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AUTHENTIC RESOURCES, in the context of reading and listening, are a powerful addition to our foreign language classes, providing our students a window into real life language use, language that, according to the popular definition, is created by natives for natives. In reference to this post, I want to thank fellow Spanish teacher, Charlcie Swadley, with whom I had a very inspiring conversation the other day about this topic- she really helped me crystallize my thoughts! FOR NOVICE LEARNERS, the challenge is in finding resources that match their level, without being so difficult they cannot access them. I've created an infographic with FOUR questions I ask myself when vetting an authentic resource- next week I'll add some great examples for elementary and novice classrooms! LET ME LAY THEM OUT in a bit more detail here: 1) WHAT IS THE RATIO of known to unknown vocabulary/structure? We have all been there, as students and as lifelong learners- we encounter that text or movie or song that makes little sense to us. We can pick out a few words along the way, but the larger whole escapes us. Does choosing a resource like this help our students? Or would a resource that is very comprehensible and accessible be the better choice? I think you know my answer! I look for resources that have typically a 80/20 ratio of known to unknown content, utilizing the CI +1 hypothesis. Providing just enough new content within a larger frame of previously learnt vocabulary/structure means students can actually utilize what they already know to access and acquire the new information. When there is too much new content, students go on overload and they can't make sense of what they are encountering. 2) DOES IT FIT INTO YOUR THEME or topic? I teach thematically so I am very partial to this one... content that is connected intellectually has been proven to be more effective for students in terms of acquisition (Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct); it triggers more deeply held knowledge about the theme at hand, and, since you are most likely spending more than one or two lessons on the theme, you can integrate the learning from the authentic resource over and over again, recycling as you go. We all know repetition is the name of the game in language learning! 3) IS IT IN CONTEXT? Related to the above, authentic resources provided in context give students a greater frame to interact with. Isolated bits don't allow for a connection to be built, have little relevancy, and make it difficult for students to synthesize how to use what they are learning in a real world situation. I give the example of idioms- providing a list of idioms to translate, even with an explanation of how to use them, is far less effective than integrating a relevant idiom into your daily routine or interaction. Another example is cooking vocabulary- far better presented in a recipe than in a list format. Even better when you have your students participate in the preparation of the recipe while using the vocabulary they are learning! 4) DOES IT PROVIDE 'SUCCESSFUL MOMENTS' for your students? Authentic resources can be intimidating to some students; they hold the belief that their language is insufficient to the task. However, when a student interacts with an authentic resource successfully, even if it is a very basic one, they gain motivation and interest to interact with them in the future. Celebrate those successes, call attention to the amazing progress your students are making, and keep moving forward! NEXT WEEK ON TUESDAY TIPS I will share some examples (and types) of good authentic resources for elementary and novice classrooms- be sure not to miss it! You can follow us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter to stay up to date!

Throw away the workbooks! Pack away the textbooks! Teaching a foreign language to a young child requires you to think differently about what learning looks like! The most effective method of acquiring a foreign language is the same method as a child acquires their mother-tongue; through regular exposure to the language in their daily lives.

Help your children to listen to others, remember what has been said and follow their instructions with our range of Listening Skills resources! Includes a collection of enjoyable, practical activities and downloadable audio files!

Here are some fun end of lesson activities and ideas that can be used for the remaining three to five minutes of you class time.

Here are must-have books for ESL teachers that you'll keep coming back to, regularly use as a quick reference, and provide information, knowledge, and value.

Many teachers have "tried and true" resources that they pull from year after year. I've been an elementary ESL teacher since 2005 working with grades 1-6. During this time I have used a ton of resources with my students; and my favorites have stuck with me. Even though my "classroom" can change year to year, from pushing-in, co-teaching, to predominantly working with small pull-out groups, these tried and true resources are ones that I wouldn't want to do without. Here's a look at a few of my top favorites... Graphic Organizers This resource is #1 for a reason! I almost always use graphic organizers to teach reading comprehension. I find them to be highly effective because they are not text heavy. Students read with a purpose, then complete an activity that supports that specific reading skill/strategy. No matter my students' level of reading or language proficiency, a simple graphic organizer is what I need to reinforce that skill or strategy! I keep these graphic organizers on my desktop, and when I'm planning my lessons I can quickly pull up the organizers I need, then print and go! Tip: When I print, I reduce the setting to 80% and then trim the sides. Students glue the graphic organizer into their reading notebooks which makes for a great collection of student work and visual reference of student progress and effort. Leveled Books for Reading Instruction I have been very lucky to work in schools that have had awesome book rooms full of guided reading sets. I hope that you have the same access to books in your school. Finding books on my students' levels is one thing, but finding relevant books, especially for my upper elementary beginning ELs, is another. It's a challenge, for sure, but with a good book room I know that I can almost always find what I need. Click here for a free modified guided reading lesson plan template! Don't have a stocked book room? I also order several grade levels of the Scholastic News Magazines. (I think 10 magazines per grade level is the minimum order; that's what I get.) I mostly use grades 1, 2 & 3 with my ELs. With your order, you also have access to the online magazines, which is awesome! You can project to an interactive whiteboard, or have students read on an iPad or computer. These various grade levels make it easy to differentiate text levels. Since I use the magazines for reading instruction, students do not take them home. I keep the magazines organized by grade level and time of year, then I reuse the ones I love, year after year. Reading instruction is a big part of my day, so having access to leveled reading materials is a must! Visual Reading Word Wall Cards I love this resource because of the visuals. and the versatility. When introducing a reading concept, such as "making predictions" or "plot," to beginning or intermediate English learners, a meaningful visual is definitely worth a thousand words! These reading word wall cards provide my students with the visual supports they need as they are learning new concepts in English. I use these cards at my reading table, as a word wall, in anchor charts, as sorting headers, and in my learning objectives that I post on the board. Guided Reading Table Anchor Chart Lesson Objectives Words Their Way for Word Study For ELLs, learning spelling patterns in English is important. I especially like this resource because I can differentiate it according to the needs of my students. First, I assess what my students already know, as far as consonants, short and long vowels, word families, digraphs, etc., then start from there. We systematically work through the sorts building their knowledge of sounds and spelling patterns. A bonus with this resource is that it's another exposure to new vocabulary! Each Monday my students receive their list of words, and each day of the week they have various independent activities to do with their words. Then on Fridays, we finish up with a quick spelling quiz. Click for a free download of Weekly Word Study Activities To start, I set up their notebooks with their weekly Word Study Activities. We do this together the first week or two, so that I know that they understand what's expected. This is a word sort that my newcomers might be working on. And this is a sort that my intermediate ELLs might be working on. After I copy the page, I'll cut the page so that they have about 15 new words per week. My advanced ELLs might have 18 to 20 words. Once my students understand their weekly activities, these Word Study Activities become independent activities during the week while in Reader's Workshop. Students are responsible for completing the weekly work and learning their words. I set them up on Monday with their new words, then quiz them on Friday. It's up to them to do the work Tuesday through Thursday. Vocabulary Mini Office This is a MUST have for my newcomers! When they arrive, this is the first resource I give them. It's basic vocabulary that students use everyday. The Vocabulary Mini Office is kept at their desk to use during independent work time. Whether during Writer's Workshop, Reading or Vocabulary practice, it provides them with access to everyday vocabulary. My newcomers love this resource and they use it often. For my older newcomers I put the pages inside their reading folder. When they practice their writing, they can easily find the vocabulary they need. Daily Language Review I often use this resource as a warm-up activity. With my beginner and intermediate students, this is a group activity we do together. I want them to get used to the format of the questions so I do a lot of guided practice and modeling with this resource. My advanced kiddos do this as a quick independent warm up and then we go over it together. It takes about 5 minutes. Depending on the language level of my groups, I pull pages from either the first, second or third grade book. It also provides a great jumping off point. I can see in which areas of grammar my students need direct instruction, such as contractions, sentence structure, mechanics, etc. It's just a quick warm-up. My students like it and I get good information about them from it. As a teacher of English Language Learners, these are some of my must have resources. When I plan my lessons, these are many of the first resources I grab. They make my instruction consistent, effective and meaningful. Yes, there are other resources that I would not want to do without, and perhaps that would make for a follow up post, but if I were to pick my top resources, these would be them! I'd love to know what some of your favorite resources are! (Affiliate Links Below)

ONE OF THE CHALLENGES I OFTEN HEAR FROM TEACHERS STRIVING FOR 90% IN THE TARGET LANGUAGE, as per ACTFL'S recommendation, is how to make vocabulary more comprehensible for students, especially NOVICE learners. Over the last few years, I've been creating a series of posts and tips in visual form to spark ideas and hopefully help in this process. I've collected many on my Pinterest board here and you can click on my blog category 'Teaching 90% in the Target Language" to see all of my posts. I thought it might also be helpful to create a bulleted list of the prime strategies as a quick reference guide, which you can see below! Underneath, I've expanded on some of them to give a fuller explanation. I've also listed a series of sites and apps I use to help me make visuals at the bottom- hope they are of help, and if you know of others, please share! *VISUALS: As an illustrator myself, I am definitely convinced that visuals, whether they be pictures, photos, or physical props, are a strong support in helping get meaning across. I do think some visuals are better than others- as a very simple example: if the word is 'five' but the visual only shows ONE thing, that can be confusing to a language learner. In my opinion, a visual should clearly ILLUSTRATE (in other words, represent visually the word or concept) the meaning. I wrote a post which expands on this-you can read it here :) *GESTURES: We use a lot of familiar gestures in our day to day communication; utilizing those help get the meaning across without translating. Pointing, cupping your ear, using two fingers to point to your eyes, clapping, thumbs up, ok sign, rubbing your belly, tapping the side of your forehead, holding up your hand for 'stop', putting a finger to your lips, making a heart with your two hands, etc are all familiar gestures we use in the US. Signs from Sign language can also be a great option, especially for us elementary teachers who work in schools where the homeroom teachers use them too. One of my all time favorites is this below: *DEMONSTRATE: I am a huge fan of demonstrating activities! By walking through an activity, even in an abbreviated fashion, provides our students with the overview of what is expected and how the activity is going to go. Some instances where I frequently use demonstrating: using our classroom materials, how to move about the classroom, clean up routine, games, partner activities, crafts, etc. A new strategy I am employing is creating videos of these demonstrations to show students when introducing games and other activities-this has been a great success! *ACT IT OUT: Many words and situations lend themselves to being acted out- be creative! A prime example that almost stumped me last year: my classroom rug was being cleaned, so was out in the hallway. Using a piece of soap, I mimed cleaning it so my students could understand why it was out there and not in my room :) *SIMPLIFY: Pare down what you want to say to the essential message. I think we, as teachers, unintentionally often add in more language than is really needed in the situation, making it more complicated for our students to comprehend. A perfect example I've shared many times before: *COGNATES: Cognates are interesting because they are often more obvious to adults (the teacher) than to our students. And for pre-literate & early literacy students, even more so. I do not rely on utilizing cognates as a verbal strategy-my students rarely 'hear' the similarity. Rather, I write the cognate on the board, and cover a portion of the word to "reveal" the English. *OPPOSITES: Our brains naturally categorize concepts such as opposites...leverage this process for all kinds of vocabulary! *BREAK IT UP: This is another particular favorite of mine, in part because it also supports our students who have challenges with processing, recall, and following multistep instructions or activities. Instead of delivering a series of instructions and/or information in one go, break them up into steps and deliver each step one at a time, pausing after each (and/or making that chunk comprehensible) before moving on to the next. I wrote a post on how to break up instructions this way