Authentic Sources
October 21, 2015
Does this sound familiar to you? Via Facebook, Twitter, Edmodo, Google search, or a two-hour plummet down the rabbit hole known as Pinterest, you found exactly the right authentic resource for your upcoming lesson on members of the family. You spent 72 minutes designing a scaffolding activity that would help make it comprehensible and focus your […]
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June 22, 2015
After a year “off,” this fall I’ll be back to teaching, in a unique opportunity (homeschool co-op) that I’m really excited about. And apprehensive about. Things that worry me: Mostly, time. I’ll be seeing my students only once a week (60 minutes for elementary, 90 minutes for upper grades). I’ll be finding something for them […]
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April 17, 2015
Recently on #langchat we were discussing interpretive and interpersonal tasks and someone asked whether interpersonal also functioned as interpretive, since the listener is interpreting auditory information. I thought it was Lisa Shepard, a lesson to me to note my sources right away, but I can’t find the conversation. So while I can’t credit my interlocutor, […]
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March 28, 2015
Ever feel behind the times? I just caught the current #1 song on Latin Billboard and it struck me as having two golden ingredients for a good class song: high student appeal and a couple of high frequency structures repeated. (Though I wanted to say, Dude – she moved on, she’s happy, get over it! […]
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January 27, 2015
If you love to incorporate authentic resources into all levels, you know that there are two major problems with doing so. 1) It takes a lot of time to find the right resource. 2) Using many resources in novice classes can be problematic because of how much scaffolding you may have to do to make […]
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October 3, 2014
It’s finally here! To find out all the details about the brand new Musicuentos ebook, Cajas de cartón: a chapter-by-chapter guide to the memoir by Francisco Jiménez, check out the Cajas page. Or, to summarize, it’s 59 illustrated pages of proficiency-focused, vocabulary-boosting activities paired with comprehension and critical-thinking questions to accompany the 12 chapters of Francisco […]
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September 30, 2014
Three days and then…
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It’s been a rough road this summer for Cajas de cartón: a reader’s guide to the memoir by Francisco Jiménez. I think I began the guide in April or May, but then June was slammed with workshops and travel. July I lost my father and traveled some more. August I finished traveling and went back to […]
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April 25, 2014
Top 25 Spanish novels
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As a Spanish speaker, I know that if I don’t use the language I get rusty in it, and as a teacher/linguist, I know that after a certain point, most of a person’s new vocabulary is acquired through reading words in context. So I enjoy reading in Spanish for the fun of it and for […]
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March 31, 2014
Got intermediate Spanish students you’re trying to push to use some advanced skills? How about using these authentic “memes” to illustrate some proficiency differences? All three of these phrases mean basically the same thing, but they use different language to express it. Once students get to intermediate low proficiency, pushing their proficiency higher has a […]
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March 25, 2014
One of my most popular posts last year was how to use Marc Anthony’s Latin Grammy-winning song Vivir mi vida to stage Spanish Class Idol in a novice class. A few people have asked me directly, and the topic has been brought up enough on Edmodo, about more clear directions of how to teach the song. […]
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March 7, 2014
Recently when fabulous NC teacher Bethanie Carlson Drew (who has guest-posted on Musicuentos before) tweeted requesting recommendations for a good resource for authentic restaurant reviews, I was happy to share with her my favorite, loogares.com. Don’t be fooled by the footer credit on this activity – that’s all I did. She took my recommendation and […]
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February 27, 2014
I love reviews as an authentic resource, especially for novices, because they hit so many proficiency targets – expressing opinions, description, talking about activities, talking about community. And they’re usually short and written with high-frequency vocabulary. So, where’s the best place to find authentic reviews? So far my favorite is a site called Loogares.com. For […]
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