It's Official - TriState TCI is a Group!

Since I started teaching with Comprehensible Input, I've discovered a close-knit but far-flung peer group of dedicated CI language educators. Many of us are the only CI teachers in our buildings, schools, or even districts. For a while, I felt like the only CI teacher in Pennsylvania - or the TriState region! 

That was what motivated four area CI teachers, of three different languages, at three different levels, in four schools, in three states, to form a peer learning network: TriState TCI. Our group has been active for two years and has gained a life of its own, becoming a recognized community of professionals learning and growing together. We are our own institution.

So, where once our ideological isolation made it tough to take advantage of group discounts offered for conferences and workshops, we now have acknowledged group status. Lucky for us, the CI world operates in a spirit of generosity and collegiality that transcends school walls and district boundaries. Thanks to that spirit, here are the group incentives that conference and workshop organizers have made available to members of TriState TCI who want to attend training this summer:

June 27-29 Express Fluency Teacher Training, Burlington, VT
The June training features Mandarin, French, and Spanish classes supplemented by teacher workshops. Register by May 1st and save $30! Group discount $30 off per person for groups of 3+. Register here.

July 4-29, STARTALK/Confucius Institute TPRS Training for Chinese Teachers, U of Hawaii
Information here: http://confuciusinstitutehawaii.org/programs/summer-programs/teacher-sports-camp-info/

July 12-14: Teach for June summer workshops: Immediate Immersion & Power Grading,
in Sandy Creek, NY.

Scott Benedict writes: Generally we offer a $30 discount per person for 3 to 5 registrations and $60 per person for 6 or more. If you have a group registering together, email me at scott@teachforjune.com to get the discount code. Please include information about everyone in your group along with their emails.

Register here.

July 16-18: FluencyFast language classes just before iFLT in Chattanooga, TN.

Karen Rowan writes: It's $100 off for anyone attending iFLT or $200 off 2 classes. (Give or take a dollar. I'm rounding.) I'll extend that same rate to anyone who is just attending Fluency Fast classes as a group. Register online here, for classes in French and Spanish, and here, for classes in Mandarin.

July 18-22, TPRS Academy Summer Intensive 5-Day training, near Amsterdam, Netherlands

Kirstin Plante writes: Receive a DISCOUNT of €75 if you register for both this course and the Agen workshop! (See below for details about Agen, July 25-30). Information here.

July 19-23 iFLT week-long training conference, in Chattanooga, TN

Carol Gaab at iFLT has also offered us a group discount. Mary Grigonis Greenfield has generously offered to be the point person to work out logistics of handling a group registration. Any current Tristate members may message Mary on FaceBook or email her here to form a TriState TCI group at iFLT in July. Pricing and registration information here.

July 25-29: NTPRS week-long training conference, in Reno, NV

Jody Klopp writes: You will be able to register as a group for the TriState TCI peer network. On the registration page, indicate that your group is TriState TCI. On the payment page, type the appropriate discount code shown below:

3 - 5 registrations from same school district (or group) - $30 per person discount

(Use discount code DISTRICT3)

6 or more registrations from same school district (or group) - $50 per person discount

(Use discount code DISTRICT6)

Register here.

July 25-30: TPRS® Agen, week-long training conference, in Agen, France

Judith Dubois writes:

The Agen Workshop will give a reduction of 10% to groups of 3 or more that register together.

Register here.

August 11-12 or 13-15 Express Fluency Teacher Training, Burlington, VT

This August training(s) feature Latin, Spanish and French classes combined with teacher workshops. Register by May 1st and save $30. Group discount $30 off per person for groups of 3+. Register here.

How did I get where I am now?

Since I left my teaching job in June, 2014, I've had a few teacher friends ask me what helped me make the decision to quit. Here's what I tell them:

I had what many would consider a perfect job, as a PK-5 Spanish teacher in a private Quaker school with small classes, supportive parents, and a lot of caring, creative colleagues. My blessing and my challenge for 12 years was that I was the only language teacher in the building and the only elementary teacher in the language program. I had discovered this wonderful approach to language teaching and acquisition called TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) and was excited to share it with other language teachers. Yet some days I felt like nobody in my building (including the administrators who evaluated my teaching, planned my schedule, and chose what parents and prospective families should see when they visited the school) had a clear idea about the value of what I was doing, and few colleagues in the MS and HS language department considered what I was doing relevant to their rigorous, textbook-based, “communicative” immersion classrooms. I desperately wanted someone to bounce ideas around with— another teacher as passionate about teaching with comprehensible input as I was— and there was no one in the school who met that need. 

