Videos & CI (Comprehensible Input)

I don't like when students are absent from class, but if we have a class discussion about a short film on a day when a student is absent, I have a sure-fire way to add more repetitions with the day's vocabulary the next day. When the student returns, I put the class in charge of explaining the video, using Spanish only, to the absent student. The absent student is the only one that is permitted to speak in English. I stress to the class that if the absent student doesn't understand, it's not the student's problem, but rather it is the problem of the entire class. The responsibility lies on their shoulders to make sure they are understood.

Yesterday, as an introduction to our unit on Love and Relationships, I showed the short film, "Blind Date".

First I had the students work in groups and they tried to match my answers to questions such as:
- What is something you can drink?
- What is something you put on?
- What is an action you do when preparing food?
We discussed their answers, did some light PQA, and moved onto the video. I stopped the video at 2:30 for students to retell the story thus far, using the vocabulary that they just learned in the previous action. I also asked them to predict what happened next. We then watched the remaining part of the video and practiced re-tells in a large group and then in small groups.

The retell was "on" the next day when two students returned to class. This group is getting quicker at the retells.

What would you do with this video? I'm looking for any creative ideas you may have.

I found this video on another teacher's blog, but I can't remember which one. I'll do my best to find it so I can give him/her the credit.

News Articles

At the beginning of the semester in my Spanish 4 classes, my goal is for the students to hear as much Spanish as possible, in the form of Comprehensible Input. We have a 5-block schedule, in two semesters, which means some of the students may not have had Spanish for a year, or even more if they had a year in which their schedule didn't match with the times Spanish IV was offered.

Several years ago I read a short article in the newspaper and I've used the article with my 4s ever since. The article is interesting by itself that I have no trouble keeping the students' attention as I StoryTell it to them (I never actually read it to them but I keep it close by in case they doubt it really happened). However, the thought occurred to me recently that I should try a different approach the next time I tell it.

First, my explanation of how I usually use the material in class and then my new idea.

We'll begin with the article:




1.Before I tell the article, I review any vocabulary that I think the students do not know or won't remember quickly, writing them on the board in Spanish and English, followed by PQA to the students using the vocabulary. (Still need practice on PQA.)

2. I tell about the news article using the TPRS style, stopping to retell in Spanish. I repeat the story or practicing verbal exer I feel comfortable that the students are able to retell the story, including facts such as what was the boy wearing, where he went, what he wanted to buy, etc. This is one story that we do not sketch.

3. Finally, I give students an answer in Spanish and they have to form a question in SPanish using information from the story. Example: My answer - mantequilla, harina y arroz (butter, flour and rice) - Students form the question - ¿Qué comió el niño para sobrevivir? (What did the boy eat to survive?)

Sometimes this last exercises proves to be a bit challenging for the students. I know because it becomes real quiet and you can almost hear them thinking. I don't have any problem getting the students to participate, it just takes them longer and you can tell they're focused.

My new idea is to begin the story in the middle and tell the students that a little boy walks into a store to buy something. And from there, I can ask them what they think he wants to buy, what type of store it is, how is he dressed, what season is it, what does he use to try to make his purchase, and on and on. As the students guess at what may be the right answer, they'll soon realize that something is definitely wrong that a young boy walks into an alcohol store, in his pj's, in the winter, with his mother's credit card, etc. This will lead me asking more questions to lead them to the reason as to why a little boy would do this.

I don't know if that type of discussion will work better than the first idea. My thinking is that if it keeps their attention, and it's in the target language, AND they understand it, then I will have been successful in giving them the necessary reps as per CI. I could always follow it up with another story by me or by the students.

Do you have any suggestions on how to use this article? (It is such a sad article.)

Reading for in class

10 Reasons to take Spanish (@ PAHS)

Course selection time is in full swing, so why not make a video to promote reasons to take your Spanish (or other language) course? Read on...

I haven't made posts on this blog lately for several reasons. One reason is that I'm constantly working to revamp the curriculum that I use in Honors Spanish 4 and Honors Spanish 5 to include (even) more Comprehensible Input.

The second reason, I'm talking an on-line workshop on digital learning in the classroom and there are a list of tasks to complete each week to help familiarize us with the different tools available for classroom use. I've used Animoto many times in the past so I can't claim that I learned anything new about this particular tool, but I tried a new idea which was to put the presentation in a Top Ten List format.

