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Seeking the future of world language learning at the intersection of comprehensible input, project-based learning, global education, and love.
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Top post of the year: The 2015 updated rubric

Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell December 31, 2015 4 Comments
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My old rubric served me well for four years, but it was time for a change.  A clean slate, a lot of websites, a lot of feedback, and a lot of collaborative brainstorming later, I finally had something I was willing to put out and test out.  Check the post below – the links go to the latest version based on feedback from teachers using the feedback.  And I may make some more changes after contemplating my recent end-of-semester assessments.  The top post of 2015 – published in August and still accessed twice as much as the next most popular post – was the lengthy discussion and release of my updated performance-toward-proficiency rubric.

best of 2015 rubric

(And happy 2016, everyone!)

The 2015 updated performance assessment rubric

This might be my most important resource release this year.

First, you can read here about all the things that frustrated me about that snazzy 2011 rubric that I used to use (and that got downloaded from this site a lot). Some of them probably frustrated those of you who used it, too. So I decided to do a total overhaul. No starting from the original document allowed. A blank page. (Well, really I started with a yellow legal pad and about 12 Chrome tabs open.)

Unpacking it

From talking to lots and lots of teachers about it, I hope I can anticipate a lot of questions you might have about the document. Several teachers helped me realize that simply posting it out here isn’t enough. You need some explanation on it. And so I may do a screencast and I may do a PDF but at least, here are explanations of the sections along with some screen shots.

2015 rubric page 1

Just looking at the front you can see some major changes. In the old rubric, there was an incredible amount of information that required very small type. The center sections were the target proficiency levels and they were colored in, which visually communicated, in my opinion, that half the rubric was irrelevant. So to begin, since by the time I’m doing performance assessments Novice Low is not a target at any point, I removed it. And since the majority of our students do not achieve intermediate mid in our classes, I kicked off IM and IH as well. But some do. And so I have promised Bethanie Carlson-Drew that I will develop a version ranging from NH to IM.

You’ll also notice the title is Performance toward Proficiency. This is because most of us are not qualified to say, and it is not our intention on assessments to say, “You achieve X proficiency.” Rather, our message is this: “On this particular performance, you are using language characteristic of X proficiency.”

Another major change was the column on the far right: it is a place you can simply check if either the section is not applicable or there is insufficient evidence to assess the category.  For example, the comprehension section is not applicable in a presentational writing assessment.

Page 1:

There are now four major sections on the front page and each is divided into a few subsections.

