Unlock with PatreonThe Problem with CI
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It’s Time to Bridge the Gap
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CI and the Research (cont.)
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Research Question
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We Have the Research
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7 thoughts on “It’s Time to Bridge the Gap”
“Not many teachers naturally “take” to CI. It’s only a complex process on the surface but is exceedingly simple at its core. The only real way to learn it is to let go of all the rules and embrace the humanness of it. Krashen called it the Natural Approach for a reason.”
I think the above quote is explosive. Embracing the humanness of the process is the biggest thing for me, especially in this age we live in where young people are more “connected”, yet more alone. They have 1,000 friends on social media, yet desiring more and more to be loved. Teaching something so fundamentally human as language and communication should do its best to mirror and respect that process.
BAM! You got it Jake. Now the question is to what degree you and your heart-awareness are willing to go into classrooms filled with sad and lonely kids who are afraid to behave in an actually human way and do the shamanistic work necessary to bring them to life in your language class, and to do so at at a time when greed and bullying are at some sort of weird apex in our society, where putting yourself out there for your kids is so emotionally dangerous. Are you willing to do that?
Related:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkFHYODzRTs
I think I got it, Ben. So yesterday I went to the class where I taught a few lessons using OWI about a year ago. I hadnot seen them for a year, and the first things they remember about our classes is OWIs that we created together in the class. It seems it just flashed into their minds when they saw me and they tried to remember the characters, their names. And they did.
I understand that non-targeted CI is the only way to teach language classes, however, I also understand that I still do not feel THE FLOW of my lessons, I understand that I am near it but I am not there yet.
Not feeling the FLOW.
Dude, most teachers don’t know that that word is even part of Krashen’s research and very very important to him. Leave something for the future. FLOW is art in teaching, and not easily had. It is the result of endless experimentation in class, of endless hours of honing your craft.
One thing about FLOW – you’ll never truly get there. Not in a school. You’ll get glimpses of the Pure Land, of FLOW, but that’s all. School buildings cannot hold FLOW anymore than a closed box can contain light.
I advise searching FLOW in the search bar here. There are many articles on it here. We can dream….
To experience the Flow the conditions must be right.
listening…
ONCE I had this great lesson – I planned it – because I was gonna be observed and I tend to plan more when that happens…anyway it involved a Carol Gaab story seed and it had a vacuum cleaner in it so I brought out the ole toddler vac that eats shapes and then various characters were vaccuming up all kinds of stuff… all I had to do was basically keep it rollin’ and wrap it in compelling Spanish CI…
The principal/observer loved it so much that she HUGGED me after class!
The very next 30-min segment was the same grade -but different section (as close to a control group as we’re gonna get?) and it didn’t have nearly the sparkle as the prior class. I thought it was kinda flat! Was it because the 2nd class was right before lunch (hungry)? Was it some interpersonal dynamics with the kids? Was I exhausted from the adrenaline of the prior observation (I still sweat @ observations, after 26 years), and didn’t lead it as well the 2nd time around? Was the lesson no longer improvisational, and therefore felt stale? Were the kids not as fun/funny as the 1st group?
F-L-O-W is fickle. But we’re making progress by dumping practices that have no FLOW potential, and we’re upping the FLOW odds by inviting kids ideas, images and lightheartedness in.