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The largest Spanish class PBLL collaboration ever?

Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell September 16, 2016 10 Comments

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The largest Spanish class PBLL collaboration ever?
Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell September 16, 2016
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Sometimes, a mildly interesting idea takes root and then morphs into something you never expected.  That has happened to me this year, and I cannot contain how excited I am about it.

A toe in the PBLL waters

At the beginning of this past summer, I was planning for Camp Musicuentos, deciding on what unit to use as a framework for the guidelines and information I was presenting.  I’ve found it’s more helpful for participants when I do one that’s new, not one I’ve already planned and taught, so that it can be more organic, more like what the participants are doing.  So, in the spirit of working smart, I chose to make it one of the units I would teach in my own class this year.  And, in the spirit of my new questions about what constitutes a lasting impact on my students, I decided to finally try to implement an actual PBL unit.

I am not formally trained in PBLL (Project-Based Language Learning).  I’ve never even attended a workshop on it.  I suppose any qualification I might have to call myself a PBL teacher would be akin to someone earning an honorary degree.  First, I’ve had the privilege to call Don Doehla and Laura Sexton friends for -what- more than five years, and they are qualified.  I’ve been challenged by their writing and #langchat sessions they’ve led on the topic.  Then, I enjoyed an opportunity to collaborate with VIF International on a Spanish 1 curriculum (now an Open Educational Resource!) that combined a flipped model, a PBL model, and deep cultural inquiry.  When I first saw the project, I’ll honestly say I believed it could not be done:

  • Of course, there was that post on Genius Hour (which I am thinking about deleting or at least heavily editing after I’ve seen the invention of the Babel Fish)…
  • You can’t make the kinds of cultural questions they wanted asked comprehensible to beginning language learners.
  • You can’t waste that kind of time on projects.
  • It’s too much time on complications and not enough time on comprehensible input, at least for beginners

…I said.  And then, for the next 18 months, we did it.  We tried, anyway.  We worked and reworked, we asked tough questions and proposed answers, and what we came up with wasn’t perfect, but in the process I learned that you can create good material for beginning language learners on such a model.  In any curriculum development, there’s always give-and-take, and if you look at it, I’m guessing I’d hear:

  • Why that grammar worksheet?
  • Where’s the unit on school?
  • Why isn’t there more CI in this lesson?
  • Don’t you remember acquisition doesn’t work this way?
  • What about all the kids without technology?
  • This project will take forever!
  • How do you expect to grade this stuff?
  • Where’s the authentic audience for this supposed “project”?
  • Kids at this level aren’t going to be able to do this in TL

…and we need this feedback!  But all in all, I’m proud of how it turned out.  But still, I hadn’t actually taught a PBLL unit, mostly because in this growth time I wasn’t teaching, and then I was, but kids with no measurable proficiency, and I could not figure out how that worked.

The yellow brick road to an Emerald City of an idea

And then?  Then I started reading Who Owns the Learning? and felt totally inspired by the student-designed tutorial project at mathtrain.tv.  I also found out the Babel fish had been invented.  And in the midst of all that, I was developing this unit on showcasing features of our city.  It’s a long story, one of those journeys that takes you down a story that feels like it’s being written around you, but let me summarize:

  • I discovered the blog Darién a Darien, where students in Darien, Connecticut communicated with children in Darién, Panamá.  I thought, hey, what if we could do that?
  • I executed a fruitless search for any city or town in the Spanish-speaking world named anything close to Louisville or any of its suburbs or neighborhoods or prominent street names… nothing.  Which led me to:
  • I decided to use our Sister Cities instead.  We have two Spanish-speaking Sister Cities: La Plata, Argentina and Quito, Ecuador.
  • I contacted schools in these cities to try to establish a relationship.  No response yet.
  • In researching interpretive sources for the unit, I stumbled upon La Plata’s tourism guide “48 horas en La Plata.” Fabulous!  A Google search brought me to Lonely Planet’s “48 horas en Quito.” Which made me think…
  • What a great focus!  What if we could create a guide to 48 hours in Louisville?
  • I wonder if we could do a website?  I wonder if other Spanish classes would want to join? I wonder if the domain 48horasen.com is open for sale at an affordable price?

Come join our journey

Ready for the details on our unit?

let me show you around2

After Don’s feedback, I understood that for a PBLL unit I needed a driving question related to the product, but in my baby toe-in-the-waters stage I wasn’t ready to give up my curriculum-guiding essential question, too.  So I have both.

Ready for your part?

I have purchased the domain 48HorasEn.com and my students and students at another school here in Louisville will be developing a piece of the website to showcase our city as “48 horas en Louisville.”

