Here is a list of upcoming tranings and past webinars.  Presenters, if you see any errors or wish to add more information, please feel free to post.  Others who are not listed may also wish to post their trainings!  Join in the fun, as we all seek together to master the craft of administering Comprehensible Input that gently and entertainingly carries students into fluency!

 

Carol Gaab Webinars: Upcoming

Age Level: Literate Elementary and Above

Cost: $25

Registration: www.tprstorytelling.com

 

7:00 pm – 8:00 pm                                                                               August 23, 2011

SLAfrom Day One; Powerful First Days of School Activities

7:00 pm – 8:00 pm                                                                               August 24, 2011

Technology Tips for the FL Classroom

Carol Gaab Webinars: Previously Recorded

Age Level: Preliterate and/or Above

Cost: $10 for 10 credits / $20 for 20 credits. 

Window: 24 Hours

Registration: www.fluencymatters.com

Titles:  Back to School                                                                       (20 credits)

 Story-asking Made Easy                                                        (20 credits)

 10 Easy Steps for Enhancing Class Stories                           (20 credits)

             Building Fluency with Elementary Students                         (20 credits)

             Elementary Tips, Part 1                                                          (10 Credits)

             Elementary Tips, Part 2                                                          (10 Credits)

             How to Provide Repetition without being Repetitious         (10 Credits)

             Sustainable TPRS: Strategies for Stamina                             (20 credits)

             The Steps to TPRS                                                                 (10 Credits)

Carol Gaab Workshops      

Cost: Organized by Venue

Contact and Registration: www.tprstorytelling.com                                                          

Orlando,FL                                                                                       January 23, 2012

General TPRS for Literate

8:00 am – 4:00 pm

New Orleans,LA                                                                                January 24, 2012

General TPRS for Literate

8:00 am – 4:00 pm

Denver,CO                                                                                         February 27, 2012

Beginning TPRS

8:00 am – 4:00 pm

Blaine Ray Workshops

Age Level: Literate

Cost: $179, Light lunch included

Registration: www.blaineraytprs.com

Nashville, TN                                                                                      November 2, 2011

8:00 am – 3:00 pm

Comfort Suites

3431 Percy Priest Dr

Nashville,TN37214

(615) 391-5959

Atlanta, GA                                                                                       November 3, 2011

8:00 am – 3:00 pm

Comfort Inn Suites

1419 Virginia Ave.

Atlanta,GA30337

(404) 768-7800

Susan Gross Workshops

East Islip, NY                                                                                              September 1, 2011

10:45 am – 2:00 pm Introduction to TPRS

2:15 pm – 4:15 pm Second Language Proficiency via Comprehensible Input

Age Level: Literate

Contact and Registration: http://susangrosstprs.com

 

Ben Slavic Training

Join his daily training blog at www.benslavic.com

Age Level: Literate

Cost: $7.95/month

 

Summer Conferences:

 

2012 National TPRS Conference                                                    July 16 – 20, 2012

Blaine Ray and all others

Las Vegas, NV

Cost: $400

 

I do not know why Pre-literates engage in the autoecholalia mechanism every time they are asked a Circling Question.  The teacher simply says, “Clase, ¿Sponge Bob fue a WalMart o Hanna Montana fue a WalMart?”

Left to to answer naturally, all pandemonium breaks loose.  Each child begins to holler out his or her choice,  repeating it over and over, louder and louder, each time in varying tones, volumes and velocities. 

Some:  Hanna Montana!  Hanna Montana…Hanna MonTAna!

Others:  Sponge Bob…SPONGE Bob!  Sponge Bob!

When this happens, no one can hear, and the CI can not get in. 

Not to worry, though.  With Carol Gaab’s Managed Response,  that reflex is effectively cut off.

Before a “Yes/No Question” is even asked, I remind them to give a Silent Response via the chosen gestures.  This provides silence so that everyone can still hear me while they are answering.  This comes after they and I have been fully trained, of course…it is so contra my nature that I am still struggling to master it, even after several months of practice.

For an “Either/Or Question,” while I am still stating it, I effectively shove the five-fingered hand between them and me to begin the count from five to zero, out loud at first, then eventually with just my fingers, once they get the gist.  At zero, I point a finger at them, and then they give the answer. 

