Post Cards for Seniors

Custom made post cards for my seniors

The school year is winding down and I have only a few days to spend with my seniors before they graduate.  This year I created post cards to give to my seniors. 

I'll hand them out to the seniors in my Spanish classes later this week with the instructions to put them in a safe place.  At some point in the future - a year, several years, after they graduate from college, or whenever they want to share some exciting news of what is happening in their lives - they can jot a few words on the back of the post card and drop it in the mail.  

Some students may stash the post cards in a drawer somewhere and completely forget about it until years later.  My hope is that when they rediscover the post card, they will take a few minutes to write a short message and send it on its way. Post cards may seem a bit old-fashioned to some, but in my opinion, getting correspondence through regular mail is extra special.  

Most likely, it will be several years before I open my mailbox and see one of these post cards mixed in with my regular mail, but what a fun day that will be!  

Coincidentally, I've noticed often when I receive notes from past students through Twitter, email, and Facebook, and it usually occurs right when I need a little pick-me-up.  Small things make great reminders of the blessings that are right in front of us. 

Today's 145 minute class!

 Can you imagine teaching a high school class for a 145 minute block?  In other words, a 2 hour and 25 minute class. Thanks to the schedule changes to accommodate the state's seemingly never-ending barrage of state testing requirements, today's adjusted 2 hour class period turned into an unimaginable 2 hour and 25 minute class period.

I was fortunate in that the students in my class were absolutely amazing and kept any complaining to themselves, but I felt for them.  For part of the time, I tried out a new activity that actually worked well and mixed things up in the long class period. We did the following activity for 30 minutes.

Materials for the activity:
- A subscription to A-Z Reading.  (If you don't have this, find a children's book with visuals for each book that students are very familiar with and cover the written words.  As long as the words are covered, you can use a book written in any language.)
- Mini-whiteboards for each student
- dry erase markers and erasers

1.  Put the students in groups of four (NOT less!).  Some groups may have 5 but only 4 sentences are required from the group even if there are 5 in the group.

2. Project the wordless book onto the whiteboard.  

3.  Each group must write 4 sentences that relate to the picture. Students couldn't repeat a verb in the 4 sentences.  They were encouraged to help their teammates in order not to have any mistakes in their sentences.

 I used this activity in Spanish 2, so their sentences had to be in the past tense.

4. Turn to the 1st group and tell them to hold up their sentences.  They received one point for each correct sentence.  If there was an error, I took the whiteboad and showed it to the class.  If the class could find the error, the team that wrote it did NOT get the point for the sentence.  If the class couldn't find the error, I explained the correction and the team that wrote the sentence got a point for it, even though it was originally incorrect.

5. Turn to the next group and go over their answers.

6.  Check each group's answers; write their points on the board; then start the process over again with the next photo from the story.

7. When finished, students work independently to write the story as I clicked through the wordless book the 2nd time.

The reasons I liked this activity:

1. All the students were engaged: during writing, reading the answers the other teams had written, and looking for mistakes.

2.  It promoted teamwork. Students helped their classmates as they were writing their sentences. If an answer was incorrect, I stressed that it wasn't the fault of the one person that had that board, but rather that it was the responsibility of the team to check each others' answers.

3.  They became very good at finding the mistakes and that carried over into their own writing.

4. Since they had to write 4 sentences, it pushed them past the basic sentences.  
5. When I saw a correct sentence that was rather complicated for Spanish 2 level, I held that up as an example of an outstanding sentence.

6.  The students were more at ease during the individual writing session that followed the activity.

This activity could also be completed after reading a chapter from a novel or a short story that has illustrations or photos.
 
  

Review Chapters of Novels with PicCollage App

The goal for language teachers at my school is to read a minimum of 2 novels with the students per level.  I prefer to read a novel in 12-15 days instead of drawing it out to a month or longer.

A good way to review the events of the previous chapter before beginning a new chapter is to make a collage using the PicCollage app.  The app has images within the app that are copyright free, making it quick and easy for the teacher or students to create the collage in a short period of time.

This summer I'm going to shop around to check prices for making collages of El Nuevo Houdini into posters for the classroom.  After reading a chapter, I can then hang the posters around the room.  This will help students to remember the events of the previous chapters.  If a student is absent the day we read a chapter, the other students will have a handy visual to refer to when they explain the events to their classmate(s).

Or..display the poster photo collage before reading the chapter to predict events.  An variation of this is to create a collage with 1-2 photos not related to the chapter and ask students to guess which photo(s) are the imposters.

It also might be a nice way to have a verbal quiz at the end of the book.

Another bonus, hang the posters in the hall to help showcase what your students are learning in class.  Better yet, record a student telling a review of the chapter, connect a QR code to the recording, and post the QR code along with the poster in the hall!  

Active Reading Review - Marker Partner Game

My Spanish 4 class is currently reading the latest book by Carrie Toth called La Calaca Alegre.  We needed to take a break from reading the book to prepare lessons and then visit the elementary schools, so it had been several days since our last chapter.  I used the following activity which proved successful as a review AND as a way to keep everyone actively engaged in the review.

First, we arranged the desks in a circle in groups of two with a marker placed in the middle of the top of the desks.  (The sketch to the right shows seating for 16 students but I had 13 sets of desks to accommodate 26 students. The activity works with large or small numbers.)

Then I used used the activity El Tenedor (The Fork Game) found on Bryan Kandel's website, but made some small changes to the rules and added some (extra) movement by having the students rotate to other seats because I knew that would work well in my class. 

There were two teams: students on the inside were one team, and students on the outside of the circle were another team.

I had prepared 20+ true/false statements in the TL about facts from chapters 1-5.  Then I read a statement to the students.

·      Rules:

1.    True statement: students race to grab the marker and hold it up. The team with the most members holding the marker receives 1 point.

2.    False statement: students do NOT touch/pick up marker. If nobody on the team touches/picks up marker, the team earns 1 point.  (Both teams have the possibility of earning a point.)

3.    If it is a false statement and students on both teams hold up the markers, the team with the most number of students holding the marker loses 1 point.

4.    If it is a false statement and a student touches the marker and then throws it back, the person sitting opposite of them should stand up (without talking). The team with the student that threw the marker on the desk loses 2 points!

5.    After 3 statements, the students on the outside circle rotated clockwise one seat so students had a new person with whom to compete.

   
They loved this review game!  It was engaging, lively, and admittedly a little noisy at times, but sometimes learning is loud.  :-)

Writing with Spanish Hashtags #

The curriculum in my spring semester worked beautifully in that el Cinco de mayo happened in the midst of our cultural emphasis on Mexico.  I read the activities from The Creative Language Classroom and adjusted their suggestion for using hashtags with photos of Mexico. They have a few photos of Mexico on their website, but I searched for other photos and put them on a regular word document.  I searched for traditional photos (Mariachi groups, el día de los muertos, los mercados, etc) and added others photos to help show the diversity of Mexico such as snow (yes, they have it in northern Mexico at times), los clavadistas, Lucha Libre, ensalada de nopales, and others.  

The students worked in pairs to write a comment using a hashtag to describe the photo or simply react to the photo on the mini white boards.  For the first few photos many of the students had basic comments, but eventually they let their imaginations go and became very creative with their responses.  Once that happens, you can count on the competitive nature of some students and the desire to outdo the others, and then... the answers become even more creative.

We started this activity after 1/3 of the class left for an early dismissal for a track meet.  It kept everyone engaged and they enjoyed it.  

When I ran out of photos of Mexico on the document, I started searching in my files for photos that I use for a different activity in Spanish 4.  While I was searching, one student took advantage of the break and told the others that they had 1 minute to draw something that he described on their whiteboards.  (I continued searching on my computer.) After a minute, he told them to hold up their boards and to describe their sketches and THEN...he proceeded to ask them questions, in Spanish, about their sketches to which he insisted they respond in Spanish.  WHAT?  Did that really happen?  Yes, it did.  I paused from searching for my file and took in the moment, enjoying how the students were taking ownership of the class activity and cooperating with the student that suggested the activity.  What a perfect way to end the school day.

Silent Photo Story: Digital Storytelling with a Twist

Last week my students created a Silent Photo Story project that was inspired by this pin on Pinterest.  (The two students that made the project, below left, gave me permission to post their project.  You can find it at the end of the post and HERE.)

Before assigning the project to my students, I did a trial run by texting photos of a story, with the sentences written on an app on my ipad, to my daughter that was at her college tennis match.  (See one of the photos from the story below on the right.)  I searched for a way to post the photos on an app that would automatically advance each page of the story instead of having the photos listed vertically as on the Pinterest example.  The easiest user-friendly method I found for students to use is the Educreations app.

The purpose of the project was for my students to write in the past tense, include sentences that describe how someone felt about the actions of another person (the imperfect subjunctive), and for the majority of the creative aspect of the project to be completed outside of class time.

The Silent Photo Story project:

A. Requirements
   - Write a story in the past with a minimum of 10 sentences.
   - A minimum of 2 of the sentences must describe how someone felt about
     the actions of another person or about a situation.
   - Write each sentence on a mini-whiteboard. (I gave each student 2 
     markers, an eraser, and a mini-whiteboard to take home.)
   - Take a photo of you holding the marker board with the sentence. Your
     actions should match the sentence on the board.
   - E-mail the photos to your school g-mail account.

B.  Students had 4 days to complete the assignment.  I offered to proofread their sentences before they took the photos, but none of the students took me up on this offer.  (Next time, I will require the students to have a mini-conference with me before they complete the project.)

C.  The day it was due, I signed out the department i-pads.  The students accessed their photos through their g-mail, copied the photos to the i-pad, and opened the Educreations app.

D.  On the Educreations app, they uploaded one photo per page/slide.  Then they made a silent recording, pausing 3-4 seconds on each page.  (If you save the project before making the silent recording of each page, the app will only save the initial page of the project.)

E.  After the recording, they saved the lesson and followed my detailed instructions on how to post their projects directly on our class Edmodo page.  Those directions can be downloaded HERE.

F.  The following day in class, we sat in a circle (conversation style which means without desks) and read the stories. 





Note:  This project can also be done completely in class if you do not want to send the supplies home with the students.  One of my students completed his project at home, but it was in one location instead of several locations as in the example above.  His expressions perfectly matched the action in his story.  If I he gives me his approval to post it, I'll add it later.

Divergent Thinking

Which is more important in education, creative students or creative teachers?  The simple answer is they're both important.  If we want our students to be creative, then it is crucial that we demand the same creativity from our teachers. Neither can be compromised. 

This topic has increasingly been on my mind, especially on those occasions when I field questions from students such as, "how many sentences do I need to answer this?", or "how long do I need to talk for my presentation?", and other similar questions.  At times, I sense a student is more interested in trying to complete an assignment to match how I might do it, rather than envision their own way of completing it.  I suspect the endless standardized tests play a major role in training our students to conform into a mold and give the same answer as others.    

If you want to be inspired by a student willing to think in a divergent manner and let her creativity set her apart, you absolutely HAVE TO WATCH this video by Sarah Almeda (click HERE). I found this video on a blog post "Students Yearn for Creativity, not Tests" by Eric Sheninger, "A Principal's Reflection"  (The link was shared by @msfrenchteach on Twitter.) I recommend you browse his other inspirational blog posts while you are there.  

A divergent-thinking student (one that the non-stop "testing serum" has little to no effect on the natural curiosity for learning):

- imagines several possibilities for completing a task

- seeks ways to differentiate their work from others

- permits himself to daydream  

- doesn't hesitate when given the task to create an alternate ending to a story

- realizes a powerpoint is only one possibility to create a presentation

...and the list goes on.  Check this post, found on The Second Principle blog, for some well thought-out ideas. 

A divergent-thinking (language) teacher:

- values the students in her class with which she has been entrusted

- searches for individual and class interests to connect students to the material

- paces lessons to the needs of the students, not to the dates on a syllabus

- is open-minded when presented with new ideas from colleagues

- steps out of her comfort zone to try a new approach with technology

- ends a lesson thinking, "next time I teach this, what if I change X and do Y?"

- permits herself to daydream

- realizes the syllabus must be flexible in order to accommodate new resources and new ideas 

- understands that there will be times she will be learning along with the students 

- knows lessons that didn't go well can be a  learning experience and an opportunity to improve

- views last year's lessons as....Last Year's Lessons. (She'll need to teach the lessons geared specifically toward her current class.) 

Those are only a few ideas.  There are many, many more.

Coincidentally, when I wrote this post I didn't realize that World Creativity and Innovation Week is April 15-21 and World Creativity and Innovation Day is April 21.

La Guerra Sucia - 2 graphic organizers

Last week my Spanish 4 students read the last few chapters of La Guerra Sucia. I wanted to make sure they fully understood the plot in chapters 10 and 11, because my plans were for them to read the last chapter completely on their own.  

I experimented with a different technique while reading.  I projected the sketches to the left on the board and then I read the chapter to the students.  When they saw a sketch that matched the action in the text, they raised their hand and told me the letter of the sketch and I placed an X over the sketch.  

To be honest, I won't repeat this in the same manner the next time I read this book with the students.  The next time, I'll have the students read the chapter quietly to themselves and THEN, I'll read the chapter to them and they'll let me know the letter of a sketch that was described as I read it.  Since it was the first time we read the chapter, when the students stopped me to identify the sketches, it was too many interruptions and weakened the flow of reading. This will give an extra repetition of the chapter along with a purpose for reading it a second time.

After we discussed the chapter, I gave the students the paper to the right to match the sketches to the sentences.  The sketches are shown and numbered in the correct order of the events in the chapter.

Finally, I wanted to see if the students could both order the events and retell the story without any support.  To do that, the students formed groups of 3, and I gave them a copy of the paper shown at the beginning of the post. They retold the story alternating turns after describing a sketch.  I asked one member of each group to rotate to the next group and they repeated the activity.  

The students then read chapter 11 in their small groups, and they answered a few comprehension questions while reading.

For the last chapter, I asked them to read the chapter silently and complete the graphic organizer to the right.  I collected their papers and the following day we discussed the last chapter.  

This is the second time I've read this book with a Spanish 4 class, but this time it was part of a unit of Argentina and La Guerra Sucia.
Several people unknowingly helped me to accomplish this through the materials they shared on their blogs. They include:
- Kristy Placido's blog post  she shares ideas for stations to introduce the unit, including songs, short videos, and other materials
- Sharon Birch's blog post and materials on Argentina

and for assessment ideas:
- Carrie Toth's blog post on a culminating project 
- a google doc which I'm fairly certain was created by Kristy Placido. (I didn't include the link since I'm not certain who shared the google doc with me, because I'm not sure if I have permission to make the link public and share it on my blog.)
- Martina Bex's activity for Las Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo and the lyrics and activity for Mana's song, Desapariciones from TeachersPayTeachers  

In addition, I have many Mary Glasglow magazine articles on Argentina, and that's just from this school year. Since I am a subscriber, I also have access to their videos on Argentina.  FYI - If you have some money in your department budget, I recommend that you look into these magazines.  They're informative, colorful, and are available at three different levels.

A few last notes:
1. If you are interested in downloading any of the above graphic organizers they can be found here 
- Sketches of ch10 - La Guerra Sucia  HERE
- Matching for ch10 - La Guerra Sucia  HERE
- Graphic organizer for ch12 - La Guerra Sucia  HERE
2. The book is fiction but it includes information of events that happened in that time period.  It would have been better to have sketches that were more serious, not cartoon type sketches, but unfortunately, that is beyond my artistic abilities.
3. We also watched the video "Cautiva". The story was captivating and helped emphasize the tragedies that occurred in Argentina during that time period.
4.  Now I want to go to Argentina even more than I did before starting the unit.  Wanderlust  - again....

Language learning is NOT linear; neither is riding a unicycle!

How do you impress upon others that those who study a language and its origins, learn the rules of the grammar, identify the parts of speech, and watch videos of places of where the language is spoken, is not what translates into acquisition of that language?

Sometimes object lessons are more powerful than words. Recently, it became clear to me that I needed to share the following lesson with my students.

For four days, I set aside 4-6 minutes each class period to discuss an unrelated topic: unicycles.

Intro: 
First, I asked students if they could ride a tricycle.
Then I asked if they could ride a bicycle.   
Lastly, I asked if they could ride a unicycle. 
After all, tricycles, bicycles, and unicycles are all forms of transportation. The obvious difference is the number of wheels.

