When you are in the weeds with 175 students creating papers for you to grade and issues for you to address, and you have just 45 minutes of planning time every day…well, something’s gotta give. Or maybe you have a delightful workload but are still figuring out this thing they call TCI and you have no stinking clue what you’re going to do later today, much less next week or later this year!

Thank the Lord for the Internet, amen!? There are hundreds…maybe thousands? of ready-to-go lesson plans and activities for TPRS®/CI courses that are just waiting for you to find them. Some of them are buried deep in the recesses of now-inactive blogs, publisher websites, and teacher Google Drives, making it unlikely that you will ever stumble across them.

Your mission for today’s giveaway is this: post the link to a ready-to-go, TPRS® or other Comprehensible Input lesson plan or activity that you have created and posted online OR that someone else has created but that you discovered and used successfully. It can be as basic as a clear description of “do this first then this then this”, or it can include printable or projectable materials to accompany the lesson (not necessary). It could be a story script, an embedded reading, a game…anything! It can be a free resource or a paid, downloadable resource. As long as it allows teachers to take it and use it in class the next day, it counts!

One caveat: it cannot be something from me (neither from my blog nor my TpT account). You are here reading this, so you know that you can come to my blog to find lesson plans and activities. I am asking you to share something from a location that other people reading this might not know exists! (It’s okay if it’s a popular site…as long as it’s not from here, it’s fine!)

And what do you get in return? Tonight marks the halfway point of Hanukkah, and so I will be giving away TWO $25.00 gift cards to Teachers Pay Teachers. The gift cards can be used to purchase anything on the site, from any seller. To enter to win tonight’s giveaway, simply leave a comment on this blog post with a link to a successful lesson plan or activity that you have created or found and used AND a quick overview of what it is (1 sentence is fine). A brief description will allow other teachers to glance through the list and quickly find anything that might be useful to them! Remember, it cannot be an activity or a lesson plan from me!

Once you have left a comment on this blog post, click here to enter the giveaway. All entries must be received by December 10 at 10:00pm EST (6:00pm AKST). Winner will be notified via email and will have 24 hours to claim his or her prize before it is passed on to someone else.

And CONGRATULATIONS to Megan Sulewski, a French teacher, for winning the deck of VERBA cards from the night two giveaway! Your VERBA cards are on their way. Also, the night three giveaway is open until 10:00pm EST tonight (December 9), so you may still have time to enter!

Once you have left a comment on this blog post, click on this image to enter your name in the giveaway!

74 replies on “On the fourth night of Hanukkah…”

  4. The amazing/”creative genius” Sharon Birch has an excellent CI story she wrote about the massacre of Segovia in Colombia to teach about landmines combined with the song of Juanes “Segovia” to go with the story. This is link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Juanes-Colombia-y-la-masacre-en-Segovia-1915370. You have to pay….but anything Sharon does is worth paying for! 🙂 It is incredible. You can also use the generous and “creative genius” Kara Jacob’s blog with tons of activites to supplement this excellent CI story here: http://reflecciones-kj.blogspot.com/2014/03/juanes-y-los-colores-de-la-montana.html

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  14. I have used Sr. Wooly’s materials with many different high school classes – and even if students protest, I suspect many more than I know about secretly like the songs. An ELA teacher I have worked with for 2 years now has his students write thank you letters to teachers just before Thanksgiving. This is the 2nd year I have received a thank you letter that references “Maestro, ¿Puedo ir al baño?” 😀

    So even if Wooly taught middle school and it seems that only middle school kids will react to his videos & music, know that HS students are kids too! And they begrudgingly like corny songs! (I always quietly “award” candy to students who are singing along to the videos). My subscription to the site has been well worth it, as has been owning the DVDs because internet connections in NYC schools are sometimes overtaxed and spotty.

    https://www.senorwooly.com/teacher/

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  18. Here is an embedded reading that I have created for travel vocabulary, specifically targeting the structures “se queda, decide viajar, juega a las cartas, & país”: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Embedded-Reading-Travel-Vocabulary-Present-Tense-2140680
    It also includes several cultural resources!