Magically, with the simple passage of 5 seconds, the urge to autoechlaliate subsides, and everyone calmly blurts out their answer one time!   

When I first noticed this, I couldn’t believe it.  I was speechless.  The Great Carol Gaab is right again, a master of the pre-literate brain! 

It is not easy for me to do this, though.  I naturally just want to blurt the question and go on, but then I am almost NEVER rewarded with calm, one word answers, so I have to do something. 

The challenges come in terms of my self-discipline to first insist upon the Silent Response with “Clase…sí o no” while simultaneously doing the gesture agreed upon for each, and then asking the question…and to shove that hand full of fingers out before they can even utter a sound after an “Either/Or Question!”

Although it is harder to do, Carol is right about managing chaos.  No one can hear, no CI gets in and instructional time is wasted. 

But, I have one of two choices as to when I have to wait.  Either I wait while they autoecholaliate with no one able to hear, or they wait until the last finger goes down and I point, at which time the urge for chatter is usually gone. 

For me, the latter is harder, but so much more effective.  I know I will keep striving to hone this one for at least another year! 

Thanks to Carol, everyone can now have the opportunity to both hear and answer at the same time!

 For more on Managed Response, please visit Carol Gaab’s website at www.tprstorytelling.com and attend one of her Pre-literate Webinars.

My teacher cadet is a former star student, and she informed me that some of my songs might be a little ”babyish” for the 5th graders.  Leslie Davison posted the song “Me gustas tú” by Manu Chao on her site, and I started playing it for them, and even for my 3rd and 4th graders.  I believe she selected this hip song because of the constant repeats of the HF structures and the pictorial support, and for its age appropriateness. 

I posted translation of the three main structures on a piece of chart paper: black pen for Spanish, red penned English words underneath, “¿Qué horas son, mi corazón?, ¿Qué voy a hacer? and Me gustas tú.”   We usually have a student stand and point to them on the dry erase board while the song played on the Smart Board: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGsQaqViiwU  It was wonderful for driving home the structure “Me gustas tú,” especially since we had already targeted “Me gusta” [I like].  The kids LOVED this song, and I was so grateful to my teacher cadet and to Leslie!

Then, my colleague Josh Hem Lee provided a whole list of songs, and one of them really caught my attention.  We tried it today, and it was another hit:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdwTcVH2HY4&feature=bf_next&list=PL44EDE50C1DD243BA&index=23  This one contains a lot of structures that we have already targeted, “se cayó, salta, llama al doctor,” so they already understand most of it!  The rest, they get from reading the scrolling Powerpoint that I am going to make to place the words below the video.  Adorable! 

If you have any hip songs that are appropriate for elementary kids and also contain numerous reps of HF Structures, please share them here!   Much appreciated!

It is so intense sometimes to keep the attention of third graders when we are also trying to find out where a story is going to go.  One sure way that I have found to keep everyone’s attention is to clone the characters.  For example, Kylra suddenly becomes not only one daughter but 10, and we go around the room counting the Kylras.  Kylra number 1 is the first female student in class, Kylra number 2 is the next, and we count so on and on until every girl is a Kylra.   Realizing that they are now the only ones left out, the boys begin to protest… all of the students in class are in the story but them…so, I pull a Ben Slavic and do not give them the next new detail yet, assuring them to hold on, as we continue to milk this one…We justify any new details by saying that the parents forget a lot of things…and of course, eventually, the boys all get to be multiple Kyles, too!

At my school, it is very important to keep the students quiet in the hallways in order to help with concentration.  With only 25 minutes of instructional time and no transitional time in between, we really use about 5 minutes for line up and class exchange.  I have tended to do this more noisily than I have wanted, and did not know how to make it better with so little time. 

Susan Gross highly recommended the Fred Jones book Tools for Teaching for those of us new TPRSers who tend to be softies when it comes to behavior mod.  Thankfully, my district colleagues and I have been studying this book all year, incidentally finding all of the parallels to TPRS buried throughout as big, gold nuggets. 

