stories
January 7, 2010
A little while ago I made a post about pleasure reading that elicited a few comments from Bethanie: Bethanie said… Could you elaborate on what you do with the reading guides/palabras claves? I would like to incorporate more long reading into my classes in addition to the shorter pieces I already use, but struggle with […]
premium
November 11, 2009
A case for pleasure reading
premium
Stephen Krashen has done a ton of research on what he calls Free Voluntary Reading. Catch up on his research by checking it out on his website. Basically, the premise is that kids learn more (and language learners acquire more vocabulary) when reading at an appropriate leve and something that is pleasurable to them. I […]
premium
March 9, 2009
Today I gave my 3rd quarter story test in Spanish 3. It’s about a peasant and a princess who get married despite the facts that they just met and her father doesn’t approve. It uses a lot of the vocab we’ve worked on in Spanish 3 this quarter. There’s a mistake on the question part–I […]
premium
February 18, 2009
Good stories for commands
premium
Here are a couple of good stories to use when teaching commands. En aquel prado is a book I actually start using the first week of Spanish 1 to practice numbers, but the best use of it is for commands. The most repetition is in uds and nosotros commands, although with the first animal there […]
premium
February 13, 2009
One of my problems with standard curriculum is they can’t provide enough variety in activities focused on one issue. They try, I’ll give the writers credit for that, but there are only so many textbook/workbook exercises you can design to elicit subjunctive for doubt. And really, do we believe that those cheesy textbook videos offer […]
premium
February 10, 2009
A good story for ‘tiene’
premium
Usborne books has a series of books that are good to read when practicing tiene. I bought a couple to use with my baby–one is Este no es mi osito and the other is Este no es mi dinosaurio. They’re touch ‘n feel board books, but they work fine in a classroom too! The things […]
premium
February 9, 2009
A story for demonstratives
premium
I’ve come up with a story that in both Spanish 1 and 2 has worked really well with teaching demonstratives. We’ve worked with those quite a bit for the past couple of weeks, and I’ve been amazed at how fast my students have become consistent and proficient at using them. Side note: A couple of […]
premium
December 22, 2008
A story test
premium
My assessment has recently shaped up to be that I have 5 test grades in each quarter. We have a high school policy that except in math, tests form 50% of the student’s grade, and daily grades the other 50%. So test grades are pretty important, and I’ve been accused of not having enough tests […]
premium
November 17, 2008
Another Spanish 1 reading
premium
Here’s the story we did in Spanish 1 for the 2nd quarter. My version is about an elephant who wins the lottery and goes out shopping with his friend Minnie Ratoncita. In the student version, students collaborate to fill in blanks and make the story their own. The questions they confused were the ones about […]
premium
November 6, 2008
If you haven’t gotten your hands on Dr. Seuss’s Huevos verdes con jamón, you’ve got to get a copy. In Spanish 1 we’re working on te gusta and me gusta(n). Reading this book gets you so many repetitions of those phrases, and the content is understandable, familiar, and highly interesting, so students are engaged. My […]
premium
November 6, 2008
Another story source!
premium
It’s always exciting to find story sources. I say it all the time, people learn language through storytelling. We learn vocabulary through reading and hearing words in context, not by studying the dictionary. We learn what “sounds right” (the key to fluency) by hearing it over and over and over again, not by doing drills. […]
premium
October 30, 2008
You may have seen the story I wrote for Spanish 1 to read and then re-create in this post. Here is the story for Spanish 2. It involves a llama named Sra. Fluffy Stuff and a blue dog named Blue. One question many students answered wrong was “Why did Sra. Fluffy Stuff leave?” A lot […]
premium