  • Message Type: What language do I use?
    RUBp1box1messagetype
    The first section is called Message Type and communicates to students what kind of language they are using. The ingredients and how they come together, if you will.
    The first sublevel here is structure. What pieces of language are the students using: just words and a few phrases? Phrases and some sentences? All sentences when appropriate? How much does the structure reflect their native language (“Yo gusta deliciouso taco”)? I have to give you a major caveat here: for some unknown reason and in a very confusing turn of phrase, ACTFL says that Intermediate Low pronunciation, structure, etc. are strongly influenced by the first language, and that those features in Novice High may be strongly influenced by the first language. I promise. Check it out. This seems completely backwards to me and so I made a judgement call to switch them.
    The second sublevel is depth of vocabulary. I’ve always loved this phrase. It’s what happens when students throw out “I adore it” instead of “I like it” and “many people perished” instead of “many people died.” Is the student just using very common words he’s memorized? Can she begin to personalize words by, for example, adding –ísimo to adjectives?
    The third sublevel is context. This is a positive section helping students realize what situations they can handle. Is it very common situations they have practiced? Good job. More contexts that are still familiar, everyday situations? What about throwing a bit of complication in there? Great work! More contexts for you!
    QUESTION about this context section: a teacher friend asked me a very good question: if we’re dictating the context in the scenario, is it fair to judge this part? In other words, should this section be eliminated, or is it needed to tell students what kind of contexts they’re handling and let them know if they’re going beyond or behind their demonstrated proficiency here, compared to other areas? Let me know your thoughts.
  • Message Depth: How do I support my communication?
    RUBbox2Depth
    The second section is called Message Depth and communicates to students how well they are supporting section 1; that is, how does the language they choose to use flesh out their message?
    The first sublevel here is content support. This is one place I desperately needed on a rubric that simply didn’t exist on the JCPS rubric, and I noticed the need for it from scoring AP essay after AP essay. I needed a place to tell students how well they were using prior knowledge to support their message. Could they include references to what they’d learned from authentic resources in the unit? This is what ACTFL calls “talking about something I have learned.” In this section I can tell students how well they provide examples from interpretive sources and elaborate on them.
    The second sublevel is communication strategies. How do students sustain communication? Lower-level novices have a lot of difficulty keeping up a conversation and they often switch to English or just stay silent. Or use sí and no in ways that don’t make a lot of sense, right? But as they improve, they can ask some questions and even use minimal circumlocution to keep talking when they don’t know a word for something.
  • Message Interaction: How do we understand each other?
    RUBbox3InteractionThe third section is Message Interaction and is probably the most straightforward of the group. Simply, can the learner interact with someone in the language? Are they comprehensible and how much do they need things repeated in order to comprehend something themselves?
    This section has to do with the ever-present question of errors. I get asked at almost every workshop: “How do you assess errors? How much do you correct them?” I have two answers, depending on the student’s goals: for the College Board, patterns of error are what you’re looking for and trying to help students eradicate. For example, I had students who consistently wrote verbs with no attempt to change the endings at all. That’s a pattern. On the other hand, ACTFL’s guidelines are more about comprehensibility. When the error causes a breakdown in comprehension, in that the student made an error that means I can’t understand their intention, this is a problem.
    Also, the proficiency level sometimes has to do with who can’t understand the learner. I can understand many things that someone who doesn’t speak English, or isn’t used to dealing with language learners, wouldn’t understand. As students improve their proficiency, they begin to be more and more comprehensible to native speakers who are not “sympathetic” – that is, they don’t know how or aren’t willing to work harder to understand someone who is a language learner.
    This aspect was on the back page of the previous rubric under “Minor focus.” In scoring assessments, it never felt like a minor focus to me when an error made a learner incomprehensible. So it’s on the front now, on equal footing.
  • Cultural awareness: How do I show what I know about other cultures?
    RUBbox4 culture
    This was a glaring omission on the previous rubric and really it was the AP exam that made me want to add it, followed by the new ACTFL performance indicators which include a section for cultural awareness (the language here is a mixing of the language from that document). I didn’t have a place to tell students how well they were incorporating cultural knowledge into their production, something absolutely essential for the AP. So if a student can do that, I want to let them know.
    To see a much deeper explanation of this aspect including some production examples, please, please read this post.

On to the back page!

2015 rubric page 2

Page 2

The back page is a back-and-forth between me and the learner. They fill out some of this at the beginning of the unit, and some of it after they get my feedback.

  • Proficiency Goals
    RUBprofexpect
    The student actually fills out what proficiency I’m expecting to be shown on this performance.
  • The Staircase
    RUBstaircase
    On my old rubric, I simply put a smiley face in the box for “approaching expectations” or “meeting expectations,” etc. But what if a student showed novice high proficiency in two areas and novice mid in two? What then? Well, I put the smiley face at “approaching expectations” for novice mid, but farther up in the box, toward “meeting expectations” (novice high). Yes, really. Like any student ever noticed that.
    I think it was Greg Duncan and Megan Johnson-Smith who first got me mulling over sublevels to the sublevels. What if there were a way I could tell a student, “Great job! You’re performing novice mid in several areas, but look at these two! Novice high!” What was that? Well, it’s Novice Mid +.
    I fill out this section. The plus signs and minus signs are my way to communicate how many of the categories they’re holding at a certain proficiency. I love, love this part.
  • The grade
    RUBgrade1
    Yes. I’ve given in, and there’s a grading scale.
    For more information on how I’ve always assigned grades to a proficiency rubric (there’s no change here), see this post.
    So, I’m trying to put ownership of the learning in the student’s hands, and my thinking here is that the student looks at the proficiency I’ve marked and circles the expectation box herself. Then you can put the grade in if you want to (I think I still won’t). And you have a nice feedback box here on the proficiency part.
    My students aren’t allowed to score below “approaching expectations.” If this happens they must set a date to re-try. Depending on my class size, I also allow students who score “approaching” to re-try if they want to (and I have had several take me up on this offer to improve).
  • My language tasks
    RUBtasks
    The one part of the old rubric that absolutely had to go was the “task completion” section. As it turns out, in three years of scoring assessments I misunderstood this from the JCPS rubric and what I considered “task completion” was on the front in language use. But the back “task completion” section said “I completed (part, almost, all of) what I was asked to do.” And I was scoring AP assessments a lot. On the AP, students are told to incorporate all three of the authentic sources they’ve seen into their presentational essay. If they didn’t, their score would suffer significantly. So it wasn’t a “minor focus” for us like it said on the rubric. It was a big deal. And my old rubric didn’t give me a place to say that.
    For an analysis of task completion and this issue being the one that inspired me to overhaul the rubric this year, read this post.
    In this section, the student writes (at the beginning of the unit) what language tasks they will be asked to perform in the assessment. Will they need to show they can disagree? Incorporate information from an infographic you discussed in class? Mention some opinions of another person in class? Here’s where they record that. Then, you check whether they’ve shown strong, weak, or no evidence of this skill.
    This section is not a place for students to write “I can use 7 verbs in the preterite tense.” If you have them write that sort of thing here, you might as well tear up the rubric because what you are doing is not a proficiency-based performance assessment, it’s a grammar test masquerading as a performance assessment. If you’ve determined that’s what you’re looking for, stop reading now and close this tab. Please.
  • Teacher feedback
    RUBtaskfeedback
    This is pretty straightforward.
  • Student reflection
    RUBstureflect
    This is perhaps one of the most important sections in the rubric and you owe it to Colleen Lee-Hayes and Natalia Delaat (ありがとう y спасибо colegas).  We’re putting the ownership in their hands!

Whew. If you care about using this kind of rubric, I hope you put up with all that explanation!

Two more issues to go.

Where’s interpretive mode?

Good question. Please know that if you do stand-alone interpretive tasks on integrated performance assessments and use an interpretive rubric or some sort of scoring system to grade them, you are in the majority and I am not. Honestly, I do not know another teacher who handles this the way I do. So don’t feel like I’m telling you that you need to do this.

Eliminating stand-alone interpretive assessments was something the College Board inspired me to do. In the AP essay, students are given sources on which to base their essay, but there are no comprehension questions on the source. Rather, the writer must use the information they understand from all three sources to inform their response.

To me, this is what we do with interpretive tasks in real life, and this question is always in my head: how can my class better reflect the way this plays out in real life? We watch a movie and we don’t fill out worksheets on it. We don’t draw pictures of it or answer multiple-choice questions about the plot line, which we may not accurately remember even though we understood it at the time. No, we use what we saw to tell our good friends what parts we loved, what we hated, why the actress was terrible, and how it compares to the first installment in the series.

That is what I ask students to do with integrated performance assessments. So the answer to your question (“Where’s interpretive mode?”) is that it’s in “Content support” and perhaps also in “My Language Tasks.”

If you’d like to see an example of how I do this, here’s one for novice.

I don’t think this heading will work.

Please tell me all your issues. I’ve been developing this rubric for six weeks and it’s been reviewed by dozens of teachers, but it can’t be a game-changer unless a whole lot more teachers “get their hands dirty” with it, using it on real production assessments and contacting me about how it’s working for you. I’ll continually change this post with updates.

So where is it?

Ready to get the file? If you put up with the rest of this post, you deserve it!

Download the PDF here (last updated December 2015). Contact me or comment below if you’d like access to a .docx file to edit. Please respect intellectual property rights. If you modify the document for your purposes, please leave the footnote at the bottom directing users to Musicuentos.com/handouts for credits. You may modify the footnote to include a reference such as “Based on the Musicuentos performance assessment rubric. For more information visit Musicuentos.com/handouts.”

Credits

I didn’t write this rubric. I simply stole a lot of stuff and put it in one place. I can’t begin to effectively acknowledge how much the work of some very smart people helped inform this rubric in all its drafts. Thanks to Amy Lenord, Colleen Lee-Hayes, Bethanie Carlson-Drew, Martina Bex, and the Ohio language gurus, whose fingerprints can be seen in various sections here. The majority of the wording is taken from either the ACTFL performance descriptors, Can Do statements, and proficiency guidelines; the old Jefferson County (KY) performance assessment rubric; and the Ohio rubrics. Thanks to Natalia Delaat, Thomas Sauer, Sarah Bolaños, and Jacob Shively who took the time to give me honest, in-depth, extensive feedback that greatly improved the validity and user-friendliness of this document. I know your time is super valuable, and we’re all indebted to you for your generosity with it. And definitely, thanks to Melanie Stilson, who gave me the push I needed to get working on this project that had been on a back burner for a while.