Along the way, both of my sons were culled out of HS Spanish due to their inability to perform at expected levels of proficiency. This despite the fact that they were both born in Peru and highly motivated to learn their natal language, just not good candidates for the grammar-based submersion they were subjected to. That broke my heart.

What finally made up my mind was a new principal who came in with tons of exciting ideas but little experience working with a faculty through a Quaker process of discernment and consensus. Where once our close-knit faculty had worked together to come to agreement about what was best for our students, now the school's administrators were working behind the scenes to implement programs and policies without our input. It didn't necessarily affect my language classroom, but it affected the atmosphere in the school and eroded the camaraderie and sense of shared purpose we had built over many years of working together.

Meanwhile, I was finding shared purpose outside the walls of my school, having a blast working with area TPRS-teachers, Lori Belinsky (then teaching French at Christiana HS in DE), La Sripanawongsa (teaching MS Mandarin at Penn Charter), and Carol Hill (teaching HS French at Bishop Eustace Prep, in NJ). Together we had founded a Peer Learning Network for like-minded Comprehensible Input-based teachers in the Philadelphia area—TriState TCI. We meet once a month with a growing community of interested teachers who are energized and inspired by our meetings and eager to learn and share ideas.

I was invited as an intern to coach at NTPRS (the National TPRS conference), so I decided I’d be fine if I left my job and worked towards building an independent career in teaching and training. I had run a freelance business when my kids were young and I was confident I could get something going again, eventually.

A year and a half later, I have finally narrowed down to some promising possibilities involving teacher training/coaching as well as staying in teaching via adult classes and one-on-one lessons. I spent a year doing a lot of things I didn’t want to— subbing and tutoring at my old school, teaching a night class for way too little money— and have learned from that what I don’t want to do moving forward.

I haven’t earned a salary during that entire time, but have been able to tap into savings to tide us over. An executive coach friend who is guiding me in this transition made it very clear that I needed to find a way for money not to be an issue so I could focus on finding my passion. That really helped.

I have not regretted making the decision to step away from my job. Not for a second. It helps that my husband is a university professor with excellent benefits. The loss of my own financial security weighs on me less when I am doing what I love— working with language teachers and language learners to help them find success. 

In December I took advantage of an exciting opportunity to attend a License Prep course in the Netherlands, which prepared me to open a TPRS Teacher Training center in the U.S. This step takes me ever closer to making a living while pursuing my passion. 

In the meantime, I am thankful to have been available to my family in this past year, as we’ve suffered a bunch of unpredictable setbacks with health, accidents, and legal difficulties. All is well, but it’s been wonderful to spend a day each week with my aging parents, to be able to meet my son at his lawyer’s office, or my husband or my dad at the doctor’s office, or give a ride to the auto body shop, or wait for the llama vet, when needed.

The story's not finished, but I feel like we're just getting to the good part! Stay tuned...

Making Every Minute Count with Comprehensible Input

Last Saturday I presented at my first PA State Modern Languages Association conference. Co-presenter Lori Belinsky (CI-based French teacher at Garnet Valley, PA Middle School) and I shared the philosophical foundations of our teaching (drawn from Krashen, Ray, Gross, Gaab, Boulanger, Hedstrom, Whaley, deMado, van Patten, among others), then gave several examples of communicative or grammar-based activities that could be reconditioned to meet four qualifications:

1. Is it comprehensible?
2. Is it compelling?
3. Is it repetitive?
4. Does it allow all students to participate at their comfort level?

Here's a link to our Prezi.

Here's the Greetings and Feelings song Lori adapted to French from Laurie Clarcq's Spanish version.

Here are some of the elements we shared for a CI unit on El día de los muertos:

Martina Bex's Strip Bingo story.

Día de los muertos animated video short on YouTube.

Tumba, by Mira Canion. (novel, Teacher’s manual, audio CD)

Here are links to learn more about Teaching with Comprehensible Input and TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling):

How can I continue building my CI skills?

