What I've actually starting using from NTPRS

I am in the middle of my 4th day of the year and I'm hoping that I can verbalize what I've taken from NTPRS and started using in my classroom. 

First, I took a page from Grant Boulanger and simplified my syllabus tremendously by simplifying my classroom expectations.  I now only have three (and one of them could be linked to the other two). 

1. NO CELL PHONES (mainly because this drove me nuts at the end of last year)
2. Be an active learner (participate, let me know if you are lost, and pay attention)
3. Respect me, yourself, your peers, and property.

This definitely helped cut down on the amount of English I had to speak at the beginning of the week to explain my syllabus (a building expectation) and I was able to model what I wanted by jumping into TPRS instead of talking about it.

On the first day, I used Blaine's pre/post-test to see what my students acquired last year.  While they did not do as well as I had hoped, it was great for seeing what I needed to review and what I can skip.  I'm hoping that I can also keep track from year to year to see my own growth as a TPRS practitioner. 

I took the "I can" statements and ideas from Mira and Michele's session on the ACTFL standards, cut them into level (I'm still not sure that they are appropriate for a TPRS learner...but we'll see), handed them out to each student, and am now posting daily standards on the board for each level. 

I am hoping that it will be helpful for students (and me) to focus our energies.  Looking at the writing standards, I am excited that this year I will be able to give more specific prompts to my students about what they should write during free-writes.

 

The other thing that I am doing is a ton more partner work.  I know that it goes against "TPRS", but I loved seeing it and experiencing it in Carol and Betsy's classes.  I find that it's a good brain break and I'm hoping that I've started a new habit of never asking for a volunteer to speak in front of the class without allowing them to first try it out with a partner.  I'm enjoying it, but I did catch myself correcting someone while in partner work and I kicked myself right afterwards.  I need to get better at using Betsy's positive attitude and no-correction policy.  It makes such a huge difference in how the students feel about volunteering or speaking in class.

 

Plan is almost over, so I'll sign off.  I'll keep updating as I try new things.