Last year we did a comparison of Carol’s journey and Pan’s Labyrinth!! I’ll look at my materials and see if there is anything you might be able to use… I love the idea of Voces Inocententes used in this.
How did your students do with the vos in La Historia Oficial? I haven’t used that one in a while…
We do Butterfly and Pan’s Labyrinth in the 3/4th quarters so I am hoping Carol will be a good bridge to that from Voces.
We had to watch the whole movie with Subtitles because not only is the Vos hard, the Spanish is just fast enough that it frustrates them. I wish that there was a better movie to stick in that spot…
I totally agree. I’m afraid they won’t be placated either. I am finishing a novel study in both levels and am giving a “community college style” assessment to hopefully cover what they need to see as far as discrete grammar and vocabulary points. I am hoping that the essay written graded with a rubric that addresses vocabulary choice, grammar, and writing style will make this a good choice for the final! 🙂 But I may be wrong!
I do have them every day. We have a regular 8 period day with 43 minute classes. In Spanish 1 and 2 I only cover about 4 chapters of our tprs text per year but we get lots of reps recycling the material in the film and novel studies. In 3 and 4 I choose structures directly from the films and novels so there’s not really a formal “text” most of the time.
Thank you so much for your quick response to my question. This is all incredibly helpful. I like to use authentic texts and videos to get students talking, but I often feel like they don’t tie together well enough. I love the overarching themes you have in each level!
You´re welcome! It is always a work in progress but I am starting to feel like I have a more complete flow. LOL Lots of great videos on youtube too! Human rights, Picasso’s Guernica in 3D… I could bore you for hours with all of them! jaja
Thanks for the overview of your curriculum. It is very helpful. And congratulations on the book you co-authored. I just saw it a few days ago on the TPRS website and downloaded the preview. I’m looking forward to when it is available. Do you have a specific date for that?
Did I understand you correctly that you read Esperanza in Spanish 1 and again in Spanish 4? Have your classes ever read Esperanza Renace?
I just got Esperanza this year so my freshmen have read it but not my older kids. We did read it in Spanish 4 but fast! We did it in about 8 days and then I used it as a bridge to el Norte. They just did a writing assessment describing similarities and differences between the two.
I’ve read and love Esperanza renace but I’ve never used it in class.
Ah, that explains it! Another question for you – do you have a copy of the consent form you use with your students? And do you just skip the inappropriate scenes?
I’d be happy to share my permission form. I DO edit out sex scenes etc but it would be impossible in some films to edit out all of the bad language. I mention that in my permission form! 🙂
My email is kristindunc at gmail dot com. It would be great if you could send it to me! Thanks.
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Thank you for sharing your ideas! May I also have your permission form sent to my school email? Thank you in advance!
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Wow very cool! I’m currently planning on basing my year around the novels and backwards planning what structures we should work on. I really appreciate your post as it affirms some ideas I had for this coming school year! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Hi Carrie,
After reading this post I’m convinced that I should have gone to your session on Backward Planning at NTPRS. I read your syllabus for Sp1 and I’m still not sure how it all fits together. I have so many questions for you: How did you choose the first 50 words in the first 9 weeks? Did you use a frequency list or focus more on words from Esperanza? For those 50 words and the next set, are they the words you and your students use to create stories? How long are your classes? 50 minutes? In the past I’ve used Mi Vida Loca en Sp3 but see you have it in the first 9 weeks of Sp1. How do you prepare your students for that? The articles that students read in the first quarter, are they about Central America & Mexico and is that how they study them?
See…I warned you I had a lot of questions (and there are plenty more).
I’m registered for ACTFL – def. making it a point to attend your session. 🙂
Hi! Well, here are all the answers! Haha not that I have all of the answers but these at least address your questions! I begin the year with Ben Slavic’s circling with balls. The first 50 words include whatever we cover in the 5-8 days of balls plus the first chapter of cuéntame más. Reading the first novel is a LOT slower than subsequent novels because they are very new and need a lot of guidance and hand holding! And lots of vocab circling before the chapters. Beyond the first 50, I use Carol’s Cuentame chapters 2-4 in Spanish 1 and I do some cultural things that require a few additional structures. As long as you limit to 3 per day and really circle them, you can bring in whatever you need to! I am at a school with 43 minute classes. We read articles from the magazine ¿Qué tal? by scholastic but sometimes I find something online and use it in class as well. If it is too hard, I paraphrase or if it is fairly easy, we just read and discuss. Remember than in Span I, discussion means that I say simple things about it in Spanish slowly and they respond as they are able… They aren’t going to be speaking volumes but can follow cultural discussions in the TL if they are 100% CI! I used episode 1 of mi vida loca yesterday in Spanish 1. They did great! I made some little worksheets to help them copy down what they will need to say later in the episode and it works well. I think it is perfect for beginners because it has so much English content! So glad to hear you’ll be at ACTFL! Kristy and I will be sharing our ideas for an upper and a lower level UbD unit this time! And we’ll be in the booth all weekend so be sure you say hi! 🙂
This sounds great! i was wondering if you could share some of the sources you used to describe bullfighting? I was looking for something cultural from Spain other than war. I appreciate your willingness to share your ideas. I really need to get the book you suggested in Las Vegas about backwards planning. What was the name of it?
It is called Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. The workbook is great.
I did a lot of online reading about Manolete and bullfighting. I got things from PetaLatino and several descriptions of bullfighting from Spanish sites. I let the kids use Wikipedia when they researched Manolete. It wasn’t any kind of a deep biography that they were writing about him! 🙂 I know, the English teachers would shiver!
Thanks so much for your posts about UbD. My district has mandated that we all use it and we are even taking an online class collaboratively with our department. The big difference that I see is that the way CI teachers have talked about backward design was the preteaching of vocabulary, which is important, but the idea of enduring understandings and essential questions really elevates the thinking. You get that so well in your examples. I hope you will continue to post your units and ideas about UdB. I teach French, but I’ve been stumped about this online class, and reading your posts (even though the examples are in Spanish) have gotten me over the hump. Thanks so much!!!!!
I hopt that you find things from our workshop or from our blogs that will help you design your units! It is terrible to have to start over from square one! Hopefully you’ll get a nice skeleton for how to do it!
it makes me feel better to know that other people have these days too!!! Last year my seniors created a Kings’ Day celebration for the 8th grade classes complete with Rosca and shoes and (real) hay! It’s best not to overthink it and just enjoy every minute!!
I’m hysterical that you brought up that scene from Life of Brian!! Mira Canion and I were just talking about that movie last night!!!!! What are the chances?! I saw that movie for the first time in a huge movie theater in Madrid…as a new release…subtitled in Spanish. My friends and I were the only ones in hysterics in the theater…some humor translates better than others lol.
Feliz Dia de los Reyes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( de mi laptop tambien jejeje)
Well….how did it go? Are you still charged from an exciting day or did you crash on the sofa?
Could you post the link to the video you used for Rosca de Reyes? I found one I really like that is in Spanish, but I know a few weeks ago someone shared a link of another one I liked that I can’t find now.
I love Educreations and use it a lot during storytelling! I usually have one student draw a story whille telling a story, and sometimes I will have them draw from a reading too! It works great and I can post them online with my own voice telling the story.
This post could not have come at a better time for me! I have been teaching Spanish for 6 years, first at the high school level 1, 2, and 3 and now with 7th and 8th graders. Funny I am a native speaker! Deep down I have always known that acquisition is the way, but the curriculum has always gotten in the way. I am pursuing my Masters degree and I start a class Monday on Theories of Second Language Acquisition. My position is acquisition all the way. I now have a firm stance on how languages are learned!
I finished my Masters in 2011. I didn’t action research on Comprehensible input!!! I actually found TPRS/CI through getting certified as an NBCT! I am so glad this helped you!
Excellent blog post!
I used to think I was a good teacher because I taught the grammar in Spanish too. Turns out that time could have been much better spent on USING the language to talk about things instead of TALKING about the language.
I wish educational university and college professors would visit classrooms taught with TCI & TPRS to see the drastic change in (as you said): Comprehensible TL used; student success for ALL; trust; & increase in Ss that are learning to love the language.
This makes a lot of sense, but I am left wondering one thing: can they explain the reasons behind their choices? There is something to be said for automated *acquired* responses, for sure, but without considering why they do what they do, is their understanding deep enough?
It’s virtually impossible for me to explain subjunctive, and I think this is a hindrance in my ability to produce language that conveys what I want. This came up in a story I wrote for grad school last semester where the professor was confused by my intent because I didn’t use it (something about did I let the baby go or was it just a possibility that I might–still not clear on the difference because I can’t explain).
I get that subjunctive is higher level, but I feel like we are limited to inane conversations that are not necessarily engaging if everything has to come from previous repeated exposure before language can be created. If I hear a suggestion that kids “describe their families” from prescribed “improved” curriculum, I think I’ll scream.
I’m torn between designing project-based units that tap into real world problems that engage students and playing by CI rules.
I think that a common misconception is that CI means no grammar. I teach grammar constantly but not with worksheets and fill in the blanks. If we have had the structure “Ella va” I am constantly finding ways to incorporate other forms of the verb, to highlight the patterns, and to connect those patterns to other verbs… I just do it without making it a lesson. It is part of our story or discussion. We are reading the novel Esperanza right now and have been discussing life in Guatemala. They learned about kids living in the city dump. We had lots of forms of vivir of course but then the kids wanted to fundraiser for them! I taught them how to say donate and raise money and without my help they were able to say “we raise money” or “donate money.” They know the grammar just not the terminology!!! Verb conjugation!
PBL is a great concept! I agree! But I’m not sure of its place, especially in lower level classes! There is a lot of time spent in L1 when do projects! you may be better at preventing that than i am! I don’t do more than 1 per quarter because I’m jealous of our L2 time!!
When they go to university classes, the profs will often be natives and will be speaking Spanish. When they take the OPI to graduate from college, they have to be at least advanced low! I want to get them comfortable hearing the language so that they can continue to hone their grammar skills but can always feel confident about understanding what the prof is saying and so they will be confident going into the OPI. I don’t know about other states but here in IL we are doing a lot of training on the OPI and there is really a problem with our college grads making the advanced low mark! Many are so weak that they have to take it 2-3 times! They aren’t getting enough input to be able to output!
Your question about higher level concepts like the subjunctive is a great one! I’m going to be honest here, I taught the heck out of the subjunctive in Spanish 3 and 4 back in my grammar days. They could fill in the little train with the subject and verb in the engine and the que connecting the caboose with different subject verb but it didn’t carry over into their production. It didn’t for me either! I was teaching before I got good at using the subjunctive! When I taught it, all of the rules finally clicked! The kids I have now have a better understanding of what subjunctive is because we start it in level 1. They read “quiere que su papá regrese pronto” and I say “regrese not regresa because he wants him to but he may not” and I move on. By level 3 they have that part down pa and we can look at how they switch the endings… I guess that to me the difference is in the old days I taught subjunctive as a unit at a specific time. Now I teach everything over and over again for a LONG time! LOL
On a side note, my meatloaf recipe is killer: you need 1.5 lb hamburger, 1 egg, 1 cup shredded zucchini, 1 cup Italian bread crumbs, 1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk, 1.5 tsp salt. Mix all in a large bowl and either make meatballs or a meatloaf. Top either with 1.5 cups ketchup plus 1/2cup brown sugar well mixed! Bake at 375 for 1hr for meatballs or 1.5 hr for a loaf! I swear you’ll love it! 🙂
I remember reading somewhere that you use a sort of skeleton UbD for all of your novela reading units, right? Is this something you’re willing to share? I’m working on a UbD for Robo en la noche (thanks for your help from the ACTFL presentation, btw!), and I’m curious what your final product looks like. Thanks!! 🙂
I do use a skeleton UbD for all of my units long and short. I’m trying to adhere to the idea that if I don’t know why I’m doing it, I shouldn’t be! 🙂 as part of our Danielson readiness, we are keeping a binder of lesson/unit plans and I’ve been using a simplified UbD template to create the lesson plans. I made a section for the Big Ideas, a students will know and a students will be able to section, and a section for both skill building activities across the unit and assessments! I’d share if you want to look at it!
Hi Carrie, I met you for the first time at the 2014 iFLT conference. You and Kristy have given me a whole paradigm shift for teaching. I would love to look at this, also a sample of a full unit if that is ok with you.
Thank you!
Valene
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I’ll email you a sample of one of the full units too!
Excellent post! And it’s good to point out that with comprehensible input more kids are actually learning more grammar than when you spent class time talking about grammatical structures in L1.
I love seeing the top 5 reasons…seeing simplified justifications is a nice way to express what we believe in. Does anyone have suggestions for introducing CI based methods with teachers that don’t value/use it? The main issue I have is showing what the assessments look like to those that are used to textbook quizzes and tests.
Free writes and speaking retells is not tangible like a grammar or vocabulary quiz from the text. What can be used as a formative assessment for grammarians and the like…the matter has to do with collecting data and tracking our students…
Well, I think that is the hardest part for traditional teachers about accepting this method. Our formative and summative assessments look MUCH different than theirs do! I NEVER NEVER give a straight grammar or vocabulary quiz. I give story retells and the like to Spanish I and the grade may be based on structure or vocab use or maybe just their ability to communicate their message to me! That isn’t the norm for me beyond Spanish I. For example: In Spanish 3 we just finished a unit on the Spanish Civil War. We did a lot of journaling about the film Butterfly (find evidence that the Civil War was about to begin throughout the movie and identify who support the republican and fascist sides), we discussed the history of the Spanish Civil war and did a history quiz at the request of a group of history buff students :), we read the novel “La hija del sastre” and did a lot of predicting, summarizing, deep thinking about issues in the novel as assessment (I didn’t use any of the comprehension questions in the TG because I expect my kids to be thinking a lot deeper than that…) We finished the war study by watching back to back films on either side of Spring break. The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth (both Guillermo del Toro films) are full of symbolism. Kristy Placido created an amazing summative assessment that I used this year! As we watched the films I had them journal each day about some of the symbolism in the films… for example the key represents having power or control and the flower represents new life or hope that lives on…. They recorded symbols from both movies and their meaning and then they chose 5-6 and created a piece of art. I’m trying to turn it into a movie right now so you can see how AMAZING they did! I could not believe the presentations they gave!!! They had to describe the symbolism in their art at an art gallery with classmates. The classmates asked questions and they had to answer!! I was able to grade their speaking, writing, listening, vocabulary, grammar, cultural knowledge, and even reading through this project and they LOVED it and to me it is so much more authentic and I know for SURE that my students from the preTPRS days could NEVER have done what these kids did in level 3!!! I guess it just depends on what you can convince them is “data”!!! I’ll blog the video if I am smart enough to figure out how to make it!
Wow great response…I am glad I checked back right away. I am going to share my question and your post with my colleagues. What you discussed is definitely hitting on deeper levels of knowledge. Convincing others that learning is not always “data” like points or scores is a progressive way of looking at language and a challenging thing to do too.
I have seen rubrics for some TPRS writing…do you have any guidelines that you use to make things clear and concise? I mostly use word count and timed writings with the general formula of 5 minutes —100 words. I allow to write for longer and sometimes set higher standards for later in the year but when I communicate how I assess this…I feel my message (to colleagues) iis lost in translation…pun intended.
magnificent submit, very informative. I ponder why the other experts of this sector do not realize this.
You should continue your writing. I’m confident, you’ve a huge readers’ base already!
Hi, I’m will be starting my first year teaching Spanish 1-5 at a small Catholic high school in Pennsylvania this August. I’ve been looking at your posts and you have some fantastic ideas!
It is great to see the template and I also love seeing how you applied it in a more simple way to the Corridas unit. I was making it way more complicated than it has to be!
I’m so excited because another teacher in my dept just came to my room and dropped off the dept copies of La hija del sastre… I’m really looking forward to reading this with my class!
I have my students come up with what happened next as a new chapter of the book. Of course they get married and have kids and so on.
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Awesome! Paul’s ideas are so great, and usually so very simple and do-able in real classes. We were lucky to have him in WI and are happy now the whole country can reap the benefits of his wisdom and expertise. Have you read his book on assessment?
For lower levels, we have often given students an empty storyboard and had them draw a story of their choice and then write or speak about the pictures. This allows them to really show where they shine and pick a topic/story line that highlights what they’re really good at. It was a great way for them to put their own stamp on their exam and like you said, much better than reading the same essay over and over again. Love your ideas, too!
I love this idea for the upper levels and I’ve been struggling with figuring out what I”m going to do because I”m teaching level 4 for the first time ever this year.
What are you doing for spanish 1, if you teach it?
I teach level 1,3, & 4. In level one I do a final free write and a final speaking the week before (so I have more time for grading level 3/4 exams). Their final is culture, listening, reading, and vocabulary.
So the level 1 midterm is a freewrite and speaking assessment? And the final exam is culture, listening, reading and vocab?
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No, it’s all the final. I just spread it out to lighten the grading!!! 🙂
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I generally give a 5 part exam. Speaking and writing the day before the official exam and listening, reading, and culture on the exam day. While they’re working on the exam, I’m grading the reading as I watch for cheaters. It works well. For speaking I either give them a picture or have them draw one and for writing I either give them a picture or a set of vocabulary to choose from to use (in English).
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This was my final poem for my Spanish undergrad…I had to do all sorts of analysis on it and recite it and blah blah blah…oh, the memories!
Girl, you gave me a flashback with the pre-service minute-by-minute plan thing!
I really dig the water thing–very important, STEM + culture! I think you should get the winning PSAs going VIRAL though!
Me, I think Spanish 2 will start off with either a continuation of our Ayudando Ando project OR a recruiting video for our school. I think Spanish 2 & 3 will start off researching colleges abroad.
I’m so glad I discovered your blog! I am a fourth year teacher and I’m new to TPRS this year at a new school, Seckman High in Fox C-6 in Missouri. I haven’t tried Kindergarten Day in my classes, but I plan to. To be honest, I am a bit worried about my students’ reactions. I’m happy that yours react well to it and this inspires me to try it before time is gone this year.
I also live quite close to where you teach. If possible, I would love to come and observe you so I can see another classroom that uses comprehensive input. I will definitely see your presentation at CSC (which is how I discovered your blog and your work with Carol Gaab).
No matter what, thanks for all the information that you share through this blog!
I have been to Fox HS to see Justo! 🙂 I know right where you are (I think….) 🙂 If it’s the same Fox HS! Please come visit any time! We always welcome visitors! If you are interested in seeing any particular aspects of Comprehensible Input in action, let me know and I can make sure it is on the docket for your visit day!!
What do you think of all of these snow days??? Good grief! I am ready to go back to work! (Although I have been blogging and writing a lot more!)
Fantastic analysis! I think that the only student who “can’t learn” a language is the student who is consistently absent or who despises being in the class no matter what unique approach we use. Does it “really” matter that they learn the grammar concept names beyond Adjective, Noun, and Verb in high school? Let’s focus our energy on their expression and communication skills.
Thanks for blogging this, Carrie – and I hope you would classify yourself (and TPRS) as “communicative” as I would! Just want to clarify that the original disagreement(s) can be boiled down to a few questions:
Which works for novices – a focus on CI or a focus on CI leading to novice-level output?
What is “comprehensible” – are only materials that are 90% comprehensible appropriate for novices under any circumstance? (My opinion is, no – high comprehensibility is very important for the majority of input in a novice class; that is, you can’t base a novice curriculum off of authentic resources but they can be comprehensible and motivating are are necessary to prepare novices to navigate them.)
Are authentic resources ever appropriate input for novices? (I say, yes!)
Can a discussion about proficiency levels (ACTFL standards) also include CI and TPRS? (I say, absolutely!)
I think all CI/TPRS is meant to lead to output. But the output isn’t forced or rushed. Kids acquire the language first, output second.
I love level appropriate authres w novices! I think they can learn a lot from them but like you, I think it’s hard to build a curriculum around them without getting out of bounds. (Far out)
I think TPRS/CI students fall outside of the traditional ACTFL standards (which are based on thematic units), our kids don’t really list things bc we are using the language in context and that is not typical conversation. “My house has a bathroom, a bedroom, a kitchen…” So our kids are more apt to skip the lower novice levels because they can create stories so soon. It isn’t a bad thing, it’s a good thing! Being outside the norm for the better is awesome!
I went to an OPI 6 hour workshop. It was more about the actual OPI test to assess language proficiency for the workplace. It was helpful to see the different proficiency levels and really understand them, but there was no real discussion about the classroom implications – what I was really hoping for!
This post really helps me! I love this post and your previous one in which you say, you are “free from the chains of Realidades”! (My dream!) In a week, I start teaching AP Spanish, so this is a helpful reminder. Thanks for being a big part of my PLN and sharing so many of your thoughts and knowledge! 🙂
I always feel pulled in different directions. As someone who teaches introductory foreign language to college students I have trouble balancing realistic expectations re: language acquisition with the expectation of higher level thinking that comes in college and that students can’t do in the TL.
I think you’re probably in good company there! The expectation between 200 and 300 level college courses jumps exponentially! It is hard to know exactly what to do during the hours we DO have them in class! Lots of TL!
At what point in your lesson do you like to have your reading time? I’ve thought of the end of the hour — have students pack up and then just read — but I am concerned about how much they will focus then. Suggestions?
Those are wonderful beanbag chairs… I need to add a more comfy feel to my reading corner. I love your huge selection of magazines… one of my native speakers told me today that he wanted more readings with pictures to help him visualize what is written, but not children´s books. I love it when kids come tell me what they want to read!
[…] document, like the one published by ACTFL. Keep in mind what realistic goals are (check out what veteran Carrie Toth learned about that). A realistic goal for the average high school student in a very communicative […]
One thing saw on the #educon feed was “Mistake of the Year” award–I really wish I knew a way to Institute this that wouldn’t be more embarrassing than uplifting!
It would be unprofessional of me to salivate over your reading area, wouldn’t it? I WISH I could have beanbags, but I can barely even leave a stack of papers in my classroom. How can I achieve this awesomeness? My kids act like it’s a chore to do FVR for FIVE minutes once a week!
Those beanbags are the best thing I ever bought. My kids love them more than they’ve ever loved anything!
Mine like FVR now that I have a giant library! When I had mostly people en español and scholastic magazines, it was not as interesting! We also got 2 grants for a total of 5 Kindles. Those encourage reading too!!! 🙂
Evernote is such a great tool! Thanks for this idea!
I didn’t know how to use it at first, but I was trying to be organized and find a better way to collect those artifacts for my evaluation, Danielson Domains 1 & 4. It was easy to add photos, links to documents, and just to keep notes recorded as the year goes on and into the next. Once I met with my evaluator, I just projected it from my computer and emailed notes that they wanted to see again.
Reblogged this on The Comprehensible Classroom and commented:
I love this activity from Carrie Toth! In groups, students write a silent conversation based on a poignant moment in a character’s experience.
I also LOVE this idea! I am going to use it soon with my MS-13 unit we’re doing. Thanks Carrie! You are awesome and I appreciate you sharing your ideas so very much!
Thanks for sharing this terrific project. We’re working on a “world problems/solutions” unit and, of course, narcotraficantes are a bit topic. Your project makes me feel we could improve by expanding into different directions.
I really want to do this as well but I only have up to Spanish 2, and that class is very small. Suggestions on doing this for Spanish 1? Also, do you happen to have a grading guide that you used? Thanks for any help you can give!
You would just adjust the amount of output by level. I expect a lot of writing from my 4s, my 1s would be much more visual! I would be happy to share the grading rubric i used but it has the speaking and writing as one project! 🙂
This is really cool! What book would help me know what they are doing to get el bigote? Is it just reading the stories or is it creating stories. Remember I know no more than what you both taught me in that 3 hour workshop.
We just made up the Bigote in class. It is an award for acting! In level 1&2 we tell a lot of stories. When acting is flat, the Bigote perks them up! Who doesn’t want to win that beauty! Lol
Would you mind sending me a copy of your grading rubric and also the instructions you gave your students? I would like to have my Spanish III class create an infographic for the novel we are finishing and am working on creating a rubric and instruction sheet and would like to see how you set it all up. Muchas gracias!
Hi! I just “found” your blog and am interested in the guidelines you required for this project – have you posted them and I just can’t find them? Thank you!
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Narcoviolencia Infographic and History Fair
Here are some topics you may consider for your research, other ideas are welcome with teacher approval:
• Las personas inocentes afectados por la narcoviolencia
• Los narcocorridos
• Los narcotraficantes
• El Chapo Guzman
• La economía mexicana hoy
• El gobierno mexicano a través de los años
• Los carteles
• La influencia de los EEUU en la guerra contra las drogs
• La influencia de los EEUU en el consumo de drogas
You may use what you learned throughout the unit or any reliable Internet source to conduct your research. Look deeply for how this war affects the people and the politics of Mexico.
You will be creating your own infographic using the information that you find during your research. You will create the infographic using a half sheet of posterboard. Pairs of students can purchase one posterboard and cut it in half LONGWAYS. Please bring the posterboard as soon as possible. We will be in the lab March 4-7 where you will be able to print anything you need for the project.
Required pieces of the infographic:
• 1 chart or graph
• 5 paragraphs minimum of at least 6 sentences in your own words that detail your research. (No translators)
• 4-6 clip art or pictures that support your research
• 1 statistic
• 5 title bars
You may:
• clip from magazines
• use computer generated images
• paint or draw images
Your infographic:
• Should fill the space
• Should show creative thought
• Should be colorful (unless you have chosen to make it monochromatic for a reason)
• Should contain a minimum of 5 detailed paragraphs about your research
• Should be evident that you did not use a translator… just don’t do it!!
History Fair assessments:
For your assessment you will have a history fair. You will all be expected to display your infographic, ask questions of each other, and describe your work to each other. This day will be conducted entirely in Spanish. Each occurrence of English will result in a grade reduction. You will be evaluated on your ability to converse about your art and the art of yoru classmates on that day.
Grades:
• Infographic poster
o writing
o culture
o grammar
o vocabulary
• Gallery discussion
o speaking
• Questions
o speaking
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I am also starting this same exact unit. We are making an infographic on the Spanish Civil War, and will begin reading La Hija del Sastre next week. I hope you post your activities, will be very cool for me to see your ideas.
Thanks so much for sharing your ideas! I LOVE the infographic idea that you posted, and I just did it in my class in our last unit. We’ve been practicing subjunctive/indicative, so students chose a topic that they feel passionately about and did some research. We had all kinds of topics–legalizing marijuana, Apple vs. PC, fútbol vs. football…it was great, and the kids were totally into it!
Thanks also for sharing your rubric…I like that you included “it was understandable to other students.” I’ve been looking for a good way to phrase that, and that hits the nail on the head.
This makes me think of our First Friday meetings here in Anchorage. Together, we decide what we want to learn and apply, then we work through the kinks together. The success that comes from taking the journey together naturally draws in the teachers in our spheres of influence and creates a huge ripple effect of change! Michele Whaley is the best.
I love the infographic assessment idea! Did you and Kristy work together on it? I seem to remember a recent post on her blog too…you two need to get into politics or something. You’re just unstoppable!
Thanks for posting this activity. Perfect Guernica activity for the novel, Agentes secretos y el mural de Picasso. Also mentioned in its teacher’s guide.
I’ve been exploring your blog! What a great accumulation of thoughts and resources! Thank you so much!!!! I especially love this “music whisperer” post! Like you, I’ve been using music nonstop in my classes for years and years (I’ve been teaching a looooonnnnnnnggggg time!) Some of my favorites, in addition to those you’ve listed are: Juanes, Carlos Baute, Camila, SAMO, Luis Fonsi, Gaby Moreno, David Bisbal….and so many more! I have a database of music that I’ve shared before….http://wp.me/p1Dp9G-kX
How do you grade formative assessments like that? Do you have a rubric or do you give them credit just for staying in the language? Thanks! I love the idea!
[…] This isn’t to say that fun can’t be spontaneous. I’m still thinking of all the ways you could modify Carrie’s motivating, spur-of-the-moment Oscar award idea, El bigote. […]
Love that your Spanish IV class is watching Internado on a holiday. My Spanish IV class wants to meet this summer to continue watching it.
I find that film and music are the two most powerful and popular Authres. My students want to more than anything watch films and listen to music.
I love viewing film with my students as well. My dilemma is always how to make it more comprehensible: show with English subtitles and use events for discussion in TL, show with TL subtitles, no subtitles to work on listening? How do you approach this especially when dialogue contains enough slang to make it difficult for any level? Do you view films with Novices? If so, how can we ensure understanding and language learning happening?
I DO use film with novices. In novice classes I focus on TL discussion of the movie with English subtitles. I do the films as film studies in level I and II… 10-15 minute segments without and then with subtitles plus heavy TL discussion! In films with lots of slang… Like Casi Casi, I choose some expressions I want them to acquire and rephrase others in Spanish they will understand. It is amazing how much they can catch through the visual clues!
The real key to language learning and understanding is the discussion that keeps the culture in context and the language comprehensible!!
My native speaker class loves El Internado. They beg to come in during lunch to be able to watch an extra 30 mins! Their vocabulary is improving, they’re learning a variety of idiomatic expressions, they’re better able to grasp the vosotros… The list goes on an on! Some of my level ones were interested in it too, they said it looked more interesting than Mi Vida Loca, lol!
The first couple of times I modeled with them and now the majority just ham it up!!! 🙂 a few are shy so I might offer suggestions to get them started!!
Thanks to you, Carrie, I’m gradually including more film with my units and making purposeful connections. I agree that the TL discussion is a crucial element.
Some day….I’ll get on that Internado train. Some day….
I have been using El Internado with my 3 & 4 students this year and they love it. I purchased the entire series from Amazon Spain and spent last summer watching all of it because I couldn’t stop watching it. They have really enjoyed watching it, but I would like to use it more next year as a teaching tool and not just something they watch. They stay focused on it, but I still want to do more with it than them just watching it. What did you start with when you first started using it as a teaching tool? Do you have some suggestions on where to start? I’ve also thought about starting it as early as Spanish 2 so that hopefully by the time they make it through Spanish 4 they will be able to finish the entire series.
Hi, I love your idea and hope it is ok to steal it for my French class! I have done this many times but never for a final exam. Could you tell me how you have students prepare? Do you let them know choices beforehand? If so, do they create the products during the exam time? Thanks in advance for your help1
I gave this out today (3 weeks ahead) and they can prepare and plan as we finish the semester. They can’t bring anything to class with them (all products will be created during the 90 min exam period) but pre planning makes it all run more smoothly!
I love this idea too!! Two questions: 1. Do you give them class time and/or direction on how to plan for and create these products? 2. How do you grade it? Do you have a specific rubric for each product created? Thanks so much for sharing this!!
I am also trying to give choices for my Spanish classes on final exams and projects Would you mind sharing your choiceboards for your Spanish 1&2 classes? My upper level classes are a little easier, but for some reason I am having a hard time deciding on what options to give my first/second year classes without overwhelming them.
This is great, Carrie! This gives me a better idea of how to organize that information into a syllabus, without having so many details that you end up giving out a 10 page document. Thank you for sharing!!
I tell parents that everything can and SHOULD be retaken until the student is getting at least a B… but consider adding a deadline to the retake policy (retakes within 3 days, for example) or you´ll have students and PARENTS (!) trying to cram in retakes the day before grades are due. If the student cannot attain a B with three extra days of honest preparation, then perhaps I am asking them to make an unrealistic leap in language ability and should adjust the assignment.
What about parents & students who refuse to retake? I keep C´s, D´s and F´s in my grade book because otherwise some do not retake & I need a thoroughly documented history in order to give a D or F in my district. Would you rather record an “incomplete” on the transcript instead?
I don’t have F’s on my rubrics either. I have “beyond expectations” “meets expectations” “near expectations” and “below expectations”. Although students may be below expectations, they are still using language.
I like the idea, but agree with the comment above about the retakes within 3 days. I’m not teaching yet (I’ll be doing my student teaching this fall), but I worked with a teacher last semester who only allowed one retake every 6 weeks & she had tons students coming to her the day before the 6 weeks was up. I don’t think that helped them at all. I also think there needs to be a limit on how many times they can retake something. I like the idea that just failing or quitting the language isn’t really an option. Encouraging them to really learn the language is great. I’d love to implement something similar when I have my own classroom!
it’s the beginning of making the shift from teaching to learning. it’s not that they failed and deserved a grade from us to confirm that failure. it’s that they haven’t learned it yet. they aren’t there yet. love it.
In response to Michelle, I have heard from a teacher that during preparation for retakes, the students would have to complete a checklist of things in order to earn the retake. It think that would limit the last minute students…
I don’t have a problem with retakes as long as they are NOT the same exact assessment, measuring the same thing, yes, but not the exact same prompt or questions. Otherwise, it’s not an assessment of ability, but rather of memorization.
I also like not having a D option. I’ve done grading workshops at many districts that do not offer Ds. Instead it goes from C to not enough evidence (equivalent to an F). They do this because technically a D is passing and they are allowed to move to the next level even though they don’t have the ability to move on successfully.
I allow late work up to 1 week prior to grades being do (I need to have time to evaluate it). Once the grades have been reported, they can’t go back and make up something from before that time.
However, I don’t agree with the overall “not allowing students to fail” idea. I know that sounds harsh when you first hear it, but let me explain. For me, learning a language is a SKILL and not an academic class (one where you can study and succeed). You can’t fail a skill. You start off as a beginner, move through novice as your skills improve, then through intermediate, proficient, and if you keep on working, advanced. These are the levels that everyone must move through as they progress in ANY skill (dance, music, sports, etc). These levels can’t be skipped (though some may move through one level or another rather quickly). For me, grades are not for report cards, but rather a way to communicate progress to kids and their families.
I, of course, want all my students to well, and work hard to help them get there, for communication purposes, I need descriptive levels to provide them with the feedback to improve and succeed.
At the end of any school year, I have almost no complete failures (unless there was some special circumstance) and very few Ds. In both cases, these are students who had other issues and refused to take part in class activities.
Hi Carrie, For me, an D or F is not only my student’s failure, it is also mine! I used these very useful steps from Reed Gillespie to implement my retake policy this year: goo.gl/ajXbr. I let students “fail” the quiz and then I show them what they have to do in order to retake a different version of the quiz. I did not have a “retake ticket” like Reed recommends but I think I will implement it next year. I have found that you have to stay on top of students who are disorganized, because organizing a retake can become very tricky. Finally, I don’t average both grades, I simply keep the second one.
I can very readily see the value of Ubd (understanding by design) frameworks in designing upper level courses where you have the freedom to focus on specific content – whether it be violence and class struggle or how to take care of the environment. There are deep understandings that we should aim for our students to think critically about.
However, I am having a lot of trouble with the very idea of “understanding” at the lower levels where the focus is on acquiring the language and basic fluency. As TPRS teachers do we really care if our students have deep understandings of the language. Isn’t that a linguistics class? Millions of people speak fluently without understanding why. What generates an “understanding” in a language class that genuinely reflects what we our students to get out of it? Krashen argues that language acquisition is unconscious – the very opposite of the higher-level thinking skills that Ubd asks us to aim for. I want my students to think critically and try to encourage it, but I struggle to see how that is an appropriate goal when the focus should be on acquisition and communication.
Backwards planning can surely be beneficial, whether it is in structuring a unit or quarter so that students can read a TPRS novel, or in thinking about what structures are really essential for students to acquire in a given year of study. I am well aware of and using the ACFTL guidelines for novice learners in order to shape my curriculum so that the students can communicate in the ways detailed therein. But in this process isn’t very easy to lose track of the idea central to TPRS and all CI based instruction that it is input not output that leads to acquisition?
I hope this comes across as respectful and engaged as I intended it. I appreciate your time and thoughts about the subject. Thanks for starting an interesting discussion.
We are totally on the same page! I don’t plan for deeper understanding of language in the novice levels, still focusing on content but with a whole different vocab and set of expectations!!!
In level 1, we study Guatemala’s civil war and political unrest during quarter 4. I just have to really plan instruction that gives them the language they need to be part of the discussion!
I don’t force output. I agree, it is the input that is key to every unit!! Expectations of what they can understand are much higher than what they can produce!
I love that you commented back! It’s nice to discuss rather than just post and end!
We have a single lunch, and although by contract it is duty free I often tutor or give retakes during lunch ( although once a week is reserved for lunch with colleagues… )
I have to say that most of my assessments are very short, which makes it logistically feasible.
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We have an enrichment/intervention period one a week on a block schedule so 90 minutes to work with students.
I would love to use el internado… Do the dvd’s play through a computer (since it is region 2 and the US is region 1? Help please…this is confusing to me! Thanks for sharing all of your resources; I would love your class!
I love UBD and have been reworking my curriculum. For some reason I really struggle with the essential question part. You make it seem so easy! Is there any way you would be willing to share more of your questions for basic units in level I?
In level one I am a heavy storyteller. Most units revolve around the the unit story.. I start the year w Ben Slavic’s circling with balls (google it, it’s amazing!) and my EQ is How can I create an immediate connection with my ss? I try to use PQA to create some fun inside jokes and personal knowledge that create an immediate relationship w the class! The next unit is the story the boy who cried wolf. My EQ is Why is it important to tell the truth? Of course the answer will revolve around what we know (so wolves don’t eat your sheep) but we really focus on answering it through our story!
Think of EQ in terms of what you want students to carry as enduring (lasting) understandings… Ex. When I am introducing the idea of city vs country living in level 1, our EQ is What are the reasons I am lucky to have grown up in Carlyle. Of course we also then compare with ppl living in cities and rural areas around the world but I want them to always carry an appreciation 4 their roots!
I came across your blog a while ago and I’ve been gobbling up everything on it! I have a couple of questions regarding my transition to using Standards Based Teaching with IPA. Would you be willing to write me individually so that I can talk with you directly (and not clog up your blog!). Thank you!
Lisa
I have a few questions please. I also have always taught using a textbook and would like to switch things up so that more of my students come out actually using the language…not just the top students. I don’t quite understand how this works in a level one class. What authentic texts can a level one student understand without having to translate every word? I am not trying to sound negative, really I’m not. How do you go about finding material they can understand when they come in knowing nothing? I just want to understand how this will work so I can change things. I’m mainly concerned with level one. I can see levels two and up being able to handle more. I’d love to see this in action. Thank you for sharing!! Feel free to email me if comments get too long for the blog.
In my opinion, an authentic text for level one looks a WHOLE lot different than an authentic text in level 2,3,4… It might be a pin on pinterest of a cartoon with a word or two they know. It might be a video with very few words and lots of visuals that I movie talk… In level one I start with all Spanish on day one but very sheltered! I want them with 100% comprehension all of the time. I don’t use authentic resources at all until they have a couple of weeks of language under them to serve as a basis for their continued study.
We look at magazine ads that are heavy on cognates… and MUSIC is a favorite from day one! I start with the Spanglish song “You are the one” by Sonny Monreal and they’re hooked!
My kids read 4 TPRS Publishing novels in Spanish one and by 3rd and 4th quarter they are easily able to handle related authentic resources like simple infographics and videos!
I don’t know if you’re anywhere near me (southern IL) but you’re very welcome to come visit any time! We start the 15th!!! Yikes!
Thanks so very much. That was all very helpful and is a great jumpstart for me. I REALLY wish I could come visit but no time. : ( I’m in NC. I would love to see you in action. I’ll be following the blog to see what else I can pick up. Thanks for the great ideas!
Sracmt,
How does one learn how to teach the TPRS way? I’ve taught for many years but I really feel like the whole CI makes sense: I use the TL a lot but I’m not sure that’s the same as CI – not for all kids.
Two ways: first and best option is to attend a workshop! Second option is to find a CI teacher nearby to observe and then read read read books like TPRS in a year by Ben Slavic!!!
On the OPI they have to sustain a past dialogue (understandable to a native speaker but not necessarily perfect), a future dialogue (ok to use ir + a), and present time… ACTFL has great videos on their site that show what each prof level sounds like!
[…] This, I think, is one of the basic paradigm shifts that a beginning TPRS teacher must face. As a legacy methods teacher I would tell myself, gosh, my students won´t remember vocabulary from two or three units ago. As a TPRS teacher, the target structures should be burned permanently onto the hard-disk of student´s memory. If target structures are not so useful to bring back frequently in class, maybe they should not be target structures. Carrie Toth recently published a blog post about backward planning with a more nuanced presentation of planning for enduring understanding… it is worth checking out! […]
Would you be willing to share some of the amazing race challenges you create for Spanish 1? I wanted to do an amazing race review activity at the end of last year but did not get it all together in time. I would love to see/use what you have come up with. Great idea!!
Depends on the kids. Some groups I’ve had can do 4 a year, some only 3! Last year we did Brandon Brown wants a dog, New Houdini, and Esperanza. If I can, I’d like to add Bandon vs Yucatan this year… The group seems really bright so far!
What? This is awesome! What a great and novel way to have discussions in the past tense and guide students to be creative communicating about something that happened.
Preterit, Imperfect, or both? I am just now getting into the Imperfect with my Spanish 3 class and the next chapter puts it together with the preterit, trying to see if this would work…..do you have a rubric or instructions document that you used?
We use both. I just use them in context as appropriate! Since I don’t have a traditional text I don’t have to separate! No grade, just a way to recycle common past tense verbs. It generated a lot of good discussion!
Love this idea, thanks for sharing! I have a question thou, are the different elements, personajes, entorno, etc color coded? Do you fill these out or do the students? What if you have more students than items?
Thanks again, SraMonell
The whole video is only 3 minutes but i paused every few seconds to discuss what was happening with them! I had them do a lot of describing what they sae and I gave them cultural facts like pan de muertos as they appeared in the video.
I do. We are reading right now and it seems like 2-3 new ones pop up each day in the novel. I took a break today to do the video and I tried to recycle some of our structures from the novel as well (has, wants, returns, leaves).
I don’t know why but the link to the video wasn’t showing up as a link… So I updated it. It is a different video that we did today! GREAT video that made the rounds of Twitter and moreTPRS last year! In case you didn’t see it, it is there now!
Carrie-if you’re still looking for a Span. 4 teacher from WI with whom to collaborate, I’d love to! Let me know what you’re thinking…DM me if you’re interested! -Kris
I am doing MovieTalk with that video this week. Next class we are doing stations related to the video. Stations such as Textivate, Blubbr, match the screenshot with the text, and making papel picado! Definitely a great video!
This is a great overview for me as I jump into TCI/TPRS and I am also using the Cuentame mas text! I can use this as a guide as I figure this out for my department. I’m so glad I’ve started searching through your blog– amazing resource!! Thank you!
I love this idea. My Gr12 class does a murder mystery every year. Some of the class play the suspects/dead guy (yes they get to interview the dead guy) and others are teamed as detectives. In their prep session they are preparing to interview the suspects, get to preview the autopsy etc. On the oral day they have a 60 min oral session where they interview the suspects (they rotate through) as well as talk to their Chief (me) about what they are thinking. All info they write down is in English. The only bit they don’t get is ‘when’ the murder happened. The next day they write – and I tell them the ‘when’ – they have to say who did it and why. Suspects have to say who they think did it and why (“not me!”) and even the dead guy gets to have his piece. It’s about 2 classes to set up – 1 for the oral and then 1 for the write – they love it and they are really committed to the writing process when it ‘s time to solve the mystery.
Loved your “Bullseye” session at ACTFL – thanks for sharing
Colleen
These are some excellent points and I agree wholeheartedly. Many authentic resources are beyond the abilities of our emerging readers and only cause frustration that leads to failure rather than success.
I like your point about #1, and that was driven home for me by a candid Sr. Wooly video about a year ago. This is also part of why I kind of prefer writing my own a la Sra. Bex–my kids know my story and my journey to learn the language.
For #2 I’m gonna have to take you up on the challenge invitation (I know it’s shocking! 🙂 I think with the proper task and scaffolding, any student can be taught how to grapple, how to approach a problem that without help WOULD seem impossible. Sometimes I just havr kids read words out loud that they understand or write down words they hear then put them together with the context clues to get the main idea. 40 out of 45 kids have been able to do this (I suspect the others could too, but they tend not to turn things in #canofworms.)
I hear your point on #3 too, but while my 1st grader is whizzing through the reader books, he would not have the drive to keep reading if he didn’t have graphic novels at home that he was trying to achieve on his own. Likewise, our school kids have to see the variety of what’s out there so they have a higher purpose to playing with the language, something they can do with it that they care about (this is kind of the point Krashen was getting at when confronting Greg Duncan in Twitter this past week).
So yeah, I’m coming around to not 100% #authres, and I have some ideas I’m really excited about trying with a couple of Kristy’s books (if they excite the kids as much as they excite me, of course). Overall, I’m still probably in the *mostly* #authres camp.
I don’t disagree at all that we should use authentic resources! As language teachers, we need to have the goal of students who can engage with authentic material, my argument is just that we can combine those authres with nonauthres to create an even more powerful unit!!! We are getting closer and closer in theories!!! 🙂
I have so enjoyed your posts. I can’t agree with you more. I am a “non-authentic” speaker of Spanish too. The appropriate materials for any given class are what the TEACHER deems appropriate, not any administrator or organization. Authentic materials are wonderful when you can get them (what did I do before the Internet, which was the majority of my career) and when they can fit in to the lesson you are going to teach. It’s not good to use a video that totally baffles the students! Sorry for the rant and rave (you should see my position on the 90%). Good luck!
I could not agree more with your comments in this post! Such an excellent point about you as a non-native speaker being de-valued ~ no time to write more, my room is filling up at lunch!
[…] educator community, but couldn’t quite put my finger on it until the lovely Carrie Toth made a post on her blog, Somewhere to Share, earlier this month. (You can go read it first. This is a blog. My […]
[…] document, like the one published by ACTFL. Keep in mind what realistic goals are (check out what veteran Carrie Toth learned about that). A somewhat realistic goal for the average high school student in a very communicative […]
Carrie,
UBD is as useful for me as it is for my students; it keeps all of us focused on what is important, which usually, is not a worksheet.
Thank you for sharing.
Another agreement here, particularly on point #1. As I have been seeing the push for #authres go full steam ahead, I have wondered how I fit into that puzzle, since I am not a native speaker! There are amazing resources out there that are both authentic and also created for students. I think a healthy dose of both is appropriate. The students generally like the challenge of tackling authentic materials, but they also respond well to my dear friend Sr. Wooly. The kids don’t know the difference between an authentic / non-authentic resource and one thing every kid knows how to say thanks to Sr. Wooly is “puedo ir al baño?”…so there is a place for everything. We even discussed this at ICTFL…is it fair to say reading a book like Harry Potter that is translated into an L2 is not an authentic reading? Lots of people around the world have read it in various languages and I bet they would argue otherwise! 🙂
Thanks for sharing.
Very helpful, thanks! I read somewhere else yesterday that it´s best to break it up into two days, and now I´m reading it here. So I´ll take that advice!
Are we on the CPS Seal of Bilit committee together?
No, it’s a formative assessment for me! I was looking for specific structures like tenía quería and se quedó in their writing. I saw that they did a great job using our new stuff so I think we are ready for the assessment on Thursday!!
oh oh, people are actually listening to what I’m saying. that’s a scary thought. in all honesty we have seen much better results when teachers understand proficiency, students understand proficiency and everything that has happening in the classroom is focused on proficiency.
So glad to hear that you are using AAPPL to help you validate what is going on in your classroom or potentially make adjustment. This assessment is such an important piece of the feedback loop. Also, love the innovative way you raised the funds to make it happen. Kudos to you.
I just finished the book with my 8th graders yesterday. I read your post last night and thought, “what a great idea” so instead of completing our individual free-writes about the novel today, I tried this. Students were so focused during their writing and it was fun to have the music playing and to see them moving around. On the way out the door, one of my students turned to me and said, “Thank you Señora, I loved that!” and then her group of friends all nodded and one said, “Me too, can we do that again sometime?” I read them and was very happy with the results.
Thank you for your awesome ideas. Tomorrow…the yellow brick road! 🙂
We had a great time too!!! It was fun to just get up and move! I made mine too long (11 papers) this time, I would shorten it to 6-7 but otherwise it was a hit! On to the character analysis assessment tomorrow!
I do a similar project with my 6th, 7th and 8th graders each trimester of school. We choose a lender together and vote as a class. I would love to see the links too that you used to provide information about microfinance!
I LOVE this. Our kids (as in our family) are currently researching projects to choose, and one got a kiva gift card for her birthday. If you haven’t seen Living on One Dollar, go to Netflix & see it soon!
Heather Witten, Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell & I are working on a Spanish 1 curriculum for VIF International Education that builds proficiency while promoting cultural competence through global inquiry. One of the ways we’re engaging learners is through Kiva projects, just as you are doing with your students — so inspiring! We’re currently piloting the program in a few schools in North Carolina, and last week I saw a teacher do a great job of connecting Kiva, language learning and a TPRS story (“Esperanza”, by Carol Gaab) with her Spanish class. Kids were just beginning to research lenders for their own projects — they were focused and curious, which was great to see.
Hi, I may be interested in doing this test with my students (I teach French). I’m wondering what your students’ experience was like typing in Spanish / using accents on the keyboard? My students do not use the computer very often and are not familiar with how to type accents, and I wonder if that will hinder them in the Writing section.
