ab Initio Unit: Rutina diaria

Daily Routines is a difficult topic at early stages because of reflexive verbs, sometimes our students struggle with the concept of what reflexive means. So that is something to pay a lot of attention to when teaching this unit.

Daily routines is perfect for making connections to the rest of the themes in your ab Initio course.
For example, we can talk or connect education and sports, global issues, time, etc.

But at first, get on learning your words for the unit with Quizlet:

Visual activities [already in the presentation]:

More Resources:

• Writing visual activity
• Visual activities [actions]
• ¿Con qué frecuencia?

Education is a journey not a race

Steiner

Lunaprofe 10/30/2017  4 comments

Learning Spanish through songs: Lyrics training

Teenagers love music. Teachers love learning. Make a cocktail and you obtain Lyrics training.

You can use your Facebook account to sing up and get a free account in this site.

Once you have made your students sign up they will have to choose their level:

- beginner
- intermediate
- advanced 
- expert

and two modes:

- write: they will be typing the words [this can be interesting to set up a Spanish keyboard in your computer and get some practice]
- choice: they'll get to choose from one out of four options. 

Apart from this, the site offers two more activities to do along with the song:
- karaoke
- new exercise [just for teachers] what you can basically do is just change the words and select write or choice mode.

So far, I have been using it with my students for out-of-class practice. If they like Enrique Iglesias they can spend a full evening listening to the song in Spanish.

If your students like music, this is a great way to go, they will improve their listening/comprehension skills, pronunciation, memorize phrases...

A short selection of similar sites to learn languages with music:
- http://www.lyrics.com/
- http://tubeoke.com/

Interested in music for a language class?
Check this out!

If you want to get laid, go to college.
If you want an education, go to the library.

Frank Zappa

Lunaprofe 10/01/2015  No comment

Learn Spanish for free: The Mixxer

The Mixxer is a free educational site for language learners hosted by Dickinson College. The Mixxer is designed to connect language learners around the world so that everyone is both student and teacher. Based on collaborative learning, this website is a must-visit for language learners. Among the variety of choices you have you can get on writing on the language you are learning and let the community help you proof-checking your writing. It's so interesting to receive such an amount and diverse opinions from native speakers around the world.

You can encourage your students to start a blog on their site or just write posts in the target language. They have a points system based on your corrections to others writing. You can earn 10 points for each correction you send. 

You might be interested in signin up for an event on their site, there are a lot of language exchanges between schools around the world, individuals...

You can/must also help others. You can help your language partner learn your native language. How? Leaving comments on other people's writing.

Interested? Then sign up here. Still have questions? Check out their FAQ page.

Teachers - Are you a professional teacher? If so, you can connect your students with native speakers via written posts or Skype during or after class hours. This may help you fill your extra-credit hours for your language class or you can also use it for enrichment with your advanced students.

Interested? Sign up then email them at bryantt@dickinson.edu requesting teacher permissions. They'll just need something to verify you're a teacher and not a spammer. :)

Find them on: http://www.language-exchanges.org

Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.

Rabindranath Tagore

Lunaprofe 1/12/2015  No comment

Learn Spanish free: Aula de español

This is one of these pearls you find in the internet thanks to altruism and people that really love what they do. 
You will find 8 complete units for "emergent communicators" (A level for CEFR) with everything you need to learn/teach them.
Topics are (click on the link to see the unit):

• Mis primeros días
• En la escuela
• Mi casa
• Mi familia
• Las compras
• Por la calle
• La salud
• El trabajo

All units are totally interactive and divided in four sub-categories. It also provides an orientation and unit planners for teachers. The site is plenty of "match them up", language games, fill in the blanks and different types of activities like dialogues, grammar, verbs or vocabulary.

Definitely, if you are looking for a resource to learn Spanish independently or resources for your Spanish classes, support for you students at home, complimentary activities... this is one of the best sites to visit.

Visit the website clicking here

A man without education

is like a building without foundation.

Anonymous

Lunaprofe 11/28/2014  No comment

Learn Spanish online: Mi vida loca

Bored during summer vacation?
Don't know what to do with your life?
You want to improve on your Spanish level?
This article might help you answering all previous questions. 
Mi vida loca is an interactive TV show (or internet show to be more accurate) to learn Spanish independently. It's interesting from the point of view that the student will have to interact with the show saying phrases and sentences aloud (with the possibility of checking pronunciation) to make the show going, making the activity very close to Real Life Situations. 
One of the situations you will face in the first chapter: you are in a taxi and you have to give directions to the taxi driver, then you will have to choose among euro notes the exact and correct amount to pay your bill. 
Another interesting available tool is "The Learning section", which is a learning supplement with video explanations of vocabulary and grammar, plus extra activities.
You have also available a syllabus and multiple printouts divided by "Grammar notes" and "vocabulary lists" for each chapter and focusing in specific language functions. For instance, the first chapter will focus on learning these specific "language situations": dealing with simple social situations, saying yes, no & saying I don't understand.
You can also take a look beforehand to the transcript to anticipate the content, improving your understanding of dialogues.
Take ownership of your learning, become your own teacher. Take the risk and you'll see how much you learn. Take a look to the teachers' tips and practice a role play or make a comment on "culture" section, tell us something about tapas.
One thing to take into account is that this TV show is produced by BBC with the assistance from people from the north of Spain. Therefore, they speak Castilian Spanish. 