I found my salvation on pages 148-152, Fred’s got “A Sample Procedure” on “Meaning Business,” which I took to heart and have fully implemented…it has changed my teaching life forever.  Again, paralleling the TPRS method, you “Pre-teach” a bunch of gestures that each mean something to the students while you are transporting the line through the halls…I told them that even I am not going to speak in the hallways and showed them all of the gestures we would need:  straight line, stop, go on, go to the next place and stop, good job, zip lips and be quiet, talker come to the front of the line (Fred always has the class turn around and go back to start over if there is one peep out of anyone, but I just can’t give up my instructional time for this with only 25 minutes), stop/turn around/go back.  And Fred states that the teacher must keep “a straight face” and monitor their performance with expectation and an “upbeat” mood.  So far, it has worked wonders!  He reminds us that “Meaning Business” makes teaching a whole lot less stressful, and I truly agree.

CI Coach Rochelle Barry of Trumansburg, NY, pictured above at the far right, presented for 50 minutes at our February SCFLTA Conference in Columbia last weekend.  It was so refreshing to have her come, it felt like I was getting my much needed meat and potatoes from an expert.

She talked about the importance of Comprehensible Input, with all lessons being centered around the Students.  Acquisition v. Learning was revisited, an essential point for anyone who may not have yet wrestled through that issue.  She talked of Personalization being the key to interest and briefly described the Three Steps.  A Circling question poster was shown, and types of weekly class activities such as Monday/Friday Discussion were detailed.

PQA was briefly demonstrated with a few volunteers pretending to be students/actors, sitting up front in a row of chairs and holding up their icon name plaques.  It was easy to see that we could have had a party of PQA had we been given more time! 

Rochelle expertly showed how to Personalize through questioning…it seemed much like having a conversation, really, and isn’t that what we are here to do with them!  Rochelle stated:

“We talk to our students, with our students, about our students

—in positive, engaging ways that keep the class interested.”

A couple of things that struck me most were that Rochelle reminded us that we would always do well to have a couple of possibilities in our “back pocket” in case the students don’t come up with something cute.  This year, more than ever before, I have realized how essential that is for elementary aged students in order to keep them In Bounds because they are sooooo creative!

Also, it hit me that the reading Rochelle posted on the screen contained only 11 sentences, with big type, the title was in green and book-ended by 2 colorful and relevant cliparts.  Simple and visually inviting, at the students’ appropriate level. 

I took these as much needed nourishment, reminding me to put just the right amount of reading up for my older students and not overload them.  I think I will start this week, as my students need that food too…maybe just a note on the board to them when they come in, using as many old structures as possible.  After all, we must keep feeding them so that they can produce the fruit of communication in its due time… 

Thank you for coming, Rochelle Barry!!!  I would love to see more presentations on Comprehensible Input Based Methods at our SCFLTA Conference, and you have inspired me to seek to contribute again, as well!

The South Carolina Foreign Language Teacher’s Association will be hosting a World Language Conference next Saturday, February 12, 2011 at Brooklyn Baptist Convention Center, http://brooklandbaptist.org/banquetctr_main.htm.  Rochelle Barry, pictured above at the far right, will be presenting a workshop entitled

“Teach ‘Em the Way Mommy Taught ‘Em!” 

Rochelle is a Workshop Presenter/Retired FL Teacher fromTrumansburg, NY.  Rochelle also partnered with Lizette Liebold to organize the very first CI Coaching Workshop, which was held this past fall in Albany, New York.  I was very thankful to have been able to attend that workhop, and you can see some of my commentary at: http://mmbaker1.wordpress.com/2010/11/14/coaching-workshop-in-new-york/

Rochelle describes her workshop in this way:

“High interest is the key to engaging students, and what is more interesting to them than themselves?  Share the joy of language with your students by making it about them.  Experience the power of personalization with comprehensible input — language they understand.  Participants in this workshop will learn how to bring joy to the classroom, both for students and teacher, using a variety of techniques that are student-centered and results-driven.   Try it today—teach it tomorrow!”

The workshop will be presented in English at  2:15 pm in Salon F, with a focus on all Languages and Audiences.

I encourage you to attend this rare treat! 

