Chris has been busy with all his different responsibilities and we need to send him lots of ideas now. We need to step up for him. Keep in mind that his audience (see below) will be full of skeptics drawn to the session because they want to keep their jobs and, as Chris says below, will be looking for concrete “activities” to get their classes in the TL. The last thing they are going to want to hear is the term TPRS, and they are going to have earplugs on to terms like Krashen and CI. So it’s not an easy task Chris is faced with. Here’s his email:
Hey Ben,
Sorry about my lack of activity on the blog, I’m finding myself incredibly busy with work, school and my Master’s Project (but at least I’ll graduate this semester). I’m now busy trying to plan for the Central States Conference I’ve gotten myself roped into but now have no clue what to do. I was hoping I could get some ideas from the group on planning for my session titled “90%: Staying in the TL”. I’m trying to keep in mind that to be successful at these you have to give people “stuff” they can use on Monday. Here’s the description of the session:
ACTFL’s Position Statement states that FL teachers should use the target language at least 90% of the time at all levels of instruction. Many states’ revised standards are fully embracing this recommendation. In this session, I will share ideas on how to align with ACTFL’s 90% Position Statement by providing comprehensible input to students and employing questioning techniques to provide repetitions of critical vocabulary to students.
AUDIENCE: Elementary, MS/JHS, HS English, Spanish English, Spanish 60-minute session