I have been making videos with Adobe Spark with photos I just happened to have. Those have GOT to be getting boring, kitties and puppies or no. I want to entice more students to engage with this extra practice, and how better to do it than with their peers and THEMSELVES?
I knew Duolingo would be the winner in my Google Classroom poll, but a surprisingly close second was the option with a choice of Duolingo or Señor Wooly PLUS an optional daily video/reading. (No one, literally NO ONE picked “optional daily reading” by itself. Go fig.) Ultimately, since we’re officially Read more…
Listening has been the biggest struggle for my students for years. I have tried all sorts of tools and topics to engage their ears, but nothing has made them feel as confident as the highlighting activity based on a student suggestion this semester.
At first, I figured I should pick out some screencaps and have the young ones match captions I translated from the audio to them. Then I got to thinking, “Well, heck, they’ll just read ’em and match ’em.” So THEN I took ANOTHER video and made Spanish captions to go with those screencaps. I was still undecided, so I experimented on my patient and enthusiastic first period guinea pigs with both and ended up with this
I feel pretty good about my DIY AAPPL tasks for reading! It’s not too hard to get text to do what you want on Google Slides, so making tasks that look like the real thing is totally doable! HOWEVER, the listening can be a whole other ball of wax, because as far as Read more…
“What did you do to these kids this year??” Kimberly was an amazing student last year. She’s one of my THREE Spanish 3 kiddos this year (woohoo! record for non-native speakers!), and, based on her AAPPL results last year, she’s going to be one of our first students to get Read more…
This year I shared some of my favorite resources: from music to social media, authentic texts to tech tools. I also shared some strategies that have worked really–I mean REALLY–well for me, as well as some that are still evolving. I’ve also shared posts about what NOT to worry about, Read more…
Infomercials have sparked a new creativity and confidence in my students in Spanish I this semester! ¡Llame ya! is officially part of everyone’s vocabulary after some class notes, some guided listening with an authentic infomercial, and then a little independent breakdown of some more authentic infomercials. So first, I listened to Read more…
In case you were wondering what kinds of resources I have in my store before the Cyber Monday sale on TeachersPayTeachers, I’ve made a list of links to all of the good stuff! Save up to 25% next Monday and Tuesday (or check the bottom for a few free things Read more…
I’ve kind of abandoned IPAs this year. I have always been really pleased with how my open-ended assessments compared to AAPPL rubrics allowed me to focus on what kids can do, but I’ve never really seen any crossover on their performances no matter how integrated the topics were. What’s more is Read more…