Here is the link from jen that I kept in the queue over recent weeks, delayed because we were having our little “tea time” with the ACTFL group members. It fits very well with Laurie’s comment here last nite about how our intent to show kids that they matter should be our guiding principle as much as any preoccupations we have about what CI is and how to use it. Is it not true that making certain that our students matter is not just a “nice idea” to inculcate into our teaching but rather the most important one if we are to enjoy our jobs and be successful at them? Is it not time that the era of the dinosaur language teacher making kids jump as high as they can, which is never high enough, to reach the relative pronoun and past participle agreement rules fruit on the language tree be over? Is it not true that a lot of the main motivational aims of a lot of those dinosaur teachers (ACTFL) is merely to show off (as the four percenter they once were in high school and college) how much grammar they know? And is it not true that it’s about time someone challenged them on the fact that studying grammar, as Robert Harrell has famously said, has nothing to do with acquiring languages, as per jen’s delayed article here:
The name of the book is about as close to the keenest interests of my own career personally as I can imagine:
The Invisible Classroom: Relationships, Neuroscience & Mindfulness in School (The Norton Series on the Social Neuroscience of Education) Paperback – July 28, 2014
by Kirke Olson
Jen explains:
Browsing through some of the pages that you can look at on the website, I felt really anchored in to what we are doing. This is truly what our teaching is about and how we operate in a CI classroom, in my opinion and experience. So many things he says about safety and about the need for connection in order to “deliver content” or whatever….totally reminds me of Susie’s “discipline precedes instruction.” Discipline of course is not just about the teacher as an enforcer and the student as a complier, but more deeply it is about the discipline of a practice. Coming back again and again to the present moment when we spin out of control on whatever level that is happening.
I agree it is “out there” for folks tied strictly to a sense of “subject matter” and “curriculum” and being on some sort of lockstep schedule for doing things on a certain timetable. Even so, I anticipate the book to dispel a lot of that based on the neurology of how we cannot process/learn/etc. when we are stressed. I know that is an oversimplification, but just from the few pages I read and from what I know about Kirke it’s about finding that “hook” with each individual student. I cannot say how one does this in a class of 40, or even 25. But you might be able to speak to that.
Anyway…it is all food for thought. It will either resonate with people or not. Just floating it out there with no attachment. I did write to Kirke yesterday, though. Total impulse. He’s doing a book talk tomorrow which I cannot attend. So I sent him a document I wrote a year ago “Professional Goals” that I was required to submit as part of my impending evaluation process. I was excited about this process because finally it would bring some people into my classroom to see what I was doing. HA. Too excited apparently, since my goals were definitely too “out there” for the (de) evolution of my former place of employment. Anyway, I sent them because they really are in tune with what I perceive to be the core of Kirke’s research. I told him I’d love to collaborate on some level. I don’t know what I mean by that. Just following impulses.
All of that said, I still believe the signals from my gut that tell me CI could be instrumental in bringing some of these mindfulness practices and true community building into schools. It already does that without any of these labels by virtue of the practice itself and the goals of creating a safe space (low affective filter, acceptance and celebration of each individual and his/her gifts, intentional joy and presence, letting go of controlling the outcome, etc.) for students to discover their innate capacity to acquire another language.
Ed. note: those interested in reading further articles on the topic of mindfulness and how it relates to our teaching using comprehensible input are invited to choose from the posts here: