Comprehensble Input Update

This week has required lots of explanation. I am teaching time and holy moly questions arose when we got to the "menos" part of time. I found it helpful to tell them to count backwards and minus an hour from the one stated. For example, if I say "Son las dos menos quince/cuarto," they should do 2-1=1 and count fifteen minutes counterclockwise. This helped the kids tremendously although we didn't have enough practice with the menos so we are working on it tomorrow. I am thinking I will do a time bingo, some review sheets and an info gap between partners so that the kids stay in the TL even if I have to explain in English. I thus have concluded that if I know I will have to do lots of explaining in English, the kids need to do most of the output. Thoughts?

Also: rediscovery of http://minotspanish.wikispaces.com/ made time WAY more clear :)

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

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!