I need help understanding a teaching method / strategy know as TPRS: Total Physical Response
Storytelling or Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling.

Last September, I started a new teaching position. Long story short, my students appear to have studied vocabulary lists. They know
words or expressions. They have no training in verb conjugation / agreement, nor do they have training in any grammar.

I do not see the benefit to this type of learning. I attended a TPRS training session that was conducted in Hebrew. I learned about three words after an hour of training. I cringed at the thought of being called on to stand in front of the group and act out what I could not understand.

Like with an aspect of TPRS, I use an "anchor" when I teach vocabulary, always have.

If you use TPRS with success, I would like to read your comments. Please set me in the right direction.

If you are teaching verb conjugation and sentence construction, plus actual hands on communication, than you see the teacher I have been.

I feel that I am under the gun to learn the TPRS. (My kids cry out, "Where's the vocabulary list?" Or, "All we can do is a vocabulary list and a game." They say that I do not teach them in the manner to which they are accostumed.)

I am not surprised that I did not master it after just one day of training, but boy did it shake me up and make me question what I do in the classroom!

I am adapting to the new work place. The one day of training opened my eyes. I always felt that I was a quick learner, but I did NOT catch on to TPRS after one day of training.

I can help you- I will email you.

Sofia, your question is about Spain/Spanish Related Teaching??

Saludos, MadridMan

Yes, MadridMan, my question is about teaching Spanish.

When I received the TPRS training, I was in a room with 90 Foreign Language Teachers. Most taught Spanish, others taught French and German.
We received the training in Hebrew, because it was a language that was not our expertise.

The instructor spoke no English. Through pictures and physical objects, we listened to her tell and act out a story. Then, without her speaking English, we were asked questions and called forward to act out the story. She gave the instructions in the target language. She held up objects. She performed rather intensely. Then, we were asked to tell the story... in Hebrew.

The Hebrew language went on for an hour and a half. Not one person sitting near me knew Hebrew. We were not even sure what language it was!

The presenter was a Spanish teacher who presented in Hebrew. Of course, we were a willing audience.

Today, I remember one Hebrew word, zev.

Anyway, I would like to add some of this TPRS to my classroom. Yesterday, I did an animal story.
I / we read it in Spanish. I did the animal noises and lots of gestures. I spoke Spanish for 90 minutes. I asked the kids to draw pictures of the story and label. I did everything, rather well I might add.

The response: "Speak English." "Why are we doing this?" "This is stupid." Today, I received an apology letter from one very nice young lady. She added, "Just give us a vocabulary list." I know their previous teacher was TPRS trained, but all they want is a vocab list and a game of hang man, pictionary or round the world.

I really had fun with a total immersion Spanish class. I felt like, hey, they pay me to speak Spanish, I have the gift, go for it! That was not the challenge. The complaining from the kids, grade 9 level II, man that was the challenge.

I found TPRS to be enlightening. I know I need much more training. Previously, I was trained as a whole language reading teacher, which I carried over to my foreign language class room. I have always done a lot with reading and written composition.

Anyway, I am in a position where I must change, I must adapt to a different type of learner.

The yahoo mail is not functioning, so I have not yet read Nevado's message to me.

TPRS has been used for over 20 years. There are a lot of trained people on this message board, surely. Perhaps the woman who trained me one March 8th day in Syracuse NY is on this forum.

What can I do to speed it up so that I can do more TPRS? What are your experiences with TPRS in a Spanish language classroom?

I have a LOT more that I would like to say, but I would prefer to feed off other comments and not go on and on with my tales of the last 2 months of personal evolution in a Spanish language classroom.

Sofia,
I'm not sure if the search function will allow you to locate current and past members based on their profession - but there are a number of educators (elementary to graduate school) that teach Spanish - give that a try -

Will also email w/ another suggestion -

Sofia, have you tried the Spanish teacher\'s message board ? I am familiar with TPR but never used it myself. Buena suerte!

Sofia- hey, I wish I had kept a copy of the email; you basically answered my questions from your post. I haven't used the method 100% and I don't think I could in a traditional high school. The part I don't enjoy is that you must disregard lessons you love, current events, real literature, etc. I think such a great part of a Spanish teacher's job is to teach the history, the customs, the things that make you fall in love with the people and places. So, I am unable to use it as it's supposed to be used- I would go nuts!

To comment on some things you mentioned...if the kids are asking you to speak English, their previous instructor was not using the TPRS method 100%. There is no English involved except with ESL students! So, they want it all and I wouldn't put up with that. I'm also shocked at how the kids speak to you. Is Admin forcing you to teach that way or are you just trying to please the kids? Can you just finish this school year and start fresh in the fall?

I think it's great you are willing to try new things. Do you have proper materials for TPRS or are you making this up yourself? There are tons of resources and I've been trained by the authors of one method of TPRS (Blaine Ray) and second-language acquisition folks like Krashen and Cummings. I think as long as you give the students comprehensible input in the target language, whether that is through TPRS or your own version, things will work. What I find a disservice to the kids is speaking English in class (aside from an occasional nasty grammar lesson)
Are you only teaching level II? How many Spanish teachers are there at your school? Are they all using TPRS? What do your standards say?

Who sponsored the training? Was it an author or just a colleague? Materials are available that can take you through a good 2-3 years of Spanish classes. You have to decide if you're going to buy into it 100%. If you don't, just buy a book or two to use as supplementary material. I use it to get my kids over the fear of speaking in front of others. They really enjoy working with the stories on a part-time basis. I also adapt children's stories to the thematic units I've created. We do Jorge el Curioso, cuentos ecologicos, etc. But really, it's just a version of storytelling. I don't go full blown on the gestures. I have the standard ones, just as any animated storyteller would.

I think I'm getting long-winded so I'll end here. Let me know if I can help.

Nevado, thank you for the background info you have provided on this forum and via e-mail.

The TPRS training was offered to me to stimulate more speaking in the classroom.

I was trained as a Whole Language Reading Teacher and for many years have emphasized reading and writing as key components of language learning.

The TPRS focuses heavily on the verbal. The state standards also focus on the verbal.

I do not own any TPRS resources and need to buy something that has been prepared. In the meantime, I am able to imitate from the workshop. Also, I have altered my grammar and vocabulary lessons to make this more communicative and graphic.

After receiving the training, I was very much in conflict. For several weeks now, I have had to rethink my strategies and experiment.

Thank you all (nevado, Puna and esperanza) for your private correspondences. I especially like the Spanish teacher online forum.

Needy Sofia online again: I received two more training sessions regarding TPRS classroom strategy and I do believe that I can do this.

I sat down and wrote a lesson plan that included a story and circular questioning. It took me a good deal of time, 2 hours.

I do not own any TPRS books containing stories. A woman who recently trained me, mentioned a yahoogroups site where teachers post stories that they have written and used in class. I could not find this site online. Please post here or reply to my e-mail if you can hook me up with stories that I can use to get started with TPRS.

I AM GOING TO DO THE TPRS in my Spanish language classrooms.

Thank you.