I can’t believe how fast summer goes, how hard it is to shift from summer mode to teacher mode, and then how natural it is once the bandaid is ripped off and I’m back in the classroom. As of today, I have been at school a full week: One teacher day, four student days!
We started the year with our two truths and a lie activity in all levels. It’s a variation on “card talk”. I had student name cards on their chairs when they arrived. Inside the card, they wrote their two truths and one lie. In Spanish 2 it was things they did over the summer. In Spanish 3, goals they have for the school year. In Spanish 4, if I had 10k, I would… As you can see, I was working on different types of grammar in context by level! I went student by student and we looked at their 3 statements and decided which we thought was the lie. It’s a great way to get to know them a little and also set the tone that this is a place where we’ll speak Spanish as much as possible!
This week we are doing new units. In Spanish 2, I’m doing Kristy Placido’s Es una broma unit and some additions of my own like a class story and some games. In Spanish 3, we’re doing Bajo la mesa from Huellas 1. In Spanish 4, we’re jumping ahead a little and doing Biodiversidad y conservación from Huellas 2 while the weather is good and we can see some wildlife and insects in the woods!
It’s my 32nd year, but the best one I have had in a while. I know it’s only a week in, but my classes (and schedule) are SO GOOD RIGHT NOW. Post COVID era, I feel like I’ve had a few rough rides, but this first week has been smooth sailing! Hope it’s the same for you (whenever you go back)!
What I’m looking forward to:
Spanish Club trip to Fright Fest – It has NOTHING to do with Spanish, but the kids talk about it 100% of the time. One of the best things we ever started doing.
Continuing our writing experiment from last year but with some additional little grammar in context write and discuss activities before they write for real.
Our new SSR plans: In the past, I had classes compete to read as many books as possible. This year I am just giving a stamp for every book they read and then I’ll give them little candies as they reach stamp milestones of 5/10/15/20 books read!
What are you looking forward to this year? What has you feeling the school year scaries? Here’s to a great 2025-26 school year for us all!
LOVE this idea of stamping a card for # of books read!! I don’t want them flying through the books but don’t assign “work” either so always tricky. Thanks so much for the great idea!
I am HOPING it keeps them focused on reaching a goal and not on speeding through without really reading! We’ll see! 🙂
Can you elaborate more on the writing goals? what kind of grammar instruction are you giving before the formal summative writing assessment?
I am trying very hard to make writing individualized. They are (especially in the upper levels) so scattered along the proficiency path that what works as a goal/correction for one person doesn’t for the next. So their goals are things like making less errors (if this is their goal, I try to give them an actionable grammar piece they can do to improve for next time – based on this writing sample), writing better (making their sentences stronger with transitions etc), and organizing better (I give them pointers on how their intro/conclusions are turning out when they are going for this one). The truth is that we are just a 4 year program and intermediate is a long, long road for so many of them. I know I can’t get them to perfection in the small amount of time I have, but I am trying to help them see where they WANT to go and how to get there! We do targeted grammar in that we’re doing weekend chats every Fri/Mon to work our preterite/imperfect/future tenses and I give them sets of magic words like podría, tendría as vocabulary so they know how to say more advanced things when they need to even if they’re not yet ready to sort out all the rules on all the tenses!
Hi Carrie,
Thank you so much for taking the time to explain your first day plans with the two truths and a lie activity! I really struggle with “card talk,” so hearing how you run it is incredibly helpful.
I’m also curious about your SSR program—would you mind explaining it in a little more detail? I’d love to know how often students read, how long they read in each level, and anything else you think is important.
Thank you for everything you do!
Danielle
Hi! We are trying something new with SSR this year. Last year (and several years in the past) I had them in a class competition. Every time they finished a book, they put up a post it note with info about their book and how they liked it. It got to be kids trying to read the least possible to earn post it notes. THIS YEAR, we are doing an individual competition. I made them a little bookmark to use and I am stamping it each time they finish a book. When they get to 5 they get a small candy, 10 a fun size, and 15 a full size. They say every 10 after that should be a king size. We’ll see if anyone makes it that high. 🙂
We read for about 7-8 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday! So far, they have been WAY more into it as individual readers than team readers. 🙂