When choosing novels and other reading material for your world language students, look for these characteristics: Is it comprehensible? These are the factors that contribute to comprehensibility: Unique Word Count. This is the number of different words in the text. The lower the unique word count, the easier a [...]
“I don’t know how one develops imagination without reading fiction.” —Diane Ravitch If you haven't encouraged your world language students to read novels, think about it. These novels are not classic literature in the target language. Most of our students are not ready for that. Rather, short novels are [...]
This book will make your life easier and your teaching more effective. It is a compilation of the best comprehension checks for reading that I have discovered over 30 years of teaching and researching Free Voluntary Reading with my students. Whether you call it FVR, Sustained Silent Reading or [...]
Did a seminar in Seattle this week (the 5th of 5 this month) for the Institute for Educational Development, a division of the Bureau of Education and Research (BER). 62 enthusiastic attendees. Fabulous group! Saw some old friends and made some new ones. Woven throughout every aspect of the [...]
Participants in seminars and workshops often ask how beginning students can begin to read independently. Baby steps like this are what works for me. This was an activity that was done as a follow-up to a short story from week 3 of a Spanish 1 class. The bell ringer [...]
CHARLESTON, WV—After years of alleged imprisonment and neglect in a world language classroom, a TPRS novel at long last made a harrowing escape from local high school, sources confirmed Thursday. The novel told local police investigators it was able to escape the classroom where it had been imprisoned and [...]