Thanks to all the teachers at Camp Musicuentos who gave me some rocking suggestions for improvements. For one thing, you owe the staircase to them, and that might be the best part of the document.

assessment proficiency resources rubrics
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Previous Book Club 2015: Make It Stick
Next Resolve for 2016: Walk free, and pay it forward
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4 Comments

  1. Christina Turpin says:
    July 15, 2016 at 1:51 pm

    Thank you so very much for such a detailed post and for generously sharing your work and personal experiences- both the highs and lows. I think you and I have a lot in common! I have used the rubrics from JCPS in my classes too and have had some of the same “self questioning” when I scored my students. Assessing is an ever evolving task – for them and us!

    Reply
  2. Emily Lampe says:
    July 19, 2016 at 4:01 pm

    I would appreciate a docx file of your rubric so that I can edit it for my personal use. Since I teach at the Novice level I want mine to mainly reflect that and not have the Intermediate on there, plus there are few things specific to my needs that I would like to edit. I really like how yours is set up, especially the staircase and reflection. Thank you! I’m just switching my grading system this year to reflect proficiency and it’s been quite a project for me!

    Reply
  3. Lisa Werner says:
    August 18, 2016 at 3:49 pm

    I was wondering if you have, in fact, made a draft of your rubric for NH – IM ???
    Love and admire your work!

    Reply
    1. Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell says:
      August 18, 2016 at 9:13 pm

      I have not 🙁 but it is on my goal list for this school year!

