tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74426673201516434322024-03-18T22:44:56.931-04:00Mis MusicuentosA linguist/Spanish teacher dissatisfied with the learn it, fight it, run from it, forget it second language process in the U.S. puts music and stories together to create a revolutionary language acquisition experience--in high school.Saritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02571736145192888452noreply@blogger.comBlogger244125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-58899329703072878922012-07-12T21:18:00.000-04:002012-07-12T21:18:36.270-04:00Don't forget to change your RSS feed!If you're like me and you do a lot of your blog browsing through a service like Google Reader, don't forget to change your RSS feed from this site to<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/Musicuentos"> the new blog</a>, musicuentos.com/blog.<br />
On the new site you can also subscribe by email on the top right, or click on the RSS feed icon on the bottom right of the page footer.Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-13260092435837377412012-06-27T14:38:00.003-04:002012-06-27T14:39:07.271-04:00Goodbye Blogspot, Hello musicuentos.com<br />
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And... LAUNCH!</div>
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Here we go! Very soon, visiting this site will redirect you to the brand new home of Musicuentos, <a href="http://musicuentos.com/">musicuentos.com</a>.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">After four years of blogging with blogspot, why the move? Well, for one thing, it was just time for a change, and I’d been thinking about and talking about how to change and improve my blog for a while. For a few more reasons, I have been doing some consulting work for a small elementary Spanish curriculum publisher, and I’ve greatly enjoyed the flexibility and opportunity that has been. Then, I got an email question about a blog post and the author asked me if I did any teacher training or consulting, and suggested that I should. And I thought, you know, I do this for fun so much anyway, why not?</span></div>
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It’s true, I have long been passionate about helping teachers pursue student proficiency through innovative curriculum and methodology, but not passionate enough to leave or take away from my classroom to do it. My recent consulting work piqued my interest in doing both. And so, I wanted to combine my blog with a website offering that type of service.</div>
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Enter <a href="http://twitter.com/joshuacottrell" style="color: #6fc2c5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank" title="Joshua Cottrell on Twitter">my husband</a>, computer programmer by day, and lately, computer programmer by late, late night as he has been working on one of the most amazing birthday presents I’ve received – this website. Almost everything you see except the text is the fruit of his love for me. Thank you, Joshua, and I love you to the moon and back.</div>
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Explore, send me suggestions, comment wherever, and as always, keep learning and keep sharing.</div>
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<a href="http://musicuentos.com/">WELCOME!</a></div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-67278005481562140512012-06-19T17:34:00.000-04:002012-06-19T17:34:13.628-04:00She's here! (And we're moving!)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg79S-dizLt6vcl27oeOmmgAq0vpS_UV1_CqGtrdBWTWfyrQ5yN2t_2yy_NEESBcKg03EBmdKrQVvKpbgne0i_kbb6QYeFTqaIzvgecSbY0y602surORz_uhEINHRFBgUiY3MqkXxrzFv4/s1600/hosp+just+born.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg79S-dizLt6vcl27oeOmmgAq0vpS_UV1_CqGtrdBWTWfyrQ5yN2t_2yy_NEESBcKg03EBmdKrQVvKpbgne0i_kbb6QYeFTqaIzvgecSbY0y602surORz_uhEINHRFBgUiY3MqkXxrzFv4/s320/hosp+just+born.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
It's been a long hiatus from the blog but sometimes there are more important things! Charis was born June 9, a blessing to our family. We're sleep-deprived but in love.<div>
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My other announcement is that my amazing programmer husband is working on a birthday present for me - Musicuentos is being completely redesigned and will have a new home. There are lots of exciting changes coming. Keep your eyes peeled!<br /><br /></div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-1433393529420738692012-03-26T10:25:00.002-04:002012-03-26T10:50:03.481-04:00Another change: Survey says...<a href="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2150/2415616556_8732b690c1_o.jpg" style="font-style: normal; "><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 234px; height: 60px;" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2150/2415616556_8732b690c1_o.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>The <a href="http://musicuentos.blogspot.com/2012/03/what-im-changing-this-week.html" style="font-style: normal; ">"I CAN" goals</a> in elementary are going well, so it's time to keep up the lessons learned from <a href="http://www.csctfl.org/" style="font-style: normal; ">Central States</a> and change something else.<div style="font-style: normal; "><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; ">One session I went to (a best-of-some-state) was about designing an entire year's curriculum around a theme. This teacher planned her whole year around the idea that her class was moving to Madrid. All the grammar and chapters and assessments, everything had to do with that. They were getting on an airplane, finding a roommate, finding an apartment, touring El Prado, etc. I enjoyed hearing about the activities they did (though wow-what a lot of work!). But I thought, what if my students don't ever live in Madrid? I've only taught 2 students in 8 years who have ever ended up living abroad, to my knowledge. What if I could tailor assessments and activities around what they actually wanted to do with Spanish? How can I find out?</div><div style="font-style: normal; "><br /></div><div>Switching gears, part of my problem - which I'm sure is greatly magnified in other schools - is that we have a 15-year Spanish program. Students are required to start Spanish (15 mins/wk) in Pre-K 3-year-olds. The time of instruction increases gradually until in 9th and 10th grade high-schoolers are required to take Spanish 1 and 2 at 50 minutes/day. Then we offer Spanish 3 and our fourth year is AP Spanish. We have an eye out for a future goal of testing 8th graders into a Spanish 2 section in 9th grade which would enable us to have Spanish 4 <i>and</i> AP Spanish.</div><div><br /></div><div>Wait, why would that be a problem? Well, you know the drill. Kids have different teachers and so they end up learning different things (or nothing at all) or the same thing 3 years in a row. Kids can't stand one teacher and so they choose to hate the required classes and skip out on the electives. This year I'm on a journey - I'm reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates/dp/1594484805/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332772343&sr=8-1">Drive</a> and plan to read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Punished-Rewards-Trouble-Incentive-Praise/dp/0618001816/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332772365&sr=1-1">Punished by Rewards</a> this summer - and I'm finally starting to give up on the thought that I can motivate kids. I can't. <span style="font-size: 100%; ">My job is to find out how they're naturally motivating themselves, and give them opportunities to channel that motivation and flourish.</span><span style="font-size: 100%; "> I'm convinced the only kids I've been reaching are the kids who are already motivated in the ways I've been teaching and assessing. Now I really couldn't care less if they "passed Spanish" but left my class with no lasting motivation to change something - </span><i style="font-size: 100%; ">anything</i><span style="font-size: 100%; ">.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>So this week I'm doing a survey. I wish I could survey my first graders and see what they want out of their next 7 years in Spanish to pass on to my 2-8 teacher but I don't think they'd understand what I was asking. But I plan to survey 8th grade, 10th grade, and 11th grade. I want to know - Are you looking forward to next year in Spanish? Planning to take it at all? Why or why not? What would you like to do with Spanish? What's worked well for you? What's been hard? Easy? Frustrating? I'll pass answers along to my Spanish 1 & 2 teacher to help in planning next year, if she wants (and knowing her she will), and to my elementary/middle school teacher (so he can get some feedback).</div><div>I plan on doing the survey anonymously (and weeding out the nasty/stupid answers). Hopefully we'll find out something helpful!</div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-18244637356691693942012-03-19T15:09:00.006-04:002012-03-26T10:16:14.586-04:00Design your own final exam<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimSJ9AkxJ8xUVI7VdKMToosEPcWong6isMOoZCUHpL7wLLzB1FUG-t3IqHPjpuH6wqsUOdoG2f1NJd00eYchvucZURidOLDm_Ah3gketunvIZMZxPTG3l5XvbQ4hl6tdgqceIfgyJ2hKA/s1600/computer+team.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 166px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimSJ9AkxJ8xUVI7VdKMToosEPcWong6isMOoZCUHpL7wLLzB1FUG-t3IqHPjpuH6wqsUOdoG2f1NJd00eYchvucZURidOLDm_Ah3gketunvIZMZxPTG3l5XvbQ4hl6tdgqceIfgyJ2hKA/s320/computer+team.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5721693648455357154" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span>photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/berkeleylab/">Lawrence Berekely National Laboratory</a></span></div><br /><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">This year as I contemplated my final exam for Spanish 3, I didn't want to do <a href="http://musicuentos.blogspot.com/2011/04/have-you-used-photopeach.html">what they did last year</a>, because I like the PhotoPeach reflection much better as a relaxing ending to AP Spanish. Since m<span style="font-size: 100%; ">y most popular blog post ever is about</span><span style="font-size: 100%; "> </span><a href="http://musicuentos.blogspot.com/2011/02/its-time-for-them-to-use-their-time.html" style="font-size: 100%; ">student choice in homework</a>, I thought, why not the final exam too?</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">My students are all interested in different things, and motivation is the primary key to language learning, so why not let them choose their own topic? They are all involved in different things, baseball and spring drama and final projects, so why not let them choose their own due date? Imposing technology on students doesn't usually work, so why not let them choose their own format? And that's sort of how the whole thing went.</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">Here's <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nJiTBX_YEE1P6GCV6DiKDYW0TqNoMIIQ7nKCLculTfY/edit">the info and plan</a> they made for themselves. I hope it works as well as the homework options do!</div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-19125830206299780442012-03-12T10:32:00.006-04:002012-03-12T11:58:36.227-04:00What I'm changing this week<div style="text-align: center;"><span ><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcGk7aA1mRB1vVasyfS6tfdjxU5XP5tbg4HKK1Rk3GNyXAnr7KRpNbkxllBigvWHrzEL9b7bEUFw0OnaqibdtFlsiJuIKfE8v_X5ejUNXMPoVnItKoYkdJvirh6tZNhRIuJucoicSqwOE/s1600/soccer+goal.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 160px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcGk7aA1mRB1vVasyfS6tfdjxU5XP5tbg4HKK1Rk3GNyXAnr7KRpNbkxllBigvWHrzEL9b7bEUFw0OnaqibdtFlsiJuIKfE8v_X5ejUNXMPoVnItKoYkdJvirh6tZNhRIuJucoicSqwOE/s320/soccer+goal.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5719022387086537538" /></a><br /><span ><span style="font-size: 100%;">I just got back from the </span></span><a href="http://www.csctfl.org/" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; ">Central States</a><span ><span style="font-size: 100%;"> conference, and although I only attended five sessions, as usual my mind is spinning with all the things I need to change (which would be why I only attended five sessions!). I concentrated somewhat on elementary-related issues, since that is where I struggle the most, as a teacher completely trained to teach high school. The list of things I think I need to adjust/redesign in my elementary classes is up to twelve [gulp]. But if I don't start small,</span></span><span ><span style="font-size: 100%;"> changing one small thing at a time, I'll never make those changes, or I'll totally overwhelm myself and my kids. So, squelching the little Energizer bunny in me that always wants to throw everything out the window to try everything new, I'm changing one thing this week: written goals.</span></span><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span ><u><br /></u></span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; ">After a training or conference I went to last year, I don't remember which exactly, I decided to start displaying the class goal on the board at the beginning of my high school classes. That lasted about 2 weeks and has been resurrected from time to time. I never even thought about trying it with my little people. They're just now starting to read, so what's the point, right? But it does seem like it's a mistake to never tell my students where they're supposed to be going, and a stated goal will give us all direction. This week, my goal for first grade is this:</div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglwhmTatKyKPFqDktn-pONwPt6f-Oy5V4cqf6ju1tCsDPkdlMyoCTCNHQuAdsXEurNAX4EMEMWr1G4cUiqwK-DNBFZDJGUO0Z6lk3yQ2sllUmie6L3EUfw9OOeFHEWvT5uRWASyZiLyCI/s320/can+fruit.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5719040478150666354" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 218px; " /><span style="font-size: medium; "></span></div><div><br /></div></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; "><i><br /></i></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; ">Baby steps.</div><br /><span ><span style="font-size: 100%;">photo credit: </span></span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/geomangio/2575358644/" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; ">Geomangio</a><span ><span style="font-size: 100%;"> via </span></span><a href="http://photopin.com/" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; ">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; ">cc</a>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-53197758579098589362012-03-10T18:07:00.002-05:002012-03-10T18:09:57.732-05:00Repost for CSC12: Increasing target language<span><span style="font-size: 100%;">I just finished presenting my Best of Kentucky session, Target [Language]: Say Less, Expect More at the <a href="http://www.csctfl.org/">Central States Conference</a>. Thanks so much to the few who stuck it out to attend the last session of the last day! Here's a repost of my presentation for them and anyone who wants it:</span></span><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br /></div><div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><div class="prezi-player"><style type="text/css" media="screen">.prezi-player { width: 550px; } .prezi-player-links { text-align: center; }</style><object id="prezi_kifmmrzslzap" name="prezi_kifmmrzslzap" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="550" height="400"><param name="movie" value="http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"><param name="flashvars" value="prezi_id=kifmmrzslzap&lock_to_path=0&color=ffffff&autoplay=no&autohide_ctrls=0"><embed id="preziEmbed_kifmmrzslzap" name="preziEmbed_kifmmrzslzap" src="http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="550" height="400" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="prezi_id=kifmmrzslzap&lock_to_path=0&color=ffffff&autoplay=no&autohide_ctrls=0"></embed></object><div class="prezi-player-links"><p><a title=" Increasing target language use in the world language classroom " href="http://prezi.com/kifmmrzslzap/target-language-expect-more-say-less/">Target [Language]: Expect More, Say Less</a> on <a href="http://prezi.com/">Prezi</a></p></div></div></span></div></div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-51709796175651775632012-02-03T10:24:00.004-05:002012-02-03T10:51:09.467-05:00A storytelling success story<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>In honor of last night's <a href="http://blog.calicospanish.com/2012/02/03/increase-acquisition-with-storytelling-in-world-languages.html">#langchat topic</a>, I want to share something that happened in one of my kindergarten classes this week.<div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQlC858NTtyPaj6B2YUs2GtSy-ywcapLij4TSC99sxE-xXa4hjA1Kj_NQDCYWJ-1v-0sFAkF9O06rItYrVubkn1Gh-sRiDOX1FrNwaDEmTwo37fczJHOTwadvcfsPxPn-0Qu6yqPgUDVQ/s320/medium_2711488804.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5704937134711870386" /></div>At my school, we have mandatory Spanish from age 3 in preschool through 10th grade. Until 2nd grade, however, students only receive between 15 and 20 minutes of instruction <i>per week</i>. I've been told many times that this is a waste of my time, and I know there's very little you can do in that amount of time, but as I've said before, that time compounded year after year as students stay at our school <i>could</i> produce some significant acquisition.<div><br /></div><div>In preschool, I teach a story in the fall and a story in the spring. <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/preklanguages">@PreKlanguages</a> gave me a crash-course in teaching preschool that rocked my world: start with a character and a color. Add an action. Add a song. Repeat every week. So that's what we do. It takes us an entire semester to go through <a href="http://musicuentos.blogspot.com/2010/10/and-winner-is.html">our fall story</a>: there's the grass, and it's green. On the grass there's a house. It's red. Who lives in the house? Elmo? No, the pollito. He's yellow (song: "Los pollitos"). One day he takes a walk. He walks fast. He walks slow.</div><div>It continues from there but you get the idea.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fast forward to kindergarten. At this point the kids come to me and I can use my projector, so we have a powerpoint story and a lot of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTnMPGWpTgU&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLCE830233D59DDB13">YouTube videos</a> and playing <a href="http://www.disney.es/disney-junior/contenido/juegos/oso-mision-paracaidas.jsp">online games</a>, etc. In late winter - this week - the bear in our story takes a walk to the park where he finds a dad and girl, and a mom and boy. So I start telling the story and doing the action -<i>el oso </i><i><u>camina</u>- </i>and that word barely gets out of my mouth when I hear a little guy up front say "<i>espacio</i>" (despacio).</div><div><br /></div><div>It almost took my breath away, and you have to understand why. This boy was in my preschool last year and hasn't heard that word from me in almost a <i>year</i> (and I know he doesn't receive any Spanish input outside my class). He has behavior problems. He has attention problems. Sometimes it seems he has processing problems. And he produced a comprehensible word in an appropriate context when I hadn't used it with the bear and actually didn't intend to.</div><div><br /></div><div>Children learn language because people are constantly telling them stories. Why wouldn't this work in SLA as well?</div><br />photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ucumari/2711488804/">ucumari</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com/">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">cc</a>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-24769994658235195932012-01-27T12:48:00.004-05:002012-01-27T12:55:12.305-05:00Not going to ACTFL again, but for the best reason ever<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Last year I didn't go to ACTFL because my proposal wasn't accepted and I didn't get to score AP exams to be able to fund the trip.<div>This year I knew I wasn't even going to try to go, but the reason is much happier. I'll let Zoe tell you:</div><div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho5_APoBdCDrxixgQqscOCC8aQP-LfwnYLaw7GNCUgIGwTFAt5vScuqVWwEIeaCBXP_wvyz4M8hMY3q8oIRT963qPXDnA0rOGadQrx5LZg1SpAnhaxcUbWvF6pA6XNgY_H4pp_gE06PPo/s320/Zoe+says.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5702370531761819522" /></div><div>So, here we go again! :)</div><div>The general malaise has lasted a lot longer this time and my blog and my grading have taken the hit for that. I'm feeling pretty good most days now so I hope to pick it up before I drop off the blogosphere again to take care of the new little one (due June 14). But I have a lot of drafts sitting on my dashboard of ideas for upcoming blog posts.</div><div>Exciting times for us!</div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-53238818157500356412012-01-24T12:27:00.003-05:002012-01-31T20:11:52.305-05:00MenusDescription, no price<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>With price</div><div><a href="http://www.cartagenarestaurantes.com/restaurantemontesacro/cartas.html#carta">http://www.cartagenarestaurantes.com/restaurantemontesacro/cartas.html#carta</a> </div><div><a href="http://www.cartagenarestaurantes.com/cevicheriawippy/menu.html">http://www.cartagenarestaurantes.com/cevicheriawippy/menu.html</a> </div><div><a href="http://www.cartagenarestaurantes.com/mardelasantillas/menu.html">http://www.cartagenarestaurantes.com/mardelasantillas/menu.html</a> </div><div><a href="http://www.platosdeldia.com/modules.php?name=PDD&func=menucompleto&restid=267">http://www.platosdeldia.com/modules.php?name=PDD&func=menucompleto&restid=267</a> </div><div><a href="http://www.platosdeldia.com/modules.php?name=PDD&func=menucompleto&restid=223">http://www.platosdeldia.com/modules.php?name=PDD&func=menucompleto&restid=223</a> </div><div><a href="http://www.platosdeldia.com/modules.php?name=PDD&func=menucompleto&restid=111">http://www.platosdeldia.com/modules.php?name=PDD&func=menucompleto&restid=111</a> </div><div><a href="http://www.raicesccch.com.ar/restaurant-inicio/nuestro-menu">http://www.raicesccch.com.ar/restaurant-inicio/nuestro-menu</a> </div><div><a href="http://www.taqueriaselfarolito.com.mx/menu.html">http://www.taqueriaselfarolito.com.mx/menu.html</a> </div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-66887094028891244182012-01-06T10:34:00.004-05:002012-01-06T10:45:44.025-05:00Free Ebook for WL educators<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4uCKOjo16BqK-a5s6Rrs5Hz1CM45MCcSz8GIKthpn_WhYIG3DqXJzfKWNd6sOBN6_W6WICWiREIwdHzP9EctvRkaLMzZah6pQn7XB8L_BRL-w0hQDrjnz-xUIRuOAkUlumj0tsQNPBI/s1600/langchat_ebook_softcover.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 164px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4uCKOjo16BqK-a5s6Rrs5Hz1CM45MCcSz8GIKthpn_WhYIG3DqXJzfKWNd6sOBN6_W6WICWiREIwdHzP9EctvRkaLMzZah6pQn7XB8L_BRL-w0hQDrjnz-xUIRuOAkUlumj0tsQNPBI/s320/langchat_ebook_softcover.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5694545696134916674" /></a><br /><div><br /></div>Our generous friends over at <a href="http://www.calicospanish.com/">Calico Spanish</a> have put together a free resource for you! <a href="http://www.calicospanish.com/langchat/langchat_signup.php">Sign up today</a> to receive Web Tools for 21st Century World Language Classrooms. This free e-book is an organized, user-friendly collaboration based on past <a href="http://www.twitter.com/">Twitter </a><a href="http://langchat.pbworks.com/w/page/39343677/FrontPage">#Langchats</a> related to using web tools to enhance and develop all sorts of language acquisition activities and assessments.<form method="post" class="af-form-wrapper" action="http://www.aweber.com/scripts/addlead.pl"><div id="af-form-785914923" class="af-form"><div id="af-header-785914923" class="af-header"><div class="bodyText"><p style="text-align: center;"><br />Get Your Free Ebook Now</p></div></div><div id="af-body-785914923" class="af-body af-standards"><div class="af-element"><label class="previewLabel" for="awf_field-29567413">First Name: </label><br /><div class="af-textWrap"><br /><input id="awf_field-29567413" type="text" name="name" class="text" value="" tabindex="500"><br /></div><br /><div class="af-clear"></div></div><div class="af-element"><label class="previewLabel" for="awf_field-29567414">Email: </label><br /><div class="af-textWrap"><input class="text" id="awf_field-29567414" type="text" name="email" value="" tabindex="501"><br /></div><div class="af-clear"></div><br /></div><div class="af-element buttonContainer"><input name="submit" class="submit" type="submit" value="Submit" tabindex="502"><br /><div class="af-clear"></div><br /></div><div class="af-element privacyPolicy" style="text-align: center"><p><a title="Privacy Policy" href="http://www.aweber.com/permission.htm" target="_blank">We respect your email privacy</a></p><br /><div class="af-clear"></div><br /></div></div></div></form>Enjoy!Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-64140925877135908122011-11-17T11:56:00.009-05:002011-11-17T21:04:47.986-05:00Dear novice-learner teacher - love, an AP teacher<a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2728/4225312382_a47cccae21_m.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 153px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2728/4225312382_a47cccae21_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><u></u></span>foto <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexcampro/">Alex Fuentes</a></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Twice for <a href="http://langchat.pbworks.com/w/page/39343677/FrontPage">#langchat</a> we've polled the following question:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="sp_answer" style="line-height: 22px;">What activities prepare students for AP from the very beginning?</span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">I confess, I probably wrote this question, maybe with some help from something similar being <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dEFBSXBvd3hqazgyNUxnTzV3ZkZvYkE6MQ#gid=0">suggested</a> as a topic. Certainly I've voted for it twice. But for whatever reason--perhaps teachers of lower levels don't think much about AP or the question was polled with others deemed more relevant--this topic has lost both times. So as usual, I'll take my opinion to the blog. Because I can.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">I'm currently in my fourth year teaching AP. I know I've learned a lot from it, and I've gotten better at it, but my students are also improving considerably, mostly, I think, from what they get before my class, not from what they get from it. AP is a fourth-year class at my school. My first year, I had just 2 students, scoring 1 and 2. Second year, 6 students scoring one 3 and five 1's (ouch). That year I was so mad at the College Board I won't tell you what I wanted to do with them. Last year I hit some things really hard and actually, I ended up with my eight students scoring one 4, three 3's, two 2's, and two 1's (yay!). This year, I have such a stellar group of kids that I wouldn't be surprised if all six of them pass.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Now, in all seriousness, I hate the AP. I hate the test, and I hate the College Board, and I hate the idea. I can't stand that one three-hour exam thinks it can predict how proficient my students are and will be in college in Spanish. That student my first year that scored a 2, he was conversationally fluent, at least an Advanced Low speaker, after 3 years (he'd skipped Spanish 3) and the most motivated learner I have ever met. Of the two students who scored 1's last year, one is majoring in Middle School Spanish Education and the other is minoring in Spanish.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Really, that's how I feel about all standardized exams (thank you, <a href="http://www.alfiekohn.org/index.php">Alfie Kohn</a>). But the fact is, most of my students care about it. It is our only fourth-year option, and last year they voted on whether to keep it AP (in which they are required to take the exam) or to call it Spanish 4 (in which they'd have the option to take the test). But all but one voted for AP. They want the weighted grade points, and the AP Advantage study hall, and yes, they want the extra focused preparation for the exam. They want the bragging rights, and they want the college credit. So, I'm about pleasing the students, and here we are again.</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">After four years of watching students struggle and succeed in their fourth-year AP class, here are my requests for you, the elementary teachers (which I also am) through middle school, Spanish 1, 2, and 3 teachers.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span">Please, please, PLEASE feed them ALL KINDS of authentic audio.<br />This is my #1 because it's my #1 problem with my students. They get to me (in Spanish 3) and can't understand anything but learner language. The majority of audio on the AP is not learner language. It's stuff like BBC Mundo and Radio ONU (which I couldn't understand until, say, 10 years into my journey). More importantly, the majority of audio in <i>life</i> is <u>not learner language</u>.<br />The common mistake is to think that <b>novices cannot understand authentic media</b>. The truth is that the difficulty is in the <i>question</i> and not in the <i>source</i>. If you're asking them to hear the word <i>cinco</i> that's a different question than if you're asking them to hear the word <i>aprovechándonos</i>.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span">Interact with vocabulary in real contexts.<br />Asking students "what is the word for black? Good! Red? Great!" does almost *nothing* for their language acquisition. Trust me, from day one a novice learner can understand this question:<br />¿De qué <b>colores</b> es un oso <b>panda</b>? (2)<br />Context is <u>everything</u>. My current AP students have <a href="http://musicuentos.blogspot.com/2011/01/do-something-drastic-kick-vocab-quiz.html">not had a vocab quiz</a> in four years and their vocabulary is incredible. Yesterday in our novel they were accurately identifying words like <i>solía</i> and <i>lechuza</i>. One of my Spanish 3 students actually asked for vocab quizzes the other day and we had to have a talk about how cramming does not create long-term memory. This is connected with the issue of authentic media - get students listening to and reading real materials and the vocabulary will just be there. I promise.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span">Ask questions that require critical thinking.<br />Critical thinking is a life skill. Prepare your students for life by asking them real questions that make a difference. Stop asking 'what' and start asking 'why' and 'how.' To me, the true test of a critical thinking question is if there's no clear-cut answer. Instead of stopping with "what foods do you like?" ask "is a guinea pig food? why or why not? would you try it?" (In Ecuador, guinea pig - 'cuy' or as my dad likes to call it, 'barbecuy' - is a delicacy.)<br /><br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span">Do speaking assessments. GET THEM TALKING.<br />My current Spanish 3 students tell me that last year they had exactly 1 speaking assessment. Now, kids like to complain about teachers, but if it's anywhere close to the truth, it's far too few. They're now facing two speaking assessments <i>each</i> in <i>every unit</i> for <i>sixteen</i> in all and they're <i>dying</i>. They hate it, except for my one who's aptitude leans toward speaking and away from writing.<br />The AP has a wicked guided conversation activity in which someone says something, then there's a beep, and the student has 20 seconds to think up and say what the test says they need to do. That's repeated about five times and that's the interpersonal speaking section. It's stressful and intense and unrealistic but there you have it. My current AP students are so used to talking back and forth in class that this year they were able to do this for practice without much anxiety much sooner than the students I had last year. Keep students talking -for the AP and for life.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span">Teach and require idiomatic expressions.<br />It's a sad fact about general proficiency guidelines and about the AP that the difference between one level and the next can come down to one single phrase - an idiomatic one. Three years ago the one student who passed said she went in determined to use the phrase "vale la pena." Honestly, she was the most proficient student in the class but I wouldn't be surprised if it made the difference between 2 and 3 for her. Keep an <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VE77AUPz9JLwTIsH8eGAhqlfzRpZsqD0O8ps952WRkY/edit?authkey=CIKm170F">idiomatic expression</a> on the wall, once a week or every two weeks. Reward students when they use them. Do an activity that requires a particular one. Point them out in authentic texts. Realize, and help students realize, that language is idiomatic.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span">Do assessments that require extrapolating and synthesizing main points from multiple sources.<br />A couple of years ago I did a KWLA presentation called <a href="http://musicuentos.blogspot.com/2010/09/prompts-with-power-prezi.html">Prompts with Power</a>. It was about finding authentic sources and asking students to answer a question, orally or written, based on the sources. Teach students to draw their own conclusions after comparing and contrasting two other opinions. Or three. Similar or different, it doesn't matter, but it's a life skill -and an important one on the AP- to be able to look critically at what other people think and use those opinions to develop an informed personal one.</span></li></ol><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Perhaps it's good I had to write this here and not on #langchat - this is certainly more than I could have explained in snippets of 140 characters. Thanks for putting up with it.</span></div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-50825385722080231542011-10-26T10:49:00.000-04:002011-10-26T10:49:00.273-04:00Learning from #langchat<a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4094/4817026295_43a10d324a_m.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 160px;" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4094/4817026295_43a10d324a_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >foto por <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/murplejane/">how will i ever</a></span></div><div><br /></div><div>If there's one big principle I've learned over the past 10 years, 8 teaching and 2 in grad school, it's that good teaching isn't magic. Sometimes it <i>looks</i> like magic, but it's not. Sure, some people just don't have the personality or gift of explanation to be a teacher. But some very gifted people have made very bad teachers throughout the history of education (I had some, didn't you?). I wish there were some card trick I could learn that would make everything in my classroom effective and, well, <i>magical,</i> but if there is, I haven't found it yet.</div><div><br /></div><div>Enter <a href="http://langchat.pbworks.com/w/page/39343677/FrontPage">#langchat</a>, which started (and continues) as a Thursday-night professional development that is prompted by and dictated by its participants, all world language teachers, or somehow connected to the profession. Three colleagues on Twitter approached me through email... wow, is it a year ago?... to start the chat, and it's blossomed into a useful hashtag that we use to share questions, answers, and links about teaching world language. The professionals who interact on #langchat have taught me so much more about good world language teaching than any bag of tricks could do.</div><div><br /></div><div>A couple of <a href="http://sraspanglish.blogspot.com/2011/10/critics-and-converts.html">recent</a> <a href="http://senoritalopez.posterous.com/this-weeks-langchat-topic-how-can-we-improve">blog posts</a> made me think, hey, perhaps it would be useful for me to reflect in the blogosphere on why I use #langchat, why we started it, and where it should go from here.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>1) Twitter is an unfocused, messy medium, but I love it, and let's make the most of it.</b></div>Twitter is anything but focused. Sometimes #langchat is like an open PD forum with pockets of teachers in the room, sitting at different tables, and a lot of chatter because there are seven different conversations going. (I think that's happened at every conference I've ever been to.) I remember a couple of #langchats where we started out with the topic (which participants had chosen) and went off in so many directions I felt like we weren't anywhere near what we were supposed to be talking about, and it was impossible to get back. But you know what? That's <i>okay</i>. Because that's where people were. That's what they needed to talk about that night. And that's what #langchat is about - it's professional development that you need, when you need it, on the subject you need. If it doesn't apply to you, skip it and see what's happening next week.<div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>2) Everyone has learned something from their journey, and everyone has the right to express what they've learned on #langchat. Please share yours with me.</b><br />Years ago, I remember telling my Spanish 3 students that I was going to try to speak in Spanish more in class (like, 10 minutes a class instead of nothing) and hearing them groan. I'd never even heard of ACTFL, much less their target input guidelines. That's one thing I love most about teaching: we're continually learning. I've learned so much more since college than I learned in college. I'm pretty sure I've learned more from our Twitter PLN in two years than I did in grad school.<div>I think all of us have that story - none of us has "arrived" at the final magic trick. Looking back at #langchat, personally that chat last year on authentic assessment picked me up by the collar and dumped me on my tail, so to speak, to show me I was relying too much on technology as assessment without thinking about whether or not the tasks were actually realistic or useful. And the PBL chat that @dr_dmd led - I thought I used PBL, but by the real definition, I almost never did. So I kept hammering him with questions, trying to figure out how PBL, authentic assessment, learner language, and input could interplay in the WL classroom, and came away determined to change up our major fall project in Spanish 3. I still don't know how I feel about PBL in the WL classroom as a major vehicle of learning, but just this last week my students benefited from what I learned from Don in that chat, and that's now part of my journey.</div><div>What's your journey? What have you learned? Whatever it is - in whatever format or area - share it, not just on Thursday evenings, but like we all do, throughout the week using the hashtags #langchat, or #flteach, or #spanishteachers, or #apfrench, or any number of others!<br /><br /><b>3) Everyone deserves respect, face-to-face and online. Respect me, and give me the benefit of the doubt. Bring problems with me, to me.</b><br />I am the type of teacher who learns about something and then throws caution to the wind and jumps in head-first. Four years ago I went to a TPRS workshop on a Thursday night and then Monday morning we pretty much threw our textbooks out the window (okay, it was a <i>little </i>slower than that). Then it was like God put me working with people who were the exact opposite: 'okay, let's get my feet wet a little bit here; okay, that worked pretty well, maybe next year I'll go a little deeper.' To balance my personality or something. ;-) What I've learned from working with them is what has been mentioned here--it's a journey and you never know what will motivate someone toward the next step on their path. </div><div><br /></div><div>From my perspective, many times I'm looking back on my own practices and asking, "Why didn't I see how terrible my idea was?" and I wonder if that comes off on Twitter as sounding like, "Why can't you see your idea is terrible?" if someone is doing something similar. 140 characters of digital type is a tough medium to communicate what we've learned. That shouldn't make us give up; on the contrary, I suggest two responses: 1) I determine to remember that we're all worthy of respect and edifying speech and 2) I determine to remind myself that if I'm offended it's more than likely I've misread what the person was trying to communicate and I should ask for clarification from that person until we've worked it out.<br /><br /><b>4) Respect is not the same thing as agreeing or affirming everything. I may be wrong, but...</b></div><div>But nothing! Call me out! Well, respectfully, but still, please don't affirm my bad ideas and call it respect, right? I look back and think, what would I have learned if people hadn't questioned what I was doing? There's one colleague in particular who has the mildly annoying <mildly annoying=""> habit of consistently asking me why I do a certain activity or assign some work or teach some unit or whatever. But the only reason it's mildly annoying is that frequently I'm just flat wrong, and there's no good pedagogy behind what I've done, and I'm immensely grateful that I have someone like that who keeps me professionally sound.</mildly></div><div><mildly annoying="">As one more personal example, it's no secret I try to keep translation out of my classroom as much as possible and that makes me not exactly a TPRS teacher, but it's also no secret that I think TPRS is one of the most revolutionary improvements to come to language learning in the last century, and I think Kristy (@placido) must be an amazing teacher I'd love to live closer to so I could observe her.<br /><br /><div><b>5) #langchat is intended to bring together a wide range of educators to foster the best exchange possible.</b></div><div>One of the most popular education chats on Twitter, #edchat, is so large that people blog about it being too large, and has broken up into two separate chats. And lots of area-specific chats have spun off from it. #langchat, so far, has not had the level of participation that would productively produce even more focused chats, in my opinion. That's not to say it couldn't. If educators want to spin off age-level focused chats, they should feel free. If a couple of educators hadn't had the idea to get some language teachers together to chat on Thursday nights, we wouldn't have #langchat. So what's your idea? Where do you want to go - and do you want to lead others there? Go for it! </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>You can follow me on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/secottrell">@secottrell</a>. Join us Thursday evenings at 8 Eastern, 7 Central for the best professional development around, #langchat. (<a href="http://www.tweetdeck.com/">Tweetdeck</a> and <a href="http://tweetchat.com/">tweetchat</a> are useful tools for organizing and following #langchat tweets.)</i></div></mildly></div></div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-31857744544535260262011-10-24T12:15:00.001-04:002011-10-25T10:34:12.699-04:00Not your average health unit<a href="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5141/5683258171_1b823aec36_m.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 180px;" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5141/5683258171_1b823aec36_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">foto por USP Hospitales</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>A unit on health is common in Spanish class. We have a unit in Spanish 2 on describing ailments and visiting the doctor. Then in AP I have a unit called "Cuidándome a mí" (taking care of myself). It's useful -last year's AP essay was health-related- but for AP I wanted to go beyond the typical reflexive verb, sickness phrases, doctor questions vocabulary and activities. Besides, our principal asked us this year to focus on hands-on learning with our students. So how could I make the learning hands-on, relevant, and connected to communities and culture?<div><br /></div><div>Every unit in AP contains four performance assessments: interpersonal speaking, presentational speaking, interpersonal writing, and presentational writing. I've had a focus in this unit for the past two or three years on healthcare and undocumented immigrants, but this year I wanted it to really matter. Here are the assignments we did for each:</div><div><br /></div><div><b>1) Interpersonal speaking</b></div><div>One student played a doctor's receptionist, and the student being assessed was someone in the doctor's office. I was a mother whose child needed a chicken pox vaccine in order to go to school, but didn't have any health insurance or much money. So the receptionist won't let me make an appointment, and the student had to explain to me that I could get the vaccine at the health department. To complete this task my students had to a) get the address and phone number of the health department in our city, b) identify language options at the health department, c) find out what kind of care is offered at the health department, d) find out whether undocumented immigrants can get care at the health department, and e) understand how services are paid for at the health department. And these students had never even heard of the health department!</div><div>Here's <a href="https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B72mc8YXWvmuOThhMjc0MGUtOTMwNS00OGRjLWE5NjMtZTlmOWRkYzYyYmRh&hl=en_US">April</a> completing this task.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>2) Presentational speaking</b></div><div>Scenario: The local Latino community is having a town hall meeting to talk about local health care options. Several local political leaders are attending (with translators). Based on an article about<a href="http://www.impre.com/laopinion/noticias/la-california/2011/6/30/nintilde;os-inmigrantes-quedar-262665-1.html"> undocumented children in the health reform</a> debate and a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KanPQpRtx1o">video about a baby's life being saved at Seattle Children's Hospital</a>, present a 2-minute argument about why undocumented immigrant children should or should not receive healthcare services at health departments and hospitals.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>3) Interpersonal writing</b></div><div>Students had to locate a doctor in the city who spoke Spanish. This involved actually calling the offices to verify that they had Spanish-speaking staff and to get their address. Then they wrote a letter to the doctor explaining what they had learned about the undocumented and/or uninsured Spanish-speaking community and encouraging the doctor to get involved in free or low-cost clinics in the area. We are mailing these letters.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>4) Presentational writing</b></div><div>Students wrote a lengthy letter to our Congressman, John Yarmuth. Based on a <a href="http://sincuento.com/index.php/salud/36-salud/8517-el-60-de-hispanos-indocumentados-en-eeuu-carece-de-seguro-medico">Pew Hispanic Center study</a>, comments by the <a href="http://sdpnoticias.com/nota/183526/Presidenciables_republicanos_cancelarian_beneficios_a_indocumentados">Republican presidential candidates</a>, and a radio program addressing <a href="http://archivosderb.org/?q=es/node/3244">changes in the California MediCal</a> access laws, students addressed such questions as:</div><div>-what is the most reasonable response to the healthcare crisis?</div><div>-if we treat everyone indiscriminately, will healthcare costs rise to an unsustainable level?</div><div>-how can we control costs for those who can't pay without overburdening society?</div><div>-what kinds of healthcare are human rights and what aren't?</div><div>-what do we do with undocumented children who had no say in their legal status?</div><div>-should undocumented immigrants receive healthcare anywhere, or only in certain places?</div><div>-how can we inform undocumented immigrants on their healthcare rights and options?</div><div>I am going to write an English-language note to accompany these letters, explaining what we did to Mr. Yarmuth and telling him that my students care enough about the Latino community that they have taken the time to learn their language, and if he will take the time to find someone to translate their letters, he will get some interesting opinions, as well as getting a taste of what language negotiation immigrants have to go through to become informed. Then I'll mail them.</div><div><br /></div><div>I actually <a href="http://musicuentos.blogspot.com/2009/10/ap-sythesis-essay-sources-los.html">posted about this unit</a> two years ago, but I think now it's become a lot more relevant and service-oriented.</div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-12782582385262924872011-10-10T21:50:00.001-04:002011-10-10T21:51:37.585-04:00Presentation: Target Language: Expect More, Say LessWhoops! I completely forgot to post my Prezi from my second KWLA presentation! Here it is, Target Language: Expect More, Say Less.<br /><br /><div class="prezi-player"><style type="text/css" media="screen">.prezi-player { width: 550px; } .prezi-player-links { text-align: center; }</style><object id="prezi_kifmmrzslzap" name="prezi_kifmmrzslzap" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="550" height="400"><param name="movie" value="http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf"/><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"/><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"/><param name="flashvars" value="prezi_id=kifmmrzslzap&lock_to_path=0&color=ffffff&autoplay=no&autohide_ctrls=0"/><embed id="preziEmbed_kifmmrzslzap" name="preziEmbed_kifmmrzslzap" src="http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="550" height="400" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="prezi_id=kifmmrzslzap&lock_to_path=0&color=ffffff&autoplay=no&autohide_ctrls=0"></embed></object><div class="prezi-player-links"><p><a title="<br /> <br /> Increasing target language use in the world language classroom<br /> <br /> " href="http://prezi.com/kifmmrzslzap/target-language-expect-more-say-less/">Target [Language]: Expect More, Say Less</a> on <a href="http://prezi.com">Prezi</a></p></div></div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-87416143346253154602011-09-27T12:46:00.003-04:002011-09-27T12:52:27.725-04:00Spanish 3 assessment documentsSometimes I feel like I'm reinventing myself every year. Do you ever look back on something you did and think, "Why on earth did I do it that way? What a bad idea! Here we go again." I feel like I do that every year! So even though I completely redesigned my Spanish 3 class <i>last</i> year, this past summer I attended a week-long workshop on using proficiency-based assessments, and here I am again, reinventing Spanish 3.<div><br /></div><div>I give all the credit in the world to @tmsaue1 and the @JCPSWorldLang teachers who welcomed me into their learning community and inspired me to work on authentic, proficiency-based, standards-based assessments. You can view their documents <a href="https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=28f7c805d5a3213d&sc=documents&id=28F7C805D5A3213D%21154">here</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the spirit of open source I also try to make everything I do available. Here are my <a href="https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B72mc8YXWvmuNGU0ZTcwMDQtOGM0Zi00OTgwLWE5YWMtNzkxMzAzYjFiN2Y2&hl=en_US">Spanish 3 assessment documents</a>, and the <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B72mc8YXWvmuYTIxNDRmMDctNjg4ZC00YjQxLTllMWQtMzZjNGEyODhmMzlk&hl=en">rubric</a> I use to "grade" them (you'll notice there's no place for an actual grade). Feel free to comment here with your email if you want an editable version--they looked terrible in Google Docs as Word documents.</div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-9738769733013555482011-09-22T23:11:00.004-04:002011-09-22T23:13:16.724-04:00For KWLA 2011: Media from Reel to RealHere's my Prezi for my Friday a.m. session, Media from Reel to Real.<div><br /></div><div><div><div class="prezi-player"><style type="text/css" media="screen">.prezi-player { width: 550px; } .prezi-player-links { text-align: center; }</style><object id="prezi_qmvfuityetho" name="prezi_qmvfuityetho" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="550" height="400"><param name="movie" value="http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"><param name="flashvars" value="prezi_id=qmvfuityetho&lock_to_path=1&color=ffffff&autoplay=no&autohide_ctrls=0"><embed id="preziEmbed_qmvfuityetho" name="preziEmbed_qmvfuityetho" src="http://prezi.com/bin/preziloader.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="550" height="400" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="prezi_id=qmvfuityetho&lock_to_path=1&color=ffffff&autoplay=no&autohide_ctrls=0"></embed></object><div class="prezi-player-links"><p><a title="</div><div> </div><div> No description</div><div> </div><div> " href="http://prezi.com/qmvfuityetho/media-from-reel-to-real/">Media from Reel to Real</a> on <a href="http://prezi.com">Prezi</a></p></div></div></div></div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-27455822612126590532011-09-21T08:03:00.003-04:002011-09-21T08:27:39.135-04:00Accuracy vs. proficiency: an illustration<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI3tIy-pPwgeBlRvMzzhqZNwfdrqvvxmVKXWiDaNbWaUIYtbF13bqkRgg-ejI6EL4zuHl8lRXB2kQkMDPL2zdhkWA7wLHCkx2O89eZiwqXpwBYgyue9JEIHUrQsYsQhoFMC5uTuYeI7vc/s1600/target+steve+mullan.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI3tIy-pPwgeBlRvMzzhqZNwfdrqvvxmVKXWiDaNbWaUIYtbF13bqkRgg-ejI6EL4zuHl8lRXB2kQkMDPL2zdhkWA7wLHCkx2O89eZiwqXpwBYgyue9JEIHUrQsYsQhoFMC5uTuYeI7vc/s200/target+steve+mullan.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654782576166641762" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >photo Steve Mullan</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Accuracy refers to grammatical forms that match the standard form of the language. So, a student produces 'yo pensé' instead of 'yo piense' (something my 3's have been doing recently). Proficiency includes an aspect of accuracy, but primarily refers to how well the speaker (or writer) is able to communicate and comprehend <i>meaning</i>. The contrast is what <a href="http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=dUc7sLSt1DIC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=focus+on+form+in+classroom+second+language+acquisition&ots=buL2kWnVf0&sig=pXW_1DBA95KI3aOIrw102GfXE_A#v=onepage&q&f=false">Cathy Doughty</a> (confusingly) refers to as focus on form vs. focus on formS. (The distinction is necessary but this way of referring to it has always driven me up the wall- I can't remember which is which without looking it up. Every.time.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Next week, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Dngrid_Betancourt">Ingrid Betancourt</a> is coming to visit our local library, a super exciting event because every year for the past 3 years my Spanish 3 students have done a project related to her kidnapping and rescue. To prepare for her book talk, I got <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Silencio-Termine-Even-Silence-Spanish/dp/1616052430">her book</a> in Spanish and I'm trying to finish it before she comes. It's 700 pages long. I've made it halfway. I just read this morning a perfect example of the importance of proficiency over accuracy. I know that as Spanish teachers it makes us cringe inside every time we hear "Me llamo es..." but read this snippet of Betancourt's story and see which you think is more important.</div><div><br /></div><div>Betancourt was in the jungle for more than 6 years. Not long after she was kidnapped, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Out-Captivity-Surviving-Colombian-Jungle/dp/B004IK9EP0/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316607478&sr=1-4">three American contractors</a> were also kidnapped, and they ended up with her for a period of time in a type of jail in the jungle. The hostages bickered quite a bit amongst themselves, often targeted at Betancourt, so much so that at one point she was taken out of the jail and housed elsewhere in the camp. Then, the other hostages back in the jail complained so much that her conditions were now better than theirs, that she was transferred back. When she returned, one of the Americans, Marc Gonsalves, whom she says did not participate in all the bickering, approached her. Here's my loose translation:</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Marc smiled sadly and told us in broken Spanish, with all the verbs in infinitive form, that he was very happy to see Lucho and I again. His words reached my soul...</i></div><div><i>"I can't believe it! You're speaking Spanish! I go away for three short weeks and you end up speaking better than me!"</i></div><div><i>...</i></div><div><i>Everyone laughed, because Marc answered with the three words of Spanish that he could patch together. He translated literally some English expressions that, miraculously, in Spanish came out hysterical and made us all laugh. Then he bid farewell courteously and went back to the barrack.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>So, can verbs in infinitive "reach the soul"?</div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-6520697688810771622011-09-19T21:41:00.005-04:002011-09-20T11:31:17.004-04:00Fun activity #6: A escribir<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://musicuentos.blogspot.com/2011/03/trying-to-make-learning-fun.html">Fun activity</a> #6 is ¡A escribir!, an activity obviously designed to get students spontaneously writing.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3447/3293117576_05f43d8305_m.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 159px;" border="0" alt="" /><div style="text-align: center;">foto por <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjpacres/">Jeffrey Pacres</a></div><div><br /></div><div>At first, when our <a href="http://classtools.net/education-games-php/fruit_machine/">activity chooser</a> landed on "A escribir," students were not thrilled. Writing? Don't we do that all the time? And from my perspective, how do you keep a random, effective writing prompt on hand all the time?</div><div>This is where I have to hand all the props to <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/zjonesspanish">@ZJonesSpanish</a> and his Tírate a escribir writing activities based on comic strips. The chooser lands on A escribir? No problem. I literally have to do -nothing-. I pull up <a href="http://zachary-jones.com/zambombazo/">Zambombazo</a>, click on <i><a href="http://zachary-jones.com/zambombazo/category/tiras-comicas/">Tiras</a></i>, and pick the newest one that I think will interest my students and be appropriate for their level. We talk about the tira cómica for about a minute, and then they have 8 minutes to write whatever they can think of about it. It's been a whole lot more interesting for my students than they thought it would be. We even sent some responses to Zachary and he posted them <a href="http://zachary-jones.com/zambombazo/tira-rosca-izquierda-en-que-se-sabe-que-ya-empezo-el-ano-escolar/">on the <i>tira</i></a><i> </i>on his site.</div><div>Another offering from Zambombazo great for lower levels too (and incidentally, writing or speaking) is his ebook, <i><a href="http://zachary-jones.com/zambombazo/ebook-que-le-dirias-15-actividades-para-empezar-la-clase/">¿Qué le dirías?</a>.</i></div><div>Spontaneous writing gets kids thinking on the spot in the TL, a skill that boosts oral proficiency as well. Go for it!</div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-32415601541583780402011-09-12T12:19:00.005-04:002011-09-12T12:53:06.491-04:00App review: Tour Wrist<div>A couple of weeks ago on #Langchat, the Thursday night (8 ET) chat by and for language teachers on Twitter, we discussed iPad (and other iOS) apps that may be useful in the world language classroom. That night I downloaded something like 25 free apps and since then I've been on a mission to see what they can do in my classroom. In my Spanish 3, we have 2 iPods and 1 iPad, and in AP, we have 2 iPads and 3 iPods. Not ideal, but enough to have a little fun.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our first unit in Spanish 3 was on things we do with friends and family for fun ("Esparcimiento"), and included some talk about travel, as well as concentrating on expressing opinions with deeper vocabulary than "Sí, me gusta." The interpersonal speaking assessment involved me having a conversation with them (about a sports game) so-- what do the rest do while I'm talking to 1? Enter Tour Wrist.</div><div><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGPo1YXIMTxh2ABvL3i3cpHpErSUf8OfPNPLLyVvfIW4raVBbpEIq5VbnE2vEXldCKhSOb0YyDgTs7n5USZTLn13VBcqOVjyWXswGGuYFmJQDHipRGh475UldiWQiDmUhFmeqgWhDzQNo/s200/tour+wrist2.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5651508659046491090" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 134px; height: 200px; " /></span><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span">tour wrist home page</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">Tour wrist is a free app that lets you do virtual tours of more than 23,000 places all over the world. You can look at the Tour of the Day (or obviously, home, hotel, or photographer of the day) but more useful is the "Browse all tours" function. That takes you to a map of the world.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGK8DgyifIxBgw2cAEfA4ECCQ5f8qui_LOIts2oEz4rjtk8aoWcusBHpYP-Ez5UfhO5fqGSdgG6HWRDLSwwRRfRJ_qF274Z9sy9oVRla7kFvpSVqE8LA-RLHjF37COQt594J0kmLWUKDI/s1600/Tour+Wrist+1.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGK8DgyifIxBgw2cAEfA4ECCQ5f8qui_LOIts2oEz4rjtk8aoWcusBHpYP-Ez5UfhO5fqGSdgG6HWRDLSwwRRfRJ_qF274Z9sy9oVRla7kFvpSVqE8LA-RLHjF37COQt594J0kmLWUKDI/s200/Tour+Wrist+1.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5651508860845181186" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">tour wrist map - Central America</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">You can use two fingers to enlarge any part of the map to see more of what's there. Now, the offerings in Latin America are not exactly extensive, but the app is a whole lot of fun. As you focus in, more and more green placeholders show up. Tapping on one will tell you what it is, and tapping on the arrow on its title will take you to the tour.</div><div style="text-align: left;">This is where you find the best feature - by holding your device at eye level, you can turn around and see the 360-degree view as if you were there. Really, you can hold it up and look at the sky, or down and look at the floor.</div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeY5NKVUR2JD2_g0p1blrFMiicW6qlfedTIzIYf5BaVOrmOe1m3JY4N8wUZXO_gkLE84XSRlyy36FAu035dBkg4Fgkh94vnn8lJj_VGJEmvAqobeS1v_KJ7cgz5qKu9A097PAKZ8xt6IU/s1600/Tour+Wrist+3.PNG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 133px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeY5NKVUR2JD2_g0p1blrFMiicW6qlfedTIzIYf5BaVOrmOe1m3JY4N8wUZXO_gkLE84XSRlyy36FAu035dBkg4Fgkh94vnn8lJj_VGJEmvAqobeS1v_KJ7cgz5qKu9A097PAKZ8xt6IU/s200/Tour+Wrist+3.PNG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5651515965543243458" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Tour of bridge in Medellín, Colombia</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Anyway, what do you do with this in class? While I was doing the interpersonal conversation with individual students, the others had to work in pairs to find a tour in a Spanish-speaking country and answer the following questions:</div><div style="text-align: left;">1. What is it?</div><div style="text-align: left;">2. Where is it?</div><div style="text-align: left;">3. Do you like it?</div><div style="text-align: left;">4. Why or why not?</div><div style="text-align: left;">They did this for at least two places.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The students really enjoyed the app, of course, but more importantly, they were using their recent targets (expressing reasons for opinions) to talk about places I could never take them to. I did have one pair choose random places in the Caribbean or someplace. I told them later that if they were doing something that didn't have much to do with Spanish or places where people speak Spanish, they probably had the directions wrong.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So- it would be nice if there were more tours available in the places we were looking, but it's a stylish, user-friendly, free app for all iOS devices, lots of fun for all involved.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">What ideas do you have for Tour Wrist in the world language class?</div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-49659309855066132482011-09-01T11:18:00.003-04:002011-09-01T11:57:09.634-04:00Myth #6: Memorizing vocabulary<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; ">For my original post about the myths, look <a href="http://musicuentos.blogspot.com/2011/01/they-cant-speak-and-its-our-fault.html">here</a>.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; ">
<br /></span></div><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/117/294725170_1cf30803ab_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 193px; " /><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; ">foto por <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/acula/">Micheo</a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; ">
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; ">Myth #6 is this:
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Students learn vocabulary in long lists of isolated words (or, we just went over <i>bosque</i>, why can't they remember it and remember it's masculine?).</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >What a mistake I used to make, and textbooks make. To think that we can give students a list of vocabulary, tell them there's a quiz on Friday, and somehow think they'll be able to use it next month, or next week for that matter.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Here's the truth: students learn words they need to do what they want to do. Think about the words you know - they are words you need to accomplish something. I don't know how to talk in Spanish about nuclear power plants. I barely know how to talk in English about nuclear power plants, and what I do know I know because my father worked at one for thirty years. Our brains are efficient - most of us just don't bother remembering terminology we never need to communicate something.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >If you've interacted with me for very long, you know that my students do<a href="http://musicuentos.blogspot.com/2009/11/case-for-free-topic-blogging.html"> free-topic blogging</a>. I once had a student who wrote nearly every week about hunting. It was his passion. The verb <i>cazar</i> was not in our vocabulary for Spanish 3. But you can bet that before long he knew that and the words for all the different animals he hunted. Why? Because he <i>wanted</i> to. In Spanish 3 every year, we read the novels <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cajas-Carton-Circuit-Stories-Migrant/dp/0618226168/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314891589&sr=8-1">Cajas de cartón</a> and<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Esperanza-renace-Spanish-language-Rising/dp/0439398851/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314891607&sr=1-1"> Esperanza renace</a>. Both deal with immigrant children. Though the words are not in our vocabulary list, by the end of the year they are completely familiar with words like <i>migra</i>, <i>campesino</i>, <i>pizcar</i>, and <i>frontera</i>. Why? Because they <i>need</i> them to talk about the issues in the books.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >It's one of the most freeing things that has ever happened to me in my professional life to come to the realization that students will naturally acquire the vocabulary that interests and helps them without me drilling or quizzing it.