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.
Dear Ben, I have a question that maybe you or some others on the blog might be able to answer. I am required to give 10 daily grades and three test grades per six weeks. We have been in school two weeks, and I’ve given a few end of class quizzes. But, when doing circling
So we know from the first blog post in this series on norming the class that the first day Big Circle, indeed the first few days of class, ferretts out friends who try to sit together, and then we, as soon as we see that, act on it. By the way, these logistical things that
Norming the Class 4 – We Send Strong Messages About Discipline Via Our Seating Charts Read More »
Since Bryce is the expert at the upper levels, I am bugging him to get some information to us about teaching CI in those third, fourth year and AP classes. But there is one thing that may work when doing PQA with upper levels. It’s very weird but I think has potential. I just haven’t had
I haven’t tried One Word Images this early, here at the end of the first week of instruction, but it works, with the qualification that the kids can’t handle more than the first three questions on the prompt list, maybe about ten minutes of circling. So, just to share with those who might be doing Circling
The biggest drawback to being so nice to the kids (we have to in order for comprehensible input to work) is that we are setting ourselves up to be used by kids who lack empathy. This is a serious problem that, to my knowledge, has not yet been addressed in TPRS circles. What happens is
Norming the Class 3 – Emotional Barometer Students Read More »
Bryce told me he has been working on the problem of a lack of stuff for upper levels lately. He is one of the few upper level experts we have in TPRS – he has used TPRS to teach levels 3, 4 and AP Spanish – with stellar results. I will ask him to share some of what
A few more questions from Laura. I would ask others to respond as well: Hi Ben, Thank you for answering and posting my questions about participation and circling. I have two more: 1. I re-read a post of yours back from February 22 in which you had changed your rules. In particular: “Use notebooks to
There is a huge yet largely undiscussed problem in the first month of the year with TPRS. It is that we open up our hearts to the kids in the personalization process in the first two weeks of class, since everything we do is to guarantee that they understand us and trust us, and we give them easy quizzes
Norming the Class 2 – Addressing Absenteeism Before It Happens Read More »
I felt like reposting this from last year. I think it is important as we begin the year: https://benslavic.com/blog/2011/03/31/then-god-bless-you/
