Since Susan Gross has just left Japan, having apparently had a huge impact there from the emails I have been receiving (will post some here later), we can say that some important work has been done. Think about it. Japan. The ice is cracking on the sea of Japanese foreign language education. The magnificent idea […]

Personalized information gathered from PQA is the lifeblood of comprehensible input. If we don’t have enough personalized information about each kid in the class, which we are gathering now, we will not be able to personalize our stories enough later this year and they will be flat. The Circling with Balls cards are a start

Here is a nice update from Jim Tripp about how his year has been a bit different, how it has evolved for him so far and what he is focusing on: Ok, so it’s not a novel idea, but one that I’m glad I’ve remembered and stuck to this year so far. I am progressing

Yesterday during FVR I noticed that one of my students was reading the fabulous children’s book Brown Bear, Brown Bear (what do you see?). So I decided to read it to the kids right after the FVR session, kind of like on kindergarten day. It was amazing to see them relax and enjoy being read to. I

The beginning of the year information on the resources link of this site (click on workshop handouts) is changing. My concept of how to best start a year to get French 1 kids ready for stories and culture study via comprehensible input, especially, is now different. How?   The first change has already been discussed

 Today I made a connection between stirring pancake batter and circling. Here it is:   When we stir the batter, the lumps go away and the batter is smooth. That is just what we want to do with our repetitive questions when we circle. We want to just keep making circles with the wisk in

Here in Colorado many houses sit on clay foundations and, over the years, lose their stability. Houses built on clay won’t hold up over time out here. The same thing occurs when a child’s second language foundation is made of clay. The pedagogical discussion around this point is simple – what constitutes clay? What is the best

Today on Democracy Now I heard the noted Chilean economist Manfred Max-Neef’s speak in an interview with Amy Goodman. He said: “We have reached a point in our evolution in which we know a lot [but] understand very little. Never in human history has there been such an accumulation of knowledge like in the last

Below is the flyer information from Skip providing the information about my upcoming visit to Maine: The World Language Department at Poland Regional High School will host Ben Slavic, author of TPRS in a Year! and PQA in a Wink! on October 7 & 8, 2010 in Lewiston. This second workship will address ways to reach

I used to think that one of the reasons TPRS was so difficult for me was that I didn’t have the energy for it. It just seemed to require so much effort to get a story going. Surely there must be an easier way to teach! Now I realize that it wasn’t about requiring a

The opening of a story – that PQA – can really drag things into too many details. Especially when I first started doing stories, I remember that I would get caught up in adding too many cute details. It’s just so much fun and we are having success, so we keep adding details until half the class

Anne Matava sent this today: Don’t Drink the Water was ate drank Justin was in Cuba.  His friends had said to him (or warned him),  “Don’t drink the water!  Don’t eat the roadkill!”  But Justin was in Cuba, so of course he drank the water and ate the roadkill.  He turned into a coconut. Then