Another gem from Krashen’s Foreign Language Education – The Easy Way: ,,,there is good evidence that “rival hypotheses”, other hypotheses concerning the development of language and literacy, are not correct. The “instruction hypothesis” claims that we acquire by first learning rules and vocabulary items consciously, and then “practicing” them until they become “automatic”. There are […]
Recently, there was a discussion here on homework and Alfie Kohn. As I do with comments that we don’t want to lose access to, I am making Robert Harrell’s comment in that discussion into a blog post below [underlining mine], so that when we click on “homework” in the categories list, this will come up (along with
I was having dinner with the head of the math department at an Ivy League school last night. He mentioned that this past academic year in his school the faculty, in spite of his own protestations, had had a contentious set of meetings in which the foreign language requirement of two years was dropped. I
I found this email from Jim Tripp in the 2009 labyrinthe: Ben, I’m reading Alfie Kohn’s book “Punished by Rewards” right now, and I just finished reading something that has left me unsure about the current Fred Jones craze that is sweeping some people off of their feet. Perhaps it is the most effective practice that
In case you missed it, this appeared in a Yahoo! News article this morning: “Award-winning gains by Atlanta students were based on widespread cheating by 178 named teachers and principals, said Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal on Tuesday. His office released a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that names 178 teachers and principals –
I may have at least a basic plan for bringing Robert’s assessment ideas into my classroom in the fall. It might do to start some discussion: Twice each grading period – once in the middle and once at the end, I would give about thirty minutes of self-reflection writing time in class. This is in line with
What Skip said in a recent comment here prompted these thoughts on starting the year: We personalize our classroom to start the year. What does that mean? In my view, it means putting the kid in front of the instruction. Comprehensible input without the personalization piece is not nearly as effective as personalized comprehensible input.
We really need to cool it on the greetings at the beginning of the year. They are not so easy to learn, nor are their responses. In fact, they confuse the hell out of the kids. Here are two links supporting that idea: https://benslavic.com/blog/2010/08/12/you-lost-me-at-how-are-you/ https://benslavic.com/blog/2009/07/24/3647/
The following blog post was written in 2008. I don’t know if I still agree with it. Maybe I should make more of an effort next year to teach those first 100 words, as Diana suggests we do in our DPS TCI group. I present some of them, but not all, in the form of word lists. Here’s what
Kate’s post talks about the key role of formative assessment. Here is something from Michele to back that up: Ben, Kristy Placido posted an article on her page under the “Assessment” heading. Its writers demonstrate a real understanding of teachers, students and schools. There are many great quotes that I’m putting on my blog, but you’ll
I got a couple of emails this morning, one from Kate and one from Michele. I think both are very important in our ongoing discussion about assessment. I had said about three weeks ago that I no longer use the participation self evaluation rubrics (resources page of this site under posters) because some of the
Again, with Dr. Krashen’s permission, I am posting selected passages from Foreign Language Education, The Easy Way (out of print). This is the second such installment here, and it describes more theory about comprehensible input and the process of acquisition of a language: …given enough comprehensible input, structures students are “ready” to acquire are invariably present
