As teachers, we set the stage for language acquisition by providing comprehensible input. Techniques that expose learners to comprehensible input should be central to all language classrooms because they work. That is how students acquire language. Odds are that you are already providing comprehensible input. Do you present vocabulary
The first day Spanish class lesson just got easier. Activities and tips for Spanish teachers to learn how to use Comprehensible Input from Day 1!
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Check out 7 comprehensible input activities you can use in your world language classroom to deliver CI to your students!
1st week of Spanish Class using comprehensible input.
I like to include listening activities in my Spanish classes as much as I can. It can be seriously challenging to find good listening activities for lower-level students, though. Textbooks only have so many (good) listening comprehension activities, and it can be tricky to find recordings of Spanish speakers who speak SLOWLY and CLEARLY. Here are five great websites that I've found and used in my Spanish 1 and 2 classes: 1. Quia There are listening activities for Level 1 HERE and for Level 2 HERE. Click "Start now>>" and you will see 10 multiple-choice listening activities. Each time you reload the page, it will give you new activities. (Good news if you want more options, bad news if you want to bookmark the page and go back in the future for particular recordings.) There are probably 30 listening activities that Quia randomly picks and loads on the webpage. Quia provides multiple-choice questions for each listening activity, so you can use those or make your own! I like to go through and listen to all the activities and record the ones I want to use in class. I used Audacity to record them, which is a free program you can download on your Mac or PC. It's super easy to use, and then you can save the recordings to your computer and use them year after year. 2. 123TeachMe There are listening activities for Novice Low HERE. There are 39 "groups", and each has two audio recordings. I just go through and listen to a bunch of them and record the ones I want to use in class. These recordings show up in the same order every time you load the page, so you can pull up the website in class and play the recording(s) you want. The website includes a question for each recording, so you can use that one or create your own! 3. University of Texas A reader sent me this link, so many thanks to Amanda B! The University of Texas at Austin has Spanish proficiency exercises, organized by Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, and Superior. You can choose various topics for each level, and then there are several speakers from different Spanish-speaking countries, so your students can hear a variety of accents. You could easily pull this website up in class and play the recording you want, or record in advance whatever you want students to listen to. 4. Easy-Spanish.org A reader sent me the next 2 links, so many thanks to Robin P! This website has videos that will redirect you to youtube (so you could also just search "Super Easy Spanish" on youtube). There are 3 categories of free videos - Street Interviews, Grammar & Vocab Videos, and Videos for Absolute Beginners, and there are close to 300 videos total. I suggest you click the links (or just search "easy spanish" on youtube) and check out all the video options. Topics range from how to tell time in Spanish, to what people in Barcelona are reading, to imperfect subjunctive verbs. I have personally only worked in schools that block youtube, so if you also work in a school like that, then this won't be a good option for you unfortunately. 5. SpanishListening.org Thanks again to Robin P for letting me know about this website! This website has over 400 videos with native speakers from every Spanish-speaking country, so you can really let students hear a variety of different accents. The videos tell you if they are designed for Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced, so you can make sure you aren't previewing videos that your Spanish 1 or 2 students don't have any hope of understanding. Unfortunately, you do have to click on the videos to see what the person is talking about, so you might have to click around for a while before you find something you can use this week and not some time next year. I hope these ideas have helped you include more listening activities with native speakers in your lower-level classes! Where else do you get good listening activities? I'd love to hear other suggestions!
August 14, 2018 By Jade Collins For this guest post, we are pleased to have...
1st week of Spanish Class using comprehensible input.
Check out these best Spanish videos that are the perfect way to get your students excited to learn Spanish this year!
Are you looking for ways to use comprehensible input methods in your world language classroom? Check out this post on how to transition to CI methods!
Inside: How to find online Spanish books for free. We all know that reading is one of the top ways to improve your language skills. Readers have better reading ability, know more vocabulary, write better, spell better, and have better control of complex grammatical constructions. - Stephen D. Krashen Related: The Ultimate Collection of Spanish Children's
Are you curious about running dictation? Here's what it is, how to set it up and prepare your classes, and some tips for making sure everything runs smoothly! Running dictation easily became one of my students' favorite activities - don't miss out!
This is one of my favorite CI games. It is so easy to load them up with tons of language they’re reading and hearing, and they don’t even know it because they’re focused on winnin…
High-Frequency Verb Unit to Start Spanish 1 focusing on the Super 7 verbs. Use this unit in person or digitally.
Are you working on your clothing unit? Check out these clothing activities for Spanish class!
Looking for resources for language teachers? Find fun lessons, ideas, and activities for teaching preschool and elementary Spanish.
