We have talked about mini stories, which is Blaine’s original term for those really short stories that we use to warm kids up early in the year for longer stories. I have been thinking lately how important they are, and how, although we have a small collection of them here (https://benslavic.com/blog/super-mini-stories-2/) I still would like […]
I was reading through some old notes and found this quote from Susan Gross in 2007. I realize now yet once again how lucky I was in 2001 to have found her as my mentor: “As I listen to teachers, I hear that something is missing. In our attempt to spell things out and to
Alisa sent this and thank you Alisa: http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2016/06/our-reform-proposal.html
Let’s start it up again in the fall or even next month. We can announce a Teacher of the Year in June like we just did with jen. We just have to remember together. It’s not like we don’t have deserving people, right? My gosh, what a bunch of warriors there are here! The emotional
Jen for so many years now you have been such a great champion of the kids – it comes as no surprise to me that you just received the comments below from kids at opposite ends of the spectrum. I know we don’t do a Teacher of the Month thing like we used to (I
As we get closer to the TN conference, I wanted to announce to those not yet aware that Carol has given us our own session (Wed. – 3:30-4:30) to discuss, among PLC members who want to be there, the entire recent thread on authentic assessment. I know that some of us really want to get to the
I deeply feel that we in teaching are in the midst of a profound shift in education from the mind (the science of teaching) to the heart (the art of teaching). We are learning, and quickly now, to rely more on the web of connection that exists among all of us in the classroom than on anything
Look at Grant Boulanger’s powerful example of untargeted, unscripted student interaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JszVvKn3jVo&feature=youtu.be Now ask yourself what would be lost in this beautiful human interaction had Grant’s intention been to say “needed to brush her teeth” over seventy-five times in the class. Indeed, it is obvious that Grant’s intention here is to get to know the
In this new untargeted work, we must keep front and center in our consciousness that we still must absolutely shelter vocabulary and unshelter grammar. This TPRS mantra has been true for decades, though it is often ignored by practitioners, coaches and trainers, and it is still true in this vision of untargeting our input.
When we target structures in order to teach them, we break down language into pieces as opposed to teaching language as an organic, unified and naturally emerging whole. The pieces become more important than the whole, and the result is a deterioration in interest. When the story necessarily become secondary to those targeted structures, it then comes as
This past year, in working with the untargeted storytelling approach with the Invisibles, in giving up the idea that I needed to start my stories with the classic TPRS list of three target structures, I found more happiness and ease in storytelling than I had ever experienced. And now I can’t not share. It is
Our own Diane has an article in the most recent issue of the peer-reviewed journal iFLT, entitled “Modifications for Teaching Mandarin Chinese”. Congratulations Diane! Link to a PDF of the journal here.