      Reply

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      • Best of 2014 #3: Sample homework choice systems
      • Book Club '14: Crazy Busy
      • Book Club '14: The Hobbit & The Scarlet Pimpernel
      • Best of 2014 #5: How I use verb charts
      • Book Club 2014: Amazing Grace (Kozol)
      • Book Club '14: A Step of Faith & Walking on Water (The Walk series)
      • Best of 2014 #4 & #8: Curriculum planning outside the textbook
      • Book Club '14: Five Days at Memorial & Men We Reaped
      • Best of 2014 #9: Genius hour isn't a great idea for novice classes
      • Book Club '14: The Painted Veil & Life After Life
      • Best of 2014 #10: The new JCPS curriculum documents
      • Happy Cyber Week! Resource sale Dec. 1-3
      • Musicuentos Book Club 2014
    •  November (4)
      • Lessons from ACTFL '14: if they have all the answers, they're trying to sell you something
      • What's ahead: ACTFL, best of '14, and the book club
      • Linguacafé: The idea that rocked my interpersonal world
      • What we learned at IFLTA '14: Everyone struggles, Culture leads
    •  October (5)
      • Communicative teaching in the shadow of [grammar-focused] common assessment
      • More multi-tasking children's lit
      • Next on my PD list: New proficiency videos
      • What we learned at KWLA: share, think, respect
      • The game-changing authentic resource guide for Spanish 3+: it's here!
    •  September (4)
      • Three days and then...
      • The technology that's making us irrelevant...and more relevant
      • Thank you, reflective teachers
      • See you this year? Conferences & Camp Musicuentos
    •  August (6)
      • How I teach La ciudad de las bestias
      • Putting homework in their hands: Sample systems
      • The First Day Story: Empowering with CI
      • Keeping games communicative
      • Let's talk tacos: Informing parents & students on proficiency
      • Regreso a clases! Ciudad on sale
    •  July (2)
      • Oso de Mantequilla: A tribute
      • It's coming!
    •  June (8)
      • What we learned at Camp Musicuentos
      • Lesson plan: Indirect objects and celebrations (template too)
      • New Podcast: What kind of corrective feedback works?
      • New resource: Educating parents and students on proficiency
      • Another resource: JCPS new curriculum documents (K-12)
      • Introducing the past tenses together
      • Time for you to get feedback?
      • Product launch: Calico Spanish homeschool learning series
    •  May (9)
      • Upcoming workshop (IN): Proficiency-based lesson planning
      • Stop calling this easy & fast
      • Revisiting Photopeach for the AP Final
      • Stop stressing: It's wrong to do the best you can
      • Three tasks for crafting an effective message: Black Box Podcast episode 4
      • A Year in a Day: Camp Musicuentos 2014
      • Taking care of business: Summer collaboration for a successful year
      • 4 ways to tweak the exit ticket
      • Black Box Podcast episode 3: To Sell Is Human, part 1
    •  April (9)
      • Top 25 Spanish novels
      • Let's play
      • New activity resource: Tweetfest!
      • Black Box Podcast episode 2: Circumlocution
      • An impromptu "langcamp"
      • See you at ACTFL '14
      • 4 ways to keep curriculum relevant
      • Tutorial on the best free PD you'll find in your own home
      • The Musicuentos Black Box Podcast: IT'S HERE!
    •  March (11)
      • Authentic visual illustrations of proficiency (Spanish)
      • Curriculum planning outside the textbook, Part 2
      • A week or more of working with Vivir mi vida
      • Resource release: Complete verb pack
      • Curriculum planning outside the textbook: Part 1
      • Corrections to simple verb pack
      • Musicuentos is on Pinterest!
      • Is this the best we can do?
      • Writing a restaurant review: Activity from Bethanie Drew
      • Putting a number grade on proficiency-based assessment
      • Resource release: Simple verb pack
    •  February (7)
      • My favorite source for restaurant (and other) reviews
      • Guest post: A TPRS rebuttal by Carol Gaab
      • TPRS strategies I don't put in my toolbox
      • What I love about TPRS
      • Repost: Valentine's #authres from Twitter
      • How I use verb charts
      • Guest post: What students need- A leader (David Seibel)
    •  January (10)
      • Every language teacher's biggest mistake
      • My new favorite digital storytelling app
      • Why Genius Hour can't work in a novice classroom
      • Website review: Geoguessr
      • 2014 resolutions #5: Use more authentic sources.
      • 2014 Resolutions #4: Take a step outside the textbook
      • Reviewing 2013: Five blogs to watch
      • 2014 Resolutions #3: Survey your students.
      • 2014 Resolutions #2: Collaborate with someone
      • 2014 Resolutions #1: Read a book
  •  2013 (110)
    •  December (13)
      • The #1 Musicuentos post of 2013 (and the six years before that)
      • Best of 2013: #2 - Tips for the new AP
      • Best of 2013: #3 - Choice in homework, updated
      • Best of 2013: #4 - Novice song for Spanish Class Idol
      • Best of 2013: #5 - Can you control vocabulary?
      • Best of 2013: #6 - Is your lesson plan out of whack?
      • Best of 2013: #7 - Four habits that enrich vocabulary
      • AP Spanish final exam: Controversia navideña y Vacunas para niños
      • Best of 2013: #8 - Novice high vs. Intermediate low
      • Best of 2013: #9 - Using assessment to inform your teaching
      • Best of 2013: #10 - Spot-checking conversations
      • First-ever Musicuentos ebook: Reader's Guide to Ciudad de las bestias
