REFRESH! Portfolios over the Summer

Señora! How will you get your kids to use Spanish this summer?

I mean, sure, in December, they all seemed to think it was reasonable to get 4 portfolio sections completed in the calendar YEAR they were going to have between Spanish I ending and Spanish II beginning. (There are advantages and disadvantages to the way my school is set up.) But since December, only 3 people have bothered to turn even 1 section in!

So I assembled all of their portfolio and IPA scores for Spanish I, eyeballed them a bit, thought back on my experiences with them and overall impressions of 

A) their ability levels and 

B) their anxiety levels. 

And I assigned them a level to “maintain” over the year-long hiatus, complete with cute custom badge printout for their notebooks.

So they agreed to submit a new set of evidence for each of the four skills at their prescribed level. They also agreed it probably was a good idea to spread out the refreshing and maybe avoid an end-of-semester crunch this fall by at least offering a little extra credit carrot to get as many sections as possible done by summer’s end.

I set up the spreadsheet I’ll be using to track their progress in each skill next semester, and I added a column to enter their semester-end designated level.

I added another column next to the “I” levels and labeled it “Re” for “Refresh” so that I can record their results.

For spring break I had posted the Reading assignment, complete with

• objectives for each level (Novice Mid through Intermediate Low)
• suggested tasks for each level
• linked resources to complete the suggested tasks

Time for some

I’m about to archive last year’s classes and hit the old “Reuse Post” on Google Classroom to transfer Reading and Writing to the “Class of 2019” class that the whole school uses for that cohort’s announcements. Oh, and “Schedule Assignment,” so they can go out while I’m on the plane to Mexico!

Speaking of scheduling things to go out while I’m in Mexico, I also just discovered the Boomerang Chrome Extension that allowed  me to send reminder emails from the plane as well! You see, unless students took their notebooks home with their cute badge printout stickers (or, Heaven forfend, they wrote it down themselves and kept track of it), they’re probably not sure which level they should be submitting for what anymore.

 So I…

1. pulled up my spreadsheet master list of accomplishments and accomplishments-to-come
2. opened up the Class of 2019 students list in Classroom
3. checked off all of the kiddos who had NM on the spreadsheet
4. clicked “Actions” and “Email”
5. jotted a little email reminder with NOVICE MID READING in big huge red letters and
6. programmed it in Boomerang for plane time too! 

And voila! Private reminders that don’t take forever!

Then of course I went back, did the same thing with NH and IL! And then again with all of the Writing accomplishments NM-IL. And, you know, eventually will do the same with Speaking and Listening.

And SPEAKING of LISTENING…I have a few more fortuitous posts for my young ones in need of refreshment coming up!

After the plane lands, I’ll not only have some more authentic text signage for their Reading portfolios on my Instagram @SraSpanglish, #sxtnletrero (PS my wish for Instagram to Pinterest recipes from last year was granted!!), But I’m ALSO going to take my first dive into Periscope and send out some TL videos about my experiences whenever I get a chance! (#envivo #prayforwifi) 

Who knows? Maybe I’ll even Snapchat!

So basically, my plan–aside from fair warning and discussing plans with kiddos ahead of time–is to 

1. offer a familiar assignment–for a quiz grade or four,
2. keep the assignment updates flowing via Classroom and email, and
3. provide new and intriguing–and accessible–resources to tempt them to interact

And, you know, maybe some tagging on Instagram.