I paraphrased a comment Alisa made today on SEL: There is a national educational ‘trend’ right now – lots of public schools are talking about SEL (Social Emotional Learning) this year. It’s their initiative du jour. SEL means creating a positive, trusting, low-anxiety learning and playing environment. I will intentionally seek hope with this new […]
Elena Overvold, a high school teacher in Portland who uses the Invisibles, has said this: …just add a few characteristics at a time—maybe 1 or 2 or 3. No need to get a ton of details. I saw a one-word demo in Korean. We added very few details but the presenter went slowly and… it
I got this from Jake. It’s a fairly tense situation. Below I suggest one option for him. I had sent him this reminder about his right as a teacher (see the article here from about a week ago about A Teacher’s Bill of Rights) that he has the “right not to be responsible for others’ behavior, actions,
Why are One Word Images so engaging? One reason is that they are based on group creativity. Another is that the students understand everything—we have spoken sufficiently slowly about a simple topic that was built together from one word in English. A third reason that One Word Images are so engaging is that there is
This is from Ben Lev – Hi again Ben – Please help me think about the 100 min block: 1) attendance and check in – 5′ 2) daily routine, poem, singing, warm ups, movement – 30’ – 40’ 3) vocab and grammar direct instruction 20 ‘ What should I call this? Textbook time? 4) break
If our rate of speech is painfully slow to us, then it is at the right speed for our students. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. If we feel comfortable with how fast we are talking, then it is painful for our students. There can be two to four seconds of silence between each short
At first the One Word Image is amorphous and undefined. All we know is that somewhere in this space in front of the room, a cat or a car or a slice of pizza exists. The fun is in learning its particular details. The students will bring the object to life by responding to a
At first the One Word Image is amorphous and undefined. All we know is that somewhere in this space in front of the room, a corn dog or a chicken or a star sh exists. The fun is in learning its particular details. The students will bring the object to life by responding to a
Once we have used L1 to decide what we want to build, it is time to use only L2. We bring the object to life in the target language. The first step in bringing the object to life is to say the word for the object, which we have written on the board in L1
I am concerned that the term “One Word Image” is being redefined, on other CI sites and at workshops. This eight-part series from A Natural Approach to Stories defines the term in the way I originally intended: We can begin to collect compelling portraits via a shared classroom strategy called One Word Images. The class
It’s a good idea to revisit the research from time to time. lest we forget our guiding star and go off in the wrong direction. The two articles below summarize the best research I’ve personally ever read, after a lifetime of snooping around, although I will give Lev Vygotsky some major props in influencing my
