I start the semester with passion projects. I end the semester with passion projects. It brings a sort of unity to the whole semester and gives kids a sense of relevance, of purpose for the whole studying Spanish thing. Now this does mean a little extra tap dancing on my part, Read more…
The goal is not interpretation. The goal is not writing or speaking or interpersonal communication. The goal is to convince a Spanish-speaking audience that they need this new invention. Each group of 4-5 has already come up with a new product, but to convince the Spanish-speaking audience, they need some Read more…
I needed a school supply story to provide some context for vocabulary we’ll need as we collect school supplies to ship to a rural school in Colombia through Ayudando Ando, and so I thought I’d walk you through my Alphabet Soup steps for writing a unit story as I made one. 1. Read more…
“I honestly believe that if you incorporate Class Craft from the beginning and change the way portfolios work, Spanish will be everyone’s favorite class.” I generally take what the end-of-course surveys with a grain of salt, but even if Spanish won’t be EVERYONE’S favorite class, that’s still a pretty Read more…
SAT Prep doesn’t have to be about the test. Especially with the new format, it comes down to what students need and why. If they need to parse scientific, literary, or historical texts, WHY do they need to do it? What situation in their lives might demand it? What do Read more…
High school sophomores might not be ready to change the world. And novices are really only qualified to talk about themselves. That’s why, as the King of Pop said, I’m starting with me. Well, yo. The point of Project-Based Learning is learning, yes. But more than that, it’s about doing. Read more…
Each of my students gets his or her very own personally tailored final exam this year. Students have spent the last three weeks prior to exams rounding up resources (infographs, articles, videos, and contacts–to say nothing of the Pinterest pins and Diigo list from earlier in the Genius Hour process) and Read more…
From here on out, it’s all portfolios and passion projects. We accomplished our two big PBL projects (and took home a few trophies!). Both whole-class projects were time sensitive, so we couldn’t start with full-throttle Genius Hour, but these were my Genius Hour guinea pig kids last year, so unlike Spanish Read more…
I’ve been assigning students to assign themselves their own weekly homework assignments based on ACTFL Can-Do Statments this year. My goal was for students to get some extra practice with the language, maybe find some enjoyable real-world application, and feel better about their skills, all while creating something they could stick in their Read more…
On the one hand, I want students to enjoy the festival experience and to be able to focus on giving a successful performance. On the other, there are SO many opportunities for meaningful target language interaction when we go to the festival! Why not do some really AUTHENTIC authentic assessment? Read more…