TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) is the foundation of all that I do. When I find that my classes are not responding or that things just aren’t going as I’d like, it’s usually because I have strayed from my foundation and haven’t been practicing the basics. You can’t win the rodeo if you don’t get out there and ride your horse every day!
Providing CI (comprehensible input) is a lot of work for the teacher – it can be exhausting, especially if you are changing from a traditional textbook-driven curriculum. But the rewards far outweigh the efforts when you do it well. Last year was my first year teaching with TPRS/CI approaches. When my students returned to school this past fall, I had planned about 6 weeks of review materials. When I taught with a textbook, it took at least that amount of time to review what we had done the previous year. BUT!!! When you teach language in a way that the brain can acquire, things are different! We literally covered all 6 weeks of review materials in 3 days. Students hadn’t learned a darned thing the previous year… THEY HAD ACQUIRED!!
If you haven’t been to one, get thee to a TPRS workshop. They are held all over the country and are very affordable. Also grab yourself a copy of “The Green Bible”. This is literally my go-to resource when I am frustrated with student progress. I am always reminded that it is ME and MY approach that are preventing the true acquisition to occur, not student efforts.
By no means is TPRS the only way to provide input. No way! For every person, there is a different approach. But, almost all of them stem from the same foundation – TPRS.
My other must-have resources include TPRS in a Year , PQA in a Wink, and The Big Book of CI by Ben Slavic. These are wonderful resources to have on hand and refer back to on a regular basis.