If you live in the Philadelphia TriState area, please join our monthly meetings to learn and share ideas about teaching world languages through storytelling and comprehensible input. Join our FaceBook group (TriState TCI) to stay in touch, or email me through this blog to be put on our mailing list.

TriState TCI: How can I continue building my CI skills?

TriState TCI is a network for teachers in the Philadelphia TriState area who are exploring the potential of Teaching with Comprehensible Input and TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling). We meet monthly throughout the school year, usually on the third Friday of the month. We also have a FaceBook Group (TriState TCI) where we share ideas regularly. Please join us!

How can I continue building my CI skills?

1.    Attend a Conference or Workshop. Look for trainings at:

TPRS Academy (Europe and elsewhere, upon demand)
Blaine Ray Workshops (USA and elsewhere, upon demand)
TPRS Publishing/Fluency Matters (USA, online, and elsewhere, upon demand)
Fluency Fast (USA, online, and elsewhere, upon demand)
Express Fluency (USA)
Immediate Immersion / Teach for June (USA and online)
TPRS of NJ (northern NJ and online)

2. Also, look for local trainings by:
    Michelle Kindt (Hershey, PA)
    TriState TCI (Philadelphia area)
    Altamira Language Learning (Philadelphia area)
    
3.     Get on the TriState TCI mailing list by emailing annyewing@altamira.org.

4.     Join the TriState TCI group on FaceBook.

5.     Join the moretprs listserv on Yahoo.

6.     Join the iFLT/NTPRS/CI Teaching group on FaceBook.
7.     Join the Elementary TPRS group on FaceBook.
8.     Join the ElementaryTPRS Google group forum.

Read TPRS colleagues' blogs: 
9.     like... Martina Bex's Comprehensible Classroom.
10.  Or… MicheleWhaley's MJ's Comprehensible Input: CI rubber meets the road.
11.  Or… Cynthia Hitz's Teaching Spanish w/ Comprehensible Input.
12.  Or… Chris Stoltz's T.P.R.S. Q&A.
13.  Or… Mike Coxon's Optimizing Immersion.
14.  Or... Laurie Clarcq at Embedded Reading and Hearts for Teaching.
15.  Or… Bryce Hedstrom at BryceHedstrom.com.
16.  Or… Ben Slavic at BenSlavic.com.
17.  Or… Scott Benedict at Teach for June.
18. Or... Grant Boulanger at Teaching With CI 
19. Or... Justin Slocum-Bailey at Indwelling Language
20. Or... Carrie Toth at Somewhere to Share
21. Or... Diane Neubauer and Haiyun Lu at Ignite Chinese
22. Or... Robert Harrell at Compelling Input
23. Or... Judy DuBois at TPRS Witch

      All of the above blogs and links will lead you to more links to more and more amazing shared ideas.

24.  Follow TCI/TPRSers on Twitter and look for these hashtags: #TriStateTCI, #TPRS, #TCI, #NTPRS, #iFLT, #LangChat (weekly Twitter exchange at 8:00 p.m. Thursdays).
25. Listen to Bill VanPatten's TeaWithBVP podcast, Thursdays at 3:00 p.m. ET

TriState TCI: How can I continue building my CI skills?

TriState TCI is a network for teachers in the Philadelphia TriState area who are exploring the potential of Teaching with Comprehensible Input and TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling). We meet monthly throughout the school year, usually on the third Friday of the month. We also have a FaceBook Group (TriState TCI) where we share ideas regularly. Please join us!

How can I continue building my CI skills?

1.    Attend a Conference or Workshop. Look for trainings at:

TPRS Academy (Europe and elsewhere, upon demand)
Blaine Ray Workshops (USA and elsewhere, upon demand)
TPRS Publishing/Fluency Matters (USA, online, and elsewhere, upon demand)
Fluency Fast (USA, online, and elsewhere, upon demand)
Express Fluency (USA)
Immediate Immersion / Teach for June (USA and online)
TPRS of NJ (northern NJ and online)

2. Also, look for local trainings by:
    Michelle Kindt (Hershey, PA)
    TriState TCI (Philadelphia area)
    Altamira Language Learning (Philadelphia area)
    
3.     Get on the TriState TCI mailing list by emailing annyewing@altamira.org.

4.     Join the TriState TCI group on FaceBook.

5.     Join the moretprs listserv on Yahoo.

6.     Join the iFLT/NTPRS/CI Teaching group on FaceBook.
7.     Join the Elementary TPRS group on FaceBook.
8.     Join the ElementaryTPRS Google group forum.

