Yo puedo wall Unit 1

This is a picture of my "yo puedo"wall. At the end of a unit, students write what they can do in the TL on an index card and then I decorate my wall with it. This is usually after a test. I think kids need something uplifting to think about after stressful situations like an exam. It extends throughout the wall but I wanted to show at least the first unit. More pics to come :)

Vocabulary quizzes & conversation guidelines

Vocab Quiz

In a proficiency based classroom, striving to use comprehensible input, assessments have to be well thought out to meet standards AND incorporate prior information. I wanted to veer away from the typical Spanish-English translations. As a result, I gave a short quiz today which asked students to identify in which class they did certain activities. I.e reading, labs etc. The test not only assessed their knowledge of course names but also the prior knowledge of activities. As they read the possible answers, they were exposed once again to activity verbs. In this case, the verbs were even conjugated in the tú form so the students could preview the new lesson on verb conjugation.

The students did very well on the test (based of the ppt posted on the entry earlier this week) with an average of 85%. Here is the test (feel free to use & modify :):

_____1. Haces problemas con números
_____ 2. Preparas y comes comida
_____ 3. Aprendes sobre el pasado
_____4. Aprendes sobre cultura
_____5. Dibujas y pintas con muchos colores
_____6. Haces laboratorios
_____7. Lees novelas y escribes ensayos

A. la clase de historia
B. la clase de arte
C. la clase de inglés/literatura
D. la clase de biología
E. la clase de matemáticas/álgebra
F. la clase de español
G. la clase de culinaria

Conversational Practice 

I love having the kids walk around the room and ask one another questions in the TL. They enjoy getting out of their seats and finding out information about other students. Usually I create a table in MSword with all the questions in one column and the space for student answers in the other column. I use the stand up-hand up-pair up strategy and the kiddos seem to do well with it. I also give them the following guidelines:

1. Only speak in Spanish

2. Greet your partner. (Piensa: Hello, how are you?)

3. Ask for their name if you are unsure.

4. Ask the questions for the lesson 

5. Say thank you, nice to meet you & goodbye. 

Here is the MSword link for the guidelines: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4zpfD2U2Zs5eU5MTkI5SjlkMXM/view?usp=sharing

Vocabulary Introductions

I know we shouldn't explicitly teach vocab i.e. geografía means geography. I did this for a long time and my class still does it during the last 5 minutes of class using a vocab wall (will post pic later) but I did this ppt as an intro to the unit and geared it to the classes we offer at my school. The students understood most of it and I asked questions throughout the presentation to make sure they were not only listening but also understanding all the new Spanish I was throwing at them. For example, I kept asking ¿Quién es tu maestro de ...?/ ¿Cómo es el maestro? ¿Es una class fácil o difícil? etc.

I have attached it for anyone who wants to use it. I will also attach my quiz for it after my students take it :)



PPT:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4zpfD2U2Zs5ajZXcjRTSkhFYTVYZU82cWo1d3oyMV81QkpR/view?usp=sharing

Descriptions, CI update & Proficiency grading

Descriptions

We have a test on Monday & today began the review games. We began with a word search that I found for free on TPT. My kids love word searches but this one they said had too many letters. One student even commented "Señora, this is like a college word search." I replied "Señor, they don't do these in college." We then went over descriptions really quickly i.e. when can we tell its femn v. masc, plural, where does the adjective go etc. Then I had a stack of index cards with the bulleted names below. The students had to relate adjectives to each celebrity only using Spanish. We did this for at least 10 minutes. The students answered questions such as "Es alto o bajo?" "¿De dónde es él?" etc so we got lots of CI and the kids loved expressing their opinions! 

• Nicki Minaj
• Ariana Grande
• Beyoncé
• Lebron James
• Rick Ross
• Kid President
• Barack Obama
• Pablo Picasso
• Madre Teresa
• El Papá
• Blake Shelton 
• Hugh Hefner 

CI Update 

This is my 1st week of truly pushing CI. I just keep telling myself what I heard in a presentation by Andrew DeMil from the University of Tampa "Don't teach about the language, teach the language" and it keeps me motivated! I will warn you, CI, takes LOTS of time. I did 10 minutes the first day and was pretty successful and I think it is only because of my pre-planned questions. I will attach the ones I did about food upon my arrival to school :)

Proficiency Grading 

OK. My students LOVE this. They know exactly what I am looking for and exactly how they can improve by looking at the "I can" statements I have posted on our online grade book. I have followed the ACTFL statements for novice mid i.e. "I can state the date & time." I am grading them each as 10 pts. 10 pts when you can do it and do it repeatedly and 0 if you can't by the end of the 9 weeks. 

Okay, all for now. Will post mucho this weekend :)

Reflections on Practice & 1st post

Hello world. I am a Spanish teacher in Tampa, FL. I recently attended the FFLA conference in Miami, FL and have decided to start a blog in hopes of furthering my knowledge of FL pedagogy and becoming a more connected educator. I have been toying with twitter for about 2 months now and it has been amazing but limiting comments about instruction to 140 characters is quite difficult. My handle is @sralandes, should you decide to chat with me on there or join in our #langchat Thursdays.

Ok, so let's get to reflection time before my post and my focus is thrown off by my ADD.

1.) I would like to have my kids start with Spanish conversation as they come in. I created Spanish 1 conversation cards for where we are in the Avancemos textbook. Link is at the bottom!

2.) I have decided to change quarter 2 to "I can do" statements from ACTFL i.e. I can say my name and ask for others' names. This will let the kids know exactly what I am looking for them to do and cut down on "buffer" grades i.e. worksheets, projects etc that make grades less reflective of proficiency.

3.) I also plan on transitioning to 90% Spanish in class. I know the kids will freak out if I do it right away, especially after a 3 day weekend, so here is the plan: Week 1- 10 min/day in TL by both students and teacher, Week 2: 15 min, Week 3: 20 min, Week 4: 25 min, Week 5: 30 min, Week 6: 35 min, Week 7: 40 min, Week 8: 45 min, Week 9: 50 min. I am going to set up a timer to make sure we stay in the TL and allow students to use google, dictionaries etc to make them stay in the TL.

4.) I want to make sure I stray away from exercises that can be done by anyone without knowing the actual language (more to come on that later). I went to a presentation by University of Tampa's professor Andrew DeMil and he has strongly influenced me.

5.) I want to work with my peers and not see them as harsh critics of mine. I think if we make the evaluation process one of growth, we shall see not only instructional improvement but also student increases in achievement.

I will attach the conversation starters as soon as I figure out how.

¡Adiós!