      • Happy December!
    •  November (8)
      • AP Spanish essay - Obamacare
      • Vote: Musicuentos proposal for ACTFL '14
      • Setting goals
      • Don't go to ACTFL '13 without TELLing
      • Repost: A story for demonstratives
      • Listen to some Grammy music
      • Caring about the Really Big Deal
      • Calm before the excitement!
    •  October (4)
      • Using assessment to inform your teaching
      • Just some fluff: Makeup for busy mom teachers
      • Top 3 mistakes teachers of novices make
      • Book review: Teach Like A Pirate
    •  September (7)
      • Interacting with authentic materials: a guide
      • Using audio-lingua
      • Seven keys to a great story
      • Stations: Exploring music
      • It's a myth: Equipping students to communicate with... themselves
      • Turn a Novice Song into "Spanish Class Idol"
      • Is your lesson plan out of whack?
    •  August (12)
      • Children's literature for the world language class (Helena Curtain)
      • App review & Giveaway! High School Spanish
      • Choice in homework, updated
      • Back to school: Proficiency posts
      • App Review: Storykit (bonus - meet my family!)
      • Back to school: Evaluate traditions
      • Back to school: Blogs with great ideas
      • App review & giveaway: Word Magic dictionary and thesaurus
      • My authorized AP syllabus
      • Back to school: Musicuentos "first days" posts
      • Back to school: Give them signals
      • Going back to school with Musicuentos
    •  July (6)
      • Tips for the New AP
      • Don't be fooled! What the AP does and doesn't measure
      • Illustrating proficiency with a laugh
      • Snag some free apps while you can!
      • Stop asking for unnatural language
      • Fun video: Animals, present, feelings
    •  June (9)
      • Targeting problems with a pop quiz
      • Song, irregular present, part 4: Tengo tu love
      • It's my birthday - check out our presents!
      • A meaningful approach to grammar
      • Websites for creating online magazines
      • A world with no magazines
      • Guest post: Coaching with choice
      • Screencast: Photopeach
      • Communicative grading made easier
    •  May (10)
      • Health infographic: Novice - Intermediate Activity
      • A lesson in finding authentic sources easily
      • Tips and songs for past participles
      • Foster higher-level thinking from the beginning
      • Summer: Language for the fun of it
      • Novice high vs. intermediate low
      • E-magazines with learner appeal
      • Step outside the textbook: Tell a story
      • Repost: Novice description with Jengibre and Pin Pon
      • Interpersonal communication by choice
    •  April (11)
      • Novice speaking: Describing self with Sie7e
      • Can you control vocabulary?
      • Activities from authentic resources: Future tense
      • Why I love mistakes
      • Maternity leave!
      • Lots of your class gone? Pick up a book.
      • Abandon the multiple-choice question
      • Songs for future tense
      • I choose béisbol: sample "homework" report
      • 300 times thank you
      • Reporting like kindergarten
    •  March (11)
      • Training in circumlocution: Ban the dictionary
      • Fun activity #9: A leer
      • Last tips on avoiding burnout
      • Cortometraje for narration
      • Make developing curriculum even easier
      • Even more tips on avoiding burnout
      • Authentic resource: trivia games
      • Still more tips on avoiding burnout
      • Two more ways to ease into developing curriculum
      • Song, irregular present, part 3: Carmelina
      • More tips on avoiding burnout
    •  February (10)
      • Intermediate news activity for all three modes
      • Easing into developing curriculum
      • If you don't pay attention to comprehensibility...
      • Burning out or burning bright?
      • Keeping the class engaged: Change activities
      • Fun activity #8: A cantar
      • Twitter/relationships activity, just in time for Valentine's
      • Tech tools gone wrong
      • Grading regular free-topic writing
      • Add more music to homework choices
    •  January (9)
      • Spot-checking conversations
      • Song, irregular present, part 2: Hace tiempo
      • Four habits that enrich vocabulary
      • Paragraph form
      • Myths 8 & 9: I don't do it because they can't handle it.
      • Assigning homework
      • Song, irregular present, part 1: Sigo con ella
      • More choice every day
      • A novice cross-curricular activity from authentic materials
  •  2012 (39)
    •  December (2)
      • 5 New Year's resolutions for every WL teacher
      • It pays to have a focus
    •  October (2)
      • Best and worst games I've seen
      • Example: authentic text for novices
    •  September (7)
      • Success with Stations
      • More student choice in homework
      • Prezi: The Choice is Theirs (KWLA 2012)
      • Prezi: Kick the Vocab Quiz (KWLA 2012)
      • Take the leap to standards-based assessment
      • Fun activity #7: Conecta cuatro
      • A song for feelings
    •  August (11)
      • Screencast: Edmodo
      • Myth #7: Spanish Mike is a taco.
      • A study in motivation, part 2: Self-assessing abilities
      • It's my blogiversary - but you get the gift
      • Menus
      • Reading guides: Cajas de cartón & Esperanza renace
      • A re-post for your first days back: Abecedario
      • Screencast: Finding authentic sources for prompts
      • Maintaining personal proficiency
      • Ideas for the first days of school
      • AP redesign: Units & EQ's