Read TPRS colleagues' blogs: 
9.     like... Martina Bex's Comprehensible Classroom.
10.  Or… MicheleWhaley's MJ's Comprehensible Input: CI rubber meets the road.
11.  Or… Cynthia Hitz's Teaching Spanish w/ Comprehensible Input.
12.  Or… Chris Stoltz's T.P.R.S. Q&A.
13.  Or… Mike Coxon's Optimizing Immersion.
14.  Or... Laurie Clarcq at Embedded Reading and Hearts for Teaching.
15.  Or… Bryce Hedstrom at BryceHedstrom.com.
16.  Or… Ben Slavic at BenSlavic.com.
17.  Or… Scott Benedict at Teach for June.
18. Or... Grant Boulanger at Teaching With CI 
19. Or... Justin Slocum-Bailey at Indwelling Language
20. Or... Carrie Toth at Somewhere to Share
21. Or... Diane Neubauer and Haiyun Lu at Ignite Chinese
22. Or... Robert Harrell at Compelling Input
23. Or... Judy DuBois at TPRS Witch

      All of the above blogs and links will lead you to more links to more and more amazing shared ideas.

24.  Follow TCI/TPRSers on Twitter and look for these hashtags: #TriStateTCI, #TPRS, #TCI, #NTPRS, #iFLT, #LangChat (weekly Twitter exchange at 8:00 p.m. Thursdays).
25. Listen to Bill VanPatten's TeaWithBVP podcast, Thursdays at 3:00 p.m. ET

Reading Tumba with 5th Grade

Tumba, by Mira Canion, is the first ever TPRS novel I've used as a FLES teacher. I am reading it with my 5th grade classes. Up till now, we've built stories and I've typed them up and we've read those, but we've never read a published novel. So I decided to try Mira Canion's new novel Tumba, starting in the first week of October as we lead up to the Day of the Dead. The classroom set of Tumba books has been sitting on a table just inside the door to my classroom for a few weeks. Everyone who walks in and out pauses to peruse the colorful cover with its creepy skeleton and marigold-bedecked tomb. But when I announced to my 5th graders that we were actually going to read it, they were stunned. "In Spanish?" they asked in disbelief. "Well, yeah," I responded. "But how will we understand it?" they moaned in despair. "You'll understand it." I assured them. They did not look convinced.

When we cracked the covers last week, it was one of the most exciting classes I've ever had. Mind you, these are students who have been exposed to Spanish twice a week for 30-40 minutes, some of them since Kindergarten, and some even less. Three of them were new students who had had no Spanish at all. As I read the first paragraph aloud to them and they followed along in their books, I could see them one by one glancing up at me in joyful amazement. "I understand this!" they were telling me, either out loud or with their eyes. We translated, we looked for cognates, we continued. They read with a partner and reported back what they had understood. I did a couple of grammar pop-ups. (How can you tell Alex is a boy and not a girl? because he's "nervioso" not "nerviosa" one or two students noted with confidence). "Oh yeah," the others concurred. We've started using journals to recap what's happened in each section we read (in English, for now, but I think we can do it in Spanish before long), list cognates and 'nuevas palabras'. When we broke out the journals this week, one student cried out "Oh yay, we get to draw!" I hadn't even thought of that in connection with this novel, but it would be fun to do that too.

So yeah, I definitely recommend Mira's novice novels. Having worked with her this past summer to translate Agentes secretos from Spanish to French, I have tremendous appreciation for what goes into making a novel comprehensible to the most novice of novices. Mira kept saying, "I want students to be able to read this in their first month of learning French." What might seem boring and repetitive to a native speaker or seasoned upper level teacher is not at all boring to a novice, especially when the content is as compelling and fun as Mira's novels. What I'm seeing in my 5th graders is sheer joy of reading something they are excited about, which is accessible enough for them to forge forward to see what happens next. In the language of my elementary school reading teacher colleagues, they are reading at the "just right level".

