All of today's gifts have been claimed! Check back tomorrow for another chance to win. Keep in mind that clues will post at various times to accommodate for different time zones. Don't worry West Coast people! We feel your pain...
This Christmas we are celebrating YOU and all of the wonderful teachers who make up the Fluency Matters family. We are extremely grateful for your support and encouragement throughout the year and want to show just how much...
The Fluency Matters Team has just returned from an amazing learning experience at ACTFL 2017, and although we are exhausted, we are invigorated! Our team presented to several hundred dedicated educators, some who already use comprehension-based strategies and others who are just beginning to transition...
ACTFL 2017 is just days away, and the excitement for the largest language conference in the U.S. is certainly growing! There are literally hundreds of sessions (870 to be exact) to choose from, so planning ahead is vital to a successful conference. Of the 870...
Win-win Situation! Yup, Fluency Matters is ready to give free books to up to TEN winners. Read on to learn how to win a free class set of (25) readers or a Class E-course Subscription for up to 150 students! Most people think of the word “win” in...
iFLT registration opens TOMORROW! Are YOU ready for the most comprehensive, collegial, and effective TPRS/CI training of the YEAR? Don't be stuck in the "upside down" of your career! Let iFLT rescue you! Tomorrow, November 1st, just "Hopper" on over to our iFLT website and register! The conference...
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...
A Tufts University study shows what most of us probably already know intuitively: that the brain (auditory cortex) responds differently to different types of sounds. The researchers found that sounds that carry more intense emotions (which vary based on culture, personal experience and many other...
Tasks in the Language Classroom By Eric Herman Many thanks to Eric Herman for sharing this informative post on task-based language teaching. If you are serious about understanding tasks, both from BVP's perspective and from the perspective of facilitating acquisition you'll need to settle in for a cup a...
[gallery size="medium" ids="58475,58476,58477"] Well, it was inevitable. Take a school full of humans, warm them all up in a heatwave, and you end up with the Spanish teacher down for the weekend with the first cold virus of the school year! I spent the weekend sniffing...
We have selected our lucky winner! View the random drawing here! If you are our winner, we will be sending you an email! Congratulations on your prize, a free e-course for the novel of your choice for up to 150 students! https://vimeo.com/236465908...
One of the foundations of teaching with TPRS or other CI-based methods is that students need to interact with comprehensible text in order to acquire new vocabulary and language structure. Most TPRS/CI teachers incorporate comprehensible novels into their classrooms, and often teachers also type up...
Win a free subscription to the E-course Flipbook title of your choice for up to 150 students! We will randomly draw a winner from among those who are subscribed to our blog! If you have already subscribed and receive our weekly blog post via e-mail,...
In Atlanta, Brandon was surrounded by fruit trees, flowers, and colonial architecture. In Chicago, he was dazzled by skyscrapers, museums, and the famous “Bean.” In California, he saw the missions built by Spanish clergy and in New York City he saw a play on Broadway....
They say that you can’t buy happiness but you can buy a plane ticket… and that is pretty much the same thing! Brandon has discovered that he is really, REALLY happy as a traveler and adventurer. He has experienced education in a lot of different...
A father and his children in Colombia Four weeks into his journey, Brandon is frankly feeling a little homesick. What sounded like a great adventure at first has led him to discover just how important his family and friendships really are. Compounding the homesickness is the...
The novel Vector by Carrie Toth is set during the construction of the Panama Canal Brandon has been on the road for three weeks now and he always thought language classes were just about nouns and verbs! Boy was he wrong! He has been digging...
Two weeks after departing on his journey, Brandon Brown has been popping up, not only in a lot of classrooms, but all over social media as well. Seeing so many different classrooms and cultures has him thinking a lot about his own identity, both his...
Brandon Brown has been on the road for a whole week already! As he has travels from classroom to classroom, Brandon is learning a lot about the lives of students around the world. When he began this journey, he assumed that everyone grew up the same...
A summer without language class has left Brandon Brown feeling deflated and now he is on a mission! Brandon heard that planning for proficiency and preparing students for exit exams like the AP starts in level one! Could it be true? Are there seeds of...
WHAT IS FLIPGRID ONE? FlipGrid One is the basic, free FlipGrid service. “With Flipgrid One, you now have access to a free version of Flipgrid that never expires. You are allowed one grid with limited features. Add as many topics and record as many responses as...
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...
Who creates readers? Pernille Ripp, an ELA teacher says that WE do, their educators. Her latest post connects beautifully to what I learned at iFLT. She even includes Krashen’s research to support that WE as teachers must plan for reading enjoyment. Students need to read...
Modifying authentic resources which has received a lot of attention on Twitter over the past year in the #langchat community. The #TCI community taught me that modifying authentic resources or “semi authentic resources” are very useful to our students because it can then become comprehensible...
This session was wonderful! We got to be students in Kristy Placido’s classroom. She is one of my favorite Spanish teachers so it was wonderful to experience. I posted a few videos to Twitter if you want to check out her session. One of my...
I love Nelly Hughes! I have been getting to know her on social media for the past few months and I finally got to meet her in person at iFLT17! She is so enthusiastic and easy to talk to! Her presentation today was as awesome...
Readers Theater with Karen Rowan was exciting! She opened the session with this song. She divided the class into two teams. Half of the class sang a line of the song as Don Quijote. We sang, “Yo soy yo Don Quijote”. She had it posted...
I have been so excited about this session since the iFLT schedule came out. This session is something that is dear to my heart. I teach students who are on the path to AP and I want to make sure that I am...
What an amazing experience being at iFLT has been! I have met so many of my favorite Spanish teachers! I am completely star struck! Today I got to attend the powerhouse session of Kristy Placido, “The Wonderful World of Intermediates”....
I am so happy I was able to be a part of Carrie Toth’s “Becoming Proficient in Proficiency”. She is extremely knowledgeable about this topic and I am confident that all the session participants left today feeling much more informed as I do. ...