A Super Fun Christmas Game

My daughter was looking for ideas for our extended family Christmas get-together and she found THIS GAME.  After reading it, I thought, "I can translate the directions to Spanish and use it with my Spanish classes."

Then I thought, "wouldn't it be fun to ask other MFL teachers if they wanted to complete the activity with 1 (or more) of their classes.  If they tweet or email their best sketch to me, I can create a photo collage of the sketches or post photos of their sketches."

I am going to do this activity with all of my Spanish classes this week.  I'll probably buy a small prize for the sketch with the most points and/or the best sketch for each class to provide extra motivation for them to concentrate while drawing.

Update: Below are links to two google slides presentations to use with your class:
  1. Presentation from 2014 made by Elena Lopez
   2. Presentation from 2015 made by Ashley Soriano


Are you interested in joining in?
If so...
1. Complete this activity this week with 1 (or more) of your language classes in your Target Language. Update: @lopezelena saw the tweets about the activity and then created and shared this Google Presentation of the activity - ready to go for Spanish teachers. Thanks Elena.
2.  TWEET the best sketch(es) with the hashtag #platesketch or email the sketch(es) to me by Friday afternoon, December 19.

I'll make a collage or use another way to share the sketches on my blog and Twitter.

HERE is the link to the document I shared on Twitter. Let the fun begin!
UPDATED version (as seen below) click HERE

After Christmas I discovered that there were many other #platesketch tweets that I had missed, so I uploaded a second book.  Click HERE to view the second book.

Photo Collage from Palmyra High School - Dec. 15, 2014

Short Films & CI: MFL Teacher Collaboration

Last summer at NTPRS12 I met Marta Yedinak, (@mryedinak on Twitter), a Spanish teacher in Wisconsin. Since then, Marta and I have been communicating through emails, phone calls, texts, twitter messages, etc. and sharing our Spanish lesson plans and activities.  Marta had an awesome lesson last week and I invited her to write about it on my blog.  Due to technical difficulties, (on my part, I'm sure), I'm writing the post in her place, but I look forward to having Marta as a guest writer on this blog in the near future!

Marta's Lesson Plan for MFL: Sheep in the Island

1.  Preteach any vocabulary that your students will need to know in order to discuss the video.  Beginning level students should already know basic words such as: corre, grita, se sube, se baja, está furiosa, tiene hambre, but you may need to preteach words such as "chocaron" (they crashed), to describe what happens with the two ships. (Use whatever level of grammar/verbs that is suitable to your class.)

2. Show the video to the students.

 

3. Story Sequence. Instead of writing a paragraph, students write a list of the events in chronological order in complete thoughts with a partner.

4. Group retell. Students take turns dictating the story as the teacher writes their sentences on the board.  This is the ideal time for pop-up grammar and circling the structures. Students WERE NOT required to copy the story into their notebooks.

5. Class Debate.  Students decide "¿Quién tiene la razón?" which is also the name of a show in Univisión.  Students had to present arguments to defend the sheep or the monster.  Marta said she wished she had videotaped the debate because it was "great" because the students were engaged and responding well.  Several students were using phrases such as "Protesto..." and they ended up having a trial!  

Marta said the next time that she does this activity she will have the students impersonate the characters so they can "interrogate them" as witnesses in a structured trial format.

6. Timed Writing.  Allow 5 minutes of class time for students to retell the story in written format.  (If the students heard a sufficient amount of repetitions of the structures throughout the lesson, this exercise will come naturally to them because it will "sound right" to them as they write.)  The Timed Writing file can be found HERE. Note on the form that the Timed Writing is not for accuracy, but rather to encourage writing.

7. Additional segments.  There are Part 2 and Part 3 segments of this video that can be used for additional activities.

Extra activities that may be added to Marta's activities as time permits:

8. Name who did the action (I have a worksheet for this available that you can find HERE.)
9. Story script (for upper levels).

10. Word Cloud. Show the word cloud to the students either before or after viewing the video.  If before, students read the word cloud and decide on possible story lines based on the words in the word cloud.  If after, students take turns saying a sentence that uses one of the words to describe an action in the video.  Another option, the teacher gives a definition in the TL and students look at the word cloud to find the word that the teacher defined. 