My challenge is to keep myself from making it too much of a chore by going all teacherly on them. I need to harness their enthusiasm, while still making sure everyone is understanding and no one is left behind. I need to make opportunities for circling and PQA without losing the momentum of the story. Suggestions and guidance are most welcome. I'm a total newbie at this approach to the 'R' of TPRS, but I am loving it. I'm looking forward to some of the ACTFL sessions on reading, in hopes there will be some FLES-appropriate tips there too. And I can't wait to dive into the many other novice novels I have on my shelves with even younger students. Any recommendations for 3rd or 4th grade?

The Art of Possibility – The Third Practice: Giving an A

The Art of Possibility – 3
The Third Practice: Giving an A

In this practice, the authors suggest that we give all of our students an A at the outset– “the only grade that will put them at ease, not as a measurement tool, but as an assessment to open them up to possibility.” The only requirement the author makes is that his students write him a letter dated the following May in which they tell the story of what they will have become by then, to explain the grade of A. He explains that Giving the A “allows the teacher to line up with her students to produce the outcome, rather than lining up with the standards against these students.” (p. 33)

What a great way to describe what we do in our classrooms! We line up with our students in pursuit of an outcome. We are a team, a partnership.

I don’t grade my elementary school students, so for me “Giving an A” is metaphorical. Giving an A “invents and recognizes a universal desire in people to contribute to others.” So, in my classroom, I need to help invent roles for my students that allow them to feel they are making an important, perhaps unique, contribution. Ben Slavic’s classroom jobs do this. Gerry’s fictional attributions do this.

We all have tales of one difficult student, and how everything changed when that student was given a specific job, role, distinction, identity, attribute, or recognition. Sometimes we have to search for the right way to Give the A, but once we’ve given it– metaphorically– our students become precisely who we want to have in our classrooms.

The Art of Possibility – Practice 2: Stepping into a Universe of Possibility

Practice 2: Stepping into a Universe of Possibility

This practice emphasizes the distinction between The World of Measurement, where we live most of our lives, and The Universe of Possibility, “where new inventions are the order of the day.”

In the World of Measurement, we get to know each other and the things around us by measuring them, comparing and contrasting them. Life is organized in hierarchies, an inside and an outside, competition, success and failure, it is the fight for survival. In The World of Measurement, there are only so many pieces of the pie. It forces us into scarcity thinking, which produces anxiety and fear.

It’s easy to see how most of the schools we teach in are rooted in The World of Measurement. We have set schedules; we are asked to report on students; in many cases, to compare students or assess them in a way that creates a hierarchy; we have standards to meet; and in the case of independent schools, we worry about enrollment and attracting families to our schools.

In The Universe of Possibility, it’s all about relationships, contributing, creating new ideas. “We gain our knowledge by invention.” It’s a world of abundance and openness. Every time someone takes a piece of the pie, the pie regenerates!

A presenter at the NTPRS conference this summer spoke about "fictional attribution", where you notice something a student is doing, and by mentioning it, make it (more) so: “You are a good listener.” “You are brave.” “You always notice things about nature.” By building relationships with our students, by helping them feel known, by providing them with new ways to know each other and the world, we allow them to be successful in ways that can’t be measured. That shouldn’t be measured.

Also, you "are more likely to be successful, *overall*, if you participate joyfully with projects and goals and do not think your life depends on achieving the mark because then you will be better able to connect to all the people around you."

This was the the most difficult if the 12 practices for me to sort out. Writing about it here has really helped.

The Art of Possibility 1

My school recommends shared summer reading books for faculty each year. This summer our elementary division was asked to read The Art of Possibility, by Rosalind and Benjamin Zander. Ironically, I at first grumbled about having some poorly written pop psychology pushed upon me when I could have been reading Alfie Kohn or Malcom Gladwell or somebody I'd been wanting to read when I had time. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that not only is TAOP wonderfully readable, but it is exactly what I needed to help me put a positive spin on things, after wallowing in negativity for much of the past year. In these difficult financial times, our independent Quaker school, normally accustomed to the Quaker decision making process of group discussion and eventual consensus, has been deeply affected by a series of top-down decisions, resulting in personnel cuts, surprising changes to program, and lots of sad, mad, bad feelings.

