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Team Windows is another Kagan structure that works most wonderfully for small-group discussion about literature. In small groups, one member will make a statement, and the remainder express agreement or disagreement with that statement. One group member writes down the statement as well the number of group members that agree with it. How to run…
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I just got back from another Cooperative/Social Emotional Learning class session with tons of ideas from the brilliant minds of my colleagues. The course followed an intensive, full-day workshop with a trainer from Kagan Cooperative Learning, and it is run by the district Director of World Languages, and course credit is offered through University of…
Read MoreI read about this hotel on Achieve3000 and did a little research on my own to write this article. My Spanish 1A students will be able to read it when I get back to school with the target structures basura – trash and pared – wall. Playa would be an important word to teach if your students don’t already…
Read MoreAuthorities in Caracas, Venezuela developed a very…interesting…solution to their traffic problem (actually, they copied it from Bogota, Colombia, but that’s beside the point). I wrote this article to use as a reading and discussion activity for my Spanish II’s. It works well with El Nuevo Houdini, since the verb “to drive” and the driving theme…
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I wrote this version of Little Red Riding Hood last year as a preterite practice for my students. It includes comprehension questions and a follow-up grammar activity that focuses on the verb forms. Sherry in PA found the activity on my website http://www.martinabex.com and created an ActivInspire Flipchart to accompany it. Her website also has super…
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On my to-do list every day for the past three weeks has been to complete the next homework assignment for my Cooperative Learning/Social-Emotional Learning course. The class meets again on Saturday, so I’m running out of time to procrastinate! At the last class, we practiced several Kagan structures, including “One Stay, Two Stray” and “Inside-Outside…
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My second year Spanish students need some practice distinguishing between subjects with their verb forms (subject/verb agreement), so I modified and typed up one of my student’s free writes (work smarter, not harder, right?) for a good ol’ horizontal conjugation practice. What is a horizontal conjugation? A horizontal conjugation is a perspective re-write. It is…
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…
Read MoreAgain, nothing to do with Spanish…but this is just too cool to pass up! Does the background look familiar? That’s right, folks–the background images are made entirely of JELLY BEANS. The original article that I read about the video appeared in the Social Times, and I used it to develop a reading for my students.…
Read MoreHere is an article that my students read on Veteran’s Day…sorry for not posting it sooner!! Save it away for next year, or use it whenever. I like it because there are many cognates, making it easy to understand, and it is in the past tense, which is what we are working on in Spanish…
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