Hello Ben, This note has been on my mind to write for many weeks. I wish to reach out to anyone who is not feeling appreciated where he/she now is teaching. I would like to suggest that they consider transplanting themselves to Carroll County, Tennessee. Next year, there will be two different school districts where […]
Right about now many of us are getting into stories. We’ve normed our classroom for behavior and rules and we’ve done a lot of personalizing via CWB, the questionnaire, etc. When we get our first story under our belts, we naturally have to include Step 3 – Reading. I personally would first rather teach my
I am suggesting a possible template for this reading of authentic texts, subject to change and approval from the group. It’s a first attempt to make this discussion useful in the hands on way for us in our classrooms: 1. Find a text that is compelling. It could be, probably should be, part of instead
It is great to hear from Greg Stout. It wasn’t so long ago last spring when he was standing in a chaotic classroom in Charlotte staring out of his classroom window à la Grand Meaulnes knowing that soon he would never have to teach that class again. Now he is in France working at his craft
So James we had that discussion a few weeks ago about reading authentic texts and some here (you and Sabrina and a few others) expressed an interest in knowing how my level 3’s were going to do with Le Petit Prince after only two years and a few months of TPRS/CI. You had said that
I want to bring up Scott’s video again. It is an important video because it represents, in my view, a stage in our development as comprehension teachers that we all must go through, and that is moving from working so hard on technique to relaxed teaching and “just being there” with the students. That is
This quote from Berty Segal, who invented the questioning process before PQA even existed, is another way to say that learning a language is an unconscious process (Krashen). It was commented on here by PLC member Nathanial Hardt. I turned his comment into an article for ease of reference under the Unconscious category here. The
Scott Grapin, a colleague of Liam in NJ, shows how easy it is to post video here for each other to learn from. I’m sure he will welcome input from the group. Here is his email to me: Hi Ben, It was around this time last year when I sent you a demo video, and
From Grant Boulanger: Ben, Here’s an interesting article. This guy is a friend of a friend and RIGHTLY attacks the grammar-centric curriculum. He is an ally in that regard. However, he suggests appropriating from the language immersion model the idea of content as driving the curriculum. Teach them age appropriate stuff about math in French
Hey everybody go to the Tutorials hard link and click on “How to Change Your Forum Password”. Sean Lawler did that. Badass. Thank you Shawn!
Our relatively new PLC member Erica McCurry reports from the field about a change she is contemplating to work with CI and younger kids – she currently teaches high school. Here is Erica’s report: Ben, Good news! I have a very supportive principal who asked my opinion on schedule (our superintendent put pressure on all
Daniel Navar sent this link: http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/21-things-that-will-become-obsolete-in-education-by-2020-474.php He commented: The technocrats think that “Language acquisition is only a smartphone away.” What BS.
