I’ve got those 24 short clips from my old school – video taken last spring – that Frank was asking about. I’ll start putting them up here. I think I learned a lot at NTPRS this year, so these clips, especially the first ones showing PQA, are still way frickin’ too fast.
But there is value here in that these 24 clips basically show the three steps of TPRS from beginning (PQA) to end (Reading). I hope they will be helpful in that way to show how so much language can grow from just three simple structures over three days. It’s an Anne Matava story called Lazy from her Story Scripts Vol. 2.
Here are the first three clips and then the fourth one is a voiceover of the first three:
http://www.schooltube.com/video/8f8907a0e8405c6727a0/Ben-Slavic-5911-Part-1
http://www.schooltube.com/video/de738343ca6eee899a3d/Ben-Slavic-5911-Part-2
http://www.schooltube.com/video/ac26e95e76c989b88c0c/Ben-Slavic-5911-Part-3 http://www.schooltube.com/video/9f082110bd675bc5cb1c/Ben-Slavic-Teacher-Commentary-Part-13 (voiceover)
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
7 thoughts on “Video of the Three Steps 1”
Thank you for sharing all of your videos. It’s so nice to watch the master at work and to see how this is done in the classroom.
Chris don’t even call me a master. I am just as insecure with this as the rest of us. The only difference is that I’ve been at it for eleven years and I had an actual real master, Susie Gross, to train me for the first five of those years, when it counts. I’m just trying to pay it forward. It is scary for me to post vids of myself, so just to be clear on that. I just don’t see any options for training.
Awesome clips! I especially liked the last one where you voice it over pointing things out to us.
Question: Before the PQA began, you and the class chose signs for the structures. Do you ever establish signs prior to class in order to move right into the circling?
No. I like the way we come up with gestures together. The more we decide together, the more ownership the kids have in the class. That’s what the jobs are all about, by the way. There are 18 good and creative jobs available to kids in class. It totally changes the vibe of the class when I ask, “Who is supposed to do that?” or “You’re fired!” and stuff like that. I am truly not a deliverer of TPRS instructional services. It’s just us hanging out, being kind of a family, with everybody assuming their role in it. The class, with anything that causes us to make decisions together (creating a story is the highest form of this), bonds much more, as Kate pointed out in one of her blog comments here in August. I always think about what she said because it’s real. Ownership and sharing in the creation of the class is key. We have to completely rethink our roles as teachers. It really is a shift of paradigm.
That is what I thought, it really is a great way to personalize, thanks!
Thanks for these awesome clips Ben! It really is great to watch and learn from you. I can really feel the difference in my classes this year just by using TPRS. They are so much more motivated to learn the language and especially with the classroom jobs…they fight over who gets to be the quiz writer or rep counter 🙂 I love it! Who ever would have thought that my students would want to write a quiz???
I’m also amazed at just how much they have retained. I had a few students volunteer to retell a story that we had been working on that week and I was blown away at what they remembered. Some students were even pulling in the extra vocabulary from the reading. Hopefully next week I will be getting some more video to upload. I also agree with what you said about you just hanging out with your students. It really does feel that way, less pressure and so much more enjoyable than going from page to page in a textbook.
Thank you, Angela, for allowing me to be of service in this work.