This year I got too much into Point and Pause and not enough into Circling. I did that consciously, thinking that Point and Pause was faster and taught more vocabulary. That is not necessarily true. A word, any new word introduced into a story, cannot be acquired unless it is circled enough. If a new […]
I’ve been struggling all year with a level four class that I had never taught before and that had done largely grammar from the beginning of their study of French – virtually no CI. I just assumed that the kids knew basic verb tenses. I assumed that they knew a lot more French than they
Teaching a language without using comprehensible input is insulting to the magnificence of the human brain, which can process and decode and implement thousands of rules of language without even needing to use its conscious side – it’s all automatic. All that the brain needs to acquire a language is to hear the language spoken correctly in a
Have you noticed that the kids love to suggest “multicolored” or “tie die” or “stripes” or “polka dots” in response to the question “What color was it?” I love that. They keep wanting things colorful – they don’t want their worlds to become black and white! Rainbows, also, seem to get into stories often. Anytime a
I get so tired from teaching that I have to sleep. But, somewhere after midnight, I wake up, because there is so much to process, so much to think about in this massive learning change that we are all in together now. Thoughts come into my mind and they won’t leave me alone and I have to
O.K. this is the coolest. K just sent me this from Noah. Noah is the guy who raced her in the hallway to start this thread off some months ago. Yes, that guy! How cool is that? Here he tells us what has happened since that race: Dear Mr. Slavic, Je m’appelle Noah. Je suis un
Ben, I know this topic has come up on your blog a few times in the past. Traditional language programs appear to “weed students out.” All but the best students end up dropping out of language programs. Only 4% of students acquire anything resembling fluency. Etc. This year, our department chair reminded us
Socrates: How can we know that we are learning? Students: What do you mean? Socrates: All we do is talk. There is no proof that we are learning. What do we do to prove that we are learning? Students: But we are learning! Socrates: That’s not good enough. Take out a sheet of parchment and prove
As the battle between trusting the process of free form CI and needing to follow a CI curriculum goes on, I got this from a colleague today…. Hi Ben, … buddy you are reading my mind. After a mostly sleepless night of tossing and turning trying to figure out how to return [a bunch of books], I
Skip added a riff to the Student Generated (Skeleton) Story idea set forth by Michele. She provided structures to the kids and had them quickly write stories, choosing one and going with it, but, unless I am mistaken, Skip offered an option of asking the kids for basing a story on some expressions that they
Hi Michele – I have been wanting to thank you for taking the time to write out step by step instructions on Ben’s blog (3/6/2010-way down under the comments) on how to have students create stories from 3 structures.. After reading your “instructions” I gave it a try in my class and OH MY GOODNESS
As for the kids “creating” the skeletons….I think it solves that need that teachers and students have had to “end” a story. Since they have a skeleton….they already have an ending. Something inside says “Ah!!” and can now focus on being truly present in the story…. can you expand on that? i still don’t make
