What I must do is provide the building blocks for helping my students develop an argument and the ability to express and support their opinions in Spanish because the students that continue on in the AP Spanish Language and Culture class will have many opportunities to write full argumentative essays.
Teaching Spanish IV, which in my district consists of mostly students in their Junior year, is a magical experience for me as an educator. I feel the class can be a great turning point for students in terms of their proficiency growth as they approach proficiency levels of Intermediate-Mid and High.
So this year, seeing how my Spanish II students really needed to more regularly stand up and move around my rather small classroom, I designed 8 cultural object hunts that could be easily replicated by any teacher just using image searches or some cultural realia that could be sitting on a shelf, in a basement, or even organized in culture bags like mine and again, still not being used.
Teaching Spanish II is always a test of endurance, patience, and satisfaction watching students grow from novice levels of Spanish to intermediate levels for most. This year I taught three sections of Spanish II, which have a mix of students with most 9th graders having had Spanish since elementary school and then daily in 6th, …
My final post from this reflection series is about my 2021-22 year in Spanish IV with my intermediate students. The post talks about the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy, using student data, developing thought, my core classroom values, discussion days, honing communication based on novice topics, and finding a happy balance. Thanks for reading. Gary
The 2021-22 school year provided me a chance to try out ideas with MASTERY LEARNING and a policy about retaking assessments until an 80% average was reached. I used this idea consistently throughout the whole year with both my Spanish II and IV classes, and I am very pleased with the results. One of the …
Continue reading MASTERY LEARNING using High-Frequency Verb Quizzes
I am finally sitting down to write this important reflection of my Spanish level II classes this past year (even if it is in July and not June or any other month throughout the school year).
Aha! Moments from IFLT 2022 I am so grateful to have returned to an in-person training conference. IFLT 2022 in Saline, Michigan gave us all an opportunity to get refreshed and ready for a fantastic 2022-23 school year. Over the past 6 years, IFLT has implemented a trifecta training model where teachers observe other teachers …
I cannot believe it has been a year since last year‘s Comprehensible Online Conference, now known as Comprehended, launched. It was pre-pandemic and none of us thought our lives nor our schools would look the way they currently do.Last year for my online webinar for the conference, I shared six story asking scripts that can …
Continue reading Free Story-Scripts, Question Randomizers, and COMPREHENDED! 2021
In this post I will highlight two authors who have each written Spanish comprehension-based readers that present the lives of LGBTQ adolescents. Not only do Jennifer Degenhardt’s Secretos and Adriana Ramirez’s Julio provide great sources of comprehensible input for students, but they also present protagonists who are living their whole selves with regard to their …
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