Get ready for a Comprehensible Input GOLD MINE! It all started a few years ago when I dressed up like Waldo for Halloween. Most kids appreciated it but some of my little darlings had no idea who Wa…
Curriculum planning for a year of comprehensible input Spanish 1, Spanish 2, Spanish 3 & Spanish 4, as well as weekly lesson plans. Create a CI curriculum. Teaching spanish with comprehensible input
Don't drill and kill the preterite. Make the preterite fun and soon your students will be talking fluidly about what they did and what happened in the past. Here are some ideas and activities that will make studying the preterite tons of fun for students.
One of my least favorite tasks as a teacher is to write substitute plans. I can take the easy way out and have the students watch a movie. Movies have a variety of value: there are movies in the target language that students don't understand, movies in the target language with English subtitles, and movies that are in English but are culturally rich. What other options are available? What will keep the CI flowing even when the substitute doesn't speak the language you teach? Why not have a Spanish teacher in another part of the United States be your sub? Wait...What? Thanks to teachers that are recording themselves telling stories in the target language and making a concerted effort to keep the information comprehensible, language teachers now have another option for substitute plans. Use the videos of other language teachers telling stories that are on YouTube and Vimeo videos, and voila, that teacher can be your substitute for the day! As more teachers are sharing their recordings online, I have been replacing old substitute plans with the new ones. Below are a few examples of how to write substitute lesson plans that will keep the CI flowing during your absence. The examples are of Spanish, but you can use the ideas for any language as long as you can find videos in your language. 1. Mike Peto! @mike_peto on Twitter Have you seen Mike Peto's videos on Vimeo? If not, click HERE for his Vimeo account page for a list of his videos. In the videos he tells fables or stories that he wrote using high frequency words. He uses any tense that is needed to tell the story, but no worries - he is a genius at making it comprehensible and he uses his /or actions in the story. At times, he writes the Spanish word and its English translation on the board. Some of his videos he recorded during the actual lesson with students, so you can observe his comprehension checks with the students. There are other videos that Mike made without any students in class because he made them specifically for an absence this month. The story I chose for my substitute plans on Monday (I will be attending my daughter's graduation to see her get her doctorate in physical therapy - yeah! - proud mom here) is "El cuervo tonto". First, my sub will hand out a paper with questions (see page 1 of 2 below) so students can read the questions to give them a heads up on the specifics they need to listen for. Then my sub will play the video and pause it when Mike instructs the students to sketch each part of the video. Students will answer the short questions during the story and complete the English translations as Mike explains them. I need to add that I don't always have questions for the students to answer. Two weeks ago I was out and my students watched Mike's video "la señora" and their only task was to listen to the story because we were going to discuss it the following day. When I returned the next day, I drew the same sketches as Mike did and paused throughout to ask students questions about the characters and what happened. So...questions are not necessary, but for some students it helps to keep them focused on the story. Click HERE if you would like to download the pdf of the questions for the "El cuervo tonto" story - 2 pages of questions/area to sketch and the answer sheets. 2. Pablo Román, @langdreamer on Twitter Pablo is cranking out videos about Spanish festivals and holidays, legends, and most recently, interviews with other Spanish speakers at the rate of almost one a day. Click HERE for his YouTube channel and check out his blog, Dreaming Languages. In the videos, Pablo is in the bottom corner and the rest of the screen he uses to sketch while he speaks to the listener. At times he inserts video clips to show a few seconds of an event that he is describing. Below is a sample of how to add reading after viewing a video. This is based on his video "St. Jordi". I used this video on a day when I was NOT absent, but with the paper attached below, you could leave it as a sub plan. 1. Watch the video. I paused the video at the end where you can see all of the sketches, and the students and I discussed and retold the story. If this is your sub plan, skip the retell until the day you return. 2. Distribute the paper and students will match the sentences to the screenshots of the sketches. 3. Distribute the script below for the students to read. The documents for this lesson are HERE. (To be clear, these lessons were NOT planned in collaboration with anyone, but rather I saw the videos online and then created lessons from the online videos that I can use in class.) 3. Cameron Taylor @Profe_Taylor Cameron is a Spanish teacher in Japan. His YouTube channel is HERE and his most recent (I think) video is "Habla demasiado". His technique is very similar to Mike Peto's, in that he tells a story and makes it comprehensible due to the vocabulary he chooses and the sketches. Please note that Cameron's purpose of making the videos was to share with others HOW he does "storytelling" with his students. It is was not shared with the intent to have other teachers use it for sub plans, but I quickly saw the possibilities in providing CI for a substitute plan with this, and other of his, videos. I do not have a specific document created for the story "Habla demasiado", but my students will read the story script after watching the story. Two variation on the story scripts (the written text) a. Omit a few details of the story in the script on a document you create and replace it with lines. Then together as a class, you can fill in the missing information and write it on the lines on the document. b. Ten Errors (or however many you choose). When you write the script, make 10 minor changes to the details. After the students have watched the video and after you have discussed it or acted it out, distribute the document with the 10 errors. The students' task is to find the erroneous information and replace it with the correct information. (i.e. - if the story said he had two dogs, change it to 3 dogs or to 2 cats.) 4. BookBox BookBox is a website with children's stories in the target language with subtitles. It has many books for Spanish, as well as a few stories for other languages such as French, Italian, Urdu, and more. This website also provides PDFs for you to download. I made a very basic story listening document with questions for my students to complete while listening and watching the story online. (The screenshot does not show the entire document. If you would like the document, click HERE.) OPTION: Instead of having students answer questions, the students could listen to the story one time. As they listen/watch it the second time, have them sketch the story that you can use as a retell using a document camera later in the class or on another day. These generous teachers, and the Bookbox website, are my new go-to lesson plans for substitute teachers. Feel free to download any of the documents that may be useful to you. They are available at no cost. HOWEVER, what I would like to ask in return, is if you like these options and create something to be used with a video similar to the story videos above, please share it with me. :-)
Do you want to help students increase their spanish proficiency? Try reading more Spanish stories to increase comprehension and engagement!
