The bird’s out of the cage, and it’s time to share my big secret with YOU, my readers!! At ACTFL, I announced the launch of GARBANZO, the new web application from The Comprehensible Classroom. The journey to create an app that would help teachers find reading material that is suitable for early language learners began … Continue reading Meet Garbanzo: The new story-based app for learning Spanish
You’ve got a new comprehension-based curriculum, and you’d be 100% sold if it weren’t for that storyasking part. You’ve got a script, but what the heck do you do with it? Many teachers have asked the same question before. Storyasking is an invented word meant to differentiate creating a story from telling a story. If you’ve … Continue reading “I don’t understand how to ask a story.”
ASK THE STORY: How to Use Matava-Style Scripts to Create a Class Story Click here to download a print-ready PDF of this post. Some teachers are really great at creating class stories on the spot that provide zillions of repetitions of the target structures while still staying “in-bounds” (using only vocabulary that students already know). Others … Continue reading How to ask a TPRS story
With a total of 19 Tweets, Facebook tags, emails, text messages, and Facebook messages in 48 hours, I am just thrilled to know that I am the first person you think of when you hear a good poop story (thank you, Correcaca). Perhaps you saw on the news that there is a new caca-criminal in town–and this … Continue reading Another poop story for your Spanish class
I first heard the idea for “Today in History”; or rather, “NOT Today in History” by reading a blog post from Justin Slocum Bailey on the Indwelling Language blog back in 2014. Click here to read the first post: and here to read the second. Recently, I have been looking for new kinds of ‘puzzles’ that … Continue reading Today in history: engage students with a simple critical thinking activity in the target language
For the last several years, I have participated in an annual event at a local college. I have used more or less the same lesson plan each year, and you can read through it in detail and download the materials that I use for it here. This year, I had taught two 55 minute classes. In … Continue reading Watch me ask a TPRS® story
COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT IS SO FREAKING COOL! So far, French is the only language that I have set out to learn through input. It’s an…ongoing…project that I leave and come back to once every few months as time permits. I’ve read novels from Fluency Matters and listened to the audio versions, read news article summaries in … Continue reading Les petites amies de mon frère: Story Script
Isn’t it fun when a great video pops into your newsfeed? I remember seeing The Janitor Story before, but I had forgotten the ending when one of my mom friends shared it over the weekend! Without my ‘real’ computer (my 5yo killed it with a kombucha spill) and unable to work on any ongoing projects, … Continue reading The Janitor Story — MovieTalk and more!
One of the first TPRS® stories that I did with my students back in 2010 was “La novia ingrata” (the ungrateful girlfriend), which was a script shared on Ben Slavic’s blog by *I believe* Anne Matava. I ended up purchasing Anne Matava’s Scripts (Volumes 1 and 2, and there is now a Volume 3 available!), … Continue reading Valentine’s Day Story Script
Hey amigos, I’ve got a new script for you! And guess what?? It TARGETS -AR imperfect conjugations! Yes, folks…this script here will provide your students with some good ol’ comprehensible, targeted input! But let’s be clear here–the kind of targeting that I do with this story (and the way that I intend for you to use … Continue reading Story script to target -AR imperfect verb conjugations
