Laurie said in a recent blog comment: “…I have long wondered about the irony of measuring language acquisition using NUMERICAL data…”. I replied, as a comment, and make it a blog entry here because then it is more searchable: Laurie I think it’s time for an investigation. I’m not wondering anymore. The manner in which […]
They will feed us if we let them. What does that mean? To me, it means that if we give up worrying about controlling the direction of the discussion in the target language, and listen to them more, then the discussion will be more interesting, because it will include, not exclude, their point of view. But
The Circling with Balls activity (this site/resources/workshop handouts), is an excellent way to begin the year in first year classes because it addresses both the personalization piece and the establishment of the rules piece (see this site/posters for the most current version of the rules that I have developed over the years). By getting to know the
In talking about planning classes, Jim said: “You have to use those assigned structures in CI that will be interesting enough for the student to listen to you, and be able to change things up enough to not lose their attention…the less we plan…perhaps the better we will become at the art of CI.” This
I got a question about TPRS asking where the number of 75 repetitions per structure may have come from. Here is an answer that may or may not be accurate: Carol Gaab has said that she has a goal of 75 repetitions for simple structures and up to 150 for more complex structures. Wow. If
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 »
K has updated us on her lunchtime French crowd, which is meeting through the summer: Hello Mr. Slavic: I wanted to update you on the first summer lunch group meeting. It went very well. I’m pretty sure that my parents are crazy since they allowed 25 teenagers to be in their house for a very
Reposting of Information about the TPRS Graduate Course Columbia, SC June 14-17, 2010 Instructor: Elizabeth Hughes Location: Columbia, South Carolina Dates: June 14 – 17, June 21 and August 2, 2010 Cost: $125.00 for 3 hours of graduate/recertification credit and course materials Registration: Please email Nancy Williams at nwilliam@lex5. k12.sc.us, and she will gladly assist you
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
Let’s admit that the influence of the people in our buildings who feel that grammar really needs to be taught to the kids in the first year is strong in our classrooms. Kids hear that the next year is all grammar and they get a look in their eyes like, “Are you preparing me for
I got this testimonial from Elissa a few days ago: “…I am LOVING LOVING LOVING my work with kids now that I have found TPRS. OMG this is frickin awesome. And I still feel like I’m at the tip of the iceberg! I’ve learned so much from you and the blog and DVDs. I just feel
