TPRS Basics (1-3 Days)
• Second Language Acquisition with TPRS
• TPRS Step-by-Step Teacher Training
• Follow-up TPRS Teacher Training
Integrating Cultural Content and TPRS
How to Bring an In-service to Your School
| This award-winning teaching demonstration puts language teachers in the role of language learners as they learn Swedish via TPRS (Teaching for Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling). From this experience, teachers gain unique insights for refining their own teaching skills. TPRS uses interactive storytelling as a technique to acquire a new language in a low-stress and highly engaging environment. Multiple intelligence strategies naturally integrated into the lesson set the stage for all kinds of students to experience success. No wonder foreign language education conferences awarded the “Best of Minnesota” and the “Best of Central States” to this presentation! |
Jan's award winning TPRS Swedish lesson
Best of Minnesota
Best of Central States |
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Experience
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A TPRS language class from a student’s perspective
Enjoyment while learning the Swedish language and Swedish culture
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Reflect
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On strategies that raise and lower students’ confidence and therefore ability to learn new language
On your own current practices - How they are similar or different from today’s lesson? What is best practice?
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Analyze
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How does TPRS work?
Why does TPRS work?
Understand today’s experience by relating it to language acquisition and multiple intelligence theories
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Integrate
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What will you take from today’s experience?
How and when will you integrate this into your teaching?
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Learn the three basic steps of TPRS: 1) Establish meaning, 2) Storytelling, and, 3) Reading. TPRS places emphasis on acquiring language through comprehensible input. First, make sure that students understand the language. Then, practice oral and written language via storytelling and reading. Special emphasis is given to questioning techniques that make the storytelling interactive and provide the repetition to make the language “stick” in long-term memory. The training’s open-ended format accommodates teachers who have never done any TPRS along with teachers who are experienced in the techniques.
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Experience
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Modeled TPRS steps
Guided small group practice teaching
Modeled extension activities to speaking and writing |
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Reflect
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What are your personal strengths as you do a TPRS lesson?
What skills need polish? How will you learn these skills? |
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Analyze
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What are essential components of each TPRS step?
How can variations keep TPRS fresh and interesting?
How can students learn grammar from narrations? |
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Integrate
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How can you start doing some TPRS in your classes? Or
How can you go beyond your current performance level of TPRS? |
An ideal staff development scenario is to schedule Day One and Day Two together and Day Three a month or so later. This starts teachers with a solid foundation in language acquisition, the chance to experience TPRS, understand TPRS and practice some techniques in small groups. They'll be ready to do some stories with their students. The follow-up workshop day will be tailored to address specific areas of need after using the techniques in real classroom situations. This is a supportive way to learn new skills and refine techniques.
The same techniques used in teaching a TPRS “mini story” can be used to teach nonfiction information. An Interactive Mini Lecture (IML) is a strategy to teach topics like geographical facts, the sequence of historical events, biographical information, diverse perspectives of a social issue, etc. Days One, Two and Three in-services focus on bringing meaning to a new language via “comprehensible input”. This in-service adds the dimension of using meaningful content (nonfiction information, authentic stories, songs, works of art…) as the foundation of the language lesson. The presentation is designed for teachers with at least a basic understanding of TPRS.
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Experience
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Walk through of model unit outlines
Small group practice of “interactive mini lecture” techniques
Guidance while planning your own culture-based TPRS lesson |
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Reflect
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How do the model lessons illustrate the ACTFL Standards and the Understanding by Design curriculum framework?
What aspect of these is calling you to investigate it further? |
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Analyze
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Where does “backward design” lead student learning?
How can a complex cultural topic be pared down to the absolute essential learning(s)? What is at the very core of the concept?
Why is it an important topic of study? |
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Integrate
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What culture topics in the present curriculum could be renovated by using the Understanding by Design framework and TPRS techniques?
What culture topics not in the current curriculum could be taught using the Understanding by Design framework and TPRS techniques?
How can these concepts be approached in beginning, intermediate and advanced language levels? |
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