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Cortometraje Activities

7/2/2016

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​Videos have gotten an undeservedly bad rap in education land.  They are largely viewed as time wasters by parents, students, and administrators.  It's too bad really as videos can be a great source of comprehensible input in second language classrooms - but parents, students, and administrators don't likely know what comprehensible input even is.  Enter the cortometraje...

Cortometrajes ("shorts" in English) are short movies that tell big stories, some of them even without words.  The best ones are creative, interesting, and teach great lessons.  When used in the world language classroom, they can provide us with a common story around which we can develop listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills.  Best of all, they don't need to "fit" with your unit because the focus is not on the content, it is on the skills that students sharpen while using the content.  Since they are typically less than 10 minutes in length, they can be watched in a fraction of a class period with plenty of time left over to engage in communicative activities based on what was seen.

Take a peek at my 5 favorite cortometrajes to use in the classroom.  Click on the title of each to check out listening, reading, writing, and speaking activities for each cortometraje.

1.  "El Regalo"
2.  "El Vendedor de Humo"
3.  "Ratón en Venta"
4.  "La Nube y la Cigüeña"
​5.  "Jinxy Jenkins & Lucky Lou"
You can find more cortometraje titles and activities by visiting our store.
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Spanish Word Wheels

6/25/2016

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This past school year, one of the greatest additions to my class was definitely our word wheels.  The idea started simply enough but evolved into a versatile tool for both my students and myself.

So, first things first, what is a "word wheel"?  Well, it's pretty much what it sounds like.  Our word wheels are made up of 3 moveable parts: 
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Spanish Words
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Filter​
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Pictures​
To me, the picture part is most important because it continues our "no English" policy visually.  If I don't want students to speak in English, I don't want them to see English either, so I use A LOT of pictures during all of my activities.

At first, we just used the word wheels as a way to review and study words, but then something amazing happened!  We started to find more and more ways that they could be used for individual, partner, and whole class activities.  We also found that they helped us build more skills than just memorizing vocabulary.  We started to use them to help us build listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills.  All of these activities use the same wheel, just configured in a variety of different ways.
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1.  When we are just getting to know the word, we use them like this in place of a vocabulary list.  The filter acts as a way to focus students on one particular word-picture combination.  I would begin by showing them a Spanish word and asking what it is...they would then find that word on their wheel and look at the corresponding picture.


2.  Once students were familiar enough with the words, they could use their wheels to practice matching the words and pictures when we had a few extra minutes at the end of class and at home.  I would have them move the word wheel to the top for this so that they could easily shuffle the words by moving the wheel around.











3.  We also use them for partner practice.  We just remove the word wheel and give that to one student.  The other student keeps the picture wheel.  They can easily quiz each other.

4.  The same set up can be used to play simple class wide listening games.  I say a word in Spanish and they must find the picture.

5.  We also use them to practice writing or spelling words.  We use dry erase markers to write the words ourselves.

If you use interactive notebooks, these can easily become part of them.  When our unit is over, we keep our word wheels in a pocket chart in the classroom.  Fast finishers can go back and look at their old word wheels, I can quickly pull them out for a review activity, students can grab them for help with writing activities, the possibilities are really endless.

You can download your own template for creating word wheels, or you can check out the many pre-made word wheels available in my store by clicking the pictures below.

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How you put your word wheels together will depend on how you want to use them.  Typically, we change the construction of our word wheel throughout the unit as we move from recognition of words to production.  Here are some ideas as far as putting them together:
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Activities for Teaching Weather in Spanish

1/29/2016

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We are in the midst of our weather unit, so I thought I would share some of the activities that we have done this week to work on the interpretive mode (reading/listening) and cultural understanding around the theme.

This is a level 2 class, so we are revisiting the basics of weather that they learned in level 1 and extending them to include weather in past and future constructions and more of the vocabulary that they would actually hear during a "pronóstico del tiempo".  Here is the list we are working with:

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After introducing the vocabulary we started with a reading activity that focuses on two things - getting to know the expressions associated with weather AND starting to pay attention to WHEN the weather is occurring.
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We also looked at weather around world with Zachary Jones' awesome Tiempo Mundial activities.

I had no idea how little science background many of my students had when it came to weather outside of the United States, so we spent some time discussing weather patterns one might see in Spanish-speaking countries.  I wanted them to understand that tropical countries recognize la estación lluviosa and la estación seca rather than the 4 seasons that we recognize here in the northern United States.  We did this as a reading comprehension activity as well with lots of visuals for support.
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For every theme, I try to find an infographic that addresses a related topic in Spanish.  I find that infographics are THE BEST authentic resource for teaching reading and decoding strategies.  After using these on a regular basis I see a tremendous increase in my students' ability to infer meaning.  For this topic, I chose an infographic on "Enfermedaded por Calor" which you can see HERE.  This is one of many Infographics I have created ready to print activities for aimed at a variety of proficiency levels.  You can find them HERE. 
The other focus this week was listening.  There are a lot of great authentic listening resources out there for the topic of weather.  Of course, we did some practice listening to actual weather forecasts in Spanish.
We also listened to this fun song by Don Omar that loosely ties into the weather theme.  Many of my boys recognized Don Omar from the Fast & Furious movies (which provides instant teacher credibility by the way). We will extend the activity next week when we get into writing and create some new song lyrics with different weather expressions.  You can check that activity out HERE.
We even found time to watch this great wintery episode of Peppa Pig.  It uses a lot of winter weather vocabulary AND you can download my free activity to accompany this episode HERE.  I have about ten different episodes that I have created activities.  You can CLICK HERE to check the rest out!
At the end of the week, I assessed the kids using the reading and listening sections of this Integrated Performance Assessment.

Next week we are on to speaking and writing about the weather, so be sure to check back in about a week for more weather-related ideas!
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Giving Basic Personal Information in Spanish

9/14/2015

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This week in Spanish 2 we are working on being able to fill out basic forms in Spanish.  Luckily, most of our personal information is not written that much differently in Spanish than it is in English.  However, there are definitely some new vocabulary we need to learn as well as a few differences in the way that personal information is presented.


First, we started by introducing some vocabulary that would be important to know if you were filling out a form of any kind.
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We also identified some essential questions that we will focus on for our speaking rounds this week.
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Since this is the second week that we have worked with this material, we are working with the skills of presentational writing, presentational speaking, and interpersonal speaking this week.  Last week we worked with the skills of interpretive listening and reading and students heard and read many examples of other people presenting basic information about themselves. So, this week it is their turn to to take over.


By the end of the week, my students will need to fill out this basic form in Spanish with their personal information.  
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They will also need to be able to provide basic information over the phone.  We have chosen to have our speaking assessment be focused on their school e-mail addresses which they must be able to tell me in Spanish.  This will require them to use their previous knowledge of numbers and letters in Spanish and incorporate our newly learned vocabulary for @ (arroba) and .com (punto com).


Click on any of the pictures to download your own copy of these files!  Also, don't forget to check out our Integrated Performance Assessment on Giving Basic Personal Information.
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Communicative Activities for Describing People

9/9/2015

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This week we started our unit on physical description.  My students are currently in Spanish 2, so they know a little about physical description from last year, but I needed some activities that could take them to the next level.


We began by introducing some new vocabulary with pictures.  I also gave all my students a copy of this great talking mat created by the brilliant folks at www.actiludis.com. 

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Next, I passed out some pennies and had students do a coin toss to randomly select certain physical characteristics that we were focusing on.  We also threw in a little cultural tidbit about how in Spanish a coin isn't heads or tails but "cara o cruz" ("aguila o sol" in Mexico).

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Once the physical traits were determined, they set to drawing, then naming their new characters.

Then, we set up our gallery.  "Hombres" were on one side of the room and "Mujeres" on the other to help with traffic flow.
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The next day, I split my students into 6 teams.  Each team got a set of 30 task cards, each one asking them to find either a man or a woman with specific physical traits.  Then, I set them loose to find their matches.

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If you would like a copy of these materials all ready to print & go, you can find them in our store with some additional activity ideas and materials.


You can also follow our Pinterest Board for more great Description activities and resources in Spanish from all across cyberspace!  

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Fabio Dress Up Day!

4/28/2014

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We are learning how to talk about what people wear and how to describe their clothing.  So, just to spice things up a bit, I found this atrocious paper doll online (the file is downloadable at the bottom of this entry) and printed it out for the kids.  I told them that they had to dress "Fabio" in at least 5 articles of clothing or accessories from their vocabulary list.  I also told them that I wanted to see the most bizarre outfits possible.  The teenage boys especially began scouring their lists for the most horrible outfits, just a few of which are pictured at left.

Next, we wrote descriptions of what Fabio was wearing in Spanish, including colors and patterns. 

Tomorrow when they return to class, all of the Fabio's will be displayed on the board.  Each student will be handed a description and be asked to locate the correct Fabio based on that description. 

Then, we will talk about what made it easy to find the correct Fabio (details!) and what made it difficult (lack of details).  We will work together to add details to the descriptions that didn't make the cut.

Here are some links to additional activities that you can use to teach clothing:

Spanish "Whodunnit" Activities

"La Camisa Negra" por Juanes:  Song Activities
Clothing Internet Activity

fabio_paper_dolls.pdf
File Size: 72 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

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Choosing Vocabulary by Frequency

4/24/2014

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One of my favorite reference books that I use constantly when lesson planning is a frequency dictionary.  A frequency dictionary is exactly what it sounds like, a dictionary where words are listed in order of how often they appear in written and spoken language rather than in alphabetical order. 

One of the reasons that I originally wanted to stray from the textbook purchased by our district was because of their vocabulary selection.  I remember that in the Spanish I book, one of the terms to be learned in reference to describing people was "silla de ruedas" (which does not even make the cut in the frequency dictionary as it is not one of the 5000 most frequently used words in Spanish).  Any word is a good word, I get it, but when the goal is to build fluency, I just think the word for "wheelchair" can wait.  Or maybe, as in real life, we let that word come up when it is needed.  Sticking to words that are the most frequently used, especially in the lower levels, is crucial to getting students to the point where they can read and listen with comprehension.

Another nice thing about this dictionary is that it has thematic lists.  So, if you want to teach students some words for jobs or professions, this book will tell you that learning words like "autor", "médico", and "profesor" (the top 3 most referenced professions) will be more valuable to students comprehension than "marinero" (the 4,949th most commonly used word in Spanish).

Finally, seeing as over 20 different countries have declared Spanish as their official language, and even more as a secondary language, this tool can help you sort through the different words for "cake", for example.  Do you teach "torta"?  "pastel"? "bizcocho"?  This book will confirm that "torta" is in fact the most common word for "cake", with pastel coming in a close second, and "bizcocho" (a word mostly used by people from Puerto Rico) not even making the list. 

If you don't want to run right out and buy a frequency dictionary, I noticed that I was able to access the same frequency dictionary online (though if you are like me, there is something very loveable about a hard copy):

Spanish Frequency Dictionary

If you would like to ponder this topic more, here is a very interesting read on Lingholic's blog where he discusses the idea that you can understand a large percentage of written and spoken language with a relatively small active vocabulary - as long as that vocabulary consists of the most frequently used words!  So, it makes sense to me to approach teaching vocabulary in this way if our true goal is to have students that are able to understand and communicate with others through the language. 

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Creating Vocabulary "Hints"

4/22/2014

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Early on in my teaching career I noticed that retention (or the lack thereof) was a huge obstacle that stands in the way of fluency.  I did a lot of research and came across an interesting article on improving memory.  My goal was to develop a tool that I could use to help my students acquire vocabulary more quickly and retain that vocabulary for a longer period of time (preferably a lifetime).

So I chose a few of the tips mentioned in the article, and came up with a system through which I could help my students do the following:

1.  Focus their attention on the words they needed to study
2.  Structure and Organize
3.  Relate new information to things they already know
4.  Visualize concepts to improve memory and recall
5.  Pay extra attention to difficult information
6.  Utilize mnemonic devices to remember information
7.  Teach new concepts to another person

What I ended up with was a template that students could use to develop hints for vocabulary words by doing all of the above.  After several years, I can say the feedback has been very positive.  I have students now in college that say they use this technique to learn material for their classes at the University level.  I have former students who use this method in their subsequent Spanish classes, not because someone is making them (yes, at first I had to make them), but because they know that it works.

Here is the link to the template I created and directions on how to start using it with your students:

Vocabulary Hint Template & Instructions

**I am offering this template for FREE in my TpT Store until Sunday, April 27th!**

Don't forget to "follow" my store to receive information on future products and promotions!

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     I have been teaching Spanish for the past 15 years in a large Suburban School District.

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