Language classes often don't focus on the aspect of learning a language that intrigues students most -- speaking it. We should get students talking more.

Inside: A peek into dozens of Spanish classrooms, of all kinds, shapes, and sizes! A well-designed room won’t make or break your teaching. Oh, but it can make a difference in how you and your students feel. Some of you have very limited options, and very tight budgets. There’s some serious classroom eye-candy here, but the

Learn how to use the classic role-playing game ELIMINATION (historically known as Mafia) in language classes as an instructional activity that your students will never want to stop!

When we think of concrete, our first thoughts are sidewalks, cinder blocks, and Concrete Jungle by Bob Marley. We don’t often think of beautiful objects for the home, until we got our hands dirty just yesterday when creating our own DIY Lace Planters, votives, and bookends. Here are 26 more projects to inspire your own concrete hackery. […]

Inside: A peek into dozens of Spanish classrooms, of all kinds, shapes, and sizes! A well-designed room won’t make or break your teaching. Oh, but it can make a difference in how you and your students feel. Some of you have very limited options, and very tight budgets. There’s some serious classroom eye-candy here, but the

Inside: A peek into dozens of Spanish classrooms, of all kinds, shapes, and sizes! A well-designed room won’t make or break your teaching. Oh, but it can make a difference in how you and your students feel. Some of you have very limited options, and very tight budgets. There’s some serious classroom eye-candy here, but the

AS SOME OF YOU KNOW, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE EL DÍA DEL LIBRO and find every excuse to celebrate it. Something about it just captures my imagination and heart! Over the years, I have had my 4th graders make simple books for our Kindergartners as part of learning about, and celebrating this holiday, but one challenge always is the time it takes to make even the easiest of books... until now! I take NO CREDIT for this idea- I stumbled across it while surfing Pinterest the other night and was enthralled! Here is the link to the original post from Manualidades Infantiles. Their tiny little books are just too cute! In thinking about the idea for my own classroom, (upper elementary, my primary grades just can't write this small!) or for middle or highschool, I wanted to adapt it to suit language learning goals, and ensure we didn't spend oodles of time on the creation. So, here is my rendition: THE KEY TO EACH BOOK IS ITS SIZE which limits the amount of content one can include, yet makes for good practice of sentence structure and meaning. With only 8 total pages (4 sheets of paper folded), the "story" is a very short one- in fact, just one sentence long. Depending on the language level of your students, you choose the verb tense (or leave it open for upper level students) and instruct them to create a sentence that can be broken down into several parts, each of which goes on a separate page. Tiny illustrations can be added to each page, providing a comprehension check for you as you peruse the stories and pictures. FOR EXAMPLE: Había una vez Pepita que descubrió una llave misteriosa al lado de un árbol. (breaks indicate the text for each page) Again, because they are so small, they don't take long to actually create, but are a meaningful way to integrate this holiday, and therefore more culture, into class. You can follow it up by having students give their book to someone else, and/or have an additional writing activity where they continue the story found in the book. SO, HOW TO ACTUALLY MAKE THE TINY BOOKS? You will note in my photos I got a little over the top and used hemp cord, punching holes in the "spines" of each book and using the cord to tie the book together. Super cute, I know! For classroom purposes, I would suggest using a stapler as it is much quicker. I would also suggest either having the books already put together (especially if you are doing this with upper elementary), or at least having the covers and pages already cut to size to save time. Dimensions of mine pictured: 3 inches x 1 1/2 unfolded, 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 folded. I used brown card stock for the covers and drawing paper for the pages- you could use construction paper, scrapbooking paper, copy paper- whatever you have handy! Fold all sheets in half and staple spine. ¡Ta-chán! THESE MINI LIBRITOS are also perfect for an after school program, summer camp, or culture class! Enjoy and have fun! AND DON'T MISS OUR POST ON MAKING TISSUE PAPER ROSES for el Día de la rosa- click here! SaveSaveSaveSave

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In Costa Rica, I was always known as gringa or macha (Costa Rican speak for blonde), and my very American-sounding name was mangled every which way when I was growing up. Then I moved to the U.S., and my name was suddenly easily pronounceable, and blending in was much, much easier. I loved it. I [...]

365 Happiness Project: Quote 86

I’m starting to see teachers on social media heading back to school! Where did the summer go?? The syllabus can be one way to set proficiency expectations at the beginning. We’ve update…

Inside: A peek into dozens of Spanish classrooms, of all kinds, shapes, and sizes! A well-designed room won’t make or break your teaching. Oh, but it can make a difference in how you and your students feel. Some of you have very limited options, and very tight budgets. There’s some serious classroom eye-candy here, but the

No te cagues, stay informed! Here are your Top Scariest Latino Horror Legends & Monsters.