here :) *LEVERAGE KNOWN SCHEMA: Even little children are already familiar with a host of mental schema related to all kinds of things-when we leverage these, we allow the context to do a lot of the work for us. For example, most biographies contain predictable information: name, date of birth, location of birth and/or where he/she lived, their profession, etc. If you present this information in connection with a famous person, your students will be much quicker to intuit what you are talking about because they have a prior schema in their heads for this type of scenario. Non fiction is a bonanza for this! This also applies to all kinds of other things- known gestures, daily routines & activities, customs, images, etc. If I point to your shoelaces which are untied, and say in the target language 'tie your shoes', it is HIGHLY likely my kiddo will know what I am talking about because it's such a familiar context- there is no need for me to use English in this situation. If I show a heart next to a strawberry and put a big smile on my face, my kids automatically know I love strawberries! *SPEECH & THINKING BUBBLES: I LOVE speech & thinking bubbles! One of the most effective ways I present the first person singular is through these visual supports. Like above, these are known schema-kids automatically know what they are for, so I don't have to explain this. I can then have the bubbles over their head, my head, a character's head, a classmate's head.... by moving the bubbles I can then reference what someone else is saying etc- and we all know that what's in the bubble is in first person. There are many other strategies that work as well; I tried to take some of my most potent ones to share in this post. If you have others, please share in the comments! SITES to help you create visuals for your classroom: *Piktochart *Canva *Powtoon *Picmonkey

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I first heard of this activity during my PGCE (although unfortunately can’t remember the name of the lady!) and it’s been one of my favourites ever since... This is a great way of practising both speaking and listening skills and every time I’ve used it the students have loved it! You create a text made up of several sentences, some of which have three possible endings. You then decide which is the correct ending and the students have to guess which one by reading the text out loud. Example used with KS4 Spanish on holidays: The students take it in turns to read out the text and if they guess the answer correctly, they can continue to the next one. If they guess it incorrectly, another person has to have a go but from the beginning. So it means that they all have to listen to each other carefully so that they don’t say the same incorrect answer twice. And there’s so much repetition that it helps the pronunciation too. When I’ve finished we normally go through the text and discuss the meaning and say what’s good about it (adjectives etc.) and how it could be improved (other tenses etc.). You could also get students to pick their own answers and play in pairs. D.

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WITH THE ADVENT OF REMOTE TEACHING, TRYING OUT NEW TEACHING TECHNIQUES has been the norm. Couple that with a greater need to differentiate instruction in my upper elementary Spanish classes, I find myself experimenting with CHOICE BOARDS this year. I HAVE TO CONFESS, THIS HAS NOT BEEN WITHOUT ITS PROBLEMS; however, like centers with my lower elementary students, the positives are, so far, outweighing the negatives. Here is a run down of how I am setting them up, along with pitfalls I have been problem solving as I go: -DIFFERENTIATION: one of the key elements (and why I started trying them out in the first place) of the boards I have been creating has been activities at a variety of PROFICIENCY LEVELS. I have done this because I have finally realized one of the hurdles to whole group instruction with my upper elementary classes-a wide gap in proficiency-from students brand new to the district (and to Spanish), students who’ve been with me all along but who, for a myriad of reasons, have made slow progress, all the way to my heritage learners. This gap is far wider than at the primary levels, and creates its own challenges. Making sure to have activities at different proficiency levels means ALL my students can be successful. -VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE: though Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences has received much criticism, I still use his outline as a guide when creating a set of activities-being sure to include a range of speaking, music, listening, crafting, math or geography, drawing, writing, etc; this in turn hits the modes of communication we are used to incorporating, but in more contexts. See below for a listing of activities that I have generated. -VIDEOS TO DELIVER INSTRUCTIONS: one of the things I have been most happy about how I’ve set up the boards is in creating videos for each activity with the instructions & expectations right in the video. So, for ex, if I have 12 activities on a board, I create 12 accompanying videos which I then house in one file in our online platform (in our case, Seesaw, but you could also do this in Google Classroom or in a Wakelet, etc). This frees me up to circulate around the room rather than give direct instruction on