Become a more confident language teacher.
This is a fantastic idea developed by Michele Whaley and Laurie Clarcq (here is the link to Michele’s original post about the activity). It is a different way of illustrating a story, and I like it because it sets up students really well for speaking and writing assessments. It is also a great way to…
Read MoreThis is another activity that I use to review a story and get more repetitions. I have the students work in partners and use whiteboards to write down their answers, but you can do it however you want. First, give your students the vocabulary for “before” and “after” («antes de» and «después de» in Spanish), if…
Read MoreThis is a great activity to use in order to (1) get more reps and (2) give your students critical thinking practice. It works best as a whole-group/discussion activity as opposed to an assessment because the discussion is the most valuable component–that’s where students are honing their critical thinking skills. However, you could absolutely use…
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I had a great evaluation observation with one of my Assistant Principals today–I say great because my students were on point and performed above where I expected them to, and because my AP gave me valuable feedback despite the fact that she doesn’t speak Spanish. What my questioning looked like My AP first reported to…
Read MoreThis is a great reading activity that will give students experience with ‘testing vocabulary’ and require them to use higher levels of thinking. You could also use it as a listening activity, but you’d probably want to have done it with a reading first since the immediacy of listening would make it more challenging. Begin…
Read MoreOne of the things that I love most about working at my school is that we have a Principal who is committed to providing incredible, frequent training opportunities to our teachers. Sometimes, I have a difficult time figuring out how to apply the material to my Spanish, Elective classroom, but more often than not, I…
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Note: I first heard about QAR in a workshop with Carol Gaab during our 2011 AFLA Conference. I began to dig into it and published this post soon thereafter. Imagine my surprise when my principal brought in consultant Susan Van Zant just two weeks after I published it, announcing to the staff that this would…
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