Remote Learning: El Tigre Tiene Hambre

Our second week of remote learning is underway and we wanted to share with you what we’ve been up to.

El Tigre tiene hambre for distance learningMy set-up

All my students are working from home. I have the option to work from my classroom and I have my laptop for presenting. I also have the classroom computer logged in to the Google Meet grid view (and projected on the board for me to see my students and what the presentation looks like).

Most of my students have their cameras on (a district mandate that I don’t enforce) but I do tell them that having them react I can tell if they are understanding the story or not. The best way was to ask yes/no questions and have students nod or shake their heads. I would call on students to turn their mic on (using the shortcut of “control+ d” on keyboard is a timesaver!) and answer more specific questions. I used the chat to type in translations of key words that I would normally write on the board or point to on posters in my classroom. I also have these Zoom TPRS labels to hold up. Continue reading

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Starting the Year Remotely

It’s something we never expected. Something we are not trained for. And yet millions of teachers will start the year remotely this fall, embarking on a journey unlike any other. Meeting your students for the first time on Zoom and trying to build a relationship through Google Classroom will certainly be a challenge.

I certainly don’t have all the answers yet and I, too, will be leaning on my colleagues’ advice and posts on social media. Here are a few resources that I’ve gathered that might help you this year.

1) (FREE) My First MovieTalk: We released this free product last year as a way to introduce teachers to the MovieTalk method. This product includes 7 screenshots in a PowerPoint to tell a simple story (as opposed to our more language-robust booklet of the same video). You can use this during a Live Session or even record a video and post it to your learning management system (Google Classroom/Canvas/etc.).

2) FVR Digital Library: Even if you are back in the classroom, most schools have Spanish FVR Digital Library Bundle available on TeachersPayTeachersa recommendation against sharing materials between students. That makes using your classroom FVR library problematic. One thing that you can do to continue to get your students reading is to purchase materials that can be legally shared digitally. This FVR Bundle includes 17 texts that you can legally post on Google Classroom for students to read.

3) MovieTalk: Whether you embed the actual video into Edpuzzle and use comprehension checks along the way (Kara Jacobs is amazing at this) or you use screenshots from the video and add texts, videos are always an easy way to make language comprehensible because of the visuals that aid comprehension. Check out these MovieTalks.

4) Social Justice: I’ve made a commitment to increase diversity in my curriculum. In addition to my Dolores Huerta Unit, and the Mujeres Poderosas free bulletin board, I will be adding lessons about more of those featured women, as well as other important people who have made an impact in our history who have typically been silenced. I hope to have more to share with you this year.

Also, don’t miss out on these limited deals on our new CLEARANCE section. We currently have stamps and more that have been slashed by nearly 50%. Check it out on SpanishTeacherShop.com

5) Google Classroom:
Check out our new Bundle including headers for Google Classroom and Backgrounds for Google Slides.

Check out our other new products for this fall:

 

 

 

Good luck this year, my friends!

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CI during MMM

What I love about March Music Madness is that students get a peek into what music is popular in other parts of the world. It’s a way to connect our students to the language. Who doesn’t love music? When you have students start singing a song in class or telling you how they listen to the songs at home, you know it’s doing its magic.

As Dustin Williamson says: “Quite honestly, MMM is more about having fun, listening to music, being exposed to different genres and making March better in my classroom.”

I look for music that is A) Current (from the previous year only), B) Popular and not obscure and C) appropriate. This year our bracket has 25 artists, 7 women, 9 countries and over 2.3 billion hits on YouTube. It also includes different genres including Bachata, Pop, Urbana, y Regional Mexicano.

Providing Comprehensible Input during March Music MadnessStudents don’t need to understand the lyrics of the whole song to enjoy it. How many of us listen to English music and get the lyrics wrong or don’t understand everything? The music is the hook so don’t worry if the song is not 100% comprehensible. However, you can go over certain high-frequency parts of the song to introduce new words or point out a word they know in a new context but most of the language that we use in class is to describe the song, opinions of it, talk about how many votes it has and which song they think will win.

