As language teachers, our goal for our students is to be more proficient in the target language when they complete our course than when they began. We probably have other goals for our students (being more kind, more empathetic, more responsible, more culturally aware), but all of these objectives fit into the overarching mission of … Continue reading What is Proficiency Oriented Language Instruction?
Here is a really brief, one-page overview that SOMOS/Nous sommes teachers can share with parents of their students about what to expect from the class. Click here or on the image below to download. What key information do you think is missing? What do you think is important to share with parents?
When I first ditched the textbook, Weekend Chats was one of the very first routines that I learned about and started using in class. I was introduced to it by Michele Whaley, and I remember reading about it on Ben Slavic's blog soon thereafter. I used Ben's idea of having students illustrate posters of places … Continue reading 10 ways to talk with your students about their weekend
Are you ready for the 2018-2019 school year to be your best year yet? I have some great news: you have come to the right place at the right time. There are oodles of ways to provide your students with rich, comprehensible input. For the first time ever, there are many different curriculum and no-curriculum … Continue reading SALE! Plan for next year with CONFIDENCE
Reading and listening are the core components of comprehension based language classes. We know that students acquire language when they hear and read messages that they understand--so read and listen they will! Sometimes, we share short, easily digestible texts with students. Other times, we need to read a text of a significant length in order … Continue reading Best Brain Breaks
Tonight, I am sad for my country. The events that transpired this past weekend in Charlottesville are not unique. As language teachers, we are about communication. We are about comprehension. We are about connection. We are about community. Let's also be about change. I've been reading a lot of posts about what teachers are doing … Continue reading Peace begins with you – PPT for Spanish classes
Whether you are planning to use the SOMOS 1 or 2 Spanish curriculum for the first time this fall or have been working with it for several years already, I hope that this post will answer most of the 'big' questions that you have as you are planning for the upcoming school year. For everything … Continue reading SOMOS Curriculum: Frequently Asked Questions
I met Jon Cowart for the first time at iFLT 2014 in Denver, and his passion for teaching kids in urban, low-income settings was apparent from our first conversation. He has been committed to using language teaching as a way to connect with and empower his students. Specifically, he uses comprehensible input strategies to empower his … Continue reading Teaching languages in Urban schools – Guest post!
I taught Spanish 1 and 2 for 3 years after switching to TCI, and here is what I ended up creating--keep in mind that this is just what I did, and even if you are using my curriculum, you are free to do it differently than I did! Use the curriculum maps provided below to determine what … Continue reading What to teach in Spanish 1 and 2?
If I didn’t know that my last post would open a can of worms, I should have! In this instance, though, I am quite glad that it did. I realized that I had a lot of misunderstandings and was making a lot of unfair assumptions. Thank you to everyone that has been helping me learn through … Continue reading Task or Text: the aftermath
