Category: Spanish IV

Running Reflection Series: My Experience with Mike Peto’s Approach, My Teacher Struggles, and Next School Year ~ Post 2

On By GaryDibiancaIn AP World Language, Assessments, Beginning of the Year, Classroom Routines, Semester Reflection, Spanish I, Spanish II, Spanish III, Spanish IV, Uncategorized1 Comment

As teachers, I think we all have our favorite grades or courses to teach. For me, the consistency of teaching level 4/IV Spanish to juniors in high school for 21 of 22 years, is where I am most comfortable and, perhaps, happy. It is where I am helping students to grow and hone their skills …

Continue reading Running Reflection Series: My Experience with Mike Peto’s Approach, My Teacher Struggles, and Next School Year ~ Post 2

Running Reflection Series: My Experience with Mike Peto’s Approach, My Teacher Struggles, and Next School Year ~ Post 1

On By GaryDibiancaIn Beginning of the Year, Classroom Routines, Conferences and Training, Curriculum, My Philosophy, Semester Reflection, Spanish I, Spanish II, Spanish III, Spanish IV, Teaching Strategies, Uncategorized3 Comments

I have now been teaching for 23 years, and it is still amazing how I feel every year I continue to learn more as I hone my craft. This past school year was no different as there were some new “old” challenges thrown at me that have happened about every 3 years when I teach …

Continue reading Running Reflection Series: My Experience with Mike Peto’s Approach, My Teacher Struggles, and Next School Year ~ Post 1

Resource: Who is ready for a Tea Party about the film “También la lluvia/Even the Rain” with your upper-level Spanish students?  

On By GaryDibiancaIn AP World Language, Culture, Curriculum, Semester Reflection, Spanish III, Spanish IV, Teaching Strategies, Uncategorized1 Comment

I rarely share resources but I am sharing this resource because the whole class period was a wonderful introduction to the film. I feel that this year my students had a much better understanding of the film and the characters because of this powerful preview activity. I also loved it because in no way was the “preview activity” a passive one; my students were 100% engaged and actively interacting, speaking Spanish, and oh yeah, having tea and cookies.  

Upper Level Activity: The Claim Game 

On By GaryDibiancaIn AP World Language, Assessments, Curriculum, Socratic Circles, Spanish IV, Teaching Strategies, Uncategorized2 Comments

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.  

Spanish IV Reflection 2022-23 ~ Finding the Balance 

On By GaryDibiancaIn AP World Language, Assessments, Curriculum, My Philosophy, Semester Reflection, Spanish IV, Teaching Strategies, Uncategorized2 Comments

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.

Sharing some Quick Culture Activities

On By GaryDibiancaIn Culture, Curriculum, Hispanic Cultural Competency Collection, Spanish II, Spanish III, Spanish IV, Teaching Strategies, Uncategorized1 Comment

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. 

New Resource: Hispanic Cultural Competency Collection

On By GaryDibiancaIn Culture, Diversity in Education, Hispanic Cultural Competency Collection, Spanish II, Spanish III, Spanish IV2 Comments

The Hispanic Cultural Competency Collection is a new resource of short videos from native Spanish-speakers who responded to prompts about 41 different cultural themes that included aspects about perspective, practices, and products. The prompts and short comprehension questions are provided in English to help focus students. Please encourage others to record more videos via https://flipgrid.com/hispanicculturalcc to provide our students with more perspectives from the Spanish-Speaking world.

Reflection 2021-22 Spanish Level IV

On By GaryDibiancaIn AP World Language, Beginning of the Year, Curriculum, My Philosophy, Semester Reflection, Spanish IV, Teaching Strategies, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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 Hispanic Cultural Competency Collection

On By GaryDibiancaIn Diversity in Education, Hispanic Cultural Competency Collection, Inclusive Curriculum, Spanish II, Spanish III, Spanish IV, Uncategorized2 Comments

The Hispanic Cultural Competency Collection  THE GOAL OF THE PROJECT:  The goal of The Hispanic Cultural Competency Collection is to create an open-source website for teachers with short-video responses by native Spanish-speakers responding to prompts that align closely to the 2017 NCSSFL-ACTFL Intercultural Can-do Statements as they appear in the Expectations for Learning section of …

Continue reading The Hispanic Cultural Competency Collection

Socratic Circles as Assessment ~ the Why and How

On By GaryDibiancaIn AP World Language, Assessments, Curriculum, My Philosophy, Socratic Circles, Spanish III, Spanish IV, Uncategorized3 Comments

Happy 2018-19 school year! I wanted to take the time and share a strategy, or better yet, a framework for learning and assessment that I use as one of the tenants in my Spanish IV classes and at the end of Spanish III.  This framework is preparing students for a Socratic Circle or Socratic Seminar, …

Continue reading Socratic Circles as Assessment ~ the Why and How