Why I’m Here

… I’ve been trying to figure that out ever since I almost got crushed by a car in a snowstorm twenty years ago.

I hadn’t considered an independent study till Genevieve (aka G2) illuminated the benefits. One of my goals in coming to SIT is to try to find the intersection between my previous life in documentary radio and the ESL environment. When we reached Content-Based Instruction in Approaches a few weeks ago, I saw a faint glimmer of possibility. To learn that it was a tried-and-true method to develop lessons/threads from the level of the subject matter down — to auger into it for the language, rather than start with the linguistic nuts-and-bolds or “meta” shite — thrilled me.

My crystal ball is just grey swirls, so all I can say for now is that my I.S. will explore ways for older kids and adult students to use their life stories — including “evidence” they gather from around them (friends, family, other important people; photos, audio, video) — as a way to learn English. Perhaps I can develop a semester-long curriculum that that has something to do with Learning English through Personal Storytelling. That’s very, very vague, but I hope you get my general drift. During our internship in Mexico, we’re supposed (we think) to focus on oral skills, but I hope to play with all four, because I’ll need them all to pursue this.

Throughout my time in Pachuca I’ll look for opportunities to experiment with these ideas, and see how they solidify. I’ll report to you on any discoveries I make, and if you encounter related ideas, I’d be grateful if you’d share them here. I hate that word, “share.” I’d be most grateful if, rather than “share,” you’d write something here.

I’m gonna miss you guys and am glad we’ll be staying in touch this way.

And I will keep my brain and eyes open for thoughts to contribute to what you guys are working on for your own I.P.s.

Ta.

G