Justo o Injusto

Posted on April 25, 2017 by SpanishPlans

While reading the Fluency Fast novel Esperanza by Carol Gaab, one of the main themes is la injusticia. While I know that some teachers use this book in high levels (2/3), I use it with my level 1 students in eighth grade. The vocabulary includes many words that my students have acquired through storytelling throughout the year already, so there is not Esperanza Injusticiamuch pre-teaching I have to do in terms of vocabulary.

The themes such as unions, justice, and immigration are all worthy topics to explore.

We had just finished chapter 3, where the workers decided to strike. We previously had read the lectura from the Teacher’s Guide about Sindicatos, but I still had to give examples of what the point of a union was. While giving a short reading comprehension quiz (also from the Teacher’s Guide) I decided to make a simulation. As I was passing out the quiz, I said Continue reading →

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Sorting Activity for Class Reading

Posted on April 23, 2017 by SpanishPlans

If you are reading a novel in your world language class, this activity is a great way to make sure students take away the most important events. Similar to a Yellow Summary, where students highlight the most important, this activity is more hands-on. It also provides even more input of extra reps as students are re-reading certain phrases to

Sorting_Activity_for_class_novel

determine what category to put them in. Continue reading →

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FVR Printable Novels

Posted on March 20, 2017 by SpanishPlans

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 →

Posted in reading, Storytelling, TPRS | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Uploading to Lyrics Training

Posted on March 5, 2017 by SpanishPlans

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 →

Posted in Music, Web2.0 Technology | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Lyrics Training Creating a Cloze

Posted on March 4, 2017 by SpanishPlans

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:

Continue reading →

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March Music Madness 2017

Posted on February 18, 2017 by SpanishPlans

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 →

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Lectura Libre

Posted on January 16, 2017 by SpanishPlans

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).

fvr-reading-log

 

 

Posted in TPRS | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Creating Listening Activities

Posted on December 18, 2016 by SpanishPlans

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.tprs-audio

The process is simple. Every computer has Continue reading →

Posted in Storytelling, TPRS, Web2.0 Technology | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Resources for Navidad

Posted on December 14, 2016 by SpanishPlans

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 LessonJesse y Joy Cancion para Navidad.png
Check out these “Querido Santa” tweets:

QueridoSanta Tuits.png

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Yellow Summary

Posted on December 6, 2016 by SpanishPlans

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

yellow-summary

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 →

Posted in TPRS | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments