I found a recent broadcast from Radio ONU (incidentally a great source for AP Spanish audio) that uses several verbs in the future tense because it's about a future meeting of a group discussing what they want to do about the H1N1 virus. Current event + grammar = :o)
My favorite thing to do with these is to print the script (which is what the link will take you to), black out the target features (whether verbs or vocabulary or whatever) and copy the script, and then play the audio several times and use it as a type of cloze quiz. I combined this with a few other future activities (a song and 2 news articles) so they were finding a total of 22 verbs, but 2 of the verbs in this audio (reunir and evaluar) they're not terribly familiar with, so I made the quiz grade worth 20 pts. The highest grade I got was 20/20, and I only got 1 of those out of 13 students. My lowest was 17/20, just to give you an idea.
03 April 2010
30 March 2010
Interesting blog post about iPod as language lab
I got a link to this blog post over my Twitter feed from @techforschools and had to share. It's called "iPod Touch as Language Lab."
A couple of years ago I saw a language lab rep at a conference and of course got all in a tizzy about language labs. He hasn't visited my school yet but I talked to my admins about having him in and I got an estimate - $27,000 for 14 stations. I was basically told to keep dreaming, but that was fine; I at least wanted them to know I wanted one in case someone designated a large gift to the school for foreign language (I teach at a private school).
Then I started thinking about how I could turn our laptop computer lab into a listening lab with microphones and software. But we have computer classes in there in the afternoon, and I can't take my classes there, which is a significant obstacle. Then we thought, well, what we really need is a mobile laptop lab, but because of our elevator/stairs situation, it would only be usable by part of our school. Not a great option either.
So now I'm nearly sold on the idea of having a set of iPods to use as sort of a mobile computer lab. I've decided I need to be really crazy about an idea and know enough about it to conduct training on it to really get serious about asking to allocate funds for it, but the more posts I see like this, the more crazy I become.
It's a good sort of loca though.
A couple of years ago I saw a language lab rep at a conference and of course got all in a tizzy about language labs. He hasn't visited my school yet but I talked to my admins about having him in and I got an estimate - $27,000 for 14 stations. I was basically told to keep dreaming, but that was fine; I at least wanted them to know I wanted one in case someone designated a large gift to the school for foreign language (I teach at a private school).
Then I started thinking about how I could turn our laptop computer lab into a listening lab with microphones and software. But we have computer classes in there in the afternoon, and I can't take my classes there, which is a significant obstacle. Then we thought, well, what we really need is a mobile laptop lab, but because of our elevator/stairs situation, it would only be usable by part of our school. Not a great option either.
So now I'm nearly sold on the idea of having a set of iPods to use as sort of a mobile computer lab. I've decided I need to be really crazy about an idea and know enough about it to conduct training on it to really get serious about asking to allocate funds for it, but the more posts I see like this, the more crazy I become.
It's a good sort of loca though.
29 March 2010
News article: appeal + subjunctive for influence
Popping in quickly to share an article with a lot of youth appeal (I mean, it has juventud in the article) and some subjunctive for influence.
You'll find it here on univision.com.
You'll find it here on univision.com.
28 January 2010
A high-interest exercise for imperfect/pasado continuo
In my class, my students know that I don't care if they know what imperfect or preterite means. Often we call them descriptive past and sudden past, because that's the best way in my opinion to contrast them. The trick with putting them together is to get students to use one when they're describing ongoing action and switch to the other when they want to say what happened. We do a story, where they fill in the details, in which our two characters were going somewhere (a birthday party for the horse's mother) in some way (on an airplane) doing something (eating chocolate straws) with someone else doing something (Miley Cyrus not wearing enough clothing) when something happens (the plane fell) and while that was happening other things happened (the people screamed, the horse pushed Miley Cyrus out of the plane).
I thought about using children's books as a follow-up exercise, having them describe what was happening on the page. I did that very quickly at the end of a class, as an oral activity, and I pushed them to make the exercise very rapid so they didn't have time to get bored, but I thought, if I do this again they're going to get bored with it as a writing exercise. But it's almost March Madness. We live in KY where basketball is king. I have 2 girls who will probably have a volleyball scholarship in college. I've been hyping up the upcoming World Cup. What if I find amazing sports videos, culturally relevant, in Spanish, to use instead?
So these are what we found. Manu Ginobli, the most accomplished Latin American basketball player ever, beats Serbia & Montenegro at the buzzer in the 2004 Olympics (make sure your students watch the clock & the score box). The USA scores on a fabulous corner kick in a World Cup qualifier vs. Mexico. Peru's volleyball team makes an amazing play in their bid for a spot in the 2010 World Championship games in Japan after their star actually kicks the ball--I didn't even know that was legal.
We watched the videos through, used sudden past to say what happened in the big moment of the game, and then paused the video in different areas. We named some random person on the screen, and each student had to use the continuous past (our focus of the week) to say qué estaba haciendo esa persona. We did this 3 or 4 times for each video and I took the writing as a daily grade. It worked beautifully. My students could have watched the videos a dozen times so they didn't even care that they were technically doing a grammar writing exercise.
Here are the videos:
I thought about using children's books as a follow-up exercise, having them describe what was happening on the page. I did that very quickly at the end of a class, as an oral activity, and I pushed them to make the exercise very rapid so they didn't have time to get bored, but I thought, if I do this again they're going to get bored with it as a writing exercise. But it's almost March Madness. We live in KY where basketball is king. I have 2 girls who will probably have a volleyball scholarship in college. I've been hyping up the upcoming World Cup. What if I find amazing sports videos, culturally relevant, in Spanish, to use instead?
So these are what we found. Manu Ginobli, the most accomplished Latin American basketball player ever, beats Serbia & Montenegro at the buzzer in the 2004 Olympics (make sure your students watch the clock & the score box). The USA scores on a fabulous corner kick in a World Cup qualifier vs. Mexico. Peru's volleyball team makes an amazing play in their bid for a spot in the 2010 World Championship games in Japan after their star actually kicks the ball--I didn't even know that was legal.
We watched the videos through, used sudden past to say what happened in the big moment of the game, and then paused the video in different areas. We named some random person on the screen, and each student had to use the continuous past (our focus of the week) to say qué estaba haciendo esa persona. We did this 3 or 4 times for each video and I took the writing as a daily grade. It worked beautifully. My students could have watched the videos a dozen times so they didn't even care that they were technically doing a grammar writing exercise.
Here are the videos:
19 January 2010
A song with 17 verbs in past subjunctive
Past subjunctive is not the easiest thing to find in a song, much less several repetitions of it. I blogged a bit about a couple of songs that do it, but I this song just crossed my radar and wow, what a gem for past subjunctive. It has 17 verbs in the past subjunctive, 8 of them unique. They're almost all part of unreal if clauses, and the cool thing is that you can see the use of the concept without the actual word 'if,' something that's not taught in textbooks. (Again, textbooks fail us.)
As an added benefit, you have 'quiera' as subjunctive by reason of indefinite antecedent (for a better song for that, see this post). Thanks Carlos Vives (@carlosylaprovin on Twitter) for injecting some fun in one of the hardest concepts in the Spanish language.
Como Tú
Carlos Vives
Tú no sabes lo que diera
si me vieras y dijeras tú,
que no sabes que yo quiero
que mi vida la quisieras tú,
si supieras que me gustan
son las cosas que prefieres tú,
que quisiera que los hijos
que tengamos fueran como tú.
Como tú, la primavera.
Como tú, la vez primera.
No haya nadie que me quiera.
Como tú, mi vida entera.
Tú, tú, tú, mi vida entera.
Tú, tú, tú, mi vida entera.
Me perdonas si yo insisto,
que mi vida la quisieras tú.
Que de todas las estrellas
que yo he visto, la más linda, tú.
Si supieras que me gustan
son las cosas que prefieres tú.
Que quisiera que los hijos
que tengamos fueran como tú.
Tú no sabes lo que diera
si me vieras y dijeras tú,
que no sabes que yo quiero
que mi vida la quisieras tú,
si supieras que me gustan
son las cosas que prefieres tú,
que quisiera que los hijos
que tengamos fueran como tú.
Como tú, la primavera.
Como tú, la vez primera.
No haya nadie que me quiera.
Como tú, mi vida entera.
Tú, tú, tú, mi vida entera.
Tú, tú, tú, mi vida entera.
Me perdonas si yo insisto,
que mi vida la quisieras tú.
Que de todas las estrellas
que yo he visto, la más linda, tú.
Si supieras que me gustan
son las cosas que prefieres tú.
Que quisiera que los hijos
que tengamos fueran como tú.
(coro otra vez)
Si las noticias fueran como tú.
Y las ciudades fueran como tú.
Y si las calles fueran como tú.
Y si mi jefe fuera como tú.
Y si mi vida fuera como tú.
Y mis canciones fueran como tú.
Y si la guerra fuera como tú,
Si las noticias fueran como tú.
Y las ciudades fueran como tú.
Y si las calles fueran como tú.
Y si mi jefe fuera como tú.
Y si mi vida fuera como tú.
Y mis canciones fueran como tú.
Y si la guerra fuera como tú,
No habría problema todos como tú
(coro y tag otra vez)
(coro y tag otra vez)
18 January 2010
My corporate Spanish links, all in one place
I just tagged on my Delicious all the Spanish-language corporate websites that I've mentioned on my blog. It makes it a lot more convenient to find the sites that my students have found interesting. You can find it here:
http://delicious.com/wandermami/Corporate_Spanish_sites
http://delicious.com/wandermami/Corporate_Spanish_sites
11 January 2010
"Adora la Exploradora"-the week we didn't feel like a boring past-tense review
Last week it was time to start reviewing how the two past tenses work together, and I just didn't feel like the usual diagrams, writing exercises, prompted conversations, etc. So now that we have our Flip cameras, I told the students to write a movie script. They had to use both past tenses, and they had to use every subject at least once. We have a student whose name in my class is Adora, and they had the idea to make "Adora la exploradora." They started making this student Backpack, that student Grandma, and the ideas kept flying. I think it turned out super fun. We're going to be filming today and tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it! I wish I could post the video, but I don't post pictures or video of my students on public websites.
After the first day, the video was planned all in Spanish. Also, two separate classes did the planning and will be filming the same way. In Word the diacritical marks were all there and correct, but they didn't copy/paste here.
Enjoy!
GUIÓN
Narrador: Adora y Boots salieron de su casa, porque ellos querían ir a la casa de los abuelos de Adora y comer galletas. Antes de que salieran, buscaron al Mapa.
Adora y Boots: Hola Mapa!
Mapa: Soy el Mapa (10x)Bosque, puente, montaña, casa de abuelos. Díganlo conmigo. Bosque, puente, montaña, casa de abuelos. (2x)
Narrador: Adora y Boots lo dijeron.
Narrador: Cuando salieron de la casa, caminaron al bosque espantoso y entonces llegaron. Adora vio a Swiper! ¡Ay de nosotros!
Swiper(salta del bosque):
Adora y Boots: ¡Swiper no robes! ¡Swiper no robes!
Narrador: Pero Swiper le robó la chamarra a Boots.
Swiper: Demasiado tarde. JAJAJA.
Adora y Boots: ¡Ay de nosotros!
Narrador: La buscaron y no la encontraron. Así que corrieron al puente. Adora y Boots llegaron al puente y el trol les cerró el paso. y No pudieron pasar.
Adora y Boots: ¡Por favor! ¡Necesitamos pasar e ir a la casa de mis abuelos ahorita o las galletas estarán frías! ¡Trajimos la ardilla, Tico, en nuestra mochila para ayudar a comer las galletas!
Trol: No quiero que ustedes pasen, pero si resuelven la adivinanza pueden pasar. Este es la adivinanza: -Tengo frío y calor y no frío sin calor.-
Adora y Boots: Hmmmmmm.
Tico: ¡Yo sé! ¡Yo sé!
Adora y Boots: ¿Qué?
Tico: ¡Sartén!
Trol: Respondiste correctamente. Tristemente… Tristemente… Tuve hambre.
Adora y Boots: Eres muy inteligente, Tico. Te amamos.
Tico: No los amo. Lo siento.
Adora y Boots: ¡Grrrrr! ¡Sal! Pero gracias para la solución. Adiós.
Narrador: Adora y Boots caminaron sobre el puente muy rápido y subieron la Montaña Vegas donde se dieron con el toro.
Adora y Boots: ¡Hola Benny!
Benny: ¡Hola Adora! ¡Hola Boots! Estoy comiendo mi almuerzo. Me alegra verlos porque no los veo hace mucho tiempo.
Adora: Tenemos un problema. Necesitamos buscar a Swiper porque le robó la chamarra de Boots.
Boots: Estoy muy triste. Quiero mi chamarra. Mi amigo Tico me la dio para mi cumpleaños pasado. Es mi favorita.
Adora: ¿Has visto a Swiper o la chamarra de Boots?
Benny: Yo sé dónde está la chamarra.
Boots: ¿DÓNDE ESTA? Yo la quiero.
Benny: Swiper la tiró en el árbol. Porque la chamarra no le quedaba muy bien.
Boots y Adora: ¿Dónde está el árbol?
Benny: Pregúntenle al mapa.
Mochila: Yo lo tengo.
Mapa: ¡Aquí estoy!
Adora y Boots: Mapa, ¿Dónde está el árbol?
Mapa: Allí (Señala con el dedo)
Narrador: Adora y Boots se apresuraron al árbol y consiguieron la chamarra. Entonces, Adora y Boots fueron a la casa de abuelos.
Los Abuelos y Diego: ¡Adora y Boots! ¡Nos hicieron falta!
Adora y Boots: ¡Hola! ¿Como han estado?
Los Abuelos: Muy bien y muy cansado pero hicimos galletas para Uds.
Diego: ¿Qué de yo?
Los Abuelos: Ok. (a Adora y Boots)Compartan con Diego.
Adora y Boots y Diego: ¡Ñum Ñum Ñum DELICIOSAS!
Adora y Boots: (a audiencia) ¡Gracias por ayudarnos! ¡ADIOS!
EL FIN!!!!!!!!
After the first day, the video was planned all in Spanish. Also, two separate classes did the planning and will be filming the same way. In Word the diacritical marks were all there and correct, but they didn't copy/paste here.
Enjoy!
GUIÓN
Narrador: Adora y Boots salieron de su casa, porque ellos querían ir a la casa de los abuelos de Adora y comer galletas. Antes de que salieran, buscaron al Mapa.
Adora y Boots: Hola Mapa!
Mapa: Soy el Mapa (10x)Bosque, puente, montaña, casa de abuelos. Díganlo conmigo. Bosque, puente, montaña, casa de abuelos. (2x)
Narrador: Adora y Boots lo dijeron.
Narrador: Cuando salieron de la casa, caminaron al bosque espantoso y entonces llegaron. Adora vio a Swiper! ¡Ay de nosotros!
Swiper(salta del bosque):
Adora y Boots: ¡Swiper no robes! ¡Swiper no robes!
Narrador: Pero Swiper le robó la chamarra a Boots.
Swiper: Demasiado tarde. JAJAJA.
Adora y Boots: ¡Ay de nosotros!
Narrador: La buscaron y no la encontraron. Así que corrieron al puente. Adora y Boots llegaron al puente y el trol les cerró el paso. y No pudieron pasar.
Adora y Boots: ¡Por favor! ¡Necesitamos pasar e ir a la casa de mis abuelos ahorita o las galletas estarán frías! ¡Trajimos la ardilla, Tico, en nuestra mochila para ayudar a comer las galletas!
Trol: No quiero que ustedes pasen, pero si resuelven la adivinanza pueden pasar. Este es la adivinanza: -Tengo frío y calor y no frío sin calor.-
Adora y Boots: Hmmmmmm.
Tico: ¡Yo sé! ¡Yo sé!
Adora y Boots: ¿Qué?
Tico: ¡Sartén!
Trol: Respondiste correctamente. Tristemente… Tristemente… Tuve hambre.
Adora y Boots: Eres muy inteligente, Tico. Te amamos.
Tico: No los amo. Lo siento.
Adora y Boots: ¡Grrrrr! ¡Sal! Pero gracias para la solución. Adiós.
Narrador: Adora y Boots caminaron sobre el puente muy rápido y subieron la Montaña Vegas donde se dieron con el toro.
Adora y Boots: ¡Hola Benny!
Benny: ¡Hola Adora! ¡Hola Boots! Estoy comiendo mi almuerzo. Me alegra verlos porque no los veo hace mucho tiempo.
Adora: Tenemos un problema. Necesitamos buscar a Swiper porque le robó la chamarra de Boots.
Boots: Estoy muy triste. Quiero mi chamarra. Mi amigo Tico me la dio para mi cumpleaños pasado. Es mi favorita.
Adora: ¿Has visto a Swiper o la chamarra de Boots?
Benny: Yo sé dónde está la chamarra.
Boots: ¿DÓNDE ESTA? Yo la quiero.
Benny: Swiper la tiró en el árbol. Porque la chamarra no le quedaba muy bien.
Boots y Adora: ¿Dónde está el árbol?
Benny: Pregúntenle al mapa.
Mochila: Yo lo tengo.
Mapa: ¡Aquí estoy!
Adora y Boots: Mapa, ¿Dónde está el árbol?
Mapa: Allí (Señala con el dedo)
Narrador: Adora y Boots se apresuraron al árbol y consiguieron la chamarra. Entonces, Adora y Boots fueron a la casa de abuelos.
Los Abuelos y Diego: ¡Adora y Boots! ¡Nos hicieron falta!
Adora y Boots: ¡Hola! ¿Como han estado?
Los Abuelos: Muy bien y muy cansado pero hicimos galletas para Uds.
Diego: ¿Qué de yo?
Los Abuelos: Ok. (a Adora y Boots)Compartan con Diego.
Adora y Boots y Diego: ¡Ñum Ñum Ñum DELICIOSAS!
Adora y Boots: (a audiencia) ¡Gracias por ayudarnos! ¡ADIOS!
EL FIN!!!!!!!!
07 January 2010
My level 1 and 2 stories (for Bethanie, and whomever else)
A little while ago I made a post about pleasure reading that elicited a few comments from Bethanie:
When I first started giving my students stories with comprehension questions as assessment, I remember wishing there were more available for free on the internet, especially for lower-level students. I'm still not aware of anyone publishing or offering such stories on the internet, but at least I'd like to offer mine to Bethanie and anyone else who wants to use them. A few notes about them:
1-I believe that students pay more attention with a lower affective filter (and therefore acquire more) if the stories are interesting, funny, weird, or all of the above.
2-Long stories are frustrating so none is longer than 1 page.
3-Sorry for any mistakes/misprints. Feel free to make them your own.
4-They deliberately use vocabulary my students learned in that particular quarter. You may want to replace words to match your students' vocabulary.
5-The stories that are one page long with questions on the other page, I scored as tests.
6-There are a couple of stories I wrote for them to answer questions on (quiz grade) and then they filled in blanks with different details to make the story their own (daily grade) and exchanged with another student(s) who answered the questions based on the new story (quiz grade).
