Tell To Teach
After hearing from countless teachers who have successfully taught children of all ages with the TPRS method, having attended a number of workshops and conferences, and having proven it with my own classes, I can attest that it has been the most successful, engaging, and enlivened method for teaching a foreign language. After studying and reflecting on all the points of convergence with Waldorf education, I created a curriculum and materials to accompany the fourth grade class. I have also been able to apply it successfully in the seventh and eighth grade classes, while my colleagues are also applying it in the rest of the school. This has given me much courage and confidence in the work we are doing.
The availability of materials for purchase in the regular market has been one of the problems I encountered in trying to teach with the TPRS method. What I mean is that I don’t always like the kind of stories or content other teachers have written, which is also a natural aspect of teaching. Often the teaching materials available may include influence from the media, from the culture, celebrities, etc. Sometimes the stories themselves don’t make sense to me, and in some cases, the illustrations seem appropriate for an older class. To teach a fourth grade class, I preferred writing my own mini-stories and have my main story illustrated by an artist. After all, Steiner’s idea was also that once the principles of teaching have been given, each teacher would be free to develop his or her own manner of presenting the curriculum. This has taken me quite a few years to figure out, especially figuring out where to start, what I wanted them to learn, and how to create it.
On the forming of the curriculum, I would like to quote once again Carol Gaab:
“While there is a predictable order of the acquisition of specific grammatical structures (statistically speaking), TPRS practitioners use this knowledge as a guide for instruction versus a rule for planning curriculum or the order of instruction. It is understood and accepted that learners will naturally and more easily acquire certain grammatical structures before another, regardless of the amount of and the order of instruction that is given. Therefore, lessons are not generally driven by a grammar syllabus, nor are they grammatically-based. Rather, they are grounded in language structures that will help students learn content and/or communicate accurately and appropriately, considering the age and the level of the learner.”