In this comment-turned-post, Jennifer describes something that most of us feel quite often when trying to do comprehensible input methods:
Hey, everyone!
I’m so happy to have received such a warm welcome. I must say that things have gone a little south with TPRS (and I don’t mean south Jersey, chill). I took a survey of all my students last week because I was feeling scattered all over and out of control with planning and structure of the phrases I was teaching. Of course, I’ve recognized a lot of positive benefits but when I began to see a decline in student attention I began to wonder what was up. I asked them to give me one thing they liked about class, one thing they did not, what they felt their learning style is, one thing they do that makes them a “good student” and one thing upon which they could improve.
Sadly, most students feel that the story-telling has become too much to tolerate. Many kids spoke candidly about enjoying the stories but needing something more. (I don’t get it because we’ve had reading classes, SSR) but they feel like the ONLY thing they’ve been doing is listening to me and they’re feeling frustrated. I really did not want to do TPRS half-assed, if you’ll forgive me. I really did not want to combine various methods. I just don’t know what to do. This week was shortened due to the holiday and I find myself making traditional lesson plans again for the next four days.
I am sad….. 