each activity, and provides independence for my students. (Of course, I have to keep reminding my students to watch the videos rather than ask me what to do, but that’s another matter altogether lol) This means that I create a Seesaw Drawing file, put the choice board visual on the first page with a video introduction, then make a page for each activity, with a video and any other information that is needed (for ex, there might be a link to go to a particular website or actual Seesaw activity). In this example, I would therefore have the intro page and 12 additional pages. -ACCOUNTABILITY: How to ensure kids have done an activity? If it’s a Seesaw activity that they have to do, that’s easy, they just submit. But with other types of activities, that’s not possible-so, I create a “record my work” Activity file in Seesaw for kids to upload photos of completed activities, adding pages as necessary. At first, I had kids just add pages to the intro file, but found out you can only have a total of 20 pages in a Seesaw activity, so had to nix that. And, if you have them upload photos randomly to their journal, you need to track them to ensure all are done-if you have a ‘one stop’ location to house all the photos it is easier to find and review them all at once. For those who use Google Classroom and Slides, a similar file can be created! -THE NAME ‘CHOICE BOARD’: so, here’s a fail. Apparently, some kids seem to think that if you name something a ‘choice board’, that means they can choose NOT to do any of the activities. Ugh. Thanks to a comment by Jen Kennedy, Señora Speedy, who noted she changed hers from ‘choice board’, I took this suggestion and now call mine ‘Activity Boards’. While there is still choice, the subtle change in title makes a big difference. I will add, I have also run into the random kid who doesn’t like any, or most, of the activities on the board. This, while extremely hard for me to stomach, especially after putting in hours of time in creating a board & it’s accompanying activities, has prompted me to create ONE additional activity based on a students particular interests with the agreement that they still have to do the remaining requirements of the board. This compromise feels good to me-after all, while the board has choice inherent within it (on many levels), I also do not want to employ a ‘compliance’ dynamic in my classes. -HAVE TO ACTIVITIES: Because my choice boards have, up to this point, been geared for multiple proficiency levels, I have not tried ‘have to’ activities within the board, other than introduction activities that prime students for the rest of the board. ACTIVITIES BASED ON PROFICIENCY LEVEL (geared for upper elementary): NOVICE LOW: -word work such as matching word to picture -color by number such as those in my 15 Activity Pages for Upper Elementary -word searches -Memory games -listen to a series of songs & indicate how you feel about them on a recording sheet by checking your preference -interactive notebook pages -label photos or images -list items -nature journaling with labeled items on drawing -Venn diagrams with answers recorded as drawings or one word answers -Measuring activities related to a cultural topic such as animals in Canaima National Park, Venezuela -Scavenger hunt such as my free one with colors NOVICE MID: -word searches where the words are presented as pictures in the word bank instead of written words -record your preferences in a platform based on a series of questions (such as Do you like __?) -crossword puzzles -nature journaling with phrases & simple descriptions -interactive notebook pages -Venn diagrams -story graphic organizers in which student writes/draws a part of a story in each section in order to ‘re-tell’ it -categorize items based on reading the words -Seek & find-give a listing (either written or recorded) of items to find & circle in an image (you can do the same with a video-have them screen shot the items they are looking for) -follow along as instructions are given to create a craft such as the Cattleya orchid craft in my Pepita va a Colombia Theme Pack or the Copihue flower in my Pepita va a Chile Theme Pack -Read and Draw -Listen and Draw -Create a word cloud NOVICE HIGH: -Venn diagrams based on comprehending the basic gist of two short videos, songs, readings, etc (for ex, use simple infographics to complete a Venn about two animals) -Info pages-create a non fiction info page or trading card (you could provide infographics, videos, screen shots, tweets, Instagram posts, etc as resources) My non fiction magazine Mira el Mundo has lots of these! -Listen to a simply story and re-tell it using a graphic organizer such as a story re-tell organizer -Write a concrete or diamante poem -Listen to a familiar song & fill in the blanks on an activity page -Record yourself describing a series of images such as my story cards -Listen & Draw/ Read & Draw with prompts geared for this proficiency level -Doodle pages- draw, then tell about what you’ve drawn HERITAGE LEARNERS: -Write a review (or record a review) about a story or book -Word work to develop expanded vocabulary (such as synonyms, antonyms, more specific vocabulary around a topic, etc) -Write a poem -Use an authentic resource to learn something new of students choice (or your choice) -Read two stories, legends, or folktales and create a Venn diagram comparing the two -Create an advocacy