    Also, here are readings to go along with the movie “Selena” that I have created to target family vocabulary in a level 1 CI classroom: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Selena-Readings-Family-Life-Present-Tense-Novice-2220874

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  22. I really enjoy Mr. Peto’s blog: https://mrpeto.wordpress.com/, also known as “My generation of polyglots.” He has numerous resources, activities, and advice for CI teachers. He motivated me to incorporate more video lessons/activities while providing CI to my students; specifically using telenovelas. I have read Mr. Peto’s teacher tips: https://mrpeto.wordpress.com/1a-tips-on-how-to-teach-el-internado/, which have helped me develop my own lesson plans based on the telenovela, “Un gancho al corazón.” He has many activities for the telenovela “El internado.” I plan on purchasing this telenovela in the future.

    So far using this medium of providing CI has been successful and highly engaging for my students. As a result, more students are engaged and anxious to learn more to watch more video sequences. At this point, some have even started watching telenovelas on their own (great way of receiving more CI outside of the classroom)!

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  23. Zachary Jones’ website is a goldmine of activities, most of them free: http://zachary-jones.com/zambombazo/. My students especially love the Doblado, Doblado activity, a type of cloze activity where you compare trailers of the same movie dubbed for Spain and Latin America. It’s easy to build an entire lesson around it by adding other elements to the viewing of the trailer, such as Movie Talk, culture, etc.

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  27. In addition to Sr. Wooly’s videos, I recommend his activities. In particular, I have used “Teléfono por lápiz,” otherwise known as write/pass/draw to practice the preterite with students. I give them a cheat list of verbs they might use in a crazy story, written in third person (like flew, exploded, vomited, threw, walked, ran away, rolled, cried, yelled…) Students have to write a sentence of a story, pass their paper to the right, draw an illustration for the paper they get, fold the words back, pass the paper, write a sentence that looks like it describes what is happening, and so on. You could also use this with descriptions, place names, or other stories.

    Also, I do all of Sr. Wooly’s “El Banco” activities to practice preterite and estaba/había for and vocab having to do with locations in a city. After students are familiar with “El Banco,” I stage a mock interrogation (I’m pretty sure the idea came from Sr. Wooly too). I make up a crime, like someone stole the principal’s stash of chocolate, two students have 1 minute to come up with an alibi in the hall, then I call them in one at a time and interrogate them. The other students/investigators have to take notes, ask questions, and determine guilt or innocence. To culminate the unit, students have to write an alibi for themselves. Also, I do an interpersonal speaking assessment by calling them randomly to interrogate and answer questions based on their alibis.

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  34. http://spanishcuentos.com/

    Spanish Cuentos has FREE access to videos of simple stories. Check out his website above and here is a link below to the story I used in class yesterday. Students listened to the story twice to practice listening. Then they saw the video. I had a screenshot from each part of the story. Each student gets a different picture. They had to write a sentence or two to describe that part. Next class they will have to put themselves in order by describing their picture without showing the actual picture. I will type up their sentences to crete the written story and we will do more with that text.

    https://youtu.be/8vkOQs_uBaE

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  37. I have been using Madame Angel’s daily math problems to start class all year. The students come in, figure out what they have to do, then use the number chart I provided them to translate digits into words on their papers. My seventh graders stop there (they’re using the 1st grade problems)…my 8th graders (who are using the 2nd grade math problems) write a sentence with the answer in it. It’s a quick-ready-to-go class starter, and it helps get that number practice in (tricky in French…and boring for me to teach otherwise!) I also have them trained to ask, “Quelle est la date aujourd’hui?” after we go over it so they can fill in the date properly (it’s someone’s job a la Ben Slavic) and then someone asks the weather too and we change the date on the board and weather report as necessary. In the first 5 minutes of class I get all the tough stuff (for me anyway) out of the way. (I feel like those things are tedious to add to a story) She has lots and lots of other great elemenatary stuff on here too, including silly story plots (the pieces fit together like puzzles, and then they give the frame for a story. I use the fairytale ones all the time, because the pieces from different stories fit together, you get fractured fairy tale like vocabulary!) https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/La-Classe-De-Madame-Angel

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  38. My absolute favorite site is senorwooly.com!!! The lessons involve so much more than just music tailored to Spanish learners. There is embedded reading, writing practice, vocabulary practice…and now with the new site, it is completely interactive so students can work on their own pace outside of class and the input is fun. Even when my students huff and puff, their parents tell me how much they have learned because they go home and share!! Over and over again!!

    senorwooly.com ….go explore!! The owner, Jim Wooldridge, also has a teacher’s video blog, where he will share ideas and activities and will film how it works so you see it in action!! He answers questions and responds very quickly!

