Diana Noonan is spearheading a three year program in our district to get some hard data on TPRS programs through three years. This would involve articulated TPRS-only programs from middle to high school in Denver Public Schools in which TPRS is the sole instructional approach in the classrooms used. District TPRS teachers who want to be part of the study must, according to Diana:
…. agree to NOT use the textbook, to NOT teach ABOUT the language in English and to use the target language in the classroom 90% of the time ….
Now that puts a lot of “TPRS teachers” out of the running. It puts me out because, although I don’t use the book, I still talk about the language in English too much, and I can’t say that I am at 90% use of L2 – maybe 75% on a good day except when I am being observed. But I want to be part of this initiative, because I know that if we in DPS do what Diana is asking for, then in three years we will have some total kick ass students, some monster processors, some L2 dancers.
Our assessment instruments have been in the development and refinement process for a few years now, and they are good. So I am going to lay aside the toys of the past, swat away the stink flies of the old ways when they get into my mind, and do what Diana says. I am so glad to get this ultimatum now when it is not too late.
Yes, it has been a gnarly February, but that is no reason to shirk what I consider a sacred pedagogical responsibility to the kids – to let them see and hear L2 as much as possible in the classroom. If my national parent organization, the new CO state standards, my boss Diana, my student Shelby, and my colleague Dirk are all screaming the same thing to me today, then I might as well listen.
Shelby is a superstar who happened to come in with her parents for parent conferences tonight. I asked a few questions about how the class was working for her. She told me point blank that everything we have been doing in class, with the exception of
stories,
general discussion in L2 (she particulary mentioned the value of One Word Images),
PQA type stuff, and
Read and Discuss,
was not working for her. Total honesty. She was basically echoing Krashen. Then, right after that discussion, I drove home and got the email below from Dirk, who was reacting to my statement somewhere on this site that I sometimes use grammar terms in class. Here is what Dirk said:
What is this sh–? Throw them a bone? Grammar terminology in class? I know February is a tough month but…don’t be throwing too many bones. Stick to your guns, hoss. I had the “afraid of the package” script just fall flat yesterday. The minute we start mandating content is the minute we start to lose them.
Needless to say, Dirk is a free thinking PQA kind of guy, like me. It’s funny how the old way can creep in when our guard is down. It’s funny how we stand in front of everyone with our TPRS hats in our hands and ask for the approval of a system that we don’t even like, that has not proven itself of any value to the world, and has turned off countless kids to language study, and made many of them, like Shelby’s sister, hate it.
Diana and Shelby and Dirk have reminded me once again that input based methods, Krashen based methods, i.e. speaking to our students in massive amounts of L2 and having them read tons in L2, whatever that method is called, is where my heart is. I am not a begger. I don’t need to stand before, nor do I need to ask for the approval of, people who are proven failures at what they do in the classroom.
Thanks, guys. I get it in my mind, but when confronted with the reality of keeping the CI afloat for 40 of 45 or 80 of 90 minutes in class, I forgit. Maybe this is true of others. Could our own lack of actually walking the walk (I can’ t possibly be alone in my mea culpa moment here) be implicated in the lack of data that we currently have after all these years of TPRS?
Tomorrow, I will try again to use the language 90% of the time. And I certainly won’t let English ruin everything for me (I learned that one a few weeks ago, but caution – it is like the SLOW skill in that it needs constant reminders).
In three years, I will have let my colleagues down if we in DPS don’t the data we want. Damn, people, all we have to do is exactly what Diana says and we will have some data the gods will envy!
And, we will have our novice high/intermediate low kids after those three years, too. Personally, if I don’t do what ACTFL and the new Colorado standards and Diana and Shelby and Dirk are pointedly reminding me to do, then I am a fool.