Another one from the labyrinthe (January of 2009): Students don’t want to ponder over the structure of language, they want to know what it means. The structure of language is no more interesting to them than the bowl that holds the ice cream is interesting to the enjoyer of desserts. The kids can’t eat the […]

I believe that elves and magical fairylands are real, but forgotten by us, memories of things from a distant past. Our kids are closer to those memories than we are – especially middle schoolers and the younger ones. Don’t they suggest cute answers like unicorns and elves and things like that almost every day? I used

I teach in situations where I must apply TPRS within the parameters I am given (or else I find another job). I truly admire the main intent of the blog which is mostly for teachers on the secondary level who pretty much have free reign to totally implement TPRS as they see fit. [Ed. note

The blog posts are too long. I will do my best to cut them down a bit. Let’s all try to edit what we want to say, especially if you send it to me for publication as a post vs. a comment, to make the text as short as possible. Also please indicate your permission for

Somebody about two weeks ago asked about upper levels and TPRS. Carol had sent me this link in March, which I just found, and so I’ll post it here and thanks Carol: http://www.tprstories.com/ntprs/2008/handouts/half-day-upper-levels-presentation.ppt#1

David said: I am proposing the following categories for your blog. These are areas in which I have a huge interest. I will explain also my rationale for proposing these categories. [ed. note – text edited with permission of author for length] 1) ESL This is the number one concern of mine….A lot more ESL

David said: I assume that Comprehensible Input pretty much sums up the theme of the blog. At some point there needs to be some parameters, I assume, so that it does not stray off to far from the main intent of the blog. My response: This has been much discussed. I am OK with the

David Young sent an email to me raising a few points that will be discussed in the next few blog posts here: David’s Point #1: Maybe you could talk about procedures a bit. First, if a person has something to post which does not seem to fit anything listed under “Categories” what should we do?

I just found four comments in my spam folder, which I don’t visit very often. They were all blocked because they contained links to certain other sites. This happened, for example, with a recent comment by Nathan – reproduced below – which happened to contain a link to the ACTFL standards. So if you see that a

Then Diana Noonan was visiting one day and I asked her what a lesson plan for a reading class based on comprehension methods would look like. Like Paul, she tossed what is below off the top of her head for another formal observation I had scheduled for that week. I am very grateful to Paul and Diana

Paul Kirschling from Thomas Jefferson High School was visiting my room last year in the fall and I asked him how he would design a lesson plan for a formal observation of a story the next day. He came up with the following simple and streamlined plan in just a few minutes. We have such treasures

Some of us, not all, will need something to give to administrators each week next fall. If we had a lesson plan bank here as a category it might prove useful. Amazingly, I found a blog entry in the labyrinthe of unpublished stuff from 2008 which mirrors what I am doing now. It was very