There will also be a presentation by our very own Sara R. Kearns.  Her workshop is entitled,  “When We Can’t Teach, They Aren’t Learning!  Classroom Management Strategies as a Foundation for Instruction”

Sara describes her workshop: “Disruptive classroom behaviors steal valuable teacher time that should be spent on what we do best – teaching!  Classroom management is a critical foundation for effective teaching and learning.  Learn powerful, proven strategies that empower your students to take responsiblity for their actions in your classroom and achieve success.  Increase your instruction time by decreasing student misbehaviors and chronic interruptions!”

I have seen Sara present on this topic, and I think you will find the information to be immediately beneficial to your classroom.  Her presentation will be in Salon G, in English with all languages and audiences targeted.

You may register for the SCFLTA Conference at http://www.scflta.org/conf_wkshps/Conf%2011/conference2011.htm.

Carol Gaab has always said that if you can teach Kindergarten TPRS, you can teach any age group.  I find that teaching Kindergarten is the most challenging because you have to keep them engaged.  Carol probably already told us most of these things, but here are a couple of tips that I have finally been able to grasp:

1.  TPR beforehand all of the words you will need to “Circle in.”  There can be no surprises during Storyasking or there will be distractions galore!

2.  Go ahead and write out your TPR script so that you are not thinking on your feet.  A delay that lasts for even one second can immediately lead to verbal and physical chaos among these little students.

3.  Employ Carol Gaab’s Managed Response to prevent verbal chaos from the students when you are asking Circling questions.  After a while, they get used to using this.  Check Carol’s Webinars for details at www.tprstorytelling.com

4.  Use only 2 locations in your story.  Even the strongest Kindergartener simply can not stay focused as long as older students.

5.  Make sure each actor is wearing at least a mask or some sort of costume.  Students need that visual in order to link meaning.

6.  Shorten your structures to contain only one new word, mixing it with a cognate, if you must.  In other words, with Kindergarten I no longer target “le da la comida [gives him/her/it the food],” but rather “le da la pizza [gives him/her/it the pizza].”

7.  During Storyasking, have them acting out each word that we have previously targeted during TPR time.

8.  At first, do less Story”asking” and more Story”telling.”

9.  Get near the students and look at them in the eye and speak directly to them while Storyasking/telling.

10.  Show patience, go SLOW and be persistent!
What would you add to this?  Your thoughts are  much appreciated!

I got this nice email the other day from a lady named Gloria, and I wanted to share it with you, along with my attempt at response.  TPRS/CI Based Methods practitioners, please feel free to add to this…we would all greatly appreciate it!!

¡Buenos días, Sra. Baker!

My name is Gloria, and I teach Spanish to elementary kids. We are in a small, private school in Texas. This is my first year teaching and I have been “devouring” anything TPRS, in an intuitive way I was doing a lot of the recommended techniques, but I need a lot of help still!

I am fascinated by your site. I love what you are doing and will like to humbly request your advice about implementing TPRS in my own classroom, since you already have experience in it.

If you have time and the disposition, I will greatly appreciate your observations regarding the next questions:

1. What can I expect from my students realistically? I see every grade for just 45 minutes once a week. How far can we really get?

2. Do you have some guidelines of what phrases to teach each grade? How do you increase difficulty? Since this is the first year my school offers Spanish from K-6th I have been going thru the basics with all of them. It seems hard for me to teach increased difficulty because we get students in 4th, 5th or 6th that had never been exposed to the language…What would you recommend?

3. Is there a particular curriculum that you follow? I am not sure what standards to aim for, since we have no official program in my school.

4. If I was to develop the whole Elementary Spanish program -which I think may happen within the next couple of years- in your experience, what will you recommend? What would be for you the “ideal” situation?

5. In your experience, is there anything I need to know? What road blocks may I encounter?

6. What has been the parent’s response? How much do the students develop compared to traditional methods?

7. Any complaints from parents, students or school? I am afraid it may seem so unstructured to many, our parents are probably expecting Spanish the old fashion way.

Mrs. Baker, I deeply thank you for your time and input. I am so excited! The idea that EVERYBODY should be able to learn a second (or third!) language in a natural way is totally appealing to me.  You see, I am a native Spanish speaker, and I already went thru the process of learning English. I had a lot of the “traditional” instruction, but when it actually worked was when my husband and I moved to the States many years ago. I know there has to be a way to teach languages that actually works, and I believe TPRS is it.

