music
September 13, 2013
Stations: Exploring music
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In AP, one of the ways I love to build up to an oral comparison or persuasive essay, our two “test” assessments in each unit, is to explore the topic using stations. One of my spring units is called “El ritmo me mueve” and involves investigating artistic expression in many forms: art, design, music, and […]
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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 […]
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June 26, 2013
This is the last post in a short series on songs that help students develop accuracy and proficiency in talking about the present tense. For the other songs, see: Sigo con ella Hace tiempo Carmelina (and also, a post on songs for stem-changing present verbs) Tengo tu love – Sie7e This song is another one […]
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May 23, 2013
Every once in a while in my class we took a few days to explore a particular grammar point, because let’s face it – sometimes it’s useful to sit down and examine something quickly so we can move on to the real communicative stuff and maybe put it into practice faster than we would have […]
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March 5, 2013
This is part 3 in a short series on songs and activities that improve student accuracy and proficiency in talking about the present. Carmelina – Jorge Correa This is a fun song. If you’re interested in an identical use of no me hagas sufrir, no me hagas llorar, check out Manny Manuel’s No me hagas […]
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February 15, 2013
Fun activity #8: A cantar
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In 2011 I blogged about what a boring teacher I really am and how I was inspired by some conference workshops to make things more fun in the classroom. This is the eighth post on the activities that came out of those experiences: “let’s sing.” My lyrics file is currently over 230 pages long. Usually, […]
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February 1, 2013
If someone asked me what motivated my students the most -to continue learning on their own, to more vocabulary, to greater accuracy- my answer would certainly be music. Just this week one of my Spanish 3 students who is struggling the most with any level of verb accuracy identified forms of conseguir and what they […]
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January 27, 2013
This is part 2 in a series of songs and activities chosen to improve student accuracy and proficiency in talking about the present. Hace tiempo – Fonseca This song has wide student appeal. Regardless of taste, it’s one of my students’ all-time favorites. The video is great fun also. Proficiency goals: talk about ongoing and […]
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January 10, 2013
Looking for a few songs to make talking about the present a little more engaging? Take a look at this post about stem-changing verbs. Or try the songs I’ve picked for this series, starting with this one. Note: I believe that students’ primary challenge is in speaking and so you’ll notice that these are primarily […]
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July 20, 2012
More uses for Amor de mi tierra
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I wrote about the Carlos Vives song “Amor de mi tierra” in this post about songs with repetitions of voy + a. Here are a few more things you can do with the song: There’s only one unique occurrence of this subjunctive for influence, but it’s a nice line and it’s repeated: Quiero que lleves en ti la […]
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July 13, 2012
Songs for ‘duele’
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Using the phrase me duele is an important part of any health unit, which usually consists of exercises intended to help students explain how they’re feeling. I’ve seen a lot of assessments that involve being able to go to a doctor and talk to him about what’s wrong. With that in mind, here are five great […]
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July 5, 2012
Got idioms?
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If you’ve taught language for any length of time, you know that the more students map their English onto their second language, the more garbled their production can get, and the more frustrated everyone involved can get. They think they can do a lot because they’re spouting a lot of words, but the way the […]
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