Visual orthography: Punctuation [los puntos suspensivos]

It's important when we are teaching or learning something to 
- make a connection (even better if it's a personal one)
- write or see an example
- find a real-life situation/example that help us internalize what we are studying
- give/receive feedback [you can ask your teacher, or a friend that is also learning Spanish to comment on what you are doing and/or ask for an opinion]

In this case I propose a few lines from a beautiful poem to help us internalize the use of punctuation in Spanish.

Related links:

• Poem recited by the author [youtube]
• Dos puntos
• La coma
• Los puntos suspensivos
• Visual orthography  [general]

Remember:

Tell me and I will forget

teach me and I may remember

involve me and I learn

Benjamin Franklin

Lunaprofe 5/07/2014  No comment

IB Profile: Solidario

The IB Learner profile is a core concept in IB education. 
Through these visuals I try to help my students understand, internalize the concepts and give them a visual scaffold to get the idea.
Activities involving the IB Profile are as many as your imagination can provides you.
Here you have some potential general activities:

• Let your students make their own posters based on the concept you are working on. [With this activity we help them develop their creativity and taking ownership of their own learning]
• Make your students find real-life examples that show the concept. [This activity helps them making connections] 
• Make the students find the person in the class that best shows the concept with his/her behavior. 
• Ask your students to think in a famous person that shows the concept with his/her behavior. 
• Ask your students to think in the last book they read, considering how the characters in the book acted. Was someone in the book caring?
• Let your students find a quote related to the concept we are studying in class and draw a personal conclusion from it.

For your Spanish class:

Sequence:

1. Break the concept down into ideas
2. Give examples using patterns.

1. Break the concept down into ideas and have your ideas in different lines [to differentiate them visually] like this:

Ser solidario es:

- mostrar empatía

- mostrar sensibilidad

- mostrar respeto

- comprometerse personalmente a ayudar a los demás

- actuar con el propósito de influir positivamente en la vida de los demás

- actuar con el propósito de influir positivamente en el medio ambiente

2. Giving patterns to your students to give examples:

1. [Nombre del estudiante] es solidario porque __[idea]________
2. [Nombre del alumno] es una persona solidaria. Lo demuestra + [verbo en gerundio -ando - iendo] ___[idea]_____

Adding more ideas:

1. [idea] y [idea]
2. [idea] también [idea]

Example:

Ryan es solidario porque muestra empatía y actúa con el propósito de influir positivamente en el medio ambiente.

Don't forget to conjugate your verbs ;)

Lunaprofe 5/05/2014  2 comments

Developing oral fluency through songs in Spanish

One day a friend of mine told me: "Hey, Antonio! You are always happy, always humming or singing a song with a smile on your face. I want to thank you because your happiness is contagious"
Sometime later I remembered this conversation when I was planning on starting to incorporate songs in my classes and gave me the last push I needed to make it happen (thanks Jose)
This is one really important point in incorporating songs in our classes. They are contagious, they just stick in our minds for days and make us sign or hum them without even noticing it.
A mother told me one day, "I knew my kid was learning Spanish because he was humming My way for weeks when he got home"
I was shocked! Not just me, but more people experience this feeling with music! 
Definitely, this is an insuperable tool for learning languages and in addition to that it gives us more things like being happy (not to be discarded).
What else can we learn from a song? Oh, yes! Culture!
This particular song "Se me olvidó que te olvidé" was written originally by a Mexican popular singer and songwriter Lolita de la Colina which bring up to the table Spanish speaking countries, their culture, their literature, their music, folklore...
but also, this jazz-flamenco version by Bebo & Cigala gives us the opportunity to talk about cultural contacts and exchanges through music and the consequences in real-life. 
Following the inter-disciplinary approach possibilities are endless.

"Interdisciplinary knowledge: don't blame Nature on our Universities and schools syllabus." 

Jorge Wagensberg.

With this particular song, we worked also vocabulary, reflective verbs and time basically through a worksheet in the back of the lyrics.

Remember! If you don't play the guitar you can always play the song in your computer, CD-player or any type of player you use!

Learn Spanish with "Se me olvidó que te olvidé" by Antonio Luna

Lunaprofe 4/28/2014  No comment

Learning Spanish through music: using Youtube

Music is a powerful tool of expression. Language is too. 
We can get to know more about a culture through their music, rhythm...
We can use music to improve on our listening skills, gain vocabulary... 
Many interesting angles can be discussed about the benefits of using music to learn a language, activities...
To start the ball rolling you can do a simple activity: just listen to the music, enjoy the melodies, without doing anything else. Yes, nothing else needs to be done in this first step. Do not stress out, no rush, just listen the music through the playlist.
If you want to go a bit further you can listen songs and read the subtitles.
You can also write down the title and the author's song and do research on them. Then, do a mini-presentation to your class or friends.