Update: There is no longer a free version of Textivate in which you can upload your own materials. 
 11. Textivate activities. The free version of this site allows you to upload your text and make your own vocabulary and matching activities, but you can only embed and share those activities if upgrade to a paid subscription.  However, if you paste the text below into the text box on the textivate website, you will be able to do a variety of activities with your students. Thanks to Martin Lapworth, the creator of Textivate, for making tutorial videos (found HERE) to explain how this website works!

screenshot from Textivate website

###match###
the claws of a monster==las garras de un monstruo
went to investigate==fue a investigar
she tied the foot==ató el pie
she pushed the other box==empujó la otra caja
she flew across==voló a través de
the sheep escaped==la oveja se escapó
lit a fire==encendió un fuego
she fell to the sand==se cayó a la arena
looked at a frog==miró una rana
inside the box==dentro de la caja
she closed the lid==cerró la tapa
there was lightning==hubo relámpago
she became very aggressive==se puso muy agresiva
she imagined that the monster was a chicken==imaginó que el monstruo fuera un pollo
trying to escape==tratando de escaparse
the waves pushed the box==las olas empujaron la caja
a chain==una cadena
he grabbed the fork==agarró el tenedor
he hit the box with a tree==pegó la caja con un árbol
he wanted to eat it==quería comerlo
was floating in the ocean==estaba flotando en el océano

Also, if you paste the typed text of "Sheep in the Island" from #9 above, you will be able to do additional activities in story form.

The Value of a PLN

Are you enjoying the benefits of having a PLN (Personal Learning Network)?  Gone are the days when you only have teachers in your building to share your ideas and lessons.  With technology at hand, your PLN can be world wide!

Teachers in your own building/district
First of all, my most valuable collaborator and support is Krista, a colleague in my department at school. She and I are in constant contact with each other, at school or away from school, sharing websites, ideas, struggles, frustrations, successes, and more recently, CI and TPRS strategies.  Sometimes after school we have what I now refer to as 'debriefing sessions'.  Hats off to any of you that are the only teacher in your building or district that uses TPRS. I know it would be a more difficult journey without my colleague, Krista.

Teachers in nearby districts
Another valuable member of my PLN is Liz, a teacher in a nearby school district.  She is my go-to person when I'm considering going to a conference or workshop because she is committed to professional development.  She has gone to several conferences with me, sharing the costs of hotels and taxis.  Long airplane and car rides provide plenty of time to share what we've learned at the conferences.

Conferences and Workshops
The next time you're at a conference or workshop, search out teachers with common interests.  Not only can you form new friendships, but it'll give you additional opportunities to learn from others in a more relaxed atmosphere. This week I had a long phone conversation with Marta, a Spanish teacher from WI that I met at my last conference, in which we discussed how we were implementing TPRS in our instruction. I look forward to future conversations on our progress with TPRS in the classroom.   

Forums: moretprs and flteach
Moretprs is a forum specifically for teachers using TPRS. Some members have over a decade of experience using TPRS, many of them national and international presenters, and they frequently respond to newer teachers' questions either on the forum or through direct emails.  I recently discovered the flteach listserve (not TPRS specific), another valuable source.

Twitter
A colleague of mine once said that she doesn't have Twitter because she doesn't have a smartphone.  Don't let that hold you back from building your PLN on Twitter.  Many times I access Twitter through my smartphone, but at night when I'm home on the laptop, I use Twitter the most.  My favorite hashtags are: #spanishteachers #langchat & #flteach. I've made numerous contacts and discovered useful links to sites, resources and ready-to-go lessons.   Many educators on Twitter have their website listed in their profile, which leads you to more information that they have freely shared.

Edmodo
Edmodo is another PLN builder. I belong to several groups relating to Spanish, iPads, and other categories.  It only takes a few minutes of browsing through the posts or teacher-made folders, and I have new materials that I can use to compliment my lessons.  The Spanish group is a good platform to pose questions to other Spanish teachers.

 One important thing to remember, don't limit your PLN to teachers in your field or at your level. I've gleaned valuable information from educators in different fields.  So how about you, are your enjoying the benefits of a PLN?  If not, what are you waiting on?

Sharing Resources for Spanish Classrooms

Image:307575551_810fdee3e0_parrots_sharing.jpg

 Are you looking for resources for Spanish audio, information and news, stories, and other information for your classroom?  As I find sites and resources I copy the URL and add them to my account on Only2Clicks, a website that I mentioned a few weeks ago in my blog.  Today I discovered they have a new feature that allows you to share as many of your collections that you choose to share.

