Got this. This is not the only such email I’ve gotten lately. Something is happening: Ben – Just wanted to let you know that, after dabbling in comprehensible input instruction for years, my school has decided to do away with it entirely. I can understand the decision – our admins spent a lot of money […]

Questioning Level 2 – Who As stated earlier, when you use the star curriculum, everything is based on creating images. In this first sample (Category A) journey around the star, your image will come from one of the students’ cards that you see in front of you. How does this process, called Card Talk, work?

Questioning Level 1 – The Town Meeting We start each class with a town meeting. Go quickly around the room and inquire in English about what is going on with your students that day. You probably already do this. We can’t just barrel our way into stories – it spikes affective filters. This light discussion

In ordinary times, some 16% percent of public school students nationally are chronically absent, with higher rates among high school, black and Hispanic students, according to the U.S. Education Department. Now, with online school, it is up to 80% in some schools. And it would be difficult to measure, but I would suggest that we

There are still spaces in the upcoming Invisibles training on Zoom. See this link:

So much is going to change in our profession as a result of Covid-19! We will move more and more to using the internet, as schools go in that direction in general. Physically showing up for class will not happen very often, and eventually not at all, and that will reveal one of the biggest

Now let’s take a look at how Category A works, where in the Create phase we make a character from a student’s card in the Card Talk activity and then take it around the star to a completed journey. Category A – Creating a Tableau from a Student Card Category A/Sample Journey 1 – Henry

The Categories There are six categories of drawings of Invisibles – Categories A-F: Category A – Creating a Tableau from a Card Category B – Creating a Tableau from an Individually Created Image Category C – Creating a Tableau from a One Word Image Category D – Creating a Story from a Card Category E

You may want to consider joining our Zoom training group on the Invisibles. It’s a way to be able to meet the challenges that the coronavirus has brought to us and therefore a good way for you to keep your job over the massive changes of the coming years in our profession. Let me know

I am astounded by the implications that the coronavirus is bringing not just to our profession but to society in general. Of course, I am only qualified to speak about our profession, but I do feel that for every bad thing that happens in the world, 99 good things will also happen. They will just

How Does it Work? We take journeys around the star. The basic pattern for each journey is the same: Step 1: Start in the Create Phase (12:00 on the star). Here you create an image. Step 2: The Review Phase (2:00 on the star). Here you review the image. Step 3: The Write Phase (5:00

This is a repost from 2014. I ask the language community: “Who is going to orchestrate the obvious changes needed in ELA to get them up to speed with the research?” Someone has to do that. The chasm between WL and ELA pedagogy needs to be bridged: We have 2000 ELA instructors in Denver Public