A few years ago Dr. Krashen was in Denver and I asked Diana if she would invite him to my building for a few classes. To my surprise, he had the time and my request was granted. As we all walked into Abraham Lincoln High School in the early afternoon on a snowy Denver day in 2013, I fell back in the group and asked Diana privately what the hell was I going to do?
I did have a story going with the two classes Dr. Krashen was going to observe. I wanted to demonstrate a story in the first class and a reading in the second, and I had set things up that way. But I still wanted to know what to do, because I wanted to be at my best, which rarely happens when people observe, I have noticed. Diana saved me with one sentence: “Ben, just do comprehensible input! That’s what he’s here to see!” It was the perfect thing to say.
In light of the ACTFL discussion, which I really need to get away from because it is becoming a mental ball and chain for me (I can’t even rake leaves or ride my bike without thinking about all the little angles of that discussion), I have seen the exact same thing that Diana said to me in that parking lot becoming more and more clear both here and over on the ACTFL list – this discussion is about whether people use CI or not in their classrooms.
The difference is that it took Diana just a few words to say it while it has taken a lot of lengthy comments by lots of really smart people to get the discussion to where it is now and they still haven’t said it. However, in our own group here, Nathaniel yesterday said something that brought a response from Matthew Webster this morning that, together, end the ACTFL discussion once and for all for me. I will tag that response to this post as Need to Refocus – 4.
It is where my thinking was going, but Matthew laid it out in crystal clear form. In short, he said that the entire discussion is not about themes (although I would add that good things have emerged from that discussion – read Terry Waltz’ comments from last nite), but about whether teachers use comprehensible input in their classes or not and are they effective in doing so. Matthew’s comment this morning, then, comes not a moment too soon.
Many in the group don’t know Matt Webster. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Colorado Conference on Foreign Language Teaching (CCFLT, of which Diana is the President). Matt is a young teacher from Colorado Springs who totally gets it, and I hope we hear a lot more from him here on the PLC as we go along. Matt’s vision has eluded this older, more deranged and less tolerant teacher, but I think I get it now. I am sure that I am not alone in thanking Nathaniel and Matthew. In my mind, Eric did a great thing in starting it, and Matthew did a great thing in ending it (just my opinion, but it’s over and out for me and I mean it this time).