It’s a new school year and for many of us that means talking to new students and new parents about something they’re very unfamiliar with: language proficiency. You may have caught this document on the wikispace for the workshop I did with the Webb School of Knoxville this summer; it’s something I put together to […]
Well, last Friday came and went and the first official Camp Musicuentos is a wrap! I had the great privilege of working with 20 outstanding teachers from across my own region and even beyond – I was joined by teachers from Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Virginia! Our learning, for […]
Don’t smack me here, I know school JUST got out, but you know it’s true – it’ll be back before you know it! And one of our most important jobs in the first days of school is educating (and selling!) parents and students on proficiency-based teaching. I’m being hosted by The Webb School of Knoxville […]
Have you ever stopped to think about why we teach the past tenses separately? When I first started investigating TPRS as a teaching method, a lot of things clicked with me (and some didn’t) but one of the tips that made the most sense was that it didn’t make sense to teach past tenses one at […]
The Merrillville (IN) High School is hosting me for a professional development workshop and is inviting teachers across the region. Here are the brief details, and you can view the description more in-depth in this flyer. Where: Merrillville High School, Merrillville, IN (near Gary in the greater Chicago region) When: Thursday, June 19, 8:00 A.M. – […]
Got intermediate Spanish students you’re trying to push to use some advanced skills? How about using these authentic “memes” to illustrate some proficiency differences? All three of these phrases mean basically the same thing, but they use different language to express it. Once students get to intermediate low proficiency, pushing their proficiency higher has a […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
2013’s eighth most popular post is about telling the difference between novice high and intermediate low. Be sure to check out the comments on the original post for more helpful distinguishing tips. I got a question recently from a colleague who was having trouble pinpointing the difference between novice high and intermediate low with her […]
One of the most important things we can do at the beginning of the year is to help our students understand the concept of proficiency: what it is, where they’re at, where they’re going. Browse through previous posts tagged “proficiency” for lots of help on informing about proficiency, as well as improving it. These posts […]
There’s one moment in a teaching class I took in college more than ten years ago that forever remains in my memory. Our professor, one of my favorites of all my education years, told a story of how he watched one of his students die of cancer. He ended the lecture that day with a […]