¿Verdad o mentira?

Are you telling the truth? or are you telling lies? ... that is the question!

This year, I have many students who are very shy. Sometimes, simple presentations are very intimidating for them, which is why we started playing this game. By calling it a game instead of presentation, students immediately relaxed! In doing so, the quality of their presentations increased and we had a lot more fun. My second hope was that by calling it a game it would spark some friendly competition! AND IT DID =D Since students had to figure out if things said by the presenters were truths or lies, it made them better listeners. Overall I was very pleased with this modification in my classrooms.
It is important to point out that this activity could be used with any proficiency level.
For example, my novice kept it simple. When we were going over ser  and adjectives, their statements were descriptions about themselves. Soy saludable, soy perezoso, soy pelirrojo. My novice-high / intermediate made it a bit more challenging. So while working on the topic of daily routines, they wrote and presented statements like: Me levanto temprano todos los días. Nunca me pongo pantalones cortos. Siempre desayuno rápidamente. 
You get the point!

Download it HERE for free and try it in your classroom. Let me know how it goes.

                                    

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Technology in the classroom

How can I include technology in my Spanish classroom without it becoming a distraction?

This is something I ask myself every time I am planning a new lesson.

My students and I are fortunate to have a classroom where each student has a computer. This is both a blessing and a course. The attention span of a teenager is limited... add a computer to the mix and POOF! that minimal attention span disappears!

I am a huge fan of visual representations of the things we are doing in class. This visuals become conversation pieces and can lend themselves to many follow up activities. I even use them in our games! My students are also aware that I am not the best at drawing. That is where storyboardthat.com comes in!  It is a user friendly app (free for the basic features) that allows your students to create scenes and customize them!

This unit we talked about our daily routines. We had many conversations about what a person does, what we do as a group, and how we do it, etc. At the end of the unit I wanted to do something a bit different when it came to assessing their knowledge of reflexive verbs, vocab and adverbs (the other piece in our unit), as well as telling time and transition words. That is when my coworker suggested letsrecap.com! Wonderful app (free for the basic features) that allows students to record themselves.

The activity:  Select one storyboardthat.com product from one of their classmates. Project it on the screen and allow students a couple minutes to think about what they see. **No writing is allowed and no notes or textbooks are allowed ** When the timer goes off, everyone must start recording their own story about their classmate's routine.

The result: Check out some of the cool representations they created. As for the verbal responses, I was so impressed! They had finally reached a point where they could tell a story! There were fewer concerns on grammar - because they really knew it -- and they allowed themselves to tell the story while including lots of details. Since they all recoded at the same time they were not worried about their classmate's opinion.
*Downfall to using letsrecap* currently they do not have a way to download the recordings so I cannot share samples with you nor keep some favorites to share without accessing the app itself.

Grading:  I set up a simple rubric of what I was looking for in the assignment and clicked on the PLAY ALL button on my let's recap queue. Easy and fun and I am going to show some of my favorites to the class!

How do you include some technology in your classroom? Please share in the comments!

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La rutina diaria

Exploring daily routines with a simple game

La rutina y la gamificación en tu clase

Hola a todos, 

This week I was looking for ways to maximize the traditional textbook activities about reflexive verbs and daily routines. Inspired by one of Laura's recent YouTube videos (watch it here), I decided to go for it and here is what I experienced. 

Prep time: The idea of maximizing textbook activities sounds overwhelming to many, but it is not! Allow yourself to think outside the box and the results will be so incredible you'll wonder why you did not start this sooner.  

For dictation part of this particular activity there are three ways to set up. 

- #1: Look into a few of those textbooks you have and just copy the routine stories that are included. 

- #2: You could also type those stories so that the font is a bit bigger and easier to read. 

- #3: Create original routines based on samples shared by students. 

For the follow up part I simply created four different comprehension questions for each team. The key is that I wanted each group member to be accountable. This only took a few minutes per text -- many of the questions apply to multiple texts. 

The activity: As Laura explains in her video, you can do this in partners or groups. Knowing my current classes, I decided to try small groups of four. I also know how clever they can be, so I made sure to have various samples going on at the same time. I posted the original texts on the board and set up the teams in pods around the classroom.  

The rules: Clear rules are key so here are the few I mentioned to my students. 

1. One student visits the board at a time. 

2. All group members must participate. Therefore every student has to go to the board at least once. 

3. No running and no yelling. 

4. If they used English (non TL) then they would be penalized with 10 seconds without accessing the board. 

5. Spelling out words to teammates is acceptable as long as it happens in Spanish (TL)!

Follow up: What do we do after they get the story? Once they had it completely written down, they brought it to me. I reviewed it and made sure it was accurate. Then each student was given a comprehension question to complete. 

