I had asked Melanie to summarize the changes she made in her upper level classes as a result of a recent thread and here is what she wrote:
After I sought advice from members of this blog about problems in my level 4 German class, who had already had 3 years of TPRS, I learned that at a certain point in the upper levels, it is time to transition to more output. I also learned that it is important to expand the field from just personalization and the students’ experiences to learning about and discussing a variety of topics from the world outside.
I was following the 3 steps of TPRS which had worked great for the last few years, but now they were tired of it. I thought they were just bored, but really they were ready to move on. Now, I am just doing two things:
1. reading a variety of things with a little pre-reading PQA, pop up grammar and discussion.
2. output activities, such as writing and role plays or discussions.
I plow through the reading, picking up speed and just defining words we don’t know. I spent a month on my last textbook chapter that I had prepared with stories, but now I will probably only spend 2 weeks per chapter, just reading something everyday, and then output at the end with what we’ve learned, instead of spending a few days on each reading following all the steps.
The Problem with CI
Jeffrey Sachs was asked what the difference between people in Norway and in the U.S. was. He responded that people in Norway are happy and
