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…
Spanish II can almost taste their trophies! The skit group has been running lines and building props (the campfire looks awesome), and they’ve started blocking. The music group finally came to a decision pretty much everyone feels happy and confident with (we’re going with one song off of Kalimba’s latest Read more…
My first EDPuzzle IPA mashup went pretty smoothly this week. I think it really helped students break down the listening into manageable chunks to make the overall task approachable. I’m also really glad that I chose to add in my little summary audio commentary at various intervals because students were still Read more…
I assessed my students’ proficiency in interpretive reading, interpersonal speaking, and presentational writing earlier in the semester with their first Integrated Performance Assessment. I think we’re all feeling pretty good about their reading about now (although some need a little work on their portfolio evidence still), so I’m switching out Read more…
The daily chorus bellringer is hands down the most popular activity I have ever done. It’s the ideal way to get Spanish language stuck in kids’ heads and build skills. It’s also a little lame. Novices need to learn to follow along with something they read. They need to get a catchy chorus Read more…
My first PBL + TPRS/TCI story went over pretty well, so I’m trying it again. We are working on coming up with inventions that could make daily activities better and then marketing them–in two languages–for their Public Speaking class. So I decided the story would be about THE best invention Read more…
I want to combine the principles of PBL and TPRS, so I have written a story about trash in preparation for a unit on saving the Earth. Students will be working in groups to make a plan to reduce the impact of one material that negatively affects the environment (you Read more…
Collecting evidence for listening, speaking, and person-to-person is about to get a whole lot easier.We did what we could with student devices and my little (well, huge) Android phone to collect evidence for portfolios this year. Next year, though, I was selected to experiment with a set of iPads in Read more…
Last year we made piñatas for Día del Niño. This year, we made maracas to accompany our musical performance at the local language festival in April. Since each student chose a specialty, and the music group finished pretty early, I set them to finding videos to create the musical instruments Read more…
The honorable mention for Spanish II/III’s skit was nice, the first-place trophy for individual poetry recitation (the first trophy ever in our school trophy case) was, well, AWESOME. But what makes me really proud is how absolutely brilliantly every single one of my students behaved, watching each other, supporting each Read more…