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Profesor Crosby 2017-2018 . 998-5410 X414

scrosby@rsu16.org

¡BIENVENIDOS A LA CLASE DE ESPAÑOL!

I am thrilled to be sharing my 27 year of teaching and 19th year at PRHS. I am looking forward to a year in which students make great strides toward acquiring reading, writing, listening and speaking skills in Spanish!

PRHS teaches Spanish with the revolutionary method of teaching which focuses on providing comprehensible input so that students acquire the language by listening to it repeatedly over time. The primary strategy for providing this comprehensible input is TPRS©, which stands for Teaching Proficiency Through Reading and Storytelling. This method, developed by Blaine Ray, encourages language acquisition (communication), not just language learning (grammar). Basically, we have found through years of study that the traditional textbook method does not produce long-term fluency in the language in which students learn new vocabulary and grammar only to forget it once they moved onto a new set of vocabulary and grammar.

The basic idea of TPRS is that students of a second (new) language acquire languages the very same way they acquired their first: through repetitive comprehensible input. Simply stated, students listen to stories in the target language that the teachers makes understandable to them. The stories constantly repeat structures (he went, she ate). Structures are repeated so much that students begin to acquire or internalize them. This input first results in comprehension. Over time, this ability to understand gradually becomes an ability to use the language to communicate. The results have been quite encouraging. I would welcome anyone interested in seeing TPRS in action to visit one (or more) of my classes.

This year I am asking parents to give me some input on their children. I created a survey asking for information about your child that I believe will help me and your child be more successful. You can find the survey as a document (on the left side of the website), download it and fill it out with a pen/pencil and have your child return it to me. I also created an online survey that you can complete online if you prefer. The address is https://goo.gl/mDHJLp

I look forward to hearing from you throughout the year. Throughout the year students will be expected to go home and tell their parent(s) a story or two in Spanish. Also, I would encourage you to ask to see their work!

Don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions, concerns or comments at any time throughout the year.

Sincerely,

Skip Crosby

998-5410 X414 scrosby@rsu16.org