Hi, Thanks for posting about this test. I am going to be giving it for the first time next week. In your original blog post, you advised “Remember to look (with the kids) at ACTFLs proficiency levels! They need to KNOW what makes he difference between IL IM and IH!” I would like to how you did this; did you share the descriptions from ACTFL as posted here ?http://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/ACTFLPerformance_Descriptors.pdf
Thanks so much!
Rosemarie
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I condensed them into kid friendly language and I encourage them to aim high every time they do an activity! If they know the target they can hit it in time!
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I love the idea of keeping them honest with the phone recording!
Thanks for this great idea. I will try it next year as a post reading activity as a class. I have found having them do dual entry diaries while they read has helped me see their comprehension of this book. They write a page number and the start of a paragraph and they either write what they visualize or what this makes them wonder as they read. Great way to interact while reading too.
What a wonderful and meaningful project. My husband does something similar and has kids raise money with competition coin jars-kids put their change into jars and get points based on coin (pennies are worth less than nickels, etc) and team with most points wins. They compete by trying to add big coins so a team will “lose”. It is explained better here: Bhttp://www.fundraising-ideas.org/DIY/pennydrive.htm But the real winners are the charities, who get the money they raised.
Could you possibly share the guided notes that students take? I developed some last year but I’m still not satisfied with them :-/ It would be nice to have a comparison to see how I can improve mine.
Of COURSE! LYRICS! Why didn’t I think of that? I loved found poems teaching English! Maybe I can add some app smashing to make this work with coro interpretation/presentation…
A lot of adapted pinterest pins! This week in level 1 I had them read a chapter of their novel and gave them the main idea… They had to find 6 pieces of textual evidence that supported that main idea. I want them to read more deeply than just translation! Cognitively they CAN! Level 3 did a double entry journal where they looked at text parts and wrote a reaction, comment, opinion, or prediction in response! Level for dug deep in the text by identifying inferences, causes and effects, making predictions, visualizing and more!! All stuff that came from pinterest ideas!
I am just finishing my fifth year teaching (I am 50, and a late bloomer 🙂 ) I went straight from college to the classroom (no student teaching) and I am the only foreign language teacher on my campus. I found out quickly that learning grammar, culture, and literature as a Spanish major, does not actually prepare you for teaching the language. Sigh…
I heard you in San Antonio this fall, and was inspired. The result? We are just finishing up Felipe Alou in my Spanish 2 class. It is the first time I have used a novel, and I love it! Ended up rushing it a bit, but it was still a great experience. I think most of the kids enjoyed it too, in spite of their beginning panic. (We are reading a whole book!? In SPANISH!?) One of my less stellar students commented; “This book isn’t half bad when you pay attention!” (High praise, indeed, from him. lol)
Can’t wait to explore this further, and I am also trying to learn as much about TPRS as possible. Struggling with keeping in the target language…..and not boring everyone, including myself, with the textbooks and grammar lessons…
Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge. It is a great help to this old, new teacher.
I’m sorry to keep asking so many questions… my students started the test today and I’m thrilled with the results so far. Where did you get the above statistic that 90% of students score at NH/IL level after 4 years of high school? I can’t find it on the ACTFL website.
Paul Sandrock shared it in a workshop I attended and the TELL project shares the stat as well. It is part of the ACTFL proficiency guidelines document in the form of a graph, I believe…
What novels would you recommend for Spanish 1? I read Felipe Alou with my level 1 and while my students thought the first four chapters were easy to comprehend they found the rest of the novel difficult and challenging. Is Felipe Alou appropriate for level 1 or should I use it with a higher level instead? Your advice is greatly appreciated. I am new to novels.
Felipe is written as a novice reader but at our school we do it in level 2 because we have more language at that time and can discuss the heavy cultural topics better! In level 1 we read Brandon Brown wants a dog and The New Houdini, Piratas, and Esperanza! Bianca Nieves is another level 1 reader with good culture but again we teach it in level 2 so we can have deeper discussions!
I like reading novels in my class. This is the first year I tried them. My Spanish 1 students enjoyed Piratas. I also read Felipe Alou with them. They found the first four chapters easy to comprehend but had difficulty with the rest of the novel. Is Felipe Alou best for higher levels due to the topics? Also what other novels do you recommend for level 1? Your help is greatly appreciated.
I just saw you at the TPRS conference in St. Paul and am so thankful for sharing all your knowledge and resources. I just made a MYP unit planner and used this assessment for my summative. Thanks again!
I would love to join your efforts. I am going to ask my curriculum leader if it would be ok and get back to you. When is the deadline or end of the fundraiser? What levels do you teach. I will be teaching 6,7, and 8 grade students, level 1, at Toano Middle School, Virginia.
Enid Reed
Forgive any spelling errors, my phone has emergent typing skills.
They used a WIDE variety of programs since they were making them outside of class. Some who wanted to use my devices used Windows Movie Maker or iMovie. Others who used their phones used Flipagram and some Android market movie makers I wasn’t familiar with!
Carrie, Finding that balance between serious and silly is a good thing to find. And you just listened to your students to give them some of what they need and plenty of what they want!
Thank you for sharing. I am just starting to use embedded reading and would like to see this lesson in action. Is there a video of a teacher doing this that you would recommend? Gracias
Marta
OMG, I love this idea, I feel like I am changing so much right now in Spanish IV because of the Seal of Biliteracy that right now I am shamelessly borrowing ideas and not doing as much idea creating I would like but the difference I am seeing in my students is incredible. So I am going to shamelessly steal another idea from you my friend. 😉
Thank you so much! I used the “El Cacto” video and movie talk with levels 3 and 4. I assigned a re-tell for homework. One of my 4s said not to re-tell to a young kid because they will think they have to change to have friends. It led into a whole discussion of “would you” with them. Lots of more complex structures and all student led. Gracias!
I’m teaching La Hija del Sastre this year and I’m also doing the La lengua de la mariposa film study with my students. I’ve been searching for the movie all over and I want to get it with Spanish subtitles. I’m willing to purchase it. Any recommendations?
I totally stole this idea from you and LOVED it every time my students did this type of task just for the fact that they end up speaking TL for a VERY extended period of time.
I do have a question about speaking evaluations. I find that even though I take notes as I walk around (need to get that snack tray idea going next time) I don’t feel confident in putting final call on speaking performance proficiency here. How do you evaluate? What factors do you consider? How much time do you spend per group? Any advice will be appreciated.
I asked my students to complete self-evaluation/reflection in which they needed to bid for a grade and provide evidence. I will be reading them this weekend. Curious to see what they thought and compare to own notes.
As early to mid intermediates I’m more concerned that they are developing the ability to carry on longer conversations than with their accuracy! Sometimes I have them call my Google Voice and record their presentation before they do the gallery but other times I get the info I need just knowing they were consistently using Spanish to share ideas!
I appreciate your response. But I’m curious about the latter scenario about “just knowing they were consistency using Spanish”. How does this translate into what you put into the grade book? This is what confuses me the most about this kind of assessment. I’m having a lot of trouble getting my mind around this approach.
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Well, I started by looking carefully at the ACTFL performance descriptors and the levels of proficiency that are nationally expected after a certain amount of time in the language classroom. For example, advanced Low is generally achieved by a college language major graduating AFTER a study abroad. And do you know what the performance descriptor says?? Can use past, present, and future times appropriately (although there may still be errors). I was expecting this in Spanish 3!? I have completely changed (over 10 yrs) my classroom to better address these realistic expectations. I grade by listening to see if they are using language to communicate rather than if they’re using the past tense 10 times in the presentation. This means I have less small point deductions and more overall 5-10 point speaking tasks… I grade with a rubric adapted from the jcps skydrive documents. Google them if you aren’t familiar! Good stuff!
The gradebook on this had a presentational writing grade of 25 possible for their written portion, 10 points for presenting to classmates (everyone did and earned 10 points) and 10 for q and a period. Everyone asked and answered and although some clearly answered with more detail or asked with less errors, they all effectively asked and answered and were able to navigate the conversation!
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[…] moments there are only two left, with the rest of the class cheering for one or the other. Class trophy for the one who […]
Thank you Carrie! It’s so easy to forget that there is more than one way to eat the pie that is second language education. I jumped on the TPRS band wagon back in 2000 because I was desperate to reach my students. At the time I was the only teacher at the school so I had no one to convince or argue with. My students, whom earlier were hating Spanish, now enjoyed it because they were successful. Like Susan Gross says, “Nothing motivates like success.” Sometimes I used to threaten my students with bringing out the textbooks when they didn’t behave in class.
However, I admit that as I gained confidence and experience with TPRS/CI I have not been very empathetic of others who are teaching with traditional methods. Thank you for reminding me not to become a language teacher bully.
Carrie, I agree with the sentiment, but have to say that this is hard for many of us because we are not in positions of power. It is hard for me to be sympathetic to opposing view points when in my daily teaching life I am getting railroaded by those in power. When my school does not allow me to use methods that I know align with best practices, what can I do? When national organizations push methods which I, and others, do not think reflect a knowledge of current SLA research, should I simply keep quiet? I think that a lot of us use twitter, facebook, and other groups as a place to vent. A lot of the this is pushing back because we are constantly being told that we are wrong or too far out there in our departments or districts. It is difficult to conceive of oneself as a bully when one is generally on the receiving end of it.
That said, I agree that taking the supportive route is the way to go because at the end of the day our differences are minute compared to the admirable goals that we have in common. And we are more likely to turn people away with a superior attitude or shaming.
I don’t mean we shouldn’t push for others to try our methods. I simply want people to try catching flies with honey.
National organizations? ACTFL? They are all about proficiency. They serve all teachers so they have to also make room for this use of TL to fall into a traditional classroom, but they want us providing tons of input so we end up with proficient kids!!
I think I’m just frustrated that teachers who honestly don’t understand the magnitude of this shift to CI ask questions and are met with criticism wrapped in a lecture. 🙂 or maybe I was just over sensitive this morning?
I can’t even tell you how much I appreciate your post. I am one of those teachers not doing it “the new way”. I tried at the start of the year, and I find the approach so challenging and amorphous. Then I end up asking myself, “How does this get put into grades?” It stresses me out a lot, actually. Especially now that I’ve tried and failed (in my eyes) trying it out.
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I give short interpretive readings through novels, articles, class stories… Interpersonal chats about our current unit, presentations reading and speaking of all types… We change the endings to stories, predict what characters might do, watch videos and identify what is happening in screenshots from the film! I still have lots of grades I can give, they just look different! It doesn’t look like language separated into vocab and grammar… It’s all whole language!
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Truth.
Changing to CI has been one of the hardest but also the most rewarding things I have done in my career. I kept wanting SOMEBODY to tell me exactly what to do, because changing everything and having 4 Spanish classes to prep is no easy job. I kind of still want someone to tell me what to do, but I’m getting it. 🙂
I cringe at what I’ve put some of my students through in the past.
Yes! I grew and changed because someone helped me learn about CI with kindness and respect. (Thank you, Grant Boulanger and Melanie Bruyers.) Maybe others will too if we are kind and respectful. But I’ll just keep working on my own dang self for a while.
I’m really happy to see this. I’m a late bloomer teacher, age 51, now in my fourth year, and learned languages (back in the day) using those old grammar/translation methods. I love the idea of CI and am interested in incorporating it, but have no mentors to help. I’m not quite sure how to start, but I try to read as much as I can. It’s hard without someone more experienced to guide me! But what really DOESN’T help is the outright hostility I see on CI/TPRS pages/sites to those who are older and new to the game. The other day someone posted on the iFLT/NTPRS/CI Teaching Facebook Group page a post literally ridiculing some teacher they work with as being double his age and teaching for 20 years, still stuck in the old methods. This was fairly mild compared to some comments I’ve seen on this and other pages. It’s ageism pure and simple, and it tends to give those of us old folks who are open to new methods a sour taste about CI. I’m very glad to see folks like yourselves who are more experienced and understand the challenges those of us who haven’t been able to use CI face.
The more I read the comments with this awesome post, the more it’s starting to feel like professional therapy. I agree with everything you wrote. I’m actually TRYING and I just can’t seem to pull it together. It’s not easy.
I have a one hash tag answer #langchat YEAH LANGCHAT! With the beautiful, people of this powerful Twitter PLT, I’m a born-again, language teacher.
I’m not going to say it’s easy but I’m growing the kids are growing and they love it! The only challenge now is how do you grade certain things in a communicative class. Sigh. But latest issue of Language Educator addresses this. It’s okay. We are pioneers. Well, Thomas Sauer, Greg Duncan are chartering new territory for us. We got to have faith! Adam
[…] to share posted recently a fun story review game. I think the game has great potential but I wonder how to avoid students recognising each others […]
There’s a reason you were TOY, Carrie. 🙂 You are one of a short list of language teachers active in the virtual PLN that I can’t ever see being a language bully, and that’s one of the reasons why every single teacher I know respects you immensely. I know I have been one myself, whether from frustration or just pushing curious questions too hard, the reason doesn’t matter, it’s unacceptable. Thanks for calling us on it. I request to be allowed to give you a hug for this post at ACTFL!
I began my TPRS/CI journey three years ago, so my level 3s are my first batch to receive instruction primarily using this method and wow! They never cease to amaze me as a cohort. In my opinion they’re the best group to come through the program in my four years. They’re participating more orally in level 3 (Felip Alou’s discussion questions were perfection! Inspired so many discussions – some basic answers and inspired some debates) then I ever did in 4, and they’re frequently creating with the language. My mentor has told me he is retiring, and I’m excited at what I will be able to do with this group for an additional two more years. It’s new territory for me so it’s hard to vision what that will look like.
Despite how awesome my level 3s are, I have noticed many of the issues you’ve addressed and I’m still working to discern what my own answers are. I’m in aww when students self correct for por and para outloud and I just had one boy this past week offer different verb conjugations (although, we don’t do verb charts, so it was kind of weird!) until he got the right one for the sentence that he was in the middle of speaking. Of course, present and past tense needs refinement, too, amongst other errors.
I’ll be interested to see what others have to say!
PS: Kudos to your daughter! I’m sure it was exciting and validating for her. I hope my students would do the same if they were in the same situation.
OMG! Gracias!!!!! This is what I have been trying to get the rest of my department to understand for years now. I am printing this and sharing it. I can only hope that one day it might sink in.
This is SUCH a GREAT reminder!! I try and tell my intermediates all the time how its a messy and sometimes frustrating but amazing journey to be on. Thanks for sharing!!
Carrie, I’m searching your blog but can’t find more information about this unit– I remember you talking about it at TCI Maine in 2014. Can you share a little more? or guide me to your other post? Thanks!!
[…] stuck with me was the project she did (inspired in turn by Kristy Placido) that had students researching borrowers on Kiva who were in need of loans to grow their local businesses. Both teachers had students choose a […]
If I feel like I can’t get around to hear all groups well, I have them record on an iphone at the table and share the sound file with me. Most of the time I have plenty of time to listen to all groups. They are graded based on what the ACTFL proficiency descriptors say they should be able to do at each level. I want 3s and 4s to be doing a MINIMUM of Novice High in their speaking so simple sentences sometimes supported by memorized language. This would really be more of a B- or maybe even C+ depending on the situation for those upper level kids. I’m really after the connected series of simple sentences at the Intermediate Low as a goal for EVERYONE… or the B-B+ range… add some unit specific vocab and connecting words and we get them at the Intermediate Mid which is as strong A and if they are using a really strong, broad vocabulary and are able to bounce comfortably between time frames, they’re A+ range at Intermediate High. I carry my gradebook and a sheet of paper so they know I am always listening and I make little notes to myself before I decide what my final eval is. Notes about what the ss say or what impressive vocab they used or even what they were lacking. After you have had them for a period of time you know where they are, what their goals are to move up to the next proficiency, and who you need to watch most! 🙂
[…] First, I looked at the story and sorted vocabulary into three categories: (1) words that my students already know/cognates that they can identify without difficulty, (2) words that my students will need to learn in order to understand the reading, and (3) words that are footnoted/can be footnoted because they are not high frequency/super essential to the overall comprehension of the story and will not likely be used in subsequent units, so I don’t care if students learn them. Carrie Toth has a great post about vocab sorting that I recommend reading HERE. […]
Love reading your blog. It inspires me and teaches me in one breath. Hope you can rest on your laurels soon as the finals are all over. Hope your kids recognize how much they can do, thanks to this final!
[…] If you are looking to expand your knowledge of how to effectively plan, take a look at Carrie Toth’s blog. She is one of our favorite authors, and she is also a fantastic blogger and backwards-planning guru-diva. Check out this post! […]
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Thank you! I needed this. I just dusted off my textbook and decided that “if the kids don’t care and the parents don’t care, then why should i care if a student ‘acquires’ the language?” It has been rough. I’ve taught for 14 years and I am beginning to feel like the only thing world language is good for is “getting into college and meeting graduation requirements.” I want more for my students.
Reblogged this on CI Peek and commented:
Carrie Toth shares her journey from frustration to a-ha as she discovered teaching with Comprehensible Input! This post is a must-read for anyone experiencing the January doldrums!
This is so inspiring! As I continue to grow and learn as a teacher, I will come back to this post. (Especially the part about not achieving it all in one year!) Thank you!
You’re very lucky. In my student teacher observations, I am seeing inner city and lower/middle class blue collar students who just care about PASSING the class. They don’t do their homework and are happy to get a D. When they get their D for the two card markings, they don’t care about paying attention to the review for the final exam. Even if they fail the final, they still will pass. No matter how I instruct my student teachers on proficiency, they are bewildered, and even their cooperating teachers are disheartened.
Check out Denver Public Schools for the exact same types of results with inner city kids! If the input is right, the attitudes change! Hope you’re able to find some great examples to lead your MI kids into a positive experience!
Interestingly enough, my experience in Louisville, KY was the same. Teaching for proficiency, giving kids real language goals that they can reach was much more popular in the so-called “bad schools” (filled with inner city kids.) It was there that kids responded, because for the first time there was a teacher that showed them how to be successful. Now, in the so-called “good schools”, resistance to change was much higher as teachers (and their students) were happy with the status quo.
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I love this post and your positive energy! You are an inspiration to all of us.
I’d like to get more information about using the AAPPL measure. I am writing a grant proposal to fund my first year of testing. But I’m nervous about having my students tested. It’s a long test, it will be complicated to use the computer lab, and most importantly, what if they don’t do as well as I hope? Right now I’m thinking of just testing my 50 Spanish I students and my 12 Spanish III’s and 2 Spanish IV students. I have a large number of Spanish II students who are minimally engaged, so I may only pick the top 10 to test.
Would you possibly be available to talk with me about your experience and give me some pointers?
Gracias!
Rita
Rita Barrett Portland Adventist Academy Spanish
*”It is not important to be better than someone else, but to be better than yesterday.”*
On Thu, Jan 14, 2016 at 4:39 PM, Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: “If you are, I’d say you’re standing on the same cliff > edge that I stood on in 2006! I was frustrated by my scores on my first > attempt at National Board Certification, I was saddened by apathy about > language learning and homework. I was heartbroken that ” >
I love this so much… thank you for posting this ray of sunshine. I’ll be setting my sights on the long-term benefits of comprehensible input and staying the course with this as my end goal. 🙂
I love your unit! I was wondering if you showed the entire film A Matador’s Mistress and if the inappropriate parts were skipped or did you get parent permission?
Depends on the class. I ALWAYS cut the sex scenes but for more mature groups I have shown pretty much all… for the ones who lack maturity, I only show some fighting scenes.
I love the idea of using novels to bring more of everything cool about learning a language into the classroom, and over the years I’ve used a couple of them with varying success. This past August, I’d submitted a grant request to be able to purchase class sets of some of the newer novels, but it was denied. I wondered if you had your students purchase their own copies or if you used the audio cd, or a doc cam projecting it for them to read as a class? I’m toying with the idea of having my students purchase personal copies of a couple of novels- putting it on my syllabus as a required material- this would be for my Spanish 3s- who are taking the class above the requirement for graduation. Do you have any thoughts or advice on this?
Hi!!! I have slowly built up my class sets! One novel per year! I started with novels that would be great for all levels! Easy enough for novices to read and then added challenge in the intermediate discussions!! I HAVE had kids buy their own! And the added perk is that they often donate them back at the end of the year! Which adds to my novel collection! ❤️
Both the audio CD and doc cam are totally legal since you aren’t reproducing the materials so they’d be a GREAT stand in while you decide your best move!
Way to go, Carrie! For French teachers, check for grants from the Cultural Services offices of the French government and consulates and for “stages pédagogiques” In Belgium and Canada. For exactly the same reasons as Carrie, I have used those summer programs to improve my own proficiency in French because I was never able to study abroad in high school or college. I taught for six years before having the opportunity through one of these scholarship programs to go on my own for my own language and cultural development. I have two more since then, the latest being in 2007. There are similar programs offered by various agencies for German, Japanese and Mandarin teachers as well. And we’re modeling that learning language is an ongoing process. And don’t hesitate to design your own experiences. After teaching for 21 years, I will finally have my first opportunity to spend time at a French high school during my spring break in just over a month and it’s in a part of France I have never visited so the learning will be amazing on all sides. I arranged this by working with the teacher of the class my students are corresponding with. I did something similar several years ago when we were corresponding with a school in Belgium.
Thank you soooo much for this post! It shows me that it can be done and hopefully I will get there soon. Can you please tell me what curriculum do you follow for Spanish 1. I have middle school semester Spansih, they don’t get any HS credit for it and I don’t know how to motivate them….don’t know where to begin. I read blog after blog with TPRS/ CI and I just feel like a loser because I don’t know how to apply it on a day to day base.
In Spanish one I use chapters 1-4 of Carol Gaab’s Cuentame and I use 4 novels! I’d say if you are able, one of my biggest recommendations would be to try to go to iFLT this summer! It is worth every penny! I didn’t feel confident in knowing how to apply CI methods without a textbook until I went to NTPRS (another great option!) those 5 day conferences really fill you up with great ideas!
It is a Spanish immersion! Does he speak Spanish??? I bet he could enroll but he might have to do a lot on his own if he couldn’t participate in the language-centric activities!!
Hola! I remembered reading this blog post last year and had to go back and find it today. I was reading through some written answers for post-reading questions for a novel and it was a bit rough! Then I remembered I’m working with intermediates and I should celebrate the fact that they could write so much about the topic and get their ideas across! The different questions had them switching tenses between the past, present and future, which we all know is no easy task. Re-reading your post makes me so proud of them! Gracias!
This is the hardest thing for me to come to terms with. I love hanging out with my students in the language but fear for some of them when they get into another teacher’s class who might constantly correct them and ask for perfection when I try to figure out if they answered the prompt even with albeit limited language in a comprehensible way.
I’ve been wanting to post about this lately. How the most important thing we should grade is the content. If they can still answer a higher level thinking question with lower level language than peers, haven’t they accomplished the goal, therefore they should get the grade, which will encourage them to take the class for more years (thus pushing them closer to proficiency)? 😉
I have been studying English for the past 15 years and I still struggle with the use of certain prepositions (Especially in/on.) So why, do we ask our students for perfection? Why is it that after only two years of Spanish instruction, we expect our students to experts on complicated concepts such as ser vs. estar?
Words of wisdom with some dream humor wrapped around it. Excellent.
I often need to remind myself to relax the error marking red pen. Communication is the golden egg or maybe in your case the golden watermelon this is growing on a trellis reinforced with steel beams.
Thank you for the encouragement and the wealth of resources you share on this blog.
Thanks, Carrie for this awesome post and reflection! I always think about this when I am grading writing and speaking assessments. I know they will make errors (errors are good and part of the acquisition process) so what grade should I give them? I know there are errors that they should not be making at their level so I usually focus on those. Errors in language that they don’t know yet is fine with me so I don’t punish them for those kinds of errors!
Thanks for sharing! I am a new language teacher in a rural setting and REALLY struggle to get the kids to speak in the target language. Of course then, by default, I do not use as much target language as I should. What are some suggestions that you have to using more TL in the classroom? 90% would be a dream and I would LOVE to get there!
Great post, Carrie–as always, well articulated. I need to remind myself of this so often.
The next issue, then, becomes these students’ experiences in college Spanish classes. I had a student come back and let me know he really struggled with the grammar focus in his college class at a major university. (He placed into 3rd semester after 4 years of HS study). His teacher and classmates couldn’t believe he didn’t know how to chant the 6 box verb charts in all tenses. Once my student figured out the box thing, they were on to the next tense.
He was so frustrated, and he finally got help from a tutor who helped him sort out the “6-box thing”. He really felt like he has an inferior HS experience because he was “behind”. He asked me why I didn’t teach him any grammar.
Then the conversation got interesting.
I asked him if he were given options between how to use words in different tenses in context if he could make the right choice, based on what sounded right. He said yes.
I asked him how his teacher and tutor said his speaking and writing were. He said he “nailed” the one speaking assessment he had, and that they were both impressed with the quantity he was able to write (albeit filled with errors). He also said his other best grades were on the novel they read (La Calaca Alegre!). Unfortunatly, the latter were only 20% of the semester grade…the other 80% was on grammar units.
He also told me about his most recent missions trip to Nicaragua with his church. He said the directors of the orphanage (their partners In the program with his church) were very impressed with his ability to communicate in Spanish. He said he felt very confident he could get his point across ‘circumlocuting when I had to’ even if he didn’t know some words or advanced structures. If he asked the Nicaraguans to slow down he could understand them very well.
So….I asked him what he really wanted to do with Spanish: conjugate the 6 boxes in all tenses, OR communicate. He said, “well…obviously communicate. I want to live in Micaragua for a few years after graduation, and they’ve offered me a job at the orphanage.”
!!!!!
So there’s the disconnect. I’m so sad that this boy who can really COMMUNICATE in Spanish was made to feel by higher ed folks that he doesn’t “know” anything, and that his HS classes were inferior and didn’t “teach” him the grammar.
When will that change?
I left the conversation feeling good about the experiences he had in HS at a TCI focused school, but so sad for future students in his situation who may have to get the same message in college.
His experience is what some of mine have experienced too! Their professors rave about their ability to communicate and some are very helpful with fine tuning grammar and some very impatient! If the goal is to use language, making errors shouldn’t be a crime!!!
I sat in on your CSCFL session. On one of your slides, you had a picture of the ACTFL Proficiency levels and how you posted them on your wall. I’d like to do something similar. Is there anyway you could send me that slide?
This is awesome. I was trying to figure out how to group my students bc I have struggling readers, those that can read on their own. What a great way to separate them. Are you planning on having all the groups finish at the same time with the book? If the independents read faster do you have something else planned for them to do?
I am going to have them stay with the class! If they finish early I’ll allow them to work quietly on something else! That group tends to have plenty of work in other classes to keep them busy! 🙂
Oh, nice! I was wondering about having topics such as “My family is in crisis” or such. I am trying to think what a talk show might have (that would be appropriate in the classroom).
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Since our novels are so wildly different (Noche de Oro, Rebeldes de Tejas, and Guerra Sucia), I am thinking that I’d like to do things that focus on literary features! That vocab is almost always cognatey! Protagonista, antagonista, escena más dramática..
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OMG I think this is exactly what I h been looking for! This just might work. Thanks for posting. So many ideas floating around in my head right now!
Thanks for the information. I’m doing something similar for my Advanced Spanish students and have been looking for information. Do you have instructions/templates for the character and event webs?
Sounds like a great idea! I’m looking ahead at my Spanish 3 class next year and this would really be beneficial for them because of the wide variation in the level of abilities. Can you tell me more about the character and event webs? Also, will you use a rubric for grading the class discussions on Thursday or will it be more of whether or not students contribute? How do you structure a class discussion like this?
Hello. Would you please share a copy of the permission slip that you use before showing a film? My email address is lsuarez@peotoneschools.org Thank you so much!
Hello. May I also please have a copy of the permission slip that you use before showing a film? My email address is kmoore@paradiseschools.org. Muchísimas gracias!
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I’m in the process of re-working it! At my old school I was well established and didn’t need as detailed a slip! Now that I’m switching schools, I feel like I need a much more descriptive one until they get to know me!
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This is JUST the solution I’ve been looking for as I ponder the logistics of reading Le Petit Prince in class with my 4s soon. Now excuse me while I stalk your Pinterest boards… 🙂
Sounds awesome! I have done this in my lovel 4 now a couple of times. They love the choice. I just mentioned how I would love to do different novels for our level 2 kids. Maybe I can see how you are doing this in 4.
Love your sharing!
Hi.
I love reading what you do in your classes. They sound amazing. I am wondering if you could send me a curriculum map of what you do for Spanish ! classes? I teach middle school and pretty much try to prepare them for our high school. I am looking for some new ideas.
thanks ktumilty@saltcreek48.org
I’m not teaching level 1 right now but I do present, past, and future tense of the “super 7” verbs plus Ben Slavic’s circling with balls, 3-4 novels, and 4 chapters of Carol Gaab’s Cuéntame más! (Google all those if you’re not familiar with them!!) this is my first year without level 1 and it feels strange! I’m missing them!!! We read Brandon Brown wants a dog, El Nuevo Houdini past tense, Piratas, and Esperanza. With a group of struggling readers, I’d drop Esperanza. I have been using Martina Bex materials in level 2 and I love them! Check her out too!
Could you explain how you use class dojo? I’ve toyed around with it but don’t like how you can’t group the kids on a seating chart. Maybe it’s just me but, I find it very difficult to mark down participation notes during a class discussion when it is alphabetized… It takes me longer to find each name and while I’m searching through 35 kids, I miss parts of the discussion. That being said – I WANT to use that app more. Any suggestions?
Also, I love the differentiated reading group idea! After they are done reading, they do the assignment correct? Then do you reconvene as a class to review?
My kids love this tournament! We finished over a month ago and my students are still singing the songs to themselves in class and requesting their favorites! I play songs all the time, but with this “tournament” that they get to vote on, they get so much more invested in the songs.
I love this! I think this will be something we can do next year. Or maybe May madness would work….. 🙂 Quick question? Did you have each class vote and then tally or did you have only one class you did this with? Thanks again for the great ideas!
I love this activity!! Thanks for sharing your favorites- I’m always looking for new songs to share with my class. One idea to make your Music Madness a bit easier for bookkeeping (if you are a 1 to 1 school with computers for all students) is by putting the votes on a google form. By doing this, google will do all the tabulation for you AND added bonus, you can attach the videos of your songs to the form so students who might not look the songs up on their own have it at their fingertips- staring them in the face begging them for one more listen! This was a big hit in my class as well and my class was so sad when it ended. La Gozadera is our reigning champion! I’ll be excited to hear who wins for you!
Wanted to thank you for sharing this! I do something called an ‘oral recap’ with my students (http://bit.ly/1h0qren) – after we have read something (a dialogue, short piece etc) Your idea here gave me the idea to put together a self recording sheet with the expectations on it – coded that is. So a ‘simple answer’ is coded “MM” (minimally meeting) and an answer that ‘expands on what someone else said’ is “ME” (meeting expectations). There are several other categories. At the end I’m asking them to say – by looking at how they recorded – how they feel they met expectations. If you want I can send you what I came up with & how I use it… And at the bottom of my sheet I have credited you with the idea for this.
Gracias!!!
Colleen
Hi Colleen! I would like to see your coded response sheet. I am really trying to build my repertoire of assessments on actionable data so that I can give students specific feedback, as well as developing their own ability to self assess and monitor progress. I think your coding system would be brilliant! Please email me the specifics: michelledjigal@gmail.com
What a fabulous post! I love how you explain the various ways that you weave grammar into the fabric of your classes without explicitly focusing on it. One of the reasons that I love using novels and stories is that they can be so linguistically rich. I certainly use some “authentic” resources, but often the ones that are comprehensible (infographics and the like) are not very rich linguistically. With novels, as you point out, students can see subjunctive or past tense forms, or pretty much any grammatical structure even in a level one novel/story. In my opinion the sooner that students start seeing a form like “vaya” which is SO high frequency in every day speech, the better.
I also love that you point out that we are not trying to produce students in a middle or high school setting who are 100% accurate. That is one of the hardest mental adjustments to make as a teacher. Even though I know better, I still get frustrated when a student in my Latin 1 class uses “est ” (he is) rather than “sunt” (they are) despite tons of reps of the latter and instantaneous recognition of what the word means when they are reading or listening. Intermediate is MESSY, and that is okay.
The ballot only had space for the one song (of the two) that they chose for the day, correct? The songs that were “favorites” were the ones that advanced? I got a little confused there.
The first day I copied the ballot front and back. They listened to them and voted on both (one on each side).it was a huge waste of paper so the next day I squeezed 6 ballots on each side (landscape and 2 column) so they could vote for 6 days worth of songs on one page!
I really appreciate the honesty about your past struggles – it lets me know that I’m on the right track, even if I feel like I’m not there yet. And great examples of how you’ve found a way that works for you. Thanks for the advice!
[…] written a blog post about administering AAPPL and so did Bethanie Drew; you can find their wisdom here, here and here. Both provided me with much needed insights from “how to” to “how not to” […]
Not for lower levels at all! Spanish 3 had read about 10 other novels before they were ready to fly solo and Spanish 4 even more! I read with the 1s and 2s but we do all kinds of things to keep it fun!
This is awesome, exactly what i needed to get my school in the right direction. My dept head and i are coming to iflt this summer! yay!
Also, could I have a copy of your film permission slip as well! it would be most helpful! 🙂 Gracias!
I am happy to send it but don’t know how helpful it will be! It is mainly a permission slip to use the students images in my presentations and social media! With some movies tacked on! 🙂
This is great! Thank you for sharing this. Like you, I spent the first part of my teaching career teaching the way I had been taught. I am thirsty for a change!
I love this observation: “Students will still be messy intermediates and novices, and students will still be missing out on some part of the Spanish language, whether it be grammatical or usage.” It seems as teachers we really do have to acknowledge that we can’t “do it all”, especially when we want to do it “all” in the first two years of language. There is just so much time with, as it is in my classroom, 52 minutes 4 times per week. We just have to maximize that time and love our students through the process of sharing our passion with them!
Loved the student perspective (she certainly will be the “rising” professional she described herself to be!). This thoughts shared by both Señora Toth y Kayla in this both validate the most important thing about language education and it’s not the methods nor the resources. It’s the passion and commitment to students that will keep them coming back for more and will give them positive experiences to build on in the future. Gracias por compartir!
[…] we watched the film, I used the “Yellow Brick Road” activity from Carrie Toth. Students had to discuss the role of each character in the plot of […]
[…] and or text of stories, poetry and/or articles we studied during the unit. I got this idea from Carrie Toth and have applied it to other levels such as when my Spanish 3 H students about the environment. […]
Thanks for sharing Carrie as I will certainly have the goals posted this year!
Say, I think I need your email address in order to send you to zulily! How can I get it?? Gracias and I hope you had a nice drive home! You must be OVER THE TOP getting ready for your new job😆 at your old school!
Keep in touch! Karen Weigel
I’ve been looking for a way to wean my upper level ESL students away from read-aloud for novels to more independent reading, and this is it. Thank you!
[…] and understand themes studied in a college literature classes such as Magic Realism! This blog post is evidence that what Carrie does in her high school classroom is translating well for her students […]
[…] We continue listening to songs and MovieTalk any good new videos. (Can’t wait to see if they make a new Loteria El Gordo video!) A great MovieTalk that I like to do during this time is El cacto y el banco. Carrie Toth has activities for it HERE. […]
[…] will kick the year off with some great plans from Carrie Toth, using Atrévete . We will take about 4 days to go through this material, break for Labor Day and […]
I LOVE IT Carrie!! You’ve inspired me to do something “grand” as apposed to the poster I have…
I can tell you’ve been working hard for those new kiddies–They are going to LOVE your class!!!
Carrie, do you have any current information on the Nice foundation? I went to the address you posted but the site isn’t there. I would love to do something like this with my kids.
I love your proficiency bulletin board Carrie. What are your proficiency level goals for Spanish 1 for each quarter? And is meeting the goal a B, and exceeding it an A? I am really want to get consistent this year with my assessing. Thank you!
Super awesome! In order to introduce some structures, I made a vocabulary slideshow with some vocabulary/structures to focus on. (¿A qué se dedica? atreverse, y vencer plus some review questions for tener miedo, confianza, requerir). If you would like a copy, I’d be happy to send it. I have a quick question of what activities you are planning to do with reading. Are you planning to translate line by line or just circle the sentences? I can’t think of another thing to do with the readings. Suggestions?
Carrie!
I’m trying these out this year and can’t wait for school to start tomorrow! 🙂 Thanks for all you share! Hope you’re first day of school went well at the new school!
[…] class and beyond: We continue the drawings, star of the day interviews, classroom jobs, start the Parecidos MovieTalk, and do the song Sofía by Alvaro Soler. I will also do this getting to know you activity […]
Hi how are you? I truly likes your blog.I looked over your syllabus and realized that you taught with Mi Vida Loca video series.Is this something that you still do? If so do you have lesson plans to make it more TPRS like?
I love how you used Aurasma! I have seen it presented on several times and it has seemed impractical to me. This is such an easy use; I love it! You’re brilliant!
How long do you typically spend on a single novel? I’m looking to do something like this with my kiddos in the spring, but was wondering how you typically pace it. Any info appreciated!
This sounds like so much fun, Carrie! But it lasted only five minutes in class? How much time did you put into the planning? And blowing up all those balloons? I remember once when I planned a similar activity and it took me hours to personalize it. I had originally planned for the activity to take 20-30 minutes–and it took them less than 10 minutes to complete. Naturally, I was scrambling for something else for them to do!
Thank you for sharing. I’d like to hear more about how they used film-making in their classes and what type of assessments they used to evaluate proficiency. Next blog???
Well put! This was my first year attending at a national level and what an awesome experience it was. Learned so much and already putting some into practice. Thank you.
I look forward to the upcoming CSCTFL in Chicago and my first ACTFL ’17 in Nashville. Congratulations on your upcoming Presidency position for ICTFL. I am thrilled to hear that you will be leading because I belong to ICTFL. Thank you!
I am in my 3rd year of Spanish and just red your “Bianca Nieves y los 7 toritos”. It is one of the best spanish books I have ever read! The story was amazing and I really liked the idea of the spanish culture of bullfighting. Can’t wait to read more of your books!
Carrie – I’m posting my comment here because I couldn’t find a place on Fluency matters. Can you provide an example of a rubric that takes into account the different rates of acquiring proficiency?
I have a question about the tally sheet with all the blanks. Is that for the students to fill out about other students or for the teacher? Thanks so much!
Carrie, glad you have ventured into the world of Breakouts! You always have such creative ideas and wonderful materials to supplement your novels.
In looking at your final reflections, I thought of these ideas to ponder:
1. With bigger classes, I’ll run two different boxes at once (two different teams) so there aren’t as many kids just observing. I will have two sets of clues around the room and they have to figure out if it’s for their box or the other team’s box. There has been some interesting negotiation going on. I just ask them to not be vindictive with the clues they find. lol
2. Easy clues: Usually the ones I think will be super easy are the ones they really have to think about and vice versa. As you start reflecting on how to up the ante with this one, perhaps one clue leads to another (and to another?) that will end up with the final opening clue. Consider bit.ly links to google doc that you create, QR codes to websites, etc.
3. Depending on your clues, the directional locks could be used in conjunction with a map (route with invisible ink/black light), arrows listed on a wall-sized map or even on the floor or identified locations in the room that relate to the book.
4. Wow, I’m intrigued by this idea! Please share more. What would this look like? Did you have all paper clues for this one?
[…] This year is the most prepared I have felt. My Spanish 4 class is so small I decided against the reading groups that Carrie Toth has done in the past and just decided to switch up how we read each […]
Hola! Hello! I was searching for book reviews regarding Vector. I need to start thinking about novels for next year. My students enjoyed La hija del sastre. I don’t see any Vector reviews. How was it received in your class? I just read la Calaca Alegre. It was pretty good! La hija del sastre is my favorite novel so far! Did you update your Breakout for Vector? Are you willing to share it or is it available for sale? Muchas gracias!
How Carrie, I feel so silly, I just realized you wrote Vector! I want to compliment you, I have truly enjoyed your books. I am using novels for the first time this year. La hija del sastre was my students favorite novel this year! I hated to see it come to an end when we finished. Thank you so much for providing an interesting book option for use in my upper level Spanish classes. I found it was just about perfect for my students level of Spanish. It was slightly challenging, but not overwhelming. The best part was that we were all interested in the history of Spain and the characters. Great work!
Did you have them write their names on the questions they were answering so that you could see how everyone was doing individually? Or did you collect them all as a class-wide pulse-check, or did you just observe as they were doing it?
[…] sucia in Spanish 4 (after spring break unfortunately) I am trying out the Infographic idea from Carrie Toth. I assigned it before spring break and we spent a day in the computer lab for them to get their […]
[…] for two reasons. You can use it as a backchannel as your class participates in things such as Discussion Day from Carrie Toth, a Socratic Seminar or a Fish Bowl. Students can write comments on Today’s […]
Is there any books or detailed syllabus to help prepare for the test? I found the list of topics on line, but it is difficult to know what specific vocabulary to teach for these topics (and in what order) to maximise the chances of success. Thanks in advance!
Maybe have students create a Smashbook as an end of the novel project? My students are doing one on Piratas y el mapa secreto. Martina Vez has a great example.
Do you have each person direct message you the photo? Then, you have to add each person and screenshot each picture and then add it to your story? Just checking to see if that is what you are doing or if there is another easier way.
I love the idea. It’s is definitely too late this year but I would love to do it next year. Would you be interested in doing some collaboration ? I work in a magnet school for AP and IB. I teach level 1, 3 IB and AP. My kids love to do discussion so I feel this structure will really help.
Thanks,
[…] be my second time using it and there are AWESOME resources out there for it. Check out Kara Jacobs, Carrie Toth, Cindy Hitz, Allison Weinhold and Dustin Williamson. There are also some great bullfighting […]
[…] all of the work we had done, I made this Salad Bowl game. For directions on how to play, check Carrie’s post. Here is a quick Assessment que sabes of what we were […]
[…] the kids a little “quality control” guide, which I believe is an idea I adapted from Carrie Toth (and for some reason I feel like Colleen has done a version of this, too, but I can’t find […]
[…] going to be starting reading groups in a week too. These are inspired by Carrie Toth’s post here. So don’t lose hope! It is never too late to try something new. When you teach with CI […]
Great post, and very timely for me. My family is saving now to go to Mexico for a month next summer (my kids will be 5 and 6 years old!) But it is hard.
One thing we realized – We were planning to go for a week or two, but as we started looking for places to stay, we realized that lodging is really very inexpensive. Air travel is a huge expense no matter how long we are there, so since my spouse CAN take the time off of work, going for a longer period of time will make the most of our money and let our kids get settled in long enough to relax and learn some Spanish… and hopefully make some friends.
[…] The solution was presented to me when I found out about backwards planning! I initially read about it a several years ago when I came across a blog post written by Carrie Toth in 2012 about her UbD Bullfighting Unit. […]
[…] The solution was presented to me when I found out about backwards planning! I initially read about it a several years ago when I came across a blog post written by Carrie Toth in 2012 about her UbD Bullfighting Unit. […]
[…] they took an authentic resource of a short story and turned it into an embedded reading. They are Casa Tomada, Chac Mool and La noche boca arriba. Check out embeddedreading.com for more […]
I love this post! Yes! I use music in my classroom too, sometimes as a brain break, as they’re coming in the classroom or with an activity (some of the ones you mentioned above). Thank you so much for sharing the great ideas of songs for different levels and for your awesome presentation #iFLT17. You rock!
[…] Some innovative ideas she recommended are venn diagrams on the floor which she blogged about here, student written tweets, Instagram projects, Discussion Thursday , Yellow Brick Road, Booksnaps […]
[…] recommended are venn diagrams on the floor which she blogged about here, student written tweets, Instagram projects, Discussion Thursday , Yellow Brick Road, Booksnaps and connections to authentic […]
[…] diagrams on the floor which she blogged about here, student written tweets, Instagram projects, Discussion Thursday , Yellow Brick Road, Booksnaps and connections to authentic resources as mentioned above. The […]
[…] which she blogged about here, student written tweets, Instagram projects, Discussion Thursday , Yellow Brick Road, Booksnaps and connections to authentic resources as mentioned above. The reason the TGs from […]
Muchas gracias Carrie! You are the best. I so appreciate how generosity you share all your awesome practices and goods. So glad I got to see you at iFLT. Feeling inspired! Susan
[…] we created, check out our store. When you finish the unit you can use Carrie Toth’s idea of Yellow Brick Road with these empty slides. Finally I must thank the AMAZING Kara Jacob for teaching me how to […]
[…] Most teachers I know would say that the answer is a resounding yes. That is, we use both, and we talk about it, a lot. In fact, in the same week (long ago) that I started drafting this post, Carrie Toth blogged a reminder that we should try both. […]
[…] 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 […]
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” >
[…] am going to start the year again with a class newsletter. I originally blogged about it here but have enjoyed this quick connection with parents so much that I wanted to share again! I have […]
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 for this terrific resources! Our school just got called out, but I can definitely use it this week! Are you teaching in St Louis now? It’s hard to find CI/TPRS teachers near me (:
[…] and foster acquisition. Sharon was inspired by the blog of Cynthia Hitz! Carrie Toth shares how she uses infographics to familiarize students with Frida’s crippling exposure to polio. What do all of these […]
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.
[…] And what about Carrie Toth’s book, VECTOR?! The main character, Antonio, is bitten by a mosquito and wow!…You won’t believe the effect that that little vector of venom had on his health! If reading / discussing Vector doesn’t open up discussion about world health, mosquito-born illnesses, vaccines in general and the vaccines needed for travel, we don’t know what will! On her blog, Somewhere to Share, Carrie has a great unit on environmental study centered on Vector. […]
I would love to be able to do this successfully! It sounds like a dream. One question: did you have a menu of options from which students chose the topic “travel”?
Here are a few ideas for the next time you do this unit!
Consider getting MONARCH butterfly caterpillars (you can purchase them from MonarchWatch.org) and add the preservation of the Monarchs to your unit. You will need to have a healthy source of fresh milkweed leaves to feed your caterpillars — it is the only thing they eat. MonarchWatch has a whole bunch of resources about raising these caterpillars.
When your caterpillars become chrysalises, you have some time to go on to other units until the butterflies start emerging (10-14 days later). If you live east of the Rocky Mountains, your butterflies will migrate to Mexico to overwinter there. There are so many topics of discussion about the overwintering sites in Mexico and the controversy over preserving them! Great discussion for students of all levels!
Finally, consider tagging your adult Monarchs as you release them. The University of Kansas has been tracking the migration of the Monarchs for many years. I have been tagging for 25 years! You can discuss migration and so much more with your students as they learn about this amazing natural phenomenon.
¡Buena suerte!
Your transparency about past failures and how you embraced the pain and humiliation of not living up to your view of yourself will help more people. Thank you. And I’m glad you and your students are having fun. Me as well this my 26 th yr teaching French
Carrie – I attended the ICTFL session at Mohomet-Seymour in September and fell in love with your teaching style. I am a Spanish Ed student at ISU, and would love any lesson plans or activities you found successful with your novel instruction. I have the Google docs you shared with us from that day, but I am creating a Thematic Unit on Panama based on your Vector book for class…hoping to share it with my peers and use it one day in the real world! I’m having trouble finding some good authentic additions to add to the reading to open the students up to Panama culture and the building of the canal… any resources would be greatly appreciated!
– Lora Carrillo
It was great to hear you speak at our conference. I am working on integrating tprs and moving away from the copy and paste mentality of repeating lessons.
I definitely agree with the concept of giving those outside the bubble a time to recuperate and get back in. I don’t do the FAST but I have made an agreement with parents to keep the child one hour once a week to do late work or just to catch up. It has work wonders. The students feel cared for and I feel appreciated because they do take the time to do the work and open up. All of them are in the bubble but they like to come and stay and just get reassured that they really know the concept.
How do you get those under Cs to stay at school for the tutoring? Do some of them just leave? We started Learning Lab this year… Pretty much the same concept,but after school for 45 minutes. We send a note home to parents, but kids are not showing up.
If they leave it is considered truancy although some have parents who call them in 🙁 most stay And at the end of quarter 3 we had half as many failures as the year before
Carrie,
What a great idea! I shared it with my administrators and they are interested 🙂 A question – Are FAST Fridays scheduled every week or more intermittently?
Cathy
I do not follow them! They snap me via direct message! If ever there WERE and inappropriate pic it would come only to me! I put them in my story and the class can watch from there!
I love this! Ever since you tweeted about becoming certified through the National Geographic Educator Program, my interest has peaked! I’ve been researching the process, their site, and all of the cool resources available to teachers. Your lessons are so awesome, and your students look like they are having a blast learning! Congratulations! It’s amazing how many interactive resources are out there to help give our lessons more pizzazz, which, in turn, gives our students a deeper understanding of the material. Thank you for all you do…you are an inspiration! 🙂
[…] NO they don’t get it the first time I say it, but they never memorized all the preterite and imperfect forms for me when I was jamming them in via the textbook 5. […]
Hello Carrie, thank you for your honesty and willingness to share (well, you did call this Somewhere to Share, right?) the truth that we all have ups and downs in all parts of our lives. We can and will keep going with renewed spirits! ❤️🔆💥 Happy New Year! Becky
Hello!! I have just recently started to think about administering the APPL to my spanish 4 students. This is the first year we have offered this level and they can get college credit for the proficiency certificate of Intermediate low here in Minnesota. I have never taught them focused grammar and they have only been exposed them to very CI curriculum (readings, El Internado, TPRS stories, many of your ideas…) How much does grammar play into the test? How did you start to prepare your students? I know the first time my students take it they might not do as well as subsequent years when i can work on similar activities and have some data to guide my class, but I’m really concerned about that grammar aspect. Any tips?
Good articulation of the idea “Sustaining longer and longer discussions on familiar topics will stretch them out to that strong intermediate level”. I’m in the OPI certification process right now, and I definitely plan to change a lot of my curriculum next year to align with that idea.
I believe that the Seal of Biliteracy expectation has always been I5 (Intermediate-High) in all categories. Correct? Was it different in your district towards the beginning, perhaps?
Which one do you recommed for Spanish III and IV? Would it have the teacher’s guide? Please let me know Sicerely Maria/Sra. B
On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 7:32 AM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: “I have to be honest, I didn’t know how to write a novel > when I wrote La hija del sastre. I was finishing my Master’s degree and > had taken a class on the Spanish Civil War. I wanted to bring what I had > learned into my classroom so I designed a UbD (Under” >
You never cease to amaze me! And the beautiful constant throughout your journey of betterment, is that you’re always inviting your followers to join you. No matter the topic, you break it down into such manageable steps, that by the end of your post I feel invincible. Thank you for taking the time to show us the way!
I just wanted to stop by and thank you so much for the amazing Vector teacher’s guide! I’ve never purchased a more thorough product. I absolutely love the range of activities and have even been able to use some of your ideas in other levels. This stuff is gold I tell you- GOLD! We’re going to try The Breakout after spring break. I’ll let you know how it goes.
[…] meaty structures that we want our students to acquire. Also, Carrie Toth made a wonderful video here that explains how teachers the Wooly curriculum has something for EVERY level of student. It is […]
Thanks for this Carrie! I’ve been saving videos on this along the way this year thinking of doing an extended lesson for my 4/5s but hadn’t gotten to it yet. Mil gracias por tu trabajo! Becky
Señora, I noticed in one of your units that I bought that you use Scholastic Explora tu mundo – selvas tropicales. Amazon sells that one book for 46.00. Yikes! How do you use that in your classroom? The book is amazing. The language is perfect for the students just taking it slightly above their level of comprehension yet not difficult enough for them to understand. I would definitely love to use them next year. What do you recommend?
I am actually doing reading groups with Robo en la noche with my mid level 2s (aka not honors). I feel it is going well but my only concern is that when I read whole group, I ask lots of personalized or comprehension questions as I go and I feel like they acquire a lot more vocabulary. With these groups, I feel like they are not acquiring as much. I am reading some parts aloud to them. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions on that?
Hey! In my 2s I do mostly whole class reading! On an easy chapter I let them read as a group and before the follow up we do a summary of the action! 2s tend to include more emerging readers in my experience than 3s and 4s! I want to honor their needs yet let the star readers shine! A chapter or two in groups gives them the best of both! A strong reader usually takes the lead and in a small group of peers, the others stay engaged!
Great, thanks Carrie. I’m trying to balance giving them independence (as they are craving it 4th quarter) with giving them what they need. I appreciate this post.
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[…] and great resources from Carrie to finish the year […]
My family, my appearance, my personality, my interests! We have printed proficiency descriptors on the wall so they knew they were shooting for Novice High level at least! They had no required info to include because I wanted them to go wild not stick to one formula!
It is under construction! Catherine Ousselin is helping me with a translation!!! I’m so excited to have it available for French soon! I think it is an important topic in every language!
I was wondering if you have shared or would share how you set up the Talk Show speaking assessment that you did along with Hija del Sastre? We are about to read that in my advanced Spanish class and I was trying to think of an Assessment that involved speaking and that seems like the perfect fit!
This is really interesting and helpful! How much (word count?) do you expect students will be writing? It seems that is always the first question: “How long does it have to be?”
The best part about really teaching with the proficiency descriptors is that I don’t get that question any more. They know that if they want to score in the intermediate low category they have to have a lot of detail and textual evidence. They should have evidence of the vocabulary and grammatical structure required to talk about that topic. At mid, they’re really using good paragraph structure, I’m seeing more consistency in use of tense, more connecting words (and richer ones), and even some rhetorical questioning! At the high level, they are organized with an introduction and conclusion and strong supports in their body paragraphs. They are even more consistent with tense than before, and it is something that I could send to a native speaker who wasn’t used to students and there would be little to misunderstand. Not error free, but very very comprehensible. Since they know these goals well, they don’t have to ask how many words, they know it is about quantity and evidence! 🙂 . I hope this helps! It has definitely been a process getting them to this place!
I’m new to learning about teaching with CI and am very curious about the writing process. Do you have a blog post on that or do you know a place I could find more information? Thanks for sharing. All of this is very inspiring!
I do all modes at the end of each unit and so few take the final that I probably still wouldn’t test all in that one day! I have collected that same info other times so I feel confident looking just at output this time! Great question!
On Sun, May 6, 2018 at 1:10 PM, Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: “One of the things that I love about movie talks and > using pop music in class is that I am able to create week long units that > are very versatile. What I select as structures for one class, I can adapt > for another level. Each time I find a great, new son” >
I had this post scheduled to post today and accidentally posted it yesterday! The sale starts tomorrow (but yesterday, that tomorrow was not right!) May 8-9! Email me and I’ll make up for it! 🙂 senoracmt at gmail
[…] Paco and Basilio with Hula Hoop Venn Diagrams here. The Hula Hoop idea is from the amazing Carrie Toth. (Side note: Hula Hoops can also transition into a wonderful brain break!) . After a lot of […]
[…] that inspired me to use Snapchat this year was Carrie Toth’s blog post here about how she had students connect “self to text” with her Snapchat selfie project […]
Thank you for sharing your experience! I have always wanted to take my French students on a trip abroad, but unfortunately, I have not yet had the opportunity. As you describe perfectly, the responsibility of “counting the little ducklings” would be a challenge. I think it is crucial to make our students more globally aware. In the meantime, I’m limited to “virtual fieldtrips” for my students, as I familiarize them with countries where French is spoken: http://teachinginthetargetlanguage.com/geography-in-the-target-language-more-on-cross-curricular-activities/. Thank you for sharing your insight on both travel with students (and with other adults)! Best of luck to you with everything!
I can’t say THANK YOU enough for all your resources. I have been pouring over your scope and sequence pages (I also teach 1, 2, 3 & 4), your store and now your blog (this article was so helpful!). Exams are my ever present struggle! Do you have any thoughts on what you might do for a placement test say if you wanted to have a students skip a level or find out where they come in as a transfer student? For example, I know I couldn’t ask them about el sindicato or Oscar Romero when I know they didn’t cover that – should I just ask them to tell me about topics they would know (What did you do this summer, etc.?). I have a student with a scheduling conflict and I want to put her in 4 rather (skipping 3 instead of no Spanish class this year) because she is a strong student I think those levels are somewhat interchangeable but I need to give her a placement test… Thanks in advance!
I think that would be a GREAT placement test! For me, Spanish 3 and 4 are also somewhat interchangeable. We study different topics but I think either level could handle those topics… And I think your strongest students deserve exactly what you want to do! The opportunity to continue their study. Why don’t you create a placement test that a proficiency based rubric at the top… the rubric could have some descriptors from the target level of proficiency for each prompt. If students know the target they’re shooting for, you’ll likely be able to determine quickly whether they’re close or not! It could be very general topics that allow for a lot of room to add detail that students have language to include! It might also help you see where they’ll need a little support as they’re absorbed into your group!
Maybe some questions like: Tell me everything about who you are. What are some of the things you like and dislike about our school?
I am missing ACTFL for the first time in 5 years to do TFLTA instead, but I hope to be at both Central States and ACTFL in 2019!
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[…] My overall goal for the year is that students will be able to talk about the world around them. We have decided on Robo en la noche (past tense part). Our first trimester (after the graphic novel) will be about the environment. I definitely plan on picking up Carrie’s unit on Mar de plástico. […]
I own all of the units available here, and my students and I LOVE them. It helps us to have meaningful conversations in the target language. You are amazing Carrie and not just because we have the same name and spelling. Your work has helped me transform my teaching and better my student’s quality of education. Thank you so much!
Ok, I see the txted, but wouldn’t the questioning have been too easy for the students in level 3? What was a question? Like, what was Julio like? En inglés? Just curious? Es un repaso? No?
Great question. A couple of parts to the answer. Yes, level 3 but a spoken question in Spanish is much different than one they can see and read. They have to process without visual support! And they’re level 3 but it’s day 4 of class so basically they’re level 2 plus 4 days! The questions I asked were “how do you know Julio was a bad boyfriend?” “How do you know Claudia was a good girlfriend?” “How did Julio feel after Claudia abandoned him?” “What problems did Claudia’s departure cause for Julio” and “what did the text say?”
I asked in Spanish, they re read the text to find the answers. Just a twist on a simple comprehension question.
Got it! The questions are also both higher level thinking than, what is he like? I have a hard time making it more complex than asking, ¿como es Julio? What is Julio like? I guess it just takes thought as a teacher and practice to create them, right? I’m very new to asking good, comprehensive reading comprension questions.
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Exactly!! If you think of questioning in terms of Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs it’s easier to make questions they CAN answer that inspire them to think deeper! It does take practice!! I am still practicing too!!
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Thanks! I’m new to all of this! You are a pro! A trail blazer!
I love the idea of subliminal grammar! How do you decide which subjunctive phrases are the most common? Which noun clauses? Querer que for sure… but there are so many to choose from! Help…
I teach querer que, recomendar que, es necesario que, es importante que, ojalá… and I teach them a couple of things like “que tengas un buen día” “que lo pases bien esta noche” “que tu fin de semana sea increíble” as passwords!
Hola, Carrie,
As is always the case, thank you for being so generous with your ideas and materials! I am so thankful for the gifted and committed teachers who have embraced CI for the benefits of the next generations!
This post went straight to my heart. I love grammar and always have and yet I truly believe that CI is the right context to introduce students to these concepts without overwhelming them. I needed to ‘hear’ that in due time, CI works and that we are on the right track! For the majority of my students, it is enough, but for those who enjoy “grammar bytes,” posters like the one you provided are a great source of satisfaction. In that spirit, let me know if you have other posters to share. I would be happy to purchase them through your store!
In the meantime, God bless you and the other teachers who are paving the way for us!
Dear Sra. Toth:
Kudos to you! Embrace it all and think of this as the norm instead of the exception! Good things come to those who, like you, are answering a calling and continue to love our profession. Thank you for sharing and for continuing to be an inspiration to us all. ¡Enhorabuen!
Thank you for this post. I was just trying to figure out how to incorporate speaking assessment with my 4’s this year. This gives me so many options! I hope to try at least one of your suggestions sometime soon. Your blog and products in TPT are helping me to grow as a teacher this year. Mil gracias!!
Hey Carrie! Can you help me with the phrase ¿Y si Claudia se lo rompía? How do you decide to use rompía there, grammatically speaking? This is sincerely for my own education! Gracias!
I know what you mean! When I wrote the story I wrote it as lo rompiera but I have everything “native proofed” and she said it should be rompía. She says she can’t tell the name of the rule but can say that rompiera “no suena bien”. 🙂 Language… Gotta love it!
Thanks Carrie! My husband is Argentine and he said he would say “rompe” instead, but not rompiera either. I am practicing subjunctive and was thinking it would be a hypothetical = rompiera. Ugh! Just shows that you can`t LEARN languages, right?! Muchas gracias por todo que compartes!!
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Thank you for posting this! My tests are different every year as well. I went for making grammar videos (pre CI) to thinking this year everything will be proficiency-based. It’s exciting! How do you think I can better my training for identifying what different proficiency levels look / sound like? I feel like I have a “feeling” for it, but I want to be able to better defend myself. Gracias!
In level 2, I usually have my final assessment be a comparison between a book and a film or a summary of the book! My focus is on getting them to add lots of detail to their writing! With this reader, we did a summary!
Hola Carrie, thank you for sharing. Beautiful! I continue to be inspired by your posts. I really appreciate how generously you share everything; it helps me be a better teacher. I would love for you to present at our school! I’ll email you so we can discuss.
Happy Thanksgiving!
💜Susan Scotty
This is so timely! I just started this unit today (with Casas de carton) and trying to decide where to go after this. Are there any scenes in Romero to be aware of? P.S. For others who also have Amazon Prime, I found it there!
There is ZERO nudity or f bombs but there is a strong scene when Padre Osuna is being tortured in the next room and Romero is forced to listen from his cell. I do warn them that this is coming. You see nothing but you can totally imagine what’s happening.
I would LOVE to be able to go deskless! I tried it at the beginning of this school year and I loved what it did in terms of preventing bandito cellphone use, sleeping,and doing other stuff. However, I have to share my classroom with another teacher. It was too much for her and her students. She needed the “comfort structure” that desks seem to give and so I had to accommodate, by going back to having desks. My dream is to not have to share my room anymore- I’ve had to for almost 6 years now- so I could have a room that would foster acquisition better.
Thank you for sharing! I love all of these ideas for incorporating art, music, and games into our lessons. Also, I like what you said about bringing in guests. As a non-native speaker, I find guests are a valuable resource. If you or interested in more on CI, you might enjoy my recent post: http://teachinginthetargetlanguage.com/6-ways-comprehensible-input-will-help-us-to-stay-in-the-tl/. I am looking forward to hearing more from you. I am always looking for more ideas on CI and other topics related to teaching a language. Thank you for this post! 🙂
I absolutely love this post!! I have a Sr. Wooly Pro subscription, but I have only used it once this year. I feel it is a very valuable tool, but I struggle with how to implement it in my curriculum. Not only did I learn something about how grammar is a part of what we do as sort of a sidebar, but I learned about how you are using a Sr. Wooly song to provide great input. This post really helps me wrap my mind around using the site for the benefit of my students. Thanks so much for sharing this post!
Hola I am using your amazing unit and incorporate this video after the 1 step in the plan before they jump to do their graphics. You are so creative so I am sharing it with you [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjlucM66jC4&w=560&h=315%5D
Love these two activities. I have never seen them before, but I believe my students will really be engaged wirh them. Thanks so much for all you shared during Wooly Week, and again, for sharing these two videos.
Love both of these ideas. Your explanations and class demonstrations on video are very helpful. We are reading Esperanza now and I needed some new ideas! Thank you.
Thank you for the great movie and activities! 🙂 I am using this video with my level 3 class. Last year they watched the movie “Alma” which has some similarities. So . . . today after rewatching Alma, students will work in pairs to create a Venn diagram about the 2 videos and will then write about the similarities and differences.
I am going to use both this week! I had an idea so that I don’t have to go around and check each board for correctness before groups rotate: the game makers could put random numbers on the back of each sentence card, then make an answer key on a sheet of paper that they hide under the game board. Then when kids have finished matching they could pull out the answer sheet and check their own work.
I just started LCDLD this week and I am so inspired by your video tutorials! Thank you! It is the first time I’ve ever done a graphic novel and I am excited!!
Agree 100%! These books are so multi-sensory…the pictures, the reading, the songs, and the PQA you can create out of all of the above. I use the slideshow the first 3/4 of the book- picture-talking like you show in your tutorials- and then let them tear through that last quarter of the book without me. We gotta meet kids where they are… (or rather, *who they are…) and that’s being multi-sensory beings. I imagine ACTFL didn’t accept the proposal because of the limited amount of graphic novels available. They’ll catch on.
Hi Carrie! Do you have an explanation somewhere of the final speaking assessment that you use when doing your reading groups (the interview with the characters)? Thank you in advance!
I think I may not have explained myself correctly: I am referring to the assessment part that you do after you finish reading the novel. In your One Book Club you explain that there is an interview with the characters. I was wondering if you have a full explanation of this part. I already purchased your Real Conversation Thursday packet! We just started today and so far so good!
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Oh, good gravy! I’m sorry! I misunderstood! I don’t have any formal doc on the activity but I have done it with several different readers! It looks a little like a panel discussion and discussion Thursday mixed! The four or five students playing the roles of the characters are answering the questions and the class is coming up with the questions to ask them. Using Sastre as an example, if one student is Emilia and one Ignacio, their classmates might ask them “Emilia, are you going to forgive Ignacio for what he did?” She can answer but they have to try to keep the conversation going to earn their points! If Ignacio can expand on Emilia’s comment, he gets points. If she can answer the questions, she gets points. Same discussion but just a little different lens! I should write something about it some time! Actually… for their final speaking, my 3s are going to do this to compare 2 films. Maybe I’ll do it then!
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Thank you! This is exactly what I was asking about! I am going to have my Level 4/5 students compare two films that we studied in class this semester.
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Love it- I would love to do this with my department. But I am told I need to ‘follow the book’- I wonder if I did this, (alone- but in order to help kids articulate successfully) where would you put a circle of
‘words they need to be successful at the next leve/they’re expected to know next year’?
The great thing about the Chuck it Bucket is that you can use it on a large scale or small! For example: You have to teach to the textbook but your colleagues are doing all the activities day by day, you choose some key vocab and grammar chunks and you do a unit like homes of the world (https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Viviendas-del-mundo-Level-2-1-week-Unit-of-Study-3766205) as a replacement for those workbook and textbook pages. In the end, which students will likely retain it more? The ones who memorized it and used it all out of context or the ones who were immersed in global homes!? Or say you just don’t believe in the chores unit and you really want to find time to fit in a reader! Go through the chores list and find some non-negotiables like clean, wash, has to, doesn’t want to… work those into your other discussions and read a reader while the other classes spend 3 weeks memorizing chores. I guarantee you, the ones that do the chores unit won’t remember dust the furniture or vacuum the carpet any better than your students who never even learned it. 😉 Kids just don’t get engaged by chore vocab! If you’re careful about planning in some of the textbook themes as you replace them with your own passions and things that engage students, you’ll have so much more fun and so will your kids. And the cool part is that you attract a lot more people to what you’re doing when they see your students being successful.
I have been happily on my own journey but I was just told I need to make all my units align with the 6 AP themes (we are on a 6 week grading period schedule).
I am using SOMOS, EMETM, readers and some Adiós Textbook and Im sad to think I can’t use these units anymore (I have been assigned set sub themes for level 2).
Any thoughts/ideas for how this could work?
Thank you! Rebecca
El jun. 4, 2019, a la(s) 5:45 a. m., Somewhere to Share escribió:
You can ABSOLUTELY align those with the 6 AP themes! The great thing about the AP themes is that they are broad and they are relevant!! Everything you do can easily be tied to them! Whether it is the robber in the house story in Somos 2 – Contemporary life (add a related news story plucked from the headlines), EMETM – ALL about the AP themes from families to science and tech to global challenges, look at the themes and sub-themes and you’ll see that they’re a great fit for what we do! We’re giving them the stepping stones of language they need to talk about those greater themes! There is not ONE grammar based AP theme! You’re totally safe! Remember it is how you market what you’re doing. Word it right, they’ll be able to see the value!
[…] they do know. Not sure how to go about narrowing your focus in a unit? Try checking out the “Chuck-it Bucket” or the “Liberation from the List” posts to help […]
[…] is more than a part of a textbook page. Carrie does this beautifully in units that are about SDGs. Teach about your passion! Design units that you are excited about and you will in turn see the […]
Thank you for highlighting this video. It is a great platform to lead into discussion in an upper level class with mature students. I look forward to using it! You are correct — it has to be packaged just right and students need to be in a safe place to discuss the many issues and emotions that probably will arise in this discussion. It’s really a beautiful song! Gracias!
Hi there, I’m searching for STEM type activities that my students could work hands-on together for the first day(s) of school. I, of course, want them to be related to Spanish and I thought you would be the person to start with since you have a passion for science and Spanish. I want students to have to think outside-of-the- box and construct something that is related to my content area (high school Spanish I). My idea is that they will “race” against other groups to construct their product and then we can discuss differences, benefits, and processes afterwards. I’ve searched high and low on TPT and all I can find is a STEM activity in which students work in groups to construct chinampas from a study on Aztec floating gardens. Any ideas or directions you can offer would be appreciated. Thanks so much and happy planning!
On Fri, Jul 26, 2019 at 7:23 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: ” The summer has been so wonderful! I got to visit Costa > Rica with a group of students who were SO excited to use their Spanish in > the real world! I got to float in my pool sooooo many days because it has > been unseasonably warm! My hibiscus plants were the” >
I think repurposing products to keep plastics out of the landfills could be a cool stem activity. We do that in my zero waste unit and Marta Yedinak did it as a follow up to Mar de plástico. You could do something with green energy sources. I’ve seen several solar ovens that are classroom experiments as I’ve been researching my green energy unit!
Thanks for all you do and all you share! In your post, you mention that there are some links in your What’s in a Unit? share. I couldn’t get any of them to work. Which ones are active links?
SO weird. When I save it as a PDF, it is killing all the links. I’m going to re-upload it as a word doc. The links work there! Thank you for seeing this!
Carrie,
Thank you for your inspiring units! I too have a passion for the environment and taking care of our natural resources, and I love that you’ve incorporated those values through your love of science and travel. They are a wonderful springboard for teaching upper levels in an engaging and current way!
[…] of my units, from individual favorites like Basura cero and Mar de plástico… a bundled of a semester’s worth of awesome lessons at 25% off the already discounted price… to new units like En guerra, Viaja conmigo (novice […]
[…] worth of awesome lessons at 25% off the already discounted price… to new units like En guerra, Viaja conmigo (novice and intermediate units in one package), and Energía renovable, I hope I can […]
Yay!! So exciting. I have some gaps to fill for Spanish 3 & 4 so I will check them out. I am curious, are you updating what you are teaching this year on your blog? This was so helpful to pursue last year for ideas.
I am not sure where “running dictations” originated but I visited a small Christian school in Costa Rica and taught the high schoolers (and teacher) this activity while I was there. So fun! Wouldn’t have had any idea for a last minute vocab plan when asked without this training from my awesome Fluency Matters peeps!
Did I see you took a group to C.R. this year? If so, could I ask for you to tell me more? I went solo but am thinking of taking a class and it would be my first international trip with students so I am looking for any tips & tricks, maybe especially with sightseeing/getting around as housing and days in San Jose will be covered with the connection to the school there.
Yes! I updated them at the end of last year and will do the same this year! I always try to choose the units that are most engaging for the students in front of me so some readers and units of study change year by year!
I have always done my student travel with Explorica or EF! Send an email and I can answer any questions about either!
[…] seems like just YESTERDAY I was reflecting on the 18-19 school year and remembering the joy that this journey brings me. A blink later, I’ve been to Costa Rica with an amazing group of […]
[…] Interculturality is a key component of any unit design. We need to ensure that the culture of the world is more than a part of a textbook page. Carrie does this beautifully in units that are about SDGs. […]
The soundtrack activity is suitable for all audiences! The quotes are definitely more into the high intermediate but could be enjoyed by lower level students if they had help! The color biography and other readings are targeted for 2+! They’re a high intermediate to maybe some intermediate low words!
[…] Spanish / Spanish 4: I read Carrie Toth’s post the other day about starting her upper levels differently and I plan to use her *free*!! resource […]
Hi! I downloaded this doc, but I cannot click on any of the links. How should I find the specific units you mention? I googled some, but I want to make sure they are the right & complete units you reference. Thank you!
El jul. 26, 2019, a la(s) 20:23, Somewhere to Share escribió:
It is exciting to see a department grow! Last year I had 12 Spanish III students. This year, I have 34 Spanish III and one lone Spanish IV student! And.. this is in a small rural town in Missouri (:
Your numbers found great! Congrats on the growth! I had 1 Span 4 student last year and this year there are 14!!! So happy and excited. I do have a curriculum question. You stayed that in Span 2, you just finished Unit 2 of Somos 2. Did they complete all Units of Somos 1 in year 1 or do you just jump into Somos 2 in year 2 regardless of how far they got in year 1?
Hola Carrie! You continue to amaze me and inspire me! I will be forever grateful for all you do to help others! I am a better teacher because of you. Thank you for your generous spirit and amazing creations! Seriously- you and Kristi both are such valuable resources to our community. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Great post and helpful. With love and gratitude. Susan Scotty St. John’s School Houston
[…] end of the school year, Sebastián Yatra released En guerra. I loved it and have blogged about it here. This is a great example of a song that carries such a heavy meaning, it is better within a unit of […]
[…] Part of a Unit: At the end of the school year, Sebastián Yatra released En guerra. I loved it and have blogged about it here. This is a great example of a song that carries such a heavy meaning, it is better within a unit of study. Using the song as a catalyst, students become engaged in using their developing language to discuss deep topics. One of my favorites from a few years ago is Morat’s song Aprender a quererte! I used it as part of a unit on education. A song inspired me to address one of the SDGs before I even knew about the SDGs! […]
[…] on the Artist: Sometimes its the body of work that is important! I’m a big fan of Lin Manuel Miranda and I wanted to introduce my students to his music in class. His music is in English (for the most […]
In the post I linked to two songs that have a gesture activity but basically I try to find something they can gesture every other line. Ex in the song Suena el dembow, he says la noche está buena ( we do one thumbs up) y bailando contigo se pone mejor (we put the other thumb up with the first to represent better). Or in Tanto she says te amo tanto (we make a heart with our hands) tanto que me siento tonta (we put our palm to our forehead for foolish)! I try to give a line between gestures so they have time to think of what’s coming next!!
Hi Carrie: can you please give me a breakdown of your topics that you will give in your PRE-CONFERENCE? Is it geared to beginning CI teachers or intermediate? Thanks!
It is basically a toolkit of the ways I provide input and then the types of output students get ready for as they grow in proficiency. It is not a how to on being comprehensible or on story telling! It is definitely about backward designing the experiences that will make students feel like acquisition is fun and effortless yet acquire a ton! Does this help?
[…] always a good idea to have a theme that you want to learn more about. I learned that here and here. The only thing I would add is to keep notes about what you did the entire time, not just during […]
[…] was almost seven years ago that for the first time I read La Hija del Sastre by Carrie Toth with my Spanish 3 students. At first we thought that the main goal of this story was to inform us […]
My pastor recently spoke on the same topic! Our joy is found in the hope we have in Christ, and is not based on our every day feelings. Praying you will have joy every day and will be blessed in 2020.
On Tue, Dec 31, 2019 at 5:59 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: ” Christmas break has given me some much needed time to > relax! I can’t travel over my holiday breaks because when I get down time, > I need it to be real DOWN time. I wear pajamas all day, I read a lot, I > drink a TON of coffee… Now that I feel recharged” >
Keep calm and give them things they can read and understand and listen to and understand. That is my plan. Love to you all. ~Profe HB P.S. How about Tina Hardegen’s book project??
Couldnt agree with you more! We have a role to play in society right now that is even more important than the one we held physically in the classroom! We need to help our students and their families through this tough situation with some gentle support and guidance while keeping the student active in Spanish.
Very well said, Carrie. I’ve been saying this from the beginning: NO ONE is owed anything for free (I’m speaking educationally here, not financial help for those who need it). And yet, so many companies, big and small, along with individuals, are doing just that: providing educational tools for FREE. No one EVER went into business with the plan of losing money. NO ONE. And yet, people walk around with their hands out EXPECTING free, free, free. Thank you to all those who have freely given. I don’t deserve it, yet I am greatly benefitted by it!!!
Carie, thanks for saying what needs to be said. We teachers preach flexibility to our kids, we need to be practice it ourselves. What a great opportunity for professional growth we have been given!! We teachers need to rely on our colleagues, and Professional Learning Networks to get ourselves up to speed and on-board with how, in my opinion, the rest of the school year is going to be. Let’s use this situation to start training these kids how to learn language for the sake of learning instead of for a a grade. I, too, applaud Sr. Wooly and Fluency matters, and all the other companies for helping to ease this transition; many thanks, and if you need a roll of TP, I’d be happy to drive in from the suburbs and share one. 😉
Carie, thanks for saying what needs to be said. We teachers preach flexibility to our kids, we need to be practice it ourselves. What a great opportunity for professional growth we have been given!! We teachers need to rely on our colleagues, and Professional Learning Networks to get ourselves up to speed and on-board with how, in my opinion, the rest of the school year is going to be. Let’s use this situation to start training these kids how to learn language for the sake of learning instead of for a a grade. I, too, applaud Sr. Wooly and Fluency matters, and all the other companies for helping to ease this transition; many thanks, and if you need a roll of TP, I’d be happy to drive in from the suburbs and share one. 😉
I am AMAZED at all that has been given for FREE already. And the time you and other leaders in the field have put in when we were ALL scrambling, including yourselves. This was a great message. Everything is out of sorts and will be for awhile, let’s all cut ourselves, our parents, our students some slack and get through it the best we can. We do t have to provide perfect learning. Just continue to encourage learning the best we can.
THANK YOU for all that you do and share. Even the paid resources are a generous gift when I consider my personal time saved, and you guys provide so much more free than just the resources. The guidance, the answered questions, the training. I can’t imagine any other business/industry doing more to support each other. THANK YOU.
Carrie….you nailed it. I feel the same way. Really missing my kids and my routine, but trying to be thankful for little things. Thank you for reminding us what is important.
Well said, written, and expressed! Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to recreate a classroom experience that we forget this is different and while we want our students to learn, we can’t do it the same way. Lots of journals and online quizzes; lots of free choice reading of any material and lots of listening to whatever it is might be where we need to go and that still works. We should be grateful for what is available and modify our own resources or what is already out there to meet our needs and to just give our kiddos choices to keep learning and trying. Thank you for the reminder and for all of those that have shared and are continuing to share the good ideas and resources; the WL community has come together and the support and resources available are amazing!
I am so sorry for the unreasonable demands teachers have been asking of you, of Seńor Wooly, of Fluency Matters, and of all the other wonderful people who create resources for teachers to use on a regular basis. I was shocked when I saw your post last week and now I am saddened even more. Sad because teachers are the ones who are the first to complain when admin or parents make unreasonable demands or even requests that involve additional time to an already packed day. I was super grateful when I saw all of you (superhéroes in my opinion) initiate offers of help. What? I don’t have to figure this out alone? You all are fenomenal in my book and I am super appreciative of everything all of you superhéroes have done. I hope when people come to their senses, they remember to send an apology for their crazy behavior remembering we are all in this together. Thank you again for your incredible generosity and hard work. You’re part of an amazing group of people ❤️
Thank you, Carrie! You are so right and we need to band together, support each other, and stop complaining.
I have always said, what we teach isn’t as important as who we teach and that may mean that teaching them to be better people in this world is more important than the math, language, science that we teach them. We need to be leaders and step up.
We need to support small businesses now more than ever. Fluency Matters and Senor Wooly have been so generous of their time and their resources. I’ve seen some nasty posts out there as well and hope that it’s out of frustration of our current situation rather than an example of their personality.
Thank you again for this blog and all that you do. I use Fluency-Matters and Senor-Wooly resources throughout my academic year and I will continue to use them in the future.
Carrie,
Thanks for putting all of that out here for us to hear! I was stuck in a large pile of grief last week and felt so fortunate to being able to utilize the E-courses offered by Fluency Matters! I have also been relying on Sr. Wooly and couldn’t be more grateful! I realized that I love creating & was missing it terribly. Jim’s site,Sr. Wooly, really helped me & my family! We made a video based on ‘Las excusas’, we sang & created scenes with Legos & Barbies! I can’t wait to share it with my students! My creative brain needed that! IT SAVED ME!
Thank you for all your work! Thank you Fluency Matters team! Thank you Señor Wooly team! Thank you Martina Bex! I felt LOVED by our community of language teachers before we became home bound. Besides making me feel prepared with my classes, I just felt a tremendous amount of love! That is what I am going to try to continue to spread at this time. “Try to love one another right now!” -The Youngbloods
Amen, Sister!!!! I can’t believe you even have a reason to write this!!! I am truly sorry that this is the thanks you get for all you do FOR FREE!!!! All I want for you and your family, and the rest of us, right now is to stay safe and healthy!!!
Thank you soooo much! I use your Mar de Plástico unit every spring as well and I was wondering how best to adapt it on my LMS. You are an angel! Also, thanks for your kind words of wisdom “if learning without the teacher were easy, they wouldn’t need to hire us back”. So true!!
[…] for Voces Digital. Today I want to share one of my favorite tips with you. I learned it from Carrie Toth and Abra Koch. It is called Map Talk. Ever since I used the one Carrie included in her Plastic Ocean […]
So it took me a while to read this tab that I opened to keep track of 🙄 haha, but I can’t believe you’re offering these booster packs for free! WOW! Carrie, you are an incredible human being!!! ❤️
I’m doing the units with 3 and 4 right now and the digital resources have made it feel a little more like we are together in class! I hope your students enjoy the units too!!!
May I ask a question about how you assess your students in a class with such a wide discrepancy in proficiency levels? Do you continue to use just one rubric for the entire class throughout the year when assessing and placing them? In other words, is intermediate mid the target for all of your students in level 4? I teach in a very small private school. 2 transfer students who had already completed level 2 in another school, were forced to repeat level 2 because of scheduling issues. They are very high. In that same class, I have about 8 IEP students who LOVE my class but are struggling to maintain a C. As you mentioned, there is a very wide gap.
HI! I have the Huellas 1 overview made and Huellas 2 is in production! If you follow Somewhere to Share on TPT you can see some images there and if you do not, just email me carrie at somewheretoshare.com and I’ll send them to you! Unit 2 of Huellas 2 is free on TPT and is a good sample of what my work is like!
Saludos! I would also love a copy of the permission slip that you use before showing videos. I’m excited to start incorporating more videos in the future. Gracias!
Thank you for all of your dedication and hard work creating Huellas, Carrie. Your work was highly recommended when I moved to Spanish 3 and 4 last year and I followed your Scope and Sequence for the majority of the year. I purchased many of your units and cannot wait to incorporate Huellas into the existing curriculum for whatever the upcoming school year has in store for all of us!
What amazing resources! I am curious. In a normal year, which novels would you use in conjunction with Huellas, and at which points in your curriculum would you cover them? TIA!
Cindy, thanks for asking this! I edited the post to add my updated Spanish 3 Scope and Sequence. Of course the upcoming year may be a disaster but I wanted to have a plan in case we have enough normalcy to learn a little! 🙂
Carrie, thank you! It was so helpful to see how you envision tying it all together!
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Carrie, primero- mil gracias! I will be teaching level 3/4- combined class 🙁 – this fall for the first time in almost 4 years- and I am anx-ty about it especailly after the way last spring ended for anyone in Spanish 2!! I have used some of your resources in the past- mostly the Song of the Week activities with level 2s, and I really admirre your creativity and passion! The Huellas bundles is looking like a good way to go. I’m interested in getting into “real-world” topics with upper levels. Did I read the description correctly- there will be ways to present the units in a hybrid learning situation? Here in TN, it’s looking like that’s where we will be starting in August. I just wanted to make certain I could use the units both ways. Thank you!!
Gracias!! YES! We did go through each unit and create an additional lesson plan that gives guidance for how you can use the lessons in a remote setting. That said, most of the things I create are not 100% worksheet based, they do require at least a couple of chances to do either a synchronous or asynchronous video lesson! So far, I think we will begin face to face but at this point everything changes so fast, who knows!!! Many of these Huellas units HAVE songs of the week so there will be some familiarity! I am down to THREE left to polish! One I’m adding an authentic video activity to, one is at the proofer, and one I still need to add a class story… then the whole package will be ready!
Thank you for replying so quickly and for the additional reassurance!
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Carrie muchísimas gracias for all your hard work!!!!!! I am SO PUMPED for this! I will completely revamp my level 3&4 courses to incorporate this!!! And I also really appreciate that if we’ve bought things before, we can redownload; I purchased basically everything I was missing of yours during March quarantine hahah, because you didn’t yet have a full curriculum. Now I just have to fight for my school to get class sets of the novels and we are golden!
You’re amazing for doing this all so quickly. I love your work!!
I honestly was doing this for me as I did it to help other teachers. I began the summer SO WORRIED about what the year was going to look like. Not that I’m not worried now but at least I know that I have a fully planned set of lessons that I can use at school, from home, or a combo of the two! I can relax and just worry about all the stuff I can’t control now… 😉 THANK YOU, Deirdre for being you! Send me an email so we can update the things you won last year!
Hi! I included the AP Themes as part of my planning, I feel like each of the units can easily fit into an AP level curriculum. That said, I do not teach AP so the activities are not necessarily “AP” specific… if that makes sense. I designed them to drive up proficiency so my students will perform well on the STAMP test but I think so many of the things that AP requires could be practiced within these units by adding an activity modeled after what they produce on the exam?? Huellas 2 has a deeper environmental focus and Huellas 1 has a deeper community/family/personal focus.
Hello again! I did find the video about Huellas 1…I just looked in You Tube and it was there. OK, so I love your materials… I have purchased a lot of your materials in the past, such as the sustainable goals super unit and others that are part of Huellas 1 and will be part of Huellas 2. You have said that we won’t have to repurchase things that we have already purchased…but how do we do that? The bundle price is discounted. Do we have to just buy the rest of what we don’t have individually…which will come cost more than just buying the discounted bundle. Just curious if there is a way around this?
Thanks for your wonderful resources!!
Hi! Yes, the bundle price is really REALLY discounted to let early adopters. The regular price is going to be $90. I will do the same with Huellas 2 when it is ready! I know some people will already own the older units but they’ll also be able to download them with the new changes without extra cost as the unit prices rise! Hopefully it will make it more painless! 🙂 Thank you so much for the kind words! I feel so relieved to have everything planned both for face to face and remote as we are now THREE WEEKS from school!
This is amazing! I love all of your units!! How long will the discount price be in effect? I’m waiting on district approval.
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TPT usually has a sale some time in the first week of August. I didn’t want to wait that long for the discount since so many teachers are not sure HOW they’re going to give lessons remotely! I started it early and will end the sale along with the end of the TPT sale (but they haven’t announced yet when/if that will be). If they DON’T have a sale for some reason, I’ll leave it on sale through that first whole week of August.
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Hola Carrie
Will Huellas work for Heritage Spanish students?
Great question! I am going to give you just a so-so answer though. 🙂
In my old school I had roughly 3-4 heritage learners per graduating class. These kids started in Spanish 3 and if they wanted to continue for 4 years, they did 3, 4, then a more independent style class for the last 2 years. They entered in level 3 which is where I created these units. They always did very well and always learned a lot that they didn’t know. I have never taught in a school with a heritage Spanish class. 😬 So I am not POSITIVE that they would work with HLs. Maybe it was being in class with their peers that made my HLs accept the studies?? Honestly, I THINK they would work because there is so much about world issues in the later units that it’s pretty engaging material just in general… not that I’m magical, just it is interesting to learn more about sustainability… So… I did and didn’t answer your question! My Orangután en mi habitación and Viviendas del mundo units are free on TPT and they are a great example of what my work is like! I think if you like those, you’ll like what I’ve done with Huellas!
So excited to learn more. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and hard work with us. I am such a better teacher because of kind educators such as yourself(:
On Fri, Jul 24, 2020 at 8:13 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: ” If you’re looking at the upcoming school year with a > mix of dread and fear… and excitement about finally seeing your students > again… we are in the same boat. I’ve spent the summer trying to plan for > the possibility of being face to face OR being remo” >
Huellas 1 is already on sale and will remain on sale through the TPT Back to School Sale. Huellas 2 is set for release in November (but may be done sooner). Each of its units already exists (just not all with remote plans yet) and they will all be on sale. When it releases (November or before), I will put it on sale for a couple of weeks but probably the TPT sale now will make it close to the same price. As we update each unit, if you already own them, you can just download the updates!
recently purchase Huellas…. are the units in any particular order? Should I use them in the order they are listed? Wasn’t sure if they were prepared and offered that way.
Hi!!! The units can all stand alone! We put them in order so that we could do some building on the different topics across the curriculum but I have used them in a different order in my own classroom with success!!
I love your scope and sequence for Spanish 1. Do you have a pacing guide? I have only been able to get to unit 8 and 2 novel units. I’d like to be able to get farther.
We condense every SOMOS unit down to 5 class days. We all do different things (ex. My colleague loves the campanadas and I don’t uses them) but we choose what we like then work it into a 5 day lesson plan!
Have you taught SOMOS 1 virtually yet? I am putting together my syllabus for level 1 starting in January this year, and am unsure how long the FLEX units will take. I have 4-day weeks with 75 minutes/day.
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I have not taught SOMOS 1 virtually! Our program has really grown and this year I’m teaching 1 level 2 and 3 threes and 2 fours! I haven’t had ones for about 4 years but I’m about to phase out of even having 2s!!! My COLLEAGUES are using Somos 1 and they’re definitely moving slower. We used to try to do a unit in about a week but I think they’re running more like 7-8 days now.
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[…] If you’re just hearing about Huellas, check out this blog post to find out more: Huellas 1 & 2 intro […]
[…] you have the units but you’re not quite sure how you will use them this year, I posted my Scope and Sequence (along with some thoughts about how it may look different this […]
Hi Carrie, As you update Huellas to add some google docs, forms, or slides, will the updated files automatically load into our google folders or do we need to revisit TPT and upload them again?
Hi!! You do have to go back and update the files! We are through at least Huellas 1 unit 6! (Melisa is fast and may have gotten farther but I know she definitely said she finished 6!)
Thank you for this. I’ve been seeing so many negative things (like parent criticism, profane and vulgar displays by a student) that my anxiety level is ratcheted way up! This really helps!
I was SO anxious! I wasn’t sure I’d be approved to teach from home! But it all worked out and it is all WORKING out! I still have a lot to learn… I just finished an awesome Zoom class from Justin Slocum Bailey that makes me feel like a Zooming superstar… but I know that almost all the things I’ve worried about have turned out to be non-issues!! GOOD LUCK! I know you’ll be relieved once you get back and see how it’s working for your students!
Hi Carrie, I recently purchased Huellas. Is it set up to do the units in the order you have them. Art unit first and finish with Beauty and the Beast? or should they be done according to proficiency level? This will be used for Sp 3 Honors.
Hi!!! We set them up in the order we thought flowed best from topic to topic so that students would build on their language throughout! That said, they can be used in any order because we spiraled in topics so students would be able to use these units individually or as part of the whole! I just started Bajo la Mesa with mine!
Muchas gracias por tus palabras. Esto es lo que necesitaba en estos momentos. Comienzo la escuela el primero de septiembre y con los chicos el 8 de septiembre. Gracias y Bendiciones ❤️
Thank you for this. Today I think I gave half the class talking to the wrong camera, but it’s ok. If anything, they will acquire “dios mio” because I say it every day fumbling with technology. I will pat myself on the back!
Oh i feel like everything is such a Dios mío right now too!! 😂😂 Im getting so much faster at switching screenshares and switching backgrounds but I have constant typos or forget to spotlight my camera 😂
Muchísimas gracias, Carrie. Este año voy a usar Huellas con mi nivel cuatro y no puedo esperar a descubrirlo con mis estudiantes.
Un abrazo muy fuerte y mil gracias for hacer nuestro trabajo mil veces más fácil y divertido.
Mucha salud para ti y los tuyos!
Aurora
Thank you! You made me slightly more at ease about this whole thing. I’m also teaching virtually due to health concerns, but all of my students are attending school in-person. I’m really nervous about how it will work because they can’t promise each of my kids a computer. So I’ll be the virtual head on the projector and I’ll be looking at my classroom via a webcam…I’m nervous. I did manage to get computers secured for half of each 90 minute period, so during that time we will be doing ALL the zooming and talking and communicating in Spanish together. I just hope kids and parents will be understanding and work with me.
I’d love to hear more about your experience and tips! 😊
I look at them on a web cam too! I have it on top of my smart board and the sub helped seat them so I could see them all. The only problem with having them meet you on Zoom is that if they’re in the same room, it will feed back! My class is live and my remote kids are on zoom from their homes. When my husband and I are even just one room apart we get mic feedback on zoom!! Email me if you want to chat more!!
I’d love to hear how you are doing class like this. I’m in the same boat as you! I’m home and I’m expected to conduct class live with some kids in the classroom and some zooming in at home. They can see me and hear me from the projector and I can see them and kinda hear them via my web cam. How do you have any interactivity when they are in the class?
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Hi, Sarah!!! I am getting so much better at switching the spotlighted camera. I think this has been a KEY part of engaging the full class. To the home group, I am just another head in the zoom! To the CLASS group, I have to be a giant head or they sort of forget me. Does that make sense? If I need to ask a question and see who is raising their hand IN class, I spotlight their video but if we are all talking or I’m sharing something, I spotlight my video so they see me big on the screen.
I watched Justin Slocum Bailey’s Zoom webinar series and it was so good. I learned about making my content into Zoom backgrounds so that instead of being a tiny head in the corner with the content big on the screen, I can put the content over my shoulder and STAY on screen with it! I feel like it has been much more successful!!
Our classes are hybrid so it seems like the A kids are quieter when they’re at school and the B kids participate more. I’m learning that it is ok that way too! They are still involved, they just aren’t as… quick to volunteer as their counterparts on B days!
🙂 GOOD LUCK! Email any time! I don’t know of many doing it this way and I would love to share ups and downs!
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While I’m not a teacher, I see all you and my other teacher friends have been doing…the extra work you have put in (and will continue to put in). I want to thank you for a positive post. Sometimes it seems we just hear the negative. Positive is SO much better!! Love you, girl!
Thank you for all your hard work. It is highly engaging for the students, it meets the standards and pushes students beyond them, and surprisingly hits most of the important topics of our district pacing guide, which blew me away!
[…] realistic expectations and be clear about what they are. I have been planning using the UbD (Understanding by Design) “backward” model since 2010. I design my assessment before I begin the unit and before I present ANY new content, I […]
[…] choice. In a normal year, my assessments have often included interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational… This year, I am streamlining. My goal is for students to acquire language AND enroll again next […]
Hola! I just watched your Assess with Finesse webinar and I really love it…now if I can just get the rest of my department in board 🙁 In the webinar you said to email you requesting the Proficiency Descriptors. I am interested in seeing what these look like and hope you could share. Have a good upcoming week!
[…] that were hooks to get the class interested, or fun retells of a novel, such as her post on the Yellow Brick Road. She most definitely had already adopted Carol Gaab’s philosophy of the brain craving novelty. I […]
[…] as my students were reading “Reading Club” style, I was so frustrated with the way that class discussions were going. It always turned into students listing fact after fact without ever listening to their […]
I would like a copy of the image. Do you present the topic that same day and discuss? I’m not sure if this relates to a story book or just a regular topic. I teach high school and my students seldom contribute.
I love this idea! I am teaching level 3 this year and am looking for more ways for them to interact virtually. I would love a copy of the key phrases could you please email me: sgreene5@wcpss.net
Would you please share your zoom discussion Thursday slide. Thank you –
Bethany Pflug
On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 9:39 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: ” A few years ago, as my students were reading “Reading > Club” style, I was so frustrated with the way that class discussions were > going. It always turned into students listing fact after fact without ever > listening to their classmates’ contributions to the” >
Hola Carrie, Thank you for your inspiring post. If you are still willing to share the virtual background you made, I would love to use it. Muchas gracias, Sally Denbeaux
On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 10:39 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: ” A few years ago, as my students were reading “Reading > Club” style, I was so frustrated with the way that class discussions were > going. It always turned into students listing fact after fact without ever > listening to their classmates’ contributions to the” >
On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 7:39 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: ” A few years ago, as my students were reading “Reading > Club” style, I was so frustrated with the way that class discussions were > going. It always turned into students listing fact after fact without ever > listening to their classmates’ contributions to the” >
Hello Carrie, I would love a copy of the Zoom background that you used for “Discussion Thursday”. I really appreciate all of the materials that you share!
Have a great day, Alyssa
Alyssa Crawford Fifth Grade Spanish Immersion Teacher Miscoe Hill School a: 148 North Avenue, Mendon, MA 01756 e: acrawford@mursd.org
Get a signature like this!
On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 10:39 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: ” A few years ago, as my students were reading “Reading > Club” style, I was so frustrated with the way that class discussions were > going. It always turned into students listing fact after fact without ever > listening to their classmates’ contributions to the” >
I think I need to try more of the options. Last week I tried Battle Royale and it seemed really slow with the transitions compared to the faster paced Kahoot, Wuizlet Live like games. Always nice to have options though to switch things up
Thank you SO MUCH for sharing! I’ve been seeing people mention this site, but your blog really helps me visualize how it works. ¡Gracias!
On Mon, Nov 2, 2020 at 2:48 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: ” I love Kahoot, Quizlet, Gimkit, Quizizz… they all > have their own little thing that makes them special. Kahoot is just a quick > game, Quizlet live is fun for the class, Gimkit has so many special modes > and is based so much on strategy, Quizizz lets me in” >
Please send the discussion frame slide! I love the utility & simplicity!