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  41. I’ve created this infographic comparing aspects of Christmas in the US and El Día de los Tres Reyes Magos- plus I’ve included lesson ideas for using and extending the activity 🙂 – Julie, Mundo de Pepita, Resources for Teaching Spanish to Children elmundodepepita.blogspot.com

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  44. While talking about Spain, we watch Mi vida loca http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/mividaloca/. It is an interactive trip through Spain with an element of mystery focusing on a lot of basic vocabulary such as taking the metro, ordering tapas, and practicing time. It is great for beginning levels as well as upper levels as review useful phrases. After watching episode 3 that dealt with asking directions and taking the metro, I had students try to navigate with my directions and then give directions to get to different points of interest in Madrid using this interactive map of Madrid. http://www.disfrutamadrid.com/mapa

    After we took the “scenic route” around Madrid, I gave them this activity to practice using the Metro. At each stop around the classroom, they had to read the brief description (from the interactive map) in Spanish about the site they were going to on the Metro, which included the stop on the Metro. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8djM4xSZ0fLUXJ1eHJjbnhBajg/view?usp=sharing

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      2. It is the first story I use in Spanish II. My students have a heavily grammar based, textbook focused Spanish I class. So when I meet them in Spanish II on the first day, many have a high anxiety level. I use this story to help them build confidence, and to review basic concepts from Spanish I without the grammar overload. The students work in groups to sketch out a storyboard while we are asking the story. At the end, they work with their group to create a simple, but original ending to the story.

  45. While talking about Spain, we watch Mi vida loca http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/mividaloca/. It is an interactive trip through Spain with an element of mystery focusing on a lot of basic vocabulary such as taking the metro, ordering tapas, and practicing time. It is great for beginning levels as well as upper levels as review useful phrases. After watching episode 3 that dealt with asking directions and taking the metro, I had students try to navigate with my directions and then give directions to get to different points of interest in Madrid using this interactive map of Madrid. http://www.disfrutamadrid.com/mapa

    After we took the “scenic route” around Madrid, I gave them this activity to practice using the Metro. At each stop around the classroom, they had to read the brief description (from the interactive map) in Spanish about the site they were going to on the Metro, which included the stop on the Metro. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8djM4xSZ0fLUXJ1eHJjbnhBajg/view?usp=sharing

    Reply

  50. I’m not sure if my original comment posted, so here it is again, just in case! I created a Halloween story/unit inspired by your Spanish 1 units 1-4. I created 4 new phrases, and used many of the phrases from your units 1-4 in the story as well. It ended up being a hit with the students. Here is a link to my lesson plan resources, including a couple of shout outs to you! Thank you for sharing your ideas and for inspiring so many!

    http://srapatin.weebly.com/mi-clase—my-class/halloween-story-tprs

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  51. I made an embedded reading based off of this video: Los héroes nos inspiran”. Great for a unit about heroes, sports, or Argentina. I based a lot of the activities off of Martina´s ideas from “El hombre feliz” and I think it turned out well.

    Here is the video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch/?v=WC1b643jt0Y

    Let me know if you want the documents and I will be happy to send them to you! They are not very pretty (I´m doing 3 new preps this year) and so I´m more worried about content right now, but it would be great if someone took them and put a fun spin on them or expanded them. That´s what this sharing is all about!

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  54. Not necessarily TPRS/CI but a quick resource for listening and current events / popular culture. Each topic is adjusted for level 1-4. I can quickly copy the text and delete words/numbers that I want them to listen for or for the upper students they can listen and take notes and then play zip zap zut (not sure of the source of that game) after. It is from the Mary Glasgow site, it’s free, and there is a new posting every week. Select the language you teach (spanish, french, english, german) and you will see the free “actualités or noticias…”

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  55. Pingback: The naughty little brother | The Comprehensible Classroom

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