A reader in Europe reports: I have tried TPRS but if found it very demanding and artificial. I dropped it after 6 months. Currently I am preparing for the next year and taking your latest book A Natural Approach to the Year as a starting point. I was already a fan of Dr Krashen’s work and your […]
This great trio from Les Misérables is easily understood by first year students, and yet is not a kid’s song like Frère Jacques. Plus, the love interest is sky-high, so the kids really listen. Here are the words, and maybe you can download it if you decide want to use it (my translation): LE COEUR AU
To the tune of Brother John: lundi mardi 2X; mercredi 2X; jeudi, vendredi, samedi 2X; dimanche 2X
Here we begin our discussion of the 12 questions and concerns asked by our new PLC member (see last post) about the Invisibles: Q. I am concerned about how my classroom is physically set up. I have 35 desks, sometimes 37. Should I replace them with tables so all students face me,(my desk is now
A new member of our group has explored the two (brand new) Invisibles books and her first reaction is positive. That is important to me because she has a background in TPRS, and I am claiming that my newest books are better than TPRS as a vehicle for introducing comprehensible input instruction into the foreign
I haven’t ranted against the textbook for many years. Fifteen years ago it was a major sport in this space. But now, so many years later, with little having actually been done to throw the textbook off of its pedestal, I feel like ranting more on this topic. (Why is the textbook still so commonly
As stated many times here, but more in recent years as we have together become more and more aware of the rank inequity in our field of language education, it is CI that is going to throw the water on the Wicked Witch of Inequity. The research shows clearly that all people, not just the
Having reflected in a general way on classroom management in the introduction to our new book, we turn now to identifying what we already know about the mechanics involved in successfully managing our CI classrooms. Section 2 – The Mechanics What are the most proven and effective classroom management strategies that we have developed so
One Must Be Out of One’s Mind If it is so important, then what are we going to do about this problem of how our classroom feels? Retain the status quo or be bold and make changes to what we are currently doing? Do we really want good classroom management or are we merely going
I got this email today from a colleague who has dived deeply and fully into the waters of the Invisibles this year which, since she is in Southwest Asia, began for her and her students only five weeks ago. Hi, Ben, One of the hardest things about teaching in a foreign school is that the
Classroom Management is Based On How Our Students Feel We must make our classes interesting if we are to plug into the CI powerhouse and make it work for us. Here is the key sentence that we must keep in mind at all times if we are to make CI work for us: Students must
We are not yet arrived at the nuts and bolts of classroom management in our summer examination of what the term actually means and how we can master it in our classroom in the fall. More reflection on what we want to see from our students in our classrooms is needed before we go to
