Imagine a wire mesh on top of an empty container. We try to fill the container with words. But not all the words get through the mesh. We can’t stuff them in through the mesh. It is a natural process. All we can do is keep speaking the language, and some of the words natural […]
CI is a very simple thing, but it requires that the teacher completely shift their teaching to appeal to the unconscious minds of the students. This is a big shift and not easy for the teacher who still thinks that their students can reason their way to mastery of a language. To our credit, we in this
We must be aware of the invisible though vital web of connectedness that exists between our students. Of course there is the entire web which includes us as teachers, but there is also a web between the kids themselves. It is a web that potentially houses mistrust or positive relationships between the individuals in the
Here is something from Melissa to use for CI at upper levels: …I just ran across an article that listed some crazy pet laws in different states. I thought this might be interesting in some of the crazy stories….
I have asked Judy to send us news of the second annual Agen conference in France this summer. Here is her first report: Hey Ben – Sabrina Sebban-Janczak has agreed to run a special three day French language workshop in Agen just before our TPRS workshop. So the French teachers can get some intensive Comprehensible
I’m not going to get into details here, but one of our group has been axed for next year. The (most excellent) TPRS/CI based program he started was eliminated. Here is a paragraph from the people with the axes, justifying their move. Below it are two emailed responses from other colleagues, also members of our
Leah could use some input from us on the following: Ben, I am a member of your forum. I would like to present on “CI and TPRS” this fall at the Pennsylvania State Modern Language Association State Conference, at which I will present an hour long workshop to other language educators. I am writing to
We are lucky to have an article and videos by one of our own PLC members and one of the five finalists in 2014 for ACTFL’s National Teacher of the Year – Dr. Robert Patrick in Atlanta, Georgia. The article and video clips appeared this week in the newsletter of the Classical Association of New
Ray sent this in: Ben, I came across this NPR news story about the death of the last person to speak the Klallam language from birth. To preserve the language, they are teaching it through storytelling! http://www.npr.org/2014/02/07/272930401/last-native-klallam-speaker-dies-in-washington-state-at-103 Ray
One of our new members, Polly Fuller, has a question about Free Writes. I think it would help a lot of the newer teachers to be able to read some comments from experienced teachers on this excellent winter activity, when we just don’t feel like teaching and want our students to just be quiet for
[ed. note: I will republish some articles from 2008 and 2009 on flow since they fit in with recent articles. They discuss a concept that is most important to our success in our CI classrooms – flow.] We ask questions. We do not know what the answers will be. One of the answers feels right
I wanted to comment on what skip said this morning in a comment but I got that annoying security rule, so here it is as a post: Skip said: …I have been reminded a couple of times recently how common it is to try to use CI to TEACH the language – vocab, present tense,