poster -Listen to a song (for this age group) and create an album cover based on what the song is about -Watch a cooking video and create a simple recipe card to go with it -Read a series of memes, then make your own I am sure you have thought of a ton more, this is just a sampling of activities that have worked so far for me, many of which are included in a variety of my theme packs & other resources. I would love to hear your experiences with choice boards-please feel free to comment below! NAME ACTIVITY BOARD I decided to create a Our names are important Activity Board that would serve for older students (but could certainly be done with younger ones as well), with the idea of using it as an extension to activities done in the past in order to build on them and return in spiral fashion to the idea of names as part of our identity. These are all ‘have to do’ activities (except for the choice in which read aloud to listen to). Here is what I include: *Create your own name tag (grab ours here!), writing/drawing your name in such as way as to not just spell your name but also tell everyone else something about you-could be your favorite color, could be each letter drawn as something you like, etc. I drew my name inspired by an activity Melisa Hayes shared on Twitter last year, with students using objects that tell a story about themselves to spell out their names. You can see it by clicking here. Yes, foxes (and wolves) are my favorite animal(s) :) *Listen to a picture book read aloud about the importance of names. I use René has two last names/ René tiene dos apellidos by René Colato Laínez and Teach Us Your Name by Huda Essa . Students choose one of these two to listen to; I find that books read by the author themselves are particularly powerful, especially connected to social justice and identity themes, as they often share personal stories related to the book they have written, above and beyond the book itself. After searching literally for hours, these were the two I settled on, partly because they were the very few read aloud by the author, but as importantly serve as meaningful representation. Below you will find a list of additional titles that are also great to read, but do not have read alouds by the author available. (REMINDER: there are tons of read aloud videos on Youtube, but very, very few are sanctioned by the author and/or publisher. I only share sanctioned read alouds w my students) *My name, my identity Challenge: I found this awesome video made by a little girl, Shreestha, who shares the story of her name. I include a link to this video along with the question/prompt: What my name means to me. The first time I did this slide, the prompts were What is story of my name, What is the history and origin of my name, and What my name means to me. Unfortunately, I discovered many of my students know little about how they got their name, and although I tried to encourage them to go home and ask, not all did or are not in a position to have a family member be able to tell them more about their name. ALSO, I’ve come to learn that for transgender and/or non binary folx, asking to share the story of their name can be emotionally harmful. So, I eliminated two and kept the third. Another great video that can be included is My Name My Identity. And this one from Nick Jr which The Woke Spanish Teacher shared on Twitter-love it so much! (I included her Instagram link, be sure to follow her-she is an incredible inspiration & teacher!) *Jamboard Sticky Note Board: The last component of the board features a slide on Jamboard with the prompt Why are our names important? I like having a place where kids can see each other’s answers and *hopefully* reflect on them on their own as well as having a chance for us to talk about this in the larger group. NOTE: I do this activity board in a mix of English & Spanish (and any other language a kiddo wants to include), rather than as a 90 or 100% in the TL activity. The power of the videos/stories is something I want my students to experience to the fullest extent possible, so their inclusion is purposeful. All of the places where students are writing/recording their answers can be in any/all/some/one of the languages they know. Don't miss my FREE Names Scavenger Hunt activity here! And here's a great infographic about why it's so important to pronounce names correctly! Click here Additional picture books about names: *Your Name is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow & Colombian illustrator Luisa Uribe (love, love, love this one-I read it my primary students) For an activity page I created connected to this book, click here :) And the FRENCH version is here *Alma and how she got her name written/ illustrated by Juana Martinez Neal *The Name Jar written/illustrated by Yangsook Choi *Always Anjali written by Sheetal Sheth and illustrated by Jessica Blank *My name is Yoon written by Helen Recorvits and illustrated by Gabi Swaitkowska *My name is Maria Isabel by Alma Flor Ada (a chapter book) *Three Names of Me by Mary Cummings *My name is Jorge on both sides of the river by Jane Medina, illustrated by Fabricio Vanden Broeck *My name is Sangoel by Karen Lynn Williams & Khadra Mohammed, illustrated by Catherine Stock *My Name by Supriya Keller & illustrated by Sandy’s Prabhat Click here to download for free

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