Author Archives: spanishplans

Unknown's avatar

About spanishplans

Spanish Teacher in Chicago. Have studied or traveled to Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Spain, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Argentina, and Uruguay. Have taught level 1 at middle and high school levels. Degree in Spanish and Master's in Teaching and Leadership. Blogger www.SpanishPlans.org

Authentic Reading

Posted on February 28, 2014 by spanishplans

In my advice unit, I usually have kids write a letter to “Dear Abby” asking for advice. Well, when we happened upon an Advice section from the Mexican teen magazine Tú, we hit the jackpot on authentic readings. We have … Continue reading →

Posted in Resources | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Teaching Commands through Context

Posted on February 26, 2014 by spanishplans

I used to give students a handout of a graphic organizer for making the positive and negative tú commands. I would first go over the rules for making the command form and go over the irregulars with them. Then, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Lesson Plans | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Prounciation Assessment

Posted on February 4, 2014 by spanishplans

Last week, we wrote about how to get our students to improve their pronunciation. And as promised, here is our example script with sample audio by a native speaker. We decided to take excerpts from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in … Continue reading →

Posted in Speaking | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

America is Beautiful

Posted on February 3, 2014 by spanishplans

Who would have thought that a television advertisement for a soft drink would have such a strong message, that it would make a wonderful message of teaching tolerance? That’s just the case with this Coca Cola Super Bowl 40 commercial … Continue reading →

Posted in Lesson Plans | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Speak American

Posted on February 2, 2014 by spanishplans

There seems to be something about sporting events and songs that honor America that brings out twignorants; people who post ignorant tweets. The last time, it was a a baseball game and a Mexican-looking person (not a real thing, by … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

iPad Apps for Practicing Vocabulary

Posted on January 28, 2014 by spanishplans

Pic Collage Pic Collage is a free app where students can create a virtual corkboard. This works as a great tool to present vocabulary. Students can import images from their camera roll, or the site has an imbedded internet search … Continue reading →

Posted in iPads, Vocabulary | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Improving Pronunciation

Posted on January 27, 2014 by spanishplans

Using Google Voice I have made it a goal to assess my students’ pronunciation once every trimester. Students like the activity, and numerous parents have told me at conferences they love the assignment as well, and love listening to their … Continue reading →

Posted in Speaking | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Profesor Gato

Posted on January 21, 2014 by spanishplans

If you paws and think about what connects our students to learning, you’ll know they have to be engaged. I’m a very visual person and so I definitely enjoy a good image.  So when I found this app, it was … Continue reading →

Posted in iPads | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Effective WL Instructors…

Posted on January 14, 2014 by spanishplans

Every teacher wants to be the best they can be for their students. While there are many attributes that can make a great teacher, most important of which is giving students comprehensible input,  we can also observe some behaviors and … Continue reading →

Posted in Discussion/Methodology | Tagged , | 18 Comments

Ditching the verb chart

Posted on January 12, 2014 by spanishplans

A great blog post from French teacher @CecileLaine on changing your teaching strategies from verb charts and grammar based teaching to comprehensible input which will lead to performance based assessments where students actually use the language to communicate. By teaching … Continue reading →

Posted in Discussion/Methodology | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment