Become a more confident language teacher.
The Simultaneous Presentations format is a great way to for students to do presentations that spares both the teacher and their students the pain of sitting quietly and straining to hear 34 separate individual presentations. My awesome mentor, Nina Bonito-Romine, shared this presentation format with me last year, and I will never go back! HOW…
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Dictations have been a standard activity for language classes for a very long time. In particular, the traditional French dictée has a non-negotiable place in courses from Kinder through university level courses. Traditionally, dictations are used to learn spelling– a purpose which is debatable at best. Certainly, direct spelling instruction and practice has a positive…
Read MoreThis is a listening assessment that I used after we spent some time using present progressive verbs, and I think that it works best when you have a targeted verb tense that you are comparing to something else. In this case, present vs. present progressive. First, write up five to six mini-scenes (only one or…
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A binary CLOZE reading comprehension assessment is an easy way to measure student comprehension of a text. It is used across content areas, and it gives the teacher a different view of students’ reading comprehension than they would receive by asking comprehension questions. What a Binary CLOZE assessment looks like In a Binary CLOZE assessment,…
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When I began using TPRS® (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling), one of the first routines that I implemented was weekly timed free writes. What is a free write? A free write, also known as a timed write or a fluency write, is a tool that teachers can use to get a window into what…
Read MoreThis is an activity that is meant to be used after you have finished asking a story. Break the story into chunks. If you have a smaller class (15ish students or fewer), each student can have their own chunk of the story. If you have a bigger class, several students may have the same piece…
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For my student’s writing assessment today, I allowed them to “choose their target”. I gave them the expectation for what Advanced, Proficient, and Developing skill level would look like and let them choose how to proceed. Proficiency-based Performance Assessment All assessments in my classes are Performance assessments that are proficiency-based. Remember that Proficiency is what…
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This is a great low-key lesson to do when your students are worn out…like after a full morning of testing, as will be the case in Anchorage M-W next week! It could also work well as a follow-on for… SOMOS Spanish 1 Unit 14, which targets ‘hace’ SOMOS Spanish 2 Unit 5, which targets ‘hizo…
Read MoreAs Carol Gaab would say, our brains crave novelty! We need new experiences to remain engaged. She shared this assessment (or something like it, at least) with us at our most recent TPRS course webinar. Divide students into pairs (working with shoulder partner is preferable). If there is an odd number, one group can have…
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I learned how to play Salad Bowl from my sister back in college! It is super fun to play with friends, and it works well in the language classroom as a PAT game. But before we learn how to play… I’ve got two important cautions. This is NOT an input-based game. In fact, it’s a…
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