That’s right…we went back to school yesterday! It feels like I never left, but we’ve been gone since the end of May. My goal for the first day is to leave students feeling smart and successful and with a fun, unique experience! We have 50 minute periods at my middle school. Preparation and entering the…
Do you ever just need a day? You look at your lesson plans and think, “I…just…can’t”? A few days ago, I had a day. I got some news that knocked me out emotionally, and since I was 39 1/2 weeks pregnant (now 40 weeks pregnant…come on girl!….)…I just needed a day. I’m not teaching, but I had my three…
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Teaching novel strategies for Spanish class. Tips and tricks to teach comprehensible Spanish books. Ways to teach Spanish comprehensible input readers and my favorite novels for Spanish 1-4.
Practice number recognition and Spanish vocabulary with this printable Spanish I Have Who Has Game! So fun for early math and literacy practice!
Ca Ce Ci Co Cu Sort This resource is part of a collection of an all Spanish consonants syllable sorts: La sílaba inicial de A-Z Actividad de clasificación The picture cards fit nicely in a standard sized pocket card. The dimensions of the cards are: 4 inches by 3.5 inches. Two versions: color and black and white 1 poster with all vocabulary words to be used as a poster/teacher reference (in color and black and white) 1 cut and paste worksheet Graphic organizers with each syllable are also included. They can be used for a whole/small group brainstorm and/or student practice . The following 30 words are included: calabaza, café, cama, caracol, casa, caballo cereza, cebra, cereal, cena, cebolla, cerdo ciervo, cinco, circo, círculo, ciudad, ciruela corona, cocodrilo, conejo, corazón, codo, colmena cuchara, cuervo, curita, cubeta, cubo, culebra
I based this active Spanish color game on an activity kids do in P.E class. It works well for the early grades and you can use it with letters, numbers or other vocabulary. I teach a lot of younger students, so I use active Spanish games in every class.
Are you wondering how to use CI with a textbook? Check out these tips for delivering comprehensible input in your Spanish classes!
So many activities for Spanish class novels. Introduce vocabulary, mix up comprehension questions, order of events, true/false, and retell.
Finding new ways to include reading in my classroom has been the biggest part of my lesson plans this year. Whether it’s getting them to interact with the reading in some way via True and False Statements or the Most Important Sentence activity, or just getting them to re-read the story, having a variety of […]
The ACTFL Proficiency Levels and Performance Descriptors provide a very useful tool for seeing exactly what learners are able to communicate and produce at the various proficiency levels. I put to…
Practice reading with a PDF worksheet including a group of passages about countries and nationalities in Spanish plus key questions.
Activities to teach daily habits and routines with reflexive verbs in Spanish. Make this grammar concept comprehensible with reading and more!
Cognates in Spanish provide an easy win for your novices! Check out a unit of Spanish 1 lesson plans to explore cognates in Spanish!
Students complete an interpretive reading activity about directions in a city with integrated technology aspect via Google Maps and QR Codes.
Confession: I probably spend too much time on Instagram. It’s definitely a time suck, but it’s also a great resource for new ideas! I got this idea from @mademoisellefallowfield and her post about a review game based on the fun What do you Meme? party game. She was kind enough to share her meme images to help […]
Movement in Spanish class is crucial for student engagement. Get your Spanish students up and out of their seats and moving around.
