A little over a month ago I posted about our CI journey that got kicked off with a conference hosted by Allison Wienhold from Mis Clases Locas.
Quick recap: Our department is in the process of changing our curriculum and switching to Standards Based Grading. It’s been quite the discussion, but where I personally arrived was that I want to implement CI and novels in my classroom. (We’re still working on the department consensus).
What have we been up to?
Since the conference, we started taking the main targets of each chapter from En Español and making a small story (6-8 sentences) using some of the vocab and structures. We cut the En Contexto, En Vivo, and two-three days of vocab practice each unit and used those for story days instead. We did this for the last few chapters of Spanish I and the last chapter of Spanish II. I know it’s not ideal (there’s so much vocab in each chapter! Some of the structures just don’t work!) but it felt like a good compromise to try things out as a co-planning team. The students responded so well to it, and their understanding and assessments really showed that it was working as we hoped.
What’s Next?
A co-worker and I have decided we want to go full-board with CI. We don’t have funds from our district for resources/curriculum so we have been working hard on writing grants and compiling resources that can help us with this new adventure.
We are going to a 3-day TPRS training in St. Louis this June and I’m super excited to see what we’re going to learn there! I am saving posts and reading up as much as I can to see what is working for people who are already doing this, but I’d love to hear more if you have any suggestions for me!
JR says
Ashley, Tell me how did you like the tprs workshop? Takeaways? Reflections? I am a TCI teacher and my main approach to TCI is TPRS. This was my first year implementing TCI. I am a 1-3rd grade teacher in Chicago. If you’re looking for curriculum resources Madison public schools and Witneka public schools implement comprehensible input. They have wonderful resources. I’ve also observed a language teacher in witneka to get a better idea of how this looks like in a 1-8th grade setting. Nonetheless, I recommend observing a teacher there. Also, join the comprehensible input group on Facebook they meet once a month or so.
Ashley Mikkelsen says
I loved it!! I’m going to sit down with my notes sometime in the next week and post a reflection. I will have to look into those resources, thanks for the tip!! I’ve been watching some of Sarah Breckley’s videos for some ideas, but it is always great to have more resources. Is there a comprehensible input group for IL specifically?