    •  July (9)
      • A study in motivation
      • Advice for teachers in training
      • More uses for Amor de mi tierra
      • Book review: The Talent Code
      • Songs for 'duele'
      • The Case for Commands
      • Got idioms?
      • Like Musicuentos? Like it on Facebook.
      • Very short times with very young kids
    •  June (1)
      • 5...4...3...2...1... LAUNCH!
    •  March (4)
      • Another change: Survey says...
      • Design your own final exam
      • What I'm changing this week
      • Repost for CSC12: Increasing target language
    •  February (1)
      • A storytelling success story
    •  January (2)
      • Not going to ACTFL again, but for the best reason ever
      • Free Ebook for WL educators
  •  2011 (57)
    •  November (1)
      • Dear novice-learner teacher - love, an AP teacher
    •  October (3)
      • Learning from #langchat
      • Not your average health unit
      • Presentation: Target Language: Expect More, Say Less
    •  September (6)
      • Spanish 3 assessment documents
      • For KWLA 2011: Media from Reel to Real
      • Accuracy vs. proficiency: an illustration
      • Fun activity #6: A escribir
      • App review: Tour Wrist
      • Myth #6: Memorizing vocabulary
    •  August (5)
      • Trending topic = authentic comprehensible input
      • Got the rubric!
      • New year, new units, new assessments
      • Jumping on the Animoto bandwagon
      • Rethinking "late" work
    •  July (1)
      • A song made for early Spanish 1
    •  June (9)
      • Proficiency & tacos
      • Proficiency levels shouldn't be a secret
      • Flipbook illustration
      • Ethics in the language class - we aren't their parents
      • Activity #5: Gira la botella
      • Symbol Illustration
      • Connecting your classroom
      • Myth #5: The textbook is all I need
      • Taking paperless to the blog
    •  May (2)
      • Combat the 'este tiempo' monster
      • Children's DVD giveaway!
    •  April (6)
      • Activity #4: Drama Inmóvil
      • Myth #4: The Time Whine
      • Have you used PhotoPeach?
      • The myths aren't going to ACTFL
      • Fun activity #3: ¡Arriésgate!
      • Fun activity #2: A conversar
    •  March (3)
      • Dismantling Myths 2 and 3: Learning about language and its cousin, Grammatical Terms
      • Activity 1: Cuento poco a poco
      • (Trying to) Make learning fun
    •  February (10)
      • Two new options for out-of-class fluency
      • Great resource from la Sra. Birch
      • Dismantling Myth #1: What's a qualified teacher?
      • Keep singing: 189 pages of Spanish lyrics
      • #Charlando para aprender
      • Vote for this week's #langchat topic
      • It's time for them to use their time
      • For tonight's #langchat: A game for description
      • Short listening activity tailor-made for beginners
      • Ciudad de las bestias: Guides public & streamlined
    •  January (11)
      • Instead of the vocab quiz
      • Best songs for stem changing irreg. present
      • Do something drastic - kick the vocab quiz
      • Topic for #LangChat 1/27
      • Topic for the first #LangChat 1/20
      • Low-level learners can't understand authentic media, what?
      • They can't speak, and it's our fault: Dismantling the myths
      • Don't teach a health unit without this song
      • New: A language teachers' weekly chat on Twitter - choose our first topic!
      • Since I stopped teaching to the [AP] test
      • Faith and Culture: help me decide our AP topic
  •  2010 (38)
    •  December (4)
      • 9 ways to increase students' TL use
      • I love collaboration
      • The problem with translation (from a student)
      • Why music is more powerful than anything (& how to use it)
    •  November (2)
      • iPad giveaway!
      • A collaborative project for our Spanish-teacher PLN
    •  October (2)
      • And the winner is...
      • In the spirit of open source: Ciudad de las bestias
    •  September (10)
      • Books recommended as 'easy'
      • Pure present tense & at least 22 repetitions of 'ya no'
      • For a conference attendee: resources in math
      • Searching BBC Mundo
      • Prompts with Power: writing/speaking prompts
      • Prompts with Power: Prezi
      • Prompts with Power: German & French resources
      • Prompts with Power: Dating in high school
      • KWLA Presentation: PLN-ology
      • Tweet with double objects
    •  August (6)
      • Interactive comic creator using Maya & Miguel
      • Ads of the World | Creative Advertising Archive & Community
      • Added some great new links
      • First 12 days of Spanish 1
      • My supply list
      • Scope & sequence, word list for Spanish 1
    •  July (4)
      • 5 tips for increasing (your own) target language use
      • A warm-up from @samocamila: por vs. para
      • Camila's all on board! (well, on Twitter)
      • Getting vocabulary from a tweet
    •  April (3)
      • Huge toy giveaway from SpanglishBaby
      • A case for avoiding "pet" grammar
      • Authentic audio with future tense
    •  March (2)
      • Interesting blog post about iPod as language lab
      • News article: appeal + subjunctive for influence
    •  January (5)
      • A high-interest exercise for imperfect/pasado continuo
      • A song with 17 verbs in past subjunctive
      • My corporate Spanish links, all in one place
      • "Adora la Exploradora"-the week we didn't feel like a boring past-tense review
      • My level 1 and 2 stories (for Bethanie, and whomever else)
  •  2009 (80)
    •  December (2)
      • A song with 37 repetitions of "más que"