Side Note: I teach MS Spanish but also have two teenagers of my own (both of whom I taught in Spanish I) – 1 graduated from HS last year and is taking a pre-college gap year (due to Covid) and the other is in 11th-grade. Over the years, they have been my “testers” for every new Spanish novel I purchase and they LOVE your books most of all! In fact, my daughter and I are currently reading “48 Horas” – we usually read 2 chapters at a time, because she’s busy with her own schoolwork and life, but we often read 3-4 at a time in this one because she wants to know what happens (2 more chapters to go). Thanks for producing such great stuff!
[…] What IS Huellas? Huellas is a two part curriculum for upper level Spanish classes. I shared how I use SOMOS by Martina Bex then Huellas in my Spanish program in this post. […]
[…] After playing our first Blooket, I wanted to add one for ALLLLLL the things my students were studying so I made one for my book Bianca Nieves from Fluency Matters, I made one for my Huellas 1 Future and Conditional level 3-AP unit Atrévete, and Kristy Placido made one for my Huellas 1 ART based level 3-AP unit Bajo la mesa! When my Spanish 4 group finishes reading, I’ll make one for our next Huellas 2 unit, Orangután en mi habitación. (Find out more about the Huellas Curriculum here.) […]
[…] process novel by adding various modes like the Floor is Lava which was amazing!) But then, I saw Carrie’s post and ended up finishing a class a little earlier than planned, so I didn’t have a reason NOT […]
Hi! They are now Google folders so they may look different for you! You do have to download each folder separately as well! If you tried these things already, I am not able to see your account from the TPT side so their customer service should be able to help you figure out why they won’t download again!
Hi Carrie – I would love to learn more about the discussion questions/phrases you have helped them kickstart with. I am feeling totally overwhelmed by the silent Zoom stares!
Hi Carrie –
This is a light at the end of the a LONG tunnel. My 3rd year students are reluctant Zoom speakers so this Fall has been super challenging. I’m thinking of moving into small-group Zoom mode. I would love to know more about how you set them up for success with your discussion kickstart questions. Could you write about post about this scaffolding for virtual classes? Thank you!
Hi Carrie – love this idea! Please share the Zoom background with me. I am hopeful that it will start to break open the silent Zoom boxes I stare at so often…
Hola! I came here to look at your scope & sequence for level 1, and am especially interested in seeing how you integrate novels. I am sold on adding Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro. It’s perfect as a first novel, IMHO. It uses humor to build interest as students get the feel for reading something longer.
I see for your second one, you chose El Nuevo Houdini. I have not yet read that one, and am wondering if you had a specific reason for choosing it. In the back of my mind, I’d like to offer something at the novice level (2nd semester) that starts to introduce AP themes. I was considering Esmeralda, but I’m not sure how to connect it to SOMOS. Do you have any suggestions? I’m open to any title that can be conquered by low level 1s (I get a lot of SWDs, so nothing too complicated).
Hi, Kristal! Honestly, I haven’t taught Spanish 1 in about 4 years and the teachers who do just really like the familiarity of sticking with the books they know! We do BB Perro, Houdini, and Piratas in Spanish 1 and they’re successful so they want to stick with a good thing! Esmeralda is a GREAT read and honestly ANY of the early level readers fit well with SOMOS because they all lean so heavily on those same basic structures (have, needs, goes, is, wants, etc)! Silencio, por favor is another really cute, easy, new reader! If you’re looking to incorporate AP themes early, Esmeralda and Silencio would be great. Silencio takes place in Egypt at the Pyramids of Giza so it would work with Beauty and Aesthetics and Esmeralda works great with World Issues/Science and Tech!
Hi, just come across your blog. I’m new to CI. Just wondering if an picture example would be possible. Sometimes it’s easier to understand that following instructions. Thank you.
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[…] us warm up your winter with some awesome new resources in both Spanish and French! If you fall for sales too, be sure you check out your favorite TPT […]
Hola Carrie! I was wondering if you could elaborate on your Selena film study unit? Do you perhaps use a certain TPT guide or one you’ve made? I’d love to show it in class this year.
We have NOT used a certain TPT guide. Fluency Matters now has a Selena reader that I would like to incorporate at some point but for now we just watch the film together after doing the SOMOS unit “El chico del apartamento 512”. It’s nice to get the song as part of the unit and then learn more about her before moving on!
Yeah yeah yeah and yeah!!!! I’ve so enjoyed teaching these units! They are a perfect level of challenge for my teaching situation- 4×4 block! I love the topics, the songs, and the activities!
[…] year without the readers, we have begun work on a booster bundle for Huellas 1. The curriculum is under construction but we know that budgets are often due at the end of the year so we are offering the new bundle on […]
Do we need to buy the booster if we own the Huellas 1 & 2 bundles? I’m not sure if these are separate or if you will be adding them to the bundles, too.
Hi! This is a separate addition! A lot of departments aren’t able to adopt readers so hopefully this will allow for more content to replace the ones I suggest in my scope and sequence OR just offer some choices for teachers who don’t click with a certain unit!
I was an idiot and forgot to check out during this sale. I’m hoping there’s a teacher appreciation one in May; if so would we be able to access the pre-order bundle again for the same price?
Thank you so much for your consideration Carrie!!!
YES! There is normally a May sale so I totally anticipate one coming up! The bundle will still be there and be on sale! Good news is that the library unit is done and City unit is underway!! Hoping to have it ready mid May!
[…] Get started with Huellas 1, a 14 week set of lessons that you can implement a la carte or in the order we suggest! Pair the units with readers and you’re set for the school year! See my Spanish 3 syllabus with the Huellas curriculum here. […]
Thank you for putting the words to what Iâve been feeling! Iâm exhausted and dragging in, but I *do* love what I do so very much. Next year WILL BE BETTER. (Iâm just putting that out there so that the universe knows it too!!)
Good luck to you, fellow soldier. Those mornings of piddling around the house are coming soon. We can do it!
From: Somewhere to Share
Reply-To: Somewhere to Share
Date: Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 3:51 PM
To: Shelley Woodward
Subject: [New post] 10 More Days
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
senoracmt posted: ” There. I said it. I am counting down. Ok, I’ll be honest, I count down every year… but not because I am SO DONE WITH THE YEAR… because it is fun to imagine drinking my coffee slowly… working by the pool… a NAP in the afternoon… I don’t li”
I am considering purchasing the Huellas curriculum, but I teach at a Christian school so I’d like to get a feel for how much of this material would be usable in my setting. Do you offer any free samples?
Senora I will teach for first time Spanish 4 next school year, a college recommend me to use huellas. Can you explain me what level is it? For what I read is like somos form Martina bex, which huellas should I use for level 4/5. I already read the books you recommend from fluency matters can you please tell me for level 4/5 what grammar/content we have to cover? What huellas units you recommend me, to start. Thank you.
Hi, Maggie! Huellas 1 and 2 are a good fit for students in levels 3 and 4. I use Somos in my Spanish 1 and 2 classes. I wrote the Huellas units to help keep my students learning after Huellas! For level 4 and 5 I think you can use either of the Huellas programs. If you use Huellas 1, you will start with units that are designed around stories and then move into units that are designed around cultural content (food/medicine). In Huellas 2, the units are pretty much all designed around topics like sustainable development, the ocean, waste management. I recommend starting with Bajo la mesa (the free first unit in Huellas 1).
You absolutely can! When I wrote the units, I used them in a lot of different orders! When I had enough to build a curriculum for my students, I started trying to organize them into a pattern that felt right as far as building one on the next! That said, each is designed to be a stand alone unit! You will have no problem mixing and matching!
[…] make it through this year. I laid out the list of new things I want to study. And I created my scope and sequence for the 21-22 school year. Yes, before I even left 2020-21 behind, I set up 2021-22!! And now… I have checked ALLLLL […]
I wish I could be so intentional! I’m trying but my thoughts won’t stop churning. Last year was a lot to handle and my brain won’t let it go. Would you mind sharing which plan book you chose? I’ve spent way more time over the last few days trying to decide which one to purchase than I care to admit! I’d love to know your personal preference if you don’t mind sharing. Thank you and enjoy your summer!
[…] After playing our first Blooket, I wanted to add one for ALLLLLL the things my students were studying so I made one for my book Bianca Nieves from Fluency Matters, I made one for my Huellas 1 Future and Conditional level 3-AP unit Atrévete, and Kristy Placido made one for my Huellas 1 ART based level 3-AP unit Bajo la mesa! When my Spanish 4 group finishes reading, I’ll make one for our next Huellas 2 unit, Orangután en mi habitación. (Find out more about the Huellas Curriculum here.) […]
[…] Sale ends tomorrow at 11:59pm! Don’t miss the opportunity to save big on the Huellas curriculum! Want to see my work? Check out our free resources when you sign up for our newsletter here. […]
Hi Carrie! Would you give me some pointers for how you execute your Card Talk activity for Spanish 4, what would I do if I were you? I am familiar with the activity but not sure how to do it with this particular topic (but I would love to start with conditional!). Thanks!
Yes!!! I have them do this in pairs. So Zarak and Zach are a pair. Zach says something like “if I were Zarak, I would go to more football games” and Zarak says “if I were Zach I would stop working at Pizza Man”. I do the PQA just like a regular card talk! It can be any verb form! So I can ask “does Zach work at Pizza Man or Zarak?” Zarak wants Zach to stop working at Pizza Man! Zarak, why do you want Zach to stop working at Pizza Man? Class, if Zarak were Zach, would he work at Pizza Man? Where would he work if he were Zach? Who else works at Taco Bell? Etc! Does that make sense? We talk about each pair and make all kinds of funny little side details but keep coming back to if I were…. I would
Yes, I think that makes sense. So do you just start out by having them chat with their partners to find out stuff about each other? Or, is it really just a game and they are just making statements about each other without any background info. Thanks for your quick reply:)!! I love this idea.
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We do it just quick! They don’t talk to each other they just have a pair so everyone in class gets talked about! We dig out the background info and a bunch of funny not true stuff as we talk!
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With the level 4 if/then statements, are they drawing them as well?
These are great ideas! Last year, I made a great big memory game and we played it outside. I laminated the cards and held them down with rocks in the grass. We had a great day!
Hello Carrie! I love Huellas and I really like your scope and Sequence for your four levels. I was having a look at level two and I was wondering what Unit 6 is: Papálotl. Is it a unit that you sell on TPT or somebody else?
Thank you and your team for all your work. It is really amazing!
[…] Blooket – There are many different Blooket options as well. You can play every 3 weeks and never play the same game in the semester! Just as with Gimkit, we do proficiency based question and answer types! […]
Hi Carrie, I can relate so much to what you are saying! I am longing for stability. Where I teach in Canada our case numbers are very low in schools, so I have not been impacted by students missing or having to pivot to Zoom or other digital deliveries. At least not yet, since we have just started back….
But I really wanted to tell you that I am using your Unit ‘Educarse para Superarse’ with my IB students right now and we are loving it! I have used your novels before but have never purchased any of your TPT units. It is fantastic, so well put together, with great resources, and has led to great discussions about valuing education and our privilege of living in a country where we have such widespread access to quality public schools. I fell in love with the song Aprender a quererte and this led me to your unit. Thank you so much for your inspiring work!
[…] on Monday – Wednesday with the same warm-ups and follow-ups as last week. We will do a “Discussion Thursday” to review what we’ve read in the first 7 chapters. The Discussion Thursday guidelines are […]
Thank you for putting this out there. It is nice to know that others are feeling the same. I have 3 years after this year, and sadly, am wishing it was sooner. I can’t get caught up. Kids out with COVID or sick and we do NOT offer Zoom this year at all to them. So…that puts them, and us, even further behind. Just frustrating.
Hi Carrie! Thanks for this post – I think a lot of messages that I’ve gotten this year is that the “worst” is over and now we can start this year excited and energized and things will be “better”. Unfortunately, it feels a lot like last year in terms of instability, but now add in that we have no energy reserves to take it on. I completely understand where you are coming from and I just wanted to say that I can relate! Hang in there and do what brings you joy.
This is so spot on. I’m feeling all of this right now as well. Thanks for the reassuring words! (…that I’m not alone) Hoping we can all feel a little more “caught up” soon.
[…] them for many of the units I use in class. The idea of a Yellow Brick Road retell is detailed in this blog post. In THIS yellow brick road, Nelly used illustrations from the reader to create the […]
Carrie-
I have been following your blog for years and somehow did not see this post until now. I think the topic is probably why. You are spot on. Last year (and the couple of months at the end of 2020) was scary but this is harder. In Massachusetts, we are not allowed to offer Zoom or any hybrid lessons to students who are out. But kids are out a lot. I feel exhausted because once I finish getting make-up work from students from one week there is a whole other set to get from this week. It never ends. I too am at the end of my career. I have 8-10 more years tops. I have started dreaming about what is next. But your more recent post has reminded me why I teach- it is about making the language learning fun. I have to get back to more of that. Thanks for reminding me about it. Time for me to search again for more fun ideas to work with my students or pull out some of my old ones.
¡Muchas gracias por compartir! Estoy de acuerdo contigo. Tiene muy buenos recursos. Tiene unos videos culturales sobre Pamplona, Barcelona, Picasso y Guernica también que usé como actividad independiente en un Google Form el año pasado con la novela Agentes secretos de Mira. Te recomiendo esos videos también si te sirven.
Love this post! I have used Pablo’s videos with a variety of levels of Spanish classes. They came in handy for providing input while I was out for two weeks with COVID! His drawings add the necessary comprehension piece that my kids need. I, too, have provided video viewing guides for my kids, so I’m anxious to check yours out!
This is amazing, Carrie! Thank you for sharing so generously!! I have been using Dreaming Spanish here and there for several years but without any kind of follow-up. This is just what I need to bring more focus to the input!
Muchísimas gracias!!
Your generosity in sharing these materials was a bright spot in a very difficult school day. I’ve been thinking of using the Dreaming Spanish videos with my Spanish 2 students…but have been stalled due to lack of time to figure out the “how” of it all. Your viewing guides give me that how and now I have a jump-start on getting this rolling with kids. I can’t thank you enough!
This is so AWESOME! I’d love for her to visit my school and talk to my classes. Is this part of her job or just a special favor to you as her former teacher? (in case she does I’m in Georgia soooo much closer if that helps). Thank you for sharing!
What a great opportunity for your students! So special to see the fruit of the impact that you are making in the lives of others. Will you tell us about your super cool artwork on the wall (los esqueletos y la mariposas)? Gracias!
Funny that I stumbled on this blog post. I have been learning Spanish on my own for the past couple months when I found Dreaming Spanish. So far I’ve watched over 130 hours of content there (every superbeginner and beginner). Pablo has single-handedly improved my listening abilities to an intermediate level in just a couple of months.
I stumbled on your website, because I decided to buy a bunch of TPRS books to help with reading comprehension. I ended buying mostly Spanish 3 books and just started reading La hija del sastre tonight. Looking forward to reading it!
Pablo is the BEST! My students can feel their listening skills improving!!! I think you’ll notice the same with the readers! I work for Fluency Matters and accidentally learned to read French by making the ECourses for our French readers!!
Thank you so much for sharing these amazing resources!
Do you mind sharing how your class complete the worksheet? Do you scaffold the activity or do they just watch the whole video and complete the worksheet? I know you explained how you do it in your post, but I’ve never used Dreaming Spanish videos in my class, and would like to try it.
[…] the beginning of the year, I made myself a big promise. (If you would like to read about it… it is here.) I have done pretty well, but let’s be honest. The lines of what I can and can’t […]
Love your Huellas. Used it virtually last year with my Spanish 3. Would love to know if you have something for Spanish 2 or maybe you could recommend something other than Somos?
[…] recommend self grading computer programs. Quizziz, Blooket or GimKit are great for reviewing vocabulary. You can also split up sentences for students to match […]
Hello! First of all, thanks for all that you do!!! A question as I am confused…I bought Huellas 1 and 2 awhile back. When you talk about Huellas 2.1…. and your new chapters, does this get included into the original Huellas? Or is there a separate digital only Huellas? I am so confused…and can never find the new units….or do I have to buy them separately? (as in, not a growing bundle…)
Thanks for your help.
Hi! This is separate from the Huellas 2 bundle. Eventually it will be part of a Huellas 2.11-2.15 bundle (hopefully Fall of 22). At that time the current Huellas 2 (at the price it is now) will become Huellas 2 units 1-10 and we will add a product that is at a higher price point that includes all 15 units. I began writing additional units because I had a lot of feedback that for teachers who don’t use as many readers as I do, there isn’t enough content, and for those in a program with 3,4,AP there isn’t enough content! We are trying to add on in small chunks so that we can accommodate those needs AND for teachers who do have just 3/4 and use a lot of readers, there will be a lot more flexibility in which units to choose!
[…] class is not an AP course, we offer dual enrollment with our local community college. Through this dual enrollment, my students DO earn college credit […]
[…] really working on polishing our verb endings in level 3 and 4. Remember, it’s all about subliminal grammar! CI teaching doesn’t mean that grammar is a bad word! It’s part of every day! […]
Thank you for this. This is something I struggle with in my intermediate classes and I love you introducing it in 2. Two questions: 1.) Do you give students a list of comparison words or have a target list to teach them? 2.) (Not related to comparisons). I love your rejoinder wall in your photo. Are these posters the same as your expressive expressions download in your store? I use rejoinders but would like to have a more diverse wall of rejoinders, especially for my 4’s as I prepare them for the CLEP which includes a rejoinder section. Thanks for always being there for us teachers!!
1. I actually have this product: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Enriquecete-4305611 That I use every time we write starting in Spanish 2. It is 100 words drawn from the AP exam’s list of transition words. As students use this basket through the years, they begin to acquire more and more of the words and they have to be more picky about what they take out of it because they already know so many without looking! 2. The rejoinders are not the same as my expressive expressions. I got those from Placido Language resources here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spanish-Rejoinders-Posters-Cactus-Design-40-phrases-4769430 They are so nice to have up because the kids can use them to react during any conversation we are having in class! Sort of a “use your resources”!
Carrie, you just totally rock! What a clever idea with the hula hoops! I’ll be on the look-out for some in the Aldi’s aisle of shame ☺ or the Dollar Store. Thank you for sharing! 💖
Hola Carrie- I was wondering if your two’s already had past tense and you are reviewing it or if you are teaching yo and él/ella endings as you go? My two’s haven’t had past so I’m thinking about how to do this. I love the idea! Thanks!
They have been seeing and hearing the past tense since the beginning of Spanish 1 as we don’t really shelter that vocabulary, but we just teach it as individual structures. We read Brandon Brown Houdini in the past tense at the end of level 1. This is the first time we really start “noticing” the endings and picking out patterns.
[…] Spanish I, we do a simplified version, known as card talk. Somewhere to Share has a great overview of a card talk. With this plan, there are games to play to review and there […]
Thank you so much for being real!! So hard to not cross the line from being inspired to being overly critical of myself in comparison to Superstars like you! Nice to be reminded that none of us is perfect! 😄💕
I have a lot of ideas, but at the end of the day I am trying and failing/trying and succeeding in the classroom every day too! I think that is one of the things that has helped keep me “experimenting” through the years. If there were a magic formula that made school life perfect, we could bottle it and be bazillionaires!! We train to teach students in a sterile environment, but the real world is like an ER. There is all kinds of trauma and so many other things pulling their attention. We have to learn to roll with the punches and not take it personally when things are not going 100% our way!! I ALSO have days when I get too critical of myself. Should I make them all sit up straight and stare straight ahead… and then they vote me most influential teacher in the school and I’m like… nope, honor them right where they are. The Spanish is secondary to their social and emotional well-being. Give yourself TONS of grace and then that will trickle over to them as well!! That may be the top key to classroom success?? Bottomless boatloads of grace. 🙂
[…] to make it easier to check out! If you missed our post about what is new in the store, you can see it here. This is also a great time to stock up on your winter clip chats! We have several! The Present is a […]
Long time follower, first time poster. Loved this Kroger commercial. I’m such a sucker for these sorts of MovieTalk/ClipChats! I went ahead and made a slideshow of stills for anyone else interested. I like to use the stills instead of pausing the actual video. Cheers
Thanks for your reflections, Carrie! I can relate to so much of what you’ve shared here, both the good and the bad (I have one of the toughest Level 1 classes EVER!). But one of the best things about this school year has been discovering Huellas! My IB 12 class finished the unit on “La música orginaria” just before Winter Break and I was amazed at my students’ final assessments, both oral and written. We all learned so much from the unit, not just in terms of the compelling content, but also through the diverse array of activities you designed to get students thinking and communicating authentically on the topic. Thank you for everything! I wish you the Happiest of Holidays and look forward to more from Somewhere to Share in 2023 🙂
Thanks for being vulnerable. I can relate to this post – and it encourages me that even a teacher with way more experience can struggle. I too have barely done music and my timing has been off, to where these last units feel crunched and rushed (currently doing Vector in 4 and have had to skip many great activities). Both my intermediate classes (level 3 & 4) seem so behind other years and I have struggled to know what to do for them. I was going to be committed to backwards planning (after I took a session with you) and I got too busy to do that effectively, I have to regroup, especially for these students who are behind.
On a positive note, I have built great relationships this year with especially my new students in level 1 and maintained them with my 2s. They are eager learners. I have introduced some new curriculum into level 2 to help with some gaps I am seeing in 3 & 4. We don’t use Huellas exclusively but they are fun units that they enjoy when we can use them. We loved the art unit prior to Frida and Bella y la Bestia was a great unit to give us a break.
Sending you teacher love for a great 2nd semester. Thanks for not just teaching your students – but us too. Merry Christmas!
Hi Carrie. Thanks so much for sharing this idea! I tried it out in my classes yesterday. The students had fun but found a loophole — what do you do with cups that end up sideways? I found that if I said that those cups counted as one way or the other, then the team that benefitted started taking advantage of that by just sweeping cups sideways without making the effort to place them up or down. Did you run into this issue at all?
Thank you so much for this! I too am GenX and I find today’s climate soul crushing. I sit down on a Saturday to plan with Huellas Unit: Zoológico sostenible and I am haunted by the fact that my state has a plan to get rid of me. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is proposing an end to the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act (we are “right to work” state – no unions), capping teacher salaries to 50K, removing step increases and bumps for those of us who have advanced degrees in our content and years of classroom experience…. it goes on and on. I love teaching Spanish – this is my 16th year and the prospect of pulling up my roots (this is also my 4th post) and uprooting my family in order to survive financially (single mom) fills me with rage. If it were not for the love and appreciation of my students – I would have abandoned teaching and gone to law school years ago. Your words have encouraged me – maybe I will share on facebook a sample of the student appreciation letters I’ve received as recently as this week – I have a bag full – as a reminder to those in my community that some of us -if not most of us – go above and beyond and can’t be so easily replaced by computer programs and warm bodies.
YES to everything you said!!! Politics has made it soul crushing to be in education. But my students… man they can make my day bright! Thank you for sharing!! It can be so bad and yet so so good!!
I love this article! Thank you, thank you, thank you. As a GenXer I feel this so much. There is no retirement option in my district so once 55-57 roles around I’m fulling invested. I don’t know what else I’d do than teach, but I keep looking. I agree with you that we need more tweets and posts about what is going well in the classroom to encourage that next generation to stick it out. We also need good mentorship so we don’t lose them immediately either. Thank you again!
I have never heard of this. I’m the only certified foreign language teacher in my small district. I’m wondering how would I get my district to “sign on”? I think this could encourage more students to go further in their Spanish studies and have more motivation to do so.
Getting started: First check to see if your state has a seal of biliteracy and what the requirements are. In IL we DO have a program and it has two tiers. The Commendation and the Seal. We have to apply to offer the seal at the beginning of each school year and report back on the students who earned it each summer. We also have a few hoops to jump through like adding info about the seal to the school website and the testing info to students’ records.
After you know more about your own state seal, check out theglobalseal.com to learn about the Global Seal of Biliteracy. This one is really easy to set up and report results for. The Global Seal is also given worldwide, so it will be meaningful no matter where your students plan to study.
Once you have a plan for which “micro-credentials” you’re going to offer (your state seal, global seal), you need a plan for testing. The AP counts, the STAMP and AAPPL also count as nationally normed tests for offering the seal. You’ll test your students and submit the data. I find that this is great PR for our program. I actually have a wall of photos outside my room where we honor students for the credentials they’ve earned.
Get the parents on board too. Let them know that you’re offering these awards because they A) look great on college and scholarship apps and B) are often accepted in lieu of CLEP testing at universities to place students in their language classes.
This is a great article. I love your honesty, and it’s true!! I’m thankful to be in a great district, as you have described. As you are saying, we also do need to “get louder” through social media and share the positives about this profession… because there is still something wonderful here!!! <3 … :~) … <3
[…] Cupside Down is one of those activities and we just played it for the first time yesterday. I learned about the game from Carrie Toth at Somewhere to Share–find the explainer & directions here. […]
Hola! I find it impossible to complete all the Units of Somos 1 & 2 within 2 school years! I’m wondering if there are units you skip in those in order to make it to Huellas 1 by Spanish 3 and Huellas 2 by Spanish 4???? Trying to figure this out before I approach my admin with a request for Huellas 1 & 2. Thank you!
❤️ it! I have actually done weekend chat like this but I have never read Anne Marie’s blog about it. I just called it Weekend Chat with a Twist. Nor have I done it at the beginning of the year. Thank you for that! I have 2 adaptations; they tell 2 truths and 1 lie-the students guess the lie. And the other adaptation; the students create 2 lies and 1 truth-the students guess the “hidden truth”. Whoever stumps the class gets a prize. The students are engaged and lots of communication happens.
*One more twist that I do is weekend chat on Friday as a weekend preview, what are they going to do this weekend, with the same variations from above being rotated in throughout the year.
[…] I am trying out a new beginning of the year activity to get to know them and build community. It is a twist on Card Talk. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but I am loving it so far. That is not to say that it is […]
[…] wanted to incorporate more activities that encouraged re-reading this year! Last week we did “Freeze Find“. And this week we tried a game of “Bad Google […]
I LOVE a new game that makes them re-read! Feeling a little slow, though… was your English sentence poorly translated? I am missing the “Bad Google Translate” part. Could you play with good translations? That would still make them re-read, wouldn’t it?
You totally could just translate to English and have them find the sentence, but I tried to make my “not literal translations” a little more abstract so they’d have to really think and not just search out a specific word! Ex. Más tarde en la vida, Frida tuvo suficientes animales como para tener un zoológico. I made the “bad google translate” When she was an adult, no one could stop Frida from having pets.
Ohhhhh! I get it now! That’s much more challenging! Thank you!!!
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[…] fun game that would be a great twist during reading is Carrie’s Freeze Find! This would be perfect for a Homecoming Day game or the day before a long […]
[…] pick from low energy to high energy, low prep to high prep every chapter! My favorite this week was Cupside Down. It is SUPER LOW PREP. All you need is a set of comprehension questions and a set of cups in […]
[…] comprehension question reviews. Then I found an older post of hers that I haven’t shared- Freeze find! I know that these activities will be making it into my game rotation after […]
Wowza-You are such an inspiration and blessing to so many! You have literally left your footprints for us to follow and move the profession forward! Well done – you deserve an amazing retirement!!!!!
Bonjour, thank you for sharing this activity. I am wondering if students stay with the same partner as they move along the Yellow Brick road? If they change partners, what do you recommend? Does one side of the road stay put and the other moves one brick? Merci.
Thank you for sharing this! I too used the AAPPL test last year and am looking forward to using the STAMP test this year for my students as well. We are also the Wildcats and are a small rural school! We will begin our testing process in the next week or two. I look forward to my students being able to see where their proficiency lies after hearing me talk about proficiency for three or four years!
We are taking the STAMP for the first time this year! I am very excited! Did you do anything special before testing that you think really helped prep your students for the format of the test?
I didn’t do STAMP specific prep work, but we do a lot of reading/listening/writing/speaking and as we do them, we refer back to the proficiency levels so they know HOW to achieve the target score they’re after. I did share the resources STAMP provides them (pointers on how to score well at each level, practice test format). It was a really smooth transition from AAPPL and I’m so glad we did it.
I have also experienced inconsistency in the AAPPL scores for speaking and writing. How does the format of the STAMP test differ from the AAPPL? And how does the time to administer it compare?
Great question! Proctoring was basically the same, but took a little less time…
They take the listening and reading first because those sections’ scores determine the level of prompts they receive on the writing and speaking. The GREAT thing about that is that on AAPPL, they had like 8-9 speaking prompts and at least 6 writing prompts… so by the time they got to the higher proficiency prompts, they were getting tired of writing… On STAMP they get 3 and 3. The speaking skips the novice prompts if they have had intermediate performance on the listening and skips higher intermediate if they were novice on the listening! It really was so much better! And as I look at the scores, I do not see ANY that are wildly over or under rated.
Carrie, your blog, resources, and workshops have guided me and shaped my teaching more than I can say! I would love to know how you went about connecting with the colleges in your community so that they would accept the students’ AAPPL scores and Seals for college credit. I feel like that would be such a blessing to our students and draw more students into continuing on in their language journey.
Love it, love it! This is good teaching! Great critical thinking skills being used here!
Last year we did a comparison of Carol’s journey and Pan’s Labyrinth!! I’ll look at my materials and see if there is anything you might be able to use… I love the idea of Voces Inocententes used in this.
How did your students do with the vos in La Historia Oficial? I haven’t used that one in a while…
with love,,
Laurie
We do Butterfly and Pan’s Labyrinth in the 3/4th quarters so I am hoping Carol will be a good bridge to that from Voces.
We had to watch the whole movie with Subtitles because not only is the Vos hard, the Spanish is just fast enough that it frustrates them. I wish that there was a better movie to stick in that spot…
Looking forward to NTPRS… Ready for some dancing?
Fabulous idea, but not sure if the community college people will be placated!
I totally agree. I’m afraid they won’t be placated either. I am finishing a novel study in both levels and am giving a “community college style” assessment to hopefully cover what they need to see as far as discrete grammar and vocabulary points. I am hoping that the essay written graded with a rubric that addresses vocabulary choice, grammar, and writing style will make this a good choice for the final! 🙂 But I may be wrong!
Hi Carrie,
Great blog! Question re NBC: Do you know if it is offered for Chinese teacher?
Caryn
It is not. They offer Spanish all of the time and French and German almost all the time. No Chinese unless there is something new I am not aware of. 🙁
Thanks for posting this, it is very helpful. I am amazed that you get through so much content in a year! Do you get your students every day?
I do have them every day. We have a regular 8 period day with 43 minute classes. In Spanish 1 and 2 I only cover about 4 chapters of our tprs text per year but we get lots of reps recycling the material in the film and novel studies. In 3 and 4 I choose structures directly from the films and novels so there’s not really a formal “text” most of the time.
Thank you so much for your quick response to my question. This is all incredibly helpful. I like to use authentic texts and videos to get students talking, but I often feel like they don’t tie together well enough. I love the overarching themes you have in each level!
You´re welcome! It is always a work in progress but I am starting to feel like I have a more complete flow. LOL Lots of great videos on youtube too! Human rights, Picasso’s Guernica in 3D… I could bore you for hours with all of them! jaja
Thanks for the overview of your curriculum. It is very helpful. And congratulations on the book you co-authored. I just saw it a few days ago on the TPRS website and downloaded the preview. I’m looking forward to when it is available. Do you have a specific date for that?
Did I understand you correctly that you read Esperanza in Spanish 1 and again in Spanish 4? Have your classes ever read Esperanza Renace?
I just got Esperanza this year so my freshmen have read it but not my older kids. We did read it in Spanish 4 but fast! We did it in about 8 days and then I used it as a bridge to el Norte. They just did a writing assessment describing similarities and differences between the two.
I’ve read and love Esperanza renace but I’ve never used it in class.
Oh and the novel became available today! 🙂 I’m so excited!!
Ah, that explains it! Another question for you – do you have a copy of the consent form you use with your students? And do you just skip the inappropriate scenes?
I’d be happy to share my permission form. I DO edit out sex scenes etc but it would be impossible in some films to edit out all of the bad language. I mention that in my permission form! 🙂
My email is kristindunc at gmail dot com. It would be great if you could send it to me! Thanks.
Thank you for sharing your ideas! May I also have your permission form sent to my school email? Thank you in advance!
Wow very cool! I’m currently planning on basing my year around the novels and backwards planning what structures we should work on. I really appreciate your post as it affirms some ideas I had for this coming school year! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Thanks for reading! 🙂 I’m starting to have UbD nightmares I’ve been working on it so much!
Hi Carrie,
After reading this post I’m convinced that I should have gone to your session on Backward Planning at NTPRS. I read your syllabus for Sp1 and I’m still not sure how it all fits together. I have so many questions for you: How did you choose the first 50 words in the first 9 weeks? Did you use a frequency list or focus more on words from Esperanza? For those 50 words and the next set, are they the words you and your students use to create stories? How long are your classes? 50 minutes? In the past I’ve used Mi Vida Loca en Sp3 but see you have it in the first 9 weeks of Sp1. How do you prepare your students for that? The articles that students read in the first quarter, are they about Central America & Mexico and is that how they study them?
See…I warned you I had a lot of questions (and there are plenty more).
I’m registered for ACTFL – def. making it a point to attend your session. 🙂
Hi! Well, here are all the answers! Haha not that I have all of the answers but these at least address your questions! I begin the year with Ben Slavic’s circling with balls. The first 50 words include whatever we cover in the 5-8 days of balls plus the first chapter of cuéntame más. Reading the first novel is a LOT slower than subsequent novels because they are very new and need a lot of guidance and hand holding! And lots of vocab circling before the chapters. Beyond the first 50, I use Carol’s Cuentame chapters 2-4 in Spanish 1 and I do some cultural things that require a few additional structures. As long as you limit to 3 per day and really circle them, you can bring in whatever you need to! I am at a school with 43 minute classes. We read articles from the magazine ¿Qué tal? by scholastic but sometimes I find something online and use it in class as well. If it is too hard, I paraphrase or if it is fairly easy, we just read and discuss. Remember than in Span I, discussion means that I say simple things about it in Spanish slowly and they respond as they are able… They aren’t going to be speaking volumes but can follow cultural discussions in the TL if they are 100% CI! I used episode 1 of mi vida loca yesterday in Spanish 1. They did great! I made some little worksheets to help them copy down what they will need to say later in the episode and it works well. I think it is perfect for beginners because it has so much English content! So glad to hear you’ll be at ACTFL! Kristy and I will be sharing our ideas for an upper and a lower level UbD unit this time! And we’ll be in the booth all weekend so be sure you say hi! 🙂
Awesome. Think my 4’s would really enjoy a unit like this!
We did! And it provided a lot of opportunities to talk about Spanish culture in general!
This sounds great! i was wondering if you could share some of the sources you used to describe bullfighting? I was looking for something cultural from Spain other than war. I appreciate your willingness to share your ideas. I really need to get the book you suggested in Las Vegas about backwards planning. What was the name of it?
It is called Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. The workbook is great.
I did a lot of online reading about Manolete and bullfighting. I got things from PetaLatino and several descriptions of bullfighting from Spanish sites. I let the kids use Wikipedia when they researched Manolete. It wasn’t any kind of a deep biography that they were writing about him! 🙂 I know, the English teachers would shiver!
Thanks so much for your posts about UbD. My district has mandated that we all use it and we are even taking an online class collaboratively with our department. The big difference that I see is that the way CI teachers have talked about backward design was the preteaching of vocabulary, which is important, but the idea of enduring understandings and essential questions really elevates the thinking. You get that so well in your examples. I hope you will continue to post your units and ideas about UdB. I teach French, but I’ve been stumped about this online class, and reading your posts (even though the examples are in Spanish) have gotten me over the hump. Thanks so much!!!!!
I hopt that you find things from our workshop or from our blogs that will help you design your units! It is terrible to have to start over from square one! Hopefully you’ll get a nice skeleton for how to do it!
it makes me feel better to know that other people have these days too!!! Last year my seniors created a Kings’ Day celebration for the 8th grade classes complete with Rosca and shoes and (real) hay! It’s best not to overthink it and just enjoy every minute!!
I’m hysterical that you brought up that scene from Life of Brian!! Mira Canion and I were just talking about that movie last night!!!!! What are the chances?! I saw that movie for the first time in a huge movie theater in Madrid…as a new release…subtitled in Spanish. My friends and I were the only ones in hysterics in the theater…some humor translates better than others lol.
Feliz Dia de los Reyes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( de mi laptop tambien jejeje)
with love,
Laurie
Well….how did it go? Are you still charged from an exciting day or did you crash on the sofa?
Could you post the link to the video you used for Rosca de Reyes? I found one I really like that is in Spanish, but I know a few weeks ago someone shared a link of another one I liked that I can’t find now.
Cynthia
It went SO well!!! All four groups had great luck with their bread! All of htem rose, all of them baked beautifully! I am so proud! I posted a photo!
Oh and no sofa crashing (although I needed it). I went to fitness boot camp tonight! I am nuts!
Very good information. Lucky me I recently
found your site by chance (stumbleupon). I have saved it for later!
I love Educreations and use it a lot during storytelling! I usually have one student draw a story whille telling a story, and sometimes I will have them draw from a reading too! It works great and I can post them online with my own voice telling the story.
I loved the video. I plan to teach this song to my eight graders (3rd year Spanish).
[…] Twitter @SenoraCMT y su blog – particularmente este post sobre “Film and novel studies by level” que me ha inspirado […]
Reblogged this on Kristy Placido and commented:
Carrie Toth really says what I’d like to say..so “ditto!”
I reblogged this! Thanks for the great thoughts!
This post could not have come at a better time for me! I have been teaching Spanish for 6 years, first at the high school level 1, 2, and 3 and now with 7th and 8th graders. Funny I am a native speaker! Deep down I have always known that acquisition is the way, but the curriculum has always gotten in the way. I am pursuing my Masters degree and I start a class Monday on Theories of Second Language Acquisition. My position is acquisition all the way. I now have a firm stance on how languages are learned!
I finished my Masters in 2011. I didn’t action research on Comprehensible input!!! I actually found TPRS/CI through getting certified as an NBCT! I am so glad this helped you!
Didn’t? Ugh I need to pay attention to my autocorrect! Lol I mean that I did MY action research!!! Lol
We would love to hear how this class is!! Great post Carrie!
with love,
Laurie
Excellent blog post!
I used to think I was a good teacher because I taught the grammar in Spanish too. Turns out that time could have been much better spent on USING the language to talk about things instead of TALKING about the language.
I wish educational university and college professors would visit classrooms taught with TCI & TPRS to see the drastic change in (as you said): Comprehensible TL used; student success for ALL; trust; & increase in Ss that are learning to love the language.
Very well said!!! I couldn’t agree more!!!
This makes a lot of sense, but I am left wondering one thing: can they explain the reasons behind their choices? There is something to be said for automated *acquired* responses, for sure, but without considering why they do what they do, is their understanding deep enough?
It’s virtually impossible for me to explain subjunctive, and I think this is a hindrance in my ability to produce language that conveys what I want. This came up in a story I wrote for grad school last semester where the professor was confused by my intent because I didn’t use it (something about did I let the baby go or was it just a possibility that I might–still not clear on the difference because I can’t explain).
I get that subjunctive is higher level, but I feel like we are limited to inane conversations that are not necessarily engaging if everything has to come from previous repeated exposure before language can be created. If I hear a suggestion that kids “describe their families” from prescribed “improved” curriculum, I think I’ll scream.
I’m torn between designing project-based units that tap into real world problems that engage students and playing by CI rules.
I think that a common misconception is that CI means no grammar. I teach grammar constantly but not with worksheets and fill in the blanks. If we have had the structure “Ella va” I am constantly finding ways to incorporate other forms of the verb, to highlight the patterns, and to connect those patterns to other verbs… I just do it without making it a lesson. It is part of our story or discussion. We are reading the novel Esperanza right now and have been discussing life in Guatemala. They learned about kids living in the city dump. We had lots of forms of vivir of course but then the kids wanted to fundraiser for them! I taught them how to say donate and raise money and without my help they were able to say “we raise money” or “donate money.” They know the grammar just not the terminology!!! Verb conjugation!
PBL is a great concept! I agree! But I’m not sure of its place, especially in lower level classes! There is a lot of time spent in L1 when do projects! you may be better at preventing that than i am! I don’t do more than 1 per quarter because I’m jealous of our L2 time!!
When they go to university classes, the profs will often be natives and will be speaking Spanish. When they take the OPI to graduate from college, they have to be at least advanced low! I want to get them comfortable hearing the language so that they can continue to hone their grammar skills but can always feel confident about understanding what the prof is saying and so they will be confident going into the OPI. I don’t know about other states but here in IL we are doing a lot of training on the OPI and there is really a problem with our college grads making the advanced low mark! Many are so weak that they have to take it 2-3 times! They aren’t getting enough input to be able to output!
Your question about higher level concepts like the subjunctive is a great one! I’m going to be honest here, I taught the heck out of the subjunctive in Spanish 3 and 4 back in my grammar days. They could fill in the little train with the subject and verb in the engine and the que connecting the caboose with different subject verb but it didn’t carry over into their production. It didn’t for me either! I was teaching before I got good at using the subjunctive! When I taught it, all of the rules finally clicked! The kids I have now have a better understanding of what subjunctive is because we start it in level 1. They read “quiere que su papá regrese pronto” and I say “regrese not regresa because he wants him to but he may not” and I move on. By level 3 they have that part down pa and we can look at how they switch the endings… I guess that to me the difference is in the old days I taught subjunctive as a unit at a specific time. Now I teach everything over and over again for a LONG time! LOL
Enjoyed the post! Great points.
Thank you!
Ditto, ditto, ditto!!! Well said Carrie! Thank you for sharing.
On a side note, my meatloaf recipe is killer: you need 1.5 lb hamburger, 1 egg, 1 cup shredded zucchini, 1 cup Italian bread crumbs, 1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk, 1.5 tsp salt. Mix all in a large bowl and either make meatballs or a meatloaf. Top either with 1.5 cups ketchup plus 1/2cup brown sugar well mixed! Bake at 375 for 1hr for meatballs or 1.5 hr for a loaf! I swear you’ll love it! 🙂
[…] Carrie Toth has posted an Embedded Reading adaption of “La Casa Tomada” by Julio Cortazar on her website Somewhere to Share. […]
So excited to use this! Thanks for posting!
I remember reading somewhere that you use a sort of skeleton UbD for all of your novela reading units, right? Is this something you’re willing to share? I’m working on a UbD for Robo en la noche (thanks for your help from the ACTFL presentation, btw!), and I’m curious what your final product looks like. Thanks!! 🙂
I do use a skeleton UbD for all of my units long and short. I’m trying to adhere to the idea that if I don’t know why I’m doing it, I shouldn’t be! 🙂 as part of our Danielson readiness, we are keeping a binder of lesson/unit plans and I’ve been using a simplified UbD template to create the lesson plans. I made a section for the Big Ideas, a students will know and a students will be able to section, and a section for both skill building activities across the unit and assessments! I’d share if you want to look at it!
Hi Carrie, I met you for the first time at the 2014 iFLT conference. You and Kristy have given me a whole paradigm shift for teaching. I would love to look at this, also a sample of a full unit if that is ok with you.
Thank you!
Valene
I’ll email you a sample of one of the full units too!
Excellent post! And it’s good to point out that with comprehensible input more kids are actually learning more grammar than when you spent class time talking about grammatical structures in L1.
I love seeing the top 5 reasons…seeing simplified justifications is a nice way to express what we believe in. Does anyone have suggestions for introducing CI based methods with teachers that don’t value/use it? The main issue I have is showing what the assessments look like to those that are used to textbook quizzes and tests.
Free writes and speaking retells is not tangible like a grammar or vocabulary quiz from the text. What can be used as a formative assessment for grammarians and the like…the matter has to do with collecting data and tracking our students…
Thanks
Well, I think that is the hardest part for traditional teachers about accepting this method. Our formative and summative assessments look MUCH different than theirs do! I NEVER NEVER give a straight grammar or vocabulary quiz. I give story retells and the like to Spanish I and the grade may be based on structure or vocab use or maybe just their ability to communicate their message to me! That isn’t the norm for me beyond Spanish I. For example: In Spanish 3 we just finished a unit on the Spanish Civil War. We did a lot of journaling about the film Butterfly (find evidence that the Civil War was about to begin throughout the movie and identify who support the republican and fascist sides), we discussed the history of the Spanish Civil war and did a history quiz at the request of a group of history buff students :), we read the novel “La hija del sastre” and did a lot of predicting, summarizing, deep thinking about issues in the novel as assessment (I didn’t use any of the comprehension questions in the TG because I expect my kids to be thinking a lot deeper than that…) We finished the war study by watching back to back films on either side of Spring break. The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth (both Guillermo del Toro films) are full of symbolism. Kristy Placido created an amazing summative assessment that I used this year! As we watched the films I had them journal each day about some of the symbolism in the films… for example the key represents having power or control and the flower represents new life or hope that lives on…. They recorded symbols from both movies and their meaning and then they chose 5-6 and created a piece of art. I’m trying to turn it into a movie right now so you can see how AMAZING they did! I could not believe the presentations they gave!!! They had to describe the symbolism in their art at an art gallery with classmates. The classmates asked questions and they had to answer!! I was able to grade their speaking, writing, listening, vocabulary, grammar, cultural knowledge, and even reading through this project and they LOVED it and to me it is so much more authentic and I know for SURE that my students from the preTPRS days could NEVER have done what these kids did in level 3!!! I guess it just depends on what you can convince them is “data”!!! I’ll blog the video if I am smart enough to figure out how to make it!
Wow great response…I am glad I checked back right away. I am going to share my question and your post with my colleagues. What you discussed is definitely hitting on deeper levels of knowledge. Convincing others that learning is not always “data” like points or scores is a progressive way of looking at language and a challenging thing to do too.
I have seen rubrics for some TPRS writing…do you have any guidelines that you use to make things clear and concise? I mostly use word count and timed writings with the general formula of 5 minutes —100 words. I allow to write for longer and sometimes set higher standards for later in the year but when I communicate how I assess this…I feel my message (to colleagues) iis lost in translation…pun intended.
🙂
I wanted to thank you for this very good read!
! I certainly enjoyed every little bit of it.
I have you book-marked to look at new stuff you post…
magnificent submit, very informative. I ponder why the other experts of this sector do not realize this.
You should continue your writing. I’m confident, you’ve a huge readers’ base already!
Hi, I’m will be starting my first year teaching Spanish 1-5 at a small Catholic high school in Pennsylvania this August. I’ve been looking at your posts and you have some fantastic ideas!
Thank you!!
It is great to see the template and I also love seeing how you applied it in a more simple way to the Corridas unit. I was making it way more complicated than it has to be!
I am devouring your site Carrie, thank you for sharing your resources and eexperiences online…
Elaine Tolvo
will start blogging my new experiences from Spanish teaching to ESOL soon!
No problem!!! I am so glad it was useful to you!
I’m so excited because another teacher in my dept just came to my room and dropped off the dept copies of La hija del sastre… I’m really looking forward to reading this with my class!
I hope they enjoy it! Mine always yell at me because they don’t like how it ends!
I have my students come up with what happened next as a new chapter of the book. Of course they get married and have kids and so on.
Awesome! Paul’s ideas are so great, and usually so very simple and do-able in real classes. We were lucky to have him in WI and are happy now the whole country can reap the benefits of his wisdom and expertise. Have you read his book on assessment?
He is a great guy! I haven’t read it but I will!!
Hi Carrie! This commercial is another one that is perfect for novices – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xeavB0ua7aVOfAl2MaQYTYFbVAG8fiyYeEch63PFGMU/edit – Easy, basic vocab, lots of cognates, and great visuals!
Thanks, Kara!!!
For lower levels, we have often given students an empty storyboard and had them draw a story of their choice and then write or speak about the pictures. This allows them to really show where they shine and pick a topic/story line that highlights what they’re really good at. It was a great way for them to put their own stamp on their exam and like you said, much better than reading the same essay over and over again. Love your ideas, too!
Great idea!!! I am giving a writing this week and that sounds like a great way to do it!!!
Thanks!
Do you only teach levels 3 and 4?
I love this idea for the upper levels and I’ve been struggling with figuring out what I”m going to do because I”m teaching level 4 for the first time ever this year.
What are you doing for spanish 1, if you teach it?
I teach level 1,3, & 4. In level one I do a final free write and a final speaking the week before (so I have more time for grading level 3/4 exams). Their final is culture, listening, reading, and vocabulary.
So the level 1 midterm is a freewrite and speaking assessment? And the final exam is culture, listening, reading and vocab?
No, it’s all the final. I just spread it out to lighten the grading!!! 🙂
I generally give a 5 part exam. Speaking and writing the day before the official exam and listening, reading, and culture on the exam day. While they’re working on the exam, I’m grading the reading as I watch for cheaters. It works well. For speaking I either give them a picture or have them draw one and for writing I either give them a picture or a set of vocabulary to choose from to use (in English).
This was my final poem for my Spanish undergrad…I had to do all sorts of analysis on it and recite it and blah blah blah…oh, the memories!
[…] Spanish 3 and 4 – Performance Based Midterms from Carrie Toth […]
Girl, you gave me a flashback with the pre-service minute-by-minute plan thing!
I really dig the water thing–very important, STEM + culture! I think you should get the winning PSAs going VIRAL though!
Me, I think Spanish 2 will start off with either a continuation of our Ayudando Ando project OR a recruiting video for our school. I think Spanish 2 & 3 will start off researching colleges abroad.
Hahaha, the students who are in Ed now have way longer plans than I had to make! Poor things!
I’m all ready to go back but it is looking sketchy with the winter storm we are expecting tomorrow/Sunday!
I’m so glad I discovered your blog! I am a fourth year teacher and I’m new to TPRS this year at a new school, Seckman High in Fox C-6 in Missouri. I haven’t tried Kindergarten Day in my classes, but I plan to. To be honest, I am a bit worried about my students’ reactions. I’m happy that yours react well to it and this inspires me to try it before time is gone this year.
I also live quite close to where you teach. If possible, I would love to come and observe you so I can see another classroom that uses comprehensive input. I will definitely see your presentation at CSC (which is how I discovered your blog and your work with Carol Gaab).
No matter what, thanks for all the information that you share through this blog!
I have been to Fox HS to see Justo! 🙂 I know right where you are (I think….) 🙂 If it’s the same Fox HS! Please come visit any time! We always welcome visitors! If you are interested in seeing any particular aspects of Comprehensible Input in action, let me know and I can make sure it is on the docket for your visit day!!
What do you think of all of these snow days??? Good grief! I am ready to go back to work! (Although I have been blogging and writing a lot more!)
I like the design format. What program did you use? Word, pages…?
I used publisher and saved it as a PDF!
Thank you so much for this! I created a document if anyone is interested. Fill free to use it!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hadq4cnp6ez4y7l/Chuck%20It%20Bucket_%20Vocabulary%20Planning.pdf
Thank you for sharing!!!
Nice document! Thanks for creating it!
Any chance you’d be willing to repost this doc, April? Gracias! -David
What happens in April!?
EXCELLENT post!!! Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you for writing this. Insightful, informative, helpful, etc
Information that definitely needs to be shared!
Fantastic analysis! I think that the only student who “can’t learn” a language is the student who is consistently absent or who despises being in the class no matter what unique approach we use. Does it “really” matter that they learn the grammar concept names beyond Adjective, Noun, and Verb in high school? Let’s focus our energy on their expression and communication skills.
I have tried it both ways and I agree!!! My kids are doing well and I’m proud of them! Thanks!!!
Thanks for blogging this, Carrie – and I hope you would classify yourself (and TPRS) as “communicative” as I would! Just want to clarify that the original disagreement(s) can be boiled down to a few questions:
Which works for novices – a focus on CI or a focus on CI leading to novice-level output?
What is “comprehensible” – are only materials that are 90% comprehensible appropriate for novices under any circumstance? (My opinion is, no – high comprehensibility is very important for the majority of input in a novice class; that is, you can’t base a novice curriculum off of authentic resources but they can be comprehensible and motivating are are necessary to prepare novices to navigate them.)
Are authentic resources ever appropriate input for novices? (I say, yes!)
Can a discussion about proficiency levels (ACTFL standards) also include CI and TPRS? (I say, absolutely!)
Thoughts?
I think all CI/TPRS is meant to lead to output. But the output isn’t forced or rushed. Kids acquire the language first, output second.
I love level appropriate authres w novices! I think they can learn a lot from them but like you, I think it’s hard to build a curriculum around them without getting out of bounds. (Far out)
I think TPRS/CI students fall outside of the traditional ACTFL standards (which are based on thematic units), our kids don’t really list things bc we are using the language in context and that is not typical conversation. “My house has a bathroom, a bedroom, a kitchen…” So our kids are more apt to skip the lower novice levels because they can create stories so soon. It isn’t a bad thing, it’s a good thing! Being outside the norm for the better is awesome!
Excellent points, Carrie!
Thank you!
I went to an OPI 6 hour workshop. It was more about the actual OPI test to assess language proficiency for the workplace. It was helpful to see the different proficiency levels and really understand them, but there was no real discussion about the classroom implications – what I was really hoping for!
This post really helps me! I love this post and your previous one in which you say, you are “free from the chains of Realidades”! (My dream!) In a week, I start teaching AP Spanish, so this is a helpful reminder. Thanks for being a big part of my PLN and sharing so many of your thoughts and knowledge! 🙂
All of the same thanks right back at ya!!! You’ve been such a great virtual colleague for me!!!!
I always feel pulled in different directions. As someone who teaches introductory foreign language to college students I have trouble balancing realistic expectations re: language acquisition with the expectation of higher level thinking that comes in college and that students can’t do in the TL.
I think you’re probably in good company there! The expectation between 200 and 300 level college courses jumps exponentially! It is hard to know exactly what to do during the hours we DO have them in class! Lots of TL!
At what point in your lesson do you like to have your reading time? I’ve thought of the end of the hour — have students pack up and then just read — but I am concerned about how much they will focus then. Suggestions?
I’ve always done it at the beginning of the hour for exactly that reason!!
This sounds great! I’m definitely doing this with my classes. Would you mind posting the rubric and guidelines?
As soon as I get home from church, I’ll edit the post and add them.
Thanks!
Those are wonderful beanbag chairs… I need to add a more comfy feel to my reading corner. I love your huge selection of magazines… one of my native speakers told me today that he wanted more readings with pictures to help him visualize what is written, but not children´s books. I love it when kids come tell me what they want to read!
I agree! Great suggestion! My suitcase is always overweight w magazines coming home!!
I see that you have the Ahora and Que tal scholastic magazines. Do you use those in class or only for FVR time?
btw…I love that huge wall map! And I hope to have my classroom library take over my classroom someday!
I use some articles in class but mostly FVR time!
[…] document, like the one published by ACTFL. Keep in mind what realistic goals are (check out what veteran Carrie Toth learned about that). A realistic goal for the average high school student in a very communicative […]
I love to read your blog. You are a complete inspiration.
Thank you so much!!
One thing saw on the #educon feed was “Mistake of the Year” award–I really wish I knew a way to Institute this that wouldn’t be more embarrassing than uplifting!
Love it!!! 🙂
It would be unprofessional of me to salivate over your reading area, wouldn’t it? I WISH I could have beanbags, but I can barely even leave a stack of papers in my classroom. How can I achieve this awesomeness? My kids act like it’s a chore to do FVR for FIVE minutes once a week!
Those beanbags are the best thing I ever bought. My kids love them more than they’ve ever loved anything!
Mine like FVR now that I have a giant library! When I had mostly people en español and scholastic magazines, it was not as interesting! We also got 2 grants for a total of 5 Kindles. Those encourage reading too!!! 🙂
Brilliant! I can’t wait to try this with my students. Thank you for posting this and sharing the rubric and guidelines.
Evernote is such a great tool! Thanks for this idea!
I didn’t know how to use it at first, but I was trying to be organized and find a better way to collect those artifacts for my evaluation, Danielson Domains 1 & 4. It was easy to add photos, links to documents, and just to keep notes recorded as the year goes on and into the next. Once I met with my evaluator, I just projected it from my computer and emailed notes that they wanted to see again.
I love this! It’s in TL, right?
Yes! It is.
Reblogged this on The Comprehensible Classroom and commented:
I love this activity from Carrie Toth! In groups, students write a silent conversation based on a poignant moment in a character’s experience.
I also LOVE this idea! I am going to use it soon with my MS-13 unit we’re doing. Thanks Carrie! You are awesome and I appreciate you sharing your ideas so very much!
[…] Carrie Toth […]
That’s a great idea! I’ll try it with glue sticks…they’re easier to come by.
That is a great idea! I might use it for the same unit too! Thanks Carrie!
I love these ideas! Thank you so much for sharing.
Thanks for sharing this terrific project. We’re working on a “world problems/solutions” unit and, of course, narcotraficantes are a bit topic. Your project makes me feel we could improve by expanding into different directions.
I really want to do this as well but I only have up to Spanish 2, and that class is very small. Suggestions on doing this for Spanish 1? Also, do you happen to have a grading guide that you used? Thanks for any help you can give!
You would just adjust the amount of output by level. I expect a lot of writing from my 4s, my 1s would be much more visual! I would be happy to share the grading rubric i used but it has the speaking and writing as one project! 🙂
This is really cool! What book would help me know what they are doing to get el bigote? Is it just reading the stories or is it creating stories. Remember I know no more than what you both taught me in that 3 hour workshop.
We just made up the Bigote in class. It is an award for acting! In level 1&2 we tell a lot of stories. When acting is flat, the Bigote perks them up! Who doesn’t want to win that beauty! Lol
Would you mind sending me a copy of your grading rubric and also the instructions you gave your students? I would like to have my Spanish III class create an infographic for the novel we are finishing and am working on creating a rubric and instruction sheet and would like to see how you set it all up. Muchas gracias!
I’ll post the guidelines and rubric here!
Hi! I just “found” your blog and am interested in the guidelines you required for this project – have you posted them and I just can’t find them? Thank you!
Narcoviolencia Infographic and History Fair
Here are some topics you may consider for your research, other ideas are welcome with teacher approval:
• Las personas inocentes afectados por la narcoviolencia
• Los narcocorridos
• Los narcotraficantes
• El Chapo Guzman
• La economía mexicana hoy
• El gobierno mexicano a través de los años
• Los carteles
• La influencia de los EEUU en la guerra contra las drogs
• La influencia de los EEUU en el consumo de drogas
You may use what you learned throughout the unit or any reliable Internet source to conduct your research. Look deeply for how this war affects the people and the politics of Mexico.
You will be creating your own infographic using the information that you find during your research. You will create the infographic using a half sheet of posterboard. Pairs of students can purchase one posterboard and cut it in half LONGWAYS. Please bring the posterboard as soon as possible. We will be in the lab March 4-7 where you will be able to print anything you need for the project.
Required pieces of the infographic:
• 1 chart or graph
• 5 paragraphs minimum of at least 6 sentences in your own words that detail your research. (No translators)
• 4-6 clip art or pictures that support your research
• 1 statistic
• 5 title bars
You may:
• clip from magazines
• use computer generated images
• paint or draw images
Your infographic:
• Should fill the space
• Should show creative thought
• Should be colorful (unless you have chosen to make it monochromatic for a reason)
• Should contain a minimum of 5 detailed paragraphs about your research
• Should be evident that you did not use a translator… just don’t do it!!
History Fair assessments:
For your assessment you will have a history fair. You will all be expected to display your infographic, ask questions of each other, and describe your work to each other. This day will be conducted entirely in Spanish. Each occurrence of English will result in a grade reduction. You will be evaluated on your ability to converse about your art and the art of yoru classmates on that day.
Grades:
• Infographic poster
o writing
o culture
o grammar
o vocabulary
• Gallery discussion
o speaking
• Questions
o speaking
I am also starting this same exact unit. We are making an infographic on the Spanish Civil War, and will begin reading La Hija del Sastre next week. I hope you post your activities, will be very cool for me to see your ideas.
Thanks so much for sharing your ideas! I LOVE the infographic idea that you posted, and I just did it in my class in our last unit. We’ve been practicing subjunctive/indicative, so students chose a topic that they feel passionately about and did some research. We had all kinds of topics–legalizing marijuana, Apple vs. PC, fútbol vs. football…it was great, and the kids were totally into it!
Thanks also for sharing your rubric…I like that you included “it was understandable to other students.” I’ve been looking for a good way to phrase that, and that hits the nail on the head.
I appreciate your willingness to share!
This makes me think of our First Friday meetings here in Anchorage. Together, we decide what we want to learn and apply, then we work through the kinks together. The success that comes from taking the journey together naturally draws in the teachers in our spheres of influence and creates a huge ripple effect of change! Michele Whaley is the best.
I love the infographic assessment idea! Did you and Kristy work together on it? I seem to remember a recent post on her blog too…you two need to get into politics or something. You’re just unstoppable!
We didn’t work together on this one but we work together on LOTS of units! She has so much technology, she can probably make REAL infographics!
[…] Toth recently shared an awesome idea for Encouraging student participation on her blog. Follow the link to check it […]
Thanks for posting this activity. Perfect Guernica activity for the novel, Agentes secretos y el mural de Picasso. Also mentioned in its teacher’s guide.
Thank you Carrie- going to be doing this with the course soon and this will help me take activity a little further
Keep up the great work. This is my first time seeing your blog, and it’s very impressive. I’m going to read more.
Thank you!! When we make that video, we will Mambo!!
Here’s another video of the song with a school perfoming:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzY686z6Z04
You can also find a version of the song on youtube by searching Los Solecitos Sigue al lider
Thank you!!
I’ve been exploring your blog! What a great accumulation of thoughts and resources! Thank you so much!!!! I especially love this “music whisperer” post! Like you, I’ve been using music nonstop in my classes for years and years (I’ve been teaching a looooonnnnnnnggggg time!) Some of my favorites, in addition to those you’ve listed are: Juanes, Carlos Baute, Camila, SAMO, Luis Fonsi, Gaby Moreno, David Bisbal….and so many more! I have a database of music that I’ve shared before….http://wp.me/p1Dp9G-kX
How do you grade formative assessments like that? Do you have a rubric or do you give them credit just for staying in the language? Thanks! I love the idea!
I give credit for staying in the language! Formative!!!
[…] This isn’t to say that fun can’t be spontaneous. I’m still thinking of all the ways you could modify Carrie’s motivating, spur-of-the-moment Oscar award idea, El bigote. […]
Great post! Learning SHOULD be fun!!
Love that your Spanish IV class is watching Internado on a holiday. My Spanish IV class wants to meet this summer to continue watching it.
I find that film and music are the two most powerful and popular Authres. My students want to more than anything watch films and listen to music.
I love viewing film with my students as well. My dilemma is always how to make it more comprehensible: show with English subtitles and use events for discussion in TL, show with TL subtitles, no subtitles to work on listening? How do you approach this especially when dialogue contains enough slang to make it difficult for any level? Do you view films with Novices? If so, how can we ensure understanding and language learning happening?
I DO use film with novices. In novice classes I focus on TL discussion of the movie with English subtitles. I do the films as film studies in level I and II… 10-15 minute segments without and then with subtitles plus heavy TL discussion! In films with lots of slang… Like Casi Casi, I choose some expressions I want them to acquire and rephrase others in Spanish they will understand. It is amazing how much they can catch through the visual clues!
The real key to language learning and understanding is the discussion that keeps the culture in context and the language comprehensible!!
Excellent examples and GREAT that your kids WANT to learn on their own time!
My native speaker class loves El Internado. They beg to come in during lunch to be able to watch an extra 30 mins! Their vocabulary is improving, they’re learning a variety of idiomatic expressions, they’re better able to grasp the vosotros… The list goes on an on! Some of my level ones were interested in it too, they said it looked more interesting than Mi Vida Loca, lol!
THIS is MAGICAL. Do you scaffold acceptance speeches ahead of time at all?
The first couple of times I modeled with them and now the majority just ham it up!!! 🙂 a few are shy so I might offer suggestions to get them started!!
[…] These ideas for different final exams are great. I am thinking about redoing parts of my final exam. I […]
Thanks to you, Carrie, I’m gradually including more film with my units and making purposeful connections. I agree that the TL discussion is a crucial element.
Some day….I’ll get on that Internado train. Some day….
You’ll love that train!!!
[…] Carrie Toth’s Bullfighting Unit: TONS of great info here, but I especially love her Essential Questions and her Assessment […]
Gracias por el video!! I do a mambo day as well, and I picked up some new tips from your blog!
Gracias por el video!! I do a mambo day as well, and I just picked up some new tips from your blog! Adding you to my feedly now. 🙂
How often do your classes watch El Internado? Did you purchase the series or are you streaming it? This is something I would like to start next year!
We watch on Friday in Spanish 3&4. I purchased the series from eBay.
Gracias!
De nada! We LOVE Internado! 👍👍
I have been using El Internado with my 3 & 4 students this year and they love it. I purchased the entire series from Amazon Spain and spent last summer watching all of it because I couldn’t stop watching it. They have really enjoyed watching it, but I would like to use it more next year as a teaching tool and not just something they watch. They stay focused on it, but I still want to do more with it than them just watching it. What did you start with when you first started using it as a teaching tool? Do you have some suggestions on where to start? I’ve also thought about starting it as early as Spanish 2 so that hopefully by the time they make it through Spanish 4 they will be able to finish the entire series.
Awesome ideas for a final and easily adaptable love it.
Hi, I love your idea and hope it is ok to steal it for my French class! I have done this many times but never for a final exam. Could you tell me how you have students prepare? Do you let them know choices beforehand? If so, do they create the products during the exam time? Thanks in advance for your help1
I gave this out today (3 weeks ahead) and they can prepare and plan as we finish the semester. They can’t bring anything to class with them (all products will be created during the 90 min exam period) but pre planning makes it all run more smoothly!
I love this idea too!! Two questions: 1. Do you give them class time and/or direction on how to plan for and create these products? 2. How do you grade it? Do you have a specific rubric for each product created? Thanks so much for sharing this!!
I’ll make a rubric based on proficiency for each point category. They have these three weeks to plot and plan… The rest will be exam period only!
I am also trying to give choices for my Spanish classes on final exams and projects Would you mind sharing your choiceboards for your Spanish 1&2 classes? My upper level classes are a little easier, but for some reason I am having a hard time deciding on what options to give my first/second year classes without overwhelming them.
I gave them the same choices but will expect different levels of performance from them!
Reblogged this on getspanished and commented:
What a perspective!
This is great, Carrie! This gives me a better idea of how to organize that information into a syllabus, without having so many details that you end up giving out a 10 page document. Thank you for sharing!!
I am 100% with you on the retakes policy!!
I tell parents that everything can and SHOULD be retaken until the student is getting at least a B… but consider adding a deadline to the retake policy (retakes within 3 days, for example) or you´ll have students and PARENTS (!) trying to cram in retakes the day before grades are due. If the student cannot attain a B with three extra days of honest preparation, then perhaps I am asking them to make an unrealistic leap in language ability and should adjust the assignment.
What about parents & students who refuse to retake? I keep C´s, D´s and F´s in my grade book because otherwise some do not retake & I need a thoroughly documented history in order to give a D or F in my district. Would you rather record an “incomplete” on the transcript instead?
I don’t have F’s on my rubrics either. I have “beyond expectations” “meets expectations” “near expectations” and “below expectations”. Although students may be below expectations, they are still using language.
I like the idea, but agree with the comment above about the retakes within 3 days. I’m not teaching yet (I’ll be doing my student teaching this fall), but I worked with a teacher last semester who only allowed one retake every 6 weeks & she had tons students coming to her the day before the 6 weeks was up. I don’t think that helped them at all. I also think there needs to be a limit on how many times they can retake something. I like the idea that just failing or quitting the language isn’t really an option. Encouraging them to really learn the language is great. I’d love to implement something similar when I have my own classroom!
it’s the beginning of making the shift from teaching to learning. it’s not that they failed and deserved a grade from us to confirm that failure. it’s that they haven’t learned it yet. they aren’t there yet. love it.
In response to Michelle, I have heard from a teacher that during preparation for retakes, the students would have to complete a checklist of things in order to earn the retake. It think that would limit the last minute students…
I don’t have a problem with retakes as long as they are NOT the same exact assessment, measuring the same thing, yes, but not the exact same prompt or questions. Otherwise, it’s not an assessment of ability, but rather of memorization.
I also like not having a D option. I’ve done grading workshops at many districts that do not offer Ds. Instead it goes from C to not enough evidence (equivalent to an F). They do this because technically a D is passing and they are allowed to move to the next level even though they don’t have the ability to move on successfully.
I allow late work up to 1 week prior to grades being do (I need to have time to evaluate it). Once the grades have been reported, they can’t go back and make up something from before that time.
However, I don’t agree with the overall “not allowing students to fail” idea. I know that sounds harsh when you first hear it, but let me explain. For me, learning a language is a SKILL and not an academic class (one where you can study and succeed). You can’t fail a skill. You start off as a beginner, move through novice as your skills improve, then through intermediate, proficient, and if you keep on working, advanced. These are the levels that everyone must move through as they progress in ANY skill (dance, music, sports, etc). These levels can’t be skipped (though some may move through one level or another rather quickly). For me, grades are not for report cards, but rather a way to communicate progress to kids and their families.
I, of course, want all my students to well, and work hard to help them get there, for communication purposes, I need descriptive levels to provide them with the feedback to improve and succeed.
At the end of any school year, I have almost no complete failures (unless there was some special circumstance) and very few Ds. In both cases, these are students who had other issues and refused to take part in class activities.
Great insight!!!
Thanks!
Hi Carrie, For me, an D or F is not only my student’s failure, it is also mine! I used these very useful steps from Reed Gillespie to implement my retake policy this year: goo.gl/ajXbr. I let students “fail” the quiz and then I show them what they have to do in order to retake a different version of the quiz. I did not have a “retake ticket” like Reed recommends but I think I will implement it next year. I have found that you have to stay on top of students who are disorganized, because organizing a retake can become very tricky. Finally, I don’t average both grades, I simply keep the second one.
Thanks so much for the post!
I can very readily see the value of Ubd (understanding by design) frameworks in designing upper level courses where you have the freedom to focus on specific content – whether it be violence and class struggle or how to take care of the environment. There are deep understandings that we should aim for our students to think critically about.
However, I am having a lot of trouble with the very idea of “understanding” at the lower levels where the focus is on acquiring the language and basic fluency. As TPRS teachers do we really care if our students have deep understandings of the language. Isn’t that a linguistics class? Millions of people speak fluently without understanding why. What generates an “understanding” in a language class that genuinely reflects what we our students to get out of it? Krashen argues that language acquisition is unconscious – the very opposite of the higher-level thinking skills that Ubd asks us to aim for. I want my students to think critically and try to encourage it, but I struggle to see how that is an appropriate goal when the focus should be on acquisition and communication.
Backwards planning can surely be beneficial, whether it is in structuring a unit or quarter so that students can read a TPRS novel, or in thinking about what structures are really essential for students to acquire in a given year of study. I am well aware of and using the ACFTL guidelines for novice learners in order to shape my curriculum so that the students can communicate in the ways detailed therein. But in this process isn’t very easy to lose track of the idea central to TPRS and all CI based instruction that it is input not output that leads to acquisition?
I hope this comes across as respectful and engaged as I intended it. I appreciate your time and thoughts about the subject. Thanks for starting an interesting discussion.
We are totally on the same page! I don’t plan for deeper understanding of language in the novice levels, still focusing on content but with a whole different vocab and set of expectations!!!
In level 1, we study Guatemala’s civil war and political unrest during quarter 4. I just have to really plan instruction that gives them the language they need to be part of the discussion!
I don’t force output. I agree, it is the input that is key to every unit!! Expectations of what they can understand are much higher than what they can produce!
I love that you commented back! It’s nice to discuss rather than just post and end!
When do you all have the time to re-teach and administer re-takes?
We have a 15 min channel one period built into our schedule!
We have a single lunch, and although by contract it is duty free I often tutor or give retakes during lunch ( although once a week is reserved for lunch with colleagues… )
I have to say that most of my assessments are very short, which makes it logistically feasible.
We have an enrichment/intervention period one a week on a block schedule so 90 minutes to work with students.
[…] backward plans from a novel and that’s the vocabulary he will work on. He does pre-teaching per chapter –Mark […]
I would love to use el internado… Do the dvd’s play through a computer (since it is region 2 and the US is region 1? Help please…this is confusing to me! Thanks for sharing all of your resources; I would love your class!
They play through VLC Media Player! Just download that! It’s in the shape of a little cone like on the highway!
So true that we need a nation of bilinguals and not just a small few who are ready for an AP exam! Thank you Carrie for such an accurate perspective!
I love UBD and have been reworking my curriculum. For some reason I really struggle with the essential question part. You make it seem so easy! Is there any way you would be willing to share more of your questions for basic units in level I?
In level one I am a heavy storyteller. Most units revolve around the the unit story.. I start the year w Ben Slavic’s circling with balls (google it, it’s amazing!) and my EQ is How can I create an immediate connection with my ss? I try to use PQA to create some fun inside jokes and personal knowledge that create an immediate relationship w the class! The next unit is the story the boy who cried wolf. My EQ is Why is it important to tell the truth? Of course the answer will revolve around what we know (so wolves don’t eat your sheep) but we really focus on answering it through our story!
Think of EQ in terms of what you want students to carry as enduring (lasting) understandings… Ex. When I am introducing the idea of city vs country living in level 1, our EQ is What are the reasons I am lucky to have grown up in Carlyle. Of course we also then compare with ppl living in cities and rural areas around the world but I want them to always carry an appreciation 4 their roots!
I came across your blog a while ago and I’ve been gobbling up everything on it! I have a couple of questions regarding my transition to using Standards Based Teaching with IPA. Would you be willing to write me individually so that I can talk with you directly (and not clog up your blog!). Thank you!
Lisa
Sure. I will be at NTPRS the rest of the week but will answer pronto!!
Sure! Email any time!
I have a few questions please. I also have always taught using a textbook and would like to switch things up so that more of my students come out actually using the language…not just the top students. I don’t quite understand how this works in a level one class. What authentic texts can a level one student understand without having to translate every word? I am not trying to sound negative, really I’m not. How do you go about finding material they can understand when they come in knowing nothing? I just want to understand how this will work so I can change things. I’m mainly concerned with level one. I can see levels two and up being able to handle more. I’d love to see this in action. Thank you for sharing!! Feel free to email me if comments get too long for the blog.
In my opinion, an authentic text for level one looks a WHOLE lot different than an authentic text in level 2,3,4… It might be a pin on pinterest of a cartoon with a word or two they know. It might be a video with very few words and lots of visuals that I movie talk… In level one I start with all Spanish on day one but very sheltered! I want them with 100% comprehension all of the time. I don’t use authentic resources at all until they have a couple of weeks of language under them to serve as a basis for their continued study.
We look at magazine ads that are heavy on cognates… and MUSIC is a favorite from day one! I start with the Spanglish song “You are the one” by Sonny Monreal and they’re hooked!
My kids read 4 TPRS Publishing novels in Spanish one and by 3rd and 4th quarter they are easily able to handle related authentic resources like simple infographics and videos!
I don’t know if you’re anywhere near me (southern IL) but you’re very welcome to come visit any time! We start the 15th!!! Yikes!
Thanks so very much. That was all very helpful and is a great jumpstart for me. I REALLY wish I could come visit but no time. : ( I’m in NC. I would love to see you in action. I’ll be following the blog to see what else I can pick up. Thanks for the great ideas!
Sracmt,
How does one learn how to teach the TPRS way? I’ve taught for many years but I really feel like the whole CI makes sense: I use the TL a lot but I’m not sure that’s the same as CI – not for all kids.
Two ways: first and best option is to attend a workshop! Second option is to find a CI teacher nearby to observe and then read read read books like TPRS in a year by Ben Slavic!!!
When you say present and past tenses, are you including the present perfect and past perfect? How many levels is this in high school?
On the OPI they have to sustain a past dialogue (understandable to a native speaker but not necessarily perfect), a future dialogue (ok to use ir + a), and present time… ACTFL has great videos on their site that show what each prof level sounds like!
[…] This, I think, is one of the basic paradigm shifts that a beginning TPRS teacher must face. As a legacy methods teacher I would tell myself, gosh, my students won´t remember vocabulary from two or three units ago. As a TPRS teacher, the target structures should be burned permanently onto the hard-disk of student´s memory. If target structures are not so useful to bring back frequently in class, maybe they should not be target structures. Carrie Toth recently published a blog post about backward planning with a more nuanced presentation of planning for enduring understanding… it is worth checking out! […]
[…] you’ve been to Carrie Toth’s site, you’ll know the Domino retell game that she learned from her own former Spanish […]
Would you be willing to share some of the amazing race challenges you create for Spanish 1? I wanted to do an amazing race review activity at the end of last year but did not get it all together in time. I would love to see/use what you have come up with. Great idea!!
My 3s are amazing racing! I’ll share and maybe you can adapt!
Love, love, LOVE this. Definitely doing this in the future!
I love this idea, thanks for sharing!
what novels do you use for your level 1?
Depends on the kids. Some groups I’ve had can do 4 a year, some only 3! Last year we did Brandon Brown wants a dog, New Houdini, and Esperanza. If I can, I’d like to add Bandon vs Yucatan this year… The group seems really bright so far!
In the past I’ve used piratas as well!
I loved reading this entry…it is a good reminder of why we do what we do. Thank you for writing it!
What? This is awesome! What a great and novel way to have discussions in the past tense and guide students to be creative communicating about something that happened.
Reblogged this on comprehensibleinputwrhs and commented:
I will totally do this with my Salade story
Preterit, Imperfect, or both? I am just now getting into the Imperfect with my Spanish 3 class and the next chapter puts it together with the preterit, trying to see if this would work…..do you have a rubric or instructions document that you used?
We use both. I just use them in context as appropriate! Since I don’t have a traditional text I don’t have to separate! No grade, just a way to recycle common past tense verbs. It generated a lot of good discussion!
great idea! gracias!
Love this idea, thanks for sharing! I have a question thou, are the different elements, personajes, entorno, etc color coded? Do you fill these out or do the students? What if you have more students than items?
Thanks again, SraMonell
I wrote on the post its but the kids chose what to include. We did these stories as whole class readings.
The colors just helped separate one element from another! No particular significance.
Thank you.
What three minute did you watch for the 30 minute discussion?
The whole video is only 3 minutes but i paused every few seconds to discuss what was happening with them! I had them do a lot of describing what they sae and I gave them cultural facts like pan de muertos as they appeared in the video.
Sorry, for some reason the video didn’t show up the first time! It’s there now…. I hope!
Do you introduce new structures daily?
I do. We are reading right now and it seems like 2-3 new ones pop up each day in the novel. I took a break today to do the video and I tried to recycle some of our structures from the novel as well (has, wants, returns, leaves).
Are you referring to the Tree of Life trailer or is there another vid that you showed? Ben
I don’t know why but the link to the video wasn’t showing up as a link… So I updated it. It is a different video that we did today! GREAT video that made the rounds of Twitter and moreTPRS last year! In case you didn’t see it, it is there now!
Carrie-if you’re still looking for a Span. 4 teacher from WI with whom to collaborate, I’d love to! Let me know what you’re thinking…DM me if you’re interested! -Kris
I’d love to!! Lets brainstorm!!!
I am doing MovieTalk with that video this week. Next class we are doing stations related to the video. Stations such as Textivate, Blubbr, match the screenshot with the text, and making papel picado! Definitely a great video!
Hey Carrie! Have you seen this from Eric Herman – a reading about the video (present and past tense) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1013RG033sUIqGspi0vMv6atg8ULlmmj5id_EzXMKvQ8/edit and a reading with screenshots https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ttS6KhMdT040g1wzKbNN3x_SQY4fkdFMnHW0ciLx9so/edit#slide=id.p13 Might be a good follow up.
Thanks for sharing!!!
This is a great overview for me as I jump into TCI/TPRS and I am also using the Cuentame mas text! I can use this as a guide as I figure this out for my department. I’m so glad I’ve started searching through your blog– amazing resource!! Thank you!
I love this idea. My Gr12 class does a murder mystery every year. Some of the class play the suspects/dead guy (yes they get to interview the dead guy) and others are teamed as detectives. In their prep session they are preparing to interview the suspects, get to preview the autopsy etc. On the oral day they have a 60 min oral session where they interview the suspects (they rotate through) as well as talk to their Chief (me) about what they are thinking. All info they write down is in English. The only bit they don’t get is ‘when’ the murder happened. The next day they write – and I tell them the ‘when’ – they have to say who did it and why. Suspects have to say who they think did it and why (“not me!”) and even the dead guy gets to have his piece. It’s about 2 classes to set up – 1 for the oral and then 1 for the write – they love it and they are really committed to the writing process when it ‘s time to solve the mystery.
Loved your “Bullseye” session at ACTFL – thanks for sharing
Colleen
These are some excellent points and I agree wholeheartedly. Many authentic resources are beyond the abilities of our emerging readers and only cause frustration that leads to failure rather than success.
I like your point about #1, and that was driven home for me by a candid Sr. Wooly video about a year ago. This is also part of why I kind of prefer writing my own a la Sra. Bex–my kids know my story and my journey to learn the language.
For #2 I’m gonna have to take you up on the challenge invitation (I know it’s shocking! 🙂 I think with the proper task and scaffolding, any student can be taught how to grapple, how to approach a problem that without help WOULD seem impossible. Sometimes I just havr kids read words out loud that they understand or write down words they hear then put them together with the context clues to get the main idea. 40 out of 45 kids have been able to do this (I suspect the others could too, but they tend not to turn things in #canofworms.)
I hear your point on #3 too, but while my 1st grader is whizzing through the reader books, he would not have the drive to keep reading if he didn’t have graphic novels at home that he was trying to achieve on his own. Likewise, our school kids have to see the variety of what’s out there so they have a higher purpose to playing with the language, something they can do with it that they care about (this is kind of the point Krashen was getting at when confronting Greg Duncan in Twitter this past week).
So yeah, I’m coming around to not 100% #authres, and I have some ideas I’m really excited about trying with a couple of Kristy’s books (if they excite the kids as much as they excite me, of course). Overall, I’m still probably in the *mostly* #authres camp.
I don’t disagree at all that we should use authentic resources! As language teachers, we need to have the goal of students who can engage with authentic material, my argument is just that we can combine those authres with nonauthres to create an even more powerful unit!!! We are getting closer and closer in theories!!! 🙂
Hi Carrie,
I have so enjoyed your posts. I can’t agree with you more. I am a “non-authentic” speaker of Spanish too. The appropriate materials for any given class are what the TEACHER deems appropriate, not any administrator or organization. Authentic materials are wonderful when you can get them (what did I do before the Internet, which was the majority of my career) and when they can fit in to the lesson you are going to teach. It’s not good to use a video that totally baffles the students! Sorry for the rant and rave (you should see my position on the 90%). Good luck!
I could not agree more with your comments in this post! Such an excellent point about you as a non-native speaker being de-valued ~ no time to write more, my room is filling up at lunch!
[…] educator community, but couldn’t quite put my finger on it until the lovely Carrie Toth made a post on her blog, Somewhere to Share, earlier this month. (You can go read it first. This is a blog. My […]
[…] are also some great resources at this page from Carrie Toth’s […]
[…] document, like the one published by ACTFL. Keep in mind what realistic goals are (check out what veteran Carrie Toth learned about that). A somewhat realistic goal for the average high school student in a very communicative […]
YES!!!! I am so glad to hear this news. Thank you!
So excited for this! Let me know when it’s available to purchase online 🙂 Will it be on TPRS Publishing?
It will be! Carol is getting ready to send it to the printer!!
Carrie,
UBD is as useful for me as it is for my students; it keeps all of us focused on what is important, which usually, is not a worksheet.
Thank you for sharing.
Another agreement here, particularly on point #1. As I have been seeing the push for #authres go full steam ahead, I have wondered how I fit into that puzzle, since I am not a native speaker! There are amazing resources out there that are both authentic and also created for students. I think a healthy dose of both is appropriate. The students generally like the challenge of tackling authentic materials, but they also respond well to my dear friend Sr. Wooly. The kids don’t know the difference between an authentic / non-authentic resource and one thing every kid knows how to say thanks to Sr. Wooly is “puedo ir al baño?”…so there is a place for everything. We even discussed this at ICTFL…is it fair to say reading a book like Harry Potter that is translated into an L2 is not an authentic reading? Lots of people around the world have read it in various languages and I bet they would argue otherwise! 🙂
Thanks for sharing.
So excited! You are awesome, Carrie. Hope to see you at CSCTFL!!
I’ll be there!!
Are u using a book with ur biodiversity unit?
And, as always, thanks for being so good at what u do, and sharing with the rest of us!!
Yes, we used a scholastic explora tu mundo book called la selva tropical! I got a class set!
Very helpful, thanks! I read somewhere else yesterday that it´s best to break it up into two days, and now I´m reading it here. So I´ll take that advice!
Are we on the CPS Seal of Bilit committee together?
I’m in southern IL near St Louis!!!
Awesome idea! I can’t wait to try this with my 6th, 7th and 8th graders!
Would you have them do editing on the second day? Add a few more lines?
No, it’s a formative assessment for me! I was looking for specific structures like tenía quería and se quedó in their writing. I saw that they did a great job using our new stuff so I think we are ready for the assessment on Thursday!!
oh oh, people are actually listening to what I’m saying. that’s a scary thought. in all honesty we have seen much better results when teachers understand proficiency, students understand proficiency and everything that has happening in the classroom is focused on proficiency.
So glad to hear that you are using AAPPL to help you validate what is going on in your classroom or potentially make adjustment. This assessment is such an important piece of the feedback loop. Also, love the innovative way you raised the funds to make it happen. Kudos to you.
I just finished the book with my 8th graders yesterday. I read your post last night and thought, “what a great idea” so instead of completing our individual free-writes about the novel today, I tried this. Students were so focused during their writing and it was fun to have the music playing and to see them moving around. On the way out the door, one of my students turned to me and said, “Thank you Señora, I loved that!” and then her group of friends all nodded and one said, “Me too, can we do that again sometime?” I read them and was very happy with the results.
Thank you for your awesome ideas. Tomorrow…the yellow brick road! 🙂
We had a great time too!!! It was fun to just get up and move! I made mine too long (11 papers) this time, I would shorten it to 6-7 but otherwise it was a hit! On to the character analysis assessment tomorrow!
I am going to use is format to review preterit and imperfect using Caperucita Roja. Thank you so much!
I love this idea. Did you put the structures in order as they appeared in the story or did you mix them up?
[…] this Yellow Brick Road […]
This is a fab idea! Love it lots! I like that it is a spin on the traditional gallery walk. Def saving this for later!
I’d love to see the links you used for researching microfinance! Also can’t wait to see the videos! Where will they all be posted?
I do a similar project with my 6th, 7th and 8th graders each trimester of school. We choose a lender together and vote as a class. I would love to see the links too that you used to provide information about microfinance!
I LOVE this. Our kids (as in our family) are currently researching projects to choose, and one got a kiva gift card for her birthday. If you haven’t seen Living on One Dollar, go to Netflix & see it soon!
Loved that movie! Bought it and show it every year!
What a great idea! I plan to do a similar unit next marking period. I would appreciate it if you would be willing to share any of your resources.
Hi Carrie,
Heather Witten, Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell & I are working on a Spanish 1 curriculum for VIF International Education that builds proficiency while promoting cultural competence through global inquiry. One of the ways we’re engaging learners is through Kiva projects, just as you are doing with your students — so inspiring! We’re currently piloting the program in a few schools in North Carolina, and last week I saw a teacher do a great job of connecting Kiva, language learning and a TPRS story (“Esperanza”, by Carol Gaab) with her Spanish class. Kids were just beginning to research lenders for their own projects — they were focused and curious, which was great to see.
Good idea to use voice memo to record them. Think I will do for partner speaking activities.
Hi, I may be interested in doing this test with my students (I teach French). I’m wondering what your students’ experience was like typing in Spanish / using accents on the keyboard? My students do not use the computer very often and are not familiar with how to type accents, and I wonder if that will hinder them in the Writing section.
I gave each a tiny paper with the codes to add the accents and punctuation so it was no problem!
Hi, Thanks for posting about this test. I am going to be giving it for the first time next week. In your original blog post, you advised “Remember to look (with the kids) at ACTFLs proficiency levels! They need to KNOW what makes he difference between IL IM and IH!” I would like to how you did this; did you share the descriptions from ACTFL as posted here ?http://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/ACTFLPerformance_Descriptors.pdf
Thanks so much!
Rosemarie
I condensed them into kid friendly language and I encourage them to aim high every time they do an activity! If they know the target they can hit it in time!
I love the idea of keeping them honest with the phone recording!
Thanks for this great idea. I will try it next year as a post reading activity as a class. I have found having them do dual entry diaries while they read has helped me see their comprehension of this book. They write a page number and the start of a paragraph and they either write what they visualize or what this makes them wonder as they read. Great way to interact while reading too.
Love that idea! Thanks for sharing!
[…] Here are the top 11! Please take a minute to vote by hitting like on your top 3! It’s real prize money! The kids are excited!!! http://somewheretoshare.com/2015/03/08/kiva-projects/ […]
What a wonderful and meaningful project. My husband does something similar and has kids raise money with competition coin jars-kids put their change into jars and get points based on coin (pennies are worth less than nickels, etc) and team with most points wins. They compete by trying to add big coins so a team will “lose”. It is explained better here: Bhttp://www.fundraising-ideas.org/DIY/pennydrive.htm But the real winners are the charities, who get the money they raised.
Could you possibly share the guided notes that students take? I developed some last year but I’m still not satisfied with them :-/ It would be nice to have a comparison to see how I can improve mine.
Of COURSE! LYRICS! Why didn’t I think of that? I loved found poems teaching English! Maybe I can add some app smashing to make this work with coro interpretation/presentation…
Very cool! Your students did a great job!
[…] I did blackout poems- but I love Carrie’s additions to found poems. […]
Looking forward to trying this! What kind of assessments do you give them for reading?
A lot of adapted pinterest pins! This week in level 1 I had them read a chapter of their novel and gave them the main idea… They had to find 6 pieces of textual evidence that supported that main idea. I want them to read more deeply than just translation! Cognitively they CAN! Level 3 did a double entry journal where they looked at text parts and wrote a reaction, comment, opinion, or prediction in response! Level for dug deep in the text by identifying inferences, causes and effects, making predictions, visualizing and more!! All stuff that came from pinterest ideas!
Gracias por las ideas! Diving into pinterest today. We start la Hija del Sastre friday in Level 4.
Great little project and I love that it supports the oral production piece!
I am just finishing my fifth year teaching (I am 50, and a late bloomer 🙂 ) I went straight from college to the classroom (no student teaching) and I am the only foreign language teacher on my campus. I found out quickly that learning grammar, culture, and literature as a Spanish major, does not actually prepare you for teaching the language. Sigh…
I heard you in San Antonio this fall, and was inspired. The result? We are just finishing up Felipe Alou in my Spanish 2 class. It is the first time I have used a novel, and I love it! Ended up rushing it a bit, but it was still a great experience. I think most of the kids enjoyed it too, in spite of their beginning panic. (We are reading a whole book!? In SPANISH!?) One of my less stellar students commented; “This book isn’t half bad when you pay attention!” (High praise, indeed, from him. lol)
Can’t wait to explore this further, and I am also trying to learn as much about TPRS as possible. Struggling with keeping in the target language…..and not boring everyone, including myself, with the textbooks and grammar lessons…
Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge. It is a great help to this old, new teacher.
I agree, having a struggling student say it’s not bad is huge praise! 🙂 Felipe is an awesome novel! I love that one!
I’m sorry to keep asking so many questions… my students started the test today and I’m thrilled with the results so far. Where did you get the above statistic that 90% of students score at NH/IL level after 4 years of high school? I can’t find it on the ACTFL website.
Paul Sandrock shared it in a workshop I attended and the TELL project shares the stat as well. It is part of the ACTFL proficiency guidelines document in the form of a graph, I believe…
Here is a study from CASLS from 2010. The levels are given as 1-6, which correspond to the three Novice and three Intermediate levels.
https://casls.uoregon.edu/wp-content/themes/caslstheme/pdfs/tenquestions/TBQProficiencyResults.pdf
And they have another analysis, which breaks down proficiency achievement by hours of class time.
https://casls.uoregon.edu/wp-content/themes/caslstheme/pdfs/tenquestions/TBQHoursToReachIH.pdf
Thank you for sharing!!
What novels would you recommend for Spanish 1? I read Felipe Alou with my level 1 and while my students thought the first four chapters were easy to comprehend they found the rest of the novel difficult and challenging. Is Felipe Alou appropriate for level 1 or should I use it with a higher level instead? Your advice is greatly appreciated. I am new to novels.
Felipe is written as a novice reader but at our school we do it in level 2 because we have more language at that time and can discuss the heavy cultural topics better! In level 1 we read Brandon Brown wants a dog and The New Houdini, Piratas, and Esperanza! Bianca Nieves is another level 1 reader with good culture but again we teach it in level 2 so we can have deeper discussions!
I like reading novels in my class. This is the first year I tried them. My Spanish 1 students enjoyed Piratas. I also read Felipe Alou with them. They found the first four chapters easy to comprehend but had difficulty with the rest of the novel. Is Felipe Alou best for higher levels due to the topics? Also what other novels do you recommend for level 1? Your help is greatly appreciated.
I just saw you at the TPRS conference in St. Paul and am so thankful for sharing all your knowledge and resources. I just made a MYP unit planner and used this assessment for my summative. Thanks again!
Hi lady,
I would love to join your efforts. I am going to ask my curriculum leader if it would be ok and get back to you. When is the deadline or end of the fundraiser? What levels do you teach. I will be teaching 6,7, and 8 grade students, level 1, at Toano Middle School, Virginia.
Enid Reed
Forgive any spelling errors, my phone has emergent typing skills.
>
I teach HS Spanish 2-4 and we plan to keep collecting until April! If we meet the goal early we will just do it again!!!
Hi Carrie. I love this idea! What program did students use to create the vidoes? Thanks!
They used a WIDE variety of programs since they were making them outside of class. Some who wanted to use my devices used Windows Movie Maker or iMovie. Others who used their phones used Flipagram and some Android market movie makers I wasn’t familiar with!
Carrie, Finding that balance between serious and silly is a good thing to find. And you just listened to your students to give them some of what they need and plenty of what they want!
¡Gracias!
Wow! Muchas gracias!
Love these! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for sharing. I am just starting to use embedded reading and would like to see this lesson in action. Is there a video of a teacher doing this that you would recommend? Gracias
Marta
Martina Bex has some for sure!!!
Thank you so much. TCI teachers are the best!
Thanks!
This was great fun! We spent the day in Spanish 1 talking through the Cacto va al banco video and by the end of the class we wrote a version of the story on the board: https://mrpeto.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/el-cacto-y-el-banco.jpg Thanks for posting these! 🙂
I enjoyed these and hopefully can do some embedded reading this year.
Thank you for sharing.
OMG, I love this idea, I feel like I am changing so much right now in Spanish IV because of the Seal of Biliteracy that right now I am shamelessly borrowing ideas and not doing as much idea creating I would like but the difference I am seeing in my students is incredible. So I am going to shamelessly steal another idea from you my friend. 😉
Borrow away! It makes it feel less overwhelming to get started!!!
Thank you so much! I used the “El Cacto” video and movie talk with levels 3 and 4. I assigned a re-tell for homework. One of my 4s said not to re-tell to a young kid because they will think they have to change to have friends. It led into a whole discussion of “would you” with them. Lots of more complex structures and all student led. Gracias!
LOVE the follow up idea!!!
I’m teaching La Hija del Sastre this year and I’m also doing the La lengua de la mariposa film study with my students. I’ve been searching for the movie all over and I want to get it with Spanish subtitles. I’m willing to purchase it. Any recommendations?
I bought the DVD but it has permanent English subtitles. We watch with them but do all discussion in TL.
I totally stole this idea from you and LOVED it every time my students did this type of task just for the fact that they end up speaking TL for a VERY extended period of time.
I do have a question about speaking evaluations. I find that even though I take notes as I walk around (need to get that snack tray idea going next time) I don’t feel confident in putting final call on speaking performance proficiency here. How do you evaluate? What factors do you consider? How much time do you spend per group? Any advice will be appreciated.
I asked my students to complete self-evaluation/reflection in which they needed to bid for a grade and provide evidence. I will be reading them this weekend. Curious to see what they thought and compare to own notes.
As early to mid intermediates I’m more concerned that they are developing the ability to carry on longer conversations than with their accuracy! Sometimes I have them call my Google Voice and record their presentation before they do the gallery but other times I get the info I need just knowing they were consistently using Spanish to share ideas!
I appreciate your response. But I’m curious about the latter scenario about “just knowing they were consistency using Spanish”. How does this translate into what you put into the grade book? This is what confuses me the most about this kind of assessment. I’m having a lot of trouble getting my mind around this approach.
Well, I started by looking carefully at the ACTFL performance descriptors and the levels of proficiency that are nationally expected after a certain amount of time in the language classroom. For example, advanced Low is generally achieved by a college language major graduating AFTER a study abroad. And do you know what the performance descriptor says?? Can use past, present, and future times appropriately (although there may still be errors). I was expecting this in Spanish 3!? I have completely changed (over 10 yrs) my classroom to better address these realistic expectations. I grade by listening to see if they are using language to communicate rather than if they’re using the past tense 10 times in the presentation. This means I have less small point deductions and more overall 5-10 point speaking tasks… I grade with a rubric adapted from the jcps skydrive documents. Google them if you aren’t familiar! Good stuff!
The gradebook on this had a presentational writing grade of 25 possible for their written portion, 10 points for presenting to classmates (everyone did and earned 10 points) and 10 for q and a period. Everyone asked and answered and although some clearly answered with more detail or asked with less errors, they all effectively asked and answered and were able to navigate the conversation!
