Search Results for "novice"
January 17, 2014
Sometimes, the business world comes up with a really great idea that works well in education. Sometimes, that idea catches on like wildfire and makes a big difference for student learning. Sometimes, it doesn’t. At least, not for everyone. Particularly those of us who might be considered “early adopters” have a bad habit of hearing […]
December 21, 2013
2013’s fourth most popular post is a novice-level activity suggestion using the Latin Grammy’s Song of the Year, Marc Anthony’s Voy a vivir. His performance at the Latin Grammys is sure to get everyone moving and singing to the music! —————- The most popular Latin pop song in the country has NOVICE written all over […]
December 9, 2013
2013’s eighth most popular post is about telling the difference between novice high and intermediate low. Be sure to check out the comments on the original post for more helpful distinguishing tips. I got a question recently from a colleague who was having trouble pinpointing the difference between novice high and intermediate low with her […]
October 9, 2013
Oh, how I miss teaching novices! I teach next door to the Spanish 1, 2, and 3 teacher, with a divider separating our basement rooms, and every time I hear her with her Spanish 1 students I long to be in there – not because she’s really doing anything wrong, but because I love teaching […]
September 5, 2013
The most popular Latin pop song in the country has NOVICE written all over it. The song is called “Voy a vivir” by Marc Anthony. The chorus is a catchy, feel-good, novice-level message: Voy a reír, voy a bailar Vivir mi vida lalalalá Voy a reír, voy a gozar Vivir mi vida lalalalá This song […]
May 31, 2013
Somewhere within Spanish levels 2 or 3 everyone gets around to a unit on health. We do one in both levels, going more in depth in level 3, and then explore the concept as it relates to global issues in AP. So this infographic from the Ministerio de Salud de El Salvador makes a perfect […]
May 13, 2013
I got a question recently from a colleague who was having trouble pinpointing the difference between novice high and intermediate low with her students, especially in writing. When it comes to writing, here are some keys that I think mean a student is consistently performing at IL and not NH: Changing topics with relevance A few […]
May 4, 2013
Every once in a while there comes along an authentic resource that’s the golden trifecta, the perfect mix of pop culture, TL culture, and usability for any level of language learning. The Pin Pon clip in Shrek is one of those. It’s so good that I feel inclined to repost it to give it to […]
April 28, 2013
One of my students’ favorite songs the last couple of years has been “Tengo tu love” by Sie7e, a truly fabulous song with a great message. We actually use it in our current unit in Spanish 3 on talking about goals and dreams as we explore where David (the singer) came from and how his […]
January 4, 2013
It’s no secret that I advocate using almost all authentic materials from the beginning. Using authentic materials with novices is both possible and critical. Here’s an example of an activity you could do with novice learners in a unit on entertainment or technology, with communicative goals like expressing likes or dislikes or talking about your […]
October 12, 2012
Using authentic materials is an ideological battleground for language teachers. No matter how much people agree that it’s important for all levels, I still seem to hear so much uncertainty as to how to do it, particularly for novices. –But what if they don’t understand? What can they do with it? How can we help […]
November 17, 2011
Twice for #langchat we’ve polled the following question: What activities prepare students for AP from the very beginning? I confess, I probably wrote this question, maybe with some help from something similar being suggested as a topic. Certainly I’ve voted for it twice. But for whatever reason–perhaps teachers of lower levels don’t think much about […]