Many Spanish teachers are rightly excited about this movie that’s based on Colombia and how we can incorporate it into the classroom.
Here’s are some options for using with your Spanish classes including our ready-to-implement lesson: Continue reading
After a year with many teaching from our homes, most of us are back in the classroom this year. Seems like a good time for a fresh start and new beginnings. End of the last year I purged a lot of stuff I haven’t used in years. This year due to a new board panel, I had to rearrange my set up. So whats are the “must have’s” and “think twice” when it comes to classroom decoration:
print your own from us. 
What are you most proud of in your classroom? What is something that every classroom should have? What is something that you’ve seen a lot and aren’t quite sure why? Comment below and if you have links to pictures, even better!!
Check out our new About us page with an overview of our website, including how to connect with us on social media, our top blog posts, our top products, and some free resources.
If you felt like you didn’t have time to join us for the whole tournament of 16 songs, we are down to the final 8. For the rest of the MusicadeMarzo21 tournament, you could use a modified 4 day or 7 day bracket.
See our modified calendar. You can pass out the full bracket with the songs advancing or just show the final 8 bracket. Both are available for free download here: http://bit.ly/mmm21final8
Also, for those of you who have been with us since Round 1, what activities have you been using in your classes? Let us know in the comments!
For more information about the activities see our post on Lyric Activities and Music Video Activities.
We talked about over 6 different activities you can use with lyrics of a song, so today we want to talk about ways you can provide comprehensible input and use the music video in your lesson.
One of the most obvious ways to use a music video is to describe the story in the video in a typical movietalk. Because of the singing, I might either take screenshots or if I play the video, put it on mute. Although, the video typical includes cuts of the artist singing, so screenshots might be the best option. Depending on the level, get down to the most essential part of the story and narrate what is happening. Use TPRS questioning to provide comprehensible input. If you’ve never done a movietalk, download this FREE “My First MovieTalk” to get an idea.
Here’s a few MovieTalk lessons for songs:
–No te vayas por Carlos Vives (which is in this year’s tournament)
–A las tres por Los Enanitos Verdes (immigration/migrant worker theme)
–Soy Yo por Bomba Estero: A complete lesson plan and a student favorite
See 5 more other types of activities Continue reading
So you’ve played the song… You have a copy of the lyrics. But how else can you work with a song
besides the traditional fill-in the missing lyric cloze activities? This post is all about getting the most of out playing songs in class, which you may want to include during your March Música Madness.
Here are some other activities you can do with song lyrics:
One of my favorites is a great listening practice as students have to listen to the song to put them in order. Take a song and scramble the lyrics and put enough space between each line. To save myself time, I have the kids cut them out (which is why scrambling them first is key). Then, as you play the song, students have to listen and find the line. The hands-on of moving the strips is a plus. During remote or virtual lessons, you can perhaps put the phrases on a google slides and have them drag them around.
See 5 more… Continue reading
We are a few short days away from the official debut of Música de marzo 2021. The official tournament with online voting kicks off on Monday, March 1. There is plenty of time to join and even if you don’t participate with the national vote, you can still use the tournament in your own classes on a different schedule.
Some important links to share with you:
By now you’ve hopefully heard the name Diana Trujillo, the Colombian woman who came to the US at age 17 and is now a team leader at NASA working on the Perseverance Mars Rover.
Her story is one that should be highlighted in Spanish classrooms. If you are already a TPRS teacher, including biographies of important people is something that tends to get overlooked in early levels. While it is difficult to talk about more complex topics at this stage, as we try to build language, we must look for ways to do it.
As I posted an article about her on a FB group, most of the teachers responding were upper-level teachers who were ready to talk about her in the AP or upper levels classes.
It’s almost that time. One of the most exciting times of the year in Spanish class: The annual March Música Madness tournament hosted by SpanishPlans.
We are currently finalizing the bracket and look forward to bringing your the 2021 tournament (our 8th!!!). Our bracket features hit songs from the past year from various latin artists.
This year, we are kicking things off with a pre-tournament vote: help us finalize the bracket by choosing the song from a specific artist.
We currently have 2 artists up for vote: ChocQuibTown and Carlos Vives. Vote for your favorite song now.
Be sure to check out the MMM21 Headquaters Page for all the necessary information and if you are new to our tournament, check out our FAQ page. Teachers, you can also be a part of our growing group on Facebook to collaborate with other teachers who use our bracket.
Despite being completely remote up until this point, I have done my best to continue to use storytelling as my main method to deliver comprehensible input in my Spanish class over our synchronous online Google Meets classes.
I know a lot of teachers are still hesitant about teaching online so I thought I would share some things that have worked well for me so far.
SpanishPlans.org 