Reflections
About Noise and Circling
She just does it so beautifully that it doesn’t feel like circling. It feels like she’s having a genuine conversation with her students.
Judith Dubois
Conference
Laurie Clarcq, my mentor
She has a special gift for seeing both sides, for knowing where people are coming from and understanding their pain.
Conference
My Son Daniel
LET’S CREATE A BRIDGE WE CAN ALL WALK ON TO GET TOGETHER. LET’S COMMUNICATE!
Classroom Management
When the Required Curriculum is Way Too Much!
The standard textbook approach has always reminded me of Johnny Cash’s song, One Piece at a Time, and gives similar results. The students, the few who persevere, have a lot of bits and pieces but they don’t necessarily fit together very well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uErKI0zWgjg
Classroom Strategies
About Very Narrow Listening, Stephen Krashen, Michael Jordan and Jackie Chan
We all know that magic tricks work because of the magician’s ability to focus our attention elsewhere. My students are focused on filling in the blanks, but actually my goal is to get them to listen to Comprehensible Input attentively and repeatedly.
Articles from the Net
Robert’s Perspective on the Agen Workshop
“if we are going to consider anything “basic”, let’s consider high-frequency words and phrases as the starting point. There’s a reason they are high frequency: we need them to communicate.”
Articles from the Net
Shutting the barn door after the horse has run off
“A century of research shows that traditional grammar lessons—those hours spent diagramming sentences and memorizing parts of speech—don’t help and may even hinder students’ efforts to become better writers. “
Conference
Who is Sabrina Sebban-Janczak?
“She models what it means to care about students and the patience required to teach. “
Conference
Martin Anders reports on the Agen Workshop 2016
At the heart of the conference are the language classes where experienced teachers demonstrate how to do a week of Comprehensible Input.