Long have I despaired of being able to keep PBL groups moving forward at varying paces. Do I let the hares work on other classwork while the tortoises catch up? Do I demand everyone complete the same tasks at the same time? Do I set up a secret security camera Read more…
I have to hook students from the start, and I have to do it without letting any English intrude if possible. I can phrase my driving questions in simple enough Spanish, with generous servings of cognates and such. I can even find authentic texts for maximum thematic contextual experiences. But Read more…
Real world application: Spanish I coming in handy for my son’s 5thbirthday party I have become the Spanish teacher that lets her class make piñatas. We spend a total of nearly two weeks on them. I should be ashamed, shouldn’t I? But what if I told you that this mini-project Read more…
My basic P.A.C.E. layout (yes, I constructed the rule wrong here) I have developed a very specialized structure for giving grammar notes now: 1. I make a powerpoint slide titled “Presentación” with a collection of sentences that have a similar pattern from an authentic text related to our theme (e.g. children’s Read more…
I once thought my training as an English teacher handicapped me as a Spanish teacher. Actual tears were shed over my inability to see what New Schools Project best practices like literature circles had to do with my grammar and vocabulary lessons. I was baffled by the prospect of calling Read more…
Image via Jijo Sunny 1. Tweet per pageI presented a page from America (with vocabulary preview), along with this tweet: Escribe un tuit para página 8 y otro para página 9 en la voz de #América #srasxtn #Esp2— Laura Sexton (@SraSxtn) February 24, 2012 We discussed (IN SPANISH!!) the main problems Read more…
I googled Chicago, violencia, and pandillas to find an article to tie to the third page of text from a picture book for Spanish II. La llaman América is about a little girl who immigrated to Chicago from Mexico and her experiences in her home, school, and neighborhood. As authentic Read more…
Find the updated project here This project was not fully cooked when I started teaching it. It’s also lain dormant for at least two years, maybe four. I really did have some good ideas in the olden days, but they do need to be reexamined and revamped to work now. Read more…
One of last year’s more memorable Spanish 1 lessons involved blindfolding students and making them touch slimy things. We are preparing for a bake sale so we can ship the supplies we collected for La Laja in Colombia (hopefully, along with some video cameras to share messages between our students Read more…
I had to present a 10-minute mini-mini-mini grammar lesson to a small group in my grad class on Thursday. And now, I have to “beef it up” by adding 2 of the following things we’ve been reading about: positive input enhancement–where you use underlines, caps, bold, and (I think) vocal Read more…