancel all temporary non-paying memberships to the PLC. Doing that is only fair to the teachers who are paying the $4.95 per month (the price of a cup of coffee each month) for PLC access. If you find the content here useful and want to continue

PLC members are welcome to borrow any or all of this extremely professionally written letter home when kids don’t quite grasp the sit up and pay attention part of how we run our classrooms. It’s from Grant Boulanger. And you are welcome to do some early Christmas shopping from Grant’s pottery business. You should have seen Carol Gaab in Chicago

“Hello… Mrs. Whatever? Yes, It’s Braden’s French teacher, Mr. Slavic. Listen, I’m calling from my French class and Braden is here with the other students and he is having some difficulty with his behavior…what?… oh yes, right now in class! I don’t like to put things off and your son is really having a hard time understanding

1. Skip points out: “The food order is due October 3 so I would encourage folks to get their registration in as soon as possible.” 2. Skip has asked Anne Matava to do the beginning workshops this year so how cool is that? It’s another reason to get registered here: http://tcimainenewenglandandbeyond.weebly.com/ The Maine Conference is

wants to go to the bathroom does not return looks for Sally is a student in (your school). She’s in art class. Sally has a problem. She wants to go to the bathroom. She asks her teacher Mr. Brown, “May I go to the bathroom?” Mr. Brown says, “No!” Five minutes later, Jill wants to go to the bathroom.

This question from Eric reflects the recent thread on the supreme role of the unconscious mind in learning a language. He asks a specific question, so if you have an answer please write it in a comment field below. Here is the question: Ben, I’d love to have this posted and asked to the group:

Those at the Denver and Chicago conferences this past summer may have met some members of the contingent of teachers in the Turkish military who were here to train in comprehensible input methods. Here is Yasar Kurum’s report: Ben, we have started applying our program at last. We are a group of 7 teachers. I