In The Art of Possibility, the writers suggest 12 practices which define "novel ways of defining ourselves, others, and the world we live in," using the metaphor of music and the arts.

Practice 1: It's all invented

In 'It's all invented,' the basic premise is: "It's all invented anyway, so we might as well invent a story or a framework of meaning that enhances our quality of life and the life of those around us." (p. 12) The epigraph for this chapter tells about two shoe marketing scouts sent to a remote region of Africa to find new sales opportunities. One writes back: "Situation hopeless-- they don't wear shoes," while the other writes triumphantly: "Glorious business opportunity! They have no shoes."

This made me think back to when I arrived at this school to teach elementary Spanish 10 years ago. I found out the week before school started that the previous Spanish teacher had departed suddenly, leaving no trace of a curriculum behind. My initial reaction was "Situation hopeless-- no set curriculum" It took me days, weeks, months, in fact it has taken me years to reach my current sense of "Glorious opportunity-- no set curriculum!" I feel this especially now that I understand so much better how children acquire language and what strategies lead to success for all. The freedom I was granted to invent was, in fact, a great gift.

Making it to the finish line

I attended a TPRS workshop presented by Laurie Clarcq in DC on Thursday (thank you Lea & Sidwell Friends!) and came away with a lot of ideas on how to make it through these last 4 weeks without giving up on CI. Here are a few:

1) Word of the day: assign one student to say a specific new expression every time you point to him/her (I've just been doing the usual “p-e-e-ero” or “Quién means who”). I have a couple of 2nd grade boys who can’t seem to stay focused and this is just the ticket for bringing them back to attention.

2) Quick acting gigs: Have two kids pop up just to act out one sentence, such as “Juan gives the milk to Mamá.” My classes love to act, and I always get bogged down in major productions, rather than these delightful little pop-up acting opportunities. Plenty for everybody to do, and easier for me to keep track of who’s had a turn.

3) Making students complicit in restoring order: as you are waiting for silence, look around the room, make eye contact with every student.

4) We need to communicate to the students that *they* are the most important thing, not the language.

5) Provide short opportunities for output with well-practiced language: Turn to your neighbor and tell her that Juan and Mamá live in a purple house. Now answer back that the cow lives in the purple house too.

6) Don’t forget to give students credit for *recognizing* language, even if they don’t remember what it means.

7) Write several expressions on the board and don’t talk about all of them, but see if any students figure out the unmentioned ones and use them, then praise them for being so smart, thereby motivating others to notice what’s on the board.

And now I just read Ben Slavic’s blog with his reminder to BE CHEERFUL. It sounds so easy and I know it works every time, but I just keep forgetting and letting the kids get under my skin. I have 17 more days of teaching this year. I will go slower, be cheerier, engage my students more consistently, and know that if it isn’t perfect this time around, there’s always next year! That’s the best part about teaching.

Upcoming Comprehensible Input learning opportunities

It seems a long time since last August's Story-Based Language Teaching workshop. I hope all are having a great year, and finding new ways to incorporate comprehensible input strategies into your teaching.

There are some great workshops coming up this winter, spring and summer, given by nationally known TPRS/CI presenters, some in the Philadelphia area.

ONLINE TOMORROW! Thursday, January 19th, 7 p.m.
Kristy Placido: Online TPRS WEBINAR--Bridging the Path to Authentic Texts (Presented at ACTFL 2011)
Novice learners need to become comfortable operating within the target culture(s) and with authentic texts. However, most authentic texts are quite difficult for a novice to navigate. Participants will see how the novice learner can be guided toward the rich experiences offered by authentic texts without fear and frustration.
$25 - 60 mins. Register here.