Your views and advice are greatly appreciated.

Gloria

¡Hola, Gloria!
Thanks for writing!  I am so glad to hear that you have found TPRS and will be using it with Elementary.  For me, it changed everything for the better, enhancing what we already did by making it come alive.  Here are some answers to the best of my ability.

When you feel ready, team teaching a free adult Spanish class along with another practitioner who is equally interested in mastering the method is an effective and economical alternative to hiring a coach.  Jason Fritze and Dianne Grieman strongly encouraged me to do this, and it has truly helped me.

Questions:

1. What can I expect from my students realistically? I see every grade for just 45 minutes once a week. How far can we really get? 

It depends on what your goals are.  If you want them to memorize long lists of words that they may or may not internalize, you can “shove” in as much as you want.  If you want them to acquire the language, you go slow and do less, as far as I have observed.  Just make everything compelling, comprehensible and contextualized.

2. Do you have some guidelines of what phrases to teach each grade?

I would start with Carol Gaab’s top five:  I need, I want, I have, I went, I like.  From there, I would pick other structures that they either need in order to function in TL in class or perhaps you may find some HF structures that are necessary for them to be able to read a book you Backwards Plan. Also, see what the experts said when I asked that same question, they really helped me!

http://mmbaker1.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/what-wordsstructures-should-i-have-my-students-acquire/

How do you increase difficulty? We’re K-5, so I divide the 6 levels of planning into 2 groups and modify difficulty up and down within that group.  K-2 and 3-5.  Carol Gaab recommends K-3 and 4-6, I believe.

Since this is the first year my school offers Spanish from K-6th I have been going thru the basics with all of them. It seems hard for me to teach increased difficulty becase we get students in 4th, 5th or 6th that had never been exposed to tle language…What would you recommend? 

Seat them next to a buddy for non-instructional times (procedures), tell them that you will be teaching directly to them (don’t say that they are your Barometer, but that is what they are) so that they understand, have them punch their hand when they don’t and finally I tell them what Ben Slavic does…that you will not be calling on them for 2 months in order that they may become comfortable and ready for you to call on them but that they should be getting ready during those 2 months.

3. Is there a particular curriculum that you follow? I am not sure what standars to aim for, since we have no official program in my school. 

We as a district have had an extensive word list, but after 10 years we all agreed that it was too long.  We shortened it quite a bit last August in order to have a list we could all agree on, and then from there we each teach whatever we feel is necessary for them to succeed.  Some (Susan Gross, Ben Slavic, etc.) would say that you need no list at all because language is language and you can simply target the language that you need, but we all know we have to turn in a list at some point.

4. If I was to develop the whole Elementary Spanish program -which I think may happen within the next couple of years- in your experience, what will you recommend?, What would be for you the “ideal” situation? 

Again, I would divide it into two groups and differentiate the difficulty from there.  Your older ones will be reading, younger drawing but you can show them the words.  For me, the ideal situation would be a Dual Immersion Program like Leslie Davison’s in Dillon, Colorado, with the use of TPRS and Comprehensible Input Based Methods instead of making them “figure everything out” and feel doubtful about meaning.

5. In your experience, is there anything I need to know? What road blocks may I encounter? 

Make sure to always reach out to the school community, involve them in any way you can and always advertise the value of knowing another language in the ever shrinking world.

6. What has been the parent’s response? How much does the students develop compared to traditional methods?

Parents always tell me that their children come home singing the songs we do all the time, which to me is the best.  The students love coming to class now, so that is also a plus.    And they are acquiring.  I think it is really important to teach them how to order at a restaurant and am working to ensure that they get that in my class so they can “show off.”

7. Any complains from parents, students or school? I am afraid it may seem so unstructured to many, our parents are probably expecting Spanish the old fashion way.

Before TPRS “found me,” I did have complaints from time to time because the old method of shoving it into their brains is so torturous for most people, I think.  It is quite the opposite now.  You will find that there is structure to the unstructure, especially if you have a plan.  With elementary, I would not recommend PQA without a plan of some sort to at least anchor you into a direction you want to take things.  Use Carol Gaab’s Managed Response, and there will be no chaos when you are Circling.

