Hope sent this: Hi Ben, Corinne suggested you would have insight to grading free-writes. What are your thoughts? Hi Hope: I learned about bar graphing from Carmen via the moretprs listserve some years ago. We all took what we wanted from that discussion (around 2004 – you might search the list for some of those […]
Below is a 90 minute lesson plan that allows us to go in to our classes and be mindless and not worry about anything at all. It suggests a set of automatic steps that will still hold our students’ attention for the entire class period. I use it whenever I want a class to move
I like to keep a list of activities that are proven to work in a reading class, regardless of whether it is a block class or one of normal length. It is a sequence that flows. Here it is: 1. The students read a chapter in the book or embedded reading. For me, this lasts
Deb that question we briefly discussed at the workshop and that you posted as a comment got this response from Jennifer: Ben, I just came across this study that nouns and verbs are learned in different parts of the brain. I was just reading a post on your blog wondering why despite multiple reps, some words
I’m back from Maine. On Thursday, I modeled the various CI activities that I like to do to build up to stories, and then on Friday I modeled an Anne Matava story (“Don’t Drink The Water!” – thank you Elissa!). Anne then did a story in German – so fluid – I think she could
Just FYI, this is the link to our new (December 2009) Colorado State Standards. http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdeassess/UAS/AdoptedAcademicStandards/World_Languages_Standards_Adopted_12.11.09.pdf You can see how they line up with the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. If anyone who reads this blog is currently working to modify existing outdated standards at the state level to properly align with ACTFL, please feel free to refer to this
Last year, on the first day of the Maine conference, which starts again today almost exactly a year later, I looked out at the 70 teachers attending, and there was a big guy, a Patriots fan, clearly an athlete, but also, as it turned out, a great German teacher and one of the finest human beings
We must be comfortable in our classrooms if we are to fully use our intuitive faculty and learn how to thin slice (Gladwell) when we are trying to create comprehensible input with our kids. If we are comfortable with the kids and the CI, things will go well. Little glimpses (thin slices) into what
Everybody talks about creativity. I heard the term “creative lesson plan” today. Barf. What is creativity and where does it come from? I don’t know what it is but I know when it shows up in my classroom. It has a different feel. It grabs our attention. It arrives always in unexpected forms at unexpected
Remember the Maine Hogs? We heard from one of them the other day, how she was doing after graduating, grunting snarkingly in the college grammar troughs. She was looking for the high quality food she enjoyed from Anne’s kitchen while hearing Anne Matava stories for four years, but, according to her, was finding only kitchen scraps.
Dr. Krashen has set before us an enormous challenge by his suggestion that we learn languages unconsciously. That is because learning in schools is typically about conscious, analytical, left brain deciphering of subject matter. Thus, in languages, we have created books to help us present the language, but that very fact takes us, if
Robert sent this email: Hi Ben, I just wanted to share a comment I came across in a German-English forum I visit. Someone asked for a translation of the name of the equation for velocity = distance x time. One of the replies used standard American terminology, substituting the word “rate” for “velocity”. A contributor
