A couple of weeks ago I had the awesome opportunity to see Ben Slavic in action again. I had seen him in a couple of workshops at NTPRS 2011, but this was even better than that. Seeing Ben interacting with his kids was a real treat. Seeing him made what he writes about in his blog and what he does in workshops really come to life.
I learned so much from just that afternoon. I was rejuvenated and it re-instilled my faith in CI (this year has been particularly challenging, hence the lack of posts - if you don't have anything nice to say, don't put it on the internet!). I was so inspired by the power of the reading class we saw, that I went and attempted to re-create the same lesson in my own class the next day.
I couldn't have worked out better because we were working on some of the same vocabulary. We did the Anna Matava story "Don't Drink the Water" and I changed it to "He Shouldn't Drink the Water" to match the structures we were working with via our Realidades curriculum. My students responded great. They loved the reading being on the screen, the chance to just read and hear the Spanish then go back and translate. Reading is really powerful stuff. I need to focus on incorporating more reading next semester.
I am so thankful that I live in an area where CI is doing great things, where there are teachers embracing the method (even if it is not in my own school), where I can get support from internet acquaintances and complete strangers, where students are the priority. Thank you Ben and Diana for having me. It was a powerful afternoon, and just what I needed to see.
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