Knowing the rules of accent marks in Spanish will improve your pronunciation, fluency, accent and more. Click here to learn everything about Spanish accent marks, plus rules for using them easily. Learn where to place, and how to read, all the accent marks on Spanish vowels and consonants.

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Hace unos días explicamos en qué consistía la descripción. A continuación os dejo unos cuantos ejemplos de los diferentes tipos de textos descriptivos: los técnicos y los literarios; y según la rea…

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I try to always include a game station when I do stations. The “game” may actually be speaking practice or vocabulary review or hands-on action with the language, but if it has some com…

Inside: A peek into dozens of Spanish classrooms, of all kinds, shapes, and sizes! A well-designed room won’t make or break your teaching. Oh, but it can make a difference in how you and your students feel. Some of you have very limited options, and very tight budgets. There’s some serious classroom eye-candy here, but the

Inside: A peek into dozens of Spanish classrooms, of all kinds, shapes, and sizes! A well-designed room won’t make or break your teaching. Oh, but it can make a difference in how you and your students feel. Some of you have very limited options, and very tight budgets. There’s some serious classroom eye-candy here, but the

The first, and arguably most important aspect, of the IPA is the interpretive task. It's not that the interpretive is the most difficult or worth more points, but that the other two tasks should be based upon the authentic resource used for the interpretive. Unfortunately, it took me about 5 years to get this part right. In the beginning, when I didn't know any better, I would create my own interpretive tasks. I used to literally create a task and record it or, if I was feeling extra authentic, have one of my native speaker friends record it for me. My current WL district colleagues reading this are probably gasping in shock and disgust after reading this paragraph, but it's true. My early interpretive tasks were were created by me, a non-native speaker for non-native speaker, which violates one of the most important proficiency rules: So, where do you find these authentic resources? They're all over the internet, but they can be difficult to find. I've spent literals days of my life searching for the perfect video clip or infographic for my interpretive tasks, but in the last year or so, I've gotten much more efficient. My favorite places to find authentic resources are: Pinterest- I'm a pinterest fanatic and you now how access to all of my professional and random personal boards. As you can see, I create separate boards for all of my units and save resources to them as I come across them. Click the link above to check them out. Feel free to follow me! Twitter- I'm so mad at myself for not getting into Twitter earlier because it's amazing professional development. Try searching #authres (authentic resource) and even your topic. Ex. #pasatiempos Youtube- I love pairing a short video clip, especially commercials, with an infographic to make a well-rounded interpretive assessment. Try searching in Spanish for topics you like. Ex. madrid turismo. Google Images- It sounds overly simplisitc, but it works! Try searching infografica and the Spanish like familia. You'll be surprised by how much you'll find with the right search terms. Once you've located one or two related authentic resources, it's time to get started creating your interpretive task. I usually go through the following steps: 1. Look over your authentic resources and try to decide what they have in common. As an example, let's look at two resources I use for a Spanish I family unit. After looking around on YouTube, I found a really cool Chilean home store commercial that talked about different types of families, which tied in perfectly with the infographic I found about different types of modern Mexican families. See both below. 2. Create a scenario. Decide what your scenario is going to be for your interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational task. Here's an example. Doing so will really help to tie your IPA together into a hypothetical task and ties in I-Can Statements. The interpretive task is the "you'll need to learn more about families in Latin America." As you saw above, students will watch a video and look at an infographic. 3. Using the authentic resources, decide what you want your students to do. This amazing resource from Ohio is my constant go-to because it gives such diverse ideas of the kinds of comprehension tasks. Below are a few of the activities my students completed with the authentic images. So, there you have my steps to creating a successful interpretive assessment. One aspect I'd really like to point out is that the focus on the interpretive assessment is for students to be able to decipher texts they've never seen. When I first moved in this direction, my students questioned why they were being assessed on information they'd never been taught. It's important to lay out to students that in real life using a language, they will need to use what they already know to correctly interpret new information. They'll need to use context clues, visual cues, etc. to understand new situations. That being said, it's really important to expose kids to lots of authentic texts and formative interpretive tasks on a day-to-day basis so they are used to the challenge. Finally, to check out my complete thematic IPAs, please click here! I've worked really hard to make them useable for both experienced IPA teachers and those new to the concept. They come with I-can statements, performance goals, preparation materials, student prompts, rubrics, answer keys, and even student samples. Check back tomorrow for the Part 3: How to Create and Give IPAs: Preparing the Interpersonal Task, which tends to be the most challenging both for students and teachers. I'll be giving lots of tips and tricks to make them efficient and painless and, most importantly, to get students having awesome spontaneous conversations!