Unlock with PatreonThe Problem with CI
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Keep It Simple
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CI and the Research (cont.)
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11 thoughts on “Keep It Simple”
I am nodding out loud. The simpler the better, and the more energy left for us to make the simple input excellent – without keeping track of all those exhausting moving parts in games, activities, scavenger hunts, etc. That strikes me every time I watch a Tina video. How simple, pure, unadulterated…and effective.
I don’t think Dr. K ‘allows’ or ‘doesn’t allow.’ He recuses himself from these pedagogical considerations cuz it’s not his wheelhouse.
I have heard him comment off the record more than once that so-and-so is a true artist /teacher because s/he keeps it compelling. That’s all he wants – Compelling and Comprehensible. He doesn’t deal with the pressures some T’s face to incorporate technology; demonstrate cooperative learning via pairs or small groups; do projects and presentations; prove you are incorporating culture & communities, and all that $&%^…
If you are telling teachers who feel personally/internally obligated to create all those NYC activities and complex machinations to chill out, then yes!
But as we know, plenty o’teachers HAVE TO DO THAT CRAP to keep their evaluators smiling and thus to insure employment!
I don’t think he gets how complex what we have to do to make it look like school is. He tore apart my 21 point reading program and only agreed with about 5 of the 21. And yet all 21 things on that list are excellent strategies that the kids fully buy into. I guess there is no real answer to it except in putting on the time-worn dog and pony show when being observed to make sure that we get all the boxes checked. But I am seeeing that the gap between Krashen and schools is wider than I have thought in the past.
OK now I understand you better.
But researcher/ theoreticians don’t have the day-in-&-day-out classroom experience we do, (and the need for perceived novelty) and therefore might not be able to appreciate the smorgasbord of reading extensions you offer w/your 21 choices! They might see those all as one thing only – input via reading – so for them, they’re all good, and there’s no reason to jump up ‘n down – because they can’t get excited about the diversity, novelty, pleasure and success that each and every one of those strategies fosters. That added value is something that the teacher feels and observes in classroom dynamics, but unless one employs them oneself, one might not get it….
May I ask which extensions Dr. K took issue with?
Tina clearly uses the literacy strategies so successfully in her recorded CI Liftoff classes!
…may I ask which extensions Dr. K took issue with?…
He addressed each of the 21 while I was in New Delhi last year, one email per extension. I would have to go back and track them down and I will try to do that over the weekend. I can’t remember off hand. Basically it was anything that involved “thinking” and “output” as opposed to focusing on meaning and input. He’s right. But not for us, which is your point above.
…Tina clearly uses the literacy strategies so successfully in her recorded CI Liftoff classes!…
Tina has a background in literacy and social studies and therefore brings an arsenal of information to the table. I notice that the really gifted teachers are the ones who see the great value and talent in what she writes and in the videos of her classes. She is fearless, with backbone, authentic and I can say with certainty that her heart is focused on what is best for teachers and kids. A gem. Comme toi alors! (Like you!)
She is so busy but if I can talk her into it I hope to get her in here and do a slow hand off of this website where my moderator voice would blend with hers and then at some point in the coming years take over. She is the one to do it. The old guard is fading fast. You and Tina and others whose priority is kids and shaking all of the kinks out of old TPRS will now begin – I think it is going to happen in 2017 – will redirect Blaine’s vision back to what it started out as. That’s what I think is going to happen.
Bit of a rant there with apologies.
Ben, I mentioned this once on FB and Dr. Krashen responded saying that he saw no such list… point is I would like to see his commentary to better guide decision making while designing CI activities to break up the monotony for my students.
OK I’ll go look for the emails and send them to you and Alisa.
The gulf between research and real live classroom / school requirements for teachers. I am not saying we can’t bridge it to a large extent. Our children are suffering. We do not really know their lives in the other 23 hours of the day. Many have built walls of steel around themselves in order to survive / cope with whatever cards they have been dealt.
