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Summer 2007 Programs

Teacher Training Programs for Arabic   Student Programs for Arabic   Teacher Training Programs for Chinese   Student Programs for Chinese

 

Total Physical Response Storytelling (TPRS)

 

Total Physical Response Storytelling or Teaching Proficiency Through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) is a specific methodology or approach to teaching language. Through TPRS, teachers are teaching the language holistically without having to teach grammar rules. Grammatical accuracy is taught but not in the traditional way through verb conjugations. Language is learned by understanding messages in the target language. That means language is picked up through comprehensible input. Input is listening and reading that is understood by the learner. Teachers ensure that the entire lesson is totally comprehensible to the student. Also it must be repetitive and interesting. The class is taught through an interesting story that is invented as the teacher asks students repetitive questions.  For more information, go to:

 

http://www.blaineraytprs.com/
http://www.tprstorytelling.com/tprs_resource_page.htm
http://www.cortland.edu/flteach/FAQ/FAQ-TPR.html

 

 

Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners

 

Each foreign language classroom consists of a heterogeneous group of language learners.  STARTALK summer programs will prove to be even moreso because students will be coming from a variety of backgrounds and schools.  It is critical that teachers be able to differentiate the instruction to meet the diverse needs of these learners.  Click here to read an article by Toni Theisen of Loveland, Colorado about strategies that she uses to differentiate how she reaches each learner in her class:  www.sedl.org/loteced/communique/n06.pdf

 

The following site has a very wide variety of resources to assist teachers in differentiating classroom instruction. Check them out at http://www.internet4classrooms.com/di.htm

 

Click here to get information on meeting the needs of the diversity in your classroom from the National Capital Language Resource Center:  http://www.nclrc.org/about_teaching/topics/learner_diversity.html

 

Helping students organize their thoughts before they engage in presentational mode (speaking and writing) activities is critical to ensuring that they are focused on their communication and how it is being received by the intended audience.  Using graphic organizers is a key way to help students.  The following websites will provide information and access to a wide variety of graphic organizers:

 

This site contains a variety of common graphic organizers.  Be sure to consider the KWL chart which will help you work with students to identify K, or what they already Know about a subject, W, or what they Want to know about a topic, and finally after the unit, L, or what they have Learned about a topic. Here is the site:

 

http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/graphic_organizers.php

 

This site contains a variety of graphic organizers as well as explanations about their purposes and how to use them:  http://www.graphic.org/goindex.html

 

Click on this site to see specifically how graphic organizers can be used to help students with learning disabilities:  http://learningdisabilities.about.com/od/planningandorganization/qt/graphicorganiz.htm

 

This is an article about how graphic organizers can be used in the foreign language classroom with an explanation of the basic graphic organizers and their purposes:

 

http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/April2007/jiang/jiang.html

 

Click here for a host of free graphic organizers:  http://its.leesummit.k12.mo.us/graphic_organizers.htm