Just to summarize a thread that pops up here every once in a while, we have been working on coming up with ideas for upper level classes. We have two that are being tested by various group members in their third and fourth year (true CI kids since level 1) classes. The first idea is to use cRD on authentic texts, and the second is to read novels that are well below the level of the class.
In an email contact with Anne Matava today, I received this excellent support of the latter idea from her. The ‘Laura’ referred to is of course her excellent Spanish colleague and our group member (and the translator of her scripts book for Houdini) Laura Avila:
Hi Ben –
Laura and I are discovering the joy of reading novels with the upper-level students that are at or below their reading level. She just started Houdini with her Spanish 2 class, for example, and they are sailing through it. I just finished Presque Mort with my 3/4 class and I will never go back to giving kids a novel that “challenges” them. Easy reading is where it’s at. Everyone pays attention, they can all understand it, and the conversations are much richer.