300x250 AD TOP

AD (728x90)

Tagged under: , , , , , , , , , , ,

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


Tagged under: , , , , , , , ,

Spanish B rubrics & more

We all have the IB language guides and we all have the same thought: It would be way easier to have this in a table or at least in a different format. 
Yeah! I had that same thought until I got bored of it and started just putting everything in a easier format to work with.
Then I couldn't stop myself there and I kept creating resources to complement the rubrics. Along with the rubrics I have been working on more documents that come in handy for multiple purposes.

Assessment outline: This document is a simple summary of the assessment. 

Clarifications: these documents come directly from the IB, just to make easier to have a big picture of the paper. 

Connection home-school: this documents have a brief explanation of the paper (or exam), key information that families and students must know and more useful information like the word count or if they can or can not use dictionaries. Their purpose is to inform families and students at the beginning of Year 1, making sure they know the structure of the program and what our students are going to be required to learn and be able to do at the end of the program.

DP Unit Planner: a template with guidance that fits the IB format.

Descriptors for final scores: [Google doc] On this document you will find the descriptors from the IB to get to know better how a 7 looks like. 

IB Profile: Simple, here you'll find the IB Profile in Spanish with links to visual resources and activities ready to take to class. 

Tips for papers: thoughts, tips based on my own and my students experience.
 

 Paper 1

 Paper 2
How to use these documents?
1. Click on the link to open the google doc.
2. Make your own copy [you need a google account for this]

You can leave a comment on the Google doc or in this post if you have any trouble making a copy or don't know how to download the document into your computer.
If you have any documents that could contribute to this post, please, send them through!
Spanish teacher? Teaching ab Initio too? Check this post out!


Example isn't another way to teach, it is the only way to teach.
Albert Einstein

Tagged under: , , , , , , , ,

Spanish ab Initio rubrics

We all have the IB language guides and we all have the same thought: It would be way easier to have this in a table or at least in a different format. 
Yeah! I had that same thought until I got bored of it and started just putting everything in a easier format to work with.
Then I couldn't stop myself there and I kept creating resources to complement the rubrics. Along with the rubrics I have been working on more documents that come in handy for multiple purposes.

Scope and Sequence: sometimes it is good to see how other colleagues plan their year out. 

Objectives & Assessment criteriaJust a list of them. 

Clarifications: these documents come directly from the IB, just to make easier to have a big picture of the paper. 

Connection home-school: this documents have a brief explanation of the paper (or exam), key information that families and students must know about it and more useful information like the word count or if they can or can not use dictionaries. Their purpose is to inform families and students at the beginning of Year 1, making sure they know the structure of the program and what our students are going to be required to learn and be able to do at the end of the program.

Descriptors for final scores: On this document you will find the descriptors from the IB to get to know better how a 7 looks like. 

IB Profile: Simple, here you'll find the IB Profile in Spanish with links to visual resources and activities ready to take to class. 

Syllabus: graphic organizers, schemes with the prescribed themes.
If you have any documents that could contribute to this post, please, send them through! Spanish B? Check this post out!


Example isn't another way to teach, it is the only way to teach.
Albert Einstein

Tagged under: , , ,

Aprendiendo español a través de la música: Youtube


La música es una poderosa herramienta usada en todas las culturas para expresar, entre otras muchas cosas, información fundamental que se trasmitía de generación en generación. La lengua comparte muchas de esas características cruciales con la música.
Podemos acercarnos a una cultura y aprender mucho sobre ella a través de la música. 
En una clase de español también podemos utilizar la música para mejorar/perfeccionar nuestra comprensión, podemos aprender vocabulario, podemos presentar en nuestra clase los conceptos básicos de la poesía y las rimas...
Los beneficios de utilizar la música en nuestras clases de español son indiscutibles y, normalmente, los efectos en los estudiantes inmediatos, porque si está correctamente incluida [atendiendo como principio fundamental a la motivación de nuestros alumnos] aportará un clima más distendido, creará un espacio donde el alumno y el profesor se encuentran en un contexto mucho más relajado y pueden interactuar de un modo mucho más cercano y enriquecerse de esa atmósfera más relajada, y [para mí lo más importante] nos hace más felices.
Para comenzar podemos realizar una actividad muy simple: sólo escuchar música del canal aleatoriamente disfrutando de las melodías, sin hacer nada más. Así, sin más. No necesitamos hacer nada más en este primer paso. No hay prisa, sólo escucha la música y disfrútala. Esta puede ser una actividad fantástica para usar al principio de la clase, mientras que los alumnos llegan, se acomodan y se preparan para su clase. De esta manera lo que estamos haciendo es exponer, poner en contacto a nuestros alumnos con música en español y con su cultura al mismo tiempo, sin pedirles nada más a cambio, tan sólo que escuchen y se diviertan.
Un segundo paso puede consistir en escuchar las canciones y leer los subtítulos, con el propósito de entender la idea principal de la canción que estamos escuchando y después discutir la idea principal en clase brevemente.
Otro posible segundo paso, sería escribir el título y el/la autor/a de la canción, hacer una mini-investigación y realizar una mini-presentación en clase. Puedes dividir la clase en grupos para esta actividad y encargar a un grupo cada semana estas mini-presentaciones.



Secuencia:
1. Escucha la canción
2. Lee los subtítulos mientras escuchas la canción por segunda vez.
3. Realiza una pequeña investigación sobre la canción, el autor y el estilo de música. Por ejemplo, himno de Andalucía, Enrique Morente, flamenco.
4. Compara algún estilo de música propio de tu país, una canción y un autor con los que has investigado. Puedes usar el diagrama de Venn.
5. Haz una presentación en tu clase y comparte lo que has aprendido.

Recuerda: la música te ayuda a mejorar tu pronunciación, tu memoria y tu gramática. También te ayuda a mejorar tu estado de ánimo, con la música disfrutamos y también nos motivamos [¿o los alumnos no escuchan música mientras hacen los deberes?]
Tagged under: , , , , , , , , , , ,

#desafioliterario

¡Espartanos! ¡Bienvenidos a los desafíos, sólo aptos para valientes, bravos, estudiantes con mucho coraje, atrevidos, intrépidos espartanos del español!

Desafío literario
Este desafío está pensado para alumnos que les gusta la lectura y las nuevas tecnologías. Si eres uno de ellos, únete a nosotros. El concepto es sencillo, el desafío dura 10 días y cada día tienes que subir una imagen a instagram basada en una etiqueta y escribir una frase en español sobre la etiqueta.

Instrucciones:
1. Mira qué palabra toca cada día.
2. Piensa en una imagen para esa palabra. Puedes buscar entre tus fotos o tomar una nueva.
3. Sube tu foto a Instagram y escribe una oración que incluya esa palabra.
4. Añade las etiquetas necesarias. Ejemplo: #lunaprofe + #desafioliterario + etiqueta del día [por ejemplo: #estoyleyendo____] 
5. Dale=Pincha=Haz clic en la etiqueta #desafioliterario para ver fotos de gente en todo el mundo haciendo el desafío como tú. ¡Sé valiente! ¡Dale a "me gusta" a unas cuantas!
6. ¡Sé intrépido! ¡Practica un poco más tu español! Comenta las fotos de otras personas. ¡Ánimo!

Sugerencias:
- Sigue la cuenta de @luna.profe
- Echa un vistazo a las etiquetas #lunaprofe, #desafioliterario
- Puedes crear una cuenta nueva en Instagram para estas actividades aunque ya tengas una, quizás funcione mejor.
- Sigue a tus compañeros de clase y a otras personas haciendo el desafío.
- Mira etiquetas de palabras que te gusten o que te llamen la atención o que hayas aprendido ese día en clase. Por ejemplo si estan aprendiendo el tema del colegio pueden mirar #colegio, #escuela, #mesa, #estudiante...
- ¡Relájate y aprende! No te preocupes si no pones fotos todos los días, tampoco pasa nada, la clave está en la diversión.

Si eres un #espartanodelespañol atento porque vienen más desafíos. Además también puedes visitar otros desafíos de otros profes de español como la fantástica @pilarmunday de la que he tomado algunas ideas para diseñar los #desafíosespartanos.

¿Preguntas? 
Usa los comentarios para añadir tus preguntas o sugerencias.

Tagged under: , , , , , , , ,

How to assess your students oral skills

Hi there,

We're back from our summer vacation, well rested and batteries charged, ready to start a new fresh school year ;)

It is always great to start over again thinking a little bit about what we do and why do we do this and that in our classes. Reflection is the key to keep growing.

During my beginnings I remember assessing oral skills one of my big struggles, too much going on at a time, intonation, pronunciation, grammar structures, interaction... that's why I read a lot about this specific topic to improve my way of assessing my students on their oral skills. There are million ways of doing this and every single one has a particular purpose and has to be contextualized to be valid.

I found this invaluable text online, and I mean it, because this changed my perspective on language acquisition strategies. The whole point of this text being so valuable is that you can find a million strategies to scaffold your students. Give it a try!

I summarize what I found the most important to include in a rubric for assessing oral skills in this visual that I attach to this post. 

