Staying in the Moment

5 thoughts on “Staying in the Moment”

1. La

   November 30, 2011 at 10:32 pm

   I should have a sign in my class saying “Circle or die!”…thanks.

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2. Brigitte

   December 1, 2011 at 6:09 am

   Question about circling: you suggest to change the focus of the circling from the subject to the verb (or whatever other part of the sentence) if you run out of steam. I’m just wondering, if e.g. the target structure includes the verb, doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of getting tons of repetitions on that specific structure?

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3. Ben Slavic

   December 1, 2011 at 8:23 am

   Yes. Since most target structures have verbs in them, it is true. But we want to avoid hard and fast rules. This is where intuition and responding to the situation we are in is more valuable than rules about circling. But your reminder, Brigitte, should be posted everywhere. Remembering to hit the target structure most of the time is key (doesn’t have to be always, again, depending on the situation.)

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4. Angela Williams

   December 1, 2011 at 9:12 pm

   “Are the kids hearing the language? Are we speaking the target language to them in the class, and are the kids reporting in on comprehension checks at 80% or above? If so, then we are doing our jobs. Then, echoing Gilbert Gottfried, we can say with confidence, “I am intelligent, I am a good person, and gosh darn it, my students are learning”
   I definitely agree with the above. Sometimes, I feel like I’m failing, but then, I get one kid that I feel that I haven’t been reaching ask me an amazing grammatical/structural question after only 11 weeks of Spanish, and then it’s like BAM!!, I can actually do this. I’m making progress 🙂 Gotta love TPRS

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5. paul kirschling

   December 2, 2011 at 7:16 am

   Another great piece!

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