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I can’t believe I wasted all that time over the years translating the novels and trying to mix all that L1 direct translation into the reading class, as per a comment by Alisa that  “knocked-me-up-side-the-head” this weekend: …reading along in L1 (English) while the students are reading in L2 sounds totally confusing, jarring and counterproductive […]

Michael shares some great observations that, I agree, have never happened before 2015: Something changed this summer. Teaching with Comprehensible Input has clicked with mainstream teachers. I guess we could credit it to the plural efforts of everyone involved. Even those that share what we might call watered down versions need to be supported and

Benedict Cumberbatch wrote something for the Huffington Post – a letter to Santa Claus. This excerpt touches on our work: …this is what I’d like to ask you to help with. A little more time for children to be children. Stretch the moment of magic and playfulness. Distract them from the realities of a world

A new story from Jim Tripp. Notice that there are no targets. Anne is doing that too. I think Step 1 may be more for when we are being observed, to impress people with all the TPR and fun energy. Or if we feel, of course, that they need the reps to set up the story.

This is from Michele: Dear Ben, After I read this link about learning to read in Waldorf, I wrote a letter to our local school about how well I would fit in there as a language teacher! I couldn’t believe the parallels. http://blog.bellalunatoys.com/2011/waldorf-reading.html Michele [Ed. note: Below is the part that jumped out for me personally.

This is from Carol: Hey Ben – ACTFL was, as many described it, HISTORIC!! It was amazing! It was the first time I can honestly say I felt secure (once my session was over LOL), confident, unapologetic and absolutely certain that CI and TPRS are making serious headway.  I am confident my session with Krashen

Those of us who have been making the time to watch the links from Grant – see previous posts – have been learning a lot. In return we have been sending him back educationese-phrased sentences that he needs for his current run at Central States Teacher of the Year, which run is in full swing

From Michael Coxon: Check out Dr. Stephen Krashen and Professor Bill Van Patten discussing the field of language learning at ACTFL 2015: Opening the show: 46 minutes in the middle: Closing the show: You can listen to archived shows at:

When doing snowplow reading, Linda reads in the TL and if the kids don’t know a word they stomp their feet and only then does she explain the meaning to them in L1. Is this the best way to do it? Or is it better to read in L1 to them while they read in

Blaine came up to me some years ago – I think it was NTPRS 2009 in TX – and asked what I thought about Susie saying that the kids should “snow plow” through the book or if perhaps (his) Read and Discuss was better. I remember that the topic was “up” at that time. I

If you have a native speaker in your classroom, you can take advantage of it in advanced classes by using the following sequence when dealing with an authentic text (Le Petit Prince in my case which I am doing with my 8th graders). Normally I would just use R and D but that only works

The link below is connected to Grant’s work, but is not an actual link directly connected to his ACTFL application process. Check it out anyway: Why Build Inequity into the Fabric of Class? – Methods Class Feedback 3 of 6 – “E”