We have four major ways of neutralizing defiant kids: Circling with Balls – by engaging the child first in discussion about him or her, the child cannot act out because they are the focus of the discussion. Whenever the child acts out, blurts, disengages, etc. we return to the discussion about him or her. Adding the […]
[This stressed girl] in high school was part of a legendary group a few years ago where I earned my reputation as a crier because I [am so easily moved] by student kindness and vulnerability. This very girl was the one who, one day when we were doing our check-in and someone said “Estoy triste” said in English
[ed. note: this post picks up on the previous post, part 1 of jen’s report from the field here, where she was talking about the question “But how are you preparing them for college?”] Jen: …by creating a space where students can relax and be themselves, a space where a very wound up hard driving valedictorian
Jen shares: This Facebook message showed up last night when I got home. Out of the blue! I just wanted to let you know that I took a test to be placed into a Spanish college class. I tested out of the curriculum which means I am the only freshman in a high senior class for
Actually it was a text. But it sure made me happy! It was from someone in the LA workshop from a few weeks ago: …Ben, I am reading A Natural Approach to Stories [ed. note: this is the new name we have chosen for the new book about the Invisibles] for the third time and I
Here is another idea, a repost from 2013, that maybe someone can use this year: …we can work also with images when doing dictée. It helps the kids because they have a picture to look at while the instructor spins out stuff about what is going on the picture. This builds auditory comprehension, writing/grammar, and
From Russ: Hey guys, Just wanted to let you know how things were going over here in Silverton. I just did my first one word image with students in 4th period today (level 1 class). We have been in school since last Wednesday, but because of weird schedules and procedural stuff, they only really had
In using One Word Images, Elena Overvold in Portland has found that imagination and reality – harsh, real reality – intersect. It only reinforces my belief that is growing ever-stronger that in using images that are generated by the imaginations of the people in the room, we open our classes up to more reality. Think
Here are two scenarios having to do with language learning: Scenario One Lazy little 13 year old Jean-Luc Baison, having never studied English, comes over from Lyon, France to live with his family in New York City. Jean-Luc’s dad’s company has sent him there for a year. Every time Jean-Luc hears words in New York, in whatever context, he gets
It makes my head spin sometimes how easy it is to just slip into old habits and all of a sudden you’ve spent a whole week losing the kids and allowing relationships to grow cold. Not intentionally. of course. You think you’re doing good work but at the end of the week I realize I’ve
We had a discussion about summative testing last week, but I don’t think it went very far in answering Dana’s original question about what to do when one is required to test at 80% of the grade summatively, against all reason. Below are some points that may spur a richer discussion for Dana. Maybe not.
Our work isn’t mechanical and cannot be taught to new teachers in a mechanical way. Once we accept how truly subjective the nature of this work is, we can begin to move towards an instructional approach that is more feeling toned, less predictable and less based on high frequency word lists or words that have