      • Switch to a communicative set-up
    •  November (10)
      • Print & audio sources for AP synthesis essay re: efficient energy
      • Two songs for voy + a + infinitive
      • A case for free-topic blogging
      • It's 19 de noviembre!
      • Camila's new single: "Mientes" (release date 11/24!)
      • A case for pleasure reading
      • Noviembre - a popular month for songs
      • Zachary Jones's "Clozeline"
      • Two songs + resources for Ojalá + subjunctive
      • A song just for @mamitati
    •  October (13)
      • You can't buy this in a textbook
      • Cultural connections: Four songs to explore using Google Earth
      • David Bisbal's YouTube channel
      • Correction on Pin Pon in Shrek
      • Four songs for contrasting que & lo que
      • Nominados en la 10a entrega de los Latin Grammy
      • Story and songs for subjunctive: indefinite/negative antecedent
      • AP sythesis essay sources: Los indocumentados y el sistema de salud
      • Blog that does what I do, only better
      • My October playlist
      • We must not ignore the Paz Sin Fronteras (video)
      • Build your perfect tenis (en español)
      • Video with por, haber, past participles, commands, from Coca Cola
    •  September (10)
      • Latin Grammy website gets a cool makeover... and nominations!
      • Songs for the elusive 3rd pers. sing. preterite
      • I just made my first Yodio
      • KWLA Fall 09 Conference presentation
      • Found Juanes on Twitter
      • For you French teachers
      • Bilingual toy giveaway, gracias a @mamitati
      • Keeping your eyes open for gold nuggets
      • CNN launches Latino in America
      • Bob Esponja on Mundonick
    •  August (4)
      • A correction on the correction of La Frase Tonta
      • I am in technology heaven
      • An AP oral presentation, with past tense: "Consecuencias"
      • I love crossover songs
    •  July (2)
      • Raimundo, the bilingual Latin American snail
      • A song for object/refl pronoun 'te'
    •  June (6)
      • A song for your hip-hop fans
      • Developing world citizens
      • Follow me on Twitter
      • Aquí Estoy Yo: video oficial
      • A new group on my radar
      • Two months later, back to the blogosphere (with a companion)
    •  April (5)
      • A most fantastic performance at Premio Lo Nuestro
      • The heroes speak Español
      • A brilliant pair of songs contrasting por/para
      • Useless grammar I used to teach
      • Adding some links--check 'em out
    •  March (7)
      • Negative commands + culture
      • Winds of change
      • Our students aren't the only ones who have speaking problems!
      • Activity: News interaction (present perfect)
      • A new smash hit with a subjunctive benefit
      • A shout out for Jacob & Joshua
      • El campesino y la princesa (a Spanish 3 story test, with a bit of subjunctive)
    •  February (15)
      • More interactive websites, courtesy of my students
      • A product I love
      • Good stories for commands
      • a story for imperf. vs. pret. and subjunctive influence
      • Interactive websites: practicing house/location/color vocab
      • Subjunctive for doubt: Story, song, activity
      • A good story for 'tiene'
      • A song for subjunctive/nosotros commands
      • A story for demonstratives
      • Rules in a communicative class
      • Cause and effect
      • Relating everything to English
      • A correction on La Frase Tonta
      • Equipping and informing, for free
      • A project based on motivation
    •  January (6)
      • "How much is estuvo de pie?"
      • One more song for subjunctive
      • A couple more subjunctive songs
      • An example of vocab
      • Internet scavenger hunts
      • A Spanish 2 story test
  •  2008 (51)
    •  December (7)
      • Videos from Jesús Adrian Romero
      • Alex Campos's YouTube channel
      • A story test
      • A video for Navidad
      • Great new song for subjunctive
      • ¡Nueva música!
      • A fantastic blog post
    •  November (14)
      • Ever heard of Patito feo?
      • Two groups you just can't go wrong with
      • Things to be thankful for
      • Grammar learning vs. acquisition
      • Forced to give grammar tests?
      • High aptitude is a beautiful thing
      • Another Spanish 1 reading
      • New media list!
      • At the ACSI conference in Dayton
      • Story success: Huevos verdes con jamón
      • Another story source!
      • Words we don't use
      • Song success: Hace tiempo
      • El carro de sus sueños
    •  October (12)
      • Overgeneralizing, again
      • Spanish 2 Story: La llama se llama...
      • Song success: Me voy
      • Not posting lately
      • overgeneralizing
      • The outcome of Pin Pon
      • Pin Pon in Shrek?
      • Best practices
      • Reading in Spanish 3
      • SCORE!
      • My media list
      • Awesome YouTube video
    •  September (18)
      • KWLA '08: Assessing comprehension without English
      • Song success: La llave de mi corazón
      • Spanish 1 Story: Insectos grises para el almuerzo
      • Finding stories
      • How do I find the music?
      • Modeling the billingual lexicon
      • Summaries of some classroom SLA articles
      • Love/Hate Krashen
      • Another article that rocked my world
      • More sunshine
      • When it's not all coming up roses
      • What on earth is going on here?
      • So, what are the cuentos?
      • The verdict on pop test 1
      • People I love
      • A pop test
      • Some assumptions
      • Starting to share my journey

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