It has been a great school year. My seniors are down to just 4.5 weeks left and my underclassmen have only 5.5. It’s a lot of time and yet SO LITTLE TIME. With all the interruptions of the spring, it will go by in a blink.
I’m very proud of this year’s Spanish classes. They took the STAMP test in February (this was our first time trying STAMP instead of AAPPL and we loved it) and they performed so well. We are awarding 41 IL State Commendations toward Biliteracy at Intermediate Low, 14 Global Seals of Biliteracy at Intermediate Mid, and 8 State Seals of Biliteracy at Intermediate High. The coolest thing is that we were able to work with the community college that grants our dual credit and offer 4 additional course hours to students earning the state seal!
With testing behind us, our major units finished, and spring sports and field trips mucking up the waters, my seniors are doing a very special final read. They read the descriptions of 6 different classroom readers and selected their top 3. I matched students up with books and now they’re reading in small groups. They will read their individual stories, do a group presentation of their choice (sky is the limit – a rap, a play, a movie trailer, a slide show, etc) on the reader… but also we’ll watch Pan’s Labyrinth before the final presentation. They’ll draw comparisons between the ways their characters overcame troublesome circumstances with the way Ofelia overcame her circumstances to fight for her family.
During reading days, they have a note sheet (their daily report) that they submit. This helps them keep track of all the new things they’re learning from their readers and it keeps them on task. We will still watch our show (El Internado) on Thursdays, but 4 days a week for the next two weeks, they’ll be reading.
By Prom Friday (May 3), we’ll be done reading and we’ll do a Discussion Thursday about the different readers… although on Prom Friday I will be lucky to have half present. 🙂 Then we’ll watch Pan the following week. Projects will happen their last Friday and Monday of class. I can’t wait to see what wonderful ideas they come up with. We’ve done so many styles of presentation, I know they have a bank of ideas to work from.
After doing our Song of the Week study of René last week, it is nice to have something happier! We LOVED learning more about Residente’s life and especially his autobiographical song, but it was heavy at times!
We are planning a webinar in the beginning of May about Dual Credit and most especially about cultivating a relationship with the community college that allows you to find ways to do things like awarding more credit to students with the Seal of Biliteracy. Hope to see you there if you’re teaching upper levels and are interested in equating them to college credit!