Teaching a language without using comprehensible input is insulting to the magnificence of the human brain, which can process and decode and implement thousands of rules of language without even needing to use its conscious side – it’s all automatic. All that the brain needs to acquire a language is to hear the language spoken […]

jGR works better for me with Three and Done. I know that it is my own way of holding kids accountable, and I certainly don’t want to say it is the best way, although I am very happy with how it works. I did mention Three and Done before here (links below), and my appreciation of how

This term – or something like it (countdown?) – was recently used here, but I can’t find the comments. Is that the same as wait time? I’m trying to get clarification on this term, which I haven’t heard before. Laurie was in on that discussion, I do remember that. She was talking about the period

Reading through the comments sometimes reveals keys to problems that we don’t even know we have. For example, in talking about reading, Dave said this yesterday: …I personally keep [choral reading] to under 10% of our total reading/translating. I think that, especially for slower language processors, it can interfere with them negotiating meaning by turning

One of the bread and butter moves we use in Read and Discuss is the choral reading part. I understand from Jody and others that choral reading is a big player in a reading class. I understand that when we merely read a text to a kid, it is a lot less effective than when

This post was written last May. It reveals my frustration with rude kids. I thought of going to a “Consequences Chart.” But Bob Patrick rightly talked me out of it, for those who remember that. But, now reading this again from last May, I can see how it prefigured jGR: The group decision to embrace the

My response comment to Ben Lev about jGR and quiet kids is something I want to post here as an article. Just about anything about jGR these days is important to put into the jGR category, since this bad boy keeps changing every day. By the way, my boss Diana Noonan who is the Coordinator of

Don’t forget that if anyone wants a comment made into an article for ease of reference via the categories just send me an email and I will make that happen. It is important for us to be able to access stuff here easily. The search function brings up too much information, so that the categories

The jobs piece does SO MUCH for developing a relaxed and honestly human energy in the classroom. It is a second unexpectedly exploding star next to the jGR Interpersonal Skills Assessment star that exploded here about five weeks ago and keeps expanding to everyone’s benefit. Two quick examples of how the jobs bring a certain

Some claim that this way of teaching requires more energy, but the worst kind of job to have is when the energy is blocked. So I would rather have energy flowing through me as it does when the CI is flowing than be doing some worksheet for the fifth time that day. Moreover, when the

Kate sends us her bio. She is part of that awesome group of leaders up in Maine: Hi Ben et al, My name is Kate Legere and I teach French to grades 3-12 at Islesboro Central School.  Islesboro is a small, non-bridged island in Maine.  I’ve been teaching 18 years in 4 different districts in

Hey Everyone! I am going to be teaching in Costa Rica this winter in a semester program for students in grades 10-12: www.Cirenas.org There are still some spots available, and scholarships, too! It is a really exciting program– set on a 5,000 acre ranch on the Pacific! Plus, the Spanish program is 100% CI! If