Here is another email from Vernon Lee. It describes a poignant moment at the Japan seminar: Ben, The Japanese lady who sat close to me asked me a question during the break. A little history first. After the first day my new friend and I were walking to the bus stop about a 4 minute walk […]
This is from Vernon Lee who has a TPRS language school in Fujisawa, Japan, about an hour south of Tokyo: Ben, Once Susan started and her words had all been translated into Japanese we felt that we weren’t alone anymore. She adjusted her presentation to reach her new eager audience patiently waiting for everyone in the
Duke was in today and observed. He shared a great idea that I would like to expand on a little here. My level 2 students had heard so much auditory CI in level one that he suggested my asking what they thought about the content of the song (Aicha by Khaled Sahra) we were working with. Which
Elissa asked for some thoughts on transitioning into stories. Carla or anybody – please constribute on this topic – we need to start talking about it. I am sure that there are many other blog entries on this site over the past three years that also address this topic, so if anybody finds any now is a good time
This is from Martha Nojima: Ben said Susie galvanized teachers here in Japan. That’s right. A year ago when I started this I never imagined it would be so successful. The timing was right for many things and they clicked into place to make this work. Susie told me she was nervous about presenting in
Jack Taylor you are right I am just waiting for stuff I can share here about Susie’s visit to Japan. The single word that comes to my mind so far from this visit is “galvanized”. Susie galvanized teachers – that’s what she does. She makes them feel like they can do it. They are already creating a
Since Susan Gross has just left Japan, having apparently had a huge impact there from the emails I have been receiving (will post some here later), we can say that some important work has been done. Think about it. Japan. The ice is cracking on the sea of Japanese foreign language education. The magnificent idea
Personalized information gathered from PQA is the lifeblood of comprehensible input. If we don’t have enough personalized information about each kid in the class, which we are gathering now, we will not be able to personalize our stories enough later this year and they will be flat. The Circling with Balls cards are a start
Here is a nice update from Jim Tripp about how his year has been a bit different, how it has evolved for him so far and what he is focusing on: Ok, so it’s not a novel idea, but one that I’m glad I’ve remembered and stuck to this year so far. I am progressing
Spanish ONE – One Kid, One Structure, One Location, (One Day) Read More »
Yesterday during FVR I noticed that one of my students was reading the fabulous children’s book Brown Bear, Brown Bear (what do you see?). So I decided to read it to the kids right after the FVR session, kind of like on kindergarten day. It was amazing to see them relax and enjoy being read to. I
The beginning of the year information on the resources link of this site (click on workshop handouts) is changing. My concept of how to best start a year to get French 1 kids ready for stories and culture study via comprehensible input, especially, is now different. How? The first change has already been discussed
Today I made a connection between stirring pancake batter and circling. Here it is: When we stir the batter, the lumps go away and the batter is smooth. That is just what we want to do with our repetitive questions when we circle. We want to just keep making circles with the wisk in