So... this video isn't directly related to TPRS or CI (Comprehensible Input), but rather helps to explain the scarcity of posts in the last 2 weeks. Maybe I'll look into asking the Broadcasting advisor if they can show this on the Morning Show at our school to promote Spanish class.

Name Change

Some of you may have noticed that I changed the name of the blog a few weeks ago. It changed from "TPRS with Spanish I" to "TPRS with Spanish". I originally started the blog to track and share the activities I did with my pilot TPRS Spanish 1 class. Since we are on the block schedule at my school, the last day of class for the first semester was on January 20 and I no longer have a Spanish 1 class. (And I sorely miss my students in Spanish 1!).

However, I enjoyed blogging about my Spanish 1 activities and through the last few months have added activities that I do with my upper level classes. Therefore, I will continue posting on this blog, but there will not be many posts dealing specifically with a beginning class.

In my opinion, what is one of the best parts about blogging? (answer) becoming acquainted with other educators that stop in to visit my blog and leave comments and sharing ideas with them and, in turn, learning from them. Thanks for all that have shared their comments, ideas, and materials with me!

MAGIC happens when you least expect it

One thing I love about TPRS is that you never know when the students will help to spin a story that turns into MAGIC. I'm learning that many times this happens when you don't follow your plan A. Susan Gross explained to me that the story I have planned should be considered "Plan B", one that should only be used if all else fails. After she said that, I realized that the day before, I had experienced exactly that with my Spanish 3 students. Below is how I shared the story with Susan Gross last week:
I can relate to what you said about my story being plan B. That happened to me on Friday. I wanted to review le/les gustaba(n) and en vez de. But, during PQA I found out I was the only one in the classroom that had never heard of the singer "Drake". When they asked me what music I like and I said Brad Paisley, one of the students (a great guy that has a great sense of humor) said, "oh, you're country" and then made kind of a "duh" sound. And a that moment I remembered a story about a guy that goes into the town village every day. All the villagers think he's dumb so they offer him a nickel or a dime and he always picks the nickel because it's bigger. They laugh at him because they think he's stupid and the next day the same thing plays out. This continues every day. Then one day a stranger sees this take place and pulls the guy aside to tell him he should pick the smaller coin because it's actually worth more. The guy then says that he knows that, but if he picks the dime, they won't offer him the choice every day and he won't be able to pocket the 5 cents every day.

I knew that the words for city and country were coming up in the near future so I decided the "dumb" person would be from the country and he would go into the city every Wednesday. When I asked the kids who the person from the country is, of course they said "Sra. Hitz". (The previous day we had a discussion, in Spanish, about how I live on a farm and that I wake up at 4:10 a.m. every morning to feed the cows before I come to school and at times help deliver calves - yes, even to the point where my hands go where no hands should ever go in a cow. If you live on a farm you know exactly what I'm talking about.)

So, I chose actors to play the other parts, and of course I played myself, and you know what Susie?, I had a blast and the actors were awesome. The students were so focused on what was going on in the story. It was PURE MAGIC! Of course then the story was over and I laughed when I saw my "focus words" of gustar, etc on the board and someone said, "Yeah, whatever happened to the person going to the Drake concert?" and right on the heels of that comment another student said, "I like stories. I learn a lot" (or something similar).

I know I can't expect that every day, or at least not until I relax more and learn to let things play out in a natural way, but WOW, it was enough to energize me and make me want to see it happen again.

That happened last week and to my surprise, my students in my two Spanish 4 classes served up more MAGIC yesterday when we talked about the fears of some of the students. (Who would have thought that a high school student would be ok with acting like a bird?)

Be assured, this MAGIC doesn't happen every day in my classes. Admittedly, there are days when the story just falls flat and I'm left wandering what went wrong. But, just knowing that the potential for that energizing MAGIC to pop up at any time is there, makes the start of each story an interesting and unpredictable adventure.

Thanks Susan for telling me to move my Plan A to the Plan B spot and leave the door open for MAGIC to enter the classroom.

TPRS School Board Report

A few weeks ago the Assistant Superintendent asked me to talk at the January Board Meeting about TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling). I asked my students in Spanish 1 if anyone was interested in coming to the board meeting with me to help with my presentation. The photo to the left is of the 3 students that came to the board meeting.

After the Assistant Superintendent introduced me, I turned to the 3 students and asked them to introduce themselves. Then I gave the list of vocabulary words that my Spanish 1 students had learned to a school board member and asked him to circle 8 of the words. I then handed the paper to the students, told them to write a story using at least 5 of the words, and they left the board room to write a story.

Meanwhile, I explained TPRS to the board members, gave examples of what happens during a TPRS class, shared with them the progress that I have seen the students make with this instruction, and answered their questions. At one point I went out in the hall to check if the students were ready. They said, "Almost, it's a great story, Señora." and the second time I checked on them, they were practicing reading what they wrote and said, "it's really good and we don't want you to hear it yet."

Finally, after 10 minutes or so, they were ready and they came back in the board meeting. They took turns reading, first in Spanish and then two of the students translated it to English. As they promised, it was a great story that included all the words they were given, and in a short amount of time! Needless to say, the students were a big hit and their language abilities were evident to the board members and administrators. I was so proud of them, standing in front of the board reading their story, demonstrating their Spanish language abilities, and looking relaxed because they had hours upon hours of comprehensible input to draw from, and a lot of class experience on creating stories.

I'm certain that the students' story had a bigger impact and impression on the school board members than anything I said about TPRS. Thank you María, Alejandro, y Raúl!

Their story is posted below with the 6 words they needed to include in a different color:

Hay un chico que se llama Edgardo. Edgardo vive en Hershey. Un día Edgardo va a Hersheypark, cual es un parque de diversiones. El es muy deportista porque él es en el equipo de fútbol. Él oye algo. Es un concierto en el parque de diversiones. Él va al concierto de Justin Bieber. Él canta con Justin , pero él canta mal. Las personas tratan de golpear a Edgardo con tomates. Él corre y tropieza en el suelo. Él espera a la policía y llora porque el se rompió la mano. Es muy mal porque la mano está blanca. Todas las personas están tristes.

GLOBAL PROJECT - Collaborators Wanted - Spanish or Language Learners

My Spanish classes are looking for other classes to collaborate on a VoiceThread project with them. Since our 2nd school semester doesn't start until Tuesday, January 24, I do not have the VoiceThread complete yet since the students need to give me their photos to add to the VoiceThread. Below is a sample VoiceThread of what ours will look like after it is completed - hopefully within a week of January 24.

Below are recordings in English and Spanish that explains the project. If you need additional information, please e-mail me at:

cynthia_hitz@yahoo.com
or connect with me on twitter: #sonrisadelcampo





Here is the SAMPLE VoiceThread:

I'm looking forward to hearing from other teachers and adding your class to our project. 

Bulletin Board of my students' collaboration with students in other parts of the world.

Comics in TPRS class with Bubblr

Last week I stumbled upon a message on Twitter by Shelly Terrell in which she mentioned a 5-week on-line workshop on "how to use web storytelling tools and mobile apps to motivate young learners" titled "Digital Storytelling 4 Kids". Even though I'm a secondary educator, I decided to participate to learn more on how to use digital storytelling in my classes.

This week the focus is on using Comics in the classroom. I had a list of sites for making comic strips, but never used any in class that I personally made on the computer. The comic I made this week is one made on Bubblr which uses photos from Flickr. I wanted to start a story with a comic and also have include culture.



(for larger format: Juan y el encierro by srahitz)

I choose El Encierro (the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Navarra in Spain) because:
1) who doesn't like watching the world news in July about the brave people that run with the bulls down the streets of Pamplona
2) I can embed information about the "La Fiesta del San Fermín" in the story.
3) I can include geography facts if the person begins the journey in Galicia and works his/her way toward Navarra.

In what ways do you use comics in the language classroom?

How to use OCTOPUS (pulpo) in a Story

My focus when I started this blog was using TPRS with my Spanish 1 class. I knew that upper levels also benefit from TPRS, but I thought it was more useful for the lower levels. However, I found out differently this week when I recycled a story I used in Spanish 1 with my Spanish 4 class. The success of the story proved to me that ALL students, even in those in levels 3 and 4, will learn much better with comprehensible input.

On Wednesday, after reading about embedded stories on Michele Whaley's website, I realized that lately when I write stories for class, I wasn't leaving enough freedom for the students to choose the direction of the story. So, I chose the focus words gana, pierde, manda; asked questions using the new vocabulary, and for Spanish 1 I started with the following skeleton of a story:

1. There is a (boy or girl).

2. S/he needs money.

3. S/he writes to Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

4. S/he writes to Minute to Win it.

5. S/he writes to Fear Factor.

6. S/he ____.

For statement #1, I asked: Is it a boy or girl? What is his/her name? Where does s/he live?, hobbies, friends, etc.

#2 - Why does s/he need money? + more questions

#3 - Is s/he accepted on the show? Does s/he go to the show? if no, why not? If yes, how does s/he go to the show? Does s/he go alone? How long did it take to go to the show? How does s/he feel? Does she win or lose?

#4 & #5 are similar to #3.

#6 What does s/he do after the game? How does s/he feel?

The students helped develop the story with their suggestions. At statement #5, I was prepared with a surprise for the student that was playing the role of the main character in the story. The task the character had to do on Fear Factor was to eat Octopus, which I bought at the supermarket and was, coincidentally, from Spain! I asked the student playing the role if she wanted to eat the octopus to "win the money" in the story. Her response was "Ewwww", which became part of the story of course. (I explain how Spanish 4 benefited from the student NOT eating the octopus later.)

The following day, the students worked in triads and received a packet of papers with the following photos: a large home in Ireland (the girl in the story needs money because she wants to buy a house in Ireland); the logos for the 3 game shows, a blank sheet of paper, and a pack of Post-It notes. The students wrote 1 sentence per Post-It note about the events in the story, sticking the notes on the page to which it related. On the blank sheet, they wrote the end of the story. When finished, the groups switched their packets with another group and read the story in English to their group. (Another task is to have them remove the Post-It notes before they exchange with another group, give the notes and the photos to another group, and that group has to put the notes on the correct sheet.)

Now...onto Spanish 4 and the octopus. Since Spanish 1 did not make use of the canned octopus, I decided to recycle the story for Spanish 4, but to use more advanced grammar and additional vocabulary. Their story went in a totally different direction; their character wrote 3 letters but one was to a famous person asking for help. I was even able to weave in some cultural facts about Barcelona and El Parque Güell (another teaching moment!). When we came to the 3rd task on Fear Factory, they suggested that "Juan" eat something. That was when I pulled out the octopus and this time the student in the role said yes, much to the delight of the other students. I popped open the lid and 'whew....', canned octopus has quite a strong smell. "Juan" tried it but didn't swallow it - which of course meant he didn't win the money in

the class story.

Others wanted to try the octopus so I obliged. In fact, I even ate some octopus for the first time. I can assure you my students will not forget that "pulpo" means "octopus". As they retold the story, I noticed significant improvement on their use of the different tenses and their overall grammar - sound evidence that TPRS helps even level 4.

Here is the story from Spanish 1:

Props - Students Love Them

I planned to present Episodio 10 of Cuentos de Ensalada in today's class. So, before school ended yesterday, i sent an e-mail to our high school staff asking if anyone had a surgical cap and mask that I could use in my class. I procrastinated by waiting until the day before, but I thought I'd give it a try. One teacher came through with flying colors! She has a relative that works in the operating room and she brought a full bag of goodies: a surgical mask, booties, cap, hair covering, and something that also went over the head and covered the back of the neck too; a "bunny suit" (that was new to me); and more.
My original plan was for me to slip on the surgery gear, but after she came in with a full bag of clothing, I thought it would be more interesting for the students if I had a student act out the role of the doctor and the nurse. I chose a female student to play the doctor and for the nurse, a guy volunteered. All the students enjoyed it and they begged to take a photo of their classmates in their surgery garb. How could I say no? When they're that excited about sharing photos from class, it is a good thing. I'm sure there are several photos on Facebook tonight of the Spanish activity. Great publicity for the Spanish department, right?

So, how do you think our doctor and nurse look?

TPRS Workshop in Hershey, PA!

I received some good news on Friday! Michelle Kindt, who is a National TPRS Coach and National Board Certified Teacher is hosting a TPRS Workshop on February 25, 2012, at Hershey Middle School, in Hershey, PA. You can find more information on the TPRS workshop on the document below.