Level 1 stories
Level 2 stories
Hope you find them useful!
When I first started giving my students stories with comprehension questions as assessment, I remember wishing there were more available for free on the internet, especially for lower-level students. I'm still not aware of anyone publishing or offering such stories on the internet, but at least I'd like to offer mine to Bethanie and anyone else who wants to use them. A few notes about them:
1-I believe that students pay more attention with a lower affective filter (and therefore acquire more) if the stories are interesting, funny, weird, or all of the above.
2-Long stories are frustrating so none is longer than 1 page.
3-Sorry for any mistakes/misprints. Feel free to make them your own.
4-They deliberately use vocabulary my students learned in that particular quarter. You may want to replace words to match your students' vocabulary.
5-The stories that are one page long with questions on the other page, I scored as tests.
6-There are a couple of stories I wrote for them to answer questions on (quiz grade) and then they filled in blanks with different details to make the story their own (daily grade) and exchanged with another student(s) who answered the questions based on the new story (quiz grade).
Level 1 stories
Level 2 stories
Hope you find them useful!
11 December 2009
A song with 37 repetitions of "más que"
The winner of the Latin Grammy for Mejor Nuevo Artista this year, and nominated in a similar category for Premio Lo Nuestro 2010, is a blond, dimpled native of D.F. named Alexander Acha. One of his most popular tunes is the song "Te Amo." I had to tell my students to give him a chance through the Josh Groban/Andrea Bocelli-sounding verse (which I love) and get to the chorus, and I actually had several of them vote for him for Premio Lo Nuestro. The most important feature of the song is that I count 37 repetitions of "más que" or "más aun que". Fabulous.
07 December 2009
Switch to a communicative set-up
How is your classroom laid out? Is it conducive to communicative teaching and acquisition?
Recently my principal came back from a visit to another school and showed me a picture (on his iPhone of course) of a classroom that made him think of me. The teacher had put several tables together and then cut a giant oval piece of wood and laid it on top to create a large oval table. All his students sat around this oval table and he and they loved the setup. And this was in a primarily lecture class.
I told my principal that the standard students-in-rows-of-desks is a legacy of 150 years of education, way back in one-room schoolhouses when all grades were in one room with one teacher learning all subjects. If our education system has changed so drastically, why hasn't the setup of the classroom?
Nowhere is this more true than in language classes. Students need to be in a situation that helps them scaffold and collaborate because language is not a one-person game. You can learn and do math on your own, you can read history and answer essay questions, but language is not a solitary activity by nature. In the article Classroom Layout Preference Reflects Teaching Style authors Fernando Doménech Betoret and Amparo Gómez Artiga write that "Teachers-in-training with a specialization in languages perceived a layout with students seated in forward-facing rows as suitable for individual work (e.g., grammar and writing activities), but perceived a layout with desks in a half-square configuration as more suitable for speaking activities." My question is, since when is language "individual work"? That's part of the problem plaguing American world language teaching.
The fact is that a layout involving students sitting in groups of four or five is most useful when you have small groups working because it "encourages talk within the small groups, and exchanges with the teacher." Does that not sound like a language class?
In this small-group setup it's most helpful to "have the students sit so they're side on to you and remember to move around the classroom when you need to give instructions or change activities."
Here's my system:
I arrange tables in my room so that students are 4 to a table and are sitting facing sideways to me. They can easily turn their chairs to face the front if necessary, but mostly they are facing each other.
The first day of class my students make a "name tent" (a 5X8 card folded in half lengthwise) with their English name on one side and a Spanish name on the other (this also helps me learn their names). Each day before each class, I take about 30 seconds to randomly set out the tents. I go one on this table, one on the next, and so on. Then at the end I collect them all by table so they'll go out in a different order next time.
