authres
September 15, 2023
It’s a new season for Musicuentos. You know this. You probably also know it’s going to include regular breaking news, like the return of the Musicuentos Monthly newsletter, or the new Facebook group Musicuentos Tips, Tools, & Talk for Spanish Teachers. JOIN US ON FACEBOOK! My next announcement involves travel itineraries– eventually, for every Spanish-speaking […]
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August 27, 2019
Can novice Spanish learners understand authentic poems? That was the question asked, quite appropriately, through the Ñandutí listserv, an email list from the Center for Applied Linguistics that serves primarily educators working with elementary learners. The answers were so helpful that I wanted to share them here. First, check out the very rich list of poems […]
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March 1, 2019
Let me sing a little Rascal Flatts for you. I woke up this morning With this feeling inside me that I can’t explain Like a weight that I’ve carried Been carried away, away. It’s been over four years since I released a novel guide. More than four years. Four long years I’ve had this project on my plate, moving […]
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November 3, 2018
The following material is taken from my session for the November 2018 Tennessee Foreign Language Teachers Association. If you read me much, you know that I agree with the broader field that asking “Authentic or learner material?” as a guide for choosing resources is the wrong question. The real question is this: What is going […]
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October 16, 2018
Recently I had the incredible privilege to take my daughter on her first international trip. My husband and I had decided we’d do a sort of “coming-of-age” trip for our children when they reached about 9. (Yes, that’s how early you have to get to your kids before someone else does these days. And earlier, […]
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August 27, 2018
Social entrepreneurship… in Spanish 1?! A few years ago, a company called VIF International asked me to think and work with them on this question: What would a project-based learning curriculum look like in a novice Spanish class? It’s not an easy question. Project-based language learning presents the same problem Genius Hour does: how can you […]
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August 15, 2018
Dear readers, Esperanza renace is coming. After four long years, the wait for the third Musicuentos ebook guide to an authentic novel is nearly over. Within weeks – perhaps days – you’ll see the resource release *I* have been waiting and working and longing to make for four years. As we both wait a few more […]
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April 17, 2018
Not long ago, I fortuitously caught a tweet or headline notification from a newspaper, maybe the New York Times. It was a review of a new children’s book. The author’s name was Junot Díaz, and the name didn’t strike me right away as familiar. Soon I realized it was the author of a recent Pulitzer novel, The […]
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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 22, 2017
Got a travel unit planned this year? (Who doesn’t?) I love travel, and I love travel units. I don’t care what statistics say about how many of our students will travel. It’s a globalized world, and they should. Getting some language skills before traveling has so many benefits. It shows the world we’re traveling in that we care […]
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August 12, 2017
Meet Marisa. She’s a really smart Spanish teacher… at a language school in Madrid. Her blog goes back several years, but it just came on my radar in the past year. It’s called “Aprendiendo español callejeando por Madrid,” y de veras, es una joya. Here in the first resource I’m sharing for #AuthresAugust I present […]
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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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