As always if you have any questions, suggestions... contact me, I am usually looking forward to answer your emails. 


Want to know more?


Tagged under: , , , , , , , ,

Portafolios de estudiantes de español

Antonio Luna¡Hola! ¿Qué tal chiquis?
Esta entrada es simplemente para que tengamos en un sitio los enlaces y podamos acceder a nuestros portafolios de manera fácil y rápida. Podéis revisar los objetivos que perseguimos. Además, debajo os pongo los enlaces que están relacionados con esta actividad.

¿Qué vamos a conseguir con los portafolios?
  1. Desarrollar una conciencia crítica sobre nuestro propio trabajo/aprendizaje. Autonomía = Independencia.
  2. Estructurar las tareas de aprendizaje. Recopilación del proceso de aprendizaje individual. Materiales para repasar. Se puede usar para enviar a las universidades junto con nuestras solicitudes.
  3. Evaluación formativa y sumativa.
  4. Disponer de una herramienta para la reflexión en nuestro aprendizaje.
  5. Desarrollar nuestra capacidad de resolución de problemas.
  6. Usar la retroalimentación para perfeccionar nuestro aprendizaje. Producción-revisión-modificación-producto final.
  7. Desarrollar nuestra capacidad creativa.


Veer Agrawal
Aashnaa
Pranav
Zara
Aarush
Sanya
Yuv
Niral
Pranjal
Shrihaan
Sophia
Malcolm
Shiv
Veer Shergill
Aditya
Dhruvika

Grado 7 (ordenados por orden alfabético)

Ananya  
Grado 9 (ordenados por orden alfabético)



Grado 11 (ordenados por orden alfabético)

Enlaces relacionados:


Tagged under: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Spanish B Unit: Sensacionalismo

This topic is always on fire. Talking about media, communication, mass media, newspapers, news... is bringing to our classes the reality and is totally necessary to help our students go through this format and type of information. The Internet made our world a rapid changing world and we need now to re-learn how to interpret and consume information. 
I usually use the following quotes to start our classes with a brief debate after going through the definition of sensationalism. We can talk about Subjective vs. Objective as a stepping stone for this unit. A few questions that can be used along with the quotes:

- Who are/were they?
- Are these quotes objective or subjective?
- Do you agree with this type of thinking? why?

 Some newspapers are fit only to line the bottom of bird cages. [Spiro T. Agnew]
 What the mass media offers is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish. [W. H. Auden]
 It is precisely the purpose of the public opinion generated by the press to make the public incapable of judging, to insinuate into it the attitude of someone irresponsible, uninformed. [Walter Benjamin]

Learn the unit vocabulary with Quizlet:

More ideas to put in practice with this unit:
- Word families activity
We learn vocabulary by associating words with concepts in our brain, the more connections and meanings you make for a word the longer it will remain in your memory and the easier you will learn it. You can make your students look for similar prefixes and suffixes, find similar words with a similar meaning...

Below you'll find everything you need to teach/learn this unit with your IB Spanish SL class. If you think something can be improved, you have materials/resources than can be used along with these ones and/or you are missing something listed here, any links are not working... please give me a shout! 

Unit's resources:
Tagged under: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Developing strategic competence through portfolios: a Language Biography

Using a portfolio in our language class facilitates a deeper understanding and integration of assessment. It is an extraordinary way of introducing our students to authentic assessment. We can use it for assessing the process and the final product with evidences of our students work. In other words, it can be used for formative and sumative assessment. 
Sometimes we take for granted the assumption that our students know what they do, internalize the learning and reflect on the difficulties they had during the learning process finding ways of getting over them, but sometimes this is false and portfolios are a great tool to build these skills in our students.  

Thinking in portfolios as a piece of something bigger the first step could be to work on a Language Biography. 
I have the Language Biography broken down into four pieces: 
[click on the links to see the templates]


 1. Languages I know
 2. Other languages



 3. The way I learn

 4. My learning plans

Why is worth it for our students to start a project like this one?
- Students have the opportunity to reflect on their language and cultural experiences. 
- They take ownership on their language acquisition process.
- They realize the progress they make on the language acquisition process.
- They will be able to value other languages spoken in their environment.

When can our students work on these assignments?
You can have your students working on this independently or after school if they have a good command of the language, but in the first stages of learning I would discourage this option. They will definitely need some guidance and using at least some time during class will help them gain the necessary confidence to achieve their goals.

Do you want your students to take the challenge of weekly/monthly assignments? 
Check this post out!

Want to know more?

Patreon

Help

POPULAR

RECENT

Recent Posts Widget