CI is healing indeed. But not all of the students are ready for CI. They don’t know how to receive it. They resist it by default, because that is their pattern. I have been back and forth with a parent all semester. The student is really dug into his rut. He can’t be open to the process…it’s too vulnerable, and he puts all his energy into avoiding and hiding. I mentioned to mom “It seems to me that his whole school career has been all about trying to hide. He can’t receive assistance. He feels called out / picked on. Any of my attempts to engage him, give him an active job, help, etc. are met with huge resistance.” She confirmed my suspicion that it’s all about his ingrained lack of confidence.
That was longwinded way of saying that CI in its simplest and purest form will take time to achieve, because it takes awhile to get kids on board, to show them that they are innately worthy and capable and have unique gifts to share. For me, watching Tina gives me a compass. I strive to keep the clutter out of my teaching. I am more and more convinced that less is more. I like to roll in, begin class in silence (FVR then some sort of mindfulness practice), tell a story and call it good. But kids are kids and they sometimes say “we do the same thing every day.” So there is a need (even if I am not bound by a textbook or other required specific targets) for kids to at least perceive variety. I’m finding SL truly relaxing. For the most part my students respond well to it. I am excited to begin a new semester with SL as the core. I want to tell 100 stories, as Beniko recommends. I think I may try this and keep track of it, be up front with the kids, get them on board…”you are going to hear 100 stories!!!”
AND…as much as I am supported by my admin, parents etc. I am still unsure of how this will all shake out in terms of being employed. I am truly exhausted this year because we now have extra duties because of last year’s budget cuts. We are short 10 teaching and staff members. There are zero ZERO substitute teachers in the district, so we have to sub for each other. Any given day I can lose my prep with no warning. These are the types of things that cannot be accounted for in the pure SLA world of research.
I don’t think any of us think that “extra activities” lead to acquisition. We know the research. But we do sometimes need to add things into an 80 or 90 min. block to shift the energy and “feed the need.”
True dat. True all of that. So well said. We are in deep doo-doo in education right now. Deep. And no amount of doing the same thing will bring change. Jen gets to the heart of it when she says:
…our children are suffering. We do not really know their lives in the other 23 hours of the day. Many have built walls of steel around themselves in order to survive….
Thus, we must find a way to address the suffering of our children first. How to simply reach kids to make them happier in our classrooms is the first order of business, and damn the curriculum.
The curriculum is strangling the youth of our nation, and not just in our field. How long will we allow it to do so? When will we find a way to just talk to our kids? That is what SL is. Too simple? Not aligned with the curriculum as handed down to us by the district gurus? Well, at least they align with the research of Dr. Beniko Mason. That’s enough for me.
Tina and I are trying to talk Beniko into being a presence here in our PLC. That would be good for everyone so that those who agree with what jen so accurately says above can have more information to decide in which direction they want to take their teaching. Because right now TPRS is blowing up.
In his book the Easy Way, Krashen says the goal of SLA programs (our classrooms) is to get kids to the place where they can acquire from the environment, meaning “authentic resources” like going abroad or watching TV or radio/podcasts or reading on their own, or conversing with fluent speakers. That I like because it acknowledges the reality that “mastery” of a language is the goal. In PPS the goal for two years of study is Intermediate Mid, meaning that they can ask questions and talk about simple things like answering questions about their immediate interests. They cannot yet talk in paragraphs and they make a lot of errors so that a normal speaker will get frustrated.
If this is the goal, and ACTFL has no word lists and grammar targets, then my sincere hope is that we can move more classrooms into a place where there is more ease and more focus on providing input that is as stress-free as possible. It is encouraging to me that we are easing up on all the “interaction” and asking kids to bring the cute answers. With Beniko’s SL and Ben’s InvisiblesI am finding much more patient, docile listeners than I ever have before. I am in great need of “ease” in my classroom these days. I am finding it now that I have relaxed into simply sweeping kids along in a good narrative, or even in some good nonfiction-type information (I have tried so far to tell them about a French daycare’s schedule, the Tió de Nadal tradition in Cataluña, and New Year’s traditions in Argentina and Perú).
Thanks for this post, Tina. This makes so much sense. Peace and ease in the classroom…and language acquisition too.
Yes Angie! “…and language acquisition too.” This is easy to overlook. Peace and ease first. Acquisition as the by product 🙂