[…] moments there are only two left, with the rest of the class cheering for one or the other. Class trophy for the one who […]
AMEN, Carrie!!!
Thanks! I so needed this!!!
Thank you Carrie! It’s so easy to forget that there is more than one way to eat the pie that is second language education. I jumped on the TPRS band wagon back in 2000 because I was desperate to reach my students. At the time I was the only teacher at the school so I had no one to convince or argue with. My students, whom earlier were hating Spanish, now enjoyed it because they were successful. Like Susan Gross says, “Nothing motivates like success.” Sometimes I used to threaten my students with bringing out the textbooks when they didn’t behave in class.
However, I admit that as I gained confidence and experience with TPRS/CI I have not been very empathetic of others who are teaching with traditional methods. Thank you for reminding me not to become a language teacher bully.
It’s easy to do and I’ve definitely been guilty myself!!! 🙂
Carrie, I agree with the sentiment, but have to say that this is hard for many of us because we are not in positions of power. It is hard for me to be sympathetic to opposing view points when in my daily teaching life I am getting railroaded by those in power. When my school does not allow me to use methods that I know align with best practices, what can I do? When national organizations push methods which I, and others, do not think reflect a knowledge of current SLA research, should I simply keep quiet? I think that a lot of us use twitter, facebook, and other groups as a place to vent. A lot of the this is pushing back because we are constantly being told that we are wrong or too far out there in our departments or districts. It is difficult to conceive of oneself as a bully when one is generally on the receiving end of it.
That said, I agree that taking the supportive route is the way to go because at the end of the day our differences are minute compared to the admirable goals that we have in common. And we are more likely to turn people away with a superior attitude or shaming.
I don’t mean we shouldn’t push for others to try our methods. I simply want people to try catching flies with honey.
National organizations? ACTFL? They are all about proficiency. They serve all teachers so they have to also make room for this use of TL to fall into a traditional classroom, but they want us providing tons of input so we end up with proficient kids!!
I think I’m just frustrated that teachers who honestly don’t understand the magnitude of this shift to CI ask questions and are met with criticism wrapped in a lecture. 🙂 or maybe I was just over sensitive this morning?
I can’t even tell you how much I appreciate your post. I am one of those teachers not doing it “the new way”. I tried at the start of the year, and I find the approach so challenging and amorphous. Then I end up asking myself, “How does this get put into grades?” It stresses me out a lot, actually. Especially now that I’ve tried and failed (in my eyes) trying it out.
I give short interpretive readings through novels, articles, class stories… Interpersonal chats about our current unit, presentations reading and speaking of all types… We change the endings to stories, predict what characters might do, watch videos and identify what is happening in screenshots from the film! I still have lots of grades I can give, they just look different! It doesn’t look like language separated into vocab and grammar… It’s all whole language!
Truth.
Changing to CI has been one of the hardest but also the most rewarding things I have done in my career. I kept wanting SOMEBODY to tell me exactly what to do, because changing everything and having 4 Spanish classes to prep is no easy job. I kind of still want someone to tell me what to do, but I’m getting it. 🙂
I cringe at what I’ve put some of my students through in the past.
I want someone to tell me what to doooooooooo!!!!!!! It’s a mystery to me.
Email one of us. Lots of us can coach you electronically.
That’s a great idea – I will!
*APLAUSO*
Yes! I grew and changed because someone helped me learn about CI with kindness and respect. (Thank you, Grant Boulanger and Melanie Bruyers.) Maybe others will too if we are kind and respectful. But I’ll just keep working on my own dang self for a while.
Me too!!!
Thank you. Every language teacher should have to read this.
What a beautiful reflection of practice!
¡Muy cierto! Great post!
Bless you, Carrie. (And what a great graphic)
You are a fantastic teacher and human being, too.
I’m really happy to see this. I’m a late bloomer teacher, age 51, now in my fourth year, and learned languages (back in the day) using those old grammar/translation methods. I love the idea of CI and am interested in incorporating it, but have no mentors to help. I’m not quite sure how to start, but I try to read as much as I can. It’s hard without someone more experienced to guide me! But what really DOESN’T help is the outright hostility I see on CI/TPRS pages/sites to those who are older and new to the game. The other day someone posted on the iFLT/NTPRS/CI Teaching Facebook Group page a post literally ridiculing some teacher they work with as being double his age and teaching for 20 years, still stuck in the old methods. This was fairly mild compared to some comments I’ve seen on this and other pages. It’s ageism pure and simple, and it tends to give those of us old folks who are open to new methods a sour taste about CI. I’m very glad to see folks like yourselves who are more experienced and understand the challenges those of us who haven’t been able to use CI face.
The more I read the comments with this awesome post, the more it’s starting to feel like professional therapy. I agree with everything you wrote. I’m actually TRYING and I just can’t seem to pull it together. It’s not easy.
I have a one hash tag answer #langchat YEAH LANGCHAT! With the beautiful, people of this powerful Twitter PLT, I’m a born-again, language teacher.
I’m not going to say it’s easy but I’m growing the kids are growing and they love it! The only challenge now is how do you grade certain things in a communicative class. Sigh. But latest issue of Language Educator addresses this. It’s okay. We are pioneers. Well, Thomas Sauer, Greg Duncan are chartering new territory for us. We got to have faith! Adam
[…] to share posted recently a fun story review game. I think the game has great potential but I wonder how to avoid students recognising each others […]
I had students write for different pictures so they wouldn’t recognize the writing! Each kid wrote cards for 2 different people’s pictures
There’s a reason you were TOY, Carrie. 🙂 You are one of a short list of language teachers active in the virtual PLN that I can’t ever see being a language bully, and that’s one of the reasons why every single teacher I know respects you immensely. I know I have been one myself, whether from frustration or just pushing curious questions too hard, the reason doesn’t matter, it’s unacceptable. Thanks for calling us on it. I request to be allowed to give you a hug for this post at ACTFL!
Well this just made me all blushy!!! Thank you! Double hugs at ACTFL.
LOVE this!
This post could not come at a more perfect time!
I began my TPRS/CI journey three years ago, so my level 3s are my first batch to receive instruction primarily using this method and wow! They never cease to amaze me as a cohort. In my opinion they’re the best group to come through the program in my four years. They’re participating more orally in level 3 (Felip Alou’s discussion questions were perfection! Inspired so many discussions – some basic answers and inspired some debates) then I ever did in 4, and they’re frequently creating with the language. My mentor has told me he is retiring, and I’m excited at what I will be able to do with this group for an additional two more years. It’s new territory for me so it’s hard to vision what that will look like.
Despite how awesome my level 3s are, I have noticed many of the issues you’ve addressed and I’m still working to discern what my own answers are. I’m in aww when students self correct for por and para outloud and I just had one boy this past week offer different verb conjugations (although, we don’t do verb charts, so it was kind of weird!) until he got the right one for the sentence that he was in the middle of speaking. Of course, present and past tense needs refinement, too, amongst other errors.
I’ll be interested to see what others have to say!
PS: Kudos to your daughter! I’m sure it was exciting and validating for her. I hope my students would do the same if they were in the same situation.
OMG! Gracias!!!!! This is what I have been trying to get the rest of my department to understand for years now. I am printing this and sharing it. I can only hope that one day it might sink in.
This is SUCH a GREAT reminder!! I try and tell my intermediates all the time how its a messy and sometimes frustrating but amazing journey to be on. Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks so much for all of your sharing!!!
Carrie, I’m searching your blog but can’t find more information about this unit– I remember you talking about it at TCI Maine in 2014. Can you share a little more? or guide me to your other post? Thanks!!
[…] stuck with me was the project she did (inspired in turn by Kristy Placido) that had students researching borrowers on Kiva who were in need of loans to grow their local businesses. Both teachers had students choose a […]
Looks great to me!
I’m curious to know how do you grade their speaking part of they are talking at the same time and what rubric do you use? Thank you
If I feel like I can’t get around to hear all groups well, I have them record on an iphone at the table and share the sound file with me. Most of the time I have plenty of time to listen to all groups. They are graded based on what the ACTFL proficiency descriptors say they should be able to do at each level. I want 3s and 4s to be doing a MINIMUM of Novice High in their speaking so simple sentences sometimes supported by memorized language. This would really be more of a B- or maybe even C+ depending on the situation for those upper level kids. I’m really after the connected series of simple sentences at the Intermediate Low as a goal for EVERYONE… or the B-B+ range… add some unit specific vocab and connecting words and we get them at the Intermediate Mid which is as strong A and if they are using a really strong, broad vocabulary and are able to bounce comfortably between time frames, they’re A+ range at Intermediate High. I carry my gradebook and a sheet of paper so they know I am always listening and I make little notes to myself before I decide what my final eval is. Notes about what the ss say or what impressive vocab they used or even what they were lacking. After you have had them for a period of time you know where they are, what their goals are to move up to the next proficiency, and who you need to watch most! 🙂
[…] Carrie has shared her great integrated assessments for finals. […]
[…] First, I looked at the story and sorted vocabulary into three categories: (1) words that my students already know/cognates that they can identify without difficulty, (2) words that my students will need to learn in order to understand the reading, and (3) words that are footnoted/can be footnoted because they are not high frequency/super essential to the overall comprehension of the story and will not likely be used in subsequent units, so I don’t care if students learn them. Carrie Toth has a great post about vocab sorting that I recommend reading HERE. […]
Love reading your blog. It inspires me and teaches me in one breath. Hope you can rest on your laurels soon as the finals are all over. Hope your kids recognize how much they can do, thanks to this final!
[…] Carrie Toth http://somewheretoshare.com/2015/03/08/kiva-projects/ […]
[…] If you are looking to expand your knowledge of how to effectively plan, take a look at Carrie Toth’s blog. She is one of our favorite authors, and she is also a fantastic blogger and backwards-planning guru-diva. Check out this post! […]
[…] need a second teacher. I pared down the vocabulary lists (check out my chuck it bucket post here.) If you are in a district with colleagues who are married to the text for one reason or another, […]
[…] study as it applies to their field of interest! Check out my posts about water for the Engineers, Natural Scientists, and the Philanthropists. We study music, law, literary features, art, exercise, food, soooo many […]
Thank you! I needed this. I just dusted off my textbook and decided that “if the kids don’t care and the parents don’t care, then why should i care if a student ‘acquires’ the language?” It has been rough. I’ve taught for 14 years and I am beginning to feel like the only thing world language is good for is “getting into college and meeting graduation requirements.” I want more for my students.
Agree! Let’s do this!! I’m ready for a change, too!
Reblogged this on CI Peek and commented:
Carrie Toth shares her journey from frustration to a-ha as she discovered teaching with Comprehensible Input! This post is a must-read for anyone experiencing the January doldrums!
This is so inspiring! As I continue to grow and learn as a teacher, I will come back to this post. (Especially the part about not achieving it all in one year!) Thank you!
Love this post! YOU have helped me so much!
You’re very lucky. In my student teacher observations, I am seeing inner city and lower/middle class blue collar students who just care about PASSING the class. They don’t do their homework and are happy to get a D. When they get their D for the two card markings, they don’t care about paying attention to the review for the final exam. Even if they fail the final, they still will pass. No matter how I instruct my student teachers on proficiency, they are bewildered, and even their cooperating teachers are disheartened.
Check out Denver Public Schools for the exact same types of results with inner city kids! If the input is right, the attitudes change! Hope you’re able to find some great examples to lead your MI kids into a positive experience!
Interestingly enough, my experience in Louisville, KY was the same. Teaching for proficiency, giving kids real language goals that they can reach was much more popular in the so-called “bad schools” (filled with inner city kids.) It was there that kids responded, because for the first time there was a teacher that showed them how to be successful. Now, in the so-called “good schools”, resistance to change was much higher as teachers (and their students) were happy with the status quo.
I love this post and your positive energy! You are an inspiration to all of us.
YAAAAAS! So much this!
That’s a great post! Thanks
[…] What if I’m just fed up with my students’ attitudes about language? […]
Thanks for all your sharing Carrie! It has helped me grow as a Spanish teacher so much!
I’d like to get more information about using the AAPPL measure. I am writing a grant proposal to fund my first year of testing. But I’m nervous about having my students tested. It’s a long test, it will be complicated to use the computer lab, and most importantly, what if they don’t do as well as I hope? Right now I’m thinking of just testing my 50 Spanish I students and my 12 Spanish III’s and 2 Spanish IV students. I have a large number of Spanish II students who are minimally engaged, so I may only pick the top 10 to test.
Would you possibly be available to talk with me about your experience and give me some pointers?
Gracias!
Rita
Rita Barrett Portland Adventist Academy Spanish
*”It is not important to be better than someone else, but to be better than yesterday.”*
On Thu, Jan 14, 2016 at 4:39 PM, Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: “If you are, I’d say you’re standing on the same cliff > edge that I stood on in 2006! I was frustrated by my scores on my first > attempt at National Board Certification, I was saddened by apathy about > language learning and homework. I was heartbroken that ” >
I’d be happy to discuss our AAPPL experience with you!
Thank you for being such a wonderful inspiration! I appreciate all your hard work!
I love this so much… thank you for posting this ray of sunshine. I’ll be setting my sights on the long-term benefits of comprehensible input and staying the course with this as my end goal. 🙂
I really appreciate all that you do! Thanks for your willingness to share. I hope you know how much of an inspiration you are!
I love your unit! I was wondering if you showed the entire film A Matador’s Mistress and if the inappropriate parts were skipped or did you get parent permission?
Depends on the class. I ALWAYS cut the sex scenes but for more mature groups I have shown pretty much all… for the ones who lack maturity, I only show some fighting scenes.
I love the idea of using novels to bring more of everything cool about learning a language into the classroom, and over the years I’ve used a couple of them with varying success. This past August, I’d submitted a grant request to be able to purchase class sets of some of the newer novels, but it was denied. I wondered if you had your students purchase their own copies or if you used the audio cd, or a doc cam projecting it for them to read as a class? I’m toying with the idea of having my students purchase personal copies of a couple of novels- putting it on my syllabus as a required material- this would be for my Spanish 3s- who are taking the class above the requirement for graduation. Do you have any thoughts or advice on this?
Hi!!! I have slowly built up my class sets! One novel per year! I started with novels that would be great for all levels! Easy enough for novices to read and then added challenge in the intermediate discussions!! I HAVE had kids buy their own! And the added perk is that they often donate them back at the end of the year! Which adds to my novel collection! ❤️
Both the audio CD and doc cam are totally legal since you aren’t reproducing the materials so they’d be a GREAT stand in while you decide your best move!
would love to go..
If only we were finished with school by June 20th! In New York state we aren’t done until the 24th, or I’d consider it!
Way to go, Carrie! For French teachers, check for grants from the Cultural Services offices of the French government and consulates and for “stages pédagogiques” In Belgium and Canada. For exactly the same reasons as Carrie, I have used those summer programs to improve my own proficiency in French because I was never able to study abroad in high school or college. I taught for six years before having the opportunity through one of these scholarship programs to go on my own for my own language and cultural development. I have two more since then, the latest being in 2007. There are similar programs offered by various agencies for German, Japanese and Mandarin teachers as well. And we’re modeling that learning language is an ongoing process. And don’t hesitate to design your own experiences. After teaching for 21 years, I will finally have my first opportunity to spend time at a French high school during my spring break in just over a month and it’s in a part of France I have never visited so the learning will be amazing on all sides. I arranged this by working with the teacher of the class my students are corresponding with. I did something similar several years ago when we were corresponding with a school in Belgium.
Are their scholarships to help pay our way?
My paperwork doesn’t mention scholarships!? But I don’t know 100% that there aren’t!
[…] Improving Teacher Language Proficiency […]
I’m going too! I signed up on Wednesday!
That’s GREAT news!
Thank you soooo much for this post! It shows me that it can be done and hopefully I will get there soon. Can you please tell me what curriculum do you follow for Spanish 1. I have middle school semester Spansih, they don’t get any HS credit for it and I don’t know how to motivate them….don’t know where to begin. I read blog after blog with TPRS/ CI and I just feel like a loser because I don’t know how to apply it on a day to day base.
In Spanish one I use chapters 1-4 of Carol Gaab’s Cuentame and I use 4 novels! I’d say if you are able, one of my biggest recommendations would be to try to go to iFLT this summer! It is worth every penny! I didn’t feel confident in knowing how to apply CI methods without a textbook until I went to NTPRS (another great option!) those 5 day conferences really fill you up with great ideas!
Is it still open just to teachers? My husband is a bit jealous I’m going because he wants to go too, but I thought it was just for teachers, right?
It is a Spanish immersion! Does he speak Spanish??? I bet he could enroll but he might have to do a lot on his own if he couldn’t participate in the language-centric activities!!
Hmmm… It may not be for him. Thanks for responding!
[…] which is pretty exciting. Since I didn’t, feel free to explore these great summaries from Carrie, Wendy, […]
It was totally worth sitting on the floor for your session. 🙂
I’d love to know more details about future events like this! We are building a house this year so I don’t have the extra cash this summer.
Definitely!!!
Hola! I remembered reading this blog post last year and had to go back and find it today. I was reading through some written answers for post-reading questions for a novel and it was a bit rough! Then I remembered I’m working with intermediates and I should celebrate the fact that they could write so much about the topic and get their ideas across! The different questions had them switching tenses between the past, present and future, which we all know is no easy task. Re-reading your post makes me so proud of them! Gracias!
This is the hardest thing for me to come to terms with. I love hanging out with my students in the language but fear for some of them when they get into another teacher’s class who might constantly correct them and ask for perfection when I try to figure out if they answered the prompt even with albeit limited language in a comprehensible way.
I’ve been wanting to post about this lately. How the most important thing we should grade is the content. If they can still answer a higher level thinking question with lower level language than peers, haven’t they accomplished the goal, therefore they should get the grade, which will encourage them to take the class for more years (thus pushing them closer to proficiency)? 😉
Post! Post! Post!
I have been studying English for the past 15 years and I still struggle with the use of certain prepositions (Especially in/on.) So why, do we ask our students for perfection? Why is it that after only two years of Spanish instruction, we expect our students to experts on complicated concepts such as ser vs. estar?
Exactly!!!!
Words of wisdom with some dream humor wrapped around it. Excellent.
I often need to remind myself to relax the error marking red pen. Communication is the golden egg or maybe in your case the golden watermelon this is growing on a trellis reinforced with steel beams.
Thank you for the encouragement and the wealth of resources you share on this blog.
Steel beams just might be the answer….
I cannot LOVE this enough! I need this reminder daily! Thanks for sharing Carrie!
Thanks, Carrie for this awesome post and reflection! I always think about this when I am grading writing and speaking assessments. I know they will make errors (errors are good and part of the acquisition process) so what grade should I give them? I know there are errors that they should not be making at their level so I usually focus on those. Errors in language that they don’t know yet is fine with me so I don’t punish them for those kinds of errors!
[…] Carrie Toth – Free Voluntary Reading Area […]
Thanks for sharing! I am a new language teacher in a rural setting and REALLY struggle to get the kids to speak in the target language. Of course then, by default, I do not use as much target language as I should. What are some suggestions that you have to using more TL in the classroom? 90% would be a dream and I would LOVE to get there!
I just saw your email! I will reply pronto!
Great post, Carrie–as always, well articulated. I need to remind myself of this so often.
The next issue, then, becomes these students’ experiences in college Spanish classes. I had a student come back and let me know he really struggled with the grammar focus in his college class at a major university. (He placed into 3rd semester after 4 years of HS study). His teacher and classmates couldn’t believe he didn’t know how to chant the 6 box verb charts in all tenses. Once my student figured out the box thing, they were on to the next tense.
He was so frustrated, and he finally got help from a tutor who helped him sort out the “6-box thing”. He really felt like he has an inferior HS experience because he was “behind”. He asked me why I didn’t teach him any grammar.
Then the conversation got interesting.
I asked him if he were given options between how to use words in different tenses in context if he could make the right choice, based on what sounded right. He said yes.
I asked him how his teacher and tutor said his speaking and writing were. He said he “nailed” the one speaking assessment he had, and that they were both impressed with the quantity he was able to write (albeit filled with errors). He also said his other best grades were on the novel they read (La Calaca Alegre!). Unfortunatly, the latter were only 20% of the semester grade…the other 80% was on grammar units.
He also told me about his most recent missions trip to Nicaragua with his church. He said the directors of the orphanage (their partners In the program with his church) were very impressed with his ability to communicate in Spanish. He said he felt very confident he could get his point across ‘circumlocuting when I had to’ even if he didn’t know some words or advanced structures. If he asked the Nicaraguans to slow down he could understand them very well.
So….I asked him what he really wanted to do with Spanish: conjugate the 6 boxes in all tenses, OR communicate. He said, “well…obviously communicate. I want to live in Micaragua for a few years after graduation, and they’ve offered me a job at the orphanage.”
!!!!!
So there’s the disconnect. I’m so sad that this boy who can really COMMUNICATE in Spanish was made to feel by higher ed folks that he doesn’t “know” anything, and that his HS classes were inferior and didn’t “teach” him the grammar.
When will that change?
I left the conversation feeling good about the experiences he had in HS at a TCI focused school, but so sad for future students in his situation who may have to get the same message in college.
His experience is what some of mine have experienced too! Their professors rave about their ability to communicate and some are very helpful with fine tuning grammar and some very impatient! If the goal is to use language, making errors shouldn’t be a crime!!!
Hi Carrie,
I sat in on your CSCFL session. On one of your slides, you had a picture of the ACTFL Proficiency levels and how you posted them on your wall. I’d like to do something similar. Is there anyway you could send me that slide?
Thanks so much!
Sure! I can email you the pic! My email is senoracmt at gmail
Hello!
Do you have a rubric you use? If so, I would love to see it!
Thanks,
Sarah
I use a rubric based on the JCPS Skydrive documents! Google then! Great stuff!
My Spanish 3/4 combined class will be reading Chapter 2 on Monday. I’d love to do some sort of collaboration with this novel!
Yay!!! Email me! Let’s plan something! We will be on Ch1 Monday!
This is awesome. I was trying to figure out how to group my students bc I have struggling readers, those that can read on their own. What a great way to separate them. Are you planning on having all the groups finish at the same time with the book? If the independents read faster do you have something else planned for them to do?
I am going to have them stay with the class! If they finish early I’ll allow them to work quietly on something else! That group tends to have plenty of work in other classes to keep them busy! 🙂
This looks great! Have you had ideas on topics for your talk show?
I definitely want to have one day be characters trying to prove that they are the strongest protagonist!
Oh, nice! I was wondering about having topics such as “My family is in crisis” or such. I am trying to think what a talk show might have (that would be appropriate in the classroom).
Since our novels are so wildly different (Noche de Oro, Rebeldes de Tejas, and Guerra Sucia), I am thinking that I’d like to do things that focus on literary features! That vocab is almost always cognatey! Protagonista, antagonista, escena más dramática..
OMG I think this is exactly what I h been looking for! This just might work. Thanks for posting. So many ideas floating around in my head right now!
I also wondered how you would be grading the webs. I have used them as tools but never actually taken a “gradebook grade” on their completion.
The webs will be a formative grade. All or none! The real purpose is to prepare them with lots of evidence for the summative talk show!
Makes sense. Thank you!
Thanks for the information. I’m doing something similar for my Advanced Spanish students and have been looking for information. Do you have instructions/templates for the character and event webs?
I have some printed that I got a while ago at http://www.eduplace.com. Perhaps they still have them (they are in Spanish).
Sounds like a great idea! I’m looking ahead at my Spanish 3 class next year and this would really be beneficial for them because of the wide variation in the level of abilities. Can you tell me more about the character and event webs? Also, will you use a rubric for grading the class discussions on Thursday or will it be more of whether or not students contribute? How do you structure a class discussion like this?
I put the Character and Event Webs at the bottom of the post! On Thursdays I will use the discussion grid I attached in the post as well!
I also uploaded the class discussion rubric I use!!!
You are the best! Thank YOU!!!
Hello. Would you please share a copy of the permission slip that you use before showing a film? My email address is lsuarez@peotoneschools.org Thank you so much!
Sure thing!
Hello. May I also please have a copy of the permission slip that you use before showing a film? My email address is kmoore@paradiseschools.org. Muchísimas gracias!
I’m in the process of re-working it! At my old school I was well established and didn’t need as detailed a slip! Now that I’m switching schools, I feel like I need a much more descriptive one until they get to know me!
This is JUST the solution I’ve been looking for as I ponder the logistics of reading Le Petit Prince in class with my 4s soon. Now excuse me while I stalk your Pinterest boards… 🙂
Excellent ideas! One question, where did you find those enormous floor pillows? Those are amazing!
Beanbagtown.com so amazing!!!
Sounds awesome! I have done this in my lovel 4 now a couple of times. They love the choice. I just mentioned how I would love to do different novels for our level 2 kids. Maybe I can see how you are doing this in 4.
Love your sharing!
Can I ask what you do between now and Thursday? Read more chapters & do different activities, and discuss all chapters on Thursday, then?
Hi.
I love reading what you do in your classes. They sound amazing. I am wondering if you could send me a curriculum map of what you do for Spanish ! classes? I teach middle school and pretty much try to prepare them for our high school. I am looking for some new ideas.
thanks
ktumilty@saltcreek48.org
I’m not teaching level 1 right now but I do present, past, and future tense of the “super 7” verbs plus Ben Slavic’s circling with balls, 3-4 novels, and 4 chapters of Carol Gaab’s Cuéntame más! (Google all those if you’re not familiar with them!!) this is my first year without level 1 and it feels strange! I’m missing them!!! We read Brandon Brown wants a dog, El Nuevo Houdini past tense, Piratas, and Esperanza. With a group of struggling readers, I’d drop Esperanza. I have been using Martina Bex materials in level 2 and I love them! Check her out too!
Could you explain how you use class dojo? I’ve toyed around with it but don’t like how you can’t group the kids on a seating chart. Maybe it’s just me but, I find it very difficult to mark down participation notes during a class discussion when it is alphabetized… It takes me longer to find each name and while I’m searching through 35 kids, I miss parts of the discussion. That being said – I WANT to use that app more. Any suggestions?
Also, I love the differentiated reading group idea! After they are done reading, they do the assignment correct? Then do you reconvene as a class to review?
Following!! Thank you so much for sharing. I can wait to do this next year
Sounds like a great time! I think I’ll have to try this next year! Did you do this in every level or in one particular level?
My kids love this tournament! We finished over a month ago and my students are still singing the songs to themselves in class and requesting their favorites! I play songs all the time, but with this “tournament” that they get to vote on, they get so much more invested in the songs.
Any chance you could send the titles of the 16 songs? Thank you
Added images to the post! Borro Cassette and some of the other first 16 are explicit so if you have heritage speakers they might need to be replaced!
I love this! I think this will be something we can do next year. Or maybe May madness would work….. 🙂 Quick question? Did you have each class vote and then tally or did you have only one class you did this with? Thanks again for the great ideas!
All classes voted daily!!
I love this activity!! Thanks for sharing your favorites- I’m always looking for new songs to share with my class. One idea to make your Music Madness a bit easier for bookkeeping (if you are a 1 to 1 school with computers for all students) is by putting the votes on a google form. By doing this, google will do all the tabulation for you AND added bonus, you can attach the videos of your songs to the form so students who might not look the songs up on their own have it at their fingertips- staring them in the face begging them for one more listen! This was a big hit in my class as well and my class was so sad when it ended. La Gozadera is our reigning champion! I’ll be excited to hear who wins for you!
Google forms would be SO much easier and greener!!! We have more like 1:130 technology! 😂😂
Wanted to thank you for sharing this! I do something called an ‘oral recap’ with my students (http://bit.ly/1h0qren) – after we have read something (a dialogue, short piece etc) Your idea here gave me the idea to put together a self recording sheet with the expectations on it – coded that is. So a ‘simple answer’ is coded “MM” (minimally meeting) and an answer that ‘expands on what someone else said’ is “ME” (meeting expectations). There are several other categories. At the end I’m asking them to say – by looking at how they recorded – how they feel they met expectations. If you want I can send you what I came up with & how I use it… And at the bottom of my sheet I have credited you with the idea for this.
Gracias!!!
Colleen
Hi Colleen! I would like to see your coded response sheet. I am really trying to build my repertoire of assessments on actionable data so that I can give students specific feedback, as well as developing their own ability to self assess and monitor progress. I think your coding system would be brilliant! Please email me the specifics: michelledjigal@gmail.com
I have a few logistics questions for you. Can I email you directly?
What a fabulous post! I love how you explain the various ways that you weave grammar into the fabric of your classes without explicitly focusing on it. One of the reasons that I love using novels and stories is that they can be so linguistically rich. I certainly use some “authentic” resources, but often the ones that are comprehensible (infographics and the like) are not very rich linguistically. With novels, as you point out, students can see subjunctive or past tense forms, or pretty much any grammatical structure even in a level one novel/story. In my opinion the sooner that students start seeing a form like “vaya” which is SO high frequency in every day speech, the better.
I also love that you point out that we are not trying to produce students in a middle or high school setting who are 100% accurate. That is one of the hardest mental adjustments to make as a teacher. Even though I know better, I still get frustrated when a student in my Latin 1 class uses “est ” (he is) rather than “sunt” (they are) despite tons of reps of the latter and instantaneous recognition of what the word means when they are reading or listening. Intermediate is MESSY, and that is okay.
Thanks for a great read!
So well said!
The ballot only had space for the one song (of the two) that they chose for the day, correct? The songs that were “favorites” were the ones that advanced? I got a little confused there.
The first day I copied the ballot front and back. They listened to them and voted on both (one on each side).it was a huge waste of paper so the next day I squeezed 6 ballots on each side (landscape and 2 column) so they could vote for 6 days worth of songs on one page!
The favorites (most votes not highest score) advanced!
Thank you for both responses!! Can’t wait!!!
I really appreciate the honesty about your past struggles – it lets me know that I’m on the right track, even if I feel like I’m not there yet. And great examples of how you’ve found a way that works for you. Thanks for the advice!
[…] written a blog post about administering AAPPL and so did Bethanie Drew; you can find their wisdom here, here and here. Both provided me with much needed insights from “how to” to “how not to” […]
love this! couple questions: do you do this for lower levels? how many students do you have?
Not for lower levels at all! Spanish 3 had read about 10 other novels before they were ready to fly solo and Spanish 4 even more! I read with the 1s and 2s but we do all kinds of things to keep it fun!
And I have between 16-24
This is awesome, exactly what i needed to get my school in the right direction. My dept head and i are coming to iflt this summer! yay!
Also, could I have a copy of your film permission slip as well! it would be most helpful! 🙂 Gracias!
heavenspanish@gmail.com
I am happy to send it but don’t know how helpful it will be! It is mainly a permission slip to use the students images in my presentations and social media! With some movies tacked on! 🙂
Great blog post. Thank you to Kayla and thank you to Ms. Toth. Relationships and passion are what matter.
This is great! Thank you for sharing this. Like you, I spent the first part of my teaching career teaching the way I had been taught. I am thirsty for a change!
Also, I appreciated Kayla’s emphasis on relationships and compassion and fair views of both sides.
I love this observation: “Students will still be messy intermediates and novices, and students will still be missing out on some part of the Spanish language, whether it be grammatical or usage.” It seems as teachers we really do have to acknowledge that we can’t “do it all”, especially when we want to do it “all” in the first two years of language. There is just so much time with, as it is in my classroom, 52 minutes 4 times per week. We just have to maximize that time and love our students through the process of sharing our passion with them!
Loved the student perspective (she certainly will be the “rising” professional she described herself to be!). This thoughts shared by both Señora Toth y Kayla in this both validate the most important thing about language education and it’s not the methods nor the resources. It’s the passion and commitment to students that will keep them coming back for more and will give them positive experiences to build on in the future. Gracias por compartir!
[…] we watched the film, I used the “Yellow Brick Road” activity from Carrie Toth. Students had to discuss the role of each character in the plot of […]
[…] and or text of stories, poetry and/or articles we studied during the unit. I got this idea from Carrie Toth and have applied it to other levels such as when my Spanish 3 H students about the environment. […]
Thanks for sharing Carrie as I will certainly have the goals posted this year!
Say, I think I need your email address in order to send you to zulily! How can I get it?? Gracias and I hope you had a nice drive home! You must be OVER THE TOP getting ready for your new job😆 at your old school!
Keep in touch! Karen Weigel
I’ve been looking for a way to wean my upper level ESL students away from read-aloud for novels to more independent reading, and this is it. Thank you!
Love this idea. What’s their award at the end of the Amazing Race? Thanks!
We just did pride not prize for the reward! 🙂
[…] Devil commercial https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aGb8pMIeY6w&feature=youtu.be Short story – La Casa Tomada – embedded readings adapted by Carrie […]
[…] Devil commercial https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aGb8pMIeY6w&feature=youtu.be Short story – La Casa Tomada – embedded readings adapted by Carrie […]
[…] and understand themes studied in a college literature classes such as Magic Realism! This blog post is evidence that what Carrie does in her high school classroom is translating well for her students […]
[…] We continue listening to songs and MovieTalk any good new videos. (Can’t wait to see if they make a new Loteria El Gordo video!) A great MovieTalk that I like to do during this time is El cacto y el banco. Carrie Toth has activities for it HERE. […]
I am so sad that I missed the webinars from July 27!!!! Will you be offering them again? Or can we purchase the recordings? -Susan Rodriguez
[…] MovieTalk: I enjoy starting the year with MovieTalk as well. We will do the Parecidos ad and activities posted in this blog. […]
I LOVE these ideas! Do you mind if I use them in my room?
[…] will kick the year off with some great plans from Carrie Toth, using Atrévete . We will take about 4 days to go through this material, break for Labor Day and […]
No seas idiota! Hahaha!
I LOVE IT Carrie!! You’ve inspired me to do something “grand” as apposed to the poster I have…
I can tell you’ve been working hard for those new kiddies–They are going to LOVE your class!!!
[…] First MovieTalk of the Year: We do the Atrevete Cambia commercial in this post . […]
[…] to read independently, with a partner, or with me. Carrie Toth has a great blog post about this HERE. For other chapters, we will do Reader’s […]
Carrie, do you have any current information on the Nice foundation? I went to the address you posted but the site isn’t there. I would love to do something like this with my kids.
I love your proficiency bulletin board Carrie. What are your proficiency level goals for Spanish 1 for each quarter? And is meeting the goal a B, and exceeding it an A? I am really want to get consistent this year with my assessing. Thank you!
Super awesome! In order to introduce some structures, I made a vocabulary slideshow with some vocabulary/structures to focus on. (¿A qué se dedica? atreverse, y vencer plus some review questions for tener miedo, confianza, requerir). If you would like a copy, I’d be happy to send it. I have a quick question of what activities you are planning to do with reading. Are you planning to translate line by line or just circle the sentences? I can’t think of another thing to do with the readings. Suggestions?
Carrie!
I’m trying these out this year and can’t wait for school to start tomorrow! 🙂 Thanks for all you share! Hope you’re first day of school went well at the new school!
[…] class and beyond: We continue the drawings, star of the day interviews, classroom jobs, start the Parecidos MovieTalk, and do the song Sofía by Alvaro Soler. I will also do this getting to know you activity […]
Hi how are you? I truly likes your blog.I looked over your syllabus and realized that you taught with Mi Vida Loca video series.Is this something that you still do? If so do you have lesson plans to make it more TPRS like?
[…] mixer or inside-outside circle activity? Push the chairs against the wall and go for it! Read more here from Carrie […]
Love this!!!! I’m getting ready to do Esperanza with my Level 2!!! I’m totally going to try this out! Thanks for sharing!
How many days did you have your students working on these stations ?
Just one!
I love how you used Aurasma! I have seen it presented on several times and it has seemed impractical to me. This is such an easy use; I love it! You’re brilliant!
[…] idea about stations and Aurasma looks pretty cool! (Plus my department chair shared it […]
[…] Micro lending project: Kiva, kiva-webquest, Living on One (on Netflix), resources on other blogs here and here […]
How long do you typically spend on a single novel? I’m looking to do something like this with my kiddos in the spring, but was wondering how you typically pace it. Any info appreciated!
As many days as chapters but often some extra days for side activities!
So, 12+ balloons for each group? At least 4 groups per class? Are you blowing up 50+ balloons per class, or am I missing something?
I love this! Thanks for sharing!
This sounds like so much fun, Carrie! But it lasted only five minutes in class? How much time did you put into the planning? And blowing up all those balloons? I remember once when I planned a similar activity and it took me hours to personalize it. I had originally planned for the activity to take 20-30 minutes–and it took them less than 10 minutes to complete. Naturally, I was scrambling for something else for them to do!
LOVE IT!
I really needed to hear this today! Thank you!
Great idea…but the name/skeletons in the wall in the background caught my eye! How did they make them?
They signed their names then cut around them, opened them and free handed the accessories!
LOVE this game! I think the students would be 100% engaged!
Thank you for sharing. I’d like to hear more about how they used film-making in their classes and what type of assessments they used to evaluate proficiency. Next blog???
Well put! This was my first year attending at a national level and what an awesome experience it was. Learned so much and already putting some into practice. Thank you.
I look forward to the upcoming CSCTFL in Chicago and my first ACTFL ’17 in Nashville. Congratulations on your upcoming Presidency position for ICTFL. I am thrilled to hear that you will be leading because I belong to ICTFL. Thank you!
[…] The Power of a National Conference […]
[…] Carrie reflects on the power of a national conference […]
I would really like your rubric for your discussion Thursdays! Did you post it somewhere?
Thank you!
Yes! It is here in the site!!
Hi Carrie!
I am in my 3rd year of Spanish and just red your “Bianca Nieves y los 7 toritos”. It is one of the best spanish books I have ever read! The story was amazing and I really liked the idea of the spanish culture of bullfighting. Can’t wait to read more of your books!
– Noah
Thank you!!!!
Carrie – I’m posting my comment here because I couldn’t find a place on Fluency matters. Can you provide an example of a rubric that takes into account the different rates of acquiring proficiency?
LOVE IT!!!
The Groupardy directions link isn’t working for me — is it possible that it’s not linked properly?
Ive been reading about this idea but still don’t quite get it!
I had to see it! There is a Fluency Matters Webinar but the best is to play one!!
I have a question about the tally sheet with all the blanks. Is that for the students to fill out about other students or for the teacher? Thanks so much!
The big one is for the teacher, students get the one with the descriptors!
Carrie, glad you have ventured into the world of Breakouts! You always have such creative ideas and wonderful materials to supplement your novels.
In looking at your final reflections, I thought of these ideas to ponder:
1. With bigger classes, I’ll run two different boxes at once (two different teams) so there aren’t as many kids just observing. I will have two sets of clues around the room and they have to figure out if it’s for their box or the other team’s box. There has been some interesting negotiation going on. I just ask them to not be vindictive with the clues they find. lol
2. Easy clues: Usually the ones I think will be super easy are the ones they really have to think about and vice versa. As you start reflecting on how to up the ante with this one, perhaps one clue leads to another (and to another?) that will end up with the final opening clue. Consider bit.ly links to google doc that you create, QR codes to websites, etc.
3. Depending on your clues, the directional locks could be used in conjunction with a map (route with invisible ink/black light), arrows listed on a wall-sized map or even on the floor or identified locations in the room that relate to the book.
4. Wow, I’m intrigued by this idea! Please share more. What would this look like? Did you have all paper clues for this one?
¡Muchísimas gracias por compartir!
Hi Carrie, Do you ever make your own memes?
But are your memes in English or the target language?
TL only!
I used the same method for vocabulary, grammar, literature and culture review.
This is a fantastic idea!!!!
I love this, Carrie! Makes me SO wish I were with my students every day so we could do one every day!
Hi Carrie! Do you allow students to use the novel to refer to when doing either the oral or written pieces of the assessment?
I do not!!
[…] This year is the most prepared I have felt. My Spanish 4 class is so small I decided against the reading groups that Carrie Toth has done in the past and just decided to switch up how we read each […]
[…] we read chapter one and I had the students do a comic strip retell (thanks Carrie for that one!) THEY TURNED OUT SO GOOD! This is just one […]
[…] will begin chapter 2 and make a pro/con list for why Leslie should go/not go & the Tweet idea (also from Carrie […]
Hola! Hello! I was searching for book reviews regarding Vector. I need to start thinking about novels for next year. My students enjoyed La hija del sastre. I don’t see any Vector reviews. How was it received in your class? I just read la Calaca Alegre. It was pretty good! La hija del sastre is my favorite novel so far! Did you update your Breakout for Vector? Are you willing to share it or is it available for sale? Muchas gracias!
The Vector breakout is available on the breakout website! I haven’t taught it yet because I’m saving it for next year’s rotation!!
How Carrie, I feel so silly, I just realized you wrote Vector! I want to compliment you, I have truly enjoyed your books. I am using novels for the first time this year. La hija del sastre was my students favorite novel this year! I hated to see it come to an end when we finished. Thank you so much for providing an interesting book option for use in my upper level Spanish classes. I found it was just about perfect for my students level of Spanish. It was slightly challenging, but not overwhelming. The best part was that we were all interested in the history of Spain and the characters. Great work!
Did you have them write their names on the questions they were answering so that you could see how everyone was doing individually? Or did you collect them all as a class-wide pulse-check, or did you just observe as they were doing it?
No, just as a check so I observed as they took it and flipped through the answers!
[…] sucia in Spanish 4 (after spring break unfortunately) I am trying out the Infographic idea from Carrie Toth. I assigned it before spring break and we spent a day in the computer lab for them to get their […]
So is this basically Charades and Password combined? 😉
[…] for two reasons. You can use it as a backchannel as your class participates in things such as Discussion Day from Carrie Toth, a Socratic Seminar or a Fish Bowl. Students can write comments on Today’s […]
This is so great! Thanks Carrie.
Hi,
Is there any books or detailed syllabus to help prepare for the test? I found the list of topics on line, but it is difficult to know what specific vocabulary to teach for these topics (and in what order) to maximise the chances of success. Thanks in advance!
Love this! Thanks!
Maybe have students create a Smashbook as an end of the novel project? My students are doing one on Piratas y el mapa secreto. Martina Vez has a great example.
I love this idea!!! Can’t wait to try it next year!
Do you have each person direct message you the photo? Then, you have to add each person and screenshot each picture and then add it to your story? Just checking to see if that is what you are doing or if there is another easier way.
They can follow me without me following them. They can either snap or chat it to me and I screenshot them add to my story!
I love the idea. It’s is definitely too late this year but I would love to do it next year. Would you be interested in doing some collaboration ? I work in a magnet school for AP and IB. I teach level 1, 3 IB and AP. My kids love to do discussion so I feel this structure will really help.
Thanks,
Genius!
[…] be my second time using it and there are AWESOME resources out there for it. Check out Kara Jacobs, Carrie Toth, Cindy Hitz, Allison Weinhold and Dustin Williamson. There are also some great bullfighting […]
[…] all of the work we had done, I made this Salad Bowl game. For directions on how to play, check Carrie’s post. Here is a quick Assessment que sabes of what we were […]
[…] the kids a little “quality control” guide, which I believe is an idea I adapted from Carrie Toth (and for some reason I feel like Colleen has done a version of this, too, but I can’t find […]
[…] going to be starting reading groups in a week too. These are inspired by Carrie Toth’s post here. So don’t lose hope! It is never too late to try something new. When you teach with CI […]
Great post, and very timely for me. My family is saving now to go to Mexico for a month next summer (my kids will be 5 and 6 years old!) But it is hard.
One thing we realized – We were planning to go for a week or two, but as we started looking for places to stay, we realized that lodging is really very inexpensive. Air travel is a huge expense no matter how long we are there, so since my spouse CAN take the time off of work, going for a longer period of time will make the most of our money and let our kids get settled in long enough to relax and learn some Spanish… and hopefully make some friends.
What sort of activities do you do with the infographics? Thank you for sharing!
[…] The solution was presented to me when I found out about backwards planning! I initially read about it a several years ago when I came across a blog post written by Carrie Toth in 2012 about her UbD Bullfighting Unit. […]
[…] The solution was presented to me when I found out about backwards planning! I initially read about it a several years ago when I came across a blog post written by Carrie Toth in 2012 about her UbD Bullfighting Unit. […]
Is there a way we could get your events? Great idea!
[…] Toth’s Discussion Day is a wonderful way to get the class talking about the novel and making connections. However there […]
[…] the novel and making connections. However there are many more such as Speed Dating or Debating, Salad Bowl, and Circle the […]
[…] they took an authentic resource of a short story and turned it into an embedded reading. They are Casa Tomada, Chac Mool and La noche boca arriba. Check out embeddedreading.com for more […]
I love this post! Yes! I use music in my classroom too, sometimes as a brain break, as they’re coming in the classroom or with an activity (some of the ones you mentioned above). Thank you so much for sharing the great ideas of songs for different levels and for your awesome presentation #iFLT17. You rock!
[…] Some innovative ideas she recommended are venn diagrams on the floor which she blogged about here, student written tweets, Instagram projects, Discussion Thursday , Yellow Brick Road, Booksnaps […]
[…] recommended are venn diagrams on the floor which she blogged about here, student written tweets, Instagram projects, Discussion Thursday , Yellow Brick Road, Booksnaps and connections to authentic […]
[…] diagrams on the floor which she blogged about here, student written tweets, Instagram projects, Discussion Thursday , Yellow Brick Road, Booksnaps and connections to authentic resources as mentioned above. The […]
[…] which she blogged about here, student written tweets, Instagram projects, Discussion Thursday , Yellow Brick Road, Booksnaps and connections to authentic resources as mentioned above. The reason the TGs from […]
Muchas gracias Carrie! You are the best. I so appreciate how generosity you share all your awesome practices and goods. So glad I got to see you at iFLT. Feeling inspired! Susan
*generously
Thank you!!
what a great idea! Love this!
Thank you!!!!!
Sent from my iPhone
>
[…] we created, check out our store. When you finish the unit you can use Carrie Toth’s idea of Yellow Brick Road with these empty slides. Finally I must thank the AMAZING Kara Jacob for teaching me how to […]
[…] Most teachers I know would say that the answer is a resounding yes. That is, we use both, and we talk about it, a lot. In fact, in the same week (long ago) that I started drafting this post, Carrie Toth blogged a reminder that we should try both. […]
[…] 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 […]
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?
[…] am going to start the year again with a class newsletter. I originally blogged about it here but have enjoyed this quick connection with parents so much that I wanted to share again! I have […]
[…] Don’t forget you can also print and adapt my permission slip here. […]
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
Thanks for this terrific resources! Our school just got called out, but I can definitely use it this week! Are you teaching in St Louis now? It’s hard to find CI/TPRS teachers near me (:
[…] and foster acquisition. Sharon was inspired by the blog of Cynthia Hitz! Carrie Toth shares how she uses infographics to familiarize students with Frida’s crippling exposure to polio. What do all of these […]
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!
[…] And what about Carrie Toth’s book, VECTOR?! The main character, Antonio, is bitten by a mosquito and wow!…You won’t believe the effect that that little vector of venom had on his health! If reading / discussing Vector doesn’t open up discussion about world health, mosquito-born illnesses, vaccines in general and the vaccines needed for travel, we don’t know what will! On her blog, Somewhere to Share, Carrie has a great unit on environmental study centered on Vector. […]
Awesome idea! Where can I learn more about Carla’s 10-line stories. I’m VERY interested!
I would love to be able to do this successfully! It sounds like a dream. One question: did you have a menu of options from which students chose the topic “travel”?
I did!!
Here are a few ideas for the next time you do this unit!
Consider getting MONARCH butterfly caterpillars (you can purchase them from MonarchWatch.org) and add the preservation of the Monarchs to your unit. You will need to have a healthy source of fresh milkweed leaves to feed your caterpillars — it is the only thing they eat. MonarchWatch has a whole bunch of resources about raising these caterpillars.
When your caterpillars become chrysalises, you have some time to go on to other units until the butterflies start emerging (10-14 days later). If you live east of the Rocky Mountains, your butterflies will migrate to Mexico to overwinter there. There are so many topics of discussion about the overwintering sites in Mexico and the controversy over preserving them! Great discussion for students of all levels!
Finally, consider tagging your adult Monarchs as you release them. The University of Kansas has been tracking the migration of the Monarchs for many years. I have been tagging for 25 years! You can discuss migration and so much more with your students as they learn about this amazing natural phenomenon.
¡Buena suerte!
[…] to review the novel Carrie Toth’s ideas of trainstorming, yellow brick road retell and Discussion Day are always a win for my […]
Your transparency about past failures and how you embraced the pain and humiliation of not living up to your view of yourself will help more people. Thank you. And I’m glad you and your students are having fun. Me as well this my 26 th yr teaching French
Thank you so much!!!
[…] Level 4 Spanish teacher using CI – she describes how she plans her curriculum for this Spanish 4 class […]
Carrie – I attended the ICTFL session at Mohomet-Seymour in September and fell in love with your teaching style. I am a Spanish Ed student at ISU, and would love any lesson plans or activities you found successful with your novel instruction. I have the Google docs you shared with us from that day, but I am creating a Thematic Unit on Panama based on your Vector book for class…hoping to share it with my peers and use it one day in the real world! I’m having trouble finding some good authentic additions to add to the reading to open the students up to Panama culture and the building of the canal… any resources would be greatly appreciated!
