Curriculum
November 18, 2019
Drum roll… IT’S ACTFL WEEK! I skipped ACTFL last year because let’s face it, it is not cheap to try to pull that trip off when you don’t have institutional or corporate support, and I gladly admit I had zero FOMO – and you shouldn’t have it either. ACTFL is a great experience, and I’m […]
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October 10, 2019
One thing at a time: Step Four
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So you want to become a better language teacher, and that’s awesome! You’ve laid a good foundation in getting to know some sound research principles involving how people acquire and learn languages thanks to Steve Smith. You’ve figured out what to expect kids to build as they continue on their journey to being proficient in another language. You […]
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September 23, 2019
One thing at a time: Step Three
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So you want to become a better language teacher, and that’s awesome! You’ve laid a good foundation in getting to know some sound research principles involving how people acquire and learn languages thanks to Steve Smith. You’ve figured out what to expect kids to build as they continue on their journey to being proficient in […]
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September 16, 2019
One thing at a time: Step One
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It’s happened at my Camp Musicuentos workshops. It’s happened in inservice sessions. It’s happened in conference presentations and workshops and on Twitter and in blog comments. It’s the big question that many preservice, new, and second-profession teachers ask: I want to be a great language teacher and do all this curriculum stuff and teach all […]
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August 19, 2019
Supercharge a “News” unit
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And now, for the nightly news. For students approaching or solidly sitting in Intermediate Land, a unit focused on news reporting can add some real power to world language class. Consider what pops up in the news: high-interest stories (engagement!) narration interviews (multiple voices!) culture (practices + perspectives!) the perfect tenses (“17 people have gotten sick […]
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August 6, 2019
If you asked me about the most frequent dilemma questions I get/see in professional interactions, including teacher development communities, workshops, social media, and email, this would have to be way up there: What am I supposed to do about this PBL thing? Rewind please… You probably know this, but for clarity’s sake, let’s do a […]
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May 30, 2019
I’m about to let you in on a well-kept secret. (clears throat) I love textbooks. You read that right- I truly do. And the more worksheets, the better. I love grammar exercises, finding the patterns and replicating them, filling in all the blanks. That is, I love them for me. Because I’m a grammarian, a linguist, an analytic learner […]
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August 2, 2018
In the post-vocabulary list era, we know that vocabulary presented repeatedly in context is the higher road. In that light, what are some practices teachers have found to help learners acquire rich vocabulary without developing, assigning, and drilling long lists of words? I’ll present here one of mine. But first… Let me give a bit […]
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March 13, 2018
Do you remember Mad Libs? As I was planning my semester around our novel Robo en la noche and our unit’s Driving Question: What can we create and share to show an interesting itinerary for a five-day trip in Costa Rica? it occurred to me that Mad Libs would be a fun way to explore a […]
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November 18, 2017
I’m having a great time at the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages! My co-presenter and I thought we uploaded our handouts in enough time to have them available on the app, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. So, for our attendees and you there on your […]
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August 5, 2017
Sound off: authentic resources or learner materials? Uau, that’s a can of worms. Most teachers I know would say that the answer is a resounding yes. That is, we use both, and we talk about it, a lot. In fact, in the same week (long ago) that I started drafting this post, Carrie Toth blogged a […]
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March 14, 2017
You want to include more authentic videos in your class. The question becomes, what do you do with a TL video? Now, there have been several great posts offering options of activities to use with authentic video, like this one from Spanish Playground or this one from Bryan Kandel. My post, in particular, along with my […]
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