We welcome Erin to the discussion and thank you for the bio, Erin: Ben, I joined your group a couple weeks ago, and I wanted to introduce myself and let you know what a fantastic resource it has been. I am currently in my fourth year of teaching middle and high school Spanish in a […]
Here is a repost of an article from 2009. I was reading some of Michael Fullan’s work and saw in it support of what we are going though in TPRS/CI. I am hearing from Fullan that: 1. Shared leadership is essential. This means, to me, no camps and no secrecy. Open and honest dialogue about teaching, and
Diane Neubauer wrote this here yesterday: I just attended a one-day conference with Helena Curtain as the speaker. She talked about the 90%+ guideline, why, and how to get through challenges to using the target language that much. She used the term comprehensible input and made strong compliments to what she called “old” TPRS, with
Highly recommended: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/watch-teacher-infiltrates-alec-education-meeting-confronts-members
I have made some changes to what I want jGR to be for me. If you don’t like the changes, just use the November version. This is the December version. The sentences I changed are in blue. INTERPERSONAL SKILLS RUBRIC (used in daily assessment: 30% of grade) 5 ALL SKILLS IN 4, PLUS NON-FORCED EMERGING
I hosted a DPS Learning Lab today and made a handout for the teachers to refer to during the observation. Here it is below in case anyone is interested. It’s basically the stuff I want to get done and not forget to do. In the class I tried to cram in all three steps in
This is from skip, who welcomes feedback: In an attempt to further the “how do humans acquire second languages” discussion I would like to make the following statements: 1. Oral proficiency is produced by repetitive comprehensible input – by understanding messages. 2. Writers are produced by receiving comprehensible input vía reading… Research has shown that
A question from Melissa: Hi Ben, My principal just sent out an email asking for samples of our “study guides” for assessments when an individualized education plan or 504 plan requires it for the students. How do you handle this when you want to give a quiz on the fly? If a study guide is
A question from Jen for the group. It’s about the parent re-education thing: Ben, This email, unlike my others, will be short. I’m just so damn tired. I had to make a call to a parent who mentioned he’s on the BOE because he contacted a guidance counselor to discuss his daughter’s grades. My class
This is the position of ACTFL on learning classical languages (ACTFL Position Statement of 7/30/12): …communication for a classical language refers to an emphasis on reading ability…. Here is the link: http://www.actfl.org/news/position-statements/use-the-target-language-the-classroom John Piazza, a teacher of Latin in San Francisco, responded to it with this: …as for the exemption, it’s the same as
These articles by our own Robert Patrick and John Piazza fit in with the current thread started by David. I think that they are important for us to read, in case we get into discussion with any colleagues who don’t fully get the atomic bomb aspect of what is happening in the Latin community right now. Let’s not
David sent this question: Hi all, I’ve been trying hard this year to not force production with the kids, and with great results. I feel for the first time, that taking out the forced production piece has lowered the affective filter, given kids the ability to better process what they are hearing and reading, gave
