I got this from an AP French teacher a few days ago: Hi, Ben, My students took their French AP yesterday afternoon.  Have you heard from anyone else?   Their proctor, someone I’ve had conflict over yearbook with over the years, screwed up the conversational speaking part. He was interrupting and talking to students during the […]

I think Movie Talk is going to be a big hitter for us next year. Some have been testing it out this spring. We would do well to get it going at a higher level next year. I think those going to iFLT have put it on the agenda. Accordingly, here is a very encouraging article from chill

I am always beating the drum about unconscious acquisition. It is the gorilla in the room that few, even those who have been studying Krashen for years, don’t seem to want to own. For them the world might indeed be round, but maybe it’s flat too. Bob sent more ammo for the point that if

Judy has a question for the group: Dear Ben, I thought maybe some members of the group could give me some suggestions.  One of my private students is a 14 year old Romanian boy who begged his mother for private lessons because he was bored to tears in school and feared he was losing his

The idea of needing thousands of reps and not hundreds for acquisition is Sabrina’s. She brought it up about a week ago in a comment, for those who remember. It’s not a complex idea. Sabrina simply said that, in her own experience, she feels as if her students need from 2000 to 7000 reps to

Robert has offered some sterling advice on how to deal with administrators: 1. Have  a checklist hanging by the door telling all visitors how exactly to observe your comprehensible input classroom. Ask the evaluator(s) to take one the moment they walk into the room. It guides their observation – unless they have a state-mandated checklist they must

TPRS  Workshop in France With: Teri Wiechart, Lynnette St. George, Alike Last, Judith Dubois For both beginners and experienced users of TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling)  When? August 6th – August 10th, 2013 Morning sessions 9:00 am – 12:00 am Afternoon sessions 2:30 pm – 5:30 pm Why? Teachers of English as a

Kids don’t really want to watch a video when they clamor for one in the most unpleasant way to start class. They just don’t want to embrace the rigor we are about to offer them for the next fifty minutes. There has been so much written here and elsewhere about teaching culture. I have made

David has shared a video. I really appreciate the thorough explanation of what is going on, his self reflection, and the general way he presents it, which could serve as a model for all of us if and when we choose to share our own work with others here. Thank you David! Hi all, I

Oddly, we have assumed that if we give our students enough CI, they will learn the language. And, while CI is definitely the only way that a human being can learn a language, with no apologies to those who many cling to another point of view, because you’re wrong, we haven’t yet taken a close

This is new information about CWB and OWI as of May, 2013. It discusses the importance of simplicity in the first few weeks of any school year. I will post this now and also in August. Those of us can keep this in mind when we work together in the afternoon coaching sessions in San

As we reach the end of another year, some of us crawling but and some of us running comfortably, I think about what lies below our daily struggles to learn this method. And all I can think of is peace. Peace among nations. Our country is great and beautiful and strong. But in other lands, other