This way, I ensure that students are sitting with different people all the time. At least most of the time, they'll be sitting with someone who's better than they are, and someone who struggles more than they do, so there's a lot of scaffolding going on amongst themselves. This also helps one of my classroom policies to not answer as many questions as possible, rather to let students answer each other's questions.
So I challenge you to evaluate how your classroom is set up and rework it to promote communicative teaching and acquisition. You'll be surprised at the results!
Recently my principal came back from a visit to another school and showed me a picture (on his iPhone of course) of a classroom that made him think of me. The teacher had put several tables together and then cut a giant oval piece of wood and laid it on top to create a large oval table. All his students sat around this oval table and he and they loved the setup. And this was in a primarily lecture class.
I told my principal that the standard students-in-rows-of-desks is a legacy of 150 years of education, way back in one-room schoolhouses when all grades were in one room with one teacher learning all subjects. If our education system has changed so drastically, why hasn't the setup of the classroom?
Nowhere is this more true than in language classes. Students need to be in a situation that helps them scaffold and collaborate because language is not a one-person game. You can learn and do math on your own, you can read history and answer essay questions, but language is not a solitary activity by nature. In the article Classroom Layout Preference Reflects Teaching Style authors Fernando Doménech Betoret and Amparo Gómez Artiga write that "Teachers-in-training with a specialization in languages perceived a layout with students seated in forward-facing rows as suitable for individual work (e.g., grammar and writing activities), but perceived a layout with desks in a half-square configuration as more suitable for speaking activities." My question is, since when is language "individual work"? That's part of the problem plaguing American world language teaching.
The fact is that a layout involving students sitting in groups of four or five is most useful when you have small groups working because it "encourages talk within the small groups, and exchanges with the teacher." Does that not sound like a language class?
In this small-group setup it's most helpful to "have the students sit so they're side on to you and remember to move around the classroom when you need to give instructions or change activities."
Here's my system:
I arrange tables in my room so that students are 4 to a table and are sitting facing sideways to me. They can easily turn their chairs to face the front if necessary, but mostly they are facing each other.
The first day of class my students make a "name tent" (a 5X8 card folded in half lengthwise) with their English name on one side and a Spanish name on the other (this also helps me learn their names). Each day before each class, I take about 30 seconds to randomly set out the tents. I go one on this table, one on the next, and so on. Then at the end I collect them all by table so they'll go out in a different order next time.
This way, I ensure that students are sitting with different people all the time. At least most of the time, they'll be sitting with someone who's better than they are, and someone who struggles more than they do, so there's a lot of scaffolding going on amongst themselves. This also helps one of my classroom policies to not answer as many questions as possible, rather to let students answer each other's questions.
So I challenge you to evaluate how your classroom is set up and rework it to promote communicative teaching and acquisition. You'll be surprised at the results!
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Could you elaborate on what you do with the reading guides/palabras claves? I would like to incorporate more long reading into my classes in addition to the shorter pieces I already use, but struggle with some of the same things you mentioned.
Also, if you could select books for levels 1 and 2, what would you pick?
Thanks!
Hi Bethanie! Now I just hand the students the guides/palabras claves and they turn them in on the due date. A couple of tips that are important, I think, are 1) to reduce frustration, read together at first to teach them how to find the important things without looking up every word (make sure you understand subject/verb, leave the sentence as soon as you have the gist of it, leave the paragraph as soon as you have the gist, understand every part of a sentence when you know the answer to a ? is there); 2) give them the page numbers of the answers to the questions and make sure they're chronological; 3) give a list of high-frequency words from the chapter that they're not likely to know; and 4) rehash the chapter in a TPRS/circling way when they turn in the guide to gauge who understood what.
As for books for lower levels, have you seen the TPRS books by Blaine Ray et al? You can start here. Good luck!
Hi Sarita,
Thanks for your response. I have a few of the Blaine Ray novels, and I think they are a great idea to consider. I find teaching this type of reading to be a greater challenge at the lower levels (1-2) than at the upper levels (3+), so I appreciate the ideas that you've shared.