There are two ways to do this step. 

1. They can write down the answer individually -- allowing students time to focus on form. 

2. Students have some time to think about the answer and then come to respond verbally. 

3. Students use let's recap to record their answer. This does not allow for deciding an instant winner. **Read below for a brief explanation on how awesome this app is =D

The results: I knew my students would step up to the challenge! They love competing against each other. I saw many of them actually listening to one another and the answers to the comprehension questions were filled with wonderful details they remembered!

Give this activity a try. You can download a free sample HERE, or get four stories with four sets of comprehension questions by downloading it HERE.

If you like this activity, please leave me a comment telling me how it worked in your classroom or perhaps something you changed to make it better!

Don't forget to follow my Facebook Page and visit my TpT store for more resources. 

 

 

Let's recap is a really cool app that allows you to get verbal responses form students. For this particular activity, one class chose to record their responses to the comprehension questions rather than talk to me personally. The following day, we read the different routines as a class, I asked the questions and we listened to the answer from each team. Students had to decide if the answer was correct or if it missed something.  In order to do the let's recap option, I extended the activity to 2 days. One for the original activity and one for going over the comprehension questions. 

Time well spent!

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Comic strips - Las tiras cómicas

Every time I can, I let my student's imagination lead the way.
In our last unit we talked about traveling. Everyone has gone somewhere in their lifetime, even if it is local. Therefore they all have a story to tell.
I let them tap into their artistic side and create a comic strip about said trip. When done, they were able to converse with one another about this trip.
In order to focus on the grammar being studied in the unit, they had to also create the written version of their story.
The results were fantastic! Check them out.
**If you want to read about other people enjoying comic strips too, go here

**If you would like to use these templates, go here

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Conjugation puzzles

Conjugation Fun

I am always looking for more fun and interactive ways to get students to really commit to memorizing vocab and conjugations. It is only after achieving this first step that we can really work on the rest of the fun activities I have planned for them knowing that there will be some focus on form. I also love tapping into their competitive spirit!

I found that short games are great bell ringers that get students in Spanish more and make it easier to transition into any of my follow up activities. They also hold the students accountable for knowing these items and practicing them often.

Using these conjugation puzzles, partners ask each other the conjugations of the common verbs that our unit uses. Only after both agree on the conjugation can they lay the piece down on the puzzle.

The puzzle on the picture is a free one I found online. It is a simple rectangle with AR verbs.

I created a few more challenging ones for my early finishers that were customized to our particular unit. Check them out here

Hispanic Heritage Month 2017

Hola a todos,
This year, I wanted my students to "travel" around the world and assume a new identity.
I put together this cute "gate fold" worksheet to make the activity a bit more artsy and fun!
Students had a chance to select their new identity from a list I provided. Then they each researched some facts about the person and their country of origin.
This week, when the handouts are done, they will have a chance to talk to each other, learn about others and jot down some notes.
What they don't know yet, is that after getting to "know" each other, we will be able to play a game of guessing who and discovering identities! I will read some of the information they each shared and in teams they will guess who the person is. At the end, the team with most correct guesses will win!
Check out the handout.
I would love to hear how you are incorporating hispanic heritage month into your classes.
Until next time,
Señora

   

Todo sobre mi

Welcome back everyone!

The last few weeks have been very exciting in our classroom. We have been getting back into our structure, and for my new students it has been a time to get adjusted to my routines.
One of my favorite things to do in order to review some of the basics, is to have students interview one another. We do this in steps of course!

So, with each "grammar point" I want them to review, we sample some questions and possible answers. Then they must walk around and interview other people. Our follow up is to come together as a class and make some conclusions.

So, if we are reviewing the verb SER, our key question is ¿Cómo eres? First, students must look through our list of adjectives (from a previous lesson on gender and number) and decide how they would describe themselves. Then they walk around and interview one another. The last step is for some volunteers to report on the people they interviewed. For a competitive twist, I jot down the adjectives students share into a march madness bracket. When filled out, we practice the plural questions of ¿Cómo somos? and ¿Cómo son?.  The adjective that receives the most votes, moves on. This is a fun a way to find out things we have in common and things that makes us different!

Similar interview/report activities took place with the verbs, tener, estar, ir, and gustar. At the end of the unit, as we prepare for our formal assessment, the students put everything together into an "all about me" infographic! Here are some samples from my students this trimester.

How do you review some of these basics in your classroom?

*Update* Download the template here