Do you want to as well?  Fill out the simple set of information currently on the site and I’ll be in touch.  Then, check out the ideas and resources I’m developing as I teach this unit here.  Please keep in mind that I see my students once a week on Fridays for 90 minutes.  They use their at-home time to preview the next lesson through assignments via Edmodo, and they also complete a choice assignment every week.

My eight students working on this project have divided up into two teams of four.  One team is working on the Friday piece of the 48 horas, and the other team is working on the Saturday piece.  One team has chosen a more cultural bent, including Churchill Downs, a museum, and a local theatre, and the other team has chosen a more entertainment bent, including the Highlands shopping district and other entertainment-focused zones.  Each team has one person working on the gastronomía piece for the day.  So while they are on a team, each student is responsible for a particular piece and it will be easy for me to evaluate that student’s language use.

So far?  One student says, “Hey guys, we can finally use that tool I found for us for that thing last year!!” (I have no idea what he’s talking about, but they do.)  He can’t wait to do video editing.  Another tells us every week she’s ready to set a day to go out and take photographs of different places for everyone.  The student who won’t look me in the eye during class has come up to me after every class to update me on what places she’s chosen and where they are and what she wants to say about them.

This could be an idea that falls totally flat and goes nowhere.  I have certainly had a lot of those.  But it has a ton of potential I hope you can see, too.  I have contacted a few corporations requesting sponsorship for the site, and who knows how that will turn out.  I’m hopeful media sites will help promote it once it gets a significant amount of content.  And I’m hopeful that teachers and learners with a wide variety of interests will join the team.  Got a student who’s super talented at videography and editing?  What about graphic design?  What about web design?  Is the computer science teacher at your school up for a partnership with a global audience?

Come on, Spanish learners.  Can we let you show us around?

collaboration PBLL
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Previous Throwback ThurSLAy: Research that brought us here
Next Native speaker video resource: ¡GRACIAS Project Amigo!
Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell
Related Posts
10 real-world project examples for PBLL August 6, 2019
The 3 silver bullets that killed my textbook May 30, 2019
ACTFL ’17: Novice PBLL, and adapt that text! November 18, 2017
A call to #AuthRes August July 30, 2016

10 Comments

  1. PBL - gregoneb | Pearltrees says:
    September 16, 2016 at 4:42 pm

    […] Try it today. guest| Join | Help | Sign In guest. Using PBL in Spanish. Pearltrees Extension. The largest Spanish class PBLL collaboration ever? | Musicuentos. […]

    Reply
  2. Penny says:
    September 16, 2016 at 10:24 pm

    Great stuff! I’ve been doing this project with my Indonesian language students for 5 years now. We have a sister school in Surabaya who visit us in May and each year group has a special job. The Year 9s have almost the exact questions you pose to guide their learning! We’ve made all sorts of things, from maps to audio guides and even a “get them to the mosque on time” themed guide one year.

    This year, we hired a bus while the group were here and my students provided a tour commentary over the bus’ PA system as we went to three places (the long way!). I think it would be a great task to do, even without foreign visitors. Maybe more experienced learners could play characters on the bus… Or how about a walking tour?

    Reply
    1. Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell says:
      September 17, 2016 at 7:29 am

      I love this idea, thanks!

      Reply
  3. Shannon Norquist says:
    September 17, 2016 at 7:43 am

    Thank you for sharing this! This year I am teaching a very mixed group of Novice Low-High students. It’s part of our school’s initiative to group students by proficiency rather than grade level. I am excited, nervous and worried that it’s going to be a total flop, mostly because it’s my idea and somebody agreed to let me take on the challenge. I love the idea of a huge collaboration and feel the need ever more for a community of like-minded language teachers, so I am in.

    Reply
    1. Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell says:
      September 17, 2016 at 6:15 pm

      Can’t wait!

      Reply
  4. Allyson Kirkland says:
    September 17, 2016 at 3:27 pm

    I’m intrigued by this idea and think my students might really get into it if organized properly. Looking forward to your information about how to get started.

    Reply
    1. Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell says:
      September 17, 2016 at 6:15 pm

      Thanks, Allyson, I’ll be in touch!

      Reply
  5. When the textbookless teacher’s creativity goes up in flames | Musicuentos says:
    December 6, 2016 at 7:21 am

    […] story.  I have specific targets leading up to my students’ semester-final project, creating content for a website informing tourists of great food options in our city.  I get it, some of you may agree with the […]

    Reply
  6. Crystal Bramlett says:
    April 22, 2019 at 10:45 am

    Thanks so much for sharing these great ideas and resources.

    Reply
  7. The Miss Musicuentos of 2003: 5 things right, 5 things wrong | Musicuentos says:
    November 27, 2019 at 9:45 pm

    […] quality project once or twice a year under the umbrella of project-based language learning (see our city description project here), and otherwise, stick to real language assessments for your big grades – and those, […]

    Reply

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      • 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?
    •  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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