The only training I had on the TPRS method was four or five years ago. In 2009, I taught Spanish 1 using TPRS for 1/2 a semester, but was unsure if I was doing the method justice, so I dropped it. (Bad decision - I know.) Then last spring, after talking to our Assistant Superintendent, I was given the approval to pilot a Spanish 1 class using the TPRS method in the fall of 2011. The administrators were very supportive and even purchased a classroom set of the Cuéntame Más workbooks, student readers, and some auxiliaries. But there were no local workshops for me to attend to receive additional instruction on the method.

I met Michelle Kindt, who teaches french at Hershey Middle School, this fall when the five members of our World Languages Dept. went to observe the TPRS teachers at HMS. (Thank you Sherry Nesbitt for arranging this!) The Hershey Middle School teachers did such a fantastic job that the other members of my department quickly recognized the benefits of teaching with TPRS, so much so that two of the members have switched to using TPRS in their classes and the remaining two teachers are willing to use TPRS, but expressed a strong desire to have some instruction on the method.
Enter Michelle Kindt - and

we now have a workshop just a few miles down the road where we can learn more about TPRS and improve our teaching skills.


If you know of anyone that may be interested in this workshop, please pass along the information. Maybe I'll see you there!

Using Videos with TPRS - 2

My Spanish 1 students and I have been working on the Cuentos de Ensalada script (and enjoying it) but I decided that we needed something totally different for a few days to change things up a little. I pulled out a another video that I had also used with the Honors Spanish 4 class in the fall. The title of the video is "El Monstruo del Armario". I wanted to save it for Spanish 4, but once again I realized that since I'm using TPRS with my Spanish 1 students, they knew almost all of the vocabulary necessary to understand the initial telling of the story (by me) and for their retelling. In fact, I had to search for words that I could add into the story to increase their vocabulary.

The 3 vocabulary words I chose were: el pasillo, una pesadilla (which I never did work into the story), and enciende. Now that the lesson is finished, I wish I would have taken an extra day to also work with the following vocabulary: se acuesta, se acerca, and una cuerda.

Here is an outline of my lesson. I have 70-minute class periods and I started the lesson during the 2nd half of the period one day and continued it into the following day for 2/3 of the class. (If you haven't watched the video yet, then I suggest that you do so I don't ruin the ending for you in my description of the lesson. It's less than 3 minutes; suitable for secondary students.)

1. Write focus words on the board, translate them, PQA: el pasillo, una pesadilla, enciende. This was a perfect chance to include a lot of conversation when we talked about the different pesadillas that the students had when they were younger.

2. I told the story, reviewing after each new statement, and asking for their input but I "guided" them to give the answer I was looking for. Review the story with class retell and partner retells.

3. Show the video until 2:33, which is when the dad opens the wardrobe doors. Ask students to guess what he sees in the wardrobe. I had some great guesses - even "Eduardo, el elefante" that always seems to pop up in stories from time to time was one of the guesses. NOBODY guessed the right answer even though I kept telling them that it is a Spanish word that they know.

4. Then I continued the video until 2:37, stopping it as soon as the students saw the boy in the closet but before they see what is happening behind the dad.

5. I distributed the paper that is embedded below. Students worked in groups of 2 to write 11 sentences on the part of the video that they saw. It seemed the only problem with writing that the students had was that I didn't provide enough lines - they were able to saw more than 11 sentences!

Then after the 2nd photo on the paper, they had to write 4 sentences to describe what they thought happened next.


6. Students read their last 4 sentences aloud and other students translated them to English.

7. Finally, I showed them the last few seconds of the video.

8. For the last activity, I used a collage of the shots from the video, but this time instead of me saying a sentence and the students naming the number to which it pertains, the students said the sentences and then their classmates said which picture frame was described.



Or, here is a link of the same photo collage but only photos 1-9 so you can review the events up to the boy in the closet without the students seeing the last several photos.

***UPDATE***
Click HERE for @kplacido (Kristy Placido) script for the Monstruo del Armario reading



This morning I looked over the sentences that the students wrote on the worksheet and with just a few days until the end of the semester, I can clearly see the benefits of TPRS in their writing skills. Obviously with this story there isn't much need to use the verbs in anything other than the 3rd person singular, but the students' overall writing impressed me. It gives me assurance that they're adequately prepared to move onto Spanish 2 (but oh how I'd love to keep them for another few weeks or month!)

I may make some Cloze activities for them to do on Monday or make an audio recording with Quicktime for a listening exercise or, maybe I should just move on to the next chapter of Cuentos de Ensalada.