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
Thanks to Samantha Uebel, who sent me French translations for my QAR materials, all of you French teachers out there can rest easy knowing that you can pop into class tomorrow and try out QAR without having to do the grunt work of translating everything for yourselves!! Yippee! Click here to download the materials in French, … Continue reading QAR en français!
Over the last year, I have received many email requests from teachers, administrators, and conference planners that need to know how TPRS® and other Comprehensible Input strategies meet Common Core standards. Teachers must explain the connections so that they are permitted to use these best practice strategies in their classrooms, administrators seek to know whether … Continue reading TPRS®/CI and the Common Core
Scott Benedict is the king of assessment, so if you have never before pondered accurate assessment, standards-based assessment, etc., you should probably hop on over to his site, Teach for June, and spend the next few weeks there before you come back and finish reading this post. If you have already reached the conclusion that it … Continue reading REALLY assess reading comprehension
A six word memoir is a good activity shared by the Creative Language Class blog that could be used to review stories, chapters, books...anything. Visit their blog post on 6-Word Memoirs to read a complete description, but here it is in a nutshell: Students read a text Students randomly select or are assigned a character. Students write … Continue reading 6-Word Memoir
Have you ever taken a moment to think about just how complex 'reading comprehension' is? There are an infinite number of skills that a good reader must possess in order to truly comprehend a text, and very few happen consciously. This week, I have realized that my students are often unable to separate 'this' from … Continue reading This or that?
Note to the reader: this post should have been published on 2/12/13. Too many distractions!! Kristy's recent post on #authres reminded me that it was sitting in my draft folder waiting to be published. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I had to settle to be a passive participant in #langchat tonight. … Continue reading National Standards
I love this idea! One of the eighth grade Language Arts standards is being able to write a compare/contrast essay. Having a permanent Venn Diagram affixed to my whiteboard would remind me to practice this skill more often!
A bulletin board bar graph is the perfect tool to bring together data and discussion--and it can be as simple (read: quick) or complicated (read: time-consuming) as you desire to make it. PERSONALIZE YOUR CLASS VOCABULARY LISTS I use bulletin board bar graphs within the framework of Comprehension Based language teaching. One of the reasons … Continue reading Bulletin Board Bar Graph
I had the most wonderful privilege of receiving further training from Susan Van Zant, who works with COREK12 and had already visited our school twice this year. Her training in the fall was most helpful to me with regard to questioning strategies, and her winter training fell while I was on maternity leave (shucks!). This … Continue reading Common Core
