I think many world language teachers have seen the barking goldfish video and may have used it to talk about the value of language learning. I sometimes skip this valuable part of the beginning of the year and dive right into instruction. This year I decided to take a different approach. Elena has been creating some awesome comprehensible materials and since they have been working so well, I followed suit using a similar format. The lesson materials here (still a work in progress) will provide you with a storyline for the video to focus on the structures, hay, nada, dice and tiene hambre. There are many interactive practice resources for class or independent practice, as well as links to infographics to help spark discussion about the value of language learning on many fronts. Another unit developed similarly that will build off of this one is here.
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Elena and I have been using Kahoot to review vocabulary after story-based units. If you have not yet seen Kahoot, it truly is an engaging game that kids will ask to play over and over. Try this one to see how it works: https://getkahoot.com/img/kahoot_meta_og_image.jpg You will need two devices: one to run the game on and another to play it from. The image gives you a good idea of a visual as well. What is another nice feature is that you can play a video from YouTube of a favorite class song or one related to the unit while students use the game pin to join the game. You can search for existing Kahoots which can be used as they are or copied and adapted. Or, you can create your own from scratch. I had previously been using Kahoot as a way to review, but with a group of sixth graders who came through I used it to teach vocabulary. The students came through for 30 minutes to see what Spanish will be like before they make a course selection for 7th grade and I wanted to keep this as much as possible in Spanish without it feeling like a "lesson" because there would not be any immediate follow up. It worked beautifully, as I chose lots of cognates and have the visual aids. I was also able to talk about numbers and include culture through the visuals I picked. In between rounds I was able to use the correct answers and incorrect answers as brief, but useful teaching moments. I would definitely consider it as a way to vary how to making introducing vocabulary more fun! If you don't have a 1:1 environment, kids could form teams and still play. Kahoot will run off or any computer or mobile device. If you are trying to build in more Common Core connections into your curriculum via your questioning, I highly recommend checking out Martina Bex's CCSS Aligned L2 Reading Comprehension Questions guide which is free on her website. I have found it very helpful as I work to vary the types of reading comprehension questions I ask students. When we play Kahoot, I tend to keep almost all of the questions in Spanish, rather than using English. For assessments, I use a mixture of both. http://martinabex.com/2014/05/09/ccss-aligned-l2-reading-comprehension-questions/ ~Amy Personas Especiales is an activity that I adapted from an idea from Bryce Hedstrom. Here is the link to the Google Presentation Purpose: To learn about your students, for classmates to learn about one another, to, practice listening skills, build vocabulary and conversational skills. Activity: Each day interview 2-4 students, depending upon interest level in the activity and the length of the conversation. Have students take notes about the conversation on this student recording sheet. Continue throughout the year with topics you would like to reinforce, keeping the focus on topics that are of interest and worthwhile for developing communicative skills Formative/Summative Assessments: You can give students a formative, open notes assessment periodically or at the end to encourage good listening and note-taking. It could count as a homework or quiz grade. You can also have students discuss the questions on the 2nd page periodically with varied partners. This provides formative interpersonal speaking and listening information. A final assessment could be an interpersonal assessment where students are asked to talk about the topics in the activity with a partner and sustain a conversation as long as possible. The key questions are in large font on page 2, with minor questions in smaller font. A version with English prompts is on page 3. Sample Open Notes Quiz ~Amy What's better than Memrise? Sr. Wooly songs in Memrise! My last post was also about Memrise, but now that students have been using it, some fierce competition has begun. I have some students that love it so much they are asking me to put more vocabulary in there! So, I started a course called Canciones in Memrise where vocabulary from the Sr. Wooly songs can be practiced independently by students. Since kids love his songs it offers a nice way to practice at their own pace. They can pick the module they want or do all of them. Might make a nice sub plan as well for kids to listen to some of the favorite songs from class at the beginning of the hour and give time for independent practice on a song or two of choice. Maybe offer a prize for the high scorers for the period if you are into prizes! http://www.memrise.com/course/273873/canciones-3/ For your own use, if you have flashcards in Quizlet already or someone else has them; all it takes is exporting the list and copying it. From there, click on the level you are working with and then select Advanced. From the drop down select +Bulk add items. Copy and paste and save and the level is ready. If you want, add audio. This week's post is dedicated to a few of my favorites sites that allow students more independence and flexibility in their learning... and they're all free! 1. Memrise is a site I have just recently started using with students, but I am really liking it. We are reading Las aventuras de Isabela by Karen Rowan and the set up of the levels makes it handy to use one level for each chapter. See sample course here: http://www.memrise.com/course/238452/las-aventuras-de-isabela/ Elena and I have selected key vocabulary from the chapter to pre-teach and Memrise allows students to interact with it by hearing user-created audio, putting language chunks together in order in various ways and to create Mems (visual aids to help them remember). Since I love Duolingo, Memrise is great because I can personalize the vocabulary to our in class course content. Users can also add multimedia (YouTube videos and slide shows to the course they create for added richness of experience.) Creating a course on Memrise is very user-friendly. Another way I used it today was to create a course for students to review topics from previous material this year. This was on student request because they like the site so much! I also today created some Spanish to Spanish practice activities. Although the site is set to be English to your language you are teaching, it accepted putting in a Spanish context cloze clue in the English side. 2. Lesson Paths- (formerly Mentor Mob) http://www.lessonpaths.com/ The Lesson Paths site is great as it allows users to create a path or playlist of activities for students to engage in to learn a topic. It is flexible in that via the playlist you can link to any website, including video sites like YouTube, create text for students to read for tasks and make quick check quizzes. I like it because for a unit I might take all of the key links and put them in the playlist and then embed it in my website page for the unit. I can also reference the activities in the playlist on worksheets students use as homework and they always know where to look. Here is a sample: http://spanishnsms.weebly.com/las-compras.html There are many existing searchable playlists available for people with a free account. 3. Quizlet- Quizlet is not a new site, but is has been an absolute staple for vocabulary practice for me for 4 years. It is flexible in that you can use picture or text prompts and now the audio can also be user-created, rather than computer-based. I have seen Quizlet continue to evolve and improve over the years I have been using it. For the last unit I had students make a copy of my clothing flashcard set and choose 15 of the 30 clothing terms that were in there so they were more invested in the vocabulary and could choose what they found to be most relevant. By copying it they then were able to delete what words they did not plan to use and then create their own set. I gave students the option to print a list from the site, which is very easy to do, write their own list down with drawings or just leave the vocabulary digitally. Here are a couple of sets that go with Chapter 1 of Las aventuras de Isabela. http://quizlet.com/35528008/las-aventuras-de-isabela-capitulo-1-esencial-flash-cards/ and http://quizlet.com/35639283/aventuras-de-isabela-capitulo-1-en-contexto-flash-cards/ 4. Duolingo- https://www.duolingo.com/ I love that students can work at their own pace on Duolingo and it seems to engage most students. I have not formally assigned students to practice on the site this year because I wanted it to be a student choice activity based on interest in it for use independently or during choice time in class. I am however contemplating building in 15 minutes or so a week of time in class to practice and/or assigning it as homework once a week based on how well many students are doing with it. I would look at having students complete 1 learning module as an assignment and they could continue where they leave off each time or I could assign a particular one and then do a review activity on the content of the module as a whole class to see how they are doing with the concept outside of the context of the website/app. See my previous post on Duolingo for additional information. 5. Padlet- http://padlet.com/ has also been around for awhile. It used to be Wall Wisher. I have used it with students before to allow them to post responses to a question on a wall that everyone can see. However, I have most recently been using it as a fast and easy way to collect visual aids for writing prompts that can be used from year to year. While I collect a lot of my lesson materials on Pinterest, it is nice to have a spot as I am finding nice visuals so they are ready to go for student use. There is a space for a title and then text for me to give student directions on what to do with the pictures. While I have mostly been collecting them for writing prompts, I plan to start making use of the same visuals so students can have oral discussions as well. Here is an example from the clothing unit we are working on. Scroll down on the page just below the Lesson Paths embedded links. http://spanishnsms.weebly.com/las-compras.html 6. Google Docs- In my efforts to use less copies, more and more I am assigning homework digitally and Google Docs has been great for allowing students to access my document from a shared folder and then copy it for themselves. Students can then easily click on links for any textual or media-based interpretive activities I am asking them to do. A few students have still been printing the document, some will write answers in a notebook, but most are coming in and showing me their work from the iPad. It also works great when assignments have been assigned collaboratively. What are your favorites? Duolingo has been a great free tool for students to build vocabulary independently at their own pace. Students can use the web version at www.duolingo.com or the app which is available for Android and Apple products. Duolingo uses a combination of images and English to introduce new words and mixes up the practice. Some activities learners do are writing a sentence from what they hear, speaking a sentence, and also translating. They also have a feature to read articles from the Internet and the site has users translate the articles for the benefit of all learners. (This is how they keep the site free, because the articles uploaded are from people who are paying for the translation.) Duolingo users get reminder emails to review skills and can compete with friends, based on how much they are practicing. Students can follow their teacher and one another in a Twitter-like fashion. Learners earn Lingots which can be exchanged for various learning advantages. Duolingo is available for native speakers of English wanting to learn Latin American Spanish, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, and Italian.
I showed the site to students in September as a way to work on Spanish independently on their own time. Students do also have the option to use Duolingo in class on Choice Time days (which I will discuss in more detail in a future post). I have never assigned it as homework, as it is optional to use. In addition to learning Spanish, various students have started learning other languages including French and Italian. One student told me how her family is using it now and they have a competition going. Another student started learning French with it and sought out French instruction on Saturdays to complement his learning. There are many more stories, but you get the idea! I think it provides a great opportunity for students who love learning languages or need an opportunity to review material to do so at their own pace. Are you using Duolingo or similar resource you like? Last week while watching the Super Bowl I came across the Doberhuahua. When I saw this commercial I knew I had to create a story for my students. The fact that I'm originally from Chihuahua, Mexico and the commercial was referencing Chihuahuas made it irresistible. Many of students always chuckle because they think I'm from a state named after a dog. Many of them had seen the commercial so talking about it in Spanish made it very engaging for them. These are the steps I followed with my students to present the lesson: Day 1 1. Introduced key vocabulary they needed to know to understand the story. My students have a visual dictionary they fill in as they acquire new content. 2. We go over sentences that focus on the key vocabulary with context clues. 3. We have a discussion by going over their answers of personal questions that again focus on the key vocabulary. 4. Then I read the story to them in the form of a Google Presentation. The photos with the text aid their comprehension. But I still make sure they understand by posing either/or, yes/no or true/false questions. 5. I pass a copy of the story with comprehension questions for homework. Day 2 1. Students answer 5 questions related to the story they heard the day before. 2. I have an ordering the story activity. My students all have Chromebooks so I have them go to my website to access the link for the ordering activity done in Textivate. It could also be printed and done on paper. 3. We then go over multiple choice questions about the story together as a class. I usually divide the class into two teams and they all have to write their answers on their whiteboards in order to earn a point for their team. (This activity is also done on Textivate thorough my Smartboard) 4. Students are assigned a gap-fill activity of the story as homework. It could be done as a worksheet or as an online activity through Textivate. Day 3 1. I display a short paragraph about the story with errors my students have to correct. We go over the corrections. 2. I do a listening activity by having my students look at photo collage of the story. They have to listen to my statements and match to the corresponding number photo on the collage. 3. I then distribute a paper with sentences for them to read and match to the previous collage. They also have to put the story back in order. 4. For homework they have to go to my website and listen to a short dictation. They have to complete it on the this sheet. Day 4 1. We go over the dictation. I show them the script and they make corrections. I do some either/or, yes/no or true/false questions. 2. Start a new lesson. Here is a link for a Google document with all the resources I used on this lesson. Teacher Resources Student resources can be found here I would love to know how you incorporate commercials into your lessons. This week we are sharing resources for the Video Frozen: Una Aventura Congelada. Elena originally collected the screen shots from a clip on YouTube to tell the story. I simplified they story somewhat and created additional resources. When I created the packet, I started with trailers from the movie to interest students. I used trailers for both Spain and Latin America so students would notice that two different trailers were created and see the variations in vocabulary. For the initial vocabulary work, I provided students with a table that has a word bank with some of the words that need to be filled in, some pictures in the table, and some Spanish words in the table. The idea is that students can use prior knowledge to figure out some of the pictures, instead of being told what to fill in or getting a premade vocabulary list. For words students cannot figure out, they can access a Quizlet list that has all of the correct information. I have had positive feedback from students about this format. Additionally, they can then illustrate some of the words to interact with the vocabulary in another way. The vocabulary was chosen based on common vocabulary that would allow them to retell a clip from the movie. The resources in the packet were created to allow students to read, speak, listen and write about the clip. I also put a focus on questions that they could ask one another that would be of more personal interest. For my final oral assessment I will be asking them to sit in a group and each student will get 2 unique questions to answer individually first, but will be able to respond to all of the questions being asked so it has more of a discussion feel. I plan to ask the questions, but each student could each get two questions they would ask as part of the conversation as a variation. The questions in parentheses are an alternate question should students need a little prompting or different form of the question. Sample Oral Assessment Questions
The video included in the resources was created with the app Explain Everything. I was very pleased with how easy it was to use overall, considering I read no instructions. I was able to take the PDF of the Google Presentation and import it. The app separated out all of the distinct images onto their own pages. From there I was able to narrate the images. I see this working nicely both in or out of class for a listening comprehension activity. It could be nice for a flipped classroom, a comprehensive model, or in a classroom where students are engaged in more self-paced learning. Also useful for self-paced learning is the Lesson Paths playlist below that includes all of the links used http://www.lessonpaths.com/learn/i/frozenuna-aventura-congelada/nuevo-triler-para-frozenel-reino-del-hielo Resources available on this website Other Resources here: Teacher Resources I had been meaning to use Spanishlistening.org in the classroom for some time now because it would allow me to expose my students to different native Spanish accents. The site is set up for independent use with a video recording of a native, a script of the recording and a comprehension quiz. I believe it is wonderfully set up for individual use but I wanted to use it with my students in a classroom environment. I wanted it to be quick and easy for them to practice listening to different Spanish accents. It would also provide me an opportunity to discuss how different Spanish can sound depending on where it is coming from. I'm using the quick audio activity as a warm up activity so that we can discuss it a bit. This is how I been setting it up: 1. I let them see the video and listen to it once. 2. We talk about what they think the topic of the video is. 2. I give them the script with missing words for them to listen for and complete. 3. We listen to the audio two more times and then we go over the answers. 4. We discuss how they think this person sounds compared to my Spanish. Here is a link of the file I've been using to present the activity and the handouts to give to students. I will be updating the file as I do more of these quick audio activity with my students. https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B6G8sr7yKkqNVW9LNXVXMF9HWlE&usp=sharing How are you exposing your students to different Spanish accents? Saluditos, Elena I’ve recently begun using children’s literature in my middle school classes to provide a rich context for increasing the amount of comprehensible input I am providing for my students. I began by acquiring some of my favorite childhood books and some current favorites, also taking into consideration the accessibility of the reading level for students. Initially, I had the books available for reading during choice time. Then, one day I decided reading a children’s story might be a fun, engaging way to start class on a regular basis and give kids lots of comprehensible input, with a built-in, rich context. While I originally had intended for it to be an engaging way to start class, I soon found that the images and text on the pages provided much more than just the storyline I had planned to work with. (I have the story projected on my SMART Board so students can easily see the image and text. One way this can be done is with a document camera.) So far I have used La Paloma encuentra un perro caliente and currently am using Buenas Noches, Luna. As I tell the story, I also talk about what else is on the page to continue to re-introduce the vocabulary. One unplanned activity that turned out well and resulted in comments such as “This was the best Spanish class” was making the students part of the story. With Buenas Noches, Luna the pictures of the cow jumping over the moon and the three bears or even the doll house provided fun contexts make the students part of the story. In one instance a student lived in the house in the picture and realized that the cow jumping over the moon was about to crash into it when he heard the loud moo's of the cow. He ran to his friend’s house next door to escape. It got much zanier than that, depending upon the class. For the 3 bears picture, the students started by naming the different bears. In one story they included a student from the class, Santa, and Morgan Freeman. I asked questions and they explained how all of the different people ended up there. The story came alive in a whole new way! When I first used La Paloma encuentra un perro caliente, I read the story and talked about the vocabulary, having students help me read in parts, much like I do with my son. My intention was not to create a vocabulary list with it and worksheets. However, I determined that a vocabulary sheet that students could illustrate and use a resource could be a very valuable tool for many students to speak about the story, write about it, or use it in other contexts. From that shift in thinking, the resources that are attached to this post evolved. They include a Google Presentation that introduces students to background information in a comprehensible way about Margaret Wise Brown, as well as many activities for practicing descriptive writing, reading comprehension, speaking, and more. My intent with the activities is to do one a day, but more than one could easily be done. Also linked is the vocabulary sheet and activities that can be done in class with a partner that are tied to a picture of a modern looking children's room with text in Spanish. The activities are designed based on the my interpretation of an Integrated Performance Assessment. However, they are not meant to be an assessment, rather a set of interconnected activities to use in class. I purposefully have tried to make the conversation part include questions students would want to talk about because they are of personal interest. A couple of ideas for sequencing are included below, as well as the link to my Google file. Feel free to make a not for profit copy of the resources from my Google files! I will continue to revise the file over time, so check back for a most recent copy. https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-uYCeJe10VkRkFvZkE2NjJMU1k&usp=sharing Day 1: 1) Introduce the author of the story with the Google Presentation and have students answer T/F questions about it as background knowledge. 2) Have students use the vocabulary sheet with the word bank to figure out as many of the vocabulary words before seeing the story for the first time. 3) Read the story. Talk about things on the pages as long as students seem to stay focused. Ask yes/no, either or questions. 4) Do a follow up activity from the presentation file. Day 2: 1) Allow a few minutes for students to add new vocabulary they figured out and add drawings to their vocabulary sheet. 2) Read the story. Add in questions. Ad-lib a story that includes the students in the story 3) Have students do an activity from the presentation file. Subsequent days can follow a similar structure. I have had students just describe what they see on particular page in the novel as well, as a couple minute speaking activity. I ask them to include as many adjectives in their descriptions as well. Here is another resource that includes a video that could be intriguing for a Movie Talk, as well as three versions for Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles. I am seeing lots of possibilities here! http://lunaticadesnuda.blogspot.com/2008/09/vincent-van-gogh-bedroom-in-arles-real.html See a list of children's books here. The list will continue to be updated. http://2spanishteachers.weebly.com/reading-resources.html How are you using children's literature in the classroom? ~Amy |
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