It is exactly 10 days until my new crop of Spanish students make their way into my room for the first day of class! It is so much different than last year when EVERY one of my students was new to me! (This year I will only have about 50 students who I have not already taught!) I will also have no Spanish 1s!
Normally I would start the Spanish 1 year with a couple of weeks of getting to know them via personalized questions. Focusing on Terry Waltz’s super 7 verbs and things students like to do, we would build a class culture from day 1 using the target language in class! I don’t even spend a day going over classroom rules! By 9th grade, they KNOW how to behave at school so I hand out the rule sheet and then spend the day doing what they came for, speaking Spanish! 🙂 If you want pointers on how to do it, here is a description of circling with balls.
In Spanish 2, I will have some students who are new to me. I want to get to know them just like I did with my level 1 students, but I also want to get some good reps of past tense verbs. Here are my plans:
First Day Friday:
New song: Soy yo- Bomba Estéreo
Students will have a few minutes to draw a picture of something they did over the summer. We’ll do an adapted “circling with balls” that will allow me to expose them to A LOT of past tense in context so they can see not only super 7 verbs but also things that they enjoy doing and are therefore meaningful to them.
Monday- Thursday
We will continue our discussion of the class’s summer activities getting to know one another as we do. We will start each day with the song of the week and doing an activity each day to learn it better.
On Tuesday and Thursday we will start with 10 minutes of Free Voluntary Reading.
Friday of our first full week: We will do a movie talk of this video- Simon’s Cat
In Spanish 3, I will have 95% students who I had in level 2 last year. I want to dive right in with these guys.
First Day Friday:
New song: ¿Cómo te atreves? by Morat
Students will lead a discussion in the reading lounge about their summer vacation. I will use my Discussion Thursday technique to get everyone involved and make the discussion truly interpersonal and student led.
Monday-Thursday: We are going to start the year building class community and using future tense in context. Like Spanish 1 and 2, I am going to use a modified circling with balls to get students talking about what they will do during the school year. I want them to set goals for the year, after graduation, and a lifetime. If you don’t dream big, you never know how far you can go!
On Tuesday and Thursday we will start with 10 minutes of Free Voluntary Reading.
Friday of our first full week, we will watch part of episode 2 of El Internado Laguna Negra! They watched episode 1 the last 4 weeks of school last year! They’re primed and ready to watch.
In Spanish 4, I will have only students I had in level 3 last year. We are going to start in the reading lounge! I want to spend a few days just speaking with them in Spanish so they remember how much they grew last year!
First Day Friday:
New song: Yo quiero by Gente de Zona ft. Pitbull
Students will join me in the reading lounge where we will talk about what they want to do in the new school year. I’d like to hear what they want to learn more about, what their favorite topics were last year, and what they did with their Spanish over the summer.
Monday- Thursday of week 1
We are going to do a short unit called “Soy soñador(a)”. I am going to ask them to dream up a future for other students in the class. We’re really going to be doing a lot of if…then statements… but in the context of “if I were you, I’d…” It’s the first time I’ve ever tried it so it could be a colossal flop but I’m hoping they’ll have a lot of fun thinking of what their friends could do in the future.
On Tuesday and Thursday we will start with 10 minutes of Free Voluntary Reading.
Friday of first full week: El Internado Laguna Negra
Sounds like a wonderful start of the year! One question though, when you say watch El Internado. Does that involve comprehension question? Packets, discussion or what do you usually do? thank you
I have classes of 30+ for 50 minutes. Am I supposed to personalize/ talk to them ALL on the first day? What do you do?
On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 8:58 PM, Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: “It is exactly 10 days until my new crop of Spanish > students make their way into my room for the first day of class! It is so > much different than last year when EVERY one of my students was new to me! > (This year I will only have about 50 students who I h” >
I talk for 2 weeks! 2-3 a day at the beginning and more as the days go by!
What will you do with the new songs in each class?
Thanks for sharing all of this!! You are making me face the realization that school is quickly approaching and I need to backwards design my units! Getting on that now, thanks to you!!! <3
Similar to Mikayla’s question, I was wondering if you could explain your song of the week routine–or point me to a post where you have already blogged about it! Do you always do the same activities each week? How do the activities progress from day to day? I am teaching on a 95 minute block this year so I thought starting a Song of the Week each day would be a great way to break things up. Thanks!
We listen with a cloze the first couple days then I do different activities the rest of the week! Order lyrics, movie talk the video, screen shot retell!
Similar to Mikayla’s question, I would love to know more about your Song of the Week–or please point me to where you have already blogged about it if that’s the case. Do you do the same activities each week? How do your activities progress throughout the week? I am going to be teaching on a 95 minute block for the first time this year, and I thought instituting a Song of the Week would be a great way to break things up.
Thanks!
Megan
Do you have a rough scope and sequence for any of your Spanish 1, 2, or 3 classes that you would be willing to share? I’m new to tprs and am trying to slowly create a plan away from the textbook and would love to see what you teach throughout the year so that I may start to incorporate it into my classes.
Im so sorry I haven’t checked my comments all year!!! I do! If you’re still interested let me know via email!
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