One of the things about this community that I appreciate and that people have commented on over the years is that dissenting points of view are accepted and welcomed as contributing to a growth mindset. For example, Diana’s recent lashing out at me for my opinions on testing in Denver Public Schools was seen by […]
If you are in one of those situations where your admin team is so ignorant about the Communication standard and the research (90% of school principals fit into this classification), then have hope. Why? Because if you get a bad review by such a person, let the observation get filed. NO ONE will ever go
What must we do to retain more than the few fast processors in our four-year programs? Getting rid of the AP exam, which is all show and very little substance, is a start. (The College Board might more aptly be labeled more accurately as a “business that sells prestige”). But besides outlawing the AP Exam
There are no advanced levels in American secondary schools. Level 3 and Level 4 students are all Level 1 students. This is because of the 10,000 hour thing, which I will assume readers know about from previous posts, videos, books, and/or Zoom trainings. Indeed, if it takes 10,000 hours to attain any degree of authentic
If you are working in one of the Ultimate CI Books (the old Invisibles book), here are a few related videos: Lori
Q. Without tools like Can Do statements, how are we supposed to evaluate what our students can do? A. Why is it so important to evaluate what our kids can do with the language, especially at such an early age? They can’t do much with it, certainly, any more than a three or four-year old
Danielle wrote this to me. My response is below. Hi Ben,I hope it’s ok to ask you for advice, you are Ben SOLVE IT. This quarter I have 6th grade Italian. Mark C. is the only other Italian teacher. I only teach it when necessary. Anyway, he has written emails to me on two occasions
Q. If teaching kids how to meet important benchmarks like the Can Do Statements is not what we should be doing, then what do you think is the best use of time in a foreign language classroom? A. The best use of time is when we get our students fully focused on truly compelling messages,
For those working their way through the first Star book, here is an excellent video of Jesus Horacio Baez Avila, who is master certified in the Star, leading a group of Zoom teachers from Phase 1 to Phase 5. Of particular interest is a section of the video that begins about an hour in (59:40).
Q. So what needs to happen now? A. Teachers need to go back and read and re-read more carefully what Dr. Krashen has said and figure out ways to truly implement his ideas so that they work on behalf of kids and not the Can Do fraudulent learning dictated by the school district. When Krashen
A repost from 2014: What Angie wrote today about Can Do statements could apply to almost any aspect of traditional language education, I felt a deep connection to every word. If someone asked me why I am so opposed to the old ways, and why I embrace human based teaching so strongly, I would say
At the end, Eugene didn’t look too much like Eugene. When we got to that point, it was me doing most of the talking. The way I looked at the whole situation, there in that corner room of Grand Strand Hospital with the word QUARANTINE in big letters on the door (they let family in
