It’s coming!

I haven’t been blogging much lately and am dropping off the radar for about a month and I feel the need to explain why.

If you’ve ever used the “Recent Popular Posts” section on the right side of the blog, you’ve probably noticed that one very not recent post stays up there.  I really ought to title the section “recently popular posts”  because it actually lists the top six posts that have been accessed the most in the past six months or so.  The one “old” post that is always on that list is the post linking to my chapter questions for the short novels Cajas de cartón and Esperanza renace.

I’ve been working on a formal ebook for Cajas de cartón off and on, much like the one I developed for the more advanced novel La ciudad de las bestias by Isabel Allende.  That list of popular posts and my Google Analytics and periodic nudging emails have been “nagging” me to keep working on it.

And it’s almost here!

Some details:

You’ll always be able to access the original reading comprehension questions via that old blog post, but I have to tell you, the new reading guide so completely overhauls them you’ll barely recognize that they’re from the same person.  Every chapter’s questions are prefaced by an extensive vocabulary section with key words and phrases and ways to work with them: conversation starters, idiom practice, proficiency-based tasks, and more.  The activities are much like what you’ll find in the Ciudad guide but I’ve added ideas for students to journal about and a section for them to investigate the culture of Francisco’s world.  It’s so extensive, you could build an entire semester course with an immigration theme off of this novel guide.  As to level, I recommend this novel for intermediate (mid-high) students.  I taught it in Spanish 3 for several years.

Since it’s such an extensive overhaul, and then there’s always the outside editing and the formatting headaches, it’s taking me at least six hours total to complete each chapter’s guide.  I had wanted to release the ebook July 1 but my workshop schedule in June took precedence and now I’m tentatively setting a release date of August 1.  I’m also traveling to visit family during this time, as well as approaching a deadline on a separate project, and that’s complicating things, so don’t hold me to that August 1 date either.  In order to accomplish this as soon as possible I’ll be off the blog and Twitter, mostly, for a while.  But you know where to find me.

The regular price for the 12-chapter guide, which I anticipate to be at least 45 pages long, will be $39.95 for the digital download and a license for the purchasing teacher to reprint the file for all his or her students for as long as he or she teaches.  At the release, the guide will be available at 25% off, $29.95, for one week only.  To celebrate the release I’ll also be offering the more advanced Ciudad guide on sale 20% off at $39.95.

More news to come!  In the meantime, please explore helpful past Musicuentos content, like the popular tags AP Spanish and student choice, or the Camp Musicuentos guide to mapping your curriculum.

Here I go back to my InDesign hole…