I continued the short lessons for the next 4 days:
Day 1 - Define the word "unicycle". Explain that "unicycle" can be used as a noun and a verb. Read the history of the unicycle.
Day 2 - Project an image of the unicycle with the parts labeled.  
Day 3 - Discuss the physics of riding a unicycle. More info. here.
Day 4 - Show a short video on the basics of how to get on and ride a unicycle. Define "idling" and "free mount". 
I read the quote by Katherine Peck:

"For many people it is all in the mind, because they have to get over the fact that there is only one wheel. Others just have to find their inner balance. There really isn't anything linear about the unicycle and that is partly why it is considered to be so hard to learn. YOU are the steering wheel, YOU are the brakes and YOU are what makes it go."

Day 5 - As students entered the classroom, I had a video playing of several guys doing tricks on a unicycle; and later I showed part of this video.  Then I gave them a "quiz" on the material they had learned throughout the week. (fyi - the quiz was not recorded in the grade book as a language quiz)

To grade the quizzes, the students and I left the classroom and walked to the atrium area of our school. Most of the students had a perfect score. "GREAT!" I said.  I told them how happy I was that they had learned so much about the unicycle.  Then I said that since they knew so much about it, that meant that they should be able to ride one.  After all, they got an "A" on the quiz, so they should be able to ride a unicycle, right?

Everyone knows it doesn't work that way. The students knew it didn't work that way and I knew it didn't work that way. So why do some believe if they learn about a language and can conjugate verbs and identify parts of speech, that means they "know" it and have the ability to communicate in the language? 

The beginning stages of learning to ride a unicycle include a LOT of support for the rider. It's uncomfortable and you will fall, but it's part of the learning process.  I have yet to meet someone that can jump on a unicycle and smoothly ride away on the first, second, third, etc. try. It takes time, patience, an open mind, and a desire to learn. But you absolutely MUST get on that unicycle to learn.

The same is true for acquiring a second language.  In the beginning levels, you'll need a LOT of support. It's uncomfortable at first because the sounds are different, the structures are different, and the words are different, and you will make mistakes, but it's part of the learning process.  I have yet to meet someone that can hear a language spoken for the first time and be able to smoothly communicate in the language on the first, second, third, etc. try. It takes time, patience, an open mind, and a desire to learn. But you absolutely MUST actively use the language (listening, reading, and responding when ready) in order to acquire the language.  

So...back to my students in the atrium holding their perfect quizzes on unicycles.  I told them to look at the last question which included the quote listed above by Katherine Peck and I read it to them with a few changes.  I read: 
  
    "For many people it is all in the mind, because they have to get over the   fact that it is a different language. Others just have to find their inner motivation to learn. There really isn't anything linear about learning a language and that is partly why it is considered to be so hard to learn. YOU are the steering wheel, YOU are the brakes and YOU are what makes it go."

Then, I called to two students that were waiting just around the corner with a unicycle that I had previously directed them to collect in a nearby classroom. The other students were surprised to see the unicycle. Any takers? Anyone willing to give it a try? One student that said he used to be able to ride in the past wanted to try, but he was unsuccessful. 

Any other takers? 
No. 

The students knew that their knowledge about unicycles wasn't going to magically transform into the skill of riding a unicycle. They hadn't practiced it so they couldn't ride it. 

What's a teacher to do to demonstrate that practicing a skill, such as communicating in a 2nd language or riding a unicycle, is the key ingredient for success?  I suppose riding the unicycle would make an impact. 

What are the chances I demonstrated that for them? I guess only the students and I know the answer to that, especially since they all had left their smart phones in the classroom. How often does that happen? Coincidence?

I repeat, sometimes object lessons are more powerful than words.

Sketches Help Guide Students for Story Retells

"Mónica" in the book, Fiesta Fatal

I've been reading the book Fiesta Fatal, written by Mira Canion, with my Spanish 2 students.  Mira's goal, when writing the book, was to create a book that was level appropriate for second year Spanish students and she succeeded in accomplishing that goal!  If you're looking for a comprehensible level 2 book that has an interesting storyline, this is one book you should strongly consider.

Today we read the last chapter of Fiesta Fatal.  Some students volunteered to read the lines for the main characters in the chapter.  I always look for ways in which students can interact with the text, so after reading, I projected the below sketches onto the board.  We reviewed what happened as students said sentences in Spanish that matched the sketches.  If they were uncertain about what to say, I allowed them to refer to the book. 

Find the download of the worksheet to the left HERE.

After the students were familiar with the sketches I paired them up with a partner and distributed squares of paper that had the same sketches on them and gave them the following instructions:

1. Put the squares on the desk face down.

2. Randomly choose two cards and turn them over.  

3. Decide the order of the two cards.   

4. One partner says a sentence in Spanish to describe the sketch that they decided happened first in the chapter.  The second student says a sentence to describe the second sketch.

5. The students choose a third paper, turn it over, and say a sentence to describe the sketch.  

6. They they decide if that sketch is before the other two, in between the other two, or at the end of the first two sketches.

7. When the 3 sketches are in the correct order, they take turns saying a sentence for each of the sketches. (Student A describes sketch #1, Student B describes sketch #2, Student A describes sketch #3.)

8.  Students continue turning the papers over, one by one, putting the new card in the correct place, and taking turns once again to say a sentence for each sketch.

9. When they were finished, they called me to their desks and I listened to their retell of the story.

To download the two sheets of sketches shown below for the retells, click HERE.  (The sketches on the sheets below are not in any particular order. Feel free to substitute any, or all, sketches that you are able to sketch better than I have done.)

 

Graphic Organizers and Reading in the MFL classroom

I remember when "graphic organizers" was the buzz word and at the school district in which I worked, if the teacher had "g.o." on his/her lesson plan, the principal was happy.  I didn't like them at that time because they were basic and generic.  Boring blocks or circles with spokes coming out of them that looked like bicycle wheels.

The dull graphic organizers of the past are gone.  I now see their value and use them often when reading novels with my students, and create ones that are specific to the text.  

When I start reading a new book with my students, my goal is to help them fully understand the characters, the problem, the tensions, etc.  When that information is pulled together in a graphic organizer, it helps the students to connect to the characters and draws them into the story.

Below are examples of graphic organizers that I use for the first chapters of several books.   (my disclaimer: My artistic skills are challenged and the idea in my mind always looks better than what ends up in the paper.)

FIESTA FATAL  Download HERE

LA GUERRA SUCIA        Download HERE

 

Robo en la noche      Download HERE
 

Vida o muerte en el Cusco  Download HERE

Robo en la noche      (ch1-3) FInd the download HERE

La vampirata    Download HERE 
 

Two additional graphic organizers I use are from Martina Bex found on the link below:
El nuevo Houdini - chapter 1 esquema 

Esperanza - chapter 1 esquema 


Information on many of the books listed above is used with permission by TPRS Publishing, Inc.

Story script - to prepare for La Dentista song by Sr. Wooly

In a few days my Spanish 2 students will listen to the song, "La Dentista" by Sr. Wooly.  First I will narrate the action and ask questions about the video without sound, (aka MovieTalk), then they'll listen to the video/song, complete a cloze activity, and read the story that I wrote about the video.

To prepare them to be successful when reading and talking about the video, I created a story using: se quejó de, tienes que ir, and le dijo to introduce and/or review the structures. It is about a boy that complained about everything.

The story script and questions are linked below the directions.

1.  Copy the following focus words into composition books:  
- se quejó de = s/he complained about
(or -se quejaba de = I or s/he used to complain about)
- Tienes que ir = you have to go
- le dijo = s/he said to him/to her

2. PQA - Ask students what they used to have to do when they were younger and/or what they had to do last week or last weekend.  Ask them if they complained about it and who told them they had to do it.

3.  Create story with class about someone that had to go different places, why s/he did/didn't want to go there, who said to him/her "you have to go", and if s/he complained or not.

4. Distribute the images (an example is on the left).  The teacher reads the story about Dante to the students.  As they hear the words mentioned in the story that are pictures on their paper, cross them out.  Go over the answers w/ students.

5.  Distribute the story about Dante to the students.  They should read the story to a partner, paying close attention to the events and the order of the events.

6. After all students have read and understand the story, tell them to put the story in their folders so they are not visible.  Then distribute the questions that students must answer in Spanish.  The students worked with their same partner as the one they worked with to read the story. (I put the questions in English because I was checking their comprehension of what they read, not their comprehension of what is asked.)

7. Students switched papers with another group and we corrected the answers together.  I awarded a bonus point on the next quiz to the student(s) that had the most correct answers.

Dante story script                 Questions on Dante story


If you are interested in the story script that accompanies the video, you will need to leave your name and email in a SEPARATE comment. I will not publish your comment that contains only your email and your request for the story script in order to avoid your email being published on the web which will possibly open you up for spam.