Everybody gets tired this time of the school year, but take heart, my friends: Your students understand more than they can produce. A lot more. Susan Gross always used to say, "Comprehension precedes production--by a mile." Focus on measuring comprehension over output. Evidence that they can understand much more [...]
I have presented about TPRS in the Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages classes at two large regional universities lately. These are some sharp students. Makes me very hopeful for the future of our profession. Their professors are doing a good job with them, judging by the interaction in class. Several of the [...]
We are continuing to interview our way around each Spanish I classroom and the fun is accelerating. Students are becoming more and more comfortable with the process and with the language associated with it. The are acquiring enough to be comfortable. Today a girl was nearly at the level of telling [...]
We can encourage our students to think at higher levels even in low level language classes. My students are doing questions 1-3 below today and tomorrow (broken schedule due to high stakes state testing this week and next). They will need to re-read a bit to answer the questions [...]
I have been down to the National ACTFL conference in Denver for the last two days and I will drag myself down again today (not so sure about Sunday). It is overwhelming. So big. So much stuff. Talk about bright lights, big city! Carol Gaab was dumbfoundingly amazing--engaging, useful, [...]