A few weeks ago Christine wrote this. It bears repeating: I really like standards-based grading for the following reasons: (1) it allows students/parents/me/etc. to see what skill the kids gets and doesn’t get–and not just “I’m good at this” or “I suck at this.” (2) Because you have a clearer understanding of a student’s strengths/weaknesses, […]
A few weeks ago we got into a discussion about the standards debate and Jim quoted Krashen. I republish that text here because of its importance: The National Standards Discussion: A Weapon of Mass Distraction Stephen Krashen We are again invited to give our opinions about the content of national standards (http://www.parcconline.org/parcc-content-frameworks). We are not
If you try to use your ipad to read the blog when you’re on the go, it may not work. When you open the website, it usually doesn’t even provide the “member log in” option, which is the little button on the top right corner. This is because the header (the stuff above the navigation
I’m going down to South Carolina for the weekend. I don’t want to bring a computer. So please free to explore any of the 2,194 blog posts and 6,879 comments here. Use the categories or the search function. The search function is more accurate if you know what topic you want to explore. See you next
It occurred to me that if an administrator or, especially, parent of a child who believes, through the parent, that we should be conjugating verbs, then we could do this: We teach using CI for about three weeks and then announce that the next week, about the fourth week or whenever, we will be doing
We are so looked at! All those administrators, instructional coaches, etc. who have nothing better to do than look at us, weigh us, judge us, make us accountable, make us nervous, give us too many tasks, far too many to allow us to do what we went into the profession for, to do the best job we
I thought of something else for when the Circling with Balls loses energy. Go from the facts you are talking about to the topic of love! That will wake them up. Here is a very simple example: Class, Jenna likes to watch TV! (ahhh!) Does Jenna like to watch TV? (yes) (finish circling this naturally) Then
I’m not a big TPR guy but I got an email from a colleague today that is definitely worth sharing if you are in fact doing any TPR to start the year. This description of TPR is excellent and I highly recommend it: We go through my TPR list. I started the first day with
Today I got an email that made me feel real good. Here it is: Hi Ben, You’ve been a lifesaver for me so far this year. By using comprehensible input, and being better with classroom management I feel like a competent teacher for once. Last year was my first year teaching and I used the
There is something more going on when Linda Li teaches than just her genuine expertise at going slowly. There must be, because if the only remarkable quality in Linda’s teaching was SLOW, then it wouldn’t be that great, because robots can be made to do things slowly. What is it in Linda’s teaching that makes
Here are a few things that may help when you do the Circling with Balls activity: 1. When you come to a card in class and you aren’t exactly sure how to say what the kid does, put it aside and, during your next planning period, go to wordreference.com to check on it. It’s o.k.
