NTPRS 2011 - St Louis

I've been to the National TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) conference for three years now. In the first two years, there were four different types of activities: 1) in the morning, a loose assortment of tracks aimed at beginning, intermediate and advanced TPRSers, as well as a track especially for FLES (foreign language in elementary school) teachers. Just before or just after lunch, a language immersion class (Mandarin, Swedish, German, Japanese, French, Spanish), followed by more topic-specific sessions. Throughout the day, there were rooms set aside for coaching, where anyone could go and practice teaching particular strategies under the guidance of a trained coach. Participants floated among levels and languages according to personal interest, taste, and perceived need for development.

This year, the 11th National TPRS conference underwent a radical and brilliant change in format. Registrants were asked to classify themselves as either experienced or beginners, and were assigned to groups that were tracked accordingly into a series of morning sessions. The 8 experienced groups rotated through 8 skill-oriented morning sessions over four days. We stayed with the same group and, by the end of the week, had all had the same training with 20+ of the best TPRS trainers, coaches and language teachers in the country. Each morning session included presentation of a specific TPRS skill, followed by a language lesson highlighting that skill, then time for each of us to practice and be coached. In the afternoon we could choose among 10 different sessions, ranging from How Alaskan teachers brought TPRS to Anchorage schools, to Revitalizing the Sauk Indian Language, to Power Grading, to Managing the TPRS Classroom, to Writing and publishing your own TPRS novels, to Stephen Krashen speaking on The Politics of Education. And there was always coaching available, with an hour set aside each afternoon when that was the only thing on the schedule.

Though I had initially been skeptical of the change (if it ain't broke, why fix it?), I quickly saw the genius of the new format. It was great to travel with the same group every morning. We got to know each other, knew who to follow to find the next session, and were able to form a new network we can tap into during the school year if we don't have local colleagues we can brainstorm with. The dedicated coaching hour eliminated the need to choose between sessions and practice. The clustering of experienced and newbie groups allowed everyone to move at an appropriate pace on appropriate topics. The focus on skill-building in the morning sessions and broader issues in the afternoon sessions allowed me to feel that I could get what I need from 8:30-12:00, and pick and choose from the 30+ afternoon options, including choosing to skip sessions to share ideas with new colleagues or take a nap.

In continuing imitation of Mme Hayles, the posts that follow will be my session by session notes on my experience at NTPRS 2011.