Cultural analysis was officially part of my portfolio scores last semester, primarily for mathematical purposes (it gave me a fifth category for quicker calculation), but it also challenged me to select texts where students can identify specific cultural products, practices, and perspectives. Our plan was to bring home some more Read more…
Two of my favorite Seesaw features are drawing and labels. Combine them with comments and student selfies, and you can have a quick and easy casting call! The casting call can be used to demonstrate a variety of communicative skills: interpretating character descriptions summarizing interpreted facts presenting biographical information I Read more…
So my master plan to improve listening through music and the coros bellringer pretty much fizzled. Music is still THE number one way to hook students right off, but it kind of loses its magic if I do it every day of every week, ALL. SEMESTER. LONG. As I’ve been going through this Read more…
In which I get some Gamification tips from Sra. Storch [View the story “#FLANC50 Sessions – Round 1” on Storify] In which I get some Interactive Notebooks tips from Mme. Chvatal [View the story “#FLANC50 Sessions: Round 2” on Storify] In which I get some insight on Interculturality form Terry Read more…
Just flew back from Mexico, and boy are my arms tired! Must be from holding up my phone for all of those pictures and videos I took. Before I went to Peru on a Sister Cities exchange trip last year, I started a new Instagram account to document as much as Read more…
Every language teacher should attend an unconference. Better yet, every language teacher should attend an unconference with other language teachers. First of all, just being around people who are committed to growth–their students’ and their own–is just the booster most of us need about this time of year. And those Read more…
I feel a little bad about this IPA. My kiddos just spent DAYS breaking down a report in Spanish from the Nielsen Company (and frankly they’re still not done). But everything they need? It’s pretty much right here, in this infograph and its accompanying article, “Hispanos de EE.UU. prefieren contenidos 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…
Remember those playground interviews I conducted while I was in Perú this summer? I decided the second IPA of the year–the first with listening–was the perfect time to debut them. Now I can’t share the videos themselves, but there are a lot of ways that anyone could collect a similar Read more…
This time I am certain I’ve got a novice-appropriate Integrated Performance Assessment. And I’ve worked in a little cultural comparison. I might be getting the hang of this! I opted to find an authentic text–an infograph–about free-time activities to tie in with their Genius Hour interests and with our work with Read more…