The language we use to TALK ABOUT the songs and talk about the voting process is just as important as listening to the songs themselves.

Continue reading

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March Music 2020

There are some teachers who like to plan months in advance. I am not one of those teachers, but I do know what I will be doing come March. My classes will be engaged in our 7th annual music competition. Our competition takes 16 songs that have been released since last year (current music!) and students vote on their favorite song to advance to the next round.

We have set up our March Music Madness 2020 headquarters (the same place where voting will take place) at www.SpanishPlans.org/mmm20

In the meantime, we have set up the “SpanishPlans March Music Madness” Facebook Group for teachers to collaborate, ask questions, and get the sneak peek of this year’s songs!
We’ve already released 5 songs from this year’s bracket (barring any changes), so join the group now and invite your colleagues to the group! We have many special perks planned for this group that you won’t want to miss out on!

If you don’t join, we will eventually post the bracket and all other necessary information here on the blog so you can listen along come March.

 

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Frase Secreta: Spanish Passwords

With a new year upon us, now is the perfect time to start a new routine in your classroom. I know most teachers are familiar with the work of Harry Wong, but how many of us apply those practices every day despite their incredible benefits? Let’s take a look at the reasons for implementing a “greeting” system into your class:

  1. We acknowledge and honor a student’s presence.
  2. We model proper social behavior in welcoming someone’s arrival.
  3. It establishes a positive classroom climate in which students feel a sense of connection and belonging.
  4. It establishes a positive relationship between teacher and student.
  5. Research* has shown it increases student engagement in class.
  6. Research* has shown it decreases disruptive behavior.


and if these reasons aren’t enough for you, let’s look at the benefits in a world language classroom who can go a step further and implement a “password” or “secret phrase” where students must respond with a special phrase of the week. The curriculum benefits are:

Continue reading

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Teaching Graphic Novel Billy y las Botas

With the release of a new graphic novel by the Señor Wooly company, we wanted to give you some ideas on how you can teach with a graphic novel. If you are not ready or don’t have the funds to purchase a class set, don’t worry… graphic novels are a great addition to your FVR classroom library that students will be motivated to read on their own. However, if you have a class set you can also use it as a little unit. So here are some tips on teaching the graphic novel “Billy y Las Botas”:


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BIGGEST RAFFLE EVER

In the past, we’ve used our Passport Template to include stamp-able pages in the Passport Template and Stampspassport. There are many applications for using this: marking off I-Can-Statements, marking off completion of certain tasks or units of study. Personally, in my classroom, I use them as students finish reading novels about Hispanic culture. Recently, we re-designed some of our stamps and one of our customers and fellow Spanish teacher shared with us a template she uses with her stamp set.

You can download the one page template for free here which has a space for every Spanish-Speaking countries (image on left)  See how it looks filled up with our stamps (on right).

Passport Page BlankPassport Page Stamped Filled Out Continue reading

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Graphic Giveaway

With the release of a new graphic novel and November being the month to show thanks, we wanted to host a giveaway for Spanish teachers. One of the best things about Graphic Novels or Comic books is that the illustrations are a huge aid to comprehension. Also the willingness to read typically skyrockets which means we get to provide our students with enjoyable input, a key component to any FVR time.

So without further ado, let’s see what you can win: Continue reading

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Inspiring Latinas

Something we teased on twitter a while back, we finally finished. We’ve added more famous latinas to our inspiring women bulletin board that we have labeled as “Las Poderosas”. This joins our bulletin board of female presidents from Latin American, titled “Las Presidentas”.
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A 3 day lesson with storytelling

If you haven’t seen our latest video on YouTube, we walk you through a 3-day lesson on using a story. You can watch it below and follow our YouTube channel. If you find any videos helpful, please click on the like button and share them on your social media:

Here’s what you’ll learn:
Continue reading

Posted in Storytelling, TPRS | 24 Comments