Curriculum
April 9, 2014
Textbooks can be really helpful. Yes, I did say that. They can give you structure and ideas. They can facilitate communication among you, parents, and schools. They can provide you with assessments, sometimes good ones. Sorry, I still don’t like them. I don’t like doing extra work any more than you do, but I still […]
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March 28, 2014
To find out what curriculum planning I think is necessary before school begins, click here for Part 1. Before the unit starts If you haven’t already (see Part 1 #4), choose a platform to help you organize yourself. I use a simple Excel or Google Drive spreadsheet. On the left, I list the date, number […]
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March 20, 2014
I’ve been told several times recently that the concept of planning your own curriculum is all well and good, but where do you start? What steps do you take? Now that I’ve been textbook-free for five years, I’ve refined my own process to the following steps. Before school starts If you think you have to […]
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March 13, 2014
Is this the best we can do?
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Last September Martin Lapworth wrote a blog post called “On CI, TPRS, Acquisition, etc. (I so want to believe…)“. As I read it and the comments on it (which, incidentally, include one authored by CI king Stephen Krashen), I found myself asking a question that I’ve felt for a long time is forefront in the […]
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March 4, 2014
I’ve gotten this question several times lately and it’s made me remember I sort of blogged on that when I wrote about taking the leap to standards-based assessment but I should go into it a little more. So, you’re ready to move to proficiency-based assessment and standards-based grading, but if you’re assessment is focused on […]
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February 25, 2014
This guest post is a response to last week’s “What I hate about TPRS.” First, I would like to thank Sara-Elizabeth for writing such thought-provoking posts. You gave us a great deal to consider and challenged our thinking. THAT is always GOOD! And many thanks for the opportunity to be a guest blogger. I won’t […]
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February 18, 2014
A friend of mine told me he frequently gets asked if I’m a TPRS teacher. My answer: TPRS is an am vs. use question for me. Yes, I use. No, I am not “a TPRS teacher.” There are so many strategies from TPRS that have made me a much better teacher and that I use in almost every class […]
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February 13, 2014
What I love about TPRS
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Let me give you a run-down of my teaching career. After I graduated from high school, I spent four years at a liberal arts college learning a lot about what it means to be a good teacher and almost nothing about how to be a good language teacher. After graduating from college, I spent three […]
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January 27, 2014
Last year I blogged a post about the top 3 mistakes teachers of novices make. It made a big splash, in the cyber world anyway. Something about that post resonated with teachers. But it didn’t address the biggest mistake all of us make – the cancer that plagues world language teaching and makes programs far and […]
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January 17, 2014
Sometimes, the business world comes up with a really great idea that works well in education. Sometimes, that idea catches on like wildfire and makes a big difference for student learning. Sometimes, it doesn’t. At least, not for everyone. Particularly those of us who might be considered “early adopters” have a bad habit of hearing […]
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January 10, 2014
What an important resolution to make! If you’re only going to make one resolution this year, there are so many options to choose from – more comprehensible input would probably be the top one I’d pick. But this one is so close. My last suggestion for a resolution for 2014 is to 5. Use more […]
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January 7, 2014
If you’ve read me long, you’ve heard it before – no matter how good the textbook is, at least in my experience, it’s never motivated students past September, and it’s out of date as soon as it’s printed. Of course there are lots of other arguments – artificial order, ridiculously expensive supplements, faulty companion assessments, […]
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