Click HERE to find 4 of my collections I am sharing which are: TPRS, Audio, Cuentos, Info/News. Most of the websites are for Spanish classes, but some have links for resources for French, Italian, English, and other languages.

The TPRS tab includes both active and non-active TPRS blogs, many that I go to  regularly to find ideas and resources for my class. If you have a favorite TPRS blog that I don't have listed, PLEASE share it with me so I can add it.

The Audio tab has useful sites, some that also have the corresponding transcript! I use podcasts from iTunes that aren't listed on this page (yet), but I wanted a tab for other audio that isn't found on iTunes.  Also on the Audio page, I included a site that is entirely in English called "Old Radio World".  There are links to audio of radio shows from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.  Not exactly anything I can use in the classroom, but I find it entertaining to listen to (outside of the classroom) from time to time.

The Cuentos tab has a long list of sites with short stories or other reading materials from beginners to more advanced.

The last tab is Info/News which has websites of both English and Spanish news sources.  

Only2Clicks makes it easy for me to add sites to my different categories AND find them again when I need them.  

As I mentioned above, if you have favorite sites that fit into one of these categories that I don't have listed, please share them with me and I will add them to my Only2Clicks collections.  Thanks!

In Search of Global Collaborators for the new School Year

If you are a teacher of students that fit category #1 or #3 below and are interested in a global project with my Spanish students, please read this post and follow the instructions at the end to contact me.  (I plan to do other collaboration projects within the United States also, but I first would like to get the new project started.) 


Before school started last August, I had written a list of personal goals that I wanted to accomplish during the 2011-12 school year.  One of them was to collaborate with other classes in the world.  I was looking for three specific categories:
1 - Students in English-speaking countries learning Spanish (like my students).
2 - Students in non-English speaking countries learning Spanish.
3 - Native Spanish-speaking students in Spanish countries learning English.


A student in my class made the bulletin board (see photo) of a map of the world and yarn stretching to the countries that our class connected with. We were able to find students from each category above for 4 different projects.  In addition, if I had a culture-related question, I was fortunate enough to receive responses to those questions from teachers in Uruguay (the yarn fell off that country in the photo above), Mexico, Guatemala, Spain, and several other countries.


For the first three projects, we used VoiceThread.  In project #1, students from Seoul, Korea and Taiwan left responses.  In project #2, students from Mexico and Spain left answers. For project #3, the teacher from Taiwan started his own VoiceThread and several of my students added comments to his VoiceThread.
first project 
second project 
third project 
The 4th project was more interactive and personal because my students used Skype, FaceTime, Edmodo, and Mindomo to communicate and work with students from Argentina.  My students enjoyed learning more about Argentina and spending time talking to them.  Some of them changed usernames to play videogames against each other.


These collaborations were so successful that months before school ended, I began working on a new idea for global collaboration next year.  Once again I am looking for students in categories #1 and #3 above.  My idea is to do some type of Quad-Blogging with a mix of students from different English-speaking countries (New Zealand, England, Australia, Canada, etc.) and students from Spanish-speaking countries that are studying English.  I have contacted several teachers and plan to make more firm plans on this project during July and early August.  If you are a teacher of students from categories #1 or #3 above and are interested in hearing more about the Quad-Blogging, please leave a message in the comments below with your e-mail, or contact me at: cynthia_hitz@yahoo.com.


I'm looking forward to meeting new teachers and working on a Global Project with my new students this fall!

Apps for Spanish Class

I just learned that the Draw Something App for iPhone and iPad is now available in Spanish and 12 other languages.  How cool is that!

One way to use this is to have my students set this App to Spanish and play it with other students in the class, outside of school.  Maybe even throw in some extra credit points if they reach a certain number of plays and then show it to me when they reach that number.

An even better way to involve the students with the App is to find another class of students learning Spanish, either in the U.S. or in another country, and partner my students up with them...OR...find a class in a Spanish country to match my students to their students, or simply play as a whole class.  If I can find a class from a Spanish country that is learning English, maybe we could alternate playing the game in Spanish and English.

I love when the creators of the Apps make them available in other languages!

If you are reading this blog and are interested in starting some type of collaboration with this App, please post a comment below or send me an e-mail @ cynthia_hitz@yahoo.com.