There has been a torrent of activity on many TPRS and TCI forums of late. It seems this year a levee has broken and a flood of professional language educators has courageously taken a dip. I previously echoed Bob Patrick’s advice aimed at people who want to get better at Teaching with Comprehensible Input.

  • Read SLA research.
  • Observe it done by someone with experience.
  • Seek out a support group.

The following quotes are all taken from a variety of Facebook support groups, including “IFLT/NTPRS/CI Teaching”, “TPRS Deskless Classroom” and “Southwest TPRS/TCI Teachers”. I can’t say enough how much I admire the courage it takes to try new and different techniques and strategies!

The highlighted areas are my own editing. I’ve chosen to highlight segments that reinforce why we continue to Teach with Comprehensible Input.

This is what really matters.

Our students respond to our own shifts in instructional practice. They like it. They want to understand what’s going on. They’re smiling, laughing, happy. They’re engaged. They don’t care that they’re learning past tense before present or genitive before they’re “supposed to”. They’re communicating with a real speaker of the target language about real stuff and it feels good.

It makes them want to get better.

It makes us to want to get better. A little bit. Every day.

This is what really matters.

Spanish 1 students after just 10 days of CI/TPRS I’m amazed. I have never been able to get even Spanish 2 students to write 100 words. This makes me very happy!

Thomas Blair, AZ

Today I did my first story with my student in my new school and I have never had so much fun!!! All classes created such different stories using the same 3 structures and all of them were super engaged and super happy to been able to understand all that it was been said. Plus bonus points, principal came when all of us were laughing so hard that she was smiling too!!! Happiest CI/TPRS Day Ever!!! Not going to Grammar teacher ever!

Luz Dary Antolinez

Reading success! A huge thanks to all of the amazing people that I met at NTPRS this year. This was my first year attempting FVR with my classes. I followed all of Bryce Hedstrom’s advice and started the first week with a small amount of time. They were hesitant at first, but two weeks in (4 reading days total) and they are all begging me to have more time! I love it and so do they. It amazes me what they are picking up just from reading. Now my only fear is my ability to provide enough new books throughout the year!

Jessie Delaney

Hello fantastic people! I have been following you in the past two months… I have learned a lot from all of you. Specially from Mike Coxon, Martina Bex and Bryce Hedstrom, I am a big fan of all of you, and i am loving TPRS and CI methods. I have not had the opportunity to be in any of the conferences, seminars or talks, but I hope that I can work my way to one next year. I feel like I know you all from all the videos I have watched of you… Anyway THANK YOU! And I want to share that with my middle school students we talked about La tomatina on Monday, and Tuesday we watched the news from the celebration last week, I gave the children the task to create a similar celebration with rules, start and ending and elements on it… today we had: LA PAPELINA. We had a blast! the children practiced their: “!lanzamelo! !a mi no! !a el! !aqui! !lanzalo!” Now we are ready for our beisbol game if they decide to read Felipe Alou over Esperanza.

GA

I used TPRS for the first time with Latin 1 today, using a variation of Keith Toda’s lesson plan from his Todally Comprehensible Latin blog. Not only did I introduce nominative and accusative sentences on Day 2 without grammar explanation other than “Latin puts the verb at the end of the sentence,” but I added genitive forms as well in the questioning and the students understood it! I varied with circling and PQA throughout the class in Latin, and the students answered me mainly in Latin. Even when they answered my Latin questions in English most responded correctly so I knew they comprehended the lesson. Tomorrow we review the story with pictures on a PowerPoint and will do a choral reading.

What I liked the most is that everyone was engaged. CI/TPRS really works.

Chris Buczek

After doing a story with actors, a bobble-head dog, and a stuffed Stitch, I asked my 7th and 8th graders what they thought of the new format.
“It’s easier to follow along.”
“I understand everything.”
“It’s more interactive.”
“I like the repetition.”

I even gave them a short five question quiz and one of my struggling students got 100% and walked out feeling fabulous.

Seriously people, where has this been all my life?
8th graders were cracking up when I had them say “Ohhhhhhhh!” And everyone did it!

I am sure you are tired of my posts but I can’t help it. No one else understands! I want to run around my school screaming at the top of my lungs!

Ok. I am calm now. For all those who told me bad tprs is better than none, I believe you. I am excited to get better every day.

KS, a junior high teacher in AZ

This is What Really Matters.

One thought on “This is What Really Matters.

  • September 5, 2015 at 11:33 am
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    Grant this is so spot on. I read a book this summer called “Crossing the Chasm: marketing and Selling Disruptive Ideas to Mainstream Customers” by Geoffrey Moore who describes how to go from the early adopters of an idea or product to the majority. This flurry of activity you note is the beginning of that phenomenon. We need to get systems in place to care for all the newbies flooding in: training, materials, forums, meet ups.

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