After implementing Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) in my class this year, I’ve been looking for ways to add comprehensible readings for my novice level students. I originally started by adding our class stories to a binder. But something about a binder full of page-long stories don’t seem too appealing to students.
So I’ve started printing out mini booklets using our class stories. Continue reading
Yesterday, we showed you how to create your own cloze activities on LyricsTraining.com. But what if the song you want to use as an activity isn’t there? Well, it’s easy to add a song by adding your own lyrics and we’ll show you how.
Summary Continue reading
If you are participating in March Music Madness, you probably have used a fill-in-the-blank Cloze activity before with a song. Perhaps, you’ve checked out the site lyricstraining.com. While this site was a great way for students to practice typing in lyrics, they really had to be able to recognize ANY and ALL words of the song, since the selections were completely random. Well, good news: They’ve added a new feature that allows you to choose which words students need to fill in. (Note: You must be signed in to see this new option. If you are not signed in, you won’t see it.)
Check out how you can create your own online activity:
It’s here! Our favorite time of year: When 16 songs go head-t0-head to see which hit will de declared the winner of March Music Madness. Our 2016 Bracket was a success, with students falling in love with the eventual winner.
And after receiving many inquiries about our 2017 Bracket, we are please to finally release our official bracket. We had a hard time narrowing down a list of just 17 songs that were just right for our annual tournament. We wanted to make sure that all songs were school appropriate for a wide range of audiences and avoided songs with references to sex, alcohol, or objectification. We wanted this year’s bracket to feature songs that were current, with well known artists, and genres that appeal to students. Without further adu…. the March Music Madness 2017 Bracket: Continue reading
I finally started “FVR” or Free Voluntary Reading time with my students this last week. For an idea on what FVR is, check out this post by K.Placido, “Sustained Silent Reading in Language Class“.
Our first day we spent 5-6 minutes reading. My goal is to do this 1-2 times per week and grow from there.
My FVR Library:
-TPRS novels, most from FluencyMatters.com: Robo en la Noche, Capibara con botas, Brandon Brown series, Peter va a Colombia, Fiesta Fatal, Felipe Alou, among others.
-Class stories that I have compiled into 2 binders.
-Stories from Blaine Ray’s “Look I can Talk” book.
-Stories purchased from TeachersPayTeachers. (You can check out some of ours at SpanishPlans, such as a Simon’s Cat embedded reading).
Reading Log:
Since the purpose of FVR is to let the students enjoy the reading it is important not to make it cumbersome by adding some type of assignment to it. However, I am trying this reading log, more-so to let kids keep track of what they are reading so they can choose the same book if they wish to continue. We shall see if this is a something I continue with. But if you’d like a copy, you can download it as a PDF (lectura-libre-fvr-log) or editable Word file (fvr-log).
In the TPRS classroom, creating your own listening activities can be super easy. You can utilize this approach to create your own cloze cloze activities or record your own audio of a story.
The process is simple. Every computer has Continue reading
With many schools entering their final days before winter break, I wanted to share some quick and easy lesson plans to get you through your final days! Enjoy!
MovieTalk:
Pedacito de Navidad Video
Justino Y la Loteria: A free movietalk lesson from Martina Bex
Escribir una Carta a Santa: Students write a letter on what they want.
Song:
Jesse y Joy: Estaré en tus brazos: En Tus Brazos Estaré Lesson
Check out these “Querido Santa” tweets:
In the TPRS classroom, we want our students to be reading and reading. Giving them tasks that make students re-read a story gives them a focus without realizing they are reading
the story again.
One such technique is what I am calling “Yellow Summary”. In this task, students highlight the most important events of the story. When they are finished, what they have highlighted should represent a decent summary of the story.
As students are re-reading, they have to Continue reading
In addition to the TeachersPayTeachers Cyber Monday Sale, we have some other special announcements: Continue reading
Oh my god, you guys!! Look who visited my class today! 
I had my fan girl moment as Juanes was part of our class story. We’ve also had visits previously from Beyonce (not Bey-doce or Bey-trece), John Cena, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Kanye West. But you are in luck. You can have them visit your classroom too…. Continue reading
SpanishPlans.org 