Spanish 1
September 4, 2018
Whether your Spanish class (Novice Mid to Intermediate Low) is exploring a novel, a particular country, or a travel theme, country-specific authentic resources can be a gold mine. But given that comprehensible input is what it takes, what can our learners understand? For one thing, highly visual resources like infographics and online travel brochures can be very comprehensible. Another hack […]
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April 26, 2016
They couldn’t hear the word “no”
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The school year is almost over for my students and me- really, this Friday is our last day. You may know by now that we’ve been working through the movie Canela as the entire foundation of our curriculum this semester, and it’s been fabulous. It’s been a gold mine of authentic language and culture for my Novice […]
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October 12, 2015
In the last year and a half, I have read a research article, recorded a Black Box Podcast, presented a conference session selected as a Central States All-Star session, and blogged – all on the topic of why we should teach the skill of circumlocution early and often. Aside: Circumlocution is the skill of talking […]
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August 17, 2014
In trying to tell a French teacher what I do the first day of school, I realized that my explanation of the first 12 days of Musicuentos Spanish 1 was, well, all in Spanish. So, here’s some English for you. There are so many, so very many great language learning principles, right? So much second […]
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June 19, 2014
Hello this time from Merillville, Indiana, where I’m learning with a group of teachers from that school and other schools across the region. What fun! This workshop’s focus is proficiency-based lesson planning. We can say that we’re proficiency-based teachers but where the evidence of that can really be found is in our lesson plans. Do […]
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December 30, 2013
The reaction to my post titled Top 3 Mistakes Teachers of Novices Make startled me to say the least. The ACTFL TOY called it a “must read.” My blog traffic jumped 600% in one day. It’s been accessed twice as much as the next most popular post in the last six months. Something here resonated […]
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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 […]
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November 12, 2013
I’ve been blogging for a long time, longer than most of you have been reading here, and it occurs to me someone might benefit from a repost once in a while. Here’s one from early 2009. I’ve come up with a story that in both Spanish 1 and 2 has worked really well with teaching […]
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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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July 6, 2013
Here’s a fun video that features an animal (gato), narration in present, and talking about wants and feelings. I don’t know the source of the song, but the video was made by a Spanish student who heard it in his class. Proficiency goals as you show this video: Narration in present Talking about feelings Talking […]
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May 19, 2013
By the time students get to advanced classes such as those intended to prepare them for national standardized exams, almost nothing should include only simple recall. We ask questions like why and how, ask for debates and opinions, ask for synthesis of authentic sources and troubleshooting common problems. How can we prepare students for this from novice levels? There’s one […]
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May 10, 2013
E-magazines with learner appeal
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In my quest to find and review online publishing tools (i.e. sites that will organize your students’ content like a magazine or newspaper) I’ve come across quite a few online magazines designed for our primary audience – middle and high school students. You can find anything I’ve found by looking at my Delicious tags under […]
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