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.
There’s no point fighting the past tense. You’re going to have to sneak at least a COUPLE of words (read: functional chunks) in even in Spanish I. HINT: “Fue” will cover a LOT of your past tense needs. Some kids can survive Spanish 2 with pretty much only that one Read more…
My thinking was that video portfolios would be nice polished products to wrap up students two years of Spanish exploration. I was thinking that they would be a nice simple way to combine everything into an orderly presentation where they could easily and elegantly show their progression. I gave them Read more…
Blogging is just the beginning. It gives students a starting point, a place to hash out what they can–and want to–say about their goals and progress. Their compañeros can check in on them too. But you may have noticed in your own learning experience: real collaboration doesn’t happen in the comment Read more…
Things were going pretty smoothly with my Can-Do based portfolios and Flubaroo badges. But not smoothly enough. Not for me. This has been a common theme for me this year, despite admonitions from some of the people I admire most not to “sacrifice the good on the altar of the Read more…
So throwing a bunch of ideas into Common Curriculum and then sorting them out as I went, it worked super well today! I managed to connect grammar, music, and project goals as if I weren’t kind of mentally checked out before Spring Break Part 2 already. I could have been a little Read more…
That’s right, I’m conducting final exams in stations (although really only one station constitutes part of the final exam grade). The rest are more “daily” sorts of assignments, but they are designed… A) to promote reflection and anticipation and B) to keep 80% of the class busy while 20% of Read more…
Ignite talks are short and fast. They’re like Pecha Kucha, with 20 carefully timed images, but they’re even shorter. I mean, yeah, you can rehearse and rehearse (and rehearse) an ignite talk to time it perfectly (and that’s actually a good option for kiddos just breaking out of Novice Land), Read more…
I came to ACTFL 2016 with a conference path set for Everything Interpersonal, having had various students freeze up, blank out, and even two start crying during the interpersonal part of the most recent IPA–in spite of low-stress strategies that worked the last two IPAs–just hours before I boarded the plane to Boston. Perhaps Read more…
Whether you’re going to a Mexican restaurant (we are) or participating in a foreign language competition (that too) or taking your kids on a mile-long walk with water jugs (#squadgoals), students can always engage in a little interpersonal exchange, as well as a little presentational reflection. Last year I tried Read more…