Saturday 25 February, 2012 in Hershey, PA
Michelle Kindt: Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling, for World Language and ESL Teachers
National Board Certified French teacher and experienced practitioner and coach of TPRS. I've worked with her at several national TPRS conferences and she's great! (Flier here)

Saturday 24 March, 2012 in Pennsauken, NJ
Susie Gross: TPRStorytelling® in levels 2-AP
The Level 2 – AP workshop includes:
How to teach upper-level classes using TPR Storytelling®
How to get complicated grammar to sound right to students
The importance of reading
Essays, homework, AP preparation strategies
(find Registration form here)

Summer Conferences:
In my experience, the best professional development comes from the week-long national conferences. There are three (!) different national (and international) conferences this year:

June 24-July 1: TPRStorytelling MultiCultural Conference, in Punta Cana, Republica Dominicana July 17-19: International Forum on Language Teaching Conference, Breckenridge, CO
July 23-July 27: National TPRS Conference 2012, in Las Vegas, NV

I'd love to hear from you, to share joys and success, queries and concerns from your language teaching this year. As always, there's a wealth of information and advice available on the various listservs and blogs you can access through the links here.

I wish a season of happy teaching and learning to all!

The Story-Telling Roller Coaster

I just posted this on Ben Slavic's blog, in response to his post about Uninterrupted Flow:

I’ve been making a big deal about uninterrupted flow lately. I teach elementary school Spanish, and interruptions are usually the name of the game. But I’ve been talking to my students about momentum and how much more fun it is when we let the story momentum build and carry everyone along with it. This week one student likened it to a roller coaster, and that image has been working great: when we’re just learning the new structures and circling on them until we’ve got ‘em down, it’s kind of like going up that first big vertical climb on the roller coaster. Once we get to the top (having mastered the key structures), it’s “Wheee!” as the story takes off and pulls us along for a riotous joyride. But if we keep stopping for interruptions during the initial uphill portion, the roller coaster slides back down and we have to start again. They seem to get that. It’s helped me gain some allies who now remind their classmates, “Come on, guys! We’ve got to get to the top!”

Story-Based Language Teaching Workshop

The month after I got home from NTPRS in St Louis was swallowed up by planning for a mini-NTPRS on my home campus. The comparison way over-glorifies what I was able to present to the 29 participants who came to Westtown on August 18th for an all-day workshop on Story-Based Language Teaching, but it captures my inspiration and enthusiasm. Here's the report I sent to colleagues and administrators at my school:

Last week's Story-Based Language Teaching Workshop welcomed 29 participants from 15 public, charter, Friends and other independent schools: Agnes Irwin, Delaware Valley Friends, Independence Charter, Japanese Language School of Philadelphia, Friends School Mullica Hill (NJ), Newtown Friends, Plymouth Meeting Friends, Princeton Day School (NJ), Rose Tree Media-Springton Lake MS, Russell Byers Charter, Salem HS (MI), Twin Valley HS/MS, Upattina's, Westtown and Widener University.

The language teachers among us teach ESL (1), French (1), Japanese (4), Mandarin (1), and Spanish (19); plus three interested Westtown colleagues: a 4th grade teacher, a lower school librarian and a school psychologist. We teach at the elementary (8), middle school (9), and high school (16) levels. Some of us had never seen story-based language teaching in action, while others are experienced practitioners and one is even a seasoned presenter on TPR (Total Physical Response language teaching). Some of us are the only language teachers in our schools or in our divisions. All of us came to learn from each other and to forge new connections.

Anny's morning session featured a step-by-step demonstration and discussion of Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling. With comprehensible input at every step, and a high level of learner engagement, the group built a story about a mouse in search of brussels sprouts, which they were able to narrate, act out, and read--entirely in Polish!--by the end of the morning.

In the afternoon session, Kate Hunt, a multi-level story-based HS Spanish teacher from MI, taught an introductory Spanish lesson to a mixed group consisting of sheer beginners all the way to native speakers. Through Kate's skillful differentiating of comprehensible input the whole group was able to narrate and participate in a hilarious scenario which required use of such structurally complex utterances as: "Si me diera la manzana, estaría contenta." (If he gave me the apple, I would be happy.) Two additional participants came just for the afternoon Spanish lesson. We are exploring the possibility of offering a story-based conversational Spanish class for the adult Westtown community.

In order to make the most of any professional development, there must be ongoing exchange and learning. Members of the group will continue to share ideas in an online wiki set up for the workshop. Many of them, as well as others who were unable to attend the workshop, are interested in trying to get together on a regular basis, both to practice and increase story-based teaching skills, and to consider issues of related interest, such as assessment and grading. We hope to plan regular meetings, hosted by language teachers at different schools around the area, and to grow our professional learning network through continued sharing online, in e-mail, and face to face.