https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUjxsuGwTA8 Think of all the famous movie quotes you’ve ever heard and instantly remembered… “There’s no place like home.” "Frankly, my dear. I don't give a damn." “You had me at ‘hello’.” “You complete me.” These are timeless quotes that are remembered not because of the...
If you are seriously committed to using Comprehensible Input every day in your classroom, you already know the basics. Speak the language, make sure students understand most of it, provide level-appropriate reading materials, shelter vocabulary for a more narrow focus, create a language-rich environment. All...
[caption id="attachment_34293" align="alignright" width="532"] This guy understands[/caption] Let’s kiss. No, not like that. Let’s K.I.S.S. Let’s Keep it Slow and Simple in our language classes. As the school year progresses I have found myself speaking in English more and more and in Spanish less and less. My adrenaline is...
When I decided to write this blog post about ‘LOVE’ a few weeks ago, I had no idea that the topic would become much more relevant and meaningful than I had originally thought. My intent was solely to talk about collegiality, kindness, and love as...
[caption id="attachment_29325" align="alignright" width="300"] Eric Herman[/caption] The following post is reprinted with permission from Eric Herman. It is an abridged version of a supplement to Issue 4 of the weekly Acquisition Classroom Memo, a review of must-know second language acquisition research and the implications for classroom...
Sometimes we all just need a little reminder that there are a variety of ways to provide comprehensible input to our students. Here are a handful of great ideas contributed by some fabulous teachers to help you bring a dose of novelty into your classroom! Do...
If someone would have asked me six months ago what TPR (Total Physical Response) is, I would have replied that basically, it is giving commands in the target language, with the student responding to that command physically. I mistakenly thought that simply by telling my...
My favorite units of study are Biodiversity and the water crisis. Whether we are comparing the Carlyle Lake watershed with the Panamá Canal or investigating water borne illnesses and solutions for lack of potable water around the world, these units are anchored in the concept...
Teaching your first novel can be a daunting task. Logistically it is quite different from the textbook chapters I was used to in the past. Some teachers integrate novels into an existing curriculum as a one day per week supplement, but I have chosen to...
When I first started teaching using TPRS/CI it was hard, it was really, really hard. In fact, for the first time since student teaching (many, many years ago) I had to script out every single word I said. For a single 15 minute story, this...
There are many activities that can be done while reading a story or a chapter of a TPRS Publishing novel. In my classroom, one thing I try to do is use a variety of activities to try to avoid a monotonous feeling that could cause...
After teaching with CI and TPRS for a couple of months now, I know that I can never return to my old ways. Here’s why: 1. Teaching Children with Down Syndrome I teach at an elementary school that has several students with Down Syndrome. These students are integrated into...
Rewind to me four years ago sitting in my first Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling® (TPRS) workshop. I was learning about great reading and storytelling techniques but I couldn't wrap my mind around one thing: how does this work in the elementary classroom? How do...
[caption id="attachment_556" align="alignright" width="218"] Ben Slavic[/caption] Get Stories Out of the Hangar, in the Air, Through the Storm, and Safely Back Again in 25 Minutes For too long in TPRS we have been loading our stories up with excess weight, excess details, just at the moment when...
Recently, a university professor posted to the ACTFL Teacher Development SIG discussion board*, expressing concern about whether TPRS materials “provide authentic language / culture” and whether “the approach is able to address all five Cs.” I enjoyed reading the comments on the board and appreciated...
When someone gets something specially customized or custom-fit, a client is usually told, “We don’t fit you to the ___, we fit the ____ to you.” Many times, that can also be said for education, and for me, morphing into Teaching with Comprehensible Input over...
[caption id="attachment_409" align="alignright" width="299"] The Great Carnac?[/caption] I was fortunate enough to attend two exceptional conferences back-to-back and have unique perspectives on each. It’s amazing how perspectives of language instruction/acquisition vary from region to region. In Hawaii (SWCOLT), there seemed to be a large number of...
Word Clouds are everywhere. We see them in advertising, on merchandise, blog sidebar widgets, and—of course—instructional materials shared by teachers. Word clouds are a method of representing data in a visual way: specifically, the words contained within any given text and their frequency. The bigger...
Carrie Toth shares her journey from frustration to a-ha as she discovered teaching with Comprehensible Input! This post is a must-read for anyone experiencing the January doldrums!...