Anne Matava told me recently that my explanation of the Invisibles this past summer at the Maine workshop made a difference in her understanding of how they work in the classroom. She had read the book A Natural Approach to Stories (Teacher’s Discovery) but not fully understood it until I modeled it in a one […]
Here is an interesting story about how languages came about for those who, like me, were unfamiliar about it: https://www.reference.com/education/tall-tower-babel-df80ca73c0db46b2?aq=tower+of+babel+story#
When a class gets snarky, we bail on them. In thus reacting and not ignoring their rude or even slightly rude behavior, they notice. Most teachers go on teaching. Each time they do this, it makes another line in their face. We must learn a new behavior in our teaching – we must learn to
Here is a long response to a short question from Keri in Connecticut about the Invisibles that she asked way back in May of 2016: “My problem with the Invisibles is in coming up with “the problem” for the character. I know, the kids should be coming up with one, but if they don’t? If
Oddly, another teacher besides Greg expressed a very similar situation to his today as well. Responses and ideas are welcome from all to both Greg and Carly, who’s been a member of our group for many years. Here is the (rather lengthy) discussion so far with Carly: Hi Ben, I’ve been mostly lurking and only
Here are two effective reading options that you might want to use when you start reading with your classes: Choral Translation: Use a laser pointer or put your hand on the projected words as the students read through the text in L1 with loud voices. The Reader Leader guides the class along with a strong
Jim Tripp recently wrote a tour de force list of what NT can mean. Non-targeted input can mean: (1) going in without a plan and winging it. (2) putting the message before the language. (3) keeping input comprehensible by sheltering, not targeting. (4) massed reps over time versus input flood. (5) in assessment, recognizing that
These Classroom Rules have been used since 2004, but there are far less of them now than before. This is the current version. These six rules can be said to actively and strongly support non-targeted comprehensible input based instruction and in particular the One Word Image process and the Invisibles story creation process. Classroom management
The lists below were published as an appendix – but only in English – by Teacher’s Discovery although I included it in 3 languages in the final draft for them (below). So what is below could help people who are using the book on the Invisibles – A Natural Approach to Stories. It I have
I envisage for this internet space a closed community of teaching professionals who are willing to explore their feelings and fears in this work at a deeper level via honesty with each other when real things happen, good and bad, in our buildings. The real thrust of this consciously stated new direction for our PLC is a
We must know when to lovingly confront administrators and when not to. It’s the only way. Not only do we have to teach our classes and all the other things we do in our buildings, we have to re-educate not just our students but also the people we work for. And to do that we need
Administrators play a big role in our job security, and yet they come and go in and out of our buildings with such frequency, sometimes yearly or even less, that no sooner does one leave than another arrives. Then we have to put the dog-and-pony show on again for the new one, and stuff our real feelings