Remember! There is NO Standard Spanish, all Spanish are standards and all are great, there is no one better than other. Each one has their own characteristics and particularities. For example in Castilian Spanish [used just in northern and central Spain] they pronounce the c as the English th- sound, while other varieties [Andalusian, Canarian, American varieties] pronounce the c like the s. Rather than being reluctant to learn different accents, I encourage you to learn from them all. Look at their culture particularities and compare them with the variety you are learning and get to understand and accept the differences. 
Great questions your teacher should be happy to answer: 
Why do they pronounce the c as th- in English in Castilian Spanish?
Why do they use "vosotros" in Castilian Spanish?
Why are so many varieties of Spanish in the world?

A green tip:

Do not print out any resources, save the needed files in your computer and work with them from your computer instead. You can make a difference. Remember that we need 15 trees to make 1 ton of paper. Want to know more about benefits of trees? Click here. Spread the word!

Resources:

• Watch Mi vida loca (chapter 1)
• Transcript
• Grammar notes
• Teachers' tips

Lunaprofe 6/02/2014  No comment

Learn Spanish online: Ver-taal

En esta página se pueden encontrar muchos tipos de ejercicios para practicar español. Por ejemplo, ejercicios de vocabulario que están distribuidos por temas y contienen imágenes, lo que ayuda al aprendizaje de las palabras pues se ofrece la imagen con la palabra. También puedes encontrar ejercicios de palabras parecidas, el juego del ahorcado, crucigramas y refranes. En esta web se ha hecho un trabajo muy amplio y serio, tienen una gran variedad de ejercicios para cada juego que ofrecen.
Tiene ejercicios de comprensión auditiva. Hay trailers de películas, anuncios, reportajes de telediario y vídeos culturales. Después de la escucha hay ejercicios relacionados con la comprensión de la audición. Este tipo de ejercicios varían y pueden ser de preguntas abiertas, ordenar la información escuchada, ejercicios de verdadero o falso, etc. Esta parte puede ser muy útil para alumnos que quieran trabajar la comprensión en casa porque necesitan un poco más de confianza y consistencia en su comprensión de la lengua.

Página muy recomendable para trabajo independiente en casa.

Fuente: http://www.ver-taal.com/ 

Lunaprofe 5/09/2014  No comment

Learn Spanish online: Hola mundo, Hello World

Esta página está diseñada para practicar las cuatro destrezas de la lengua; hablar, escuchar, leer y escribir. Al maestro de escuela que enseña español como segunda lengua le encantará esta página. La organización de esta página incluye lecciones que se enseñan en las clases de español como segunda lengua. 
Lecciones desde el comienzo con el alfabeto y sus sonidos hasta los países. Tiene una gran recopilación de vocabulario según cada lección y cada palabra tiene su dibujo correspondiente para los que aprenden visualmente. También tiene diálogos, juegos, canciones, tarjetas de vocabulario. Tiene actividades para conjugar los verbos con sus imágenes. 
Podrás encontrar una amplia variedad de actividades que hacen que los estudiantes disfruten y a la misma vez aprendan sin sentirse presionados aprendiendo una segunda lengua a través de un método más tradicional centrado en la grámatica. Los estudiantes pueden grabar sus voces para oír su pronunciación y poder obtener el sonido más cercano que puedan producir. El programa de Hola-mundo.com-Hello-world.com, tiene niveles en sus materiales, inicial, intermedio y avanzado. Hay una subscripción para poder utilizar toda la base de datos, pero hay suficientes lecciones y actividades que se pueden usar gratis. Está página es un sistema que es fácil de usar y muy efectivo. 
La página está enfocada principalmente a la escuela primara, pero es muy utilizable para los niveles iniciales en la secundaria también.

Fuente: http://www.hello-world.com/Spanish/lesson.php

Lunaprofe 4/24/2014  No comment

Learn Spanish online: Primera Escuela

La página está llena de actividades infantiles y educación preescolar. Las actividades están elaboradas para niños de entre cinco y ocho años, pero pueden adaptarse a un grado de mayor complejidad. 
Podemos encontrar desde el alfabeto en inglés y en español, hasta manualidades, rompecabezas, cuentos y fábulas, música y rimas. Tiene una amplia selección de temas educativos, incluyendo actividades para días de fiesta, animales y una gran variedad de dibujos para colorear o utilizar en diferentes proyectos. Muchos de los ejercicios son imprimibles, los ejercicios para caligrafía funcionan muy bien para el trazo de letras y la adquisición de vocabulario.
La sección de música me parece especialmente interesante para aplicarla a la enseñanza de lenguas con los niveles iniciales.

Visita su página web en www.primeraescuela.com

Muchas veces es más interesante de lo que parece adaptar actividades de primaria para secundaria. Lo descubrí cuándo uno de mis alumnos me dijo que la secundaria era muy aburrida comparada con la primaria. ¡Algo de razón tenía!

Lunaprofe 4/19/2014  No comment

Learn Spanish Online: Centro Virtual Cervantes

This is the website of the Official Organization for the Spanish Language. Cervantes is a company that has presence in 43 countries all around the world.

This might be one of your most visited sites if you have any interest in learning Spanish. The site is full of activities, workshops and online courses to learn and improve your Spanish. If you are studying Spanish as your second language the forums could be a great option for you to get to know more about a particular topic, grammar or history of the language. They have lots of interesting discussions to read and to participate in the forums would be a great idea to improve on your Spanish.For advanced students they have a section focused on Literatura where you can find Biographies of important Hispanic writers or if you are interested in Cervantes as a historic figure or as a writer you might want to visit Cervantistas which is an organization specialized in Miguel de Cervantes and his Don Quixote. 

It would be impossible to sum up everything they offer for you as a learner of the Spanish language so better take a walk on the Spanish side: http://cvc.cervantes.es/

To stay positive: do not be afraid to laugh at yourself especially when you make mistakes. Remember people make mistakes... and YES! We are people!

  

Lunaprofe 3/30/2014  2 comments