FVR Accountability

Posted on December 4, 2017 by SpanishPlans

I recently came across a post on Grant Boulanger’s blog written by Mónica Romero where she shows how she has students share what books they are reading during FVR (Free Voluntary Reading). Go ahead and read that post… go on, I’ll wait. What I love about blogging is the sharing that bloggers do. There are so many good ideas out there, and sometimes you see something and it can spark an idea. That’s what happened with this. I wanted to do something similar with my level 1 students. We are currently reading about 8 minutes every Monday. Every Monday for “Lectura Libre”, I ask my students “¿Qué día es hoy?” (Lunes) “¿Y qué hacemos los lunes” (Leemos) “¿Qué?” (Leemos) “¡¿QUÉ?!” (LEEMOS)

After our first trimester, Continue reading →

Posted in FVR, FVR | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Spanish Graphic Novels

Posted on December 2, 2017 by SpanishPlans

Thanks to everyone who recently entered our Spanish Graphic Novel raffle. The winners have been chosen. Check below to see if you are a winner. We will also tell you how you can add more graphic novels to your classroom library.

Continue reading →

Posted in FVR, FVR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

FVR Graphic Novel Giveaway

Posted on November 23, 2017 by SpanishPlans

This Thanksgiving we are thankful for such a supporting PLN and the amount that we have professionally grown thanks to all the ideas that you all share through blogs, conferences, and twitter. With the new release of Wooly’s La Dentista novel, we thought it would be a great way to say thanks to our readers to host a FVR Graphic Novel giveaway. Get the full details  Continue reading →

Posted in FVR, FVR | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Language Acquisition Quote

Posted on November 15, 2017 by SpanishPlans


If you are a teacher who teaches with comprehensible input (TCI) and accepts the research of language acquisition, I find it helpful to explain the reasons for doing what we do in class to students. This helps them understand the process and to realize how we acquire languages. Many students come in to a language class with the expectations of memorizing vocabulary lists and studying grammar. By explaining how acquisition works, we get more buy in from students. Below are a list of language acquisition quotes that you can post a a “Acquisition Quote of the Week” and share with students. Continue reading →

Posted in Discussion/Methodology | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Creating your own FVR Booklets

Posted on November 5, 2017 by SpanishPlans

If you’ve been following our posts this year, you know we have been focusing a lot lately on FVR (free voluntary reading) as a tool for acquisition in the language learning classroom. Today we are going to show you how to create your own mini-readers using your own class stories.

Here is a picture of our classroom library at this point in level 1.The best way to organize it is to purchase a wire six-tier rack from Amazon. I then have a student job in each class as el bibliotecario (the librarian) to help keep it organized.

Continue reading →

Posted in FVR, reading, TPRS | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Spooky Stories

Posted on October 29, 2017 by SpanishPlans

Some Halloween tales for this week:

Authenic Reading of Haunted Hollywood Stars

This product features an authentic text from a Colombian Magazine regarding 6 stories of famous celebrities and their encounters with ghosts. Makes a great engaging lectura for students. Can be adapted to any levels of Spanish. The celebrities include Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez, and Bella Thorne.

Includes:
6 texts about each celebrity. Editable Continue reading →

Posted in Lesson Plans | Tagged | 1 Comment

CI Midwest Takeaways 3

Posted on October 16, 2017 by SpanishPlans

The second session I attended at Comprehensible Midwest 2017 in Ripon, Wisconsin was about using Non-fiction stories. Some critics of TPRS will say that the stories are silly and wonder when a student would need to talk about a pink elephant that goes to 3 different stores to look for pizza. Well, TPRS can be used to tell ANY story, fiction or not. This session was led by Jon Dicus who offered some creative strategies to incorporate real texts.

Some of my personal takeaways from Jon’s session: Continue reading →

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CI Midwest Takeaways 2

Posted on October 14, 2017 by SpanishPlans

It’s been about a busy month since CI Midwest took place but we finally have some time to post a few more of our thoughts and takeaways.

Notes from Justin Slocum Bailey’s (@indwellinglang) session:
Continue reading →

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Comprehensible Midwest Takeaway 1

Posted on October 2, 2017 by SpanishPlans

This past weekend, I spent my Saturday with nearly 200 like-minded teachers at an amazing conference in Ripon, Wisconsin during the second annual Comprehensible Midwest Conference.  It was such an amazing experience and I congratulate the small group that worked so hard to put it all together.

I’ve collected the best tweets of #CIMW17: Continue reading →

Posted in Discussion/Methodology | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Helping Mexico and Puerto Rico

Posted on October 1, 2017 by SpanishPlans

After the earthquake in Mexico and the hurricane in Puerto Rico, these two places have been devastated by destruction and in need of serious aide. Many funds have been established to send relief and help rebuild and provide aide to the people who have been left without homes and in need to food and water.

If you haven’t talked about it in class yet, I suggest taking a look at these resources provided by Martina Bex: Unidos Por Puerto Rico: Materials for Spanish teachers and Los heroes del terremoto: materials for Spanish teachers.

So what can we do? Personally, I am donating all the proceeds from the sale of the Puerto Rico and Mexico stamps until the end of October.

But I also hope to get my school involved. I was thinking of organizing a “Movie Night” at my school around Day of the Dead and showing the movie “Book of Life”. I might now take that idea and use it as a fundraiser for these efforts. Our student council has done a movie-screening before: charging a suggested donation of $2 to enter and then selling snacks, including Jarritos drinks.

Any other ideas? Please share what your department or classes in doing to give the inspiration to others to help as well.

And if you are looking to donate, here are the two organizations we will be supporting:

United For Puerto Rico

Global Giving Mexico Earthquake Relief Fund

 

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