Revisiting The Realm
Those who remember the heyday of the Realm in TPRS can recall the great excitement around the idea of building an entire year of stories around certain medieval/gang/whatever characters, as the class chose. I think I have finally figured out
ACTFL Announces New Position Statements
Susanna Kesterson thank you for sending me this which I share here with all of us: ACTFL Announces New Position Statements Source: FLTEACH The ACTFL Board of Directors recently approved the following position statements: * Use of the Target Language in the Classroom (http://www.actfl.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=5151
The Unconscious Mind Is Wonderfully Set Up
When you assess a kid on whether he knows certain discrete facts about the language, you kill his interest in it. The tragedy is that his mind already possesses wiring (that we often do not acknowledge) that is easily capable of acquiring the language,
Jim Tripp On Planning
This is from Jim on planning our CI lessons: I do a lot of my backward planning from songs. Of course, this isn't always the most efficient form of planning (yet), because songs contain an array of high frequency structures and
The Flailingly Prepared Teacher
Teachers who work hard don't necessarily reach their kids. That may be true in other lines of work, but this language game is not about working hard. If it were, parents who aggressively teach their small children language would have
How do I know I'm Getting Better at ________ (fill in the language)?
Jody sent this for us a few days ago: Warren Ediger, creator of the website, Successful English, wrote an interesting article this week about "How do I know if my language ability is improving?". I am very interested in this topic
It Can Be Done
Maybe we became teachers because we like to be in control. But there is a problem with that. Real conversation between people, the good stuff, cannot be controlled. In a good discussion, no one voice dominates. Good talk is a dance among
It May Be The Only Time Of Day
I don't know if anyone else has had this experience during CI: You build an image with the kids, for whatever reason (story, PQA. or just to build a little one word image for fun), and pretty soon this kind of
Le Tiers État En Marche
I got a nice letter from a parent today - it was cc'd to other people in the building. We should all get such letters at the end of each school year! - "I would like to personally thank you for
OPI Discussion Continues
Michele send me this as an email. My responses are in italics: M - Kids don't usually get the OPI interviews. But the interviews themselves really can tell people about how they are progressing. My problem situation wasn't about a hole