Become a more confident language teacher.
As teachers are trying to decide if a text is a good fit for their learners, they will often ask us the question, “What ACTFL Level is this text?”. Unfortunately, it’s a question that we can’t usually answer, and I want to explain why. ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines do not describe texts; they describe people. Specifically,…
Read More
After a lifetime of not really dating, my brother signed up for a speed dating event. Terrified from the moment he made the decision, I think that he would have considered “survival” a success. Lo and behold, he left with requests for a follow-up date from every person that he speed dated that evening, and…
Read More
Once you have determined that a novel is within reach for a student in a Level 1 class, you must determine whether it is readable for your students, now. Mira Canion and I welcome you to Post #2 in our series to help you confidently choose novels to read with your students in the coming…
Read More
Ah, requisition season. Thousands of teachers around the country are making plans for next year and laying claim to coveted budget dollars to get the resources that they need for next year’s students. Perhaps you find yourself writing a budget proposal for the coming school year. Perhaps your deadline to submit the budget is…FRIDAY! Perhaps…
Read More
If you haven’t heard by now, Wooly’s new graphic novel has made its way into the hands of a few teacher-bloggers scattered around the country. (Thinking about starting a blog? You should do it before Wooly decides to write a third graphic novel so you can get a sneak peek too ;-)). He sent them…
Read More
Isn’t it fun when a great video pops into your newsfeed? I remember seeing The Janitor Story before, but I had forgotten the ending when one of my mom friends shared it over the weekend! Without my ‘real’ computer (my 5yo killed it with a kombucha spill) and unable to work on any ongoing projects,…
Read More
If you’ve seen some of the amazing novels written for language learners that are available but have yet to purchase any, you may be wondering: how do I use these novels in class? When teachers begin to study language acquisition and learn more about Comprehension-based teaching, it quickly becomes apparent that reading has a profound…
Read More
I enjoy coming up with (or discovering) different kinds of questions to ask my students. It must be some sort of a sick teacher thing, because I can’t think of any reason that my students would be excited that a new question type popped up on their most recent assessment. I guess I like finding…
Read More
Elizabeth Hoving, a Spanish teacher, sent me these smash doodle pages quite a few months ago that her students created while reading Vida y muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha. Her students were required to create an entry for each chapter, and each entry had to include words, sentences and images. Each entry also had to clearly represent the…
Read More