If you like it, subscribe to my channel

Sequence:

1. Listen to the song

2. Read the subtitles while listening to the song

3. Do research on the song, author and music style.

4. Compare styles, music and author's from your country with these ones. You can use the Venn Diagram for this.

5. Present to your class/friends your findings.

Remember: Music positively affects language accent, memory and grammar as well as mood, enjoyment and motivation.

Lunaprofe 4/27/2014  No comment

Stop and think

It is important to nurture our students minds with thoughts, but deep thoughts to make them think about crucial problems and reflect on them.

Further reading:

• A site about Montessori's approach in education

• Montessori's foundation

Lunaprofe 4/26/2014  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

Tips for language acquisition: Do it in Spanish!

Usually when you travel a bit like we do throughout the world you meet a lot of people speaking several languages and almost a hundred percent of the times, among the most fluent speakers you find you'll find people doing things in the language they are studying or they want to speak.
This is a real-life example that happens to me frequently when we travel, this one happened in Morocco. I don't speak Arabic and neither do anyone in my family. So, we are in Morocco and we meet a guy that start speaking to us in Spanish (really fluently) 
We always take our time with these people because of our lack of Arabic language knowledge and our desire to get to know people from the country and our uncountable doubts & questions. In the end, we always get to ask to the person how he/she speaks such a good Spanish. And almost every time their answer is the same one: I learnt it watching the Spanish channel on TV.
These examples always made me wonder about the reality of these methods, but empirically talking it's obvious. We have to admit that works. 
So far I haven't done any research on this field. ButI can tell you than my experience is telling me that the continuous exposure you can get through these strategies is more than enough to recommend it. 
Today is really easy to consume Media in the target language and get an on-going exposure throughout your day. Typical examples: read/listen the news through national channels/newspapers of those countries, listen music in the target language...examples are endless!
But my best adivce is to be open-minded, if you extrapolate this concept you can find interesting benefits. Don't just think in Media, anything you like, try to do it in Spanish, you'll see the difference.

Keep it simple: if you like it, do it in Spanish!

This is a great article in The New York Times about language acquisition & inmersion/exposure if you want to read more about this topic. 

Also, inmersion learners benefit cognitively, exhibiting greater non-verbal problem-solving abilities and more flexible thinking (Met, 1998)

Sources:

• Met, M. (Ed.). (1998). Critical issues in early second language learning. New York: Scott Foresman—Addison Wesley.
• Center for Applied Linguistics

Lunaprofe 4/22/2014  No comment

Make sure they get enough sleep

This is a constant advice from teachers/schools to parents and if you are not getting this from your school you should be ;) 
We need to consider education from a wider angle and from a more cross-curricular perspective.
Also, is worth it to say that to get enough sleep for a person is important, and particularly for students and also, not just before testing but always.

It is proven that sleep increases our capacity for remembering things. There is an interesting case when Ms. Diekelmann conducted an experiment about the relation between memory and odors. The conclusion was that people remember a 15% more when they get exposed to odors while sleeping than when they are awake. [Diekelmann].
Also Ms. Gómez says Sleep is essential for extending learning to new examples [Gómez]
It also works to avoid the too many times situation lived by almost everyone: you are in the middle of testing and, suddenly and no clue why, you just go in blank. No matter how hard you try to remember something you just knew better a minute or a day ago. We can find some scientific information to explain the opposite case in Ms. Diekelmann study: "Even when we have to do a lot of different things at the same time, sleep ensures that our intentions come to mind spontaneously once we encounter the appropriate situation to execute the intention" [ScienceDaily]

To sum up and keep the idea simple: make sure your kids get enough sleep and they don't stay awake late playing video games or even studying.
There is a lot of research out there proving that sleep is crucial for memory (and more things).

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”  Plutarch

Further reading:

• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140408111713.htm
• https://www.cogneurosociety.org/sleep_memory_cns2014/ [Rebecca Gómez, University of Arizona]
• https://www.cogneurosociety.org/diekelmann_smell_sleep/ [Diekelmann, University of Tübingen]
• Reactivating Memories during Sleep by Odors: Odor Specificity and Associated Changes in Sleep Oscillations

Lunaprofe 4/21/2014  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

Sound like a native

Yes, it's have been proven that interaction is essential for learning foreign languages. 
Yes, if your teacher is a native speaker can be your best option for interacting.
But, what happens when your teacher is not there or is not a native speaker?
You might want to use other tools like this one below to keep improving on your pronunciation (also calls phonetics for some people)

One of the main points of this site is that you have available a native speaker 24 hours a day just for you and it also comes with pictures and explanations (in Spanish) to help you out with tongue's position.

It can look too technical but it really comes in handy to grasp difficult sounds.

One of the best things is that this great tool is at no charge, thanks to Iowa University.

Activity:
Just as an informal practice or for a formative activity you can try something like this:
- choose a sound you are having difficulties with [ll, y, ñ...]
- practice that sound for an evening using this tool, choose 4 words to practice
- present 4 words containing that sound to your classmates and then to your teacher (ask him/her for feedback)

Remember, practice makes perfect!


Source: 

• http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/index.html#spanish

Lunaprofe 4/16/2014  No comment