Become a more confident language teacher.
Once I moved away from using the textbook as the center of my curriculum, I was free to bring in all kinds of new texts. Popular songs, novels written for language learners, picture books, short non-fiction readings prepared by me, infographics, edited stories written by my students or co-created by the class, and more. By…
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The CI waters are up to your ankles as you stand on the first step descending into the lake of CI. You tried asking a question, and whether it went well or it didn’t, your ankles have adjusted at least a little bit to the temperature. It’s time to take another step: The next mission…
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It’s a new school year and you, dear language teacher, are ready for a new YOU! You have heard about comprehensible input centered instruction, you perhaps attended a workshop or six over the summer…maybe you have even given CI instruction a go in the past! Whatever your background looks like, you have decided that 2017…
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When I first started teaching, all of my files were paper and I organized them in hanging file folders. Eventually, I graduated to beautiful binders filled with page-protected worksheets separated with colorful dividers for each unit. As I began to gather more and more materials from the Internet (blog posts, videos, lesson plans, images, etc.),…
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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…
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Have you ever gone to a session at a conference and been SO EXCITED about whatever you learned that you don’t eat, don’t sleep, don’t shower, and ignore everyone that you care about until you finally get the chance to try it out? No? That’s just a Martina thing? Shoot. Well this last summer, everyone…
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I have dedicated any computer time this week to formatting and finally publishing my Sistema Solar unit, but I keep being distracted with conversations that I just have to share with you!! One of my [many] great takeaways from Terry Waltz’s fantastic manual TPRS with Chinese Characteristics is the idea that it is important to do TPRS® “by…
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This is the sixth post in the series “TPRS® 101: Teaching Proficiency is Really Simple“. The first week back from winter break is like a re-start for many teachers. You set goals back in August, and you’ve accomplished some but fell short of others. You spent a semester learning and growing as a professional, and…
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The second to last session that I attended at ACTFL 2015 was with Amy Lenord. Amy has written fairly extensively on her blog about why and how she has moved away from giving traditional vocabulary lists to her students. As I was busy covering the session on Twitter (search Twitter for #unlistvocab #actfl15 for my…
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So you want to use authentic resources in your language class. Where do you start? CHOOSE A RESOURCE THAT YOU CAN HELP STUDENTS UNDERSTAND. This interview is incomprehensible for a Novice. There is just way too much language! The time and frustration that it would take them to sort through it all to find answers…
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