– Lora Carrillo
It was great to hear you speak at our conference. I am working on integrating tprs and moving away from the copy and paste mentality of repeating lessons.
I never cease to be amazed at all you produce and are willing to share. Thanks so much!
Thank you!!!
This is amazing! Gracias por compartir la unidad! 🙂
Do you have examples?
I have one called material world in a blog post here and several on TPT! I shared the links in this post https://somewheretoshare.com/2018/04/14/finish-the-year-strong/
Hola! Do you have a rubric for how you graded these? Gracias!
Yes! On my somewhere to share TPT I have a free download of easy feedback rubrics!!
I definitely agree with the concept of giving those outside the bubble a time to recuperate and get back in. I don’t do the FAST but I have made an agreement with parents to keep the child one hour once a week to do late work or just to catch up. It has work wonders. The students feel cared for and I feel appreciated because they do take the time to do the work and open up. All of them are in the bubble but they like to come and stay and just get reassured that they really know the concept.
How do you get those under Cs to stay at school for the tutoring? Do some of them just leave? We started Learning Lab this year… Pretty much the same concept,but after school for 45 minutes. We send a note home to parents, but kids are not showing up.
If they leave it is considered truancy although some have parents who call them in 🙁 most stay And at the end of quarter 3 we had half as many failures as the year before
Carrie,
What a great idea! I shared it with my administrators and they are interested 🙂 A question – Are FAST Fridays scheduled every week or more intermittently?
Cathy
Every… 3rd week!
Can you comment on how the class snapchat works? I’m very interested in doing this with my class with the right guidelines.
I do not follow them! They snap me via direct message! If ever there WERE and inappropriate pic it would come only to me! I put them in my story and the class can watch from there!
I love this! Ever since you tweeted about becoming certified through the National Geographic Educator Program, my interest has peaked! I’ve been researching the process, their site, and all of the cool resources available to teachers. Your lessons are so awesome, and your students look like they are having a blast learning! Congratulations! It’s amazing how many interactive resources are out there to help give our lessons more pizzazz, which, in turn, gives our students a deeper understanding of the material. Thank you for all you do…you are an inspiration! 🙂
Thank you so much!!!! This made me ☺️
[…] NO they don’t get it the first time I say it, but they never memorized all the preterite and imperfect forms for me when I was jamming them in via the textbook 5. […]
[…] seeing Carrie Toth’s unit on world homes, I was inspired to a create a mini unit. I recently finished one that relates to the AP Theme […]
Hello Carrie, thank you for your honesty and willingness to share (well, you did call this Somewhere to Share, right?) the truth that we all have ups and downs in all parts of our lives. We can and will keep going with renewed spirits! ❤️🔆💥 Happy New Year! Becky
Thank you for sharing. God is good and we are all so blessed.
I tried following you. Let’s see if I succeded. SOmetimes an error message pops up.
Maybe you’d check out my blog, too? It is a book, so go to Menu and Chapters and start from the beginning. I’d really love some feedback.
Thank you for a lovely post, and have a great week! 🙂
Hello!! I have just recently started to think about administering the APPL to my spanish 4 students. This is the first year we have offered this level and they can get college credit for the proficiency certificate of Intermediate low here in Minnesota. I have never taught them focused grammar and they have only been exposed them to very CI curriculum (readings, El Internado, TPRS stories, many of your ideas…) How much does grammar play into the test? How did you start to prepare your students? I know the first time my students take it they might not do as well as subsequent years when i can work on similar activities and have some data to guide my class, but I’m really concerned about that grammar aspect. Any tips?
Good articulation of the idea “Sustaining longer and longer discussions on familiar topics will stretch them out to that strong intermediate level”. I’m in the OPI certification process right now, and I definitely plan to change a lot of my curriculum next year to align with that idea.
I believe that the Seal of Biliteracy expectation has always been I5 (Intermediate-High) in all categories. Correct? Was it different in your district towards the beginning, perhaps?
In IL it has always been i5 but in the pilot year we thought it was going to be i4!
It says the video is unavailable.
Thank you! I always love to hear your insight!
Which one do you recommed for Spanish III and IV? Would it have the teacher’s guide? Please let me know Sicerely Maria/Sra. B
On Sun, Feb 4, 2018 at 7:32 AM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: “I have to be honest, I didn’t know how to write a novel > when I wrote La hija del sastre. I was finishing my Master’s degree and > had taken a class on the Spanish Civil War. I wanted to bring what I had > learned into my classroom so I designed a UbD (Under” >
Vector and TG are the most comprehensive!
[…] to Frida. Carrie Toth mentioned this idea in her webinar about connecting Frida to Snapchat. This has been on my to-do list for a while but […]
Thanks so much for sharing! One possible correction: the document says “Corazon/JBalvin” but I think it is by Maluma (according to Spotify, anyway)
It IS! I fixed the doc when I noticed!
Can you post directions on how you play or a link to directions by chance?
I just play two songs per day and students vote via google form!!
[…] Somewhere to Share (Carrie Toth) bracket songs […]
You never cease to amaze me! And the beautiful constant throughout your journey of betterment, is that you’re always inviting your followers to join you. No matter the topic, you break it down into such manageable steps, that by the end of your post I feel invincible. Thank you for taking the time to show us the way!
😊😊☺️ gracias!! This post teared me up!
[…] hadn’t heard of National Geographic Educator, but Carrie has me […]
I just wanted to stop by and thank you so much for the amazing Vector teacher’s guide! I’ve never purchased a more thorough product. I absolutely love the range of activities and have even been able to use some of your ideas in other levels. This stuff is gold I tell you- GOLD! We’re going to try The Breakout after spring break. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Thank you soooo much!!!
[…] meaty structures that we want our students to acquire. Also, Carrie Toth made a wonderful video here that explains how teachers the Wooly curriculum has something for EVERY level of student. It is […]
Thanks for this Carrie! I’ve been saving videos on this along the way this year thinking of doing an extended lesson for my 4/5s but hadn’t gotten to it yet. Mil gracias por tu trabajo! Becky
[…] Map Talk […]
[…] FREE UNIT: Material World – a unit on world homes […]
[…] Butterfly Life Cycle […]
[…] Snapchat and Frida Kahlo (the reader but could be adapted to her art only) […]
[…] Novel Study Different Readers […]
I would like to try this with Instagram. My school frowns on our use of SnapChat with students. I have been able to use Instagram.
Great idea!!!
Señora, I noticed in one of your units that I bought that you use Scholastic Explora tu mundo – selvas tropicales. Amazon sells that one book for 46.00. Yikes! How do you use that in your classroom? The book is amazing. The language is perfect for the students just taking it slightly above their level of comprehension yet not difficult enough for them to understand. I would definitely love to use them next year. What do you recommend?
I got them for $8 each through scholastic club Leo!!! I wonder if they can still get them??
So, I have picked up the gauntlet someone tossed out to CI French teachers, and I have written a novel. Now, what do I do?
YES!!!! Email me and I’ll give you details!! Senoracmt at gmail
Awesome post. Thank you, Carrie!
THANK YOU!
Hey Carrie,
I am actually doing reading groups with Robo en la noche with my mid level 2s (aka not honors). I feel it is going well but my only concern is that when I read whole group, I ask lots of personalized or comprehension questions as I go and I feel like they acquire a lot more vocabulary. With these groups, I feel like they are not acquiring as much. I am reading some parts aloud to them. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions on that?
Hey! In my 2s I do mostly whole class reading! On an easy chapter I let them read as a group and before the follow up we do a summary of the action! 2s tend to include more emerging readers in my experience than 3s and 4s! I want to honor their needs yet let the star readers shine! A chapter or two in groups gives them the best of both! A strong reader usually takes the lead and in a small group of peers, the others stay engaged!
Great, thanks Carrie. I’m trying to balance giving them independence (as they are craving it 4th quarter) with giving them what they need. I appreciate this post.
[…] and great resources from Carrie to finish the year […]
Were there certain items they had to include in the presentation? Did the panels each have a specific type of information it needed to have?
My family, my appearance, my personality, my interests! We have printed proficiency descriptors on the wall so they knew they were shooting for Novice High level at least! They had no required info to include because I wanted them to go wild not stick to one formula!
Carrie, you don’t happen to have a French version of these lying about? This would be an awesome unit for my split 3/4s next year.
It is under construction! Catherine Ousselin is helping me with a translation!!! I’m so excited to have it available for French soon! I think it is an important topic in every language!
Hello!
I was wondering if you have shared or would share how you set up the Talk Show speaking assessment that you did along with Hija del Sastre? We are about to read that in my advanced Spanish class and I was trying to think of an Assessment that involved speaking and that seems like the perfect fit!
Thank you so much! Love your ideas!
This is really interesting and helpful! How much (word count?) do you expect students will be writing? It seems that is always the first question: “How long does it have to be?”
The best part about really teaching with the proficiency descriptors is that I don’t get that question any more. They know that if they want to score in the intermediate low category they have to have a lot of detail and textual evidence. They should have evidence of the vocabulary and grammatical structure required to talk about that topic. At mid, they’re really using good paragraph structure, I’m seeing more consistency in use of tense, more connecting words (and richer ones), and even some rhetorical questioning! At the high level, they are organized with an introduction and conclusion and strong supports in their body paragraphs. They are even more consistent with tense than before, and it is something that I could send to a native speaker who wasn’t used to students and there would be little to misunderstand. Not error free, but very very comprehensible. Since they know these goals well, they don’t have to ask how many words, they know it is about quantity and evidence! 🙂 . I hope this helps! It has definitely been a process getting them to this place!
I commend you for getting them there! That is a great place for them to be! Thanks for taking the time to answer so thoroughly.
I’m new to learning about teaching with CI and am very curious about the writing process. Do you have a blog post on that or do you know a place I could find more information? Thanks for sharing. All of this is very inspiring!
Email me at senoracmt at gmail and I’ll try to answer any questions I can!
Hola!
Question. If they didn’t have that other exam that you referred to, would you be creating components for all modes of communication?
I do all modes at the end of each unit and so few take the final that I probably still wouldn’t test all in that one day! I have collected that same info other times so I feel confident looking just at output this time! Great question!
The code did not work! Just an FYI!
On Sun, May 6, 2018 at 1:10 PM, Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: “One of the things that I love about movie talks and > using pop music in class is that I am able to create week long units that > are very versatile. What I select as structures for one class, I can adapt > for another level. Each time I find a great, new son” >
I had this post scheduled to post today and accidentally posted it yesterday! The sale starts tomorrow (but yesterday, that tomorrow was not right!) May 8-9! Email me and I’ll make up for it! 🙂 senoracmt at gmail
[…] Paco and Basilio with Hula Hoop Venn Diagrams here. The Hula Hoop idea is from the amazing Carrie Toth. (Side note: Hula Hoops can also transition into a wonderful brain break!) . After a lot of […]
What a great activty! i am going to do Vector next week with my class and am frantically searching the web for ideas. I am so glad yours came up!
I like using La noche boca arriba with it and Kristy Placido has a free packet here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/La-Noche-Boca-Arriba-Embedded-Readings-and-Activities-level-4-2987067
The TG is the biggest one I’ve ever written! It has authentic audio for every chapter (3 are video) and a ton of fun follow ups!
Martina will be at Express Fluency too! https://expressfluency.com/product/vtteacher2018/
[…] that inspired me to use Snapchat this year was Carrie Toth’s blog post here about how she had students connect “self to text” with her Snapchat selfie project […]
Thank you for sharing your experience! I have always wanted to take my French students on a trip abroad, but unfortunately, I have not yet had the opportunity. As you describe perfectly, the responsibility of “counting the little ducklings” would be a challenge. I think it is crucial to make our students more globally aware. In the meantime, I’m limited to “virtual fieldtrips” for my students, as I familiarize them with countries where French is spoken: http://teachinginthetargetlanguage.com/geography-in-the-target-language-more-on-cross-curricular-activities/. Thank you for sharing your insight on both travel with students (and with other adults)! Best of luck to you with everything!
I can’t say THANK YOU enough for all your resources. I have been pouring over your scope and sequence pages (I also teach 1, 2, 3 & 4), your store and now your blog (this article was so helpful!). Exams are my ever present struggle! Do you have any thoughts on what you might do for a placement test say if you wanted to have a students skip a level or find out where they come in as a transfer student? For example, I know I couldn’t ask them about el sindicato or Oscar Romero when I know they didn’t cover that – should I just ask them to tell me about topics they would know (What did you do this summer, etc.?). I have a student with a scheduling conflict and I want to put her in 4 rather (skipping 3 instead of no Spanish class this year) because she is a strong student I think those levels are somewhat interchangeable but I need to give her a placement test… Thanks in advance!
I think that would be a GREAT placement test! For me, Spanish 3 and 4 are also somewhat interchangeable. We study different topics but I think either level could handle those topics… And I think your strongest students deserve exactly what you want to do! The opportunity to continue their study. Why don’t you create a placement test that a proficiency based rubric at the top… the rubric could have some descriptors from the target level of proficiency for each prompt. If students know the target they’re shooting for, you’ll likely be able to determine quickly whether they’re close or not! It could be very general topics that allow for a lot of room to add detail that students have language to include! It might also help you see where they’ll need a little support as they’re absorbed into your group!
Maybe some questions like: Tell me everything about who you are. What are some of the things you like and dislike about our school?
Thank you so much for your helpful comments Carrie!
Great analogy to keep us grounded (lol) as we return to school! Thanks!
🙂 grounded! I love it! Thinking of analogies kept my jaw from quivering from the cold! Well, sort of.
Woman, you NEVER cease to amaze me. Love this post and you too!
Thank you!! Love you too! Hope to see you at ACTFL!
I am missing ACTFL for the first time in 5 years to do TFLTA instead, but I hope to be at both Central States and ACTFL in 2019!
[…] My overall goal for the year is that students will be able to talk about the world around them. We have decided on Robo en la noche (past tense part). Our first trimester (after the graphic novel) will be about the environment. I definitely plan on picking up Carrie’s unit on Mar de plástico. […]
[…] practice retelling the story students will engage in the brilliant ideas of Blind Retell, Trainstoring and Yellow Brick Road. […]
[…] retelling the story students will engage in the brilliant ideas of Blind Retell, Trainstoring and Yellow Brick Road. […]
[…] How Carrie planned to start her school year […]
[…] Beyond the Cloze: Aquisition through Narrative by […]
I own all of the units available here, and my students and I LOVE them. It helps us to have meaningful conversations in the target language. You are amazing Carrie and not just because we have the same name and spelling. Your work has helped me transform my teaching and better my student’s quality of education. Thank you so much!
Thank you SO much! I’m working on sustainable cities this fall! Hoping I get enough time to finish that one and CHOCOLATE! 😍
Hooray for Carries!
What level was this? Thanks for sharing ñ!
The reading was in level 3 but the activity would work at any level!
I don’t understand who they txted to?
Ok, I see the txted, but wouldn’t the questioning have been too easy for the students in level 3? What was a question? Like, what was Julio like? En inglés? Just curious? Es un repaso? No?
Great question. A couple of parts to the answer. Yes, level 3 but a spoken question in Spanish is much different than one they can see and read. They have to process without visual support! And they’re level 3 but it’s day 4 of class so basically they’re level 2 plus 4 days! The questions I asked were “how do you know Julio was a bad boyfriend?” “How do you know Claudia was a good girlfriend?” “How did Julio feel after Claudia abandoned him?” “What problems did Claudia’s departure cause for Julio” and “what did the text say?”
I asked in Spanish, they re read the text to find the answers. Just a twist on a simple comprehension question.
Got it! The questions are also both higher level thinking than, what is he like? I have a hard time making it more complex than asking, ¿como es Julio? What is Julio like? I guess it just takes thought as a teacher and practice to create them, right? I’m very new to asking good, comprehensive reading comprension questions.
Exactly!! If you think of questioning in terms of Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs it’s easier to make questions they CAN answer that inspire them to think deeper! It does take practice!! I am still practicing too!!
Thanks! I’m new to all of this! You are a pro! A trail blazer!
Reblogged this on My Journey to Learning and Growing as a Teacher.
[…] What do I want them to know? (NOT long vocabulary lists) Check out Carrie’s POST […]
I love the idea of subliminal grammar! How do you decide which subjunctive phrases are the most common? Which noun clauses? Querer que for sure… but there are so many to choose from! Help…
I teach querer que, recomendar que, es necesario que, es importante que, ojalá… and I teach them a couple of things like “que tengas un buen día” “que lo pases bien esta noche” “que tu fin de semana sea increíble” as passwords!
Hola, Carrie,
As is always the case, thank you for being so generous with your ideas and materials! I am so thankful for the gifted and committed teachers who have embraced CI for the benefits of the next generations!
This post went straight to my heart. I love grammar and always have and yet I truly believe that CI is the right context to introduce students to these concepts without overwhelming them. I needed to ‘hear’ that in due time, CI works and that we are on the right track! For the majority of my students, it is enough, but for those who enjoy “grammar bytes,” posters like the one you provided are a great source of satisfaction. In that spirit, let me know if you have other posters to share. I would be happy to purchase them through your store!
In the meantime, God bless you and the other teachers who are paving the way for us!
I plan to make other posters (time is scarce this time of year!) and come back and add them here! 🙂 We’ll see!!!
THANK YOU for your comment!
I really appreciate this post! I think the main takeaway is “go slow and teach for June.”
[…] the chuck-it bucket as a way to pare down to the basics and then add a few enrichment structures for the real […]
[…] post addresses how grammar is covered in a CI […]
Dear Sra. Toth:
Kudos to you! Embrace it all and think of this as the norm instead of the exception! Good things come to those who, like you, are answering a calling and continue to love our profession. Thank you for sharing and for continuing to be an inspiration to us all. ¡Enhorabuen!
That is so awesome!! That says a lot for you.
Congratulations!
Valene
I’m so happy for you! You deserve it!
That’s awesome!!!! Now tell me, where can I get access to Internado? I can’t find it on Netflix.
I ordered the DVD set from Amazon.es! Gran Hotel as well!
Thank you for this post. I was just trying to figure out how to incorporate speaking assessment with my 4’s this year. This gives me so many options! I hope to try at least one of your suggestions sometime soon. Your blog and products in TPT are helping me to grow as a teacher this year. Mil gracias!!
Thank you!!!
Hey Carrie! Can you help me with the phrase ¿Y si Claudia se lo rompía? How do you decide to use rompía there, grammatically speaking? This is sincerely for my own education! Gracias!
I know what you mean! When I wrote the story I wrote it as lo rompiera but I have everything “native proofed” and she said it should be rompía. She says she can’t tell the name of the rule but can say that rompiera “no suena bien”. 🙂 Language… Gotta love it!
Thanks Carrie! My husband is Argentine and he said he would say “rompe” instead, but not rompiera either. I am practicing subjunctive and was thinking it would be a hypothetical = rompiera. Ugh! Just shows that you can`t LEARN languages, right?! Muchas gracias por todo que compartes!!
Thank you for posting this! My tests are different every year as well. I went for making grammar videos (pre CI) to thinking this year everything will be proficiency-based. It’s exciting! How do you think I can better my training for identifying what different proficiency levels look / sound like? I feel like I have a “feeling” for it, but I want to be able to better defend myself. Gracias!
Hola! What was your final writing presentation?
In level 2, I usually have my final assessment be a comparison between a book and a film or a summary of the book! My focus is on getting them to add lots of detail to their writing! With this reader, we did a summary!
[…] shared another excellent unit on environmental […]
Hola Carrie, thank you for sharing. Beautiful! I continue to be inspired by your posts. I really appreciate how generously you share everything; it helps me be a better teacher. I would love for you to present at our school! I’ll email you so we can discuss.
Happy Thanksgiving!
💜Susan Scotty
Thank you so much! Email any time!
[…] wrote an extremely honest post. It can seem like so many bloggers lead perfect lives, but we all have weaknesses in our classes […]
And you are a Central States Regional Teacher of the Year and many, many people view your presentations and view your blog! Go figure
It’s crazy how, in spite of our flaws, we can still see successes too! 🙂
Thank you for creating and sharing such awesome resources!!
This is so timely! I just started this unit today (with Casas de carton) and trying to decide where to go after this. Are there any scenes in Romero to be aware of? P.S. For others who also have Amazon Prime, I found it there!
There is ZERO nudity or f bombs but there is a strong scene when Padre Osuna is being tortured in the next room and Romero is forced to listen from his cell. I do warn them that this is coming. You see nothing but you can totally imagine what’s happening.
Thanks, this is helpful:)
I am 100% with you on the pre/post tests! Ahhhh! I cannot help but laugh (and love) #7! Awesome post! ❤
THANK YOU! My life is 80% disaster, 20% lucky breaks!
Did I write the last part : ) I think that we share the same strengths/weaknesses! Thank you for reminding me that other people have weaknesses too!
It’s crazy how the weaknesses often lead to my biggest growth! Thank you for your comment! It IS great to know we aren’t alone!
I would LOVE to be able to go deskless! I tried it at the beginning of this school year and I loved what it did in terms of preventing bandito cellphone use, sleeping,and doing other stuff. However, I have to share my classroom with another teacher. It was too much for her and her students. She needed the “comfort structure” that desks seem to give and so I had to accommodate, by going back to having desks. My dream is to not have to share my room anymore- I’ve had to for almost 6 years now- so I could have a room that would foster acquisition better.
Thank you for sharing! I love all of these ideas for incorporating art, music, and games into our lessons. Also, I like what you said about bringing in guests. As a non-native speaker, I find guests are a valuable resource. If you or interested in more on CI, you might enjoy my recent post: http://teachinginthetargetlanguage.com/6-ways-comprehensible-input-will-help-us-to-stay-in-the-tl/. I am looking forward to hearing more from you. I am always looking for more ideas on CI and other topics related to teaching a language. Thank you for this post! 🙂
[…] like how Carrie chose to incorporate mentor texts into her Spanish 4 class. I want to do something similar in the New […]
[…] Circle the Wagons is a retell activity created by Carrie Toth that allows students to speak at their level. […]
I absolutely love this post!! I have a Sr. Wooly Pro subscription, but I have only used it once this year. I feel it is a very valuable tool, but I struggle with how to implement it in my curriculum. Not only did I learn something about how grammar is a part of what we do as sort of a sidebar, but I learned about how you are using a Sr. Wooly song to provide great input. This post really helps me wrap my mind around using the site for the benefit of my students. Thanks so much for sharing this post!
I think our plans for Wooly Week will really cement the idea too! Can’t wait!
[…] love how Carrie recycles grammar throughout her […]
Hola I am using your amazing unit and incorporate this video after the 1 step in the plan before they jump to do their graphics. You are so creative so I am sharing it with you [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjlucM66jC4&w=560&h=315%5D
Thank you so much!
[…] can use to retell the story in groups or a as a class. I love to use Carrie Toth’s model of Circle the Wagons for […]
Love these two activities. I have never seen them before, but I believe my students will really be engaged wirh them. Thanks so much for all you shared during Wooly Week, and again, for sharing these two videos.
Love both of these ideas. Your explanations and class demonstrations on video are very helpful. We are reading Esperanza now and I needed some new ideas! Thank you.
Quip-Lash would be an awesome way to get a “flood of input” of 1st person preterite. Thanks so much!
Quip-Lash would be an awesome way to give a “flood of input” of 1st person preterite. Thanks so much!
[…] has blogged about some more activities to do while you are reading […]
[…] on the original idea from Carrie Toth, I adapted “La Idea Central” (from Vida y Muerte en la MS 13) for Felipe Alou. Chap 6 […]
Thank you for the great movie and activities! 🙂 I am using this video with my level 3 class. Last year they watched the movie “Alma” which has some similarities. So . . . today after rewatching Alma, students will work in pairs to create a Venn diagram about the 2 videos and will then write about the similarities and differences.
I am going to use both this week! I had an idea so that I don’t have to go around and check each board for correctness before groups rotate: the game makers could put random numbers on the back of each sentence card, then make an answer key on a sheet of paper that they hide under the game board. Then when kids have finished matching they could pull out the answer sheet and check their own work.
That is a GREAT idea!!!
Thanks so much! We used this and loved it!
I just started LCDLD this week and I am so inspired by your video tutorials! Thank you! It is the first time I’ve ever done a graphic novel and I am excited!!
Agree 100%! These books are so multi-sensory…the pictures, the reading, the songs, and the PQA you can create out of all of the above. I use the slideshow the first 3/4 of the book- picture-talking like you show in your tutorials- and then let them tear through that last quarter of the book without me. We gotta meet kids where they are… (or rather, *who they are…) and that’s being multi-sensory beings. I imagine ACTFL didn’t accept the proposal because of the limited amount of graphic novels available. They’ll catch on.
Hi Carrie! Do you have an explanation somewhere of the final speaking assessment that you use when doing your reading groups (the interview with the characters)? Thank you in advance!
I do “discussion Thursday”… could be any day though. I have a full packet about it here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Real-Conversation-with-Discussion-Thursday-3286274
I think I may not have explained myself correctly: I am referring to the assessment part that you do after you finish reading the novel. In your One Book Club you explain that there is an interview with the characters. I was wondering if you have a full explanation of this part. I already purchased your Real Conversation Thursday packet! We just started today and so far so good!
Oh, good gravy! I’m sorry! I misunderstood! I don’t have any formal doc on the activity but I have done it with several different readers! It looks a little like a panel discussion and discussion Thursday mixed! The four or five students playing the roles of the characters are answering the questions and the class is coming up with the questions to ask them. Using Sastre as an example, if one student is Emilia and one Ignacio, their classmates might ask them “Emilia, are you going to forgive Ignacio for what he did?” She can answer but they have to try to keep the conversation going to earn their points! If Ignacio can expand on Emilia’s comment, he gets points. If she can answer the questions, she gets points. Same discussion but just a little different lens! I should write something about it some time! Actually… for their final speaking, my 3s are going to do this to compare 2 films. Maybe I’ll do it then!
Thank you! This is exactly what I was asking about! I am going to have my Level 4/5 students compare two films that we studied in class this semester.
Love it- I would love to do this with my department. But I am told I need to ‘follow the book’- I wonder if I did this, (alone- but in order to help kids articulate successfully) where would you put a circle of
‘words they need to be successful at the next leve/they’re expected to know next year’?
The great thing about the Chuck it Bucket is that you can use it on a large scale or small! For example: You have to teach to the textbook but your colleagues are doing all the activities day by day, you choose some key vocab and grammar chunks and you do a unit like homes of the world (https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Viviendas-del-mundo-Level-2-1-week-Unit-of-Study-3766205) as a replacement for those workbook and textbook pages. In the end, which students will likely retain it more? The ones who memorized it and used it all out of context or the ones who were immersed in global homes!? Or say you just don’t believe in the chores unit and you really want to find time to fit in a reader! Go through the chores list and find some non-negotiables like clean, wash, has to, doesn’t want to… work those into your other discussions and read a reader while the other classes spend 3 weeks memorizing chores. I guarantee you, the ones that do the chores unit won’t remember dust the furniture or vacuum the carpet any better than your students who never even learned it. 😉 Kids just don’t get engaged by chore vocab! If you’re careful about planning in some of the textbook themes as you replace them with your own passions and things that engage students, you’ll have so much more fun and so will your kids. And the cool part is that you attract a lot more people to what you’re doing when they see your students being successful.
Thank you as always for your words of wisdom!
I have been happily on my own journey but I was just told I need to make all my units align with the 6 AP themes (we are on a 6 week grading period schedule).
I am using SOMOS, EMETM, readers and some Adiós Textbook and Im sad to think I can’t use these units anymore (I have been assigned set sub themes for level 2).
Any thoughts/ideas for how this could work?
Thank you! Rebecca
El jun. 4, 2019, a la(s) 5:45 a. m., Somewhere to Share escribió:
> >
You can ABSOLUTELY align those with the 6 AP themes! The great thing about the AP themes is that they are broad and they are relevant!! Everything you do can easily be tied to them! Whether it is the robber in the house story in Somos 2 – Contemporary life (add a related news story plucked from the headlines), EMETM – ALL about the AP themes from families to science and tech to global challenges, look at the themes and sub-themes and you’ll see that they’re a great fit for what we do! We’re giving them the stepping stones of language they need to talk about those greater themes! There is not ONE grammar based AP theme! You’re totally safe! Remember it is how you market what you’re doing. Word it right, they’ll be able to see the value!
Thank you! This was very encouraging to me and I needed it today!
Thanks for that fine piece of optimism! Slogging thru the last 10 days. Needed this!
[…] they do know. Not sure how to go about narrowing your focus in a unit? Try checking out the “Chuck-it Bucket” or the “Liberation from the List” posts to help […]
[…] Her blog in general – especially for ideas about how she teaches with novels […]
[…] towards the AAPPL for the Seal of Biliteracy (inspired by Carrie, as […]
[…] is more than a part of a textbook page. Carrie does this beautifully in units that are about SDGs. Teach about your passion! Design units that you are excited about and you will in turn see the […]
Thank you for highlighting this video. It is a great platform to lead into discussion in an upper level class with mature students. I look forward to using it! You are correct — it has to be packaged just right and students need to be in a safe place to discuss the many issues and emotions that probably will arise in this discussion. It’s really a beautiful song! Gracias!
Hi there, I’m searching for STEM type activities that my students could work hands-on together for the first day(s) of school. I, of course, want them to be related to Spanish and I thought you would be the person to start with since you have a passion for science and Spanish. I want students to have to think outside-of-the- box and construct something that is related to my content area (high school Spanish I). My idea is that they will “race” against other groups to construct their product and then we can discuss differences, benefits, and processes afterwards. I’ve searched high and low on TPT and all I can find is a STEM activity in which students work in groups to construct chinampas from a study on Aztec floating gardens. Any ideas or directions you can offer would be appreciated. Thanks so much and happy planning!
On Fri, Jul 26, 2019 at 7:23 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: ” The summer has been so wonderful! I got to visit Costa > Rica with a group of students who were SO excited to use their Spanish in > the real world! I got to float in my pool sooooo many days because it has > been unseasonably warm! My hibiscus plants were the” >
I think repurposing products to keep plastics out of the landfills could be a cool stem activity. We do that in my zero waste unit and Marta Yedinak did it as a follow up to Mar de plástico. You could do something with green energy sources. I’ve seen several solar ovens that are classroom experiments as I’ve been researching my green energy unit!
Thanks for all you do and all you share! In your post, you mention that there are some links in your What’s in a Unit? share. I couldn’t get any of them to work. Which ones are active links?
SO weird. When I save it as a PDF, it is killing all the links. I’m going to re-upload it as a word doc. The links work there! Thank you for seeing this!
Fixed!
Carrie,
Thank you for your inspiring units! I too have a passion for the environment and taking care of our natural resources, and I love that you’ve incorporated those values through your love of science and travel. They are a wonderful springboard for teaching upper levels in an engaging and current way!
I have to know, where did you get your planner from? I LOVE it!
Thanks!
Amber
________________________________
It’s an Erin Condren! I love them so much and get one every year!
[…] of my units, from individual favorites like Basura cero and Mar de plástico… a bundled of a semester’s worth of awesome lessons at 25% off the already discounted price… to new units like En guerra, Viaja conmigo (novice […]
[…] worth of awesome lessons at 25% off the already discounted price… to new units like En guerra, Viaja conmigo (novice and intermediate units in one package), and Energía renovable, I hope I can […]
Yay!! So exciting. I have some gaps to fill for Spanish 3 & 4 so I will check them out. I am curious, are you updating what you are teaching this year on your blog? This was so helpful to pursue last year for ideas.
I am not sure where “running dictations” originated but I visited a small Christian school in Costa Rica and taught the high schoolers (and teacher) this activity while I was there. So fun! Wouldn’t have had any idea for a last minute vocab plan when asked without this training from my awesome Fluency Matters peeps!
Did I see you took a group to C.R. this year? If so, could I ask for you to tell me more? I went solo but am thinking of taking a class and it would be my first international trip with students so I am looking for any tips & tricks, maybe especially with sightseeing/getting around as housing and days in San Jose will be covered with the connection to the school there.
Enjoy your blessed days of summer!!!
Afton
P.S. your planner is WAY cuter than mine:)
Yes! I updated them at the end of last year and will do the same this year! I always try to choose the units that are most engaging for the students in front of me so some readers and units of study change year by year!
I have always done my student travel with Explorica or EF! Send an email and I can answer any questions about either!
[…] seems like just YESTERDAY I was reflecting on the 18-19 school year and remembering the joy that this journey brings me. A blink later, […]
[…] seems like just YESTERDAY I was reflecting on the 18-19 school year and remembering the joy that this journey brings me. A blink later, I’ve been to Costa Rica with an amazing group of […]
[…] Interculturality is a key component of any unit design. We need to ensure that the culture of the world is more than a part of a textbook page. Carrie does this beautifully in units that are about SDGs. […]
Up to what grade level are the activities applicable? What levels also do they cater to on the ACTFL proficiency scales? Thanks.
The soundtrack activity is suitable for all audiences! The quotes are definitely more into the high intermediate but could be enjoyed by lower level students if they had help! The color biography and other readings are targeted for 2+! They’re a high intermediate to maybe some intermediate low words!
[…] Spanish / Spanish 4: I read Carrie Toth’s post the other day about starting her upper levels differently and I plan to use her *free*!! resource […]
Hi! I downloaded this doc, but I cannot click on any of the links. How should I find the specific units you mention? I googled some, but I want to make sure they are the right & complete units you reference. Thank you!
El jul. 26, 2019, a la(s) 20:23, Somewhere to Share escribió:
> >
I am adding the Word Doc to the post. I don’t know what it is doing to my links when I convert to PDF! Thanks for letting me know!!!
It is exciting to see a department grow! Last year I had 12 Spanish III students. This year, I have 34 Spanish III and one lone Spanish IV student! And.. this is in a small rural town in Missouri (:
If you build it, they will come!!! Congratulations on that 1 level 4!! Next year there will be more and then more after that!!
Your numbers found great! Congrats on the growth! I had 1 Span 4 student last year and this year there are 14!!! So happy and excited. I do have a curriculum question. You stayed that in Span 2, you just finished Unit 2 of Somos 2. Did they complete all Units of Somos 1 in year 1 or do you just jump into Somos 2 in year 2 regardless of how far they got in year 1?
We just go to somos 2 year 2!
Could you please send me the document pages to edit? robin.kratzke@estemschools.org
¡Gracias!
[…] key element to unit redesign is the C The Chuck It Bucket allows you to carefully plan what students will take away and learn forever. We […]
Thank you! This is so good and my very struggle today with a 3 chapter Frida Kahlo test!! You always inspire and teach me Carrie!!
Hola Carrie! You continue to amaze me and inspire me! I will be forever grateful for all you do to help others! I am a better teacher because of you. Thank you for your generous spirit and amazing creations! Seriously- you and Kristi both are such valuable resources to our community. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Great post and helpful. With love and gratitude. Susan Scotty St. John’s School Houston
Sent from my iPad
>
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I really, really appreciate your kind words!!
[…] end of the school year, Sebastián Yatra released En guerra. I loved it and have blogged about it here. This is a great example of a song that carries such a heavy meaning, it is better within a unit of […]
[…] Part of a Unit: At the end of the school year, Sebastián Yatra released En guerra. I loved it and have blogged about it here. This is a great example of a song that carries such a heavy meaning, it is better within a unit of study. Using the song as a catalyst, students become engaged in using their developing language to discuss deep topics. One of my favorites from a few years ago is Morat’s song Aprender a quererte! I used it as part of a unit on education. A song inspired me to address one of the SDGs before I even knew about the SDGs! […]
[…] on the Artist: Sometimes its the body of work that is important! I’m a big fan of Lin Manuel Miranda and I wanted to introduce my students to his music in class. His music is in English (for the most […]
Loved this post I also use music. What kind of gestures or where can I find an example of gestures to use for the songs?
In the post I linked to two songs that have a gesture activity but basically I try to find something they can gesture every other line. Ex in the song Suena el dembow, he says la noche está buena ( we do one thumbs up) y bailando contigo se pone mejor (we put the other thumb up with the first to represent better). Or in Tanto she says te amo tanto (we make a heart with our hands) tanto que me siento tonta (we put our palm to our forehead for foolish)! I try to give a line between gestures so they have time to think of what’s coming next!!
[…] shared some great ideas to use with songs! I hadn’t heard of move or keep […]
Hi Carrie: can you please give me a breakdown of your topics that you will give in your PRE-CONFERENCE? Is it geared to beginning CI teachers or intermediate? Thanks!
It is basically a toolkit of the ways I provide input and then the types of output students get ready for as they grow in proficiency. It is not a how to on being comprehensible or on story telling! It is definitely about backward designing the experiences that will make students feel like acquisition is fun and effortless yet acquire a ton! Does this help?
yes! Thanks!!!
That was a wonderful story and some raw sharing. Thank you so much. No matter where we are, there is always room to grow.
Alison and anyone else looking for more info about this unit – Look at this post for the whole unit! https://somewheretoshare.com/2018/11/05/water-is-life/
Awesome Martina, thanks so much!
<3
[…] Looking for music to put a little pep in your step? Try this musical magic bundle. Read more here. […]
[…] always a good idea to have a theme that you want to learn more about. I learned that here and here. The only thing I would add is to keep notes about what you did the entire time, not just during […]
[…] was almost seven years ago that for the first time I read La Hija del Sastre by Carrie Toth with my Spanish 3 students. At first we thought that the main goal of this story was to inform us […]
¡De acuerdo! Alegría for the win!
This is fantastic! Thank you!
My pastor recently spoke on the same topic! Our joy is found in the hope we have in Christ, and is not based on our every day feelings. Praying you will have joy every day and will be blessed in 2020.
On Tue, Dec 31, 2019 at 5:59 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: ” Christmas break has given me some much needed time to > relax! I can’t travel over my holiday breaks because when I get down time, > I need it to be real DOWN time. I wear pajamas all day, I read a lot, I > drink a TON of coffee… Now that I feel recharged” >
Keep calm and give them things they can read and understand and listen to and understand. That is my plan. Love to you all. ~Profe HB P.S. How about Tina Hardegen’s book project??
Couldnt agree with you more! We have a role to play in society right now that is even more important than the one we held physically in the classroom! We need to help our students and their families through this tough situation with some gentle support and guidance while keeping the student active in Spanish.
Thank YOU for all that you do. I appreciate it!! You hang in there too!!
Very well said, Carrie. I’ve been saying this from the beginning: NO ONE is owed anything for free (I’m speaking educationally here, not financial help for those who need it). And yet, so many companies, big and small, along with individuals, are doing just that: providing educational tools for FREE. No one EVER went into business with the plan of losing money. NO ONE. And yet, people walk around with their hands out EXPECTING free, free, free. Thank you to all those who have freely given. I don’t deserve it, yet I am greatly benefitted by it!!!
Carie, thanks for saying what needs to be said. We teachers preach flexibility to our kids, we need to be practice it ourselves. What a great opportunity for professional growth we have been given!! We teachers need to rely on our colleagues, and Professional Learning Networks to get ourselves up to speed and on-board with how, in my opinion, the rest of the school year is going to be. Let’s use this situation to start training these kids how to learn language for the sake of learning instead of for a a grade. I, too, applaud Sr. Wooly and Fluency matters, and all the other companies for helping to ease this transition; many thanks, and if you need a roll of TP, I’d be happy to drive in from the suburbs and share one. 😉
That TP sharing mentality is exactly how we all need to live right now! Kudos to you, Tye!! 🙂
Carie, thanks for saying what needs to be said. We teachers preach flexibility to our kids, we need to be practice it ourselves. What a great opportunity for professional growth we have been given!! We teachers need to rely on our colleagues, and Professional Learning Networks to get ourselves up to speed and on-board with how, in my opinion, the rest of the school year is going to be. Let’s use this situation to start training these kids how to learn language for the sake of learning instead of for a a grade. I, too, applaud Sr. Wooly and Fluency matters, and all the other companies for helping to ease this transition; many thanks, and if you need a roll of TP, I’d be happy to drive in from the suburbs and share one. 😉
I am AMAZED at all that has been given for FREE already. And the time you and other leaders in the field have put in when we were ALL scrambling, including yourselves. This was a great message. Everything is out of sorts and will be for awhile, let’s all cut ourselves, our parents, our students some slack and get through it the best we can. We do t have to provide perfect learning. Just continue to encourage learning the best we can.
THANK YOU for all that you do and share. Even the paid resources are a generous gift when I consider my personal time saved, and you guys provide so much more free than just the resources. The guidance, the answered questions, the training. I can’t imagine any other business/industry doing more to support each other. THANK YOU.
Carrie….you nailed it. I feel the same way. Really missing my kids and my routine, but trying to be thankful for little things. Thank you for reminding us what is important.
¡Es la verdad! Thank you for all you do Carrie!
Thank you Carie for your words. So important right now.
Well said, written, and expressed! Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to recreate a classroom experience that we forget this is different and while we want our students to learn, we can’t do it the same way. Lots of journals and online quizzes; lots of free choice reading of any material and lots of listening to whatever it is might be where we need to go and that still works. We should be grateful for what is available and modify our own resources or what is already out there to meet our needs and to just give our kiddos choices to keep learning and trying. Thank you for the reminder and for all of those that have shared and are continuing to share the good ideas and resources; the WL community has come together and the support and resources available are amazing!
I am so sorry for the unreasonable demands teachers have been asking of you, of Seńor Wooly, of Fluency Matters, and of all the other wonderful people who create resources for teachers to use on a regular basis. I was shocked when I saw your post last week and now I am saddened even more. Sad because teachers are the ones who are the first to complain when admin or parents make unreasonable demands or even requests that involve additional time to an already packed day. I was super grateful when I saw all of you (superhéroes in my opinion) initiate offers of help. What? I don’t have to figure this out alone? You all are fenomenal in my book and I am super appreciative of everything all of you superhéroes have done. I hope when people come to their senses, they remember to send an apology for their crazy behavior remembering we are all in this together. Thank you again for your incredible generosity and hard work. You’re part of an amazing group of people ❤️
Thank you, thank you, thank you. This needed to be said, and you are working your butt off trying to support people who are just…not being cool.
Thank you, Carrie! You are so right and we need to band together, support each other, and stop complaining.
I have always said, what we teach isn’t as important as who we teach and that may mean that teaching them to be better people in this world is more important than the math, language, science that we teach them. We need to be leaders and step up.
We need to support small businesses now more than ever. Fluency Matters and Senor Wooly have been so generous of their time and their resources. I’ve seen some nasty posts out there as well and hope that it’s out of frustration of our current situation rather than an example of their personality.
Thank you again for this blog and all that you do. I use Fluency-Matters and Senor-Wooly resources throughout my academic year and I will continue to use them in the future.
THANK YOU CARRIE TOTH….
Carrie,
Thanks for putting all of that out here for us to hear! I was stuck in a large pile of grief last week and felt so fortunate to being able to utilize the E-courses offered by Fluency Matters! I have also been relying on Sr. Wooly and couldn’t be more grateful! I realized that I love creating & was missing it terribly. Jim’s site,Sr. Wooly, really helped me & my family! We made a video based on ‘Las excusas’, we sang & created scenes with Legos & Barbies! I can’t wait to share it with my students! My creative brain needed that! IT SAVED ME!
Thank you for all your work! Thank you Fluency Matters team! Thank you Señor Wooly team! Thank you Martina Bex! I felt LOVED by our community of language teachers before we became home bound. Besides making me feel prepared with my classes, I just felt a tremendous amount of love! That is what I am going to try to continue to spread at this time. “Try to love one another right now!” -The Youngbloods
This post is spot-on. Thank you for all you are doing during this time when you are no less stressed than any of the rest of us. Blessings.
On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 8:28 AM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: “” >
Amen, Sister!!!! I can’t believe you even have a reason to write this!!! I am truly sorry that this is the thanks you get for all you do FOR FREE!!!! All I want for you and your family, and the rest of us, right now is to stay safe and healthy!!!
Thank you soooo much! I use your Mar de Plástico unit every spring as well and I was wondering how best to adapt it on my LMS. You are an angel! Also, thanks for your kind words of wisdom “if learning without the teacher were easy, they wouldn’t need to hire us back”. So true!!
[…] for Voces Digital. Today I want to share one of my favorite tips with you. I learned it from Carrie Toth and Abra Koch. It is called Map Talk. Ever since I used the one Carrie included in her Plastic Ocean […]
So it took me a while to read this tab that I opened to keep track of 🙄 haha, but I can’t believe you’re offering these booster packs for free! WOW! Carrie, you are an incredible human being!!! ❤️
I’m doing the units with 3 and 4 right now and the digital resources have made it feel a little more like we are together in class! I hope your students enjoy the units too!!!
May I ask a question about how you assess your students in a class with such a wide discrepancy in proficiency levels? Do you continue to use just one rubric for the entire class throughout the year when assessing and placing them? In other words, is intermediate mid the target for all of your students in level 4? I teach in a very small private school. 2 transfer students who had already completed level 2 in another school, were forced to repeat level 2 because of scheduling issues. They are very high. In that same class, I have about 8 IEP students who LOVE my class but are struggling to maintain a C. As you mentioned, there is a very wide gap.
Where can I get your Huellas curriculum? How much does it cost?
Hi! It will be available on Teachers Pay Teachers in about three weeks! If you follow my blog, I’ll be making a post when I share it!
We will start writing our fall curriculum next week! Ack! Is it possible to look an overview and or see a sample unit?
HI! I have the Huellas 1 overview made and Huellas 2 is in production! If you follow Somewhere to Share on TPT you can see some images there and if you do not, just email me carrie at somewheretoshare.com and I’ll send them to you! Unit 2 of Huellas 2 is free on TPT and is a good sample of what my work is like!
Saludos! I would also love a copy of the permission slip that you use before showing videos. I’m excited to start incorporating more videos in the future. Gracias!
Thank you for all of your dedication and hard work creating Huellas, Carrie. Your work was highly recommended when I moved to Spanish 3 and 4 last year and I followed your Scope and Sequence for the majority of the year. I purchased many of your units and cannot wait to incorporate Huellas into the existing curriculum for whatever the upcoming school year has in store for all of us!
THANK YOU!!!
First of all – you are amazing. Secondly – thanks for this post. Perfect to print out and get approved for a purchase order 🙂
Thank you!!!
What amazing resources! I am curious. In a normal year, which novels would you use in conjunction with Huellas, and at which points in your curriculum would you cover them? TIA!
Cindy, thanks for asking this! I edited the post to add my updated Spanish 3 Scope and Sequence. Of course the upcoming year may be a disaster but I wanted to have a plan in case we have enough normalcy to learn a little! 🙂
Carrie, thank you! It was so helpful to see how you envision tying it all together!
Carrie, primero- mil gracias! I will be teaching level 3/4- combined class 🙁 – this fall for the first time in almost 4 years- and I am anx-ty about it especailly after the way last spring ended for anyone in Spanish 2!! I have used some of your resources in the past- mostly the Song of the Week activities with level 2s, and I really admirre your creativity and passion! The Huellas bundles is looking like a good way to go. I’m interested in getting into “real-world” topics with upper levels. Did I read the description correctly- there will be ways to present the units in a hybrid learning situation? Here in TN, it’s looking like that’s where we will be starting in August. I just wanted to make certain I could use the units both ways. Thank you!!
Gracias!! YES! We did go through each unit and create an additional lesson plan that gives guidance for how you can use the lessons in a remote setting. That said, most of the things I create are not 100% worksheet based, they do require at least a couple of chances to do either a synchronous or asynchronous video lesson! So far, I think we will begin face to face but at this point everything changes so fast, who knows!!! Many of these Huellas units HAVE songs of the week so there will be some familiarity! I am down to THREE left to polish! One I’m adding an authentic video activity to, one is at the proofer, and one I still need to add a class story… then the whole package will be ready!
Thank you for replying so quickly and for the additional reassurance!
Carrie muchísimas gracias for all your hard work!!!!!! I am SO PUMPED for this! I will completely revamp my level 3&4 courses to incorporate this!!! And I also really appreciate that if we’ve bought things before, we can redownload; I purchased basically everything I was missing of yours during March quarantine hahah, because you didn’t yet have a full curriculum. Now I just have to fight for my school to get class sets of the novels and we are golden!
You’re amazing for doing this all so quickly. I love your work!!
I honestly was doing this for me as I did it to help other teachers. I began the summer SO WORRIED about what the year was going to look like. Not that I’m not worried now but at least I know that I have a fully planned set of lessons that I can use at school, from home, or a combo of the two! I can relax and just worry about all the stuff I can’t control now… 😉 THANK YOU, Deirdre for being you! Send me an email so we can update the things you won last year!
At my school Spanish 4 is our AP class. I’m trying to decide if this would work for my group of students. We are starting the school year virtually.
