This letter is from Nathaniel Hardt. It is a brilliant response to the letter he received from a parent (in italics): Good morning, Mr. Hardt, My son Gordon is in your Spanish I class. Yesterday, he came home and informed us that he had a pop quiz in class and didn’t think he did well.

Relative to previous discussion on contacting parents when students’ grades are being affected by their absolute inability to exhibit observable non-verbal behavior as per the ISR rubric, here is the first of two sample letters, this one by Grant Boulanger: Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jones: I’d like to check in regarding Troy’s performance in Spanish

This is a repost from May 5, 2015. Jennifer reports: Hey Ben – The impetus for me writing now is from a student questionnaire. I used Anne Matava’s questionnaires yesterday and got a wrenching response from a student. Just a bit of background…as you know context is everything. I’m doing a super short session with

The point about being happy – everyone in the classroom being happy – is at the crux of our discussion, or should be. For many in the CI world, it isn’t. The work has been too much focused on student gains and how the teacher can focus on their own skills and wonderfulness to bring

So many of us involved in language education want to mold our classes based on how much is learned and grades. But we must protect our ourselves and our students from such thinking. Let’s not go down that worn out 20th century road. If we continue to teach our students without a feeling of love

I feel that in some ways there are teachers who have an effect on children that can only be described as evil. It is because when they design a curriculum that only favors the fast processors, they are making the slower processors feel less than they are. That is evil. We need to call out

There is a another quote from Fred Rogers that I consider of immense importance when thinking about what a language curriculum should look like: Rogers said, “I don’t think that anybody can grow unless they are accepted exactly as they are.” By putting the focus on the child, Rogers puts the focus on what is

Fred Rogers has said that “…love is at the heart of all learning…”. If the statement is true, and I feel that many teachers who are attracted to comprehensible input language instruction feel that it is, then why shouldn’t a learning curriculum be based on it? It is the position taken in this training program

A follow-up to points made in the previous post: 1. The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis: Conscious learning about a language, including memorizing and learning and manipulating grammar paradigms, is a separate process in the brain than unconsciously acquiring a language. In order to build long-lasting proficiency, where using the language to communicate (take in and produce meaningful,

It’s been over a year since Teacher’s Discovery found out about what we’ve known for over ten years: the greatness of Anne’s scripts, so I wish to take this opportunity to recommend it to anyone new to the PLC or experienced teachers who want some extra ammo for the winter wars: 97 Story Scripts By

Anne sent us this great link for French teachers: