Teachers who work hard don’t necessarily reach their kids. That may be true in other lines of work, but this language game is not about working hard. If it were, parents who aggressively teach their small children language would have more fluent kids later on, but this is not true. It’s just the opposite. Everybody […]
Jody sent this for us a few days ago: Warren Ediger, creator of the website, Successful English, wrote an interesting article this week about “How do I know if my language ability is improving?”. I am very interested in this topic and wrote to him to ask if I might use his ideas to help
How do I know I'm Getting Better at ________ (fill in the language)? Read More »
Maybe we became teachers because we like to be in control. But there is a problem with that. Real conversation between people, the good stuff, cannot be controlled. In a good discussion, no one voice dominates. Good talk is a dance among equals. That is where the 50% rule applies. I think that that 50% rule is
I don’t know if anyone else has had this experience during CI: You build an image with the kids, for whatever reason (story, PQA. or just to build a little one word image for fun), and pretty soon this kind of weird ownership or the image emerges from the kids. Like, you can’t change any
In a recent communication with a parent there was, in the signature of her email, this quote by Paul Shepard: “…I move toward a feeling that we can make enormous changes, but that they’re not going to be made through change in ideology, or policies or programs. They’re going to be made in the way we
I got a nice letter from a parent today – it was cc’d to other people in the building. We should all get such letters at the end of each school year! – “I would like to personally thank you for making learning a language so enjoyable for my son. His French 1 class
What goes on in a typical classroom reflects the mental stance of the teacher. If the teacher is uptight, the classroom will be uptight. If the teacher is spontaneous, the classroom will be spontaneous. If the class is heavily planned with all sorts of fragmented/eclectic activities, the classroom will reflect that in the form of
Jennifer sent this to add to the word list discussion: Hi Ben, I’m still trying to figure out how to teach in this new bureaucracy I find myself in. But, I’m getting ideas that are starting to gel together. Thank you so much for all the wonderful, thought-filled posts and conversations. Without them, I’d
Meagan is my colleague at East High here in Denver. Last week she told me about how a kid came into her classroom and asked, “Is it true that four year olds can learn a langauge faster than us?” I loved Meagan’s response: “No, it’s not true. That myth exists because of the way languages
We’re not just talking about a teaching method here, folks. We are talking about employment in a crumbling economy. Those of us who chose to go into the profession did so thinking that we could earn a living from it. But, if the method we use fails us, and our enrollments keep dwindling, and no
Hi Ben, I had an amazing experience today. Our school is doing professional learning communities, starting classes late twice a week so we can work in groups. Patty, Rachel and I had to present this morning on our work in the foreign language department. We told them a little bit about CI-based instruction and I
My heart goes out to students whose learning style is predominantly visual. The reason is that languages are not learned visually – they are learned primarily in an auditory way. Reading, writing, speaking – all emerge from listening. Most students have been made into visual learners by the nature of instruction in schools (thus fully two thirds