This is wonderful, Gloria, and I suspect it is very different from how you may have been taught. I am so excited that you have embarked on this journey.  It takes work to  learn this when everything was done another way when you were coming along, but I am so glad you have seen that it works and am excited for you!  I encourage you to get training from Carol Gaab, Jason Fritze, Leslie Davison or Liz Hughes to start for elementary.  You may also want to go and observe them in action at their schools, it is well worth the trip!

Michel

QUESTION:  How shall we teach Content within the confines of limited L2 and only 50 minutes of weekly instructional time?

ANSWER: Jason explained that John DuMado (regular presenter at ACTFL, textbook co-author including our Viva el español, http://www.demado-seminars.com/home.htm and a Curriculum/Collaboration Consultant for groups of FL teachers) says that with little instructional time in elementary programs like ours, we can only teach a Content Related Curriculum.  In other words, we can “touch on” things as they relate, but our primary goal is to teach the L2.  

I later spoke with Mr. DuMado myself by phone, and he confirmed that Content Based Instruction is only possible for the regular classroom and/or Immersion Programs.  A 50 minute per week Spanish pull-out class can certainly reinforce the other content areas along the way, but the primary purpose and potential of such a program is the instruction of a world language.

So within these confines, here are some suggestions that Jason Fritze freely gave. 

In order to target Social Studies, Jason recommends that we get the book Feliz cumpleaños, Martin Luther King, which I have ordered from Amazon and plan to start teaching tomorrow.  You simplify the text via Post-it Notes (Jason adds that we should ~”be unafraid to simplify the text way down…we are making a connection to Social Studies here, and the children appreciate the eclecticism through the different types of readings we provide.) and then Backward Plan a Thematic Unit based on that book. 

He also Backwards Planned “Día de los muertos” in 5^th grade.  He added, “I can use a map and say my 3 locations are the mission places in CA.  Another example is The Three Bears we did…I wrote in the curriculum that I am writing things they just learned about…the Osos Rebellion in CA.”  Gold was important in the Gold Rush, so he used gold prizes for the reading game they played by printing and cutting out pictures of Spanish gold pieces that had been found in CA.  As he alluded, none of this is direct content instruction, just related to content.  It certainly awakens schema in the students, who recognize the connections to what they are learning in the regular classroom.

Science standards, such as the one about Animals and the Foods they eat, can be touched on via Los pollitos, which he just did with 4^th grade and I will be doing with my younger students starting tomorrow.  He did a Readers’ Theater to act out “le da el trigo, le da el maíz, le da…” [“gives him the wheat, gives him the corn, gives him…”].  He reads a children’s book of los pollitos over the Document Camera and he points and asks, “¿La mamá le da la comida con la mano o con la boca?  ¡Sí, con la boca!”  ["The mother gives him food with her hand or with her mouth?  Yes, with her mouth!"]   There is also a song that goes with this, which can be found at many sites including this one:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTF9bw-Cu28

For ELA Standards, he did onomatopoeia with muuu…They “did the ‘Los pollitos’ song because they’d already learned “hambre, frío, le da and dice.”  ["hunger, cold, gives him/her and says."]  Then, the puppets that go along with it…”  

For Math, he does a math problem, too, on the board when he presents a box of Easter chicks and has them count down 1, 2, 3 and then across 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and says, “Vamos a hacer multiplicación. 3 por cinco son quince.”  ["Let's do multiplication.  3 multiplied by five equals fifteen."]  He commented, “So, if it’s done artfully, they don’t feel like they’re doing Content.  Do it within the context of the story but make a connection, and that’s it.”  I love this!

The discussion we are having here about Content Based v. Content Related Instruction surely confirms what our District EWL program had already agreed upon so many years ago.  We are to reinforce Core Content Standards. 

In this spirit, we will continue to demonstrate where and how we each support the other Core Content Standards, besides our World Language ones, via each World Language that we target district wide.  Our Elementary World Language teacher group collaborates on Wednesday afternoons in order to discuss where and how we each do so, as we continue to live out our calling to instill the second language communication skills so badly needed by our students in an ever-shrinking world.