Elementary Target Structures

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11 thoughts on “Elementary Target Structures”

  1. If you do that Don just don’t let it drive your instruction. Rather, flood them with CI and then after a certain amount of time refer to the poster and maybe put a check by the ones they know and then go back and repeat that process. Trying to teach “to” this vocabulary, or actively plan lessons around it, is to take your students on a long field trip to Boring City, since we know that spontaneity and personalized discussion are at the heart of the incredible gains we get in this work. Can you believe that people used to teach from grouped lists of words like this, and sometimes they would even make their kids memorize them? Weird! But then again, people used to listen to 8-Tracks and wear Earth Shoes.

  2. I am not a list person. I loose the list, forget I have one, don’t look at it, don’t ever stick to it. And that’s true when I go food shopping as well. Alice Waters suggests to go to the market and buy what’s fresh. Then look for a recipe.

    Lizette Siebolt (100% misspelled) gave us once a great clue: there are teachers who thrive with recipes, lists, support of a TPRS curriculum.They follow the instructions step by step and have great success. Then there are the teachers (more my type) who cannot follow recipes or lists of any kind. Lizette told us it’s all good. Not to worry.

    That said…I painfully make a similar list of words at the end of 3rd grade to hand over to the next teacher. I always wonder if it really is worth my time. What can a teacher really do with a list of words? Does it mean the kids have internalized them? understand them? have acquired the words? -really- own them?

    Blaine Ray suggested to get a relatively quick feel for what students know, and start from there.
    List or no list.

    1. Catharina…thank you for posting this! I completely identify with this:

      “I am not a list person. I loose the list, forget I have one, don’t look at it, don’t ever stick to it. And that’s true when I go food shopping as well. Alice Waters suggests to go to the market and buy what’s fresh. Then look for a recipe.”

      I need this reminder to avoid relentless self-bashing around this skill or lack thereof: “…it’s all good. Not to worry.”

  3. No list. Just give them to people who want them. I’m not sure if such people know why they even want them. Maybe to put in a folder. Lists have no pedagogical value except to help us keep our jobs.

    Liebold.

  4. Yay, Alisa is in the PLC! That’s great. Alisa, we’ve often talked about what you all have done in Winnetka and of course, ACTFL and reaching more teachers with CI. It will be great to hear more from you here. Also dealing with the special needs of elementary teachers.

    (I’m really enjoying being in Colorado!)

  5. Alisa,
    Glad you joined. Your comments on the ACTFL thread(s) were wonderful. You will find greater appreciation for them here.

    This is great elementary curriculum, for beginners of all ages and levels of legacy experience. I sent this to Scott, a colleague of mine. We meet once per month and talk TPRS and where we are at in the process. Our curriculum coordinator has approved for us to get district professional development points for the time. We actually talk more than this, but that is our formally approved time. Since no one else has chosen to meet with us yet, we have decided to make our Curriculum Map more TCI. We are not totally sure where we are headed with the Map, but this is a concrete example of what someone else has done. Thanks.

  6. Full disclosure – I created the list for all the artificial reasons you guys mentioned: For the admin-required documentation, to pass on to the next level teachers, for consistency across district – same-grade teachers who have to create common assessments, etc. All, I realize, uncompelling artifacts in Ben’s Boring Museum field trip. Then, when some newbies started to see the list (we included it in a Denver iFLT presentation geared for newbies), people started coming outta the woodwork asking for the dang thing!! I think it’s kinda like a blankie – something to cling to in the big scary world of NEW TEACHING STRATEGIES…and it usually lives under an enormous stack of unrelated paperwork on the far reaches of my desk…occasionally dusted off as a department meeting looms…
    it’s a road map like any other, cuz we (at least in my district) don’t live unfettered and untethered – so it helps keep us on the same planet…

    1. I liked what Alisa said: it’s a road map like any other, cuz we (at least in my district) don’t live unfettered and untethered – so it helps keep us on the same planet…

      And of course, we don’t visit every town on the map, just the interesting ones, the ones that we have compelling reasons to visit, right?

      1. And like real maps, the better one knows the terrain, the landmarks, the main trails, the shortcuts, the scenic routes, the dead ends, the one-way streets, the bend and turns and bumps and potholes, the lights and signs, the hideouts for both highwaymen and patrolmen, the freeways and tollways, and the rest stops…the less consciously one focuses on the details of the road and the more consciously one enjoys the scenery and the company in the car.

        But we beginners need to refer to the map to make sure we are getting where we are going.

        We also need this PLC truckstop so we can talk to other drivers to learn from their experiences, the places to avoid, and the vehicles to take. (There are several different vehicles to choose from, including Movie talk, OWI, CWB, TPR, PQA, Story creation.)

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