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What is CI? – 3
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11 thoughts on “What is CI? – 3”
Can I put CI 1,2+3 on the State of Maine FL list serve? Don’t you think this would be a great conversation generator?
Would any of the “authors” – people quoted/mentioned object?
I may like to edit some pieces like the referrals to Met/Curtain?
thanks
skip
I don’t object and shouldn’t really be focused on the Met/Curtain deal. I’ll get over them. I just think it’s unfortunate that tens of thousands of teachers have been led to think that CI can be boxed in a Realidades book or computer package and sold as part of a larger instructional package. Those teachers, under the tutelage of these (usually underpaid university) people who really do have connections with corporations and benefit a lot from those relationship as shills, then become mere deliverers of instructional services and not practitioners of the art of comprehension based instruction – the difference again being the unconscious piece as mentioned in these posts where the unhappy result is that the student under this false kind of CI instruction is made to focus on the words and not the meaning. I don’t object to using books and computer programs as long as real CI comes out of them, but I do object to teachers being made to think that CI is what they are doing when it is merely ci, to use Grant Boulanger’s excellent lower case point about the difference between the two, and the growing danger that teachers doing ci bring to our profession. Watch now how more and more teachers, under the pressure of the growing attention to the ACTFL standard of Communication and the 90% Use Statement in their districts, will grab hold of this kind of ci instruction and hide behind it, largely doing what they used to do. That is going to happen more and more and discussions like this will be muted in the storm of their defensive, cloudy posturing.
I keep trying to find the best way to invite Latin teachers into some important and difficult self-reflection around these issues. Here’s what I know about myself:
–when I first became aware that there was a vast difference in what I knew about Latin and the actual experience of “being in Latin” (the best way I know to describe it) I felt like a fraud. No teacher likes to feel like a fraud, but I am convinced that the degree to which you do not know the personal experience of being in the language I claim to teach, I am a fraud. It is a problem that I can remedy, but the remedy really requires a lot of me. I’ve been working on my own remedy to this fraudulence for myself for the past 15 years. I expect it to be an ongoing remedy. This is a dark demon that we have to face if we do CI work.
–Teaching in Latin 90% of the time “robs” me of one of the things I love to do–hold captive audience waxing on about some of my favorite topics–culture and grammar–which I can do with no prep at all. It’s easy for me to do, and I love being the center of attention. Teaching 90% of the time in Latin forces me to be the center of attention in a way that is really difficult, but to admit this is to admit that I want to do what feels good to me and not what will work for my students. They get only about 10% of what I say in English, but when I do CI in Latin, they get most of it. Hmmmm. Another demon to tackle.
–No Latin teacher, and I surmise most other language teachers, has had CI work modeled for them in their college or graduate programs. In fact, we have been shaped by just the opposite–lots of knowledge about our language. I watched a 10 year Latin teacher nearly implode over the notion that he might give classroom instructions in Latin. “I know how to form the imperative, but I have no idea how to give classroom instructions.” In other words, he has no experience at all “being in Latin”. Likewise, I know a veteran Spanish teacher right now who rarely speaks any Spanish to her students because “grammar is my forte.” My point here is that we often are isolated in our attempts to do CI work, and if we have any detractors in the mix the isolation can become excruciating. Jeff has allowed us to watch his valiant efforts this year, and he reminds us of what the isolation can look like. Up against feeling so alone, why should I continue this kind of work–except that it just works when we work it.
Three demons: the fraud, the narcissism, and the isolation. Wish they weren’t so big, but they are, and while these are my problems, I suspect, deeply, that I am not alone in fighting them.
“They get only about 10% of what I say in English, but when I do CI in Latin, they get most of it.”
Funny, isn’t it? We presume using English is making it clearer, but when we’re rambling on about grammar details that almost no one in class cares about, it’s not really sinking in.
Bob, thanks for the brutally honest post. It’s like a twelve step program. You are not alone.
“Likewise, I know a veteran Spanish teacher right now who rarely speaks any Spanish to her students because “grammar is my forte.” I had to laugh at this. Here in France, I once overheard two Spanish teachers at a workshop talking about a Spanish student assistant who wondered why they were teaching the imperfect subjunctive when no one in Spain uses it. One of the teachers said rather indignantly, “I’m not preparing them for a holiday in Spain! I teaching the language and its culture.”
My question is, as Ben suggested, how to succinctly and accurately (and in 30 seconds or less) differentiate between:
I use a lot of comprehensible input in my classes
vs
My instructional approach is Teaching with Comprehensible Input
30 seconds or less…. go!
I’m glad I read that Bob. Thanks for writing it.
And Ben, that first post you called ‘What is Ci – 1’ was really great to read.
I think Ben is right. Without grasping that languages are unconsciously acquired, then “CI” is an additional “tool” to use in classes. This type of teaching requires a bigger shift than that. I catch myself sometimes – not “grammar woman” but more often “activities to make them talk” woman, especially when attempting to engage the 7th graders who don’t relate interpersonally at a decent level. It was harder to plan my classes back then by a lot, but in some ways, it was less draining for me to do class that way — at least with oppositional students it was.
When I notice this impulse, I remember that pushing them to speak doesn’t lead to language acquisition. Hearing/seeing something they understand, and letting them produce at their own pace naturally in response to that, leads to acquisition.
Speaking of Comprehensible Input….here is an adorable video showing how someone can talk and talk and talk, but NOT be comprehensible! I found this on a site called Musicuentos – listed on Martina Bex’s site. This Musicuentos site ‘tags’ TPRS — does anyone know anything about this company?
This video would also be good to show Admin/colleagues/anyone who you are trying to explain “comprehensible input” to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xqrZV3yIoT8
In this ongoing discussion on how to boil down what is CI, I’d like to offer the following:
TCI is culturally responsive teaching because we use CI to discuss that which is meaningful and relevant to our students. We personalize the language by talking with and about students. We, in collaboration with our students, make sure it is comprehended.
Four key ideas that distinguish ci from TCI:
Personalized environment
Meaningful discussion
Relevant content
Comprehended language