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >As a few resources for you, check out the archive of last year's <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/search/langchat">#Langchat</a> on <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ar2mc8YXWvmudGxkc3J0anM4VF9wMDdUWTJKYXUwMFE&hl=en_US#gid=0">rethinking how we teach vocabulary</a>. I also have done several blog posts on this topic, including <a href="http://musicuentos.blogspot.com/2009/01/examply-of-vocab.html">how I do vocabulary</a> (surprise! I do give out vocab lists!), why you should <a href="http://musicuentos.blogspot.com/2011/01/do-something-drastic-kick-vocab-quiz.html">kick the vocab quiz</a>, and what you might do <a href="http://musicuentos.blogspot.com/2009/01/examply-of-vocab.html">instead of the vocab quiz</a>. Also check out <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/cybraryman1">cybraryman</a>'s <a href="http://cybraryman.com/vocabulary.html">page on teaching vocabulary</a>, as well as <a href="http://www.edutopia.org/">Edutopia</a>'s <a href="http://www.edutopia.org/blog/vocabulary-instruction-teaching-tips-rebecca-alber">insightful post</a> on the topic.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >If you're into research, read up on <a href="http://www.kushiro-ct.ac.jp/library/kiyo/kiyo36/Brian.pdf">what it has to tell us</a> about teaching vocabulary, including that <b>shallow processing memorization doesn't work</b>. For a tempering opinion, if it's worth a book purchase to you, you could read <a href="http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume8/ej32/ej32r6/">Vocabulary Myths</a> by Keith Folse, who warns that throwing out vocab lists and stopping teaching it explicitly is too dramatic and not actually an answer to the vocab question.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >However you decide to present and teach and review your vocabulary, my advice is to seek more ways to focus on these five keys:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >1) motivation - make it vocabulary students find interesting.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >2) useful - students see value in vocabulary when they can see themselves using it.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >3) frequency - in every way you can think of, integrate the vocabulary that everyone uses.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >4) phrasal - fool with words and phrases to encourage chunking of words commonly used together</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >5) <b>less is more</b> - concede that students can only acquire so much at a time, and give up on the rest (at least until later).</span></div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-82391293607826155082011-08-23T12:01:00.004-04:002011-08-23T12:14:25.307-04:00Trending topic = authentic comprehensible input<a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4041/4187459827_ed320a5f0f_m.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 181px;" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4041/4187459827_ed320a5f0f_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">foto por Scott Beale</div><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I keep the <a href="http://mexico.twirus.com/">Mexico trending topics </a>as a column on my <a href="http://www.tweetdeck.com/">Tweetdeck</a>, because you never know what will come up there. One great thing about Twitter is that you can only get so complicated in 140 characters, and when someone gets it in their head to get a topic like #4palabrasqueduelen trending by thousands and thousands of people, the text gets even simpler. So of course I had to mine the tweets using <a href="http://visitmix.com/work/archivist-desktop/">Archivist Desktop</a>, clean them up, and use them for class. This is authentic input, mostly simple phrases written by Spanish speakers for Spanish speakers, most of them about our students' age or just a bit older. Twitter is such a gold mine!</div><div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And I can't do something like this without sharing, right? I <a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ar2mc8YXWvmudEdWZWpPSnR0ZklUNXFyRGRGUkJfTWc&hl=en_US">put them in a spreadsheet</a>, took out the hashtags, fixed the accents that got messed up in the transfer, deleted the trash, and deleted the repeats like the unending versions of "ya no te quiero." (Twitter is so dramatic.) I also only kept 50 of them - the program mined 2000 tweets.</div><div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">After your students read them, take a poll of what are the favorites. Then see what are their #4palabrasqueduelen - o mejor, #4palabrasquealegran, a great suggestion from <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/sraheebsh">@SraHeebsh</a>.</div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-86372996699918802762011-08-21T22:29:00.003-04:002011-08-21T22:33:54.145-04:00Got the rubric!After making my first new <a href="http://musicuentos.blogspot.com/2011/08/new-year-new-units-new-assessments.html">assessment description</a>, I've finished <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B72mc8YXWvmuYTIxNDRmMDctNjg4ZC00YjQxLTllMWQtMzZjNGEyODhmMzlk&hl=en">the performance assessment rubric</a>. It took a long time to make but hopefully it will be adopted for every assessment from 6-12 grades at my school. Again, I stole most of it from the great people at <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/jcpsworldlang">@JCPSWorldLang</a> (with a special shout-out to <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/tmsaue1">@tmsaue1</a> for all the sharing they do over there). They got it all on one page, but I wasn't willing to put my text that small, or my document-creating abilities just aren't up to par. ;-) Thoughts?Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-71548044001264334922011-08-18T12:49:00.002-04:002011-08-18T12:56:36.772-04:00New year, new units, new assessmentsAt last I've turned to working on my own classes (after looking at Spanish 1 all summer for our new teacher) and I'm (once again) re-doing my Spanish 3 units. This year I'm trying to make them more realistic. I've been heavily influenced on this by<a href="http://www.blog.kidsimmersion.com/2011/05/authentic-assessment-in-world-language.html"> a particular #langchat</a> last year on making assessments authentic. My assessments were fun, and used a lot of language, but didn't have a whole lot to do with what students really would do with language.<div>
<br /></div><div>So, back to the drawing board. I've come up with the assessments for Unit 1 (titled "El esparcimiento") and just did the assessment description for <a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B72mc8YXWvmuYzAwNDgyMGQtM2I5Yy00MmRmLWIyMzgtYmY5MzUzOTk3Nzdj&hl=en_US">interpersonal writing</a>. What do you think?</div><div>
<br /></div><div>(Of course I have to give a shout-out to<a href="http://twitter.com/#!/jcpsworldlang"> @JCPSWorldLang</a>, from whom <a href="https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=28f7c805d5a3213d&sc=documents&id=28F7C805D5A3213D%21154#cid=28F7C805D5A3213D&id=28F7C805D5A3213D%21154&sc=documents">I stole almost completely</a> the format for this.)</div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442667320151643432.post-28599753890741486282011-08-16T12:03:00.004-04:002011-08-16T12:32:17.590-04:00Jumping on the Animoto bandwagonI've heard a lot about Animoto but it's always been filed away in that "I'm sure it's great, but I'm on technology overload here" part of my brain. This week I decided to finally jump in and make on.<div>
<br /></div><div>If you stick with the basic account, it's more than mildly annoying that you can't do anything past 30 seconds without a paid account. But thanks to @ckendall for the heads-up that you can apply for a <a href="http://animoto.com/education">free educator account</a>. Mine came through immediately (no 2-week wait like they cautiously say). That gives you unlimited videos for you and up to 50 students.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Yesterday, our first day of school, I was in the new position of actually not knowing my Spanish 3 students. This is the first class I've had that I didn't already have in a previous class. So, we talked about why each one of them elected the class. I took some of their ideas, grabbed some photos from Flickr Creative Commons, and made a quick Animoto. Today I did the same thing with some vocab from AP's first unit.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>What will you make?</div><div>
<br /><object id="vp150h70" width="432" height="240" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000"><param name="movie" value="http://static.animoto.com/swf/w.swf?w=swf/vp1&e=1313510802&f=50h70ROs932A9gk3FmRgWA&d=32&m=b&r=240p&volume=100&start_res=240p&i=m&options="><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed id="vp150h70" src="http://static.animoto.com/swf/w.swf?w=swf/vp1&e=1313510802&f=50h70ROs932A9gk3FmRgWA&d=32&m=b&r=240p&volume=100&start_res=240p&i=m&options=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="432" height="240"></embed></object><p>Create your own <a href="http://animoto.com/">video slideshow</a> at animoto.com.</p>
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<br /><object id="vp1UDfgo" width="432" height="240" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000"><param name="movie" value="http://static.animoto.com/swf/w.swf?w=swf/vp1&e=1313511202&f=UDfgoC2Gkod7arALeuomzw&d=33&m=b&r=240p&volume=100&start_res=240p&i=m&options="><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed id="vp1UDfgo" src="http://static.animoto.com/swf/w.swf?w=swf/vp1&e=1313511202&f=UDfgoC2Gkod7arALeuomzw&d=33&m=b&r=240p&volume=100&start_res=240p&i=m&options=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="432" height="240"></embed></object><p>Create your own <a href="http://animoto.com/">video slideshow</a> at animoto.com.</p>
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<br /></div>Sra Cottrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13573869242047566709noreply@blogger.com3