6 strategies to spice up a Shared Reading

If you are a content-based language teacher, Shared Reading is likely a big part of your classes. Whether you are reading a story you have co-created with your students, an article, or a descriptive slideshow that came with your curriculum, it is important to use strategies that keep your students engaged with and attending to…

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Try this instead: Running Dictation Plan B

Running Dictation is a favorite activity among world language teachers, conceived by Jason Fritze and first taught to me by Michele Whaley. I first shared it on The Comprehensible Classroom blog here in 2011. In this high-energy game, students take turns with teammates to run to a poster, memorize a statement, and race back to…

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“What ACTFL level is this text?”

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,…

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Mind Reading: an interpretive activity

If you are in need of a low-prep, low-key interpretive activity, Mind Reading is for you! Mind Reading is a Language Gym activity from Dr. Gianfranco Conti. Dr. Conti and his colleague and frequent partner-in-crime, Steve Smith, have taught me much through their shared resources, training materials, and critical questions over the years. Mind Reading…

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Write and Discuss demo for language classes

“Write and Discuss” is one of the core strategies in a comprehension-based teacher’s bag of tricks. It is easy-peasy and adaptable for many uses!  In this post, I’m sharing with you a demo of Write and Discuss along with step-by-step instructions so that you can feel confident making this power-packed strategy your own! An abbreviated version…

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Reading activities for current events

Film, politics, sports, conservation, and activism–these are just a few of the topics that the stories from the new EL MUNDO EN TUS MANOS subscription have addressed. Maris and I are passionate about finding stories that your students will connect with and that will open their eyes to the things happening in the world, near…

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