Anyone who has read this blog knows that I obviously LOVE reading other blogs. One of my favorite blogs is Path2Proficiency. I devour every blog that is posted. When Thomas reached out to me with the possibility to blog for them, I was PUMPED. Actually that is an understatement! I have been really excited ever since then. My first post was just published: Stepping Stones to Interpretive Reading. I hope that you hop over there to check it out!
One blog post that I love to read is a review of the blogger’s favorite things. I have a few that I have been using recently that I hope you can try too!
What are your current spring favorites? I love to add to my list!
I have really enjoyed checking out Adriene’s post on music talks. One of my favorite music videos is Lasso’s Te Veo. I decided to make a slideshow to go over the details of the music video. I noticed that my students were much more invested in the video than they had been in the past when they went from listening to the song to watching the video. I left a little cliff hanger at the end. I also made a new Jumble Kahoot to play! It was a little difficult for my students, but this was the first time that many of them played the Jumble version. I liked that Jumble continues to recycle the words from the video.
At the end of class, I drew inspiration from Laura’s recent music post. I had students recreate four pictures from the music video and caption them. They could upload a collage to Seesaw with the captions! If we had more time, I would have students retell the story over the picture also in Seesaw. In Seesaw, they can record up to 5 minutes! It was great to take time to really listen to the song and the video. I am excited to continue to break down good music videos like this!
Assessments alone can be daunting. As any teacher, I want to assess my students with what they know and can do, but I want all of my students to be successful. While I keep changing, there are a few things that I do to decrease anxiety.
I would love to hear how you decrease anxiety with assessments! Share in the comments!
After ACTFL, I was really reflecting on how I used authentic resources. As I said before, I really need to make sure that I am doing PRE- almost everything. Pre reading, pre teaching vocabulary before stories. (Maybe that will be my #oneprefix this year 🙂 I used this infographic which I have used many times. This time, I zoomed in on the man sneezing. Then, I had students brainstorm relevant vocabulary as well as a possible theme. We could complete a quick think-pair-share before we started with the questions. I really liked using the think-pair-share because it gave students an easy quick way to talk in Spanish. If a student didn’t know a word, they would check with their partner for confirmation.
As I continue to delve into using more authentic resources, I find myself teaching more about how to use each resource. For example, we discussed what an infographic was. I told students how to use a picture in an infographic. I could also give hints such as read the headlines of each topic. It can seem overwhelming when a student cannot tell how the infographic is organized. I am hoping that as I continue to work with these authentic resources, students will become more savvy. I also hope that I become more savvy into how to work with each infographic! Many times, I just assume that I only want students to get a superficial knowledge of each resource; however, I am starting to want more from my students as we continue to work with them!
In the future, I am excited to try Seesaw’s new labeling feature. It would be great to either create something of a “book snap” about what is happening or labeling words throughout. You could look at Seesaw as a type of Snapchat (without disappearing!)
Happy Friday! We have made it through the first week back to school! Hopefully, some of yall get some good snow. We didn’t get much this week, and my son really wants to make Frosty and a snowball. So come on snow! I am looking forward to breaking out our hot chocolate soon! Here are some of my favorite posts from this week:
Flashback Friday to previous posts (including some of my VERY first blog posts!):
Last year, Señor Wooly sent out a request for help on his secret project! I was lucky enough to respond in time and get a sneak preview of his newest graphic novel Billy y las botas! I knew that I wanted to use this in my level 2s. My school bought a class set including the teacher’s guides. I highly recommend the teacher’s guides! They are so useful! You can also watch all of the helpful videos made by Señor Wooly and Carrie Toth here. Below, I will detail my plans including how I am adapting the graphic novel for my blended class and for my sick child!
For the first day, I had planned to start with the Billy y las botas song on Señor Wooly. I thought this would be a nice introduction to the book, but you could wait until the end of the novel to show them. I was planning on using vocabulary introduction and then the cloze song activity from his website. Then we were going to start with the book. For homework, I was going to have the students complete a few nuggets from the Señor Wooly website.
THEN! My son woke up sick. This was going to be my first day back from break, AND I had all of the graphic novels in my car… CUE the teachers’ guide! Señor Wooly included a PowerPoint with all of the pictures from his book with or without the words. I was able to cut the PowerPoint to the first three pages and ask students follow-up questions in English. You could also include some of the questions from the circling guide in Spanish. I provided these to the students to complete while I was out.
The first few pages introduce Perro’s girlfriend Damita. As a quick writing activity, I had students make up a short date between Perro and Damita. For the rest of our class, I was able to have students work on the Señor Wooly nuggets. These nuggets are wonderful for a sub day!
The next day, I was able to have students start into the next few pages. I covered a few pages in one class due to my December timeline, but I could afford to go even slower. I found that it was nice to cover two pages then give my students a minute to describe everything in Spanish. I have noticed that students are able to speak more about these pages than other topics that I have given. Also, Señor Wooly includes some brain break ideas with students raising their hands or moving to the room where they stand on an issue. In addition, I have also allowed students to read a page or two on their own.
After we read about 10 pages, I had my students complete a 1-3-5 free write. I observed this in another teacher’s class, and it was awesome. Students write for one minute about what they read. Then, they count their words. After, students copy their sentences from the first minute then they keep writing for the full three minutes. They count their words then for five minutes, copy down their three minute sentences and keep going. It is pretty motivating for the students and a nice summary activity.
Finally, on my third day, I started with this little chart to recap what my students have read with the characters. We finished through the section before Billy meets the boots. Then, I made this Kahoot for my students to play! Overall, I am enjoying completing this with my students. They are engaged, and they are having a lot of fun! They also are seeming to really understand more Spanish when I am speaking.
Happy Friday!! I hope that you are enjoying your week and are looking forward to the weekend. I am headed out to the Halloween train this weekend with my son which combines two of his favorite things. Also, that laundry still cannot do itself for some reason. Here are some of my favorite pages from this week:
Maris Hawkins Flashback!
Happy Friday! I have just gotten back (and recovered from) an overnight camp with the 9th grade students in Western Maryland. It is certainly gorgeous up there, but an overnight camping trip is exhausting! I am looking forward to having time to really plan for next week to start more of my Netflix unit! Here are some of my favorite posts from this week:
Back in the day…
The next week, I want to focus on describing what is happening and focus on action verbs. I also want students to be able to classify different movies/TV shows. At the end of the week, I will have an interpretive reading assessment. Students will be interpreting movie and/or TV reviews. They will also have a shorter writing piece where they describe what is happening in a clip.
I plan on doing the following activities to prepare them:
You can see my previous week plans here as well as my final IPA which serves as my final goal for my students. I will be publishing the final week before the IPA tomorrow.
