What is TPRS?
If you’ve never heard of TPRS, it’s Teach Proficiency Through Reading and Storytelling. If you’ve never heard of TPR (Total Physical Response), start here. Total Physical Response uses verb commands that incorporate a physical response from the student in the target language. The easiest way to understand this is telling someone to do something such as a chore. For example: Wash the dishes. You say the command and the person does it. In a language learning environment, you can tell your students to, “take out a sheet of paper”, “Read the directions,” etcetera.
TPRS uses storytelling to teach vocabulary and grammar so students can learn in a comprehensible way.
If you’ve never tried TPRS or done any type of comprehensible input (CI), check out my tutorial where I use TPRS in my fall-themed Spanish lesson
TPRS SPANISH LESSON Template
I use the same template for all of my TPRS lessons.
- Introduce vocabulary in the target language, with a label in the native language and an image.
- Practice saying each vocabulary word two times
- Do practice activities with the vocabulary word in the target language only with images
- Read basic sentences with the vocabulary
TPRS Spanish Lesson FOR THE FALL
Take a look at the entire lesson here.