Hi! I included the AP Themes as part of my planning, I feel like each of the units can easily fit into an AP level curriculum. That said, I do not teach AP so the activities are not necessarily “AP” specific… if that makes sense. I designed them to drive up proficiency so my students will perform well on the STAMP test but I think so many of the things that AP requires could be practiced within these units by adding an activity modeled after what they produce on the exam?? Huellas 2 has a deeper environmental focus and Huellas 1 has a deeper community/family/personal focus.
It says the video has been removed….!?
Sent from my iPhone
>
The first video upload failed and it made a new link when I restarted it! Try reloading your page!
I just tried it and it still says the video has been removed… I refreshed, etc. and still nothing…
Ok, I completely redid that paragraph! Hopefully third time is the charm! If not, this is also the link: https://youtu.be/G3gIKXmwctk
Hello again! I did find the video about Huellas 1…I just looked in You Tube and it was there. OK, so I love your materials… I have purchased a lot of your materials in the past, such as the sustainable goals super unit and others that are part of Huellas 1 and will be part of Huellas 2. You have said that we won’t have to repurchase things that we have already purchased…but how do we do that? The bundle price is discounted. Do we have to just buy the rest of what we don’t have individually…which will come cost more than just buying the discounted bundle. Just curious if there is a way around this?
Thanks for your wonderful resources!!
Hi! Yes, the bundle price is really REALLY discounted to let early adopters. The regular price is going to be $90. I will do the same with Huellas 2 when it is ready! I know some people will already own the older units but they’ll also be able to download them with the new changes without extra cost as the unit prices rise! Hopefully it will make it more painless! 🙂 Thank you so much for the kind words! I feel so relieved to have everything planned both for face to face and remote as we are now THREE WEEKS from school!
This is amazing! I love all of your units!! How long will the discount price be in effect? I’m waiting on district approval.
TPT usually has a sale some time in the first week of August. I didn’t want to wait that long for the discount since so many teachers are not sure HOW they’re going to give lessons remotely! I started it early and will end the sale along with the end of the TPT sale (but they haven’t announced yet when/if that will be). If they DON’T have a sale for some reason, I’ll leave it on sale through that first whole week of August.
Hola Carrie
Will Huellas work for Heritage Spanish students?
Great question! I am going to give you just a so-so answer though. 🙂
In my old school I had roughly 3-4 heritage learners per graduating class. These kids started in Spanish 3 and if they wanted to continue for 4 years, they did 3, 4, then a more independent style class for the last 2 years. They entered in level 3 which is where I created these units. They always did very well and always learned a lot that they didn’t know. I have never taught in a school with a heritage Spanish class. 😬 So I am not POSITIVE that they would work with HLs. Maybe it was being in class with their peers that made my HLs accept the studies?? Honestly, I THINK they would work because there is so much about world issues in the later units that it’s pretty engaging material just in general… not that I’m magical, just it is interesting to learn more about sustainability… So… I did and didn’t answer your question! My Orangután en mi habitación and Viviendas del mundo units are free on TPT and they are a great example of what my work is like! I think if you like those, you’ll like what I’ve done with Huellas!
The promo ad link is not working…
So excited to learn more. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and hard work with us. I am such a better teacher because of kind educators such as yourself(:
On Fri, Jul 24, 2020 at 8:13 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: ” If you’re looking at the upcoming school year with a > mix of dread and fear… and excitement about finally seeing your students > again… we are in the same boat. I’ve spent the summer trying to plan for > the possibility of being face to face OR being remo” >
Hi! I’m not sure why it isn’t working! Here is the link! https://youtu.be/G3gIKXmwctk
Will Huellas be added to the sale as a pre-order or am I better off waiting for it’s release?
Huellas 1 is already on sale and will remain on sale through the TPT Back to School Sale. Huellas 2 is set for release in November (but may be done sooner). Each of its units already exists (just not all with remote plans yet) and they will all be on sale. When it releases (November or before), I will put it on sale for a couple of weeks but probably the TPT sale now will make it close to the same price. As we update each unit, if you already own them, you can just download the updates!
recently purchase Huellas…. are the units in any particular order? Should I use them in the order they are listed? Wasn’t sure if they were prepared and offered that way.
Hi!!! The units can all stand alone! We put them in order so that we could do some building on the different topics across the curriculum but I have used them in a different order in my own classroom with success!!
I love your scope and sequence for Spanish 1. Do you have a pacing guide? I have only been able to get to unit 8 and 2 novel units. I’d like to be able to get farther.
We condense every SOMOS unit down to 5 class days. We all do different things (ex. My colleague loves the campanadas and I don’t uses them) but we choose what we like then work it into a 5 day lesson plan!
Have you taught SOMOS 1 virtually yet? I am putting together my syllabus for level 1 starting in January this year, and am unsure how long the FLEX units will take. I have 4-day weeks with 75 minutes/day.
I have not taught SOMOS 1 virtually! Our program has really grown and this year I’m teaching 1 level 2 and 3 threes and 2 fours! I haven’t had ones for about 4 years but I’m about to phase out of even having 2s!!! My COLLEAGUES are using Somos 1 and they’re definitely moving slower. We used to try to do a unit in about a week but I think they’re running more like 7-8 days now.
[…] If you’re just hearing about Huellas, check out this blog post to find out more: Huellas 1 & 2 intro […]
[…] you have the units but you’re not quite sure how you will use them this year, I posted my Scope and Sequence (along with some thoughts about how it may look different this […]
Hi Carrie, As you update Huellas to add some google docs, forms, or slides, will the updated files automatically load into our google folders or do we need to revisit TPT and upload them again?
Hi!! You do have to go back and update the files! We are through at least Huellas 1 unit 6! (Melisa is fast and may have gotten farther but I know she definitely said she finished 6!)
Thank you for this. I’ve been seeing so many negative things (like parent criticism, profane and vulgar displays by a student) that my anxiety level is ratcheted way up! This really helps!
I was SO anxious! I wasn’t sure I’d be approved to teach from home! But it all worked out and it is all WORKING out! I still have a lot to learn… I just finished an awesome Zoom class from Justin Slocum Bailey that makes me feel like a Zooming superstar… but I know that almost all the things I’ve worried about have turned out to be non-issues!! GOOD LUCK! I know you’ll be relieved once you get back and see how it’s working for your students!
Hi Carrie, I recently purchased Huellas. Is it set up to do the units in the order you have them. Art unit first and finish with Beauty and the Beast? or should they be done according to proficiency level? This will be used for Sp 3 Honors.
Hi!!! We set them up in the order we thought flowed best from topic to topic so that students would build on their language throughout! That said, they can be used in any order because we spiraled in topics so students would be able to use these units individually or as part of the whole! I just started Bajo la Mesa with mine!
You’re amazing.
Hugs and love!!
Thank you! I feel the same about you!!! So many hugs!
Muchas gracias por tus palabras. Esto es lo que necesitaba en estos momentos. Comienzo la escuela el primero de septiembre y con los chicos el 8 de septiembre. Gracias y Bendiciones ❤️
De nada… es muy diferente pero hay muchas cosas que me gustan
Thank you for this. Today I think I gave half the class talking to the wrong camera, but it’s ok. If anything, they will acquire “dios mio” because I say it every day fumbling with technology. I will pat myself on the back!
Oh i feel like everything is such a Dios mío right now too!! 😂😂 Im getting so much faster at switching screenshares and switching backgrounds but I have constant typos or forget to spotlight my camera 😂
Muchísimas gracias, Carrie. Este año voy a usar Huellas con mi nivel cuatro y no puedo esperar a descubrirlo con mis estudiantes.
Un abrazo muy fuerte y mil gracias for hacer nuestro trabajo mil veces más fácil y divertido.
Mucha salud para ti y los tuyos!
Aurora
Mil gracias! ¡Que tengas un año diferente pero especial!
Just finished my 3rd week and I totally agree with you. We’re 100% online at least until November. We’ll see if go back hybrid at that time.
Thank you! You made me slightly more at ease about this whole thing. I’m also teaching virtually due to health concerns, but all of my students are attending school in-person. I’m really nervous about how it will work because they can’t promise each of my kids a computer. So I’ll be the virtual head on the projector and I’ll be looking at my classroom via a webcam…I’m nervous. I did manage to get computers secured for half of each 90 minute period, so during that time we will be doing ALL the zooming and talking and communicating in Spanish together. I just hope kids and parents will be understanding and work with me.
I’d love to hear more about your experience and tips! 😊
I look at them on a web cam too! I have it on top of my smart board and the sub helped seat them so I could see them all. The only problem with having them meet you on Zoom is that if they’re in the same room, it will feed back! My class is live and my remote kids are on zoom from their homes. When my husband and I are even just one room apart we get mic feedback on zoom!! Email me if you want to chat more!!
I’d love to hear how you are doing class like this. I’m in the same boat as you! I’m home and I’m expected to conduct class live with some kids in the classroom and some zooming in at home. They can see me and hear me from the projector and I can see them and kinda hear them via my web cam. How do you have any interactivity when they are in the class?
Hi, Sarah!!! I am getting so much better at switching the spotlighted camera. I think this has been a KEY part of engaging the full class. To the home group, I am just another head in the zoom! To the CLASS group, I have to be a giant head or they sort of forget me. Does that make sense? If I need to ask a question and see who is raising their hand IN class, I spotlight their video but if we are all talking or I’m sharing something, I spotlight my video so they see me big on the screen.
I watched Justin Slocum Bailey’s Zoom webinar series and it was so good. I learned about making my content into Zoom backgrounds so that instead of being a tiny head in the corner with the content big on the screen, I can put the content over my shoulder and STAY on screen with it! I feel like it has been much more successful!!
Our classes are hybrid so it seems like the A kids are quieter when they’re at school and the B kids participate more. I’m learning that it is ok that way too! They are still involved, they just aren’t as… quick to volunteer as their counterparts on B days!
🙂 GOOD LUCK! Email any time! I don’t know of many doing it this way and I would love to share ups and downs!
While I’m not a teacher, I see all you and my other teacher friends have been doing…the extra work you have put in (and will continue to put in). I want to thank you for a positive post. Sometimes it seems we just hear the negative. Positive is SO much better!! Love you, girl!
Love you too!!! There is nothing better than being with the kids and it is still the best even when we have a screen between!! 🙂
My school plans to purchase Huellas 1 & 2 Curriculum for Spanish 3. Do you have a syllabus for it?
Yes! This is my proposed scope and sequence! This is no normal year so I am not going to get nearly as far! https://somewheretoshare.com/2020/08/02/scope-and-sequence-and-questions/
Thank you for all your hard work. It is highly engaging for the students, it meets the standards and pushes students beyond them, and surprisingly hits most of the important topics of our district pacing guide, which blew me away!
THANK YOU!!!
[…] realistic expectations and be clear about what they are. I have been planning using the UbD (Understanding by Design) “backward” model since 2010. I design my assessment before I begin the unit and before I present ANY new content, I […]
[…] choice. In a normal year, my assessments have often included interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational… This year, I am streamlining. My goal is for students to acquire language AND enroll again next […]
Hola! I just watched your Assess with Finesse webinar and I really love it…now if I can just get the rest of my department in board 🙁 In the webinar you said to email you requesting the Proficiency Descriptors. I am interested in seeing what these look like and hope you could share. Have a good upcoming week!
Sent from my iPad
>
[…] mixer or inside-outside circle activity? Push the chairs against the wall and go for it! Read more here from Carrie […]
[…] that were hooks to get the class interested, or fun retells of a novel, such as her post on the Yellow Brick Road. She most definitely had already adopted Carol Gaab’s philosophy of the brain craving novelty. I […]
[…] Carrie Toth – Free Voluntary Reading Area […]
If my Sp 4 / AP students have not done CI before, where should I start them. Also, are assessments included in these packages? Thanks!
I would start with Huellas 1 if they’re new to CI! Every unit has a final assessment that is performance based!
[…] as my students were reading “Reading Club” style, I was so frustrated with the way that class discussions were going. It always turned into students listing fact after fact without ever listening to their […]
I would like a copy of the image. Do you present the topic that same day and discuss? I’m not sure if this relates to a story book or just a regular topic. I teach high school and my students seldom contribute.
I love this idea! I am teaching level 3 this year and am looking for more ways for them to interact virtually. I would love a copy of the key phrases could you please email me: sgreene5@wcpss.net
Would you please share your zoom discussion Thursday slide. Thank you –
Bethany Pflug
On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 9:39 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: ” A few years ago, as my students were reading “Reading > Club” style, I was so frustrated with the way that class discussions were > going. It always turned into students listing fact after fact without ever > listening to their classmates’ contributions to the” >
Hi Carrie,
I would love a copy of the image!
Thank you,
Tiffanee Peterson
Hola Carrie, Thank you for your inspiring post. If you are still willing to share the virtual background you made, I would love to use it. Muchas gracias, Sally Denbeaux
On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 10:39 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: ” A few years ago, as my students were reading “Reading > Club” style, I was so frustrated with the way that class discussions were > going. It always turned into students listing fact after fact without ever > listening to their classmates’ contributions to the” >
Please share the zoom background
Thank you very much
On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 7:39 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: ” A few years ago, as my students were reading “Reading > Club” style, I was so frustrated with the way that class discussions were > going. It always turned into students listing fact after fact without ever > listening to their classmates’ contributions to the” >
Hello Carrie, I would love a copy of the Zoom background that you used for “Discussion Thursday”. I really appreciate all of the materials that you share!
Have a great day, Alyssa
Alyssa Crawford Fifth Grade Spanish Immersion Teacher Miscoe Hill School a: 148 North Avenue, Mendon, MA 01756 e: acrawford@mursd.org
Get a signature like this!
On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 10:39 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: ” A few years ago, as my students were reading “Reading > Club” style, I was so frustrated with the way that class discussions were > going. It always turned into students listing fact after fact without ever > listening to their classmates’ contributions to the” >
Hi Carrie,
Yes, please send me the question frame. Thank you so much for all of your insights.
Valene
Sent from my iPad
>
I also would like a copy of the background, have never tried “discussion Thursday” but it sounds like a great idea – smcgee@nbschools.net
I think I need to try more of the options. Last week I tried Battle Royale and it seemed really slow with the transitions compared to the faster paced Kahoot, Wuizlet Live like games. Always nice to have options though to switch things up
I’ve ONLY tried the candy rush so it may be that I’m overly impressed today and would be let down by a different mode!!!
Thank you SO MUCH for sharing! I’ve been seeing people mention this site, but your blog really helps me visualize how it works. ¡Gracias!
On Mon, Nov 2, 2020 at 2:48 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt posted: ” I love Kahoot, Quizlet, Gimkit, Quizizz… they all > have their own little thing that makes them special. Kahoot is just a quick > game, Quizlet live is fun for the class, Gimkit has so many special modes > and is based so much on strategy, Quizizz lets me in” >
Please send the discussion frame slide! I love the utility & simplicity!
Side Note: I teach MS Spanish but also have two teenagers of my own (both of whom I taught in Spanish I) – 1 graduated from HS last year and is taking a pre-college gap year (due to Covid) and the other is in 11th-grade. Over the years, they have been my “testers” for every new Spanish novel I purchase and they LOVE your books most of all! In fact, my daughter and I are currently reading “48 Horas” – we usually read 2 chapters at a time, because she’s busy with her own schoolwork and life, but we often read 3-4 at a time in this one because she wants to know what happens (2 more chapters to go). Thanks for producing such great stuff!
[…] What IS Huellas? Huellas is a two part curriculum for upper level Spanish classes. I shared how I use SOMOS by Martina Bex then Huellas in my Spanish program in this post. […]
[…] After playing our first Blooket, I wanted to add one for ALLLLLL the things my students were studying so I made one for my book Bianca Nieves from Fluency Matters, I made one for my Huellas 1 Future and Conditional level 3-AP unit Atrévete, and Kristy Placido made one for my Huellas 1 ART based level 3-AP unit Bajo la mesa! When my Spanish 4 group finishes reading, I’ll make one for our next Huellas 2 unit, Orangután en mi habitación. (Find out more about the Huellas Curriculum here.) […]
[…] process novel by adding various modes like the Floor is Lava which was amazing!) But then, I saw Carrie’s post and ended up finishing a class a little earlier than planned, so I didn’t have a reason NOT […]
I’m unable to access the TPT resources for a second download. I purchased Huellas back when it first came out.
Hi! They are now Google folders so they may look different for you! You do have to download each folder separately as well! If you tried these things already, I am not able to see your account from the TPT side so their customer service should be able to help you figure out why they won’t download again!
Hi Carrie – I would love to learn more about the discussion questions/phrases you have helped them kickstart with. I am feeling totally overwhelmed by the silent Zoom stares!
Hi Carrie –
This is a light at the end of the a LONG tunnel. My 3rd year students are reluctant Zoom speakers so this Fall has been super challenging. I’m thinking of moving into small-group Zoom mode. I would love to know more about how you set them up for success with your discussion kickstart questions. Could you write about post about this scaffolding for virtual classes? Thank you!
Hi Carrie – love this idea! Please share the Zoom background with me. I am hopeful that it will start to break open the silent Zoom boxes I stare at so often…
Hola! I came here to look at your scope & sequence for level 1, and am especially interested in seeing how you integrate novels. I am sold on adding Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro. It’s perfect as a first novel, IMHO. It uses humor to build interest as students get the feel for reading something longer.
I see for your second one, you chose El Nuevo Houdini. I have not yet read that one, and am wondering if you had a specific reason for choosing it. In the back of my mind, I’d like to offer something at the novice level (2nd semester) that starts to introduce AP themes. I was considering Esmeralda, but I’m not sure how to connect it to SOMOS. Do you have any suggestions? I’m open to any title that can be conquered by low level 1s (I get a lot of SWDs, so nothing too complicated).
Hi, Kristal! Honestly, I haven’t taught Spanish 1 in about 4 years and the teachers who do just really like the familiarity of sticking with the books they know! We do BB Perro, Houdini, and Piratas in Spanish 1 and they’re successful so they want to stick with a good thing! Esmeralda is a GREAT read and honestly ANY of the early level readers fit well with SOMOS because they all lean so heavily on those same basic structures (have, needs, goes, is, wants, etc)! Silencio, por favor is another really cute, easy, new reader! If you’re looking to incorporate AP themes early, Esmeralda and Silencio would be great. Silencio takes place in Egypt at the Pyramids of Giza so it would work with Beauty and Aesthetics and Esmeralda works great with World Issues/Science and Tech!
I LOVE BLOOKET TOO! IT IS THE BEST! TRY OUT FACTORY GUYS!
Hi, just come across your blog. I’m new to CI. Just wondering if an picture example would be possible. Sometimes it’s easier to understand that following instructions. Thank you.
DONE! 🙂
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Hola Carrie! I was wondering if you could elaborate on your Selena film study unit? Do you perhaps use a certain TPT guide or one you’ve made? I’d love to show it in class this year.
We have NOT used a certain TPT guide. Fluency Matters now has a Selena reader that I would like to incorporate at some point but for now we just watch the film together after doing the SOMOS unit “El chico del apartamento 512”. It’s nice to get the song as part of the unit and then learn more about her before moving on!
Ok – muchas gracias por su ayuda!
[…] using Blooket with secondary students. One high school Spanish teacher (@SenoraCMT) raves about her use of Blooket in this […]
Yeah yeah yeah and yeah!!!! I’ve so enjoyed teaching these units! They are a perfect level of challenge for my teaching situation- 4×4 block! I love the topics, the songs, and the activities!
[…] year without the readers, we have begun work on a booster bundle for Huellas 1. The curriculum is under construction but we know that budgets are often due at the end of the year so we are offering the new bundle on […]
Do we need to buy the booster if we own the Huellas 1 & 2 bundles? I’m not sure if these are separate or if you will be adding them to the bundles, too.
Hi! This is a separate addition! A lot of departments aren’t able to adopt readers so hopefully this will allow for more content to replace the ones I suggest in my scope and sequence OR just offer some choices for teachers who don’t click with a certain unit!
I was an idiot and forgot to check out during this sale. I’m hoping there’s a teacher appreciation one in May; if so would we be able to access the pre-order bundle again for the same price?
Thank you so much for your consideration Carrie!!!
YES! There is normally a May sale so I totally anticipate one coming up! The bundle will still be there and be on sale! Good news is that the library unit is done and City unit is underway!! Hoping to have it ready mid May!
Hello there! How long do you usually a lot for each unit?
[…] Get started with Huellas 1, a 14 week set of lessons that you can implement a la carte or in the order we suggest! Pair the units with readers and you’re set for the school year! See my Spanish 3 syllabus with the Huellas curriculum here. […]
Thank you for putting the words to what Iâve been feeling! Iâm exhausted and dragging in, but I *do* love what I do so very much. Next year WILL BE BETTER. (Iâm just putting that out there so that the universe knows it too!!)
Good luck to you, fellow soldier. Those mornings of piddling around the house are coming soon. We can do it!
Shelley Woodward, EdS
Spanish Teacher
swoodward@greateratlantachristian.org
[signature_1233089435]
From: Somewhere to Share
Reply-To: Somewhere to Share
Date: Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 3:51 PM
To: Shelley Woodward
Subject: [New post] 10 More Days
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
senoracmt posted: ” There. I said it. I am counting down. Ok, I’ll be honest, I count down every year… but not because I am SO DONE WITH THE YEAR… because it is fun to imagine drinking my coffee slowly… working by the pool… a NAP in the afternoon… I don’t li”
I am considering purchasing the Huellas curriculum, but I teach at a Christian school so I’d like to get a feel for how much of this material would be usable in my setting. Do you offer any free samples?
Hi, Cindy! Send me an email am happy to do that.
Hi, Cindy! Send me an email am happy to do that.
cindyhigham@gmail.com Thank you!
On Thu, May 13, 2021 at 3:01 PM Somewhere to Share wrote:
> senoracmt commented: “Hi, Cindy! Send me an email am happy to do that.” >
Senora I will teach for first time Spanish 4 next school year, a college recommend me to use huellas. Can you explain me what level is it? For what I read is like somos form Martina bex, which huellas should I use for level 4/5. I already read the books you recommend from fluency matters can you please tell me for level 4/5 what grammar/content we have to cover? What huellas units you recommend me, to start. Thank you.
Hi, Maggie! Huellas 1 and 2 are a good fit for students in levels 3 and 4. I use Somos in my Spanish 1 and 2 classes. I wrote the Huellas units to help keep my students learning after Huellas! For level 4 and 5 I think you can use either of the Huellas programs. If you use Huellas 1, you will start with units that are designed around stories and then move into units that are designed around cultural content (food/medicine). In Huellas 2, the units are pretty much all designed around topics like sustainable development, the ocean, waste management. I recommend starting with Bajo la mesa (the free first unit in Huellas 1).
Is there a way to purchase this curriculum other than TPT?
Yes, email me info@somewheretoshare.com and we can send an invoice outside of TPT.
Hola Carie,
Can you switch between Huellas 1 and 2 or would you not recommend that? I’m looking at it for a level 4 class.
Gracias!
You absolutely can! When I wrote the units, I used them in a lot of different orders! When I had enough to build a curriculum for my students, I started trying to organize them into a pattern that felt right as far as building one on the next! That said, each is designed to be a stand alone unit! You will have no problem mixing and matching!
¡Mil gracias!
[…] make it through this year. I laid out the list of new things I want to study. And I created my scope and sequence for the 21-22 school year. Yes, before I even left 2020-21 behind, I set up 2021-22!! And now… I have checked ALLLLL […]
I wish I could be so intentional! I’m trying but my thoughts won’t stop churning. Last year was a lot to handle and my brain won’t let it go. Would you mind sharing which plan book you chose? I’ve spent way more time over the last few days trying to decide which one to purchase than I care to admit! I’d love to know your personal preference if you don’t mind sharing. Thank you and enjoy your summer!
I am an Erin Condren addict but this year I found one on Amazon that looks promising! I hope I don’t have regrets! This is what I ordered: Teacher Planner 2021-2022 – Weekly & Monthly Lesson Plan Book, July 2021 – June 2022, 8″ x 10″, Academic Planner with Twin-Wire Binding & Large Blocks for Teachers https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08YYLDYPS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_0J0ZWVNQAW3ZKZYMV1WX?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
[…] After playing our first Blooket, I wanted to add one for ALLLLLL the things my students were studying so I made one for my book Bianca Nieves from Fluency Matters, I made one for my Huellas 1 Future and Conditional level 3-AP unit Atrévete, and Kristy Placido made one for my Huellas 1 ART based level 3-AP unit Bajo la mesa! When my Spanish 4 group finishes reading, I’ll make one for our next Huellas 2 unit, Orangután en mi habitación. (Find out more about the Huellas Curriculum here.) […]
Hi, I was interested in your level 4 scope, but the document linked is to level 3. Do you do the same thing? Thank you!
It’s a typo!!! That’s the level 4 but I forgot to change the title on the page!
Such important words on pace and place. As always, thank you!
[…] Sale ends tomorrow at 11:59pm! Don’t miss the opportunity to save big on the Huellas curriculum! Want to see my work? Check out our free resources when you sign up for our newsletter here. […]
Carrie, I’m so excited to use this curriculum for my Spanish 3 and 4 students this year. Is there a Huellas Collaboration Drive available for use?
There is! The link is in each of the folders in the curriculum! It is still pretty empty but we hope that this year it will begin to fill up more!!
Hi Carrie! Would you give me some pointers for how you execute your Card Talk activity for Spanish 4, what would I do if I were you? I am familiar with the activity but not sure how to do it with this particular topic (but I would love to start with conditional!). Thanks!
Yes!!! I have them do this in pairs. So Zarak and Zach are a pair. Zach says something like “if I were Zarak, I would go to more football games” and Zarak says “if I were Zach I would stop working at Pizza Man”. I do the PQA just like a regular card talk! It can be any verb form! So I can ask “does Zach work at Pizza Man or Zarak?” Zarak wants Zach to stop working at Pizza Man! Zarak, why do you want Zach to stop working at Pizza Man? Class, if Zarak were Zach, would he work at Pizza Man? Where would he work if he were Zach? Who else works at Taco Bell? Etc! Does that make sense? We talk about each pair and make all kinds of funny little side details but keep coming back to if I were…. I would
Yes, I think that makes sense. So do you just start out by having them chat with their partners to find out stuff about each other? Or, is it really just a game and they are just making statements about each other without any background info. Thanks for your quick reply:)!! I love this idea.
We do it just quick! They don’t talk to each other they just have a pair so everyone in class gets talked about! We dig out the background info and a bunch of funny not true stuff as we talk!
With the level 4 if/then statements, are they drawing them as well?
Yes! We do!!
These are great ideas! Last year, I made a great big memory game and we played it outside. I laminated the cards and held them down with rocks in the grass. We had a great day!
I absolutely LOVE these ideas! Thank you to all those who shared so that you, in turn, could share with us!
These are fantastic ideas! I really appreciate you & your other contributors for sharing!
Hello Carrie! I love Huellas and I really like your scope and Sequence for your four levels. I was having a look at level two and I was wondering what Unit 6 is: Papálotl. Is it a unit that you sell on TPT or somebody else?
Thank you and your team for all your work. It is really amazing!
It is a new book I wrote! The ECourse is already available and the paperback and Teacher Guide are coming very soon!!
[…] Blooket – There are many different Blooket options as well. You can play every 3 weeks and never play the same game in the semester! Just as with Gimkit, we do proficiency based question and answer types! […]
[…] Musical Chairs Retell – When your group is ready for a little output, give this activity a […]
[…] Read more If not satisfied with the sources related to Blooket, leave your questions in the comment box. […]
[…] Carrie is SO right; this year we need FUN. Check out her post with 15 fun follow-ups! […]
Hi Carrie, I can relate so much to what you are saying! I am longing for stability. Where I teach in Canada our case numbers are very low in schools, so I have not been impacted by students missing or having to pivot to Zoom or other digital deliveries. At least not yet, since we have just started back….
But I really wanted to tell you that I am using your Unit ‘Educarse para Superarse’ with my IB students right now and we are loving it! I have used your novels before but have never purchased any of your TPT units. It is fantastic, so well put together, with great resources, and has led to great discussions about valuing education and our privilege of living in a country where we have such widespread access to quality public schools. I fell in love with the song Aprender a quererte and this led me to your unit. Thank you so much for your inspiring work!
Thank you so much!!! I am hoping we peak in our case numbers and can have some nice quiet days soon!!! I love the song too! And that video!!!
[…] on Monday – Wednesday with the same warm-ups and follow-ups as last week. We will do a “Discussion Thursday” to review what we’ve read in the first 7 chapters. The Discussion Thursday guidelines are […]
Thank you for putting this out there. It is nice to know that others are feeling the same. I have 3 years after this year, and sadly, am wishing it was sooner. I can’t get caught up. Kids out with COVID or sick and we do NOT offer Zoom this year at all to them. So…that puts them, and us, even further behind. Just frustrating.
Hi Carrie! Thanks for this post – I think a lot of messages that I’ve gotten this year is that the “worst” is over and now we can start this year excited and energized and things will be “better”. Unfortunately, it feels a lot like last year in terms of instability, but now add in that we have no energy reserves to take it on. I completely understand where you are coming from and I just wanted to say that I can relate! Hang in there and do what brings you joy.
This is so spot on. I’m feeling all of this right now as well. Thanks for the reassuring words! (…that I’m not alone) Hoping we can all feel a little more “caught up” soon.
Thank you for sharing!
[…] them for many of the units I use in class. The idea of a Yellow Brick Road retell is detailed in this blog post. In THIS yellow brick road, Nelly used illustrations from the reader to create the […]
Carrie-
I have been following your blog for years and somehow did not see this post until now. I think the topic is probably why. You are spot on. Last year (and the couple of months at the end of 2020) was scary but this is harder. In Massachusetts, we are not allowed to offer Zoom or any hybrid lessons to students who are out. But kids are out a lot. I feel exhausted because once I finish getting make-up work from students from one week there is a whole other set to get from this week. It never ends. I too am at the end of my career. I have 8-10 more years tops. I have started dreaming about what is next. But your more recent post has reminded me why I teach- it is about making the language learning fun. I have to get back to more of that. Thanks for reminding me about it. Time for me to search again for more fun ideas to work with my students or pull out some of my old ones.
Kelly Ochoa
¡Muchas gracias por compartir! Estoy de acuerdo contigo. Tiene muy buenos recursos. Tiene unos videos culturales sobre Pamplona, Barcelona, Picasso y Guernica también que usé como actividad independiente en un Google Form el año pasado con la novela Agentes secretos de Mira. Te recomiendo esos videos también si te sirven.
Love this post! I have used Pablo’s videos with a variety of levels of Spanish classes. They came in handy for providing input while I was out for two weeks with COVID! His drawings add the necessary comprehension piece that my kids need. I, too, have provided video viewing guides for my kids, so I’m anxious to check yours out!
This is amazing, Carrie! Thank you for sharing so generously!! I have been using Dreaming Spanish here and there for several years but without any kind of follow-up. This is just what I need to bring more focus to the input!
Muchísimas gracias!!
Your generosity in sharing these materials was a bright spot in a very difficult school day. I’ve been thinking of using the Dreaming Spanish videos with my Spanish 2 students…but have been stalled due to lack of time to figure out the “how” of it all. Your viewing guides give me that how and now I have a jump-start on getting this rolling with kids. I can’t thank you enough!
This is so AWESOME! I’d love for her to visit my school and talk to my classes. Is this part of her job or just a special favor to you as her former teacher? (in case she does I’m in Georgia soooo much closer if that helps). Thank you for sharing!
Send me an email and I will get you in touch with her! She and Adonis are out of Oxford so you are definitely closer for them!
What a great opportunity for your students! So special to see the fruit of the impact that you are making in the lives of others. Will you tell us about your super cool artwork on the wall (los esqueletos y la mariposas)? Gracias!
The art class made me that! It’s a piece of some kind of drywall board!!! They made the design themselves!!
Funny that I stumbled on this blog post. I have been learning Spanish on my own for the past couple months when I found Dreaming Spanish. So far I’ve watched over 130 hours of content there (every superbeginner and beginner). Pablo has single-handedly improved my listening abilities to an intermediate level in just a couple of months.
I stumbled on your website, because I decided to buy a bunch of TPRS books to help with reading comprehension. I ended buying mostly Spanish 3 books and just started reading La hija del sastre tonight. Looking forward to reading it!
Pablo is the BEST! My students can feel their listening skills improving!!! I think you’ll notice the same with the readers! I work for Fluency Matters and accidentally learned to read French by making the ECourses for our French readers!!
Thank you so much for sharing these amazing resources!
Do you mind sharing how your class complete the worksheet? Do you scaffold the activity or do they just watch the whole video and complete the worksheet? I know you explained how you do it in your post, but I’ve never used Dreaming Spanish videos in my class, and would like to try it.
Thanks agan!
We do question one together then they do the others along with him during the video. We check our answers at the end before turning it it!
[…] the beginning of the year, I made myself a big promise. (If you would like to read about it… it is here.) I have done pretty well, but let’s be honest. The lines of what I can and can’t […]
Love your Huellas. Used it virtually last year with my Spanish 3. Would love to know if you have something for Spanish 2 or maybe you could recommend something other than Somos?
Hi! I have a few level 2 units but we use them in conjunction with Somos 2 and several readers!
[…] recommend self grading computer programs. Quizziz, Blooket or GimKit are great for reviewing vocabulary. You can also split up sentences for students to match […]
Hello! First of all, thanks for all that you do!!! A question as I am confused…I bought Huellas 1 and 2 awhile back. When you talk about Huellas 2.1…. and your new chapters, does this get included into the original Huellas? Or is there a separate digital only Huellas? I am so confused…and can never find the new units….or do I have to buy them separately? (as in, not a growing bundle…)
Thanks for your help.
Hi! This is separate from the Huellas 2 bundle. Eventually it will be part of a Huellas 2.11-2.15 bundle (hopefully Fall of 22). At that time the current Huellas 2 (at the price it is now) will become Huellas 2 units 1-10 and we will add a product that is at a higher price point that includes all 15 units. I began writing additional units because I had a lot of feedback that for teachers who don’t use as many readers as I do, there isn’t enough content, and for those in a program with 3,4,AP there isn’t enough content! We are trying to add on in small chunks so that we can accommodate those needs AND for teachers who do have just 3/4 and use a lot of readers, there will be a lot more flexibility in which units to choose!
[…] class is not an AP course, we offer dual enrollment with our local community college. Through this dual enrollment, my students DO earn college credit […]
[…] If you’re interested in learning more about our Spanish 1-4 classes, our scope and sequences for all 4 levels can be found in this post. […]
I never knew that Blooket have mobile friendly version as well ^.^
…
Thanks for sharing the info …
[…] have taken the AAPPL exam every year since 2014 and, although I have had some complaints about inaccurate scoring in the […]
[…] really working on polishing our verb endings in level 3 and 4. Remember, it’s all about subliminal grammar! CI teaching doesn’t mean that grammar is a bad word! It’s part of every day! […]
[…] If you missed our post with our recommendations on essentials to buy during the sale, check it out here: The Essentials […]
You are so creative! I would have LOVED to have you as my teacher! Thank you for your great tips.
Thank you for this. This is something I struggle with in my intermediate classes and I love you introducing it in 2. Two questions: 1.) Do you give students a list of comparison words or have a target list to teach them? 2.) (Not related to comparisons). I love your rejoinder wall in your photo. Are these posters the same as your expressive expressions download in your store? I use rejoinders but would like to have a more diverse wall of rejoinders, especially for my 4’s as I prepare them for the CLEP which includes a rejoinder section. Thanks for always being there for us teachers!!
1. I actually have this product: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Enriquecete-4305611 That I use every time we write starting in Spanish 2. It is 100 words drawn from the AP exam’s list of transition words. As students use this basket through the years, they begin to acquire more and more of the words and they have to be more picky about what they take out of it because they already know so many without looking! 2. The rejoinders are not the same as my expressive expressions. I got those from Placido Language resources here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spanish-Rejoinders-Posters-Cactus-Design-40-phrases-4769430 They are so nice to have up because the kids can use them to react during any conversation we are having in class! Sort of a “use your resources”!
This is a great idea! I usually do this on paper, but love the idea of letting them do it with the hula hoops. Thanks for sharing.
Carrie, you just totally rock! What a clever idea with the hula hoops! I’ll be on the look-out for some in the Aldi’s aisle of shame ☺ or the Dollar Store. Thank you for sharing! 💖
Amazing!! Gracias Team Huellas!
Great post! I’m glad you’ve had such a joyful first week back. Thanks for the inspo. Love your reading lounge!
From your mouth to God’s ear!
Hola Carrie- I was wondering if your two’s already had past tense and you are reviewing it or if you are teaching yo and él/ella endings as you go? My two’s haven’t had past so I’m thinking about how to do this. I love the idea! Thanks!
They have been seeing and hearing the past tense since the beginning of Spanish 1 as we don’t really shelter that vocabulary, but we just teach it as individual structures. We read Brandon Brown Houdini in the past tense at the end of level 1. This is the first time we really start “noticing” the endings and picking out patterns.
Thank you so much!
I’m so happy you’ve had such a great week friend!
[…] Spanish I, we do a simplified version, known as card talk. Somewhere to Share has a great overview of a card talk. With this plan, there are games to play to review and there […]
Thank you so much for being real!! So hard to not cross the line from being inspired to being overly critical of myself in comparison to Superstars like you! Nice to be reminded that none of us is perfect! 😄💕
I have a lot of ideas, but at the end of the day I am trying and failing/trying and succeeding in the classroom every day too! I think that is one of the things that has helped keep me “experimenting” through the years. If there were a magic formula that made school life perfect, we could bottle it and be bazillionaires!! We train to teach students in a sterile environment, but the real world is like an ER. There is all kinds of trauma and so many other things pulling their attention. We have to learn to roll with the punches and not take it personally when things are not going 100% our way!! I ALSO have days when I get too critical of myself. Should I make them all sit up straight and stare straight ahead… and then they vote me most influential teacher in the school and I’m like… nope, honor them right where they are. The Spanish is secondary to their social and emotional well-being. Give yourself TONS of grace and then that will trickle over to them as well!! That may be the top key to classroom success?? Bottomless boatloads of grace. 🙂
Thank you! Such a pleasure to read your blog. So appreciative of your candid reflection!
You listed so many issues that I have too. It made me feel less alone. Thanks!
Can students rejoin a Blooket or do they have to finish it in one sitting?
I believe they can rejoin until the Blooket link expires.
Yep! Sounds like my kiddos on any given day. (I gotta find out more about this #BeReal.)
Nice bllog thanks for posting
[…] to make it easier to check out! If you missed our post about what is new in the store, you can see it here. This is also a great time to stock up on your winter clip chats! We have several! The Present is a […]
Long time follower, first time poster. Loved this Kroger commercial. I’m such a sucker for these sorts of MovieTalk/ClipChats! I went ahead and made a slideshow of stills for anyone else interested. I like to use the stills instead of pausing the actual video. Cheers
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1F-K_cbeZvu9ORZ2KL9SKoMWNm2Dvf-jsiv019ZWHiis/edit?usp=sharing
This is wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing!
I dropped them into the Google Folder and put your name in the document name for credit! Thank you SO much for this extra resource!
Thanks for your reflections, Carrie! I can relate to so much of what you’ve shared here, both the good and the bad (I have one of the toughest Level 1 classes EVER!). But one of the best things about this school year has been discovering Huellas! My IB 12 class finished the unit on “La música orginaria” just before Winter Break and I was amazed at my students’ final assessments, both oral and written. We all learned so much from the unit, not just in terms of the compelling content, but also through the diverse array of activities you designed to get students thinking and communicating authentically on the topic. Thank you for everything! I wish you the Happiest of Holidays and look forward to more from Somewhere to Share in 2023 🙂
Thanks for being vulnerable. I can relate to this post – and it encourages me that even a teacher with way more experience can struggle. I too have barely done music and my timing has been off, to where these last units feel crunched and rushed (currently doing Vector in 4 and have had to skip many great activities). Both my intermediate classes (level 3 & 4) seem so behind other years and I have struggled to know what to do for them. I was going to be committed to backwards planning (after I took a session with you) and I got too busy to do that effectively, I have to regroup, especially for these students who are behind.
On a positive note, I have built great relationships this year with especially my new students in level 1 and maintained them with my 2s. They are eager learners. I have introduced some new curriculum into level 2 to help with some gaps I am seeing in 3 & 4. We don’t use Huellas exclusively but they are fun units that they enjoy when we can use them. We loved the art unit prior to Frida and Bella y la Bestia was a great unit to give us a break.
Sending you teacher love for a great 2nd semester. Thanks for not just teaching your students – but us too. Merry Christmas!
Hi Carrie. Thanks so much for sharing this idea! I tried it out in my classes yesterday. The students had fun but found a loophole — what do you do with cups that end up sideways? I found that if I said that those cups counted as one way or the other, then the team that benefitted started taking advantage of that by just sweeping cups sideways without making the effort to place them up or down. Did you run into this issue at all?
I did not THINK about mentioning that in the post! I need to update it! I didn’t count the cups that were on their sides!
Thank you so much for this! I too am GenX and I find today’s climate soul crushing. I sit down on a Saturday to plan with Huellas Unit: Zoológico sostenible and I am haunted by the fact that my state has a plan to get rid of me. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is proposing an end to the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act (we are “right to work” state – no unions), capping teacher salaries to 50K, removing step increases and bumps for those of us who have advanced degrees in our content and years of classroom experience…. it goes on and on. I love teaching Spanish – this is my 16th year and the prospect of pulling up my roots (this is also my 4th post) and uprooting my family in order to survive financially (single mom) fills me with rage. If it were not for the love and appreciation of my students – I would have abandoned teaching and gone to law school years ago. Your words have encouraged me – maybe I will share on facebook a sample of the student appreciation letters I’ve received as recently as this week – I have a bag full – as a reminder to those in my community that some of us -if not most of us – go above and beyond and can’t be so easily replaced by computer programs and warm bodies.
YES to everything you said!!! Politics has made it soul crushing to be in education. But my students… man they can make my day bright! Thank you for sharing!! It can be so bad and yet so so good!!
I love this article! Thank you, thank you, thank you. As a GenXer I feel this so much. There is no retirement option in my district so once 55-57 roles around I’m fulling invested. I don’t know what else I’d do than teach, but I keep looking. I agree with you that we need more tweets and posts about what is going well in the classroom to encourage that next generation to stick it out. We also need good mentorship so we don’t lose them immediately either. Thank you again!
I have never heard of this. I’m the only certified foreign language teacher in my small district. I’m wondering how would I get my district to “sign on”? I think this could encourage more students to go further in their Spanish studies and have more motivation to do so.
Getting started: First check to see if your state has a seal of biliteracy and what the requirements are. In IL we DO have a program and it has two tiers. The Commendation and the Seal. We have to apply to offer the seal at the beginning of each school year and report back on the students who earned it each summer. We also have a few hoops to jump through like adding info about the seal to the school website and the testing info to students’ records.
After you know more about your own state seal, check out theglobalseal.com to learn about the Global Seal of Biliteracy. This one is really easy to set up and report results for. The Global Seal is also given worldwide, so it will be meaningful no matter where your students plan to study.
Once you have a plan for which “micro-credentials” you’re going to offer (your state seal, global seal), you need a plan for testing. The AP counts, the STAMP and AAPPL also count as nationally normed tests for offering the seal. You’ll test your students and submit the data. I find that this is great PR for our program. I actually have a wall of photos outside my room where we honor students for the credentials they’ve earned.
Get the parents on board too. Let them know that you’re offering these awards because they A) look great on college and scholarship apps and B) are often accepted in lieu of CLEP testing at universities to place students in their language classes.
This is a great article. I love your honesty, and it’s true!! I’m thankful to be in a great district, as you have described. As you are saying, we also do need to “get louder” through social media and share the positives about this profession… because there is still something wonderful here!!! <3 … :~) … <3
[…] Cupside Down is one of those activities and we just played it for the first time yesterday. I learned about the game from Carrie Toth at Somewhere to Share–find the explainer & directions here. […]
[…] recommends another way to use sidewalk chalk while reading a novel- but it could also be done if you are telling students any story to […]
Thank you for beiing you
Hola! I find it impossible to complete all the Units of Somos 1 & 2 within 2 school years! I’m wondering if there are units you skip in those in order to make it to Huellas 1 by Spanish 3 and Huellas 2 by Spanish 4???? Trying to figure this out before I approach my admin with a request for Huellas 1 & 2. Thank you!
❤️ it! I have actually done weekend chat like this but I have never read Anne Marie’s blog about it. I just called it Weekend Chat with a Twist. Nor have I done it at the beginning of the year. Thank you for that! I have 2 adaptations; they tell 2 truths and 1 lie-the students guess the lie. And the other adaptation; the students create 2 lies and 1 truth-the students guess the “hidden truth”. Whoever stumps the class gets a prize. The students are engaged and lots of communication happens.
*One more twist that I do is weekend chat on Friday as a weekend preview, what are they going to do this weekend, with the same variations from above being rotated in throughout the year.
[…] I am trying out a new beginning of the year activity to get to know them and build community. It is a twist on Card Talk. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but I am loving it so far. That is not to say that it is […]
Congratulations on your 30th year!
Thank you!
[…] wanted to incorporate more activities that encouraged re-reading this year! Last week we did “Freeze Find“. And this week we tried a game of “Bad Google […]
I am in the same place! How many sentences do you have in your slideshow?
I made 10, but in one class I got through 7 and the other class only 5!
I LOVE a new game that makes them re-read! Feeling a little slow, though… was your English sentence poorly translated? I am missing the “Bad Google Translate” part. Could you play with good translations? That would still make them re-read, wouldn’t it?
You totally could just translate to English and have them find the sentence, but I tried to make my “not literal translations” a little more abstract so they’d have to really think and not just search out a specific word! Ex. Más tarde en la vida, Frida tuvo suficientes animales como para tener un zoológico. I made the “bad google translate” When she was an adult, no one could stop Frida from having pets.
Ohhhhh! I get it now! That’s much more challenging! Thank you!!!
[…] fun game that would be a great twist during reading is Carrie’s Freeze Find! This would be perfect for a Homecoming Day game or the day before a long […]
I have done this activity with my classes before and they love it! Really, anytime I pull out the old whiteboards is a good day! 😊
This is so cool! I had missed this information somehow, so thank you for sharing.
Quick question: How long does it take your class the biography of Frida Kahlo?
We spend about 3.5 weeks on the reader and resources!
Hello, I would love to connect on if you’re available to provide PD in April, 2024.
[…] pick from low energy to high energy, low prep to high prep every chapter! My favorite this week was Cupside Down. It is SUPER LOW PREP. All you need is a set of comprehension questions and a set of cups in […]
Are ALL the students on the team attempting to turn the cups (I have a class of 31) – or is it only one student from the team?
[…] comprehension question reviews. Then I found an older post of hers that I haven’t shared- Freeze find! I know that these activities will be making it into my game rotation after […]
I’m not jealous. I’m not jealous at all….no green tint crawling up my neck!!
Wowza-You are such an inspiration and blessing to so many! You have literally left your footprints for us to follow and move the profession forward! Well done – you deserve an amazing retirement!!!!!
Hello! Do you have an email you can share so I can communicate directly with you about La Hija del Sastre?
Bonjour, thank you for sharing this activity. I am wondering if students stay with the same partner as they move along the Yellow Brick road? If they change partners, what do you recommend? Does one side of the road stay put and the other moves one brick? Merci.
I have mine stay together along the whole road! They move together. That way everyone is hearing/reviewing the whole story!
Thank you for sharing this! I too used the AAPPL test last year and am looking forward to using the STAMP test this year for my students as well. We are also the Wildcats and are a small rural school! We will begin our testing process in the next week or two. I look forward to my students being able to see where their proficiency lies after hearing me talk about proficiency for three or four years!
We are taking the STAMP for the first time this year! I am very excited! Did you do anything special before testing that you think really helped prep your students for the format of the test?
I didn’t do STAMP specific prep work, but we do a lot of reading/listening/writing/speaking and as we do them, we refer back to the proficiency levels so they know HOW to achieve the target score they’re after. I did share the resources STAMP provides them (pointers on how to score well at each level, practice test format). It was a really smooth transition from AAPPL and I’m so glad we did it.
I have also experienced inconsistency in the AAPPL scores for speaking and writing. How does the format of the STAMP test differ from the AAPPL? And how does the time to administer it compare?
Great question! Proctoring was basically the same, but took a little less time…
They take the listening and reading first because those sections’ scores determine the level of prompts they receive on the writing and speaking. The GREAT thing about that is that on AAPPL, they had like 8-9 speaking prompts and at least 6 writing prompts… so by the time they got to the higher proficiency prompts, they were getting tired of writing… On STAMP they get 3 and 3. The speaking skips the novice prompts if they have had intermediate performance on the listening and skips higher intermediate if they were novice on the listening! It really was so much better! And as I look at the scores, I do not see ANY that are wildly over or under rated.
Carrie, your blog, resources, and workshops have guided me and shaped my teaching more than I can say! I would love to know how you went about connecting with the colleges in your community so that they would accept the students’ AAPPL scores and Seals for college credit. I feel like that would be such a blessing to our students and draw more students into continuing on in their language journey.