ab Initio Unit: Atributos personales

Usually this is our first unit when starting our ab Initio courses, along with greetings and introduction dialogues. 

The guide from IB recommends the following break down for this particular unit:

• Casa: habitaciones, mobiliario
• Dirección
• Edad
• Fecha de nacimiento
• Idiomas
• Nacionalidad

It is crucial that we introduce our students in a comprehensive manner to such important verbs in Spanish as Ser / Estar / Tener.

It is the perfect time to start talking about the difference between Ser and Estar. If you want to know more about this, please click here.

Something I always connect with this unit is body parts, if you want to know more about this, please click here.

In this presentation below you will find tons of visual resources to learn/teach personal information, basic numbers, physical descriptions and character along with activities.

Actividades en línea

Actividad oral

Selecciona=escoge=elige una imagen y descríbela, usa el grabador abajo para grabar tu respuesta y enviársela a tu profe.

Presta atención a sus comentarios y soluciona tus problemas.

Read a short story every day.

By the end of the week you would have read volumes of stories.

― Lailah Gifty Akita

Lunaprofe 11/29/2017  No comment

Different content different perspective

Teaching at a High School is always interesting and dynamic. Most of it has to do with all the changes and adjustments our students have to deal with throughout this crucial stage of their lives. Puberty is not an easy stage to go through. So, why don't we try to be a bit more realistic, why don't we try to adjust our content to their interests. In a language class we have to talk about physical appearance, personality, descriptions... why don't we give a try to a more teenager-centered texts instead of the boring classical ones.

This worksheet can be used as a regular reading comprehension activity but also follows the IB format for IB classes.

Resources:

• Reading Comprehension activity [pdf]

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

Albert Einstein

Lunaprofe 1/06/2016  No comment

Describing people creatively in Spanish: Este soy yo

This is another activity to keep building vocabulary and fluency on our students with descriptions (A or Emergent Communicators). This image was built with tagul  which is an incredible tool to develop their creativity at the same time they learn some Spanish. 
How do we do this?
Sequence:
1.- Write down a 20 words list that describes you (in Spanish...) [I scaffold my students with Power Points, class practice, modeling keywords, collaborative work...]
2.- Your teacher checks the list and gives you feedback
3.- You make changes (if needed)
4.- Log in (or sign up) to your Tagul
5.- Copy and paste your list
6.- Customize the shape
7.- Do not forget to include your name (Red color + big size)
8.- Print it and use it ;)

The follow-ups for this activity are infinite but one that I really do love is to start the class asking random students [I pull sticks with their names] ¿Cómo eres? ¿Cómo te sientes? It is a great activity to review Ser & Estar and self-description at the same time.

Challenge yourself a bit taking this little quiz about describing people:

Check your answers here ;)

Resources for learning descriptions in Spanish:

• ¿Qué personalidad tienes? [Español para inmigrantes]
• Canción: Breve descripción de mi persona. Autor: Cuarteto de Nos [Youtube]
• ¿Cómo es tu familia? Spanish rap [Youtube]

As a facilitator don't forget the importance of revisiting your strategies. It is also a great tool to give your students feedback in real time.

Lunaprofe 4/03/2014  No comment