There are moments in which something, usually some exclamatory statement in some scene, is remarkable and special, and we don’t know why. Someone says some cute line that grabs the attention of the class. The phrase is more interesting and somehow funnier than anything else in the story. I call that a catch phrase. Catch […]
I’m taking off my CI Cowboy hat for good. It’s been way too intense for way too long. We fought lots of intense battles with real courage, and they kept us awake at night. Many of the battles were fought right here on this PLC over the past 15 years. Remember when we took on
This is a comment from Bryan Whitney that I want to be a part of this thread: …I feel like this [combining CI with grammar instruction] is a huge relief to hear. Trying to mix the two and make them “work together” just doesn’t work, but dividing our time between the two (in whatever percentage
How does the “Half CI/Half Grammar” plan work through four years? That’s the beauty of the Deuxieme Livre – it covers four years of grammar from “er” verbs through the pluperfect subjunctive. It’s the worst-named workbook in the history of workbooks but is the best workbook ever designed – the best designed exposition of French
You’ve got total control with the Deuxieme Livre because it’s so good in terms of making the grammar understandable. Don’t feel like teaching CI? Teach the Deuxieme Livre. Don’t feel like teaching Deuxieme Livre? Tell a story or do a tableau. Cake. Don’t forget that the title says “second year” but goes nicely from beginning
So the Deuxieme Livre is a Mercedes in terms of organization of the French grammar system. It’s name is misleading – it beautifully covers all four years of grammar from beginning to end in a workbook format that you just plow through whenever you need a break from whatever CI you are doing. This is
Here’s a plan to combat the daily burden that weighs so heavily on too many CI teachers’ shoulders when they try to use it in schools and find that it might be easier to fight a rabid dog. If you are a French teacher, get the Eli Blume Deuxieme Livre and teach from that book.
The unbridged chasm between TPRS/CI and school settings – despite over 20 years of trying to bridge it – remains wide. This has caused heartache. Teachers have kind of driven themselves crazy trying to make CI work in schools. Careers have failed. CI works fine, but I have quietly wondered, for at least ten years
For well over 25 years, we in the CI movement have been grabbing onto CI like it’s some kind of special prize that if we only work hard enough to master, we can turn our teaching around and have a great career with super-engaged students and everything will be wonderful. Now, I propose that we
The best stories exhibit questioning sequences that resemble a bell curve skewed to the right, with the action moving slowly up to where it is most intense in levels 5 and 6 and then tapering off rapidly from there. One way to get rapid closure to a story is to ask if the story will
My dog really perks up her ears when I say words like “chicken” and “beef”. The concern and interest she shows on her face when I say those words is probably a universal look of inquiry among dogs. She wants more information. But when we give word lists to our students, expecting them to take
It was Mr. Rogers who said that we “don’t need to put on a funny hat to communicate with a child.” I spent many years working hard trying to make sure that things got funny in stories. I would think outside of class of ways to bring in a certain celebrity, or some fact about
