Stories are powerful tools to create meaningful, engaging, and culturally authentic curriculum. In this engaging session, participants will hear the rationale for using stories, examine the process of creating curricula based upon stories, and practice "3 ring circuses" based instruction in TPR and "circling" questioning techniques in TPRS. Participants will leave able to confidently use a collection of interesting ideas for exploring culturally authentic stories with students of all proficiency levels. Speaker: Lucy C. Lee is a veteran teacher at Livingston High School in New Jersey, Teacher Educator at Rutgers and William Paterson University, and CLASS Past President. She was the 2012 Teacher of the Year for the Foreign Language Teachers of New Jersey (FLENJ) and was also the Teacher of the Year for the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Yanjun Liu is a teacher from Hanban-College Board Guest Teacher Program. She had been teaching Chinese in Philippine Chung Hua School, Manila for three years. From 2013 to 2015, she worked for Chatham Hall, Virginia, which is an all-girls college prep school. Haiyun Lu: Haiyun has been a Chinese language teacher since 1993. She currently teaches at one of the top-rated independent schools in the United States Midwest. She is a presenter at various language-related national conferences. She is an author of “Not the Same as Kittens’ Series”.

1. Ignite Chinese Via Storytelling and Brain Based Instruction Handout 2014
Haiyun Lu
haiyun@ignitechinese.org
www.ignitechinese.org
University School of Milwaukee
Part I: Teaching with Comprehensible Input (TCI)
1. Stephen Krashen and CI
a. What is CI? The Comprehension Hypothesis states that we acquire
language and develop literacy when we understand messages, that
is, when we understand what we hear and what we read, when we
receive “comprehensible input” (Krashen, 2003).
b. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjAHPl1ACmQ
c. Five characteristic of CI
i. Comprehension​ : a brain acquires languages that we
understand.
ii. Meaningful repetition​: A brain needs many meaningful
repetitions in order to acquire a language.
iii. i+1​: ​the learner improves and progresses when he/she receives
second language 'input' that is one step beyond his/her current
stage of linguistic competence.
iv. Silent period​ ​is a stage in ​second language acquisition​ where
learners do not attempt to speak.​ ​Krashen hypothesizes that
learners are building up language competence during their
silent periods through actively listening and processing the
language they hear, and that they do not need to speak to
improve in the language.
v. Everybody needs a different length of time to acquire a
language. Output would occur natural if the language has
acquired.
2. TCI Based Instruction
a. Total physical response (TPR)
b. Teaching proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS
i. What is TPRS? It is a teaching method created by Blaine
Ray. The method is founded on the language acquisition
hypotheses of Stephen Krashen. It uses variety of
techniques that foster efficient acquisition. Especially, it
uses highly-interactive stories to provide comprehensible
input and create an atmosphere of immersion in the
classroom.
ii. Three pillars of TPRS are comprehension, repetition and
interest.
c. Focal Skills

2. Part II: Three Steps of TPRS
1. Establish Meaning
a. Translation
b. Gesture with tonal direction
c. Pictures
d. Realia
2. Ask a Story
a. Circling
b. Personalization
c. 3 twists
d. Censor sensitivities out of your story!
3. Read​and Discuss
a. Translate for meaning
b. Ask facts about the story
c. Add details about the story
d. Create a parallel story
● “Circling” ​, asking a series of different types of questions about a
particular fact (a phrase or a word in a story). Please open additional
attachment for a circling template.
● How to go slow
o Pause & point
o Use gesture
o Add actors
o Baby talk
● how to ask interesting questions
o Adding unexpected details
o Say it as you mean it
o Take students’ suggestions
o Use imagination
o Use your voice and body
Part III: The Connection between Neuroscience and TCI
a. Brain seeks survival
b. Affective variables vs. acquisition
c. Brain needs novelty
d. A story puts images in our heads
e. Brain needs repetition

3. f. Brain loves pattern
Part IV: A Comparison between TCI vs. Non-TCI instruction
Issues TCI Non TCI
What builds
proficiency?
Input Forced Output
载​体 Comprehensible
Input
Based instruction
interaction,
communication,
immersion,
student
pair/group work,
etc
Centered
Around
Students’
interests
Students activity
TS
Relationship
Better Good
Outcome Natural output
with accuracy
Forced out with
lots of errors
Part V: Resources
1. Ignite Chinese (​www.ignitechinese.org​)
2. http://tprsforchinese.blogspot.com/
3. Terry Waltz
4. Chinese Grammar Wiki
5. Moretprs @yahoogroups.com
6. Blain Ray Workshops
7. Carol Gabb
8. Ben Slavic

4. 9. Laurie Clarcq
10. Michele Whaley
11. Martina Bex
12. Bryce Hedstrom
13. Scott Benidict